Chichen Itza

Our other venture away from the resort during vacation was to Chichen Itza. I was really excited about getting to go see it. It is one of the new seven wonders of the world. We booked a tour online that picked us up at our hotel and took us to the site (2-3 hours each way), provided lunch, and had an english speaking guide to show us around the site and tell us all kinds of interesting things. It was a really good tour and our tour guide guy was really good. The other people on the tour with us included two couples from England, one couple from Poland, and another couple from the U.S. The couple from England were really nice and interesting to talk to. It was super hot the day we were there.
The Mayans were very advanced for their time. They followed the cycles of the moon and of venus, they even had their own observatory. The buildings and carvings were very interesting and very planned out. It is hard to explain it all on the blog but if you are interested in hearing about all the amazing things let me know and I can tell you all about it. One of the crazy things is that they had an exact 365 day calender and had their calender planned out for all future years as well. The crazy thing is their calender ends in December of 2012, that is the last date they had planned out and our guide said some people say it ends then because that is when the Mayans believed the world would end. It was supposed to all have to do with Venus in relation to the Earth and moon.

Here is our tour guide, he is part Mayan. He was really good. One of the questions I asked him is how accurate he thinks the movie Apocalypto (I really like that movie) was because it is supposed to be based on the Mayans. He said it is only about 20% accurate.


Here is the pyramid. It has 365 steps, I wonder what other thing has 365 things in it.





This was their observatory for watching the planets and stars.


Another building.


Some carvings.


This was their ball court, which was the biggest one in Mesoamerica.

Tulum Ruins

While on vacation we went to see Mayan ruins on two different occasions. The first we went to see were the Tulum ruins which were only like 3 miles from our resort. The ruins sit on a cliff overlooking the ocean and are surrounded by a rock wall. We took a taxi to the site and just explored on our own without a tour guide. There were descriptions of the different things in english all around. It was very interesting and a great view next to the ocean. There was also a little Mexican market next to the entrance of the ruins which was fun to check out. Here are some pics of the ruins.

There were lots of lizards at the ruins.

Food and Drink

The food at the resort was really, really good. They had seven restaurants on the premises. One was a buffet which was pretty good and the others were a la cart. They were all really good. There was a French one, an Italian, an Asian, a Mexican, a sushi bar, and the Seaside grill that just had general food. They all had really good presentation with their food and made it look really cool when they served it. The Mexican one and the Seaside grill were both open air and on the ocean. Our favorite overall was the Seaside grill, it was right on the ocean. The Italian and French one were kind of upscale restaurants and we had to dress nice to go there and they had like 4 or 5 courses. We could eat at any restaurant we wanted, as many times as we wanted, and as much as we wanted. Sometimes we would go to one for an appetizer, another for our meal, and another for dessert. We could get guacamole at just about every restaurant and Margo loves the stuff so she had it just about every time we ate. We ate tons everyday we were there, it has been hard being back and not eating so much. They also had room service that was included so you could have them bring food to your room anytime of the day and there was a mini fridge in the room with soda, water and beer which was included and they restocked it everyday.
Along with the restaurants there were also 7 bars where you could get any drink (beer, mixed drinks, shots, wine, water, tea, soda) you wanted which was also all included with our stay. We tried all kinds of new drinks while we were there. Margo's favorite mixed drink was the miami vice and mine was the almond toast drink which had almond liqueur and coffee liqueur (although I drank Corona more often since I could have it anytime even in the room). They also had people walking around the beach during the day so while we were lounging on the beach we could order drinks and they would bring them to us. They also brought around fresh fruit during the day if you wanted any while lounging. They also set up a little tent by the pools everyday and grilled chicken and hot dogs and hamburgers and had chips and salsa, fruit and drinks if you wanted a snack. Here are some pics of the food, I am not sure which restaurants these were taken at.

This was at the Seaside Grill, we ate there the most often, that is the ocean in the background.


Here is an appetizer I had, it is a slap of fried mozzarella on a bed of sausage and mushrooms, it was amazing.


This is one of Margo's main course, it is stuffed chicken breast on a bed of mixed veggies with mashed potatoes.


This is a dessert, it was a chocolate tart type thing with ice cream on top, mmm.


This was during Mexican night were they had a Mexican show and a big buffet set up of traditional Mexican food. Yes, that is (or was) a whole pig.

Activities

This is part three of vacation coverage. The resort had tons of activities everyday and a big activity at night. The daily organized things to do included beach volleyball, water aerobics, yoga, Spanish classes, pool volleyball, water polo, dance lessons, cooking classes, fruit carving classes, bungee trampoline jumping, soccer, scuba lessons in the pool, drink mixing classes. The had lots of stuff you could do on your own as well like ping pong, shuffle board, kayaking, wind surfing, big outdoor checkers and chess, snorkeling, tennis, blow up ocean trampoline, blow up ocean climbing wall. They pretty much had activities throughout the entire day that you could participate in if you wanted. At night they had a big special event. The first night we were there they had a big beach barbecue and then had a band playing and had a limbo competition. One night they had Mayan night: they had a conch blowing contest, local vendors selling handicrafts, and then a bunch of Mayan people dressed up in traditional Mayan stuff doing tribal dancing and stuff. It was really awesome. Another night they did Mexican night where they had outdoor Mexican buffet and had a Mexican band and dancers. They also had a big pinata for the kids to bust open. A couple nights they also had some bands playing at some of the outside bars and they had mechanical bull riding at some of the night events. They would also have movies on the beach at night where they showed movies on a big blow up screen and some nights they would show the NBA playoffs as well. Here are some pictures of some of the stuff.

This is during Mayan night, one of the guys blowing a conch while they were doing a ritual dance thing


Here is me with a couple of the Mayan guys


Here is a band that was playing one night at one of the outside bar/lounge areas. This was one of the most enjoyable things to me, lounging in the cool evening, sipping on by drink of choice, listening to a good band, and watching the ocean.


Here is Margo on the big blow up ocean trampoline


Here is me on the blow up ocean climbing wall


Here is what we did a lot of the time. Relax on the beach and sip drinks and we got some reading done as well. It was kind of hard for me at first to just lay around and do nothing and have everyone wait on us. I am used to always doing something and working on the farm and stuff.


Here we are in snorkel gear (big guy in a little coat)


This is while we were out kayaking in the ocean


We walked on the beach a lot in the evenings (when it was a little cooler).

The Vacation, continued...

As I mentioned before, this resort was really fancy and beautiful. We were amazed by how clean they kept everything. There were always people cleaning and keeping things looking nice. Every morning there were guys on the beach cleaning up the beach and removing trash and seaweed that had washed up over night. There were tons of flowers and bushes all over the place. We would even see workers in the morning picking up leaves and flower pedals off the ground that had fallen off the plants. Another crazy things is that they had trash cans around that had the little sand ash trays on top and every morning early they would clean these out and draw their logo in the sand of the ashtray, isn't that crazy. It was amazing how pristine this place was. They cleaned our room daily and also had turndown service. They would come in the evening (we were never there when they came) and make your bed all nice and turn down the sheets and put some chocolates on the bed for you. They would also leave a sheet that had a list of all the activities that were going on the next day and they would leave a little card that told what the weather and temperatures were going to be the next day. On our last night, they made it extra fancy and put flowers all on our bed.
Stayed tuned for continued posts on the vacation. By the way I have post several pictures on our picasa site. They are broken into 3 different folders, one for general pictures, one for Tulum Ruins pictures, and one for Chichen Itza pictures. Just click here to go to them. We have tome of other pictures so if you want to see them all you will have to come over and look at them. Here are some pics that relate to this post.

Here is the main lobby building


This is a view looking toward the ocean from the lobby


This is view of the beach part of the resort


Here is the bulding were our room was. These building were set up in quads with a courtyard in the middle. Each room had a little porch with a hammock as well.


Here is one of those ashtrays I was talking about.


Here is our bed the last night after turndown service

We're Back

We got home from our amazing vacation late last night. I have tone of stuff to post about but I will not do it all in this posting. I want to post about it all not just to share with all of you (if any of you care) but also to have a record of the trip and this is a great place to do that.
This was the nicest vacation we have ever been on together, even better than our honeymoon trip (we did not have money to take a nice trip back then). For this post I will just kind of hit the overview, which may be a little crazy and stream of consciousness. The resort we stayed at was amazing and very luxurious. The place was spotless and there were always people working to keep it clean and nice. They cleaned our room everyday and had turndown service at night. They would wait on you hand and foot. It was however very hot while we were there, like mid 90's everyday with 1000% humidity. The beach was beautiful. We would lounge on the beach and staff would come buy every so often to see if you wanted anything to drink. They would also bring around fruit to everyone if you wanted it. The restaurants were really good, the presentation of the food was really good as well, and you could order as much and whatever you wanted. This included any alcohol you wanted. Margo's new favorite drink is a Miami Vice. I was happy that I could get beer anytime I wanted it. Even the fridge in the room had drinks (also included) and beer. I loved it, beer anytime. They had tons of activities throughout the day and at night. They had big events at night like Mayan night, Mexican night, bands, mechanical bull riding, and all kinds of stuff. We went on two different excursions. On Sunday we went to the Tulum Mayan Ruins which overlook the ocean. On Monday we went to Chichen Itza with a professional tour, it was awesome and very informative and interesting. I will devote a post to it later. So, there is a very jumbled overview, I will multiple postings over the next few days to go into more depth of what we did. It was very, very awesome.

Adios Gringos

Early tomorrow morning, Margo and I are heading on vacation. We decided to take a really nice vacation this year, mostly because both Margo and I got unexpected bonuses this year. We are heading to Tulum, Mexico (about 70 miles south of Cancun). There are a few reasons we decided to go there. The resort we are staying at is really nice and away from all the touristy areas so there are not tons of people and there are not people everywhere trying to get you to buy stuff. It also has its own private beach and it is supposed to be the only resort you can see the Tulum Ruins from. It is an all inclusive that includes all your food, drinks, and even alcohol (woo hoo). Another nice thing is it has like 7 restaurants and only one is a buffet, the rest are order off the menu and some are really fancy and you have to dress up to go. The price also includes entertainment and use of all their activity stuff (like bikes, kayaks, tennis, shuffle board, climbing wall, trampoline in the ocean, etc). The place is called Dreams Tulum Resort and Spa. We are really excited, this will be the nicest trip we have ever been on together. On Orbitz it is rated as one of their top 10 most romantic hotels. I even bought new swim trunks (my last ones I bought in like the 10th grade). We are also going one day to Chichin Itza which I am super excited about. We will be back late next Wednesday night. We are not taking our computer with us so you will have to wait until we get back to see pictures.

Good Bye

It seems we have had a lot of animal changes this past week or so (you can see what animals we have right now on the current animal count over on the right column of the blog), besides the 4 new calves we got on Friday. Today was a big change, but first let me start with Saturday. On Saturday a guy came out and bought our little billy goat that was born this year. He was my last goat for sale. The guy who bought him was actually our mailman's son. Our mailman stopped and asked about the billy a week or so ago. We did good selling goats this year, we sold all 3 of the ones we wanted to without having to advertise. Next in animal news and on a more sad note, one our chickens disappeared over the past few days. Normally, I am not that concerned about losing chickens but this was our Cochin who we referred to as Feather Foot. She was our nice chicken that you could pick up and was good for letting kids see and pet when they came out to the farm. And now for the big news of today that is both happy and a little sad. Today was the day we took our original cow (some people call him Buster) to the butcher. This was the original plan for him, we bought him along with Margo's parents to raise him and then butcher and split the beef. We had him for right at a year. We are anxious to see how much meat we get from him, I will keep you updated. Overall he was a nice cow to have around and lots of kids got to pet him and sit on him. Here is a before and after shot to show you how much he grew the past year.

Here he is when we got him


And here he is today

New Animals

Now, the animals news I talked about in my last post. Our neighbors to the east, Mark and Michelle, have a nice pasture (approx. 6 acres or so) that has not been being used. The grass is pretty good on it and the past couple years they have just had to brushhog it to keep it down. They are working on putting up fence in hopes of getting their horses and possibly some cows to put on their land. Their grass is starting to get kind of high this year, so we told them if they wanted us to and did not mind we could put up an electric fence around the pasture area and put some cows in there to keep the grass down until they got their barb wire fences finished so they did not have to mow it. They said they did not mind, so this past week Margo and I put up some electric fence around their main pasture (feel free to come pee on it anytime) and then we bought 4 calves from a guy in Farmington and he delivered them yesterday. Our plan is to keep them throughout the summer and let them grow a lot and then sell them in the fall to make some money off of them. Anyway, we are happy about being able to have some more calves for a while.

Here they are enjoying the grass

No Dice

As many of you may know, we got our newest kitty, Hello, from my parents around Christmas time. She was just a kitten then but has grown quite a bit since then as evidenced by this picture. Well, it turns out that as she grew, she turned out to not be a she but a he. We are fine with that but before he got too much older we decided we wanted to get him neutered before he started roaming and spraying on stuff. So, Margo dropped him off at the vet this morning and picked him up this afternoon. He is a little lighter now.

In other animal news we sold two of our goats yesterday. We decided to get rid of them partly because we had some female babies this year that we wanted to keep instead of these two and we are thinking about getting a few sheep. Here are the two we sold. Farewell Twin and Spot.





Stay tuned, because we possibly have some other big animal news coming in the next week or so.

Burnin' Tree of Fire

We don't seem to have a lot to blog about these days. Not much has been going on besides the daily grind of work. Margo was gone all last week to Iowa for work. I am glad she is back now. There is not much happening on the farm either. Just doing lots of little things. The garden is coming along. So far I have planted garlic, onions, sugar snap peas, corn, green beans, squash, cucumbers, zucchini, cantaloup, and luffa gourds. Tomorrow I am going to plant my tomatoes and peppers. I will try to post some pictures when everything starts growing. Today, I took most of the day off from work because one of the doctors I work with called in sick so we canceled clinic and there was nothing for me to do so I went home. It was nice and it helped me catch up on doing some stuff around the farm. Margo took off as well because she had lots of extra hours from last week. One of the things I did today is burn a couple of brush piles. One of the brush piles I had stacked around an old dead tree trunk that was still standing so that when I burned the pile it would burn down the tree as well. It was really fun, Margo and I sat and watched it burn until the tree trunk fell over. It was very exciting. That is the kind of thing that is fun to me, not video games and ipods, just watching a big tree trunk burn. I took some pictures so all of you could see.

Here is the brush pile after it had burned down quite a bit. You can see the tree trunk was pretty tall, the whole thing is on fire at this point.


Here is a closer shot of the top part.


And here is an even closer shot right before it fell, it had burned through the middle where you could see through it while it was on fire. I think this is a really cool picture.

New Fish

I decided to restock my pond a little bit. I want to make sure that there are always plenty of catfish in my pond because that is what people like to catch the most and Margo and I catch them and eat them occasionally. On Saturday, the fish truck was at the Farmers Co-op so I went and bought some fish. I bought 50 6"-8" catfish and 100 bluegill. The catfish will eat the small bluegill while they are growing and the bluegill that survive are fun and easy to catch. I already have some full size blue gill in the pond. I decided to put about 10 catfish and some of the bluegill in my other little pond that I share with the neighbor just to see how they do. You are all welcome to come out and fish anytime. Here is a pic of the little catfish.



In other news, Margo is gone this week to some training so it is just me and the animals. I planted some in the garden today without a shirt on and got sunburned. It is this kind of thing that makes me appreciated having another person around. It is next to impossible to put aloe on your own back and the goats aren't much help with it either.

Stimulation

In case any of you have not heard, George W. and congress have decided to give us a stimulus package this year (May). Margo and I as a couple will be receiving $1200. I have mixed feelings on the stimulus package. I understand that they are doing it; to try to help the economy do better. The main problem I have with it is the little letters they sent out that I am sure you all received that told you that you will be getting an extra tax refund stimulus and that all you have to do is file your normal tax return. The problem I have with that is that it cost over $42 million to mail those letters out and unless you live under a rock you already knew that you were getting it. I think that was a big waste of taxpayer money and useless government spending that could be used for better things like education, roads, or reducing the national debt. But don't get me wrong, I do like to get the unexpected money. The other thing I am worried about is if this stimulus is actually going to help much. I am not an economist so I don't have any expertise on this matter. I do hope that you all use all or at least a portion of it to buy some stuff since that is what it is intended for. I understand if you need to pay off debt because that is more important but if not I think everyone should spend the money so it might help the economy because that would be good for everyone. And to take it one step further if you do decide to spend it, try to use it to by stuff made in America. Normally, I don't really pay attention to where stuff is made but I think in this instance it would be most beneficial to buy American since it's main purpose is to help our economy. If you buy something made in China or Mexico, it will help our economy some but it will also help that country's economy and if it is made here it is a win, win, win for the U.S. Ok, this is becoming to long of a post and I have not even got to my main point yet. So today, I spent part of my stimulus money (yes, I am already spending it and it has not arrived yet). We have been wanting to buy a small trailer for a while. We haul a lot of stuff and it would make it a lot easier to have my own trailer. We had been looking for a while mostly in the classifieds for a used one. Today, I found a new one that was actually cheaper than any I had seen for sale used. I bought it at Ranalli Farm Equipment in Tontitown. It is 10'x6' and has a tilt bed. I wanted a tilt bed because it makes it easier to load and unload stuff like lawn mowers and 4-wheelers because you don't need ramps. Here is a pic of it.



Let me know if any of you need help hauling something. I wanted to give a shout out to my father-in-law David for his expertise and coming with me to look at the trailer. I also wanted to give a shout out to George and our friends on the Hill for the stimulation.

Firsts

Here on the Farm of Hale the past few days we have had some firsts. To start with, I got my first tick of the season which is a sure sign of spring. It was attached to the back of my leg. We usually don't have too much of a problem with ticks or chiggers because of the chickens. They do a good job of controlling all the bugs around the farm. Another first I had this weekend, that further proves the arrival of spring, is I saw my first snake of the season. Last year I killed 5-7 snakes on the farm including a couple water snakes, a couple king snakes, a hognose snake, and the only poisonous one- a copper head. I hope to not have as many this year because I have cleared out a lot of the underbrush and snakey type areas and I have more animals this year which helps to keep snakes away. Anyway, back to the snake I saw yesterday. It was just a garter snake which isn't a bad snake but I tend to kill all snakes good or bad. This one got away before I could get something to kill it though. Garter snakes are the first snakes to emerge in the spring (don't you love the little educational tidbits I put in my posts).

Our other first is food related. We have started doing about half our grocery shopping at Sam's Club. We did price comparison and found that at least half the stuff we buy is cheaper for us to get at Sam's. Anyway, we heard a couple weeks ago from Margo's dad that Sam's was about to start using new milk jugs. (Her dad works for Dairy Farmers of America). Well, they had them today when Margo bought groceries. Here is a pic of the new jug she got today.



Here is what we know about why they are using these new jugs. They don't require the milk crates to hold them and haul them since they are box shaped. All they do is put them on a pallet- they stack one layer on top of the other with just a piece of cardboard in between the layers. They also don't use racks at the store anymore to hold the milk. They just put a pallet of milk in the cooler at the store and you just take one off and when a layer is gone, they remove the cardboard in between and start a new layer. This saves them from having a person put the milk in the crates, stack the crates on a pallet, unstack the crates at the store, and put the jugs in the racks. I think it is a pretty good idea and design. It will probably take some getting used to by consumers but so far I like the new jug just fine. I like that the hole is on one corner of the jug, this requires less tipping and aim to get the milk into my glass than with the old jugs. The new jug is also less transparent as well which helps the milk last longer and it says it uses less shelf space.

Entertainment

I thought I would take a break from talking about the farm and recommend some music and a movie for all of you.

To start with I wanted to recommend some music and a movie to all of you. The first music I wanted to recommend is a girl named Regina Spektor . We have been listening to her for several months and we really dig her music. We saw her on Letterman one night and loved it and now have a couple of her albums. She is starting to get pretty popular, her music has been used for some commercials and movies. Click here to go to her myspace page and listen to some of her music. The next band I wanted to tell you about is Arcade Fire. They are an indie rock band and their music is excellent and their lyrics are amazing. Our friend Ben got us hooked on them. They have like 6+ people in the band and on stage playing all kinds of instruments like violins, horns, accordion, and others. They have played with some really good people like Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie as well. Their newest album, Neon Bible is our favorite. Here is a video of them playing one of their songs with David Bowie.



And the final music recommendation I have for you is a new album. The group is called She and Him. The she part of the group is Zooey Deschanel. She is the main actress in the movie Elf that sings. I thought her voice was amazing in the movie and hoped that she would do some music sometime and she finally has. A big thanks to Travis for putting it on his blog and letting us know about it. She has been in several other good movies and is going to be the main actress in M. Night Shyamalan's new moving The Happening coming out in June. Click here to go to their myspace page and listen to some of their music.

I also wanted to recommend a movie to all of you as well in case some of you may not have heard of it yet. I think everyone would like this movie. It is called Once. It is an independent type movie and is about a singer songwriter guy that meets a girl and they form a relationship and make some music together. The whole movie is so great and the music is truly awesome. It is music that the main characters actually wrote and played. They won an Oscar for best original song in a motion picture. I really want all of you who have not seen it to go out and rent it, it is one of those movies that just make you feel great and everyone should see it. (You may have to turn on subtitles because their accents are a little hard to understand at times.)

Let me know what you think about all these people and feel free to leave suggestions for me on music or movies.

Spring has Sprung

It is now officially spring. I thought I would share with you some of the things I have planted so far that are starting to grow. I am really excited about everything starting to grow and look forward to having everything in my garden.

First, here is a picture of my garlic. You may be thinking that it is really big to be so early in the spring. Well, there is a reason for that. I have found that the best time to plant garlic is in the late fall. It is cold and freeze tolerant and planting it in the fall gives it a jump start for when spring comes around. Therefore the garlic turns out a lot bigger at harvest by planting in the fall as opposed to planting in the spring. A random bit of information for you about garlic....Elephant garlic which is what a lot of people plant because it gets really big is not a garlic but it is a leek that tastes like garlic.


I also have planted onions and sugar snap peas down in the garden and they are starting to come up.

Here is a picture of my strawberries. I planted them last year in a garden bed I put right behind the house. They are doing pretty good. They would be a lot better but last year I left one of the gates open by accident and the goats got in and ate the strawberries to the ground. Luckily it did not kill them, but it they are just now back to where they were before the goats ate them so it set them back about a year as far as production goes.


I also put in my other berries this year. They are in the yard behind the house in a weird little raised area that was already there. It was a difficult place to mow so I decided to make it the place where I plant my berries. I am also building a rock wall between that area and the house (I will post pictures of that when I get it done). I planted 6 blueberry plants and 6 blackberry plants. I may also grow some melons in that area to help fill space.

Also in the bed with the strawberries, I decided to try to plant some lettuce. I figured having it close would make it easier to get when we wanted it. I planted a mixed lettuce leaf seed mix. It is growing pretty well, I may have planted it a little late but I think it will produce fine. It also rained 8 inches after I planted it so I think some of the seeds got washed away.


My big planting project of the past 2 weeks is grass. I have been clearing out the lower part of our land this winter and last fall in hopes of getting more grass growing and therefore be able to have more grass eating animals. When we moved in, the land was mostly wooded with some grassy spots and my goal for this year was to double the amount of grass on the property. The first planting of grass I did was in February. I had come across an article about frost seeding so I thought I would try it out. It involves spreading the seed in early February when we are having a frost about every night and then it warms up during the day. This repeated freezing and thawing cycle works the seed into the ground. All I have to do is spread it and if it comes into contact with the ground it will work itself into the ground, I don't have to break up the ground or cover it with dirt or anything. The forage this process works best with is clover which is really good for grass eating animals. Anyway, to my surprise, it worked really well and the clover came up and is growing. Also throughout the winter I would spread seed where I was feeding hay to the animals. Then, a couple weeks ago I started planting some pasture mix grass seed. The mix has alfalfa, orchard, fescue, annual rye, perennial rye, and clover seeds. We have planted about 150 pounds of seed so far. This involves Margo and I breaking up the ground where we are planting, spreading the grass seed and then raking over it. I hope a good portion of it comes up and survives because this will enable us to get more animals. Here is a close-up pic of some that is already coming up. If you click on the picture it makes it big and looks a lot cooler.

New skills

Margo started a new hobby a month or so ago. She has taught herself how to knit using an instructional book. She picked it up pretty fast. So far she has made some dishcloths and a scarf and they turned out good. I am not sure what all she is planning on making but don't be surprised if for Christmas next year some of you get a present knitted by Margo. Here is a pic of her modeling some of her creations (aka scarf and dishcloth).