Rancho Mastatal – Part 5
By Karen:
 Bagels in basket. |
 Makes your mouth water, doesn’t it? Sigh. But I love fresh bread with butter, and butter is a luxury there. Robin uses very little oils/fats in her cooking because it is not easy to come by — unless you want pig fat. |
Actually, they do use a lot of pig fat at the Rancho — Tim makes their soap from it. Pretty nice stuff, too. |
| Timo and Robin used to live in the main house, having almost no privacy. Their bedroom was their office, a storeroom, and a hallway into other storage add-on rooms. They dreamed of a house of their own, and after more hard work, finally got one. It is about 85% complete now, but they can at least sleep there — as little sleep as they ever have time for. | ||
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 Note the “Phases of the Moon” motif in the circles on the upper wall. |
 This is LaCangreja Peak, and the view out T&R’s front porch. Their property ends at the first ridge line. |
 And this is Dave, returning from his hike up Cerro LaCangreja to search for Costus in bloom — the only way to differentiate some species from the other. |
 Heliconias, another member of the Ginger family, although not Costus, are very common here. To help one lady remember the name (Hi, Lynn!), we suggested the term “Hell of a Cognac”. |