Holiday is over here.  Everyone back to work today.  We are starting to prepare our ground for planting.  Actually, we have already tested the soil and added a lot of calcium carbonate.  Our soil is rich and there is no need to add any more minerals or nutrients right now, just correct the pH and then they become available.  It takes a couple of months for the cheap version of calcium carbonate to soak into the soil so it is now a game of just waiting to watch and hopefully see the plants perking up in the next few weeks.

The next job is to decide how we are going to organize the rows and design paths and small roads between the coffee for horses, people and trucks.  

This is not quite as simple as it sounds.  We are changing the direction of the rows of coffee to protect from the prevailing wind, el Norte, and fungal spores that come on the wind.      I am also going to use some Caturra as an ornamental hedge around my new rose garden.   It is such a pretty bushy plant, perfect low hedging material.

In addition to deciding where we will have rows, we are working out how to get about.  We are constructing paths and roads in the coffee so that we can more easily move fertilizer and other things around the farm.    Some of this is easy work, just marking out routes and not planting there.  Some of it is a little more tricky and may involve moving rocks.   

I am looking forward to walking around the farm more easily to do some birding in the coffee and also, some fun riding.   That was what little paso fino horses were designed to do, to trot between the rows of coffee.