Our first little earthquake!

OK, first I say I was looking forward to seeing a deadly snake and now I am saying how excited I was to experience our 1st earthquake.

It was very brief yesterday but we all definitely felt it.  I was in a chair at our kitchen counter, Mom was standing in the bedroom, and Alex was upstairs.

 I felt my chair wiggle twice like someone was behind me, grabbing my chair and wiggling it.  I actually turned around to see who it was.  Chris stopped by shortly afterwards and confirmed that he felt it as well!  I've been back and forth to California many times and had always hoped to experience an earthquake but now I can finally say I felt one.  To me, it was awesome just thinking of the massive power it takes to move the earth like that!

If you look closely at the picture (thanks Chris for the picture) you can see Our Location and the Earthquake Epicenter.  It was about 13 miles or so from our house.  It's hard to see but you can click the picture to get a better view.  I am actually hoping for an after-shock!

Today is our day to walk our 3 miles again and the funny thought popped into my head.  Everyday we walk we pass a herd of cattle grazing on the very steep hills to one side or the other.

I thought how funny it would be (in some respects) to be walking along the road when an earthquake hit and seeing the cows lose their balance, tip over, and start tumbling down the hill.  OK maybe not so funny, but ....



The flower is just outside our back window.  Very pretty!

Everyday here is a bit unique and you never know what little adventure will occur.  We are now on month two and we already know we will truly miss this place.  It's beautiful in every direction.  The cycles are mind boggling to me.  Every creature seems to be on a very distinct schedule and seem to wait for queues from one another for their shift.

Early morning, we hear beautiful melodies from the large variety of birds as they seem to frantically search for food, the hummingbirds buzz back and forth past us, a beautiful flock of white Egrets fly off to the north, and the same little butterfly flutters past our patio table almost on queue at 6:10.  The Cicada's then chirp for a bit, the smaller birds stop chirping and disappear, the vultures start gliding around the valley looking for prey, dusk comes and the crickets and cicada's start getting really loud.  Then as dark approaches, the loud Cicada's slowly drift into silence and the frogs start croaking.  Then the night birds like the Common Pauraque I mentioned earlier come to life.

Chris put it a nice way.  It was like a symphony orchestra, he said, with their conductor's guidance to one section at a time.  "Cicada's - crescendo please as he raises his hand and baton in their direction.  Then signals them to calm to silence as he points toward the frogs, and then on to the Pauraque for their melodic (but annoying) solos.  I know this seems to be an exaggeration but it's true.  As we stood on the patio last night, the Cicada's can be almost deafening but then suddenly drift away as we're talking.  Pretty cool.  I wish I could piece together an audio file.

Last note for this post.  Chris brought over a few coconuts last night from the trees just down the street.  Alex and I poked holes in them this morning and drained the "milk" into a pitcher.  Not quite enough of course for a full pitcher but a nice start.

We then broke them open and carved out the meat.  These were fairly young coconuts so the meat was still soft, almost the texture of peanut butter, maybe slightly stiffer.

Alex took a half shell and had a refreshing little morning treat.  I had a couple scoops as well and to my surprise I really enjoyed it.  Alex and I though it was almost like eating yogurt.

So now, we have a little stash in the refrigerator and from what I've been reading, coconuts offer some nice health benefits and supposedly it's good for you stomach as well.  Awesome start to the day!

We love it here!