Weather Update

A quick update before I retire or we have a power outage. The winds settled slightly, yet remained strong through the day. There were only a few trees uprooted and leaning on other trees. Remarkably, very few branches or heavy limbs have fallen. The trees here appear very flexible and any brittle species such as silver maple would have been crowded out millions of years ago by more hardy species.

I did discover that the local forecast predicts this wind will continue through thursday. It is especially severe in the mountains - a typical January windstorm as told by the locals. It is evening, the wind has strengthened again in the past hour (gusts to 60mph?), the house is creaking, roof panels are banging, and my hands are actually cold. This is the first cold I have felt since living here, well except for those not so hot showers.

The cat darted into the woods to relieve itself and came right back, instead of venturing around for half the day. I wore rainpants for the first time, took a stroll down a wooded trail and was reminded of a sales slogan, 'There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.'

It is remarkable that our power, phone and internet is still on! Flashlight in my nightstand and preparing for another night of little sleep.

A big thank you to the Troesels for a delicious homemade bagel brunch this morning! Signed M.

Sloth In The Night

One thing I noticed about sleeping in the San Jose metro area the other night, was the lack of night noises. It felt eerily silent not having the crickets to sing me to sleep. Well, last night was another night of noise in our Monteverde house. The wind has been howling for two days now and has caused a few roof panels to loosen and bang and creek. Heavy mist is pelting the windows, drip and drain sounds surround us and blowing leaves scratch at the windows.

It was about 1 AM and the rattling just would not stop. Mice found the cat food? The cat trying to get a stuck cup off of its head? This new sound need investigating, so up I sprang peering into the kitchen. Nothing. The sound was outside our dining room window. Something was clanging: the hammock? The cat trying to get in? I shined the flashlight at the window and saw two giant claws attached to a long haired limb. I new what it was. Another limb with a set of claws reached up and scratched at the window and wooden frame. Really? This isn't supposed to climb houses! Attempting to gain height, this slow moving creature's head popped up revealing its flat nose and little innocent eyes. Yes, it is a sloth! I turned the light on, put my boots on and grabbed the camera as it retreated under the bench.

After a minute of hiding under the bench, it reached out with one limb, then another and another and slowly dragged itself across the concrete patio. I snapped pictures from a few feet away. Sloths do not move rapidly, but I certainly did not want to get close to its huge daggers. Not able to support its body weight by pushing up, the shy creature looked sickly or at least from another world. Sloths have plenty of strength to hang and to pull themselves up, but apparently do not practice pushups or run from predators. It crawled to the nearest tree and methodically climbed up until its was out of my reach within a couple of minutes.

In this morning's light, the sloth is nowhere to be found. We will go outside in a few minutes to look up into the trees nearby.

Signed M.

Coco the Skiddish Dog

Neither Sally or I had a decent sleep last night. I listened to the wind howl all night - its been howling for a few days now - more typical weather for december. The wind has blown open a panel on the roof next door, so a strong gust results in plastic and metal clanging together. It sounds as if we caught a mouse in our live trap - I hear some clanging in the kitchen. There was minor mouse scratching in our bedroom. A cat visiting lately is meowing while we listen for the sounds of Coco, a new dog in our care that escaped yesterday afternoon. Coco is hanging around the house and at least knows the hand that feeds it. Sally is attempting to lure the skiddish canine into the house. We are just holding her for a few days.
Signed M

Morning Stars

Lying in bed, I listened to the sounds of the night. Based on previous sightings, I figured there was a giant moth banging itself on our kitchen window and a mouse in the ceiling chewing something and whacking its tail. There was a crack of wood and an earth shaking thump as a tree limb must have fallen and of course the crickets chirping and dogs barking. I finally arose at 4:00, put on sweat pants, a fleece jacket, slipped on my trusty rubber boots and quietly snuck out the front door. The first thing I noticed was the darkness. Without moonlight, it can be very dark in Monteverde. The second thing I noticed was the abundance of stars. Magnificent, numerous, the most I have seen from this humid often cloud swept mountain.

Straight overhead is a planet, maybe Jupiter, and to the north, the Big Dipper. I could not locate the north star (Polaris), it must be close to the horizon behind the trees. I focused upward and could see a few faint clusters of stars and wondered about the other billions that I could not see. Flash, possibly a meteor lighting the sky somewhere over the horizon. In a span of thirty minutes, there were at least ten such flashes. I saw two meteors burn up, (shooting stars) and found four human made satellites smoothly passing overhead. Two were running parallel to each other as if in a race. Satellites look just like stars, except they are moving. I have only seen them from rural places. A plane has a blinking light.

A rooster at Meg’s started its morning routine and a couple of other small animals were moving about. I found the pasture gate and ventured past the ant mounds to the center of the field. Looking to the south admiring the majestic silhouettes of the 100 ft pines at the Troesel’s, toward the west an old tropical hardwood, to the north, the row of Mexican cypress and to the east a mix fruit, native deciduous and conifer trees. For hundreds of feet around me, I could not see a house nor lights, except for the thousands of natural lights above. The eastern sky lights up and stars gradually fade away.

It is now 5:30, the wrens are singing and a mot mot is whooting joining a brown jay in the background. Signed M.

Weather Just Like Chicago

Weather – well. I find it intriguing. Last week, the sunshine and pleasant breezes evaporated moisture from the daily mists and humidity levels dropped to about 70%.  The air actually felt dry, stars were abundant in the night sky and we had success maintaining a bonfire Saturday night. By Sunday morning things had changed. The winds started howling over the mountains and through the trees and heavy mist blew horizontally saturating everything. It must be a winter storm here, similar in some ways to a cold front in Chicago accompanied by 40mph gusts and blowing snow. Different however because the temperature here dipped only to 58 F and the winds and mist blew heavily for two days. It has gradually lightened since Monday, but it is still windy and wet, but more sunshine and rainbows now. It reminds me much of lake effect snow in Chicago with the intermittent precipitation glistening in the sunlight and broken clouds quickly blowing overhead. Our rubber boots are seeing some good use.

Sunday night, the boys and I were walking home from school after feeding the hamsters. It was dark, especially on the trail leading from the school. Michael fearlessly led the way carefully watching the path in front of him as water dripped from the thick foliage overhead. We reached the road as it turned into the oncoming winds. Pelted by the heavy mist, hoods blowing off of our heads, I felt alive, euphoric, stimulated, invigorated. The boys raised their arms, “Hello wind, hello rain!” Occasionally a car would approach us and Michael’s role was to turn on the flashlight and shine it toward the car so the driver would avoid us. John played his role by waving to each passing vehicle. Our night vision improved as we walked, as long as we were not blinded by the oncoming headlights. They recognized mud puddles to jump over and pointed to the tree silhouettes waving against the sky. They found the gate to the pasture and stopped to look at a couple of stars peaking through the clouds in the western sky as the mist continued to pelt us from the east. Our night vision was now keen enough to see a marked difference between the shades of light on the ground. The green grass appeared a lighter gray, the piles of horse manure a darker gray and the leafcutter ant mounds were black. Curious to see if the ants were active, we saw that their trails were empty but they were busy carrying soil up from their holes and building their mounds higher. The last steps to our front porch  brought happy shouts of, “Mom, mom we’re all wet. Mom, our night vision is really really good. We can see everything in the dark.”

Signed M