This article is one of a series on life in the campo, or country living in Costa Rica, as my wife and I* experienced it on our visits and after moving to Costa Rica. Each is a sort of time capsule, the stories evolving with us as we have lived more experiences and delved deeper into the culture.

Where I was born in Missouri, the common tool every worker had was a hoe. My family raised vegetables for the market, and you were always needing to hoe something. The hoe was also a sure remedy for rattlesnakes and copperheads. In Costa Rica, the tool of choice is the machete. I think I have figured out why ticos are so polite to each other: When your workers are surrounding you and all have machetes, you choose your words carefully! I found it interesting that some of the new workers did not have machetes, so Hector bought one for each of them and let them buy them from us using their first week’s wages.

The machete is used as a weed-whacker. It is the responsibility of the landowner to keep his private road cleared (obviously); our road is about 1 kilometer. The side of the road used to be cleared using machetes, but now it is starting to be kept clear using Round-Up or industrial string-trimmers. We use the string-trimmers.

The fence posts in our area sprout and grow into trees. You create more fence using limbs pruned from other fences. If you do not let too much time pass before pruning the fence, you can just use a machete, but otherwise small chainsaws are used. Every year the fences have to be pruned, but it is not expensive. The total cost for pruning the 165-acre farm was about $600 USD this year. It is important that the fences are kept pruned, because otherwise the wind will cause them to sway and break the barbed wire.

*We are Fred and Amy Morgan, originally from the US. We bought a dairy farm in Costa Rica to plant trees in its pastures, then later caught a dream of turning all the land we can to permanently protected, sustainably maintained forest once the plantation trees have been harvested for profit. Along the way, we made it possible for our former partner to realize his dream of starting a business of his own in his native land. He is featured in many of the earlier stories.

To read more about Finca Leola S.A. and how you can also invest in trees and at the same time help with reforestation, go to Own Trees with Us.

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