June 23rd, 2009 fmorgan
I hate being injured. Fortunately, it doesn’t happen that often, but about ten days or so ago, I did something really strange to my leg. A storm came up as I was walking from the office to the house. I don’t care if I get wet, but I had some papers in my hand so I started running up the steep path to our house. I do it all the time, but this time something popped in the calf of my leg. It felt like someone punched me or something. I still don’t know what happened, but I had to get someone to rescue the papers and bring me a big stick to lean on so I could hobble my way to the house.
I had an important visitor the next day whom I was going to escort all over the farms. In the morning I could still put no weight on the leg nor flex my foot, so I had a driver take me to pick up the visitor. I made a valiant effort, but after about ten steps, I had to let someone else escort him inside the first plantation. I got home as soon as I could, turned over tour duties to others, and retreated to a couch to attempt not to move for a while.
By the next night it was a little better, and we sat in a hot spring for a while. That helped.
Now after about ten days, it is almost okay, but it still twinges, which tells me I better not go running for a while. Thankfully, it has recovered enough so that I no longer am in danger of country remedies. We have a lot of workers, and they are very concerned if I get sick (very rare) or injured (rarer yet). They want to help, but their help is a bit scary. All that most of the workers know how to treat is horses and cows, and since I am nearly the same size in their eyes, the suggestions for remedies sounded frighteningly similar.
Why is it that anytime someone suggests a cure around here, they start by saying that it will really hurt a lot, or taste horrible, or in this case burn like fire, but then it will really help, too! What I gathered was that some nurse or possibly a pharmacist would take a huge needle and inject a muscle relaxant into my butt. This does not sound good. After the agony was over, the muscle would be fine and I could go about my business, after of course visiting the dentist to fix all my teeth because I had clenched them so hard. I bet the pharmacist does veterinary work on the side. Maybe dental work too.
Just to be on the safe side, I have been working at walking as normally as I can. You never know, if they get the idea I will never walk and run normally again, they might suggest I be put down.
Posted in cultural adaptation, culture, doctor, finca, horses, injury | 2 Comments »
May 23rd, 2009 fmorgan
As we are approaching seven years of doing business in Costa Rica, with five years living here full time, it strikes us how it seems like only yesterday and yet a lifetime ago that we started growing trees.
When we think about how much has happened in the last seven years, it feels like there is enough to fill a lifetime. Because of that, we keep saying, “Was that only a year ago?!”
Yet we are so busy here, time goes by in a flash. OK, maybe that’s just because we’re middle-aged, but time does seem to creep when you’re bored.
And we are anything but bored! They say you learn something new every day, well, when you have a business in a culture new to you this is quite literally true.
Here’s just one example of what we’re talking about. As we continue to grow the plantation and wood processing business in Costa Rica, one area of constant learning is the labor law. The up-to-date books on it are available at many bookstores, both the full version and an abbreviated version. The law tends not to cover all the specifics; for that, we consult with lawyers to see how the courts have ruled in cases similar to the situation we are dealing with at the moment. For instance, we had to lay off someone for lack of work in his area. While he was still working for us, during his period of advance notice, we came up with other work that he could do and told him he was not being laid off after all. He had found another job and still wanted to leave. We didn’t think we had to pay the full separation as though we had laid him off, since he was now leaving by his own choice. One of our staff raised a question about it, so we checked with a lawyer. There had just been a ruling by the labor court in favor of the worker in a case exactly like it. Our former employee wasn’t even aware of our mistake, but we went back and paid him the difference. When you think about it, the idea of losing that separation money could keep someone from accepting a job while they have the chance.
The ministry of labor (MTSS) inspected us recently, along with all the farmers and businesses in our area. It was a lawyer who works for the MTSS who came with two assistants. She was friendly, but had the overall demeanor of a schoolmarm bringing her charges back in line. That was with us, who only had to appoint a labor relations committee and add a few lines to our salary receipts that we give our employees. We can only wonder what her demeanor is with companies and farms that she finds not in compliance with the labor laws.
We noticed that one of the assistants always stays in the car, whether because he is just their driver or because he is watching for illegal laborers fleeing the workplace, we don’t know. It’s so interesting to try to understand what’s really going on under the surface here. It’s no wonder we keep feeling like we’re going in and out of some weird time warp.
And in business as in life, “learning is not compulsory…neither is survival” (W. Edwards Deming).
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Posted in business in Costa Rica, cultural adaptation, labor law | No Comments »
May 16th, 2009 fmorgan
You mean I gotta take another bath!?
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When I lived in the USA, I was always conscious of what month it was because each month in the northeast is for me strongly associated with a certain weather pattern.
In Costa Rica, although I am rarely sure what month it is, I do know which season it is. It’s so obvious. Costa Rica only has two seasons: mud and dust.
The mud season. For eight months of the year, I walk out the door and put on my rubber boots (after shaking them in case something crawled in there during the night). Unlike when we lived in the USA, I don’t check outside to see how many layers to wear. Temperature really doesn’t change that much year round, so what you wear is pretty much the same everyday, except for what you put on your feet.
When the rainy season starts, we generally have two weeks of sogginess. There is daily rain, sometimes very heavy and at times with lightening. We get the same thing when the rainy season ends. During the rest of the seven months, at the Monte Cristo plantation where we live, generally there is a big rain twice a day, at about 4:00 in the morning and again in the afternoon. Inside the La Garita plantation, the rain comes every other day. This would seem to make for better living conditions at La Garita, but it really doesn’t, because the sunny day heats the soil, and the previous day’s rain creates a sauna. For living, I prefer a daily rain, but the trees don’t care.
The dust season. Activities change drastically during the dry season. We have more visitors and it is easier to do changes to infrastructure, like road and bridge building, etc. Construction is much, much easier when you aren’t ankle deep, or more, in mud. You can nearly double your time in construction if you do it during the wet season compared to the dry.
One very nice thing about the dry season is it coincides with the coolest time of the year. So the increased sun is offset by the cool winds that come from the North.
When the temperature may vary no more than 10 degrees Farenheit for the entire year, even a change of 5 degrees seems like a lot. So we all act like we’re freezing any time we have to put on socks.
The dry season is great for swimming in our river, as the water is low and crystal clear. Not so good for fishing though. A rain makes the water a little more murky and so helps hide me from the fish. Most of the Ticos go fishing during the dry season because there are places that are accessible no other time of the year except by horse.
We do the heavy pruning of the trees in the dry season. Mainly because bark is slippery and when we are pruning large trees, it is important that nothing is moving around. We can prune for form all year round.
This is good because the grass isn’t growing as much, so workers who would have been working at keeping the grass cleared around the trees can switch to pruning.
For tree owners, the best time to visit is during the dry season, which is also peak tourist time. This is because getting into the plantations is much easier. During the dry season, we can almost drive up to the individual trees. Otherwise, it can require quite a walk to get to the trees.
For riding a mountain bike, I prefer the rainy season, but after things have dried just a little. Just enough to keep the dust down, but not so much that all the rock is loose. One really nice thing about the dry season is you can ride on the pure dirt roads, which are nearly impassible even with a bike for much of the year. They come through with a grader and clean them up during the beginning of the dry season, giving a great opportunity to ride on hard-packed dry clay.
The truth is, I like both seasons. And the end of each, I am eager for the next. When the dust is everywhere, a nice rain is very welcome, and when you can’t seem to find a dry place anywhere, three months of no rain cures that feeling very well indeed.
Posted in clothes, cycling, finca, forestry, mud, nursery, roads, tree owners, trees | No Comments »
May 8th, 2009 fmorgan
One of the things I learned along the way is the difference between an asset and a liability: Assets make money, liabilities eat money. My family used to tease me that even my hobbies were profitable (or at least broke even). If I went fishing, you could pretty much count on me bringing home a nice mess of perch or panfish for eating.
Recently I was asked if I was interested in selling our old ATV. It was being used almost every day, but it got me thinking, “Why do I have this since I have other modes of transportation?” Back when we bought it used, it was important for hauling seedlings into the farms, but since then we have grown to the point of using a tractor so we can haul up to three thousand seedlings at a time. I was using the ATV to get back and forth between the office and the farms, but I also have a motorcycle that is better and cheaper for that purpose.
So I bargained to swap the ATV for five milk cows with their calves. Our caretaker wants to milk the cows and can cut the grass for them inside our farm with a scythe. I get the manure for the nursery and our garden, and he pays off the cows with his income from making the milk into cheese.
So, the ATV has gone from being a liability that needs repairs to an asset that makes cheese. Just as long as I am not the person who has to milk it in the mornings, I am happy!
Posted in bargaining, business in Costa Rica, nursery, scythe | No Comments »
May 2nd, 2009 fmorgan
One of the areas I think that baffles foreigners most when living in Costa Rica is what things cost. First of all, you have to deal with a new currency, the colon. On top of that, some things are much cheaper here (for example, we just bought a pineapple for less than 50 cents), and other things, much more expensive (imported goods mainly–an apple is about $1.50).
So, getting prices straight can be challenging, especially when you start talking in millions of colones. We just sold a used ATV for 2 million (about 3600 dollars).
We all want to know ahead of time what it will cost to build something, but the price always ends up being more than quoted. I finally figured out that contractors here give a bid for the best case scenario. Basically, if everything goes perfectly, it will be that price. In a country where even plans for meetings are preceded by “Si Dios quiere…” (If God wills), you can guess how often everything goes perfectly. You would think that the estimates would reflect the normal course of events, but it doesn’t work that way. Since everyone bids for the impossible ideal situation, anyone who gives an accurate estimate will not get the job. Cost overruns are therefore the norm, and you are responsible for adding your own buffer instead of the contractor tacking it on. The odds of you coming out at the original bid and getting to keep that buffer are worse than the lottery, but I guess it’s fun to try. We have seen that if you work the price down to below usual, what you pay in the end will be the same as if you accepted a quote for around the going price, what with one thing and another. It is very possible the lower bid will end up being the most expensive when you redo the rushed job.
Bargaining is practically a national pastime in Costa Rica, if not an art form. Where you live, are you accustomed to hearing an exchange like this in a retail furniture store? “I appeal to your conscience on the price you are asking me to pay.” “My conscience is perfectly clear, thank you, I know our prices are some of the best around.” That last said with a big smile.
It seems everything can be dickered over, and everything is considered for sale. People frequently walk up to our door and ask to buy equipment that we are using in our business. The above-mentioned ATV was in daily use, but somebody asked if we would part with it. It is always good when you are not the one trying to sell, but the other party is trying to buy.
If you come up to a farmer and say, “I like your farm, how much?” expect to be shocked at the price. The custom is to offer it at 3 times a reasonable amount, which is to say, “I don’t really want to sell, but if you really want it…” More than a few farmers have been shocked when the crazy foreigner paid what they asked, and more than a few foreigners have been very upset to discover they paid three times market value.
The best way to buy land is to locate yourself in the area for a while and give yourself a few months to learn what a good price is. Then let it be known that you will buy land for that price. Resist the pressure to go look at properties that are more than your asking price per hectare or square meter. Eventually someone will show up with a property in your price range, because that is what the locals are paying.
After seven years of doing business in Costa Rica, I can see us now on our next visit to the United States trying to appeal to the conscience of some baffled clerk in Home Depot.
Posted in bargaining, business in Costa Rica, buying land, campo, construction, culture, finca, investing | No Comments »
March 16th, 2009 fmorgan
This morning we walked over to the office to discover that the town road crew had chopped off the end of the driveway, now about 18 inches above the level of the road.
Our backhoe operator said that we needed to put in concrete culverts. Now, the entrance is at the top of a hill, which is why when we made it, we didn’t put in culverts in the first place.
Why do we need culverts? Not so that water can pass under, but so that the town will not destroy the entrance again during any future road work–they will have to work around it like they did in front of our house, where there are much-needed culverts.
After we put in these “dry” culverts and covered them up, the road crew used their big grader and roller to smooth the entrance and pack it down. That was nice.
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March 16th, 2009 fmorgan
One of the many big surprises to me when we moved down to Costa Rica was how primitive the wood business was. Here you have a country with hardware stores, tools, etc. but if you want wood, you go to the sawmill and buy green! There are also depositos de madera, or lumberyards, but they usually sell green wood, too. Of course, you can’t install it green, so you have to dry it yourself.
Many people who are building their own home in Costa Rica are surprised to find that you can’t just go down to something like Home Depot and buy a 2×4; nope, you have to find it. Then, after you find it, make sure to get more than you need, because some of them are going to warp, especially if you don’t know how to dry it properly.
The Ticos are an interesting mix of planning and not planning. If they are building your home, it is hard to find someone who understands buying supplies ahead. I think I have finally figured out why. Most Ticos accumulate material and build in stages. Unlike we do in the USA, they don’t generally get a loan, but they store up money for labor and materials until they have enough to start. This means the wood they need for beams, etc. has probably been in the barn for a few years.
We, on the other hand, land here and want to build our home now, the sooner the better. Often the wood is not available except in a tree somewhere, which will require permits that take weeks to get. The wood will be rough cut, often by a chainsaw, then you will wait perhaps 3 months or more for it to dry (sort of). Since most construction people have nothing more than a power hand planer, the cost of planing and sanding can cost as much as the wood itself.
We paid our dues on this for sure. The first house we built was from trees to house using chainsaws with guides and a 15″ planer. It felt like the timeline for the construction was stretching out forever (we know those of you who live here can relate).
As we grew, so did our milling operation, and we got faster and faster — and more predictable. Now if we need a beam, it comes out of the factory dry, at the right dimensions, planed and sanded and ready to install. The cost of planing and sanding isn’t much when you have the equipment. It is a lot less than paying a construction person to do it by hand. In fact, the costs saved in having the wood ready almost pays for the wood itself when you deduct the labor cost of working with rough cut wood. And of course, the quality is better. We use specialty equipment that allows us to work with beautifully grained wood that would otherwise have a lot of tearouts. With our equipment, we are able to make gorgeous teak products that cost about the same as cedar.
Now we are in the process of educating the construction bosses from Guanacaste to the central valley that they can buy wood ready to install, which helps keep their clients happy. We not only sell the dimensional lumber, but also the tongue-end-groove wood for ceilings and walls (called tablilla here) and floors. In fact, just about anything that is wood in a house, from furniture to cabinets, to floors and doors, we make and sell. And that uses a lot of wood, which is good for our tree owners.
Posted in business in Costa Rica, cabinets, campo, construction, cultural adaptation, doors, drying wood, forestry, furniture, kiln, tablilla, teak, trees, wood | No Comments »
March 9th, 2009 fmorgan
There is much excitement in Cabanga and Guatuso recently over the road that runs from Guatuso to Arenal. This also means a lot to us since that road passes in front of our base of operations. What a difference four years makes! It is almost four years ago we bought the Monte Cristo property, and at the time there was a road, but the bridges were less than marginal. In fact, a little less than three years ago when we moved to Monte Cristo with our stuff, when the driver of the truck saw the bridge, he took off his seatbelt in case he had to jump. I was riding with him, and after I did a double-take, I took off my seatbelt, too!
Since that time, both bridges have been repaired thanks to the local businessmen augmenting the resources of the town, and the road has been graded various times. But now they are getting serious, and we are getting a luxury road — for Costa Rica.
There are various stages of roads here. Phase one is send a bulldozer that carves it out but leaves it dirt. This leaves a road that is servicable about 4 months out of the year for vehicles. The rest of the time, only tractors and horses will pass.
The next phase is to take rock and sand dredged out of the river and dump it on the road. This is called “lastre.” You won’t get stuck, but it is jarring, so you would almost prefer dirt. The rock runs from gravel to 6 inches in diameter and more. Kind of fun on a mountian bike, but I probably can’t think of anything that would do a better job destroying a vehicle’s suspension than a river rock road. A lot of people can’t afford repairs, so evry day we hear wham! wham! wham! as pickup trucks and cars go by with their chassis hitting bottom on every big rock. This has been the road in front of our operation these four years and one of the reasons we have a fulltime mechanic.
Now they are going to the next phase, an actual gravel road! Make the road uniform in width, fix all the drainage systems, and spread actual gravel. It is going to be wonderful.
To give you an idea why I sound so excited, our operation is only about 4 miles (6 kilometers) from Guatuso, but it can take 20 minutes to get there due to the road. We are 14 kilometers (10 miles) from Nuevo Arenal, but that is at least 45 minutes of driving on a much worse road. (Imagine driving over ski moguls.) With the new road, I can imagine being in Arenal in under 20 minutes! Not that there is anything to buy in Arenal, except at a very good German Bakery, but we do at times pass through Arenal heading for Liberia to get parts and construction supplies.
There is not only the increase in convenience to us and far fewer repairs to suspension — we seem to change the oil and the bushings on our car at the same time — but it will change the traffic flow of tourism to go right in front of our operation. This allows us to create a storefront for souvenirs and furniture. We are getting more and more walk-in traffic for our furniture business, and this could increase it considerably. Even people passing by this mixed-species plantation is a good thing, because it can raise awareness of what is being done to bring back more native trees to Costa Rica.
Posted in culture, roads | 2 Comments »
January 11th, 2009 fmorgan
Sorry for not writting for a while. In truth, I have been writing a lot, but it has been software for the company. It has been keeping me rather busy, and amused if the truth be known.
We have had several people contacting us making sure we are okay, which we appreciate and of course they are also interested in the effect of the earthquake on the trees.
First of all, we barely felt the earthquake. I didn’t feel it at all even though I was standing next to people who did. I did hear the gates rattle though. The most exciting thing we had happen was for a vehicle in the repair garage to shimmy sideways during the earthquake.
Nothing else in our neck of the jungle. We happen to in an area that is probably the most stable in all of Costa Rica. Normally we don’t feel much at all, if we do, it is from Managua, Nicaragua. In fact, at first we were concerned that Managua had had another large earthquake.
A few comments on the earthquake. If it wasn’t in January, or another part of the country, there probably would be no news - a 6.2 isn’t much. I can recall at least three that we have had since we have been here. The problem is the time of year and the location. Most of the time they are down at the border of Panama or near the beaches at Parita. This was in the mountains above the Central Valley. This area is very steep (unlike the coast, of course) and very deforested - and very populated. If it had been a 7.0, it would have been much, much worse.
The building codes of Costa Rica are very very good, but, people will cut corners and the inspections in the countryside are not what they are in the city. One thing however, most homes have a tin roof - even ours. This trend I hear started after the traditional clay roofs that you think of in Spanish construction killed many people in the earthquake in Cartago many years ago.
This earthquake as far as loss of life and property damage is the worst in a very long time I gather. Having a significant earthquake in January is a real problem. It is when the soils are the wettest. I know you have probably heard that the dry season in Costa Rica starts in December - well not on this side of the mountain. From December to about the middle of January is one of the wettest times of year. The land is saturated. If you take saturated soils, little rock, and deforestation and add an earthquake, you get landslides, which were the causes of loss of life.
Anytime something like this happens, the thought that goes through my mind is “Surely those who removed all the trees above their homes didnot realize they were dooming their family…” And my next thought is usually, “I wonder what things I am doing that are setting up disaster in the future for those I love.”
Though it isn’t healthy to always worry about the future, it also is not healthy to asssume there will not be dreadful consequences if we don’t consider the future outcomes to our actions. The most difficult ones are the actions that are like a time bomb. If, when you cut down a tree on a steep slope , immediately you had a landslide, no one would do it. But, what happens is that you took the tree and left the roots, and until the roots decay, the tree is still holding the slope together. But eventually (and this could be ten years and more for some trees) the roots will be gone - and then the slope will start to move. As you drive around Costa Rica, you can see slopes that have moved - usually about this time of year.
Posted in buying land, conservation, earthquake, finca, forest, landslides, resources, trees | No Comments »
November 14th, 2008 fmorgan
It is said that when the United States catches a cold, Latin America catches the flu. This is because Latin America is connected so tightly to the fortunes of the USA. Though we are feeling the effects, for Finca Leola it isn’t as bad as it might be. Financially, the company is doing fine.
Costa Rica is affected the most in construction and tourism. Many construction projects have been stalled due to lack of credit, and tourists are arriving but not buying much in the way of souvenirs. The general concensus down here is that everyone is waiting – and in construction, there are signs that it will resume in a couple of months. Much of construction slows down to a crawl around this time of year anyway, since it is hard to build until things dry up a bit, and transporting materials into undeveloped worksites is hampered due to the knee-deep mud.
We currently have the right to cut about 1 million board feet of teak in a neighboring plantation. We did expect to be in full production from start to finish on cutting this wood, but with the downturn in construction here, we have stopped cutting for a while to wait for inventory to go down and for construction to pick up again.
A really nice thing about trees is that there is a fairly big window for harvesting them. If necessary, they can stay in the field for two more years with no damage after they are ready to harvest. This is one of the reasons that the price of wood normally doesn’t fluctuate wildly like some other things. If the market is glutted, you can just hold off on cutting.
For the last few years, wood has been losing a bit of demand due to its rising prices. But in the last year, the prices of concrete and structural steel have risen by 50% due to fuel costs, so that now it is cheaper again to build with wood – and it sure is nicer looking. Wood, though heavy, is lighter than concrete for building, and so fuel cost impacts concrete much more than wood. Manufacture of concrete and steel is fuel-intensive, while most of the processing of wood is done with electricity here in Costa Rica, for the most part hydroelectric. As long as the rains keep coming (and we are in a rainforest climate, after all) the price of electricity remains pretty stable. And, if necessary, Finca Leola can use the power from our own rivers and streams – I have been tempted to do it just because it would be cool!
The timing should be very good for our tree owners when the large amount of wood starts proceeding from our own plantations. Most estimates are that we will be back into high demand, since by then inventories will be depleted. This is a very common cycle here in Costa Rica and probably elsewhere as well. When the market is bad, people don’t plant, whereas in truth, the best time to plant is when the market is down, especially for trees. While we wait for the market to return, the trees keep growing. With a perishable crop, for example pineapple, it doesn’t work that way. When we first arrived here in Costa Rica, everyone told us to plant pineapple because “everyone is doing it.” Well, when “everyone’s” pineapple matured all at the same time, we saw pineapple being fed to cattle, it was so worthless.
All in all, investing in trees is looking very good right now. The future supply is still woefully low here as in many parts of the world. There isn’t nearly enough being planted to handle even current demand. We have significantly increased the size of the planting every year so far, and with both the stock market and real estate suffering, the coming year is looking to be the biggest increase yet. This is heartening when you consider that there is no end in sight to the shortage of tropical wood, particularly wood grown with environmental consciousness. If everyone had the recommended 14% of their portfolio in trees, imagine the difference it would make.
Fred Morgan
President, Finca Leola S.A.
www.fincaleola.com
866.737.5268
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