Bird Watch, Meifeng Farm, Compost Lecture, Juice making & Bug Observation

Today was one of my favorite days. Apart from having to wake up at 5 a.m. to bird watch.. I'm not exactly a morning person. I'm glad I did though, I got to see a few very beautiful endemic birds that I will probably never get to see again. The farm tour was very interesting and I'm glad we got to see most of the greenhouses and the artist painting the fields beneath the apple trees. What I liked most of all was the compost lecture. I especially enjoyed the speaker Pierre Loisel and his take on compost and nature in general. One of his main points was that 'nature will take care of itself' and I enjoyed his example of allowing the plants to use their natural plant defense gases instead of using pesticides to get rid of the bugs eating them. I was very surprised that he used meat and seafood because I've always heard that you weren't supposed to use those, I'm guessing he can use it because he has a larger amount of compost.  I wrote about 2 pages of notes, and I learned a lot of great information that I can bring home and apply to my own compost. I also enjoyed the juice making and I wish we could have gotten a list of the herbs we used. The bug observation was better than I thought it would be, I wish we would have seen more fireflies but I'm glad we got to see a lot of beautiful moths. 

Hehuanshan Peak, Shimen Mountain & Meifeng farm

The mountains we hiked today were gorgeous, as was the weather. I made a mistake and forgot to put sunscreen on, and am paying for it now. I couldn't feel myself getting burnt because of the cool breeze, I'm sure it'll be better in the morning though. I didn't go to the top of Shimen mountain (I believe it was the second one) because my burn hurt pretty bad. I immediately regretted the decision to stay behind but of course the view where I stayed was beautiful as well. That was the first activity I haven't gone through with during the entire 5 weeks of my trip. 
I am very excited to explore Meifeng farm and all it has to offer. My roommate and I have a garden of my own back home and also compost any organic waste we have. I'm interested in learning more about these practices and hopefully I can take some information back with me. I've always wanted to own or work for a place such as this to gain experience and because it is something I think I would love to do. It integrates all of my favorite things; organic farming, flower cultivation, ecosystem/biological research while also teaching others about these disciplines. I would love to learn more about their method of 'insect repellant' plants and to see it in action. I think we need more places like this in the United States, people often take for granted their meals required for daily life and place importance on material objects. It's not always a bad thing, materials drive our economy as well but it seems as though we sacrifice quality for quantity when it comes to food. 
At first I was less than excited about the lack of air conditioning, but the temperature is mild and there aren't bugs trying to eat me alive during my sleep so I think I'll live, worse things have happened. My apartment back home usually stays about this temperature because my roommates and I are too cheap to turn the air down in summer, when it can reach 103+ degrees Fahrenheit outside. 

Lyuchui Trail & Bilu Sacred Tree

Today was really amazing, I am still in awe of the wonderful nature trails we get to see on a daily basis here. I enjoyed the caves (tunnels) as they reminded me of home. There are quite a few limestone caves close to my parent's current residence. I'm glad we got to see a few bats, they are much larger here than my hometown and I cannot wait to learn more about them in the 'Diversity of Bats in Taiwan' lecture next week. I think the water curtain cave was probably my favorite, as I have never seen anything like it before. The view from the bridge was amazing with the 3-4 waterfalls. I really wish we had such beautiful scenery near Texas, this is my first time being in the mountains. The only other time I have gotten close was on a trail in New Mexico, but those were more like canyons/cliffs; and we did hike Wuyi Mountains in China. Couldn't have asked for better weather today. Though the caves and the waterfalls were beautiful, I think my favorite part of the entire day was being on top of the mountains. The scenery was spectacular and it seemed as though we were floating amidst the clouds. Though Wuyishan Park in China was similar, the highest peak is around 2,000 meters and the humidity is much higher. The flora and fauna in the mountains today seemed to have 'layers' of biodiversity as compared to a generally heterogeneous landscape at Wuyishan. I would love to camp in Taroko National Park sometime, and have seriously considered attending graduate school here.