Where We're At (In the WEEDS)

Dear Ghosties,

We hope this letter finds you well! As you may or may not have noticed, we have stopped making Ghost posts, posting in the Telegram chat, and stopped making episodes of Everything Is Fine on YouTube. As much as we loved vlogging, it was taking up a ton of time & energy and not getting us anywhere. In place of making longform content on YouTube, we have started exploring TikTok as a way to document and share our story, grow our audience and find new human connections in the world - people who could be supporters, volunteers, students, clients etc…Don’t worry though - we’re not suggesting you should get on TikTok just to follow us. We’re re-posting all of our new Everything Is Fine mini-episodes to Instagram so you can follow along there! (@tropicalfarmboys)

If this letter is too long for you to read, you can scroll to the end for the bullet points...

As you know, one of the biggest obstacles we are still facing here is financial stability & sustainability. We are doing OK on our content-creator income, but if things don’t change, we are never going to be able to build up this farm to fully realize our dreams (or go anywhere). Our bigger dreams involve constructing ourselves a nicer house, having the facilities to host educational retreats & workshops, and getting off-the-grid, but all of these things take a lot of money, and living the expat life in Costa Rica is NOT cheap. Right now we are in the weeds with many expenses:

The car that Coco bought turned out to be a complete piece of shit. We’ve dumped over a thousand dollars into it just trying to make it drivable (and it’s still barely driveable!) so unfortunately we’re spending EVEN MORE so that we can try to sell it. Coco also would love to invest in trainings for himself to deepen his knowledge and advance his credentials as a Yoga Teacher & Coach.

We also need a new barn (since the structure we have is slowly collapsing), a spring/well water system so that we can use our own water from the land (and get off the water grid), work on our fencing, work on our website…and we’ve come to the sobering conclusion that we NEED a MULCHER. 

The mulcher is actually one of our most pressing needs currently because we have SO MUCH heavy-duty yard waste–giant palm fronds, fibrous jungle weeds, and constant tree litter–all of which can incredible resources if only we had the right machinery to help us turn it into rich, tilthy mulch! Having this means we could turn almost all of our yard space into gardens, grow so much more food & medicine, chop up salads for Blanca, Terra and the rest of the animals, and create endless compost.

Even if we had money to spend (and didn’t have this issue), you can’t just go out and buy mulch/compost around here (because it’s just not a thing). Chippers are hardly even a thing either!!! It’s frustrating how hard it is to find quality, useful equipment and products down here - things that people take for granted in the US. We honestly have no idea what other farmers even do around here without chippers! Actually…we do know–they make enormous piles that take years to break down!

We have done our research and discovered that there is one option in Panama that’s able to deal with wet material (which is essential for us here in the rainforest) and it costs $3700!!!

For long term sustainability, Pepe has launched two new online business ventures– an e-commerce business and selling residential & commercial solar systems– the former of which requires a hefty investment in start-up capital. We are dipping into savings for that, but we hope and expect to see returns on these investments within 6 months. This, in addition to Coco’s coaching & teaching, is how we plan to sustain/build this homestead and take pressure off of needing to constantly create content for money (and ask for support like this!).

We told you about the other expenses and things we would like to invest in just to paint a clearer picture of our financial strain and why buying the chipper (or anything) right now feels stressful and pretty much inaccessible, but the chipper is what we would like your help purchasing! It would help us to clean up our yard, move forward on all of our exciting farm/landscaping projects, build rich soil for our gardens, and feed our animals better! Any amount that you are able to donate would be extremely helpful. You can do that HERE.

Thank you so much for reading and for your continued support!

Everything is fine,

Pepe y Coco

PS - right before sending this, the clutch went out on the farm-truck (our only vehicle right now), so add that to our soul-crushing list of expenses!

TLDR (Too Long Didn't Read) Bullet Points:

• We have switched from long-form vlogs on YouTube to short-form on TikTok & Instagram
• We have many expenses right now, and the things we have been doing to make money aren’t cutting it
• We are investing in a new business start-up and starting to sell solar systems for future income, but haven’t started making money yet
• Coco would like to invest in himself professionally as well
• Right now, our most pressing practical need on the farm is a mulcher which costs $3700 and we could use some extra help!
• You can make small (or large) one-time donations to us HERE
• Supporting us on social media and helping us to grow our audiences is also extremely helpful and appreciated