Our Final Finca Week

Well, this is it folks - our final week here. It’s really hard to believe it’s come down to this after the long and eventful summer. We leave here next Friday morning for New Orleans and we’ll be so excited to see our friends Micheline and Robert and celebrate her birthday! We’ve lucked out in that we haven’t had any guests for the last month so it really has felt like our own place here. Last week was pretty stormy but it looks like all that has finally blown over and we’re in for a nice sunny and pleasantly breezy weekend. Let’s hope our last week continues the same way.

Seems like we’ve been through it all over the last 3 and a ½ months - a hurricane, power outages, flash flooding, bug infestations - you name it - and I guess the best thing that has come out of this adventure is we’ve learned that if we can get by in this “rustic” environment, we can do just about anything!! While this is an absolutely lovely place and the ideal location for anyone who wants to get away from it all (we mean that, Corky!), we realized it’s a little too remote for us. So now we know that caretaking a place in a remote and isolated location is not something we’ll want to do again. There have been many wonderful things about being here, though, that we wouldn’t have traded for the world so that makes it all worthwhile in the end.

We’ll leave you with some pictures of the new, enlarged bathroom at the Family Cabana that was our final project here as well as a last picture of us at la finca. In addition, there's a picture of the plant structure that coconuts grow off of. The stick thing you see in the picture grows from the tree and then the coconuts grow off of that. They start off about the size of an egg! Anyway, I thought the leftover structure was kind of interesting looking.

If I get a chance, I’ll try to post something from New Orleans but I’m not sure what our internet access will be like while we’re there. Then the blog will probably be on hiatus while we’re back in Seattle unless something really interesting happens, but we’ll let you know when it’s up and running again whenever we set out on our next adventure!

Thanks so much to everyone for following along this summer…….it really has meant a lot!

Best to all,

David and Jim

P.S.: I dropped my Ipod in the pool yesterday and it appears to be fried but if anyone has any ideas or suggestions on how to salvage it, let me know. Otherwise, I guess it’s off to Costco when we get back to Seattle for another one!

Our lasting legacy at la finca

Well, as all of you know by now, we’re down to our last two weeks here. It is so hard to believe our 3 & ½ months here is almost over!! Believe me, there were times over the summer when we thought it would never end! But all’s well that end’s well as they say and on balance, we’re really glad we did this. We’ve learned a lot about ourselves and what’s important to us - plus, we’ve had some REALLY fun times!

Before our time here is over, I thought it would be nice to share some photos of some of the projects we’ve been working on lately. The big on-going one is the remodel of the Family Cabana and we’ve just been involved the demolition as you can see from the pictures. We hope to start bumping the wall out downstairs for the new bathroom in next day or so. Some of the other projects have included painting a new sign for the street and I think Jim did an amazing job with it! Much better than the older yellow one if I do say so myself. I took on painting the hot and cold water handles so folks would know which is which! We also replaced the old material that was around the desk and kitchen counter in the main guesthouse with bamboo screening which really adds to the tropical feel. The other thing we did recently was finish laying the concrete pavers between two of the buildings so you can now walk all the way from one to the other without walking on the grass. That one was pretty easy because we were actually using the same type of mold you use to pour the concrete into that we used for our patio in Texas a hundred years ago, so we’ve had some experience with that.

Other than that, things are pretty quiet here right now. No guests at present but I did receive a call from a woman in North Dakota who is coming down here next week for two days with her daughter to help her plan her wedding here next year. So, we’ll have a little company after having the whole place to ourselves for several weeks! I’m sure I’ll do another posting or two before we go, though.

Thanks to everyone for all the great comments! It really means a lot to know you’re enjoying the blog and sharing your thoughts…….

Our best to everyone!!

David and Jim

A typical night at la finca

Since finding out that we can download movies from the Seattle Public Library, we’ve really enjoyed sitting down on the couch after dinner and enjoying a movie - it’s actually a great way to fill in the time between Netflix deliveries! They usually aren’t big name movies but hey, beggars can’t be choosers, right???

Anyway, you know how you can see something out of the corner of your eye and it gives you a real start even though it turns out to not be anything too “scary”? Well, I was cleaning the dishes after dinner the other night and as I looked over to where we keep the grocery bags hanging on the wall, I glimpsed a large “something” hanging onto one of the bags. After my usual school girl yelp, I realized it was just one of the many lizards that appear from time to time. This was a pretty big fella, though, so we snapped a picture so you could see what he looked like. Remember, we like lizards because they eat the bugs!!

Then, as we were settling down to watch the movie, it sounded like one of the tree frogs was chirping much louder than the rest and before long, we realized it was coming from the bathroom. Sure enough, the little guy had crawled up from the drain and started talking! I think I’ve shown pictures before of one of the frogs (called a “rana” in Spanish) in the sink, but lately it’s been a nightly occurrence. Anyway, it was so cute we had to share some pictures of the little guys who‘ve been coming to visit, none of them any larger than a diime. Jim has been very good about humanely catching them in a glass jar and putting them outside so we don’t have to listen to the chirping. The other night we thought an easy way to remedy this would be to close the drain stopper and put two cotton balls in the little overflow holes at the front of the sink. Worked like a charm until we went to brush our teeth before going to bed and when we opened the drain to spit out the toothpaste out crawled a little frog just in time for his Crest shower!! Yes, another school girl yelp came out before I realized what it was (could have been a roach, after all……oh Jim…..) although this one was muffled by the toothpaste in my mouth. The little chirper didn’t seem to be too bothered by the toothpaste landing on him, though, cause he started singing right away!

Ah, just another night at the finca…….What are we going to do that first night in New Orleans without our little buddies?????

Off We Go A-Kayaking!!

As all of you know, we’re down to less than a month left on Vieques and we decided it’s time to make sure we do some of the things we’ve been putting off. I may have mentioned in a previous entry that there are two sea kayaks here at la finca along with paddles, and we’ve been saying since we arrived here that we needed to take them to the beach. Well, we finally decided to put the plan into action!

The kayaks had been stored underneath the deck of the Manager’s Cabin for quite some time, so the first task was to drag them out and get them cleaned up. Let me tell you, since they were stored upright rather than upside down, there was quite a bit of debris that had blown into the storage compartments. We laid them upside down on the picnic table that Jim so beautifully painted and started power washing them with the hose. Besides all the dirt and leaves there more than a few cockroaches that scurried out - rather upset that we were cleaning out their home, I suppose! Once the kayaks were scrubbed clean, the next step was to make sure they (and we) were sea worthy and the best way to determine that was to put them in the pool. After all, we hadn’t kayaked in a couple of years so we wanted to make sure we still knew how! As you can see from the pictures, we weren’t really able to paddle very far in our little pool but the kayaks didn’t sink and we handled the paddles pretty well, so I guess we accomplished our goal J

Yesterday, we were ready to head to the ocean with them so we strapped the kayaks onto the back of the truck and off we went. Unfortunately, we got a later start than we expected and by the time we got out there, a healthy late afternoon thunderstorm had hit and it was raining like cats and dogs. I was definitely wearing my pouty face as I was really ready to jump in the kayaks, but I knew the weather would probably be much better today…..and it was! Sunny and breezy and just lovely. It being a Saturday, I was pleasantly surprised there weren’t more people on the beach, but as is typical here, we practically had the whole place to ourselves. There was one boat anchored just offshore and maybe five other people on the beach. So, we pulled them off the truck, loaded up our gear into the kayaks and headed out. Did I mention it was breezy? Well, at the beach it was a bit more than breezy and the waves were higher than we’ve ever seen them. This made it a bit challenging getting into the kayaks and getting started, but we managed none the less. Our goal was to paddle out to the island just off of Blue Beach which is one of our favorite beaches. Well, everything started out smoothly until five minutes into our trip when Jim’s paddle broke in two!! Poor biscuit! He was such a trooper, though, and simply used one half of the broken paddle like a canoe oar and switched it from side to side.

It was probably a 20 minute trip over to the island and we were able to find a sandy beach that was blocked from the wind where we were able to beach the kayaks. The pictures of the kayaks in the water was taken from the island. It was a perfect place for beach combing and we found some great shells that we’ll clean and polyurethane so we can make them into necklaces or other pieces of art.

When we headed back to the beach, we found the current was a bit stronger than when we headed out and, despite our best efforts, the waves just pushed us closer to shore so we gave up and beached ourselves, figuring we would just drag the kayaks along to where we’d parked the truck. Well, let me tell you - those kayaks are much lighter when you’re just carrying them from the truck to the water and not a quarter mile down the beach! All I could think was, this would be a great “Biggest Loser” challenge!! We finally decided it made more sense to go get the truck and bring it closer to where the kayaks were than to try and drag them the rest of the way, so Jim sat with them while I got the truck and drove it down to where they kayaks were. So all worked out just fine and after they were secured, we spent some time cooling off in the water and collecting some more cool shells. All in all, an absolutely spectacular day!!

A Closer Look at the Manager's Cabin

As I went through previous entries on the blog, I realized I hadn’t shown any pictures of the Manager’s Cabin where we’re staying so here we go. It’s a two story house with the kitchen, bathroom and main living area on the first floor and a bedroom/loft area upstairs. It’s really a very basic structure with no drywall, just the wood paneled siding and exposed electrical conduit. On the main floor, we have a small dining table and a couch as you can see from the pictures. The couch had been left outside for sometime and was leftover from when the Nickelodeon team was down here for a photo shoot some time ago. It’s actually pieces of a sectional on rollers that we (Jim) nailed together with metal plates so it won’t roll apart when we sit on it. In addition, it was originally an off white color that had orange swirls all over it so, in an effort to tone it down a bit, we (Jim) painted it beige which worked out quite well!

When we decide to watch a movie on the computer,(thank God for Netflix!!) there are definitely a few steps involved. First, we move the computer and portable dvd player to the edge of the dining table, which puts it at the perfect distance. Now, the fun thing is we found out that with one of the cords that was left here, we can hook up the computer to the stereo system and have a surround sound system - aren’t we living it up!! In order for the cord from the stereo to reach the computer, we have to put the stereo on a chair next to the table. This then creates somewhat of an obstacle course with the cord stretched across the room, but that’s a minor sacrifice for all the comforts of home, right?

You can also see how tightly we tuck the mosquito net in every night. That's actually the last step in our nightly ritual: First we check inside all pillow cases for any intruders, then check under the sheets and once the coast is clear, we're ready to tuck. That's when we do the famous "la finca limbo", when we untuck just enough netting to shimmy underneath and then tuck ourselves back in. Phew!!

Our artwork consists of a National Geographic map of the world, with one side being the topographical version and the other side is the one that shows all the countries. For the month of July it was showing the side with all the countries outlined so to add a little spice to our lives, we flipped it over for August to show the lovely topographic side with all the underwater ridges and ice shelves. For September, it’s back to the country side. To contribute to our surroundings, we have put up the lovely cards we received from Tina and Sharon and Jeannie and Deb, Barb and Jennifer & Dan which are carefully pinned to the pillar in the middle of the room. That is the extent of our artwork, such as it is!

Where we are really fortunate is the window coverings. You see, when we first settled in here, there were makeshift drapes stapled over the windows and the material was…..oh, how should I put it……a dreary and faded design that was probably purple in its heyday but had faded into some sort of dishwater brown color. At any rate, it just wasn’t going to do at all. So, my lovely and energetic sister in law Michele ever so kindly sent us some gorgeous fabrics - some a bright tangerine color and some other that is kind of a sage. So far, we’ve replaced the most dreary window coverings with the tangerine dream material and actually had enough left over for a table cloth along with a runner made out of some other material she sent us! Now we just need to work on the other windows. Chele, you’re a doll, for sure!

Love to you all,

David

Substitute Blogger at Your Service

Okay, this is Jim blogging instead of David, he seems to have ran out of things to say so since that has never stopped me before…there have been many times when I have had not much to say and kept on talking…and for all of you who are nodding right now, please remind me when I see you that I don’t like you anymore. :-)

My original blog was going to be about all of the bugs and was partially written over a month ago and since then David has written about it, I guess I will move on to something else…what I don’t know…if it seems like I am stalling, it is because I am. There are two reasons for this delay, the first is that David has written more than 70 blog entries and has covered a number of topics along the way and the second reason is that I going into this knowing that David is a much better writer than I am, he is more interesting, a better conversationalist and has a vast knowledge that expands from great information to the most trivial of information. You know the kid in “Jerry McGuire” that stated, “Did you know that the average human head weighs more than 8 pounds?" Well I have no doubt that he got that information from David.

So what should I write about in this blog and how should I write about it? For all of you that are completely bored at this point, consider this a slight respite from the interesting blogs and pretend that David is a teacher and is out sick or on vacation and I am the substitute teacher. We “Subs” are normally not as interesting as the teacher, we really just want to the students to come to class and sit quietly in their chairs…so no talking back to the “Sub” in this blog or I am going to send you to the Principals Office! :-) This is only the beginning of the issues that I have when writing this blog, one of the other reasons is that I have to watch my language and not insert my normal amount of curse words that I would normally say, after all my mom and dad read David’s blog, so this is going to be damn hard to write this shit…oops…sorry mom and dad. :-) Nice to know that they still loves me in spite of myself!

Hey, I have an idea about what to write about…how about the absentee blogger, it is my understanding that in order to write about something you need to know the subject well or be interested in it, I can honestly say that I think I have both of these covered. So, I guess I have my subject, plus that he is asleep in the couch right now and so I think I can get away with it..tee hee!

I don’t know if I can tell you any more about the real blogger that would be at all interesting, we all know that he writes well, he is knowledgeable about many subjects, one of the nicest people that you could ever meet, he is funny, kind and hates bugs! Really hates bugs, not even exaggerating about that one! What can I tell you that other people may not know, also, did I mention that he is still asleep? You should see him he looks so peaceful and cute…my biscuit!

I guess that I could tell you that he is the love of my life, he is the air that I breath and much of my reason for living, he challenges me and makes my heart feel like it is going to burst when he smiles at me or gives me one of his very cute sad eye pouty looks. He has given me a reason to not be a workaholic and has opened my eyes to a world without corporate ladder climbing and makes every day of my life worth so much that I would not trade one minute of it even for a million dollars. We have had our many more ups and than downs over that past 17 years (almost) and each day I understand is a gift and I am so “f”ing lucky! (sorry again mom and dad).

So, I guess you can say that my blog posting is a tribute to the real blogger in our relationship and I have to say, if you look forward to reading his blog every day or once a week, just think about how really fortunate that I am that I get to live it with him, so here is to the real blogger in my life, and I hope that each person that reads this will have the same feelings about the real blogger is their life, after all, there really is no substitute for the real thing!

Thank you all for reading the blog and your real blogger will be back for the next posting…and I am sure it will be very interesting and from time to time, the “Sub” blogger will post, if the real blogger is caught napping on the couch again. Tee hee!

No more Earl!!

I just realized it’s been over a week since I’ve done a blog entry - man, time flies!! As you guys know, Hurricane Earl blew through here on Monday so we’ve been dealing with the clean up since then. It actually went by to the east of us which kept us from getting the brunt of the storm. We expected the worst of the storm Monday morning so as you can see from the pictures, we were sitting on the patio playing Scrabble thinking the storm wasn't really going to be so bad. We were just having some light rain and wind at that time. So far, Jim has always beat me at Scrabble but I was doing pretty well that day!! Still, we ended up having 80 mph winds all Monday night and into the next morning. Sure was crazy, let me tell you!! We were holed up in Casa Nueva with the storm shutters on, and I just knew that if I had looked out the window, I’d see the wicked witch of the east (west?) flying by on her bicycle!! Fortunately, there wasn’t any real damage to the property, just lots of broken tree limbs and debris all over the place. You can see from the pictures how strong the wind was by the way it knocked over the plants and banana trees. Our electricity ended up being out from Monday evening at 5 p.m. until mid day Wednesday and then went on and off again two more times this week before the electric company finally were able to trim away all the broken tree limbs that were hanging on the wires nearby. Needless to say, there were several evenings this week where we had to sleep without fans and let me tell you, when you’re hot and sweaty with no breeze, it’s pretty hard to get any sleep!! In our first aid box, we found some plastic foam boards that are about 12 inches by12inches that are meant to be an emergency splint for a broken bone but they ended up working out perfectly as fans so we kept them close to us at all times.

The pile of debris you see in front of the Manager’s Cabin were some spiky trees that were more like overgrown shrubs but were probably 20 feet high or so before they blew down. We ended up using the tree saw to cut them up and haul them away. It’s amazing how easy they are to cut up - it almost seems like the insides are made of sawdust!! No wonder they blow down so easily.

So, things are pretty much back to normal here at la finca. Our only guests right now are Forest and Victoria, a wonderful couple who are here on their honeymoon and we’ve had a great time getting to know them. They leave on the 11th and then there is just a two day reservation for the 12th and 13th for one couple. After that, we have the whole place to ourselves until we leave. Turns out the people who were going to take over as caretakers for us had to back out due to medical reasons so the owners are trying to figure out who will come down here for a few weeks in October. The main project right now is the renovation of one of the buildings on the property which Jim and I are currently doing some demolition on. No doubt, things will work out fine since they have a great network of friends and family who are able to help out down here.

Our own artist in residence

BREAKING NEWS! La Finca’s own resident artist, James Ryburn, has unveiled not one but TWO of his original masterpieces!! I was lucky enough to obtain an exclusive interview with the man who many are calling, the island’s next Andy Warhol. He specializes in taking found objects and turning them into unique, one of a kind works of art. When asked where he gets his inspiration from, he explained “It often comes from the natural world around me. Here at la finca, you are surrounded by nature and it expresses itself in such a variety of ways. I simply look at what’s around me and try to interpret it onto my canvas.” Well, wherever his inspiration comes from, let’s hope this is just the first of many outstanding works of art to come from this amazing artist!

Keeping an eye on Tropical Storm Earl

It’s that time of year in the Caribbean - hurricane season. Things have been fairly quiet here for the most part except for that bit of rain and wind we had back in July but I guess we’re just now entering the height of hurricane season. Evidently, late August through September is prime time for hurricanes. Fortunately, hurricane Danielle took a sharp turn north so we weren’t affected by her at all but now it looks like Tropical Storm Earl (predicted to be upgraded to a hurricane in the next couple of days) will brush us before it heads north as well. We’ve been watching the computer models closely and it looks like were just on the outer edge of the high winds. As we all know, though, these things can change so we try to check out the NOAA website a few times a day. It’s an excellent website if you’re interested in checking it out:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

As far as hurricane preparedness, we’re doing pretty good. Luckily, the local monthly Vieques magazine had a great article about getting ready for hurricanes in their August edition along with a comprehensive list of what you should have. We’ve been slowly accumulating all the necessary items and we’ve pretty much got the basics covered. Of course the one thing we can’t find here is the 18 gallon Rubbermaid tub to put everything in! That’s where Diane Greene comes in. She’s a local woman who has quite the successful gig going - she’s a main island shopper for anyone who needs something from the main island of Puerto Rico that can’t be found here. Apparently, years ago, she was able to obtain some sort of semi permanent pass for the cargo ferry that runs between here and there so consequently, she can drive her van on to the ferry every Monday. Nowadays, that isn’t so easy and if you’re thinking of trying to drive a car on, you have to make a reservations months in advance. Anyway, we just call Diane with a list of whatever we need and she goes over there and hits all the big stores - Home Depot, Walmart, Target, etc. - and delivers it to you. Her charge is 15% of the cost so I guess if she gets enough orders, that makes the trip worth her while.

So, we’re expecting to get our tub on Monday and then we’ll be able to load it up with all our supplies. Canned food, powdered milk, batteries, bleach, etc., etc. Also recommended in the article was a large bag of cat litter and a bucket - you can use your imagination on that one…..let’s hope we don’t have to go there. Two of the newer houses on the property, Casa Nueva and the Cabanita, are constructed of concrete and have strong wooden shutters that can be bolted closed over all the doors and windows so if a storm looks like it’s coming, we’ll be heading over there. The Manager’s Cabin, of course, is another story. Constructed of plywood and beams, my guess is that if a big enough storm came through, there would probably just be a pile of kindling left. Which means, of course, we need to collect everything we have of value here and lug it over to one of the other buildings. Since we don’t have that much here, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem - we’ll just load up the suitcases and backpacks we came with!

I must say, it is kind of wild to be sitting here on a lovely, sunny day knowing that out there in the Caribbean beyond our view is a huge storm churning away. I just checked the NOAA website again and now it looks like the storm is inching a little closer……argh. The worst of it should be between Monday afternoon and Tuesday afternoon so that’s what we’re preparing for at this point. We’ll keep you posted!

Those are mighty big palm trees!

As you’ve seen from previous pictures, we have a number of large palms around the property. Most of them are coconut palms, the most common type around the island that just sprout from a fallen coconut. There are also some other types that are really pretty with kind of frillier fronds. Not sure what kind they are, but they don’t produce any coconuts. It seems the coconut palms tend to shed their old fronds more regularly than the other types of palms and so when they finally fall off, we get to drag them off to a dumping ground on the other side of the property. Those suckers are big!! The picture with me holding one of them gives you an idea of how big they are - maybe about 20-30 feet long? Probably exaggerating, but you get the idea.....and, they aren’t light - I’d say they weight about 30 -35 lbs. What’s really frustrating is when one is just hanging there but not quite ready to fall off. I swear you can swing from that thing and it still won’t let go. Unfortunately, the branch cutter we have on the property doesn’t have an extender so we can only reach to a certain height. The landscape guys that come to mow the lawn, though, have the right equipment and they’ve agreed to do this for us.