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.