Summer in Puerto Rico is a bit hotter and more humid than the rest of the year, but generally it feels pretty good to me. Of course, I have always liked the weather a bit on the hot side. When it gets too hot we go snorkeling or lay in the baby pool or take lots of showers. If it rains, everything gets cooled down quite a bit, but then the bugs come out. In fact, I would say that everything here seems to be waiting for the rains so that they can come out.
All the bugs, all the plants, and the animals. Even us. Everything has been waiting for the right moment to be in full bloom before it takes off with life. And sometimes nature acquiesces and it rains every day for an hour, three days in a row and then she becomes fickle and it doesn’t rain again for a week. But it has been enough for things to get the cue for their yearly debut.
Quenepas growing!
I was taking a look at one of the citrus trees when I felt a shake on the tree. Suddenly a lizard pops up. It is not unusual to find lots of gecko lizards all around, but this one was bright green. A baby iguana! I decided I would try and catch it. I had no idea whether or not they bit, but I thought I would try anyway. I aimed for the tail, and through my chicken and turkey catching (and mosquito and ant swatting) I have developed quicker Ninja reflexes.
I snatched him right off the branch upside down. He wiggled around a bit and Britton brought me a plant pot and we threw him in there. Unfortunately the pot had a rather large drain hole and he snuck out. Not 10 minutes later, though, at another area of the yard, I caught another one and we were able to take some pictures of him. I held him with a plastic bag because he was indeed trying to swing around and bite my fingers!
We have read that iguanas lay and hatch about 50 eggs in a clutch and so they must have just hatched somewhere on or near our property because they are all over, if you can just see them through the greenery. I think iguana may indeed soon be a common dinner option around here. Especially with all the fruit and vegetables that we want to eat (and not feed to them)!
Quite a few trees and plants are bearing fruit already which is awesome. We have so many passionfruits (parchas) that the vine covering the other tree makes it look like we hung Christmas globe ornaments all over it.
Parcha vine in a tree with a fruit
After picking some of the parcha, we laid them in the sun for them to yellow a bit more until they ripen fully.
A line of parchas
We have also noticed the breadfruit is fruiting as well as the quenepas. The guava tree is flowering and even our new lime tree is fruiting. And our everbearing starfruit tree continues to impress us with its abundance.
Guava flowers!
Breadfruit (we are not exactly sure the best time to pick them or the best way to cook them)
It has been pretty cool to be able to go outside every day of the year and interact in some way with nature. My dreams have become filled with plants and animals much more than the human dramas that filled them before.
The chickens and turkeys are doing great!
I feel much more connected to the food and the land. We have also become much more patient. Delayed gratification is a must when you wish to eat from the land, even if it is just a portion of your food. We had to become patient and wait for the chickens to grow to full size and now the hawks for the most part leave them alone. And now we wait for their eggs. We have to wait until the plants feel strong enough to fruit. We cannot rush anything along.
Even building the coops have helped to remind us of this. It would be much easier to simply buy new wood or a prefab shed rather than have to take down an existing structure, remove the nails, powerwash the wood, sort it, cut it to a new size and then reuse it. But it is much less wasteful and more resourceful to repurpose something and give it new life the way nature does every day in her cyclical way.
Britton has done a great job with all of these projects that he has built nearly completely himself without any outside help (besides me, when I am his assistant).
Turkey coop base is coming along
So for the patient ones, the Puerto Rico summer has many gifts. The ocean is flat and full of fish and turtles, the roads are quieter (except for the Noche de San Juan which was one huge party!) and all the food -including iguana- has decided the time is ripe for the picking!
