We enjoy people and like to get out and be social occasionally, but are perfectly content hanging out with each other on the property much of the time. We have plenty to do and enough space to stretch our legs and go for a walk even if it is just a hike through the lower jungle.
When our friends stayed with us a few weeks ago they remarked as we did all our farm chores we would need to do in order to leave like loading up the turkeys, locking up everything, feeding and checking on the chickens, watering the gardens and grabbing something to eat, “You really don’t leave very much do you?” And we replied, “Nope…I guess not!”
View from halfway down the hill looking up
It’s pretty cool just hanging out on the property what with all that we have set in motion with the plants, animals and projects, but sometimes we do have to go out and face society/civilization again. Usually it is to restock on some supplies. As the list grows and grows, it finally comes to a point where we need to “go in to town.”
For instance today’s list for the trip to Mayaguez looked a little like this:
Walkie-talkies
Golf Balls
Bags of Cement
Toilet Paper
Posts
Screws
Nails
Screen doors
Fishing Line
Watch battery
Gear Shift Boot
Binoculars
Some of these are not for what you might think. The walkie-talkies are for communicating with each other when one of us is in one part of the property and the other is somewhere else, though we had a lot of fun messing with them while we were in the Mayaguez Mall sending out random “Código Rojo” calls.
Kitty and the walkie-talkies
The golf balls were the hardest of all to find! We went to three stores looking for them! And we did not go on this crazy scavenger hunt because we are huge golf fans. (We in fact are laughably horrible at golf, but we have fun trying.) It is because we needed to use them as egg decoys to encourage the chickens to use the new nesting boxes.
Golf ball in the nesting box!
The fishing line, similarly, is not for fishing but rather to keep the hawks away. Apparently from what we have read, hawks are reticent to enter any area that seems like a trap and so stringing fishing line is a deterrent. The binoculars are also to keep an eye out for hawks and iguanas in the trees as well as to bird watch. We have seen a little pitirre nest in the algarroba tree right above the chicken coop which is great because these little birds have been dive bombing the hawks left and right! Another great deterrent!
We ended up going to so many stores in order to get these and other items: Wal-Mart, Marshall’s, a watch repair kiosk, a fruit stand (inside the mall), a papa asada lunch cart, Radio Shack, Home Depot, Sports Connection, Triangle Motors, K-Mart, and Sam’s. After about 5 hours of running all around we were totally worn out by the time we got home.
We should be good now for a couple of weeks before we need to go back to Mayaguez for a supply run. We are in the early stages of building a turkey coop, so we needed some materials for that as well. We are going to re-use as much material as possible including some wood from the deck.
The turkeys are growing a lot and we know they will need a coop soon. They are so sweet and a lot different from chickens in how they respond to us. They like to sit in our laps and just be pet. They also just follow us around everywhere and always want to be near us when we take them on walks. Something we could not have done with chickens at this age.
Taking the turkeys on a walk
All the running around in town with traffic, lines and people is such a drastic contrast to what we do most of the time, but it is fun in its own way. We are reminded of the larger area in which we live and all the vibrant characters all around and we are able to bring back supplies to keep our favorite things going and growing back at the finca.
These are a few of our favorite things!