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Pineapple, Papaya, Avocado and September Fun

Our tropical food and other adventures continue daily.

Papaya
Fresh, delicious papaya

This month we harvested our first papayas as well as our very first pineapple. I have never been a big fan of papayas because to me they smell a little like vomit. But this variety was actually pretty good and didn’t have the smell.

Pineapples are probably up there as one of my very favorite fruit, and we’ve had such issues with root rot here that I got so excited I just had to wear our first little harvest on my head along with some home-grown bananas! Haha, poor Britton always has to put up with my silly shenanigans.

Cassie chiquita - Copy
Just call me Chiquita

In addition, it’s avocado season in full steam. Nearly every meal and snack now includes fresh avocados. Each evening and sometimes morning we go scour beneath the avocado trees. We have found four large mature avocado trees and we have planted another 8 or so, that are off-season varieties so (hopefully) soon we will be so overrun with avocados we won’t know what to do! Most days we’ve collected about 5-10 large avos. It’s amazing how much you can extend a meal when you have avocados. We have them with our eggs in the morning, with salads at lunch and with pretty much anything for dinner (nachos, rice and beans, etc).

Scambled eggs
A typical daily breakfast is almost all home grown -avos, mangos, starfruit, and scrambled eggs. We look forward to growing our own peppers soon too

Iguana hammock
Large orange iguana hanging out eating our fruit too- on the parcha vine!

The animals are all doing well. The baby turkeys are now living in the coop in a smaller cage and we take them out for walks daily until they are hawk-proof (about 3 months old). And of the two chicken chicks that survived from the original 6, one was a hen and the other a rooster. The hen is a gorgeous black chicken mix of auracana and Jersey giant and lays really cool  green olive-colored eggs. The rooster is beautiful and huge, working for his place in the pecking order.

Chickens
The birds crowding around Britton at dinner time

There are still four large male turkeys toms, and we need to decrease numbers because they fight a lot. But we want to wait until we have a stove and fridge to properly handle them. In the mean-time they are looking more beautiful than ever.

Pretty turkey
Turkey looking good 

We are in the midst of a large project that I will write about once it is completed, but we have had quite a few days off as well. We have been going to the beach, hanging out, and playing music with friends.

Steps Beach beauty
Afternoon rain clouds form at Steps Beach after we went snorkeling and the water turned an amazing color

September is a quiet month in Rincón. The local Puerto Rican tourists have left and the North American tourists haven’t arrived yet. There are afternoon rains nearly daily, threats of hurricanes, and the heat can be super intense to work outside. (We take LOTS of showers and have all the fans on after sweating outside!) But I still wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Cassie legs
When we’re not working we spend a lot of time just chillin’ in the Big Sky park of our yard with its ever changing painting

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Easter Time in Puerto Rico

Variety Eggs
A variety of egg colors from our chickens and turkeys: no need to dye them for Easter!

There is always something to celebrate in Puerto Rico with holidays large and small in addition to personal parties for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, etc. All of Holy Week (Semana Santa) is a busy time that culminates in Viernes Santo (Good Friday), Sábado de Gloria (Saturday of Glory), and Pascua (Easter). Nearly everything closes down on Good Friday so do not even  attempt to do any grocery or other shopping. There are processions around the plazas of each city near the churches and then many people head to the beach to party.

Easter

As for us, we joined some friends (thanks guys!) for a nice party at their house complete with slip n slide and an egg hunt for all the children.

RainbowGorgeous rainbows are back

Easter time in the tropics is a wonderful moment as it signals that the shift has begun. The tourists have their final hurrah and then our little town of Rincón begins to get a little rainier and sleepier once again. While the excitement of having people in town is fun, I much prefer the slower pace of spring and summer.

Bright hibiscus
Flowers are blooming!

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Falling out of Summer

The weather has had a pretty big change here.  As I say that Puerto Rico just experienced Irene!  So I suppose change is all relative.

Once a year Cassie and I like to camp out in our backyard in a tent that was given to us as a wedding gift.  I spent quite a bit of time camping up in the mountains when I was growing up.  While it was fun, it’s one of those things that I have done quite a bit so it isn’t something that I feel I need to do.  Sleeping outside under the stars with Cassie is a lot of fun and we don’t have to drive, pack food, pack clothes and figure out all the details involved with a ‘camping trip’.


Our Tent

I used to also camp out in my backyard as a kid and across the street at my friend Matt’s house.  It was a lot of fun and I am sure parents enjoy it because your sleepover (loud kids) is outdoors!

We figured we had better get our once a year backyard camp out done because we have entered into the Fall season (maybe not officially, but you can feel it).  The weather is cooler, the veggies are ripe and the growing season is slowly coming to an end.  We’ve been getting more food from our garden lately too.


Fruit, Vegetables and Eggs

With the change in season we are starting to think about Puerto Rico too!  I hope there isn’t too much damage to the property, but if there is we can just fix and mend like we usually do!  We really enjoy our summer here in Colorado, but the winter is so long it will be nice to have a place to go where we can plant, pick garden and camp out!

I hope all our friends are doing well in PR after Irene.  The few Facebook posts we’ve seen indicate it wasn’t too bad and I hope that is the case.  I’d actually like to be down there for a tropical storm / hurricane at some point.  Just for the experience of it.  Not a major one of course!

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Scenes of a Sunny Nature

The yard is becoming quite the wonder once again. I wish it could be spring, summer and fall all year round because our house and yard look awesome and produces some terrific food in the bright sunshine. The chickens would be happier too!  But if that were the case, we might not be planning our escape to Puerto Rico!

The chicks are getting bigger. I think they are still too small to live outside, but they might be able to here in about 3 weeks. We had to put the Schnoodle baby gate over the top of the box because they kept flying up on top of the box sides and pooping.

The big chicken continues to lay her eggs in the newly constructed chicken coop, but still wants to sleep in the greenhouse. One day we closed the greenhouse to see if she would go to sleep on her own in the new coop. When we checked on her, she was sitting right outside our back sliding door, so we just let her into the greenhouse once again.

Here’s a few pictures I took today. Beware, they contain scenes of a sunny nature:

An Exploring Chick
A chick exploring in the flower garden (under supervision)

Chick on my arm
Here’s the chick on my arm and the adult in background

Columbine in Greenhouse
Columbine plant (Colorado state flower) in Greenhouse

Looking up at a columbine
Looking up at a columbine in greenhouse

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