After Maria took down a lot of our trees, it was so disheartening. It looked as though a bomb had gone off and nowhere was it more evident than in the vegetation. As “plant people” and people who live directly in the jungle with all the other forest dwelling creatures we took notice of the changes. We humans weren’t the only ones traumatized by the hurricane. Birds, bees, mongoose, iguanas, and all sorts of other creatures were displaced. There was a sadness that is hard to describe to those who haven’t been through something like that. I am still trying to wrap my mind around the complete and utter chaos that that storm brought to life and its still rippling effects.
In the plants, it was so obvious. Many were pulled from the earth, trees lost all their leaves, and others leaned so far sideways they will never be straight again. The plants that lived through it seemed to go into a shock survival mode of instant spring within about a month, trying to bring on more leaves and flowers, but they were just trying to hold on to life while they restored themselves. Like us all.
Our ravaged tropical gardens the day after Maria
So this spring we have been even more renewed by the sight of true spring. The flowers are blooming again. The bees are pollinating. There is new growth and repair. There is hope. And this scent fills all of us with it. For us, at the farm, this means more work, but we are enjoying it. As I grow this new life form as well, we are preparing in harmony with nature.
Many of our parcha -passionfruit- vines were severely damaged but they are growing and blooming again!
Farm meadow area
Takes a lot of mowing to keep the yard looking sharp -before and after mowing about 2 acres with 2 push mowers (one each)
Lots of yard work!
New baby turkeys came out of the jungle with their mama and we put them in the coop out of harm’s way
Some of the bounty of flowers we take to the Farmer’s Market on Sundays
A new area we are cleaning up and replanting
Turkeys roaming the pineapple garden
From the farm to the Farmer’s Market-flowers, pomarrosa, guineos (bananas)
Scene from the Sunday Farmer’s Market
Another section near “Ridgeline” that we cleared of downed trees and is now being replanted
Hawk Lane and the end of the pink roble bloom
Mulberries (a favorite tree of the birds)
Pineapple that is almost ripe enough to pick
More pineapples growing
Sale and delivery of banana plants (long load!)
Pretty birds, sugar cane, palms, bougainvillea and bananas
After a good rain we tend to see a lot of wild hermit crabs out and about. They are so cool. I want to learn more about them. Like, where do they find their shells? Some must be from the sea, but what a long way to travel when you’re that small! Some of them pick the most beautiful homes! Some are more reticent than others who like to pinch me when I pick them up. I just can’t help but want to look into their little home and at their weird pokey eyes, hard red crab legs and quivering antennae.
This guy was just not afraid of me at all!
One day I went out and saw two scrambling around right outside the cabana door. So the turkeys, chickens and I went to inspect them amidst the fallen mangos. In this video you get a sense of the scale of these hermit crabs in relation to the turkeys who look like huge dinosaurs tromping around. One of them looked just a like a rock moving around. What a strange and wondrous life it is to live in our own little nature show.
One thing about the tropics is that there are lots and lots of rats. Lots. Everywhere. If there is a fruit tree, there are rats living nearby. If there is a trashcan, rats live nearby. Even if you don’t think there are, rats are living nearby. Same with cockroaches, but that is another story for another day.
The rats not only eat baby turkeys and fruit, they also chew thru everything including putting holes in walls and opening every container in your shed to find out what is inside or even try to chew through your screens. They poop and pee and make a gross mess wherever they live and they also carry fleas and diseases like Leptospirosis.
Rat Holes in Old House Rat Holes in Chicken Coop
The common response from many locals on how to deal with this problem is to use poison. When we first moved here and our abandoned wood house had rats living in the walls I decided I would use some poison on them per this advice. It turned out to be pretty sad. The poison makes them sick and when they come out of their hiding spot you are confronted with a sick suffering animal, but I was told at least they don’t die in the walls. Having poison around our chickens we figure is a bad idea because that is one of OUR sources of food too and I don’t want to eat poison. Plus the rats are pretty smart and will eventually stop eating the poison!
So not only are the poisons toxic and inhumane to the mammals that ingest them ( including dogs, cats, and humans ) many rodenticides present a secondary risk to animals that hunt or scavenge the dead corpses of rats. The owls and the hawks. So we decided to keep poison out of our environment as much as possible.
We do have a cat, but he is little use against the rats. He is pretty much afraid of them. I would be too, they are almost as big as he is. He does sometimes get the little ones.
Kitty with his baby rat (or mouse?) kill
After we lost a few baby turkeys to rats however, the war was on. I purchased a .22 caliber pellet gun (1000 fps) and a few rat traps. When I was a kid I had a bb gun, so again this is another skill I was able to employ here! Plus the pellet gun doesn’t fall under firearm restrictions. No license needed, no fuss. It is accurate from as far as the scope works (40 yards-ish), a better scope would only make things better. It is not a toy. These pellet guns are the preferred tool for hunting the invasive iguanas…yet another varmint story for another day.
Hunting Mongoose From Upon High
Rats are smart, resourceful and nocturnal which makes them actually fairly difficult to hunt. Occasionally you will see one out during the day, but it is the mongoose who are usually out during daylight hours stealing our chicken eggs and bothering the turkeys on their nest of eggs (and other birds of Puerto Rico)…yet again another story.
As for the rats however, night hunting makes things more difficult. So I have a head lamp used for spelunking that works great. It allows me to look around for a target on the ground or in a tree and then I can also use the scope on the rifle to hit the target. It works really well and is actually kind of interesting in a video game kind of way. Which was another training as a kid I received; I played a lot of first person shooters that required scopes and sneaking.
The rats at first were fairly easy to shoot. This gun is very accurate and very powerful and it is over pretty quickly for the rats. The pellets usually go in one side and right out the other. Then the next day I go out to recover them in the daylight. If you don’t recover them, they stink for a day or two until the ants clean up the scene.
Huuuge Rat
After a while the rats tend to catch on to what is happening. They see a few of their friends get whacked and suddenly their open behavior changes. They start to hide, they sneak and they become aware that the sounds they make, and their movements attract unwanted attention. They will also learn how traps work and avoid them. So multiple techniques need to be employed. I know I am not going to get rid of all of them, but if they are at least afraid of humans they tend to stay away from our immediate vicinity which is really all I am after.
Night rat hunting
Chasing down a rat at night in the jungle under the stars and moon watching the visible perfumed pollen move thru the light of the headlamp is actually a fun game. They will run in the shadows of the tree limbs (on the opposite side) which makes them nearly impossible to shoot….. Unless you make an interesting noise ~squeak~ and they will peak out their head to see what the noise is and THWAP!! It’s over.
Here’s a little audio of when Cassie came out rat hunting with me one night.
THWAP!
A night rat’s last night
There have been a lot of interesting scenarios play out, for instance one ran past a rock and I know it was hiding so I make my ~squeak~ noise while aimed on the edge of the rock. They will sometimes peek out with their ears at full attention. THWAP!!! and they fall over backwards with an instant death from a well delivered headshot.
Rats’ underground hideout below the chicken coop
The ones that don’t die instantly will scream to their friends and at that point it is impossible to find any more for the night. Their alert to others sends them back into their underground holes so an accurate death shot is important if you want to get multiple kills in a night, plus it is more humane. They die almost instantly. Hence the need for a powerful and accurate rifle to put them down quick.
They often scurry out of the chicken coop at night
I think many would consider this bizzare, especially if you haven’t lived in the country, but I wanted to share some of the dirtier sides of tropical life. I choose to look at it as a fun challenge even though I do not enjoy killing things and would prefer not to.
Living here really has helped me to see the cycle of life and death and how everything is connected. We have chickens and turkeys and fruit growing to feed us, but that means food for other animals like the rats. So if we want to keep our chickens, turkeys and fruit, and not get diseases and other unwanted effects from these pests we have to keep the scale tipped to our favor. Here we are an intimate part of nature and the food chain, not excluded. And in reality none of us truly are ever excluded, we just may not see what goes on behind the scenes.
Back in Colorado February was by far my least favorite month. The novelty of snow and cold had long since worn off, the holidays and the excitement they bring were over and cabin fever began to set in big time. It was cold and dark and everything was just waiting…waiting for spring and life again. I would often read the seed catalogs and long for spring and gardening, being outside, spending time with friends and just enjoying the beautiful warm days of summer.
Playing outside in the winter. Two turkeys at a time! Just like pelicans! 🙂
But now, we basically live an endless summer. I don’t even really think about those cold Colorado days much anymore except what I hear from my friends and family. Nowadays it’s flipflops and shorts year round. It does get a bit “chilly” here now that we are acclimated. I snuggle with a small blanket at night now and I like the slightly warmed water in the shower. But all the doors and windows are open. There are no heaters or humidifiers and it just feels perfect. It’s the type of weather you don’t even really notice because you are just so comfortable in your own skin. I know some people really like the changing of the seasons and the cold, but for me, I couldn’t be happier in always warm weather. I guess it’s sort of like Mondays now. I used to dread Mondays because I loved the weekends so much, now Mondays are just another lovely day. Every day here is a Saturday in summer!
Pool parties in February -with my wonderful friend Megan
Things are very much still alive here! There is less rain in February so the yard work diminishes and while some of the grasses turn brown waiting for water, for some plants like these heliconias, it is their time to shine! The whales are visiting Rincón and other animals like the turkeys and chickens are preparing for their spring babies.
Explosion of color in these heliconias -thanks to starts from our friends Missy and Ben
What a contrast to the grey, dark and cold Februarys. I am still so much in love with living here that I feel more alive and vibrant myself every day.
