Step by step we have been transforming the property. Like most properties in Puerto Rico, ours has some steep and therefore slick spots when it rains. So we thought it might be a good idea to have a few steps to help us in our daily walks checking on the plants, especially after I had fallen on my butt a few times. Britton used some of the old lumber as well as some tree trunks from our clearing as steps and paths. Add park ranger to the long growing list of job titles around here.
I used to commute about 45 miles to work. Every day I would drive on the hi-way and interstate to and from work. When one drives this much a lot of thoughts go thru your head and I used to get annoyed at stop lights. I’d have to stop, waste time and they were always increasing in numbers. They slowed me down for an ETERNITY and there were new stoplights at intersections that didn’t previously have them, which were more chances of having to slow down. How much of my life was I spending at red lights?!? I made a game out of trying to not get stopped at lights. Time them right, take a little different route, etc. I was actively seeking out the red lights, so that I could avoid them.
Who controls our happiness?
One day Cassie had suggested that I try it a different way. I agreed and decided that I would look for how many green lights I went thru. Same drive, same route only a different perspective. It was amazing how many green lights I found. My perspective changed and it was kind of amazing how the frequency of red stoplights changed as well as well as how long they appeared to last. I found so many green lights, and it made me happy to see them. Instead of seeking out frustrating things that would ultimately annoy me when I got to them, I sought out something that kept my cruise going and saved me time. Every green light was a win. Even our language filters our perspective. So instead of stop lights, they were now “go lights”.
This changed my commute. It was amazing how many green lights I saw and how few red lights stopped me, or rather, that I stopped for. When I did get stopped at a red light, it became a lot less frustrating because the ratio of green to red made it seem ok. 6 green lights to 1 red light….Not so bad, especially compared to the “OMG stupid red light slowing me down!!!” thought process I had been using.
I had listened to an NPR series of broadcasts on one of those commutes back in Colorado. The stories titled “Puerto Rico: A Disenchanted Island” focused on high crime, corruption, murder, high unemployment, politics and people moving to other states to “escape their island woes”. When I listened to this I didn’t identify with it. It didn’t seem like the PR that we had visited so many times.
I didn’t really think much about it until just the other day. We had visited our friends in Maricao and I had mentioned that I don’t know how “Puerto Ricans can afford these nice cars and continually shop at the malls, where in the US the malls are vacant and dead”. They’re jobless after all right? And things here are so dire! It was brought up that the stats the US uses on the economy simply aren’t accurate. There is a lot of economic activity that doesn’t show up on the stats the US government uses. There is a large informal economy here.
When I listened to the NPR broadcast I didn’t even really think much about it at the time, but the perspective used was first of all, from the perspective of the news. The news is simply there to create a listening audience and they do this by reporting information people tune into. Turn on any news broadcast at any time and you will see proof of this. “If it bleeds it leads”. The reporting also comes from the perspective of the US. Having lived in the mainland for so long there are a few simple ideas that are always taken for granted. Money is success, jobs are good and not working for the man either means you’re lazy and worthless or that the economy controls your fate (or if you do it long enough you’re put out to pasture/retired).
I suppose I choose to see things differently, not that any of those things are true or false, good or bad. As an example I lived in a city with high poverty rates and the gangs, drugs and shootings were often reported in the local newspaper. I however, didn’t personally encounter any problems with it…ever. When I stopped focusing on the news, my city became a more pleasant place to live. Beautiful parks, lots of places to eat and good friends to see movies with.
I guess this is basically another way of asking the age old glass half full/empty question.
It depends on your perspective
The point is that there are red stoplights. I don’t have to focus on them and I don’t have to abide by the general idea that they are good or bad. I can choose which glasses to wear. For example I could see the red lights as a life saving measure for society instead of an inconvenience to ME and MY daily commute; it is a choice. Dirty dishes in the sink are either a continuous chore that never ceases, or a sign of having food to eat. Sometimes it is hard to try on different perspectives: almost as difficult it seems as learning a foreign language. But it is possible and the world opens up and becomes a whole new place full of more possibilities.
Yesterday we were burning piles of dried trees and vines that we had cut down a few weeks ago. We stopped a few times throughout the day for beer breaks and lunch then got back to it. We watched the hawks floating in the air like kites. At dinner time we were both pretty wiped out so we took showers and I took a shovel down to the smoldering pile and got a few scoops of hot coals so I could cook chicken for dinner. The air was incredibly perfect at 80 degrees and I am in only shorts and flip flops, the property is looking better than ever and we have lots of fruit trees planted.
Is it the life we have built and decided to live or we are unemployed and the conditions are dire? Do we have a crazy untamed property or just enough work to keep us motivated? Do we live in the sweltering humid tropics or are we not freezing our butts off in a temperate desert? It all depends on which glasses you want to put on.
Even this post will be construed differently by everyone who reads it because we all have different perspectives, different life experiences, different opinions. And that’s what makes reality ever harder to REALLY pin down. It’s different for everyone.
But doesn’t it seem just a little fitting that there are no stoplights at all in Rincón? 🙂
The theme of the last few days has been Chopped. Chopped is one of our favorite shows, so we download it and watch it on the laptop when we need a break. It is a fun show that starts with a mystery basket of four strange ingredients and the chefs are supposed to create tasty, creative meals with them. It is a lot like how we cook here. You never know what new interesting ingredients will be at the store or what they will be out of or what we will find on the property, and since we have no stove, we always have to think of creative uses. Lately it has been chopped veggies, rice, fish and ginger all thrown together in the rice cooker for lunch (and sometimes dinner) and chopped coconuts (and coconut water) and starfruit with coffee for breakfast.
Farm-fresh breakfast!
But beyond TV shows, the Chopped theme has been present in other ways as well. Britton managed to process all the wood from the torn down deck bathroom by separating the good pieces that will be used for the chicken/turkey coop and chopping and bagging all the unusable pieces.
Lots of bags=lots of work
Kitty even helped out a little in his supervisory capacities making sure everything was safe with the chop saw
When that was all finished, we went on to the next chopping project of chopping down more trees to clear the land for our orchard and poultry. Britton had been doing it all by hand with just a handsaw or bowsaw and while he was getting much stronger and faster, it was still a slow process. At Home Depot we saw a chainsaw marked down from over $200 to $99 and so we thought that would be very helpful. It also makes the job inherently more dangerous and while Britton took safety precautions, he still managed to chop a little portion of the tip of his thumb when we was adjusting the chain blades.
But that was a much better warning than if the machine had been on. One day we worked for about 6 hours under these trees. I used the loppers and took down the small trees and vines that are under 2 inches in diameter and cleared the area for Britton to work chopping and piling. I also took the hose around to all our baby transplant trees. This property will take everything that we have, but it is becoming more and more manageable every day and we enjoy the work, believe it or not.
Like a hot knife through butter…the work is much easier with a chainsaw
We still have lots to do -all these trees need to come down (Britton is in white below)
Click image to enlarge
Yesterday we had three more hives removed that had taken over our house and yard. This is the third time we’ve had to have bees removed, so we are becoming more and more comfortable around them. However, we want to remove the weird bathroom from the deck as well as a dead mango tree that had been taken over by vines and bees. Also, we would get bumped a few times by them and Britton had been stung on the neck, so we were finally ready to deal with the bees (again).
Bedroom hive, bathroom hive
We had thought about trying to take them out ourselves, but we just weren’t quite to that level yet. So we called up Enrique again and he came the same day! He said he would take two of the hives that were in the house, but not the one in the tree because they were fully African (all bees in the tropics now are somewhat Africanized but some are interbred with domestic honeybees). Those in the tree, he said, he would have to kill.
Monster tree covered in vines had the African bees
So we have now had a total of seven! huge hives removed from this property! I know they say that the bee population has been declining, but definitely not here on our wild property it seems. We would love to keep bees (somewhere other than in our living space) but we just are not to that point yet. I did ask Enrique if we could take back a hive some time in the future and he said yes. He said he has about 70 hives on his finca in Añasco! He also knows quite a lot about agriculture and we may use his services in that too!
There are quite a few lost bees still swirling around right now, but hopefully that won’t be too long and we can start on the next steps. In the mean time we are enjoying our literally home-made honey.
Because we are getting more and more comfortable (relative to the first time we found out there were bees in our house), we managed to video the process of Enrique taking out the hive this time and it is pretty fascinating (at least we thought so).
Enrique’s Spanish was a little difficult for me to understand, but I think I got the gist of it. I am still trying to pick up all the nuances of Puerto Rican Spanish because it is quite different from the Spanish spoken in Colorado. Britton doesn’t know the difference, but he is learning too! When Enrique warned him “No venga” Britton smartly asked me what that meant and now probably won’t forget that that means not to come close -especially when there are angry bees flying about. lol