Category Archives: Gardening

Bees in a Jar

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Today as I was walking from the cabana down to the coop with the daily catch of fallen mangoes for the compost pile I got a bit of a surprise.  A bee up and stung me in the ear!  I dropped all the mangoes and ran while the bruised and over-ripe fruit started rolling down the hill.  At about the same time the water hose popped and sprung a leak!

Cassie said I looked like a cartoon with my flailing about, yelling and running.  As we were going back towards the cabana there were more bees bumping us, giving us that tell tale warning that they are going to attack.

We got in the cabana and shut the door….. “Holy smokes!  What the hell was that?”  Had we stepped on one on the way down to the coop?  We normally don’t get stung by the few bees that visit the yard, especially having cleared out all the previous hives living within the wood house and the trunk of the old mango tree.  Bees are supposed to only sting when they feel threatened or if the hive is under attack.

After about 10 minutes and looking at my stung ear as it swelled we decided to go back out and see if we could figure out what was going on.  We went up on top of the cabana because it offers a good view.  We weren’t up there 5 minutes and we started getting bumped again by bees.  We ran.  We got back in the cabana and decided that there was something up and that we would give them some time to calm down.  We went to town for some food, groceries and another mower blade.

When we went to let the chickens out Cassie spotted what was causing all the commotion.

Swarm (2)
Bee Swarm (click to enlarge)

There were quite a few bees on one of the Mexicola avocado tree leaves, so we must have a swarm on our hands.  This is a very small swarm by swarm standards, actually tiny.  This was a perfect opportunity for me to use my newbee bee keeping skills!  I went and grabbed a jar, some scissors, gloves and the bee veil.

It didn’t take very long, and I didn’t get stung but there is a queen in with the swarm.  Not sure where it came from or why it is so small, but it all went well and put an end to the bee sting mystery and I gained 5 experience points in my bee skills!  I would rather do this with a small amount of bees to start with.  If there were hundreds of bees it would have been more intimidating but I think even then I would be up to the task.

We don’t have an empty hive yet, but now we think we should have one around for the next swarm opportunity.  For this group I am just glad they aren’t going to end up inside the walls of the house and I wanted to take care of a potential issue as well as some aggressive bees in the yard. Bees are not known for being aggressive when they swarm.  I think it is possible they were fighting with another hive in the base of the big mango we took down a few weeks ago. There were some bees flying super fast all over today.

Bees in a jar
Bees in a Jar

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May Means Mango

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It has been mango madness at our house for the last two weeks or so. It started somewhat slowly with only one or two mangos falling on our roof but the beat has slowly progressed and is still rising to a crescendo. Living in this little cabana when the mangos fall is like living inside of a drum with the roof of the house as the drum head. Boom, boom, bada bada the mangos keep falling from the sky.

Mango tree above cabana
Huge mango tree above the cabana

The mango tree is nice though because it keeps the cabana nice and cool. And who can complain, really, about free, delicious food falling down for you to eat!?

Box o mango

Some of the mangos are over-ripe or have bugs in them, so they go to the chickens. But many of them are beautiful and large mangos. We need to start finding more mango recipes because we just have SOOO many.

Nice mango

Not only do we have this large “common mango” but we think we have some other varieties that are just now blooming. We will see what kind they are soon. I actually really like the so-called common mango. Some people think they have too much fiber, but if you eat them at just their peak of ripeness they taste perfect to me!

In Rincón, May means mango in another way as well. It means man-go. The town has just cleared out of tourists. The roads are clear and easy to drive and the restaurants and shops are less crowded. It also means that many of the shops that cater to tourists are shutting down for the summer season. Some tourist-serving entities will wait out Man-go (people leaving) May and wait for the smaller wave of San Juaneros and other Puerto Rican tourists that come to the west on summer break.

I’ve never lived in a tourist-oriented town before, so this fluctuation of people has been an interesting aspect of living here. It makes getting to know people a little more difficult because you don’t know who will be around in a month or two. You quickly learn a person’s level of connection to the area. They may be cyclical like snow birds who stay all winter but leave around the end of March or April to return to where they really call “home” or they might be intermittent vacationers who have a place here but don’t stay for very long stretches at a time. Or they might simply be tourists or travelers or people with wanderlust who may be thinking about living here but are checking out other options.

There are year-rounders like us and most of the Puerto Rican population  in town and there are people who hope to be year-rounders but aren’t sure they can make it through this lull in people if they are dependent on tourists for income.  It has been a little hard to adjust to this varying flow of people because we have met some really cool people that we would really like to get to know better and spend more time with, but then they leave!

We are starting to see that everything here has a season in a different way than we experienced the seasons in Colorado. While there is no distinct change like snow or wind gusts and crispness to the air as there was in Colorado, there are seasons. Right now we are in the mango season and I think I kind of like it. Our town has become a quieter more intimate place. The permanent residents all have a sort of familiarity with each other. We all know and understand the excitement of the tourist season, but we can also sit back and take a deep breath during the time of the mango descent down mango alley and await the flamboyán trees fantastic show of colors. There is a calmness on the waters and in the town as the tourist frenzy cools and the air heats up. The rains have begun and things are turning green again. There is a change, though ever so slight. May means mango and that there is a new season underway.

Food from yardFood from the yard this morning -mangos,starfruit, passionfruit, coconut/water and popcorn

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The Tree That Bleeds

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I was working in the yard the other day sawing down more trees (surprise!).  I came across a huge turpentine tree that we have been jokingly referring to as the “tumor tree” due to a huge break in the base of the tree where termites had setup shop.  The huge black nest and resulting area where the tree tried to grow around them was pretty ugly.

Due to the size of the tree I had decided to hold off on cutting it down until one day I got the motivation to do the deed.  So I started sawing into it with the chainsaw.  I was sawing away and all of a sudden I saw a huge gush of what looked like tobacco spit coming out from the cut.  When I say gush, I mean GUSH.  There was literally many gallons of this nasty liquid pouring out.  It really caught me off guard.  My first thought was something along the lines of “Wow…That is a lot of…sap?  No no…That can’t be sap…can it?  Maybe it is really porous honey?  I don’t see any bees….hmm..This is really gross. It’s still pouring out……wow.”

Once the tree was down on the ground I inspected it a bit and it actually appears to be water mixed in with the termite nest.  The termites had done a good job of hollowing out the dead parts of the tree and rain water had filled the cavity.  It was pretty disgusting to see especially since I wasn’t expecting it.

Tumor tree
Tumor Tree Down

We also noticed the other day that the avocado that we cut down when we first started clearing the property has shot up a few new sprouts just as some of you had predicted!  I think it may turn out that we did the avocado tree a huge favor by getting rid of all the termites and vines that had plagued it and given it a new lease on life.

Avacado Regrowing
Avocado Sprouting Back to Life

We also received our shipment of turkey poults today!  We will have more updates on them soon.

Turkey Poults
Day old Royal Palm Turkey Poults

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Finding Palms and Difficult Trees

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Palm in Truck2
New plants ready to go once we get more cleared (plus the boss cat)

We have cleared and planted, cleared and planted and then done it some more.  I think we are at the point where we can finally start to make some sort of landscaping plan on a broader scale because we have an idea of what the property looks like.

Tree There Tree Gone

Opening up the view, one tree at a time

It would seem that the previous owner had cleared quite a bit and then those areas left unattended filled in over the years with what we are calling trash trees.  There are salsa trees that are very soft wood and attract termites, but grow extremely quick.  There are lots of what are locally called robles or ‘oak trees’ but are more specifically the tabebuia.  These trees all have to come down and be chopped up.

As we cut back we occasionally come across a tree we don’t want to cut (it’s amazing).  So far it has basically come down to a lot of mango and palm trees that we are saving.  We are still finding trees that we didn’t know existed and we are still visiting areas of the property that we haven’t been to.

For example, below is another royal palm that we didn’t know was growing until we started to carve a new path thru the forest.  It has to be around 30-35 feet tall.  Of course it didn’t look like the picture when we found it, we could actually barely see it.  We had to saw down everything around it (about 15 trees of varying size and type).


Royal palm cleared
Royal palm to greet us on our new path

I have counted 15 of these on the property and this one is one of the smaller trees!

As we cut and cut we learn more.  More about the plants, animals and I am getting pretty good at sawing down trees.  There are still challenges that come up and require more thinking and planning.  For example there were two trees near the house and cabana that we have been wanting to cut down, but for reasons of new challenges, weren’t easy.

Below is a picture of a dead mango tree that is next to the wood house.  It is a real eye sore and view blocker we call ‘the monster’.  It has a back lean, is half rotted, has no top branches, lives right next to the fence and septic pipe and also has bees living in the base.  For these reasons, it hasn’t been a straight forward removal.

Opening up the view
Dead Mango Tree Removal Process

We covered the septic pipe with some old pallets so that what was left of the branches wouldn’t crush the pipe when they fell.  This worked out well.  The tree was so close to the fence that access to the base was difficult.  Also because there were no branches on the top of the tree, it made it not want to fall (no leverage or weight) once the base was cut thru.

I had sawed thru 80% of the base, but it was still standing so we tied a rope around the top and tried to pull it over, but this didn’t work.  We just didn’t have the leverage to pull it.  So I grabbed a few ratcheting straps from the truck and tied it to the tree and a fence post.  The ability to ratchet made all the difference.

Ratcheting Straps
High Tension

This worked out and the tree came crashing down!  The bees that live in the base of the trunk will be taken care of at a later day, or maybe not.  They might be able to live there, but we will see.  They didn’t swarm out and attack so that was good.  I had my bee veil ready to go just in case.

Mango Down
Dead Mango Tree Down (coop in the background)

There was another tree behind the house that blocked the view and dropped foot long bean pods everywhere.  It was half dead and full of termites.  For these reasons we wanted to remove it but we were concerned it would crush the fence when it fell.  Well….. We decided that we are going to remove the fence so crushing it would be ok.  And maybe kind of fun.  So it came down too.

Ugly tree from deck
Tree from Deck Blocking View

Tree down from deck
Tree Down!

Fence Damage
Fence After Taking the Tree Off It

The dry season will be coming to an end and we want to cut down as much as we can and be ready to plant like crazy!  I have killed more trees than I would like to admit, and there isn’t an end in sight yet.  The property is opening up more and we can see a nice view of the valley with the ocean and the Aguadilla airport in the distance.  It is getting us excited to get going on the wood house.

We are enjoying the process of discovery and progress.  It has been an absolute blast and at the end of the day we let the chickens out and sit on the porch of the coop watching them forage around for bugs.

BK Chickens and Lappy

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