Category Archives: Homesteading

Rincón Mayoral Inauguration and RBC’s 3!

rainbow-city
Rincón, el mejor lugar para vivir. The best place to live!

oranges
Harvesting mandarin tangerines from our own trees!

This Saturday we had another nice day. The winter fruit is in season and we’ve been steadily cleaning out the cabana and moving over everything to the cabin where we are now living. We jammed with the band and then later that evening we went downtown to the Rincón plaza where there was a huge party going on! It was the mayor’s (alcalde) inauguration (re-election) party!

mayor-party
A huge party right on the street in front of the Alcaldía!

In addition to this huge street party it was our friends Naomi and Sage’s 3rd year anniversary since opening Rincón Beer Company (RBC). In the last three years RBC and the Art Walk (as well as a vibrant and growing Sunday Farmers Market) have synergistically worked together to revitalize the downtown area. Now there are over 4 bars and many restaurants in the downtown area that otherwise was dying a slow death. When RBC came on the scene in the plaza people thought they were crazy because there was virtually no night life downtown and now it is the hip, happening place to be! Way to go, guys!

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Naomi and Sage at RBC’s 3rd Anniversary Party

It is pretty cool to see Rincón grow through the years and to be part of the carnival that never seems to stop.

 

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Snapshot Update: Boquerón, Aguadilla, Rincón and Finca

Life just keeps trucking. Sometimes there’s more exciting things than others, but I always try to have my camera ready. Here are a few snapshots of recent moments of our life here in Puerto Rico.

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A fun stop in Boquerón (notice the bicycle with coconuts!)

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A beautiful beach scene in Aguadilla

aguadilla-treehouse
A cool treehouse in Aguadilla! I need to do some more exploring of this! It’s amazing!

tree-climber
Because I do love to climb trees!

banana-bunches
The finca is producing lots of food! Especially bananas and papayas right now!

turmeric-flower ginger
And also cool stuff like turmeric (curcuma) and ginger

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I did a fun photoshoot with my friend Laura at the Lighthouse Ruins in Aguadilla

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And we are super proud of our chef friend Tommy’s new Poke Shack venture in Rincón!

fresh-fish-tommy poke-and-salad
With local caught tuna and many other fresh local ingredients!

rainy-day-rainbow
It has been a bit rainy lately but that means gorgeous rainbows!

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And still lots of fun times!

Oh and check out this cool stick bug I found on the screen door of the cabana!

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Random Puerto Rico Weirdness

Here are some random weird pictures that don’t really have a place, but I just have to share. Though we are adapting well to our environment sometimes there are still moments here where we both just look at each other and say “WTF?!”

Ford Trax on a pool table strange sightsA Quad on a pool table!?

Farmers Market
Some sort of wild cucumber…looks like a plant from another planet!

Bar BathroomApparently this bar bathroom was made for visiting mermaids too…check out the conch shell showerhead and coral rocks

Fake Pig RoastThey really like lechon here…even when it is made from old rubber tires!

David BowieEven our chickens are a little wacky!

Wheelchair Cassie
And you never know who or what may photo bomb you whilst hanging out in a wheelchair!

Big IguanaAnd I don’t think I will ever get used to living in Jurrasic Park with these huge lizards!

Pink bromeliadAnd the colors here feel like we live in a cartoon

Rob Towel PlayingAnd check out our drummer, Rob! lol

Britton and his coffeeWalking around half naked is still sort of weird, but I love it!

Island Time literally
I still just don’t understand why they put an old ceiling fan and a clock on a bamboo stick outside? So many questions!

strange-sights-mushroom-house
Like, What? A mushroom house?? This is such a cartoon!

guavas
When the guys at the loza store give you guavas that look like avocados and laugh because your confusion is a sure way to tell a gringo from a Boricua

pitomba
And we continue to find new fruits we have never eaten before in our lives like this pitomba we have growing on the finca… it’s a little like an apricot

tarantula
And also finding a huge tarantula in your work boots!!

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So…that nicely tiled trough is the urinal….why???

please-do-not-wash-feet-funny-strange-sight
Apparently a lot of weirdness happens in bathrooms. When you live in a beach town…people like to wash their sandy feet in the sink

This place is so fun…and weird. But so fun. I love it. It’s like a dream: weird and wonderful.

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Tile Floors are Installed!

We just accomplished a major milestone in building the cabin! We have just finished installing the tile floors! This was quite a process not the least of which was just simply bringing over the supplies. Before they could even start on the tiles they had to bring over almost 30 sheets of plycem (concrete backer board). Each one of them weighed over 130 pounds! Then they had to move over all the boxes of tiles as well!

Britton and Waldemar floors
Installing each of the concrete backer sheets!

Cassie and Waldemar
Preparing the tile with Waldemar starting with the center piece

Tile Line
Beginning the tile from the center out

One special touch we added was a tile mosaic in the center of the room under the large ceiling fan. It complicated things a little but I think it is pretty cool. We bought the last one in the tile store and so we had to cut some parts special for it, but it turned out very nice.

Design
Mosaic design

Lechada Grout
Installing the grout

Floors
Shortly after installation

Doorway
After the first mopping

For a more in-depth how-to on this tile installation you can watch this video; there’s some pretty funny bloopers at the end too:

Once we finished with the tiles we were able to accomplish something else that we are super excited about: bringing over the full-sized fridge and stove! These were very tough to move over because they, like everything in the cabin, had to be brought over by hand. No dolly was used.

Fridge loading
First they loaded it from the shed into the truck and drove it half-way down

Trail
Then they carried it through the jungle

Britton and Waldemar on the bridge with fridge
Across the bridge

Fridge at the house
Up the stairs, and to the house!

And yes, their backs were pretty sore after this! But we are super excited about the floors and what it means. With the floors and the walls basically finished, that means we are nearly ready to move everything else in too! Next up, the toilet and finishing work on the bathroom!

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