Category Archives: Puerto Rico Property

Adventures of the Wood House and Yard

We have so much going on that sometimes we forget to pause and show the progress that we have made, so I thought I would write an update on the wood house and yard progress and adventures.

Britton spent the good part of three days inside the wood house getting rid of all the personal belongings of the previous owner. It was so strange how the house was left: like a time capsule dating back to fall 2001. Dishes were still in the sink, bed in the bedroom, hangers in the closet, and lots and lots and lots of old movies, tapes and books. I tried to salvage a few of the books, but many of them were toast.

A few books I have salvaged

They had either been chewed (and/or peed) on by the rats, had lizard eggs in them, had ended up in a pile of bat guano or were just completely grimy and gross…especially for Britton because he was inside the nastiness.

The kitchen was/is by far the worst. The rats had made their homes in the dead fridge and stove that we had disposed of earlier, but they had also made holes into the drywall too. We tried rat traps, but they (or the ants) just simply ate the bait. Kitty has helped a little with the rat problem, but we will probably just have to pull off all the drywall and wood boards anywhere we know they are living.

As Britton was working inside (with mask, gloves and bottles of bleach) he said it was just disgusting. Once as he was tossing all the junk into one of the big black plastic contractors’ bags, he pulled what he thought was another handful of books and things and looked down to see a mummified rat in his hands. Yuck!!

So I couldn’t argue too much with him when he said he just wanted to throw nearly everything away and start fresh.

About ten bags of trash were hauled out

We have also made some good progress on the yard. Since we have the motivation to plant our new fruit trees and plants, we have to clear out more of the jungle below. I generally work with the pruners and Britton with the machete, trimmer and saws. We have cleared a path all the way down to the edge of the property and have a small path into the lower part of the ravine too. We have planted about half of the trees so far.

Side of hill (mostly) cleared and planted

Making progress beyond the gate a ways

We also made a huge discovery (at least to us).

We thought we had lost the piña mango tree to all the growth, but as we were clearing away the jungle we came across another cement block that we had used to remind us where we had planted things. We found that what we had thought was the corazón was actually the piña mango and that THIS tree was our corazón! It has grown a lot more than the mango in the two years since we planted it. We were so happy to find it! It was like finding hidden treasure.

Corazón tree is about 5 feet tall now!

We both enjoy being out in the yard, though I still haven’t learned my lesson about suiting up with pants and shoes as Britton does. I don’t think I’ve worn long pants since I’ve left Colorado and I don’t really want to. We’ll see how many ant piles I have to step in before that changes 🙂

Ant pile in an old tree stump

I also had an attack of sorts in the jungle. I heard a bee buzzing around my head as I chopped vines and small trees with the loppers. Then I felt the tell-tale bumping through my hat. The bee was warning me to leave! I didn’t want to yell and make a big deal out of it so I just ran off, but the bee kept bumping me. I threw off the hat to try and confuse the bee. Britton looked up from what he was doing and looked at me like I was crazy. “What is wrong with you!?” All I could muster was “Get it!” and I tried to get around Britton, but I got caught in the trip-wire vines and slipped smack! flat on my face. I just laid there for a few minutes until perplexed Britton finally figured out what had me all mussed up. The guard bee then started buzzing into Britton so we decided to call it a day at that point. The slip and the bumps were more than we needed. We didn’t need a killer bee stinging attack too!

Most of the time, however, our yard work is peaceful and enjoyable. We go out when there is a bit of cloud cover and listen to music. Kitty often sits with us and watches out for rats and lizards. Really, we love it here, adventures and all.

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Jardines Eneida and the Start to our Finca

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We have finally managed to get our immediate yard area trimmed and cleared away (what they call in Spanish “cleaned”) and felt that we were ready to plant some fruit trees to begin our finca (farm). Many varieties take years before they fruit, so we wanted to get started as soon as possible. When we first bought the property we had planted a piña mango tree and a corazón tree, but so far we have only been able to find the corazón (we found our heart in Puerto Rico! 😉 ).

Stump of a dead citrus with the starfruit completely fine (and flowering again!)

We have read that Puerto Rico (among other places) is experiencing some major citrus diseases, such as citrus greening, that are affecting fruit yield and killing off the citrus trees. We found that to be true on our property as well, though we aren’t sure of the cause of death. We had to remove 3 old growth citrus trees that were completely dead.

We could tell they were citrus by the thorns on their deadened branches. It is unfortunate because those trees would have been probably 10-15 feet tall by now and producing like mad. But we do have a few other citrus trees that are still alive, at least for now. We are going to fertilize and prune them and see if there is any hope for them.

We do have some other old growth trees like the huge coconut trees, the carabola (starfruit) and an avocado tree. We even had to get a big tree trimmer in order to get the coconuts down and to trim the palm fronds.

We are not sure what else we have on the property because we don’t know too much about what grows here, but we were determined to find out or know it because we put it there. With about 4 acres of land, we would have to plant a lot before it could ever be filled.

So we talked with some of the local fruit venders and they said they get their plants at a place called Jardines Eneida in Cabo Rojo which is a beautiful little seaside town on the farthest southwest of the island. We looked up the address to the nursery and followed the map directions they had on their website. Big mistake! Their website lists completely different map directions than where they are actually located!

We drove around in circles for half an hour pointing at the spot it SHOULD be but obviously was not. Finally we pulled the truck aside so I could ask for the correct directions in Spanish from two middle aged women who were having a conversation under a large shade tree. They both knew where it was and said we were definitely in the wrong area. After giving us the directions we still felt very turned around and one of the women could tell. She offered to lead us straight to it! How nice is that!?

We followed her to the nursery and I thanked her profusely. We offered to buy her a small plant if she would like, but she refused only saying “a sus ordenes” meaning loosely that she was at our service and happy to help.

At Jardines Eneida we were in our element. We loved looking around at all the different plants–most of which we have no idea what they taste like or look like as full grown trees/plants. The prices were reasonable with most things in the $5 to $8 range for fruit trees. We loaded up a little wagon with nearly 20 different species of plants.

This is a real bird! I thought it was so cute sitting on the topiary

Then it started to rain -hard! We waited under the shelter area for about 45 minutes until it let up. Finally we were able to pay and load up the truck. We laid the plants on their sides so that they wouldn’t get too wind-whipped in the approximately 60 minute drive back.

When we returned we looked at their website again to see if we had just written the directions wrong, but nope, it was on their site that way with the wrong map (right address though). Too bad we hadn’t seen this post by CA2PR beforehand. It seems that Jardines Eneida is a right of passage for anyone looking to grow their own food and plants on the west side of the island!

The best way to actually find Jardines Eneida from the north is to stay on the 100 until the 308 and then turn left and go until you see a little store called The Tropical Corner, turn right on that road which is 103 and follow until you see Jardines Eneida on the right.

Here is a list of all the plants we bought. The total for everything was less than $150 which we thought was reasonable for this many trees/plants:

Cacao Rojo (Red Cocoa/Chocolate tree)
Aguacate Candalaria (avocado)
Pink and red trinitaria/bougainvillea
Canna
Platano (plantain) -We still want bananas but they were out
Guayabana (Soursop)
Naranja agria (sour orange)
Fruta maravillosa (Miracle Fruit)
Philodendrum Monstera
Granada (Pomegranate)
Toronja Red blush (Grapefruit)
Guayaba (Guava)
Carambola (Starfruit)
Café (coffee)
China del país -citrus sinensis -country orange
Mangostán -Mangosteen
Limón del país -country lime

We also have bought from other venders:
Chironja (grapefruit/orange mix)
Jobo (Not sure name in English)
Another cacao/chocolate tree

Finding a home for the aguacate

We have started to plant them but it is a lot of work clearing out the lower 1-2 acres and removing the old dead trees and sawing down the termite trees, so it might take us a while! As for the new citrus, we are looking for organic (or less toxic) ways to deal with and prevent these plant diseases. We’ll let you know what we find. So far, we are having so much fun making our own real tropical “Farmville” out here.

The two planted chocolate trees (immediate left and directly under BK)

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Enormity of Freedom

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I woke up the other day, poured some coffee and sat on the front stoop of the cabana. I was staring blankly at the thick foliage of the green forest before I started my day of weed whacking, chopping and clearing away walking paths thru the thickness. It was then that it hit me in a way it hadn’t really before. We made it. We have achieved our goal of moving to a tropical island. All of the work, all of the planning and all of the saving has gotten us here. I felt it as an emotion this time instead of a logical thought.

Free as a bird in the jungle

Thinking about doing something can never actually replace the experience of actually doing it. It is now that we are here, that we can have the experience. A new plant requires the brain to look up in our vast memory and see if we have information about it. New smells, new sights and new people all require the brain to do some work. Since I have no information about much of anything here, it requires inspection and storage of the new info. The constant processing of new information reminds us of what it was like to be children again. With that comes learning, thinking and mistakes.

What is a truly awakening idea, is that everything that we do and think, we are in control of. If we want to paint a wall, it is because we have the belief that the wall needs to be painted. If we don’t like the way something is, it is because we have decided for whatever reason, that it shouldn’t be that way. There are very few actual truths and we have the freedom to decide what to think about almost everything.

Who has left the cage

Having grown up in a public school system that was and is designed to cultivate ‘productive members of society’, that think a certain way and behave in a particular manner and hold similar beliefs, it is a enormous realization that it is actually I that gets to decide most everything. Now actually doing this is very difficult as most of my beliefs were installed and then that’s just the way it is. Realizing that if I don’t like something it is simply because I have decided I don’t like it, is becoming a powerful tool. Can’t I just as easily decide to like it?

Tell me what I said I’d never do
Tell me what I said I’d never say
Read me off a list of the things
I used to not like, but now I think are okay
-Ben Folds Five Lyric

A tropical weed or simple beauty?

This head game became a challenge when thinking about weeds in my lawn back in Colorado. Dandelions were growing! Not taking the perspective that they are actually pretty flowers, which they are, but rather choosing to see them as invaders that were disrupting the uniformity of my green lawn. It became a problem that had to be dealt with! Even the radio ads were telling me that these weeds needed to be killed with chemical poisons that were available at my local hardware store. I don’t want to be “that guy” the ad told me “that has all the weeds in his lawn”.

Once I changed my thinking life went a little more smoothly. They aren’t weeds, they’re flowers. And as Cassie has pointed out to me, they are actually medicine and food too. I think this was the beginning of the realization of what actual freedom is. Apparently advertisers understand this, so they try to get you to believe that you have these ‘problems’ that their product can fix. It’s kind of a hijacking of ones thoughts. You can still choose to kill the dandelions or you can choose not to. But it is a CHOICE, not a given that they are bad things. They just exist. Whatever opinion of them is not the thing itself. It can be seen in many different ways, if you are open to that kind of freedom of thought.

I almost didn’t write about this subject because having total freedom of choice regarding what to think about, seems so obvious, yet in my day in and day out life I rarely if ever actually employed it.

A lot of people wouldn’t live how we are living. We live in a small space. Here on the island we have bugs, rats, and poverty. We have chosen no A/C or phone (except Google Voice now) or cable TV and yet somehow I am the happiest I’ve been in a long time. I think this is due to the fact that this is what I have chosen to do and I have the ability to see these things as benefits. This is the enormity of freedom.

No stove, no problem. Grilling outside any time of year!

Some might see rats and bees as bad things, but that means there is food/fruit everywhere. No A/C might be seen as too hot and uncomfortable, whereas I see it as one less thing to depend on for comfort that will one day break and require larger and larger bills to fuel. Poverty to me is much easier to fit my life around because that means the cost of living is lower, there aren’t as many expectations to drive nice cars, to have perfect landscaping or to obtain that status job. A small indoor living quarters means a lot of life goes on outdoors instead of in. Perspective.

It has been said that you can change the way you look at things, and the things you look at will change. I am finding this to be true and that is a big part of being free. And the things I look at every day here are just amazing!