Now that we are hosting the Future Egg-Layers of America (or at least a few in Rincón, Puerto Rico) with us in a plastic tub in our 300 sq. foot cabana along with Kitty we are starting to max out space and feel the chirping motivation to start on the chicken coop. Everyone gets along fine in the cabana including Kitty because he is used to us having chicks in the house from when we had them in Greeley.
Kitty is more jealous than hungry, though he looks to be plotting something here
The plan is to move them from the cabana into the bath tub that was left over from the bathroom take-down in about 2 weeks and then at about 2 months into the coop. When they are full-sized chickens (around 4-6 months) we will then let them free range and use the coop as a night shelter and laying area. Kitty and the area we have chosen for the coop
We also plan on growing their supplemental food for when they need a little extra in addition to all the juicy bugs and grasses they will find, like this venomous centipede we found in the area we were clearing for the coop. More motivation for getting them outside and pecking away: fewer of these things! Yeek
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
Meow, let me get you caught up with how things have been going for me. I have a sneaking suspicion that I can’t quite confirm that my humans drugged me for the trip here to Puerto Rico. When we first arrived, I hardly remember a thing. And truth be told, this is the way everyone should travel. You get knocked out and wake up where you want to be. No hassles, or at least none that I can remember. But still, I find that rather rude of them not to tell me.
Anymeow, yesterday I finally felt up to the task that I was born to do. It took me nearly a week in bed for the jet lag and drugs to wear off. I mostly hung out in my bed that I generously share with my humans because they are so cute and warm.
As I got more and more comfortable with my new abode, I began practicing for my night out. While in the living structure I have begun catching and mortally wounding the occasional cucaracha that would attempt to breach our security.
Poor sucker never saw it coming
I also scoped out the area and chose my lookout points.
And I managed to finally get enough to eat without all the ants eating my food and stinging my tongue. It’s hard to find good human help these days, but I finally got through to them.
My delicious crunchies floating in an ant-proof moat. An ingenious solution (thanks Kat-rina and I love your name BTW)
So, suffice it to say I was prepared for this grand adventure. Really this night and many more to come was the culmination of a lot of hard work and the reason I bought the tickets and brought along these two servants in the first place.
I left the sleeping structure after being served my crunchies around 10am and headed straight to the jungle. There is a lot of good game to hunt here. I saw many birds, lizards, bugs and frogs. But the rats! That is going to take some practice. All in good time, my friend, I thought.
I took a few cat naps in the tall grasses and sniffed around the palms a bit. I know there are some locals in these parts and I want to get to know these cats with strange accents. Like they say “Mew” instead of “meow”. They also prefer to be called “Gatos” instead of “cats”. So strange. But I found the gato toilet above the sleeping structure and knew these local gatos must hang out here a lot. I thought I might want my servants around just in case things got ugly (they are pretty good at wound care when I have been in scuffles in Greeley I must say), but alas they were off romping about in some blue rumbler machine, I think they call it a guagua. All I can hope is that they were at least getting me some more crunchies.
So by the time they returned in the evening I was deep in the forest. My night eyes were on and I had a great time partying with my new pals and pouncing on lizards. We even stalked a rat and almost had him. I could hear my humans calling to me. They were scaring off all the good hunts. I will need to remind them that I am the only one to call them. They are only to speak when spoken to. But they are in a new place and that has to be somewhat stressful for the poor creatures. So the next morning after they called me about a million times, I returned to the back door and meowed for them to let me in. I was so hungry! I caught a few lizards, but I rarely eat anything I catch. I am a crunchy-cat through and through. I just hunt for the sport of it.
So that was my first night out. I think I chose well in a place to move. A cat’s paradise, or should I say paraiso de gato.
“Guess what I found?” has been our newest game. It is kind of like the chance card on Monopoly. This could be something beneficial or not so much.
For instance, one of our first “guess what I found” moments was when I found the passionfruit flowers and fruit. Then another one was finding this creepy centipede in the palm trees.
We have heard that Puerto Rico has no venomous snakes or spiders, but that you do have to watch out for these guys! Also, the ants are intense! Tiny little ants that feel like someone just threw a bunch of needles at your feet. We have been having a hard time feeding Kitty because only about 5 minutes after we set his food down the ants swarm his dish like a petri dish. And if you try to move it they start biting you! We are definitely going to have to find a solution for that!
As for Kitty himself, he spends almost his entire day as a lump under the covers of the bed.
He’s lump, he’s lump, he’s lump, he’s in our bed.
Kitty is definitely still freaked out. He comes out for a couple of hours a day, but if he hears the leaves rustle or any loud sound, he scurries back under the covers to hide. I took him out with me up on top of the cabana just to show him that there really is nothing to be afraid of, but I don’t think he believed me.
Kitty and me under the big mango tree
We are still doing quite a bit of work on the landscaping and have finally been able to drive the car into the courtyard after clearing away some massive weed trees that grew about three inches thick in just those past nine months. Britton bought a bow saw (thanks Matt for the recommendation) and hacked those things down.
I am bringing out a lot of Spanish vocabulary I haven’t had to use much in an office setting. Saw=Sierra, Wire=Alambre, Piedra de afilar= Sharpening stone, etc. Good practice using Spanish in our new daily life when we say “guess what I found” in the hardware stores.
A lot of you are worried we are working too much. Don’t worry. We also know how to play! We have gotten out and met some people too. We visited a few friends and played a little poker. We are planning on going to a concert event in Aguadilla this Saturday and we have taken lots of naps and eaten lots of “guest-what-I-found” delicious fruits from our property, the Econo or Edwards Grocery Stores or from the fruit vendors parked on the side of the road.
Not sure what these are…quenepas? They are from the property but mostly a huge seed inside
We have had a couple of other “guess what I found” moments. Britton was up on the top of the cabana with the laptop to transfer some pictures. He yelled down to me, “guess what I found?!” and I yelled back, “Um, cat poop?” and we laughed because apparently the roof of the cabana had been used by the local cats as a poop hot spot…but it turned out to be an ACTUAL hot spot. We found open WIFI on our roof! So great! I am standing here on top of the roof overlooking the wooden house and ocean writing this!
The not-so-great thing is what we did NOT find in our bags….our camera battery charger. I think we left it plugged into the wall in our kitchen in Greeley! Ugh. Once our battery runs out we won’t be able to take more pictures or videos, so we are going on a quest to try and find one (Mom if you read this can you check in our Greeley house?).
So daily we have little wins and little challenges. It has been the perfect balance. We still have a few things we need to sort out like the zafacones for the Rincon trash pick up are apparently all out, so we have to haul out any trash we make.
All in all, every day has been an adventure with new finds around every corner.
