Monday 12/23- It’s the most wonderful time of the year…
Well, around here we were pretty excited because recently we had ordered some things online to be delivered to us, and today Randall picked the packages up from San Isidro and delivered them to us this evening. Thank you Santa Randall. It was Christmas morning for us right now! We wouldn't be waiting to open them. There were several packages of different things, some of which we had kind of forgotten about. The one that I was most excited for were speaking buttons for Skye. These are small buttons that you can record your own words, in your own voice, and teach your dog to press the buttons to talk to you. I’ve seen videos on Instagram showing dogs that learn dozens of words and can tap out thoughts to tell their owner. I think Skye is definitely smart enough to learn this, the question is, will she be too afraid of the buttons to press them? We will soon find out!
The day started out just like any other. I worked in the morning and Ramie got called in to help Randall unload a container. Fortunately it was a fairly quick unload because just about everything was on pallets instead of needing to be hand unloaded, so he was home around lunch time, and I signed off work at about the same time. In the afternoon we had planned Christmas video calls with each of our families. We spent a while sitting at our computer chatting with the families back in MN in the cold, before packing up the last of what we’d need for tomorrow and then relaxing for the evening.
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| This was the snow they received at Dana's Parents house |
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| This Skye doesn't look like snow anytime soon |
Wednesday 12/25- Merry Christmas!
This year’s group consisted of us, Geoff & Tracy, and Ray & Wesley, and was celebrated once again at our secret beach, where we always celebrate. We got their first, being the early birds that we are, and walked on the beach with Skye. The Christmas Surprise today was that she actually enjoyed playing in the water. Yes, it has been a very long time since we went to the beach, and the last time we brought her, she was scared of the waves and barely let them touch her feet. Today, she was loving it! We weren’t ready to go all the way in and start swimming with her right away this morning, but it was very apparent that if we went in deeper, she would go in deeper too.
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| Dad, this is so awesome! |
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| You cant catch me! |
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| What dreary weather! |
When Ray & Wesley showed up we talked and hung out by our vehicles for a while, not quite ready to set up the day’s “camp” yet, until Geoff and Tracy showed up. While we were visiting, a family of about 8 Ticos showed up and started setting up their camp. We decided at this point we better start setting up our own as well so we can reserve some space in an open area under the cover of the trees, so we set up our chairs and brought out the coolers.
About an hour later, Geoff and Tracy showed up and we were ready to finish setting up our camp. Instead of just bringing snacky food like we did, Tracy went all out and brought pork and rice, and so many fixings. We set up a table, put out all of the things that could sit out, strung up a tarp to use as a roof since it was still rainy, and we mostly sat around and talked. The weather never did clear up so it wasn’t nice enough to go play in the water, and to us, the ocean even felt kind of chilly (comparatively speaking, still warm enough to swim, but cooler than I’ve ever felt it before).
Ray and Wesley had to leave early for their video calls home, and we stuck around with Geoff and Tracy for a while after that. Once we had enough of sitting in the rain and it was evident that it just wasn’t going to get any nicer, we left the beach at about 1:30. When we got home we cleaned up, gave Skye a bath to get all of the sand off of her, and unpacked all of the stuff that we had brought with us to the beach today. Once that was all done, we sat down and watched a movie in the afternoon. It was yet another untraditional Christmas, but that’s what we’ve gotten used to down here.
Thursday 12/26- While I wouldn’t have had to, and no one else for my company did, I worked today. That was ok, though, it was a very quiet day with no interruptions, so I got a lot done. Skye was still pooped out from all of the fun she had swimming and chasing birds on the beach yesterday and spent most of the day snuggled up somewhere comfy, napping. The one cool thing about today was a huge double rainbow that we could see from our backyard. We haven’t seen a good one like that in a long time!
Friday 12/27- Since I worked yesterday and got a lot accomplished, I decided to take today off. We didn’t have any plans, but it’s always nice to just have a day to do stuff around the house and catch up on all of the things that sometimes get put off. Unfortunately, though, today Ramie was sick. We sat around most of the day not doing a whole lot. While doing little things around the house and working on some more blog writing, Ramie watched 4 movies. I’m not sure what he watched, as I asked him to watch some that I wouldn’t care about or enjoy while I was doing other things. When I finally sat down to half-watch a movie with him, I multi-tasked and finished crocheting my last Christmas stocking.
Saturday 12/28- Unfortunately, Ramie still isn’t feeling great, so there’s nothing fun to report today. It was a laid-back day, and we worked on sorting some more Lego sets.
Tuesday 12/31- Happy New Years Eve!
Today was a regular Tuesday for me. Why take the day off work when I can put some hours in, get some stuff done, and MAYBE not be interrupted too terribly much, right? Ramie was for the most part back to feeling normal and while I was working away, Geoff stopped over to help Ramie put the last 4 solar panels up on the roof. Since I don’t like climbing up there, and the panels are too big for Ramie to easily move on his own, especially when he has to be careful where he steps up on the roof, it’s always best to have someone else come help us.
With these 4 panels up on the roof and ready to be connected, you are probably wondering if the solar project is finally done? Well, not quite! Stay tuned, there will be more about this whole solar endeavor to come in January. What could he possibly be up to next? Hang around and find out.
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| I think Duolingo listens to us, just like Google. |
Ramie has had a long-time tradition, since he was a kid actually, to have Totino’s pizza, Doritos, and Mountain Dew for his New Year's Eve dinner of choice. Since we couldn’t get Totino’s here in Costa Rica, we made homemade pizza instead. I told him that we could run to the grocery store to get the Doritos and Mountain Dew, and he opted out of those items, since he didn’t really feel like going to the grocery store today.
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| Photo memory from a few years ago when we lived in MN |
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| Don't those look delicious?!?!?! |
The Official Casa Costa Breeze end of December rainfall total was 6.03 inches
The Official Casa Costa Breeze end of 2024 rainfall total was 195.31 inches or 16.28 feet.
Wednesday 1/1- Happy New Year!
Let’s start the new year off right! Since rainy (or “moldy”) season should be just about over, I did take today off and we did a deep clean of the kitchen. We had noticed some white spots growing inside the kitchen drawers, and it’s best to not let that stuff stick around too long because it truly could get out of control. We took everything out of the drawers, washed it all, sprayed all of the wood with vinegar solution, and let it completely dry out before putting it all back.
While that was drying, we also took down the Christmas tree, did a thorough cleaning of the floors, and washed a bunch of rugs, the dog beds, and other things that don’t get washed very often; a fresh, clean start for the new year!
Thursday 1/2- I went back to work, and since Ramie was free, he brought some guests up to the coffee plantation for a tour. They really wanted to go check it out, but the rental car that they had probably wouldn’t make it up the mountain and it’s always much easier to take the ATV up there, plus, the guests were willing to pay Ramie for it (here’s Ramie’s Rides again). Since Ramie wouldn’t be participating in the actual “tour” part, he asked Geoff if he wanted to go up there for the day so that Ramie would have someone to hang out with until the tour was over. Ramie picked up the guests, then picked up Geoff, and then headed toward the plantation. It didn’t take long for Ramie to notice that Dusti was feeling under the weather, she was not running well at all and was having a problem staying running. Knowing better than to push his luck, he turned her around instead of risking it and getting stranded somewhere on the way. Once they were back at our house they quickly swapped Dusti out for our truck, and then headed up to the plantation. They all spent the morning hanging out, Deiner is always fun to hang out with, and with him, the moonshine is always flowing. The guests had a great time on the tour and had so much fun!
Sunday 1/5- It has been a long time since we spent any time with Loren and Nancy so we decided to spend a couple of hours catching up with them. We also got to meet their new puppy, Tinkerbell, that Loren got Nancy for Christmas. Bitta (their older dog) was not too thrilled to have a new teacup chihuahua around and would mostly hide from Tinker, but came out to play with Ramie today because she really does like him. We spent around 3 or 4 hours there catching up and just talking about all the random things that come to mind. Its always nice to visit with them.
Monday 1/6- New year, new beginnings for me at work. This week our new admin employee started, and I’m hoping this offers me some relief.
We have been in need of an admin employee/assistant for me for quite a long time and my hopes are high that this works out for us. It's going to be a busy week for me, starting to get him up to speed and trained in, plus keeping up with all of my work, but I’m a machine and will push through it.
While I was working, Ramie had some new landscape guys come to our house to check out the issues we’ve been having with white flies. What are white flies? Well, they are a nuisance! They are a very tiny (think smaller than mosquito size) flies that live in the grass and burrow into plants and suck the sap from them, causing the plants to die or do very poorly. We noticed these flies first in our garden on our pepper plants. We would spray them, and they would seem to go away for a little while, but always come back eventually. After a while we started noticing them on other plants in our yard, too, and coming up from the grass in swarms as you walk through the yard. It turns out that it was a complete infestation. They even burrowed into our fancy hybrid Hibiscus plants so badly that they have stopped flowering and look very sick. We were so excited about these hibiscus plants when we bought them, and they have just been getting sicker & sicker as time goes on. It is time to put an end to this battle!
First though, we asked landscapers to install new sod in an area where we have been having a hard time getting grass to grow. Once they were done with that, they sprayed a liquid fertilizer and an insecticide to get rid of those pesky flies. They were at the house working for 2-3 hours and once they were finished, we would have to wait about 15 days for this insecticide it to completely take effect and hopefully wipe out those white flies. The nice part about this particular insecticide is that it only kills these white flies and a few other nuisance species of insect, and doesn’t harm all of the good things like the bees, caterpillars, butterflies, and other fun insects that we find in our yard.
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| Our goofy dog! |
Wednesday 1/8- Have I mentioned how hard the climate of the tropics is on things? Lately we have noticed that our solar water heater tank has been leaking water. It wasn’t a lot of water at first, but there was always a small stream dripping down the roof to the rain gutters. At first, we thought that maybe it was from all the rain we had been getting and it got inside the metal cover and was just leaking out, so Ramie wanted to look into that, but he also wanted to readjust the angle of it more toward the sun, since our original installer mounted it fairly flat. In order to maximize the benefit that we can get from the sun, we might as well get the correct angle on the solar panel for the maximum heat absorption! (This is a separate solar panel from all of them that we just installed for our electricity)
In order to adjust the frame that the water heater is mounted on, Ramie needed me to go up on the roof and help him, I hate that. I REALLY hate it... My body gets stupid when I get 10 feet above the ground and I don't even feel like I can stand up straight once I’m up there.
Ramie helped me up on the roof and helped me carefully step to the middle of it and I felt slightly more comfortable once I was away from the edge, but it still is not a good place for me to be. He needed help moving the large solar panel off the frame and out of the way, so fortunately I didn’t have to do much or go far. It didn't take more than 5 minutes but time on the roof feels like forever for me. I was happy to be firmly back on solid ground after that. Ramie spent the next few hours up there. I could hear the grinder, drill and other tools going and he asked me to throw some supplies up to him a few times while he was working, but I didn’t really have a clue what he was doing up there. Eventually he came down and told me that it was done; knowing how much I hate the roof, he managed to get the solar panel back on the frame by himself. So, about that leak… he couldn’t see anywhere it appeared to be leaking from, but did see what looked like it could have been an old leak. He was unsure what he was looking at so he put everything back together and hauled all of his tools down to the ground and cleaned up.
Later that night…drip, drip, drip on the roof. Ok, there has definitely got to be a leak coming from the tank. It’s not bad enough that we notice it on our water bill, but when everything is quiet you can definitely hear the sound of it. For now we will just let it go. Ramie did order some stainless steel welding wire, and when that comes in he will go back up there and do a pass or two on the spot that he thinks the leak may be coming from. The work around here just never seems to end!
Pura Vida!
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