Sunday 6/1- Today's plan is to have a Sunday Funday. Earlier this week we had reached out to Geoff and Tracy to ask them about getting together one last time before Geoff flew off into the sunset. What do we mean by that? It turns out that Geoff has decided that he needs to go back to Canada to work again for a while to build their savings back up. Unfortunately with the rising prices and poor exchange rate, his pension just isn't going as far as they had wished, and he leaves this upcoming week for at least a few months. Tracy will be staying here at their home to hold down the fort. What was the plan for Sunday Funday? It would be our typical ATV ride through the jungle to the coffee plantation to visit with Emilio, Rita, and Deiner.
We took the short route through the jungle but took our time to stop for pictures and just enjoy the view. It was unbelievably clear and sunny today and the views across the valleys were breathtaking and worth every minute!
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Costa Rica Traffic Jam |
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| It was such a beautiful and clear day. You could see for miles |
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| Costa Rican Cowboys, moving the cattle from one field to another |
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| Dusti says she never get her picture taken. |
Once we got to Don Emilio’s, there was already an ATV tour there, but they were finishing up. Emilio and Rita were there and a couple minutes later Juanca (Juan Carlos) arrived. Deiner was delayed but on his way and while we waited for his arrival, of course we were offered a fresh cup of coffee and a shot of shiny moon. We chatted with Emilio, Rita and Juanca for about 15 minutes before Deiner arrived, and that’s usually when the party really got started!
All of us sat around talking for a while longer, but when another ATV tour arrived, we decided to clear out of their way. Since it was such a beautiful day we decided that we would head to the waterfall for a while… well not Rita or Emilio, they had to stay back to man the store and take care of the tour. Ramie brought Deiner back to his house to grab his ATV, and then we all met back at the store before we were off to the waterfall that is less than a 10 minute ride from the plantation.
We parked the ATVs and stood around admiring the waterfall and people watching. Since it was such a nice day, a popular activity on the weekends is for the locals to get on their ATVs or motorcycles and go for a ride to places like this (just like we’re doing). There were a few groups of young adults that passed through, having a good time. We spent about an hour here having some good laughs at everyone’s expense before we decided it was time to go back to the plantation.
We didn't stop at the plantation for long, though, because Emilio and Rita were getting ready to close up for the day. The plan quickly changed to head to Jungle Fish because they were having karaoke and apparently Deiner likes to do that.
We were pulling into Jungle Fish’s parking lot and Ramiro, the owner of Jungle Fish & Emilio’s brother, was standing there ready to greet us. With warm greetings and open arms he directed us inside. We are all hungry and I would say feeling “pretty good” at this point so we ordered some food before the fun continued.
Once our bellies were satiated with some solid food, the fun continued. The music started up and a few of the other patrons sang some traditional Spanish songs. We have no idea what they were about, but everyone else was singing along. Then, Geoff decided it was time for him to get up and sing. He did a number or two, and let's just say that everyone was getting a good laugh, not so much at his singing but more so at the silly, maybe slightly drunk Gringos that were there. There was a lot of singing, laughs and chit chat with everyone. Ramie even bought some handmade necklaces and bracelets that one of the waitresses there was selling. Not so much that he wanted them, but to support her and the community (And there’s a good chance that his judgement might have been impaired because he decided to buy everything she had.)
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| I couldn't tell you what song is on, but all 3 of these Gringos are singing along! |
We knew our Sunday Funday was going to eventually have to come to an end, so I convinced Ramie to switch to drinking water like I had several hours earlier. It would be getting dark soon, and it looks like it could rain at any moment, and it might even already be raining just down the road. We settled up our tab, said our goodbyes, had some more funny laughs on the way out to the ATVs and hit the road to head home. After days like this we always take the most direct route back home. We took our time heading down the mountain, and of course did hit some light rain, but it wasn’t too bad. We dropped Geoff and Tracy off at their house, and since we had been gone most of the day, we had to get home to Skye, so we didn't stay. I think this was a pretty good send off for Geoff!
Monday 6/1 through Thursday 6/5- Back to the grind for me this week and I have nothing fun to talk about. Ramie wanted to continue working on refinishing the decorative panels that he had started on earlier, but first things first, he headed to Randall's to get those wood stands. Once he saw them, he knew he could make them work for his needs so he grabbed a couple more pieces of wood to make some modifications, and brought them home. Before he got started, he made some supports so that the stands would stand better. After those were assembled and stable, I helped him set panel #2 onto the stand and he got work repeating the whole process that he did on the first one. Grind, rust preventative, let dry, paint one side. He worked on this for at least 4-5 hours today, but having the panel sit at waist level was so much better, he said.
Another thing that has been bugging Ramie lately is our hybrid Hibiscus plants that we planted over a year or so ago. They are not looking good or flowering like we expected. We have regular Hibiscus flowers that are doing just fine, but the hybrids with the more interesting and beautifully colored flowers aren’t. The leaves are curled in around the edges, not flat like they are supposed to be, and overall, they just look kind of sick. We are part of a Facebook page for gardening in CR and Ramie asked me to post some pictures and ask for suggestions on how to revive them… or if they even could be revived.
I created the post and got some typical Facebook replies from people who may or may not know what they are talking about, but there were a few people that actually understood what these hybrids are, and informed me that they would likely do much better in pots instead of directly in the ground. I also got a reply from a lady that actually does cross breeding, grafting and cloning of her own and has a huge collection. She has her own whole Facebook page dedicated to her beautiful Hibiscus plants. Let me tell you her plants are amazing! She made the same suggestion of taking them out of the ground and putting them in pots, in addition to a few of other suggestions about fertilizing and how to care for them.
Now, armed with new knowledge, we have decided that we’re going to take all 5 of our hybrid plants out of the ground and put her suggestions into practice. Ramie ran around town this week to look for pots that would be big enough, but was not about to pay the ridiculous prices they want for a basic flower pot here in town, and no one had the fertilizer ratio we needed. Thankfully, we have another option that might solve our problem later on this week.
On Wednesday the turtle walk season officially started. A couple of nests have already been found by the lifeguards or other people on the beach in the past couple weeks and it seems to be starting early, so the director of the turtle sanctuary decided to start up already. Ramie and his team had their first walk on Wednesday morning, but unfortunately, they didn't find anything, and neither did any of the other teams this week. That's ok, it's still early.
Friday 6/6- Ok, so what was that other option we mentioned? It turns out that a couple days ago Karen and Dennis mentioned they were going to go shopping in San Isidro today, so Ramie asked if they would mind if he tagged along and could stop at a couple stores. They didn't object, and since Ramie had a turtle walk this morning as well, they just asked him to let them know when to pick him up. Again there was no nest to be found so Ramie was home before 7am and they picked him up at about quarter to 8.
The first stop would be the farmers market. We’ve taken Karen there once or twice and she wanted to go and stock up. When they pulled into the parking lot, though, it was empty, and when Ramie looked over to where everyone should be set up, it was also empty. The person that gives you the ticket to park said that they changed their schedule. It used to be Thursday/Friday, but now it's Wednesday/Thursday. They were a day late. Well that sucks, but good to know moving forward I guess. So, with no fresh fruit and veggies, it was on to the next stop, Colono, which is the closest thing that we have to a Home Depot type hardware store. Dennis had a list of things that he was looking for, and Ramie wanted to look here for reasonably priced flower pots. Around the store they went, with Dennis checking things off his list and Ramie finding pots that would work and at a fair price.
The next stop was not originally planned, but Ramie wanted to show them another hardware store that was “interesting”, one of those where you can often find some of those odd-ball things that you're looking for but can’t find anywhere else. Nobody bought anything, but now they know.
After that they stopped at an Agri store to look for the fertilizer that we needed for our hibiscus, which just happened to be right across the road from the hardware store they stopped at. Before they got back in the car, Dennis asked where he would be driving to, so they walked to the edge of the parking lot toward the 4-lane road that he would have to cross, so he could get an idea and navigate it properly. Ramie looked, then looked again... The store should be right there… Where is the store? That's when he noticed the old, faded lettering where the sign used to be. Well, it used to be right there! I guess they don't exist here anymore. Bummer! Karen and Dennis had to make a stop at a furniture store that was a few miles down the road, so while they were driving Ramie looked up the location of the Agri store and found that there was one that was actually quite close to the furniture store, so they would make the stop. When they got there, Ramie realized that the same old store had built a new location and moved here. The Agri store also has a Vet inside of it and a lot of the medicines and things you might want or need for your dog or cat, as well as for farm animals, so Karen and Dennis were happy to check out what they had that they might need for Dexter. With the proper fertilizer in hand, Ramie was ready to go. The next stop was the furniture store where Karen & Dennis could inquire about the last couple pieces furniture that they had ordered but hadn’t yet been completed.
Once that chore was complete, it was on to Pequeno Mundo, a store that Karen really wanted to check out. This is one of those stores that has all of the different kinds of things. Kind of like a cross between a Walmart and a Costco but no membership is needed and it’s not really things in bulk. Most of it is cheap Chinese imports and you can find so many trinkets and nick-nacks that aren’t really a thing at a lot of other stores. It is one of those places that you never quite know what you’ll find, so they walked each aisle, checking items off their list as they went. Ramie, not really having a list, ended up buying all sorts of things he “didn't know he needed”. Yes, it's one of those types of stores. When they were finished with this store, that was it for the day, other than to stop for some lunch and head home. They dropped Ramie off at our house just as I was finishing work, so I helped unload the things Ramie bought and chatted for a little bit. Now that we have the flower pots, and the fertilizer (the main reason for this shopping trip), Ramie has added another project to his to-do list..
Saturday 6/7- While they were shopping together, Ramie had planned an ATV ride with Karen & Dennis for today, but it had rained all night and was still raining this morning so we postponed it to next weekend. That’s ok though, we had plenty to keep ourselves busy. I worked on blog stuff while Ramie got to work on the hibiscus replanting project. We only had a couple of bags of compost soil and were not sure how far that would go, so he dug them out one at a time, got it planted, fertilized and sprayed with Neem oil, and then moved onto the next and eventually had just enough compost to move 4 of the 5 plants. The last would have to wait until we could get more compost delivered.
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| We moved the hibiscus to the front of the house. |
After he cleaned up and rested for a little while, we ate lunch and then he started prepping to hang the 1st decorative panel that was complete. He took down the signs from the wall that this would be hung on and discovered that the sun had faded the paint so drastically that you could see the difference in color. He also had to patch the holes that these signs were hanging from, so that was his next project.
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| Putting a fresh coat of paint on the pump room. Now it matches the house. |
Eventually he asked for my help to carry the first decorative panel back to the pool pump room wall where we would mount it. I helped him get it set onto some wood blocks to set it at roughly the right height and then he was able to finish attaching it to the wall.
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| Measuring and adjusting to the proper spot. |
I was able to finish all of the bottom cushion covers today too. What a functional improvement that also added a pop of color to the patio too. These should definitely hold up and last so much longer than the originals. Someday I'll do the back covers too, but for now, this is what we needed. All of our recent work is paying off and looking good. Yeah, it’s a lot of projects, but it’s worth it!
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| Skye thinks that the cushions pass the test! |
Sunday 6/8- After such a productive day yesterday. Today we decided to work on the final stretch of sorting the remaining few Lego sets today.
Over the last few months of working on this project we have found better and more efficient ways of working through the project. We started by sorting one set, then building it, then repeating, but that seemed to be taking so long, and was a slow process. Then we decided we would sort 2-3 sets at a time, then build them. That went much quicker, but still wasn’t very efficient. Finally decided that we would sort 3-5 sets at a time, bag them up, and keep sorting without building any more sets for now. Once we get through sorting all the sets that we have manuals for, then we will work on building them all. The upper bunk in our guest bedroom was currently layered in bagged Lego sets, just waiting to be built. Today, by early afternoon, we finished sorting all the sets that we had, so we spent a little time in the pool before dinner. After dinner we decided to reward ourselves for all of that Lego sorting by building a set or two.
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| Yep, he is getting old. Its much easier for him to read the instruction book with his glasses |
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| While we work on Lego, Skye isn't too far away and usually sits up on the couch with me. |
Monday 6/9- While I was back to computer work, Ramie was back to working on the next of the decorative panels. This is truly a slow process, but today he was able to finish the 2nd panel, and after I was done working, we mounted that on the front of the house. While we have 2 full panels left, we don’t have plans for quite all of them. The last panel that we have a plan for would actually need to be cut smaller, then re-welded back together first, then he could start the grinding and painting process.
In addition to working on the panels today, Ramie also had a phone call with the new owners of another property in the neighborhood. They wanted to hire Ramie to manage the “main” house that would eventually be a vacation rental, as well as the 2 other houses on the property that are currently long-term rentals. Originally Ramie spoke to them about a few of these things way back in March because the original closing on the sale was supposed to happen in April, but because nothing moves fast here, the closing finally happened on the 1st of June. The conversation today was mostly touching base and going over a few details, it turned out to be quite a quick call. It might sound like Ramie is always keeping himself busy, and he is, but now he'll add another thing to his list.
Pura Vida!
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