Wednesday 10/15- We mentioned in a prior blog post that Dusti has been injured, but the replacement parts that we needed to fix her have arrived just in time. Today Ramie’s priority was to make her feel better again by installing a new CV boot.
Before he could work on that, though, he had a morning full of running errands, paying bills in-person in town, going to the bank, and shopping for even more parts for Stuart and Gems casita. You may remember from the last blog that Ramie was asked to go up there to install an electric shower head, but there was some concern about the heat output. Ramie heard back from them this morning and they decided to just stick with the original smaller shower head since a bigger one wasn’t going to make much of a difference anyway. This means Ramie had to go return the new one that he bought, which would be possible since it was not opened or used. Stuart also mentioned that they decided that they wanted Ramie to run and install electricity and plumbing for a washer and dryer too. After paying the bills, it was back to the hardware store to buy the parts he would need for the new project. He finally got home around lunch time, grabbed something to eat, and took out all of his mechanics tools to work on Dusti. Since he had already replaced the axles, he knew exactly what had to be done and it only took him a few hours and she was all put back together again. He went for a quick drive to heat up the CV joint and make sure that the clamps were tight and no grease leaked, and once he determined that all was good, he got everything cleaned up just before dinner time.
Thursday 10/16- Today was another yard day for Ramie! October is typically the rainiest month here in Costa Rica and recently we’ve been getting plenty of rain nearly every day. Because of this, when you get a break in the rain you take advantage of it!! All of this rain makes the plants grow quickly so Ramie had to get the grass cut and wanted to trim the plants. Of course, it can never stay dry quite long enough and it did start raining on him towards the end of his project. He doesn’t mind though, as it keeps him cooler when it’s raining. It’s better than baking in the sun! When he was done with the yard work, he headed up to Geoff & Tracy’s, as she asked him for help doing a small job of repairing a sliding door. It turned out to be fairly quick and easy, just an adjustment of the rollers and a bit of help to figure out why the lock wasn’t working as expected. Easy peasy! Most repair jobs here in CR don’t turn out to be that easy!
Friday 10/17- After Ramie rotated the tires on the truck a while ago, the truck developed a pretty noticeable shake in the steering wheel. For some reason, here in Costa Rica they don't balance the rear tires, only the fronts. When we got new tires a year ago Ramie asked them to balance the rear tires and told them that we were even willing to pay extra for it. They claimed that they did, and when they rolled the new tires out to install them on the truck, Ramie even made sure that there were weights on them. Well, after he rotated the tires it was evident that those rear tires were not balanced properly. Ramie thinks that they just stuck some weights on the rims to make it look like they balanced them.
When he has driven through town recently he noticed that the tire shop usually didn't have a lot of customers right away in the morning when they opened, so he decided that today he would go in right when they opened to get the tires balanced. He was the first one there, but was told to come back in a half hour because the guy that does the balancing had to clean the waiting area and bathrooms first before he could do the work. Weird, but ok fine, Ramie would come back in a half hour. He had one more quick stop to make in town anyways, so he’d take care of that first. When he returned to the shop a little while later they got him right in, balanced them quickly, and had him on his way. The truck now drove nice and smooth and there was no more steering wheel shake. The rest of the day he did more work around the house, and more yard work because the projects here just never end. While out in the yard, he found a handful of these caterpillars. He must have missed them on the plants earlier when they were smaller because as you can see they are now about the size of one of his fingers. Normally he catches them when they are only about and inch long.
Saturday 10/18- Josh & Steph are visiting Costa Rica with their family for about a week or so, but they aren’t staying in Uvita. Today they did make the time to come through town and meet with Ramie for a little while to talk about some things for their property, though. Ramie also walked through the houses with them to show them all of the things that he has been getting quotes for and the work that has been done so far.
Today we had a nice sunny morning, which was a really nice change as it has been so rainy lately. We know that it is very rainy this time of year and are prepared for that, but a nice sunny day is always a welcome change, especially on the weekend! Even though the weather was nice, we did spend time sorting the remaining Lego for a little while before enjoying the sun. Because of the lack of sun and all of the rain, the pool is a bit chilly for out liking, so we weren’t going to spend a lot of time lounging in the water today anyway.
Sunday, 10/19- Today we had another relaxing day. We spent some more time sorting the Lego, some time in the chilly pool, and some time doing those pesky house chores that are always needed. Truly, there wasn’t much going on for us today and I don’t really have anything else to say but we enjoyed the time relaxing.
Tuesday 10/21- Today Ramie was back to work at Stuart & Gem’s little casita. Ramie prefers to get started working early, so he was out the door at 7:30 to be at the casita around 8. You might remember from the last blog that Ramie had installed an electric hot water shower head in the bathroom where there was never hot water previously. Today he is running the hookups for a washer & dryer that were never there previously. Just like the last electrical job, he started by running the conduit and then pulling the wire before working in the live electrical panel to get the wires connected. The last electrical step was to finally install the outlets. Once he was done with the electrical portion of this job, he had to do some digging to find the water line and drain line that he would have to tie into for the washer. The washer and dryer would be located outside the house, which is not uncommon here, so that made it easier to just tie in with the piping that was outside of the house already. After the new pipes were installed, it was time to move the washer and dryer into place, hook them up, and give them a test run to make sure everything was working appropriately.
With the washing machine running it’s test cycle, he went back inside and reinstalled the shower head that he had installed and then removed last time, and then cleaned everything up. He had expected a full day of work today, but since he found the water and drain lines much closer to where he was installing the washer than he expected, he had to do a lot less digging than he expected as well, which took less time. There was one more job on the list, however: to replace the toilet. He didn’t originally expect to do this part of the job today, but since he had the time, he might as well start. As he was starting to remove the old one, he found that the prior owner had concreted the toilet to the floor. He had to start by carefully removing the old one so that he didn’t damage the floor (the toilet would be getting thrown out, so that didn’t matter so much), and when he finally got it removed he discovered that there was no toilet flange to bolt the new toilet to. Well, this is a bit of a problem, but Ramie’s Repairs could solve it! He would have to go to the hardware store for some more parts, which is usually expected when doing jobs like this, but the issue is that the hardware store is a 20 minute drive down the mountain, and then 20 minutes back up to the house. He decided that he had enough time so down the mountain he went to the nearest hardware store. Of course, when he got to the hardware store in that little town, they didn't have what he needed, which meant that he would have to come all the way back to Uvita, another 20 minutes beyond where he was, to get the parts. I guess he wouldn’t be going back up to the house to finish this project now, it’s a good thing that they are in no hurry for him to finish.
Ramie got home from his day of working on the casita at just about the same time I was finishing up with work. He was not very happy that he couldn’t finish what he was working on today, and didn’t want to spend another partial day working up there tomorrow; he was looking forward to a day working at our house. Since I was finished working, he asked if I wanted to go up there with him this afternoon so he could finish up the work he was doing and so I could go see the little casita with its beautiful view.
I didn’t have any other plans for the afternoon, so I agreed to go with him. While Ramie had told me about how tiny this casita was, I was shocked when I saw it. It was even smaller than the studio style casita we rented when we first moved down here. The view, though, was amazing. While Ramie worked on the toilet, I took in the view, walked around the quiet, secluded property, and chatted with Ramie while he worked, since he usually only has himself to chat with when doing these kinds of projects. Once the toilet was installed and he cleaned everything up, he was done with this job.
Two years ago Geoff & Tracy’s friend Jodie visited from Canada, and at that time Ramie brought the three of them for an ATV ride while I was working. Jodie is here visiting again this week and a must-do on her list was another trip with Ramie’s Rides.
Since Geoff is still back in Canada, this time there’s room for me to go with them, so we planned the ride for a day that I could take off work. We picked Tracy and Jodie up fairly early this morning and took the scenic route up to the coffee plantation. We were planning to take Jodie on a different route than Ramie took her last time and we started the drive through the jungle, making our way to the waterfall where we stopped for pictures.
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| It may not look bad, but that wash out is much deeper than it looks. |
Unfortunately, it was a cloudy day and our typical scenic views weren’t great, but we had a good ride anyway, and Ramie made sure to hit every mud hole we came across. By the time we made it to the coffee plantation, it was raining, but not down-pouring. We stopped inside where we found Rita and Melissa on their own. It turned out that Emilio, Deiner, and Juan Carlos were working on building a new coffee drying house out back. Deiner knew that we’d be visiting today, so we went back to check out what they were working on and found the 3 guys putting plastic up over a newly constructed metal frame to make a roof. Deiner explained that this new building would replace the old one because these plastic roofs allowed more sun and heat, which meant for better coffee drying.
The rain was coming down hard enough now, and they were at a good stopping point, so they called it a day and decided to socialize instead. Deiner’s house is just a short walk away, and since Tracy hadn’t seen the house yet, Deiner took us for a quick tour. After that, we all went back to the “shop” area and hung out, visited, had a lot of laughs, had a delicious meal prepared by Rita, and really enjoyed our time.
The rain never let up, and after we had spent a few hours together it was time to head back down the mountain, drop Tracy & Jodie off at their house, and head back home to Skye for the evening.
Friday 10/24- When I asked for yesterday off work, I decided that I’d also ask for today off, and we’d make a quick trip to Panama to do some restocking. Ramie was out of rum, and there are just a few things that we like to look for in Panama that we can’t find here on the Costa Rica side. Since it’s nearly a 2 hour drive each way, this trip took a good chunk of the day. We restocked Ramie’s case of rum, found him some dress clothes for our upcoming cruise, some new shoes to replace his other ones that are falling apart, and a few other things, but nothing interesting enough to mention.
Saturday 10/25- The warehouse where Ramie helps Randall has been busy lately and Ramie got called to go help them load some stuff into a container bound for the US. This was some of the same stuff that Ramie previously helped palletize, so it was just a matter of using the forklift and pallet jack to load them, and only took about an hour to do this morning.
Monday, 10/26 through Friday 10/31- After getting Sunday off from the warehouse, they called him back to help out for the rest of the busy week. Randall and Ramie had jobs all over the place including moving the stuff from peoples homes, inventorying and/or building pallets for the stuff that they picked up, and all of the other things that went with shipping and moving. This was a busy week for Ramie, but he did get one day off, that he spent doing yard work and all the other things around our house. Friday was by far his longest day, leaving our house at 7:30am and not getting home until 5pm. He said his back was very sore after all of the packing, moving, and loading. It turns out that after living here for many years, this guy that they were working for was moving back to the US, and in his home he had a sort of museum, some of which he had already sent back, but this week the guys got the rest of it ready to send back. Boy, was there a lot of stuff!!
The Official Casa Costa Breeze end of October rainfall total was 32.52 inches
Saturday 11/1- Happy 11 year wedding anniversary to us!
As you’ve noticed when reading about birthdays and past anniversaries, we don’t do anything “big” or make much for plans for occasions like this, so there isn’t anything super exciting to tell you about. Instead, Alex, our insurance agent, came over to our house this afternoon to get our home insurance back up to date. The whole meeting with Alex took a lot longer than either one of us expected, and I really didn’t feel like making the dinner that I had originally planned, so we decided that we might as well go out to dinner for our anniversary. It was only 4:00, but like I always say, we are early birds and often prefer going out early and getting home early. We had a couple of places in mind and ultimately decided on a new Mexican restaurant that we have heard some good things about.
When we got there, we discovered that they were closed, and upon closer look, it looks like they might be closed long-term. We know that this happens this time of year during slow season because some of the restaurants that we might have otherwise chosen are closed too. Every year we see businesses that are extra busy during tourist season, and much less busy during low season take advantage of this slow time of year for either remodeling or just for a vacation. Since this place was closed, we tried out the next place on our list, only to find out that they too were closed. Since that restaurant was about half-way to Dominical and there are a couple of restaurants up there that we always talk about checking out but just never have, we made the rest of the half hour drive up to Dominical only to find something else that we did not expect. We know that Dominical has a big Halloween party every year, but we expected that they had done that yesterday. Nope, it turns out that that was NOT the case! As we got closer to town we saw cars parked up and down the highway and on all of the roads leading toward town. We tried to drive toward town only to discover pure chaos and the main road completely closed for the Halloween festivities. I guess that the entire town of Dominical was would be off our list for dinner plans, so we turned around and headed back to Uvita. Now that all of the places that were on our list had been ruled out, the plan turned to just to find somewhere, ANYWHERE that was open. We drove to another Mexican restaurant that we like, and they were closed too, so we lowered our standards even further and went to a restaurant in town that would never have been on our “let’s go there” list. We were hungry and had been driving around for more than an hour at this point, so we ended up at a restaurant that I don’t think I’ve ever seen closed and seems reliable enough . Their menu selection wasn’t great, and their drinks were way overpriced, but it was good enough to get us filled up, and after an unexpected night of driving around, we had a quiet night at home with Skye.
Monday 11/3- Even after working there all week last week, Ramie was back at the warehouse making more pallets for people's belongings. This is a popular time of year for people to move either into or out of Costa Rica, hence all of the work that Ramie has been helping with. Ramie has also told Randall and Lowell that very shortly there would be a week where he would not be available at all so they needed to get as much done as possible right now.
Wednesday 11/5- Once again, it was another day of work for Ramie and Randall. This time it was deliveries. A customer recently had 2 pallets shipped into CR and was ready to receive them. They loaded the two pallets onto Randall's truck and made the drive up into the mountains to the town of Tinimaste. Since they can’t bring a forklift with them, everything has to be unloaded by hand at the destination, which is why Randall likes to bring Ramie with him. Fortunately, it didn't take them too long to unload and Ramie was home early enough for us to meet Val and Marshall at Mosaic for dinner. Val and Marshall had new friends in their neighborhood whom they had also invited , so we got to meet Bryan & Landon and learned that she was originally from Minnesota. What a small world!! So that ended up leading to some interesting conversations.
Friday 11/7- Repairs, Repairs, Repairs. Even when they are not for us, the repairs never end! Ramie is running out of time to do work for other people and is trying to fit in as many jobs as he can before taking a well deserved week off. Today he had a request to fix a ceiling fan for our Chiropractor Benny. At least it turned out to be a fairly easy job and he was home in about an hour and a half with the promise of an adjustment “on the house” the next time he needed one.
Saturday 11/8- Today we would finally have some time just for us with no work or anything else planned. Well, we did plan to smoke some meat today, but that’s not a terribly big lift. On the menu this time are pork ribs and chicken.
Thursday 11/13- Ramie and Randall had to go to Orotina, a city near San Jose, to deliver those 5 pallets and to pick up some other things before they return back to Uvita. Ramie left our house at 7:15, and the pair of them were on the road north by 7:30. The 3 hour drive was uneventful, and Ramie did get to see some new parts of the country. They finished unloading the pallets by hand at around 1pm and then had to head deeper into the city to pick up 8 solar panels for another customer. The GPS directions said that the place was only 30km (18miles) away, but it took them over an hour to drive that.
It wasn’t because of traffic, though, it was because the first delivery had them so far up in the mountains that the roads, although paved, were very narrow and winding back and forth, making the drive very slow in the big delivery truck. They stopped for lunch, but got it to go so they wouldn’t waste any time. Finally, they arrived at the solar dealer around 3:30 and it took about another hour to get those 8 panels, the paperwork, and get everything loaded and strapped down before they finally hit the road south again at about 4:30pm. It was now rush hour, although truthfully, in San Jose rush hour seems to be all day. Even though much of the day was just driving, an exhausted Ramie didn't make it home until 9:30pm. And he had to do it all over again tomorrow, except in the opposite direction.
Friday 11/14- Randall had to fit in one last day of work for Ramie before our guests arrive tomorrow. Once again, Ramie left the house at 7:15am, and since they loaded the truck last night after their long day, they could get on the road at about 7:30. On today's trip they would drive to Chacarita to deliver 3 pallets. It was a much shorter drive today, just over an hour one way instead of 3. Once at that house, they had to unload everything by hand, but today there were some workers there who helped, so it made the job quicker and easier. Even after making one more stop on the way back to Uvita, they were finished and Ramie was home around 1pm. The rest of the day it seemed like we just cleaned and put away more stuff around the house to prepare for our visitors. It may sound like our house was a complete disaster zone before they came, but it wasn’t that bad, it’s just that for the last year the guest bedroom has become our Lego room, so we had to move all of that out and find a space for it so our guests would have somewhere to sleep.
Stay tuned for our next blog where you'll get to hear about all of our adventures with our guests!!
Pura Vida!
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