Tag Archives: clearing the land

Mowing the Lawn

Mowing the lawn in Greeley used to take 40 minutes.  Now it takes several days after months of clearing and replanting. When we first arrived at the property we were greeted with lots and lots of overgrowth. It took quite a bit of work in order to just pull the car in, or for us to get to the cabana.  We were hacking and slashing our way thru the forest bit by bit.  Well that basically hasn’t stopped.

Britton on a ladder in a tree
Latest Section Being Cleared

We have been getting better and better at the art of cutting down the mess that one could call the forest.  We are better at seeing valuable (to us) trees and better at using less effort to clear.  In this endeavor we have also narrowed down our tools to just a few.  The chainsaw, the loppers, machete and once things have been whacked down we use the lawnmower and the shears. I don’t use the weed whacker anymore at all.

We hired a neighbor for a day a while back who was seeking work to come clear some areas that had become over-run with vines.  I watched him use his machete and learned that it is far easier to use on over grown slopes than a weed whacker.  It is simple, uses no gas and is easy to keep sharp with a file.  For the non sloped areas we just use the mower and when we clear new sections we clear to the point where I can actually run the lawn mower across it.  It makes maintenance easy(ish).

Burnt tourist tree
Tourist Tree 

We have a lot of these fast growing soft wood trees.  They are bursera simaruba also known as gumbo-limbo or turpentine.  The best name for them we know of however is the “Tourist Tree” because when the bark is exposed to sunlight it peels like a sunburn.

Tree Come along
Using a Comealong to Help Direct the Fall of a Tourist Tree

We have been working on an area ‘down below’ on and off for months now stopping for a while to dismantle the wood house.  The area is far larger than our whole property in Greeley was.  So from a landscaping perspective every section we work on is a massive project for us.  We start by taking down the brush (anything that can be cut with the loppers or machete), then we start taking down the larger trees.  Once that is done we have to clean the ground, plant grass then plant new trees and ornamentals.  In any given area there are hundreds of trees that are anywhere between an inch in diameter to a few feet.

Yard debris
To the Edge Cleared and the next section of brush

Cleared Area
Cleared and First Stage Replanted with Grass Seed and Fruit Trees -Next Ornamentals

In doing this we have also learned to plan for where all the debris will be.  If it can be downhill, all the better.  Moving logs any distance will quickly tire us out.  The debris piles start to become HUGE (usually 10-12 feet high and at least as wide).  I try to drop trees so they fall directly on the pile if possible.  The trees are almost always completely overgrown at the top with vines which connect all of the trees into one.  This situation makes planning and cutting more difficult and sometimes we have to drop 5 or more large trees at the same time in order to get them down.  It is a real mess but eventually you get through it all.

Rooster crow
Color, texture, depth and movement is what we like most in the gardens 

Once the area is cleared the hardest work is done and it quickly fills up with new trees of our choosing (mainly common and exotic tropical fruit trees) and grass so that the weeds and vines don’t start growing again.  We have also started to plant more ornamentals (heliconias and gingers, bromeliads, palms, trinitaria, cruz de malta, etc)  to add some depth and color to the yard.  The space goes from an impenetrable mess to a wide open usable and planted garden.

Truck plantsAnother Truckload and a Half of Foraged Ornamentals Ready to Plant

We have been lucky to be able to find gardens from friends that have started new growth which we dig up and bring home.  It will take many truckloads to fill in and replace what we cut out.  If you don’t replant something quickly everything you don’t want will grow back in short order.  This past year we have been mainly focused on getting fruit trees planted and growing and have only just begun to plant flowers, hedges, palms and other ornamentals, but we are slowly adding more and more.

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An Update: Clearing the Jungle, Rincón Farmer’s Market and More

We have been staying pretty busy. Every day is another new adventure for us. Sometimes we get a little overwhelmed with everything we need to do so we decide to just hang out in the cabana or on the property all day long.

Cabana Bridge
We spend a lot of time on the cabana and this is the bridge that connects to the top

Then we remember that whatever we “need” to do is only because we think we do and we get re-energized. So really anything we need to do is actually just a want. The property has sat empty for over a decade, so there is no rush except in our heads.

I think we have a good balance of going out and staying in. We have started to meet more people which is nice and they have offered a lot of helpful advice. We love hearing all the stories of how people ended up here.

We continue to make progress on the property painting a bit more and making it more comfortable. Britton has been clearing out more and more of the jungle. He took down this big weed termite attracting tree but it took about 2 mornings and a lot of elbow grease since he just used the bow saw to take it down.

1st going Going Gone
Going, going, gone…opened up the view to a nice royal palm in the gully

We finally tried the Thai restaurant Ode to the Elephants and really liked it! And we went to the opening night of the pizza place Mi Familias that moved to the old Rum Shack spot of the Lazy Parrot. We also went to the Rincón Farmer’s Market and it has really grown since we had been there before and is now a weekly event! We drank some fresh coconut water, some freshly squeezed cane juice and ate some red bananas.

Coco y guineo
Guineos y coco fresco -with a papaya stem straw
Sipping coco
Yum!

Fresh coconut water doesn’t taste anything like a piña colada but it is really refreshing. It is slightly sweet and slightly salty too. Sugarcane juice on the other hand is very sweet. I got to taste a small amount after I asked to take a video of the juicing process.

Rincon

BK in plaza
Britton at the Farmer’s Market with our goods

We talked with a few people at the market and it sounds like it is pretty easy to get a table and sell stuff there. We are thinking of starting with chicken eggs and going from there when we are all set up. One of the venders even invited us to check out their finca in Moca which we thought was pretty cool.

We are slowly getting more and more comfortable at home, but we still don’t have a stove or burners, so we have been eating most of our food from the rice cooker and heating tortillas on the coffee pot -lol. It actually works remarkably well.

Rice and beans
Rice and beans have become a staple for us!
Food for chili
Some food from the grocery store

tortillas on coffee pot
Quesadillas/tortillas on the coffee pot!

We have been able to find just about everything we need at the local grocery store, Edward’s Family Coop. They will even special order stuff. It is a bit more expensive, though, like $7.50 for a container of Breyer’s ice cream. Hence the rice and beans which are cheap and relatively healthy too. We also have tried “sofrito” which is like Puerto Rican salsa and VERY garlicky. So we just use a little to season our rice and beans.

Our other favorite thing is finding all the beautiful beaches. Like Dome’s Beach that looks like a set on a science fiction movie because of the shut-down nuclear reactor that overlooks the beach. It is also where they had the surfing event in the 60’s that put Rincón on the surf-scene map.

Domes Beach
Domes Beach

Overall, we are having a blast. There is a lot going on so hopefully this update catches us up a bit.

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