Once a year Cassie and I like to camp out in our backyard in a tent that was given to us as a wedding gift.  I spent quite a bit of time camping up in the mountains when I was growing up.  While it was fun, it’s one of those things that I have done quite a bit so it isn’t something that I feel I need to do.  Sleeping outside under the stars with Cassie is a lot of fun and we don’t have to drive, pack food, pack clothes and figure out all the details involved with a ‘camping trip’.

Our Tent

I used to also camp out in my backyard as a kid and across the street at my friend Matt’s house.  It was a lot of fun and I am sure parents enjoy it because your sleepover (loud kids) is outdoors!

We figured we had better get our once a year backyard camp out done because we have entered into the Fall season (maybe not officially, but you can feel it).  The weather is cooler, the veggies are ripe and the growing season is slowly coming to an end.  We’ve been getting more food from our garden lately too.

Fruit, Vegetables and Eggs

With the change in season we are starting to think about Puerto Rico too!  I hope there isn’t too much damage to the property, but if there is we can just fix and mend like we usually do!  We really enjoy our summer here in Colorado, but the winter is so long it will be nice to have a place to go where we can plant, pick garden and camp out!

I hope all our friends are doing well in PR after Irene.  The few Facebook posts we’ve seen indicate it wasn’t too bad and I hope that is the case.  I’d actually like to be down there for a tropical storm / hurricane at some point.  Just for the experience of it.  Not a major one of course!

We’ve been doing errands to get set up with our house in Rincon.  We got the water turned on and we have the electrcity on and in our names too!  The water we were able to do online, but the electric we went into Aguadilla to the AEE offices.  Everyone has been very friendly and helpful with us.

Water Guy Leaving.

The timing of the water being turned on was awesome.  We were just about to leave and go to the beach where they have a public shower to hose off with when I heard a truck.  We spoke to him…Well Cassie did.  He waited for us to check the house and ensure nothing was leaking before leaving.  He was super nice.

Cassie and “Water Guy”

Then we headed up to the Puntas Bakery and I put a few hours of work in.  It is nice that I am able to work remote and help out.  It means I don’t burn as much vacation time and they get to have a part time worker when they are really busy. 

The bakery is pretty good for breakfast and it is just up the road from the house.  You can usually spot someone sleeping in the middle of the day in Puerto Rico.

What a life!

Hopefully the blog stays steady for a while.  It’s one of those things where you just never know what will happen when you leave.  The webserver has been difficult but thanks to my sister and mother in law it is functional.  It’s frustrating.  Kind of like when you try to run in a dream and you just cant..lol.

We have been staying in this small concrete studio apt that is also on the property.  It works out perfectly -our air mattress, a bathroom (now complete with water!), and electricity to watch a few shows we brought with us on the laptop before falling asleep!

Concrete Studio

One of the huge royal palms in the “backyard” 4 acres

We’ve got a lot of interesting stories building up due to internet being sparse and our blog being down.  Hopefully we’ve got steady access and can update more frequently now!

Step one was to: Buy a property

Well that has been completed.  We were right though.  It has been an adventure, it wouldn’t be possible to know how this turned out and it is a huge accomplishment. 

We started out South of Lares pretty deep in the jungle/interior of Puerto Rico. We waited a year for the property to be correctly registered and it didn’t happen. During that first time trying to purchase something we always found ourselves leaving the property and driving to Rincon. Nearly every day. It took an hour+ to drive there, then we’d drive back late at night.   We backed out of that deal and started looking again.

On our second attempt we came looking for something further west. We looked in Atalaya and Aguadilla. We stayed at a place just off the 413 in Rincon for that trip. We really liked a place in Atalaya we looked at but the price was just too much for me.   We passed and someone else bought it.  We felt like we had to start all over…again.

On our third I found a property north of San Sebastian. This was much further West than Lares and only about 30 mintues to the beach / Rincon. We negotiated an offer which we could afford and it was accepted. We felt pretty good about this deal. It had land, a house and was closer to all the action.

Then the unexpected happened. We found a property that was not only in Rincon, but we could afford to buy it. The price had always been a limiting factor for us living in Rincon! So it seems like it is a good fit for us.  We finished up the deal just yesterday and purchased it.  It is a bag of mixed emotions.  Everything from overwhelming joy due to us finally completing step 1 of our goal to a bit of fear and panic about what is next.  Do we fix up the wood house?  Do we not worry about it because we may want to tear it down and build a house of our choosing? 

This seems to be a logical thing for us.  We always have something going on and like to have something to do.  This project will keep us busy for years to come. 

There is a concrete studio apartment bulit there as well.  I think we will get the water turned on and make that livable for now.  It will give us a place to stay while we are here, it is nice already inside (just needs paint and maybe some plumbing).   We aren’t really sure what to do with the larger wood house, but I guess we have plenty of time to figure it out.

Stairway in Wood House

Cassie on the Deck

At this time it looks like step 2 will be to figure out what step 3 is.  It is different to dream about something than to actually do it.  When you actually do it, you feel all kinds of things you don’t in the dream.  You see things in reality that don’t exist in the dream(good and bad).  One of my favorite analogies of life is that it is like a rollercoster:

The world is like a ride in an amusement park and when you choose to go on it you think it’s real because that’s how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and around and around and it has thrills and chills and it’s very brightly coloured and it’s very loud. And it’s fun – for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to question; is this real? Or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, and they say, “Hey, don’t worry, don’t be afraid, ever, because… this is just a ride.”

I didn’t catch the name of the band, but they were pretty good. 

We then spent today looking at a few properties.  Both were about what we expected.  One of the smaller places in Aguada was nice, but a little on the high priced side.  It has a few acres but its on the side of a hill.  It is terraced and could work out for growing plants pretty well and that is one of our requirements.  We would offer a lot lower than what they are asking for. 

Also since we were by the beach, we went again.  Here is another gallery.

I am working on a video to upload, its huge though so it will take some time. 

This morning we could hear the roosters and they actually haven’t stopped all day.  Our chickens would be jealous, the chickens here get to walk around in the streets.

I wish you could smell this!

We’ve setup a few showings for houses tomorrow in Aguada.  They are places we have been looking into for a while now on the internet.  It will be nice to see them in person.  I’ve uploaded a few pictures in a gallery from today.

Sunrise over an airplane in Charlotte

On our way to Rincon we stopped at a little taco / burrito place and had lunch in Hatillo.  It was a really cool, clean and friendly place.  Good food and a Jamacia soda. 

 We then came to Rincon where we will be staying.  Its a much different place than the eastern side of the island.  A bit more laid back.   Today is a day to just get settled in.  I am writing this from the place we are staying at.  It is a house in the hills of Rincon. 

We are currently resting, surfing the web and we went for a brief walk around the neighborhood. We are going to start calling people and setting some things up to look at (properties) during the week.

 
Short walk vista

From This (not actually me, Im way hotter)

Its much the same as I did for the company I work at now. Just proving oneself can get you places. I started doing some CD production and distribution and now I am working on software engineering projects for 911 and doing software quality testing with no formal education.

For me its all about setting goals and being persistent. I came here not knowing what the vi editor was in unix. Now I can make advanced shell scripts that run at an enterprise level site (have several hundreds servers and several datacenters). Learning new programming languages, learning about system administration, data cabling, fail over philosophy and many many other attributes of computing that I didn’t even know existed a few years ago.

To This (not actually our data center, our cabling is much cleaner)

When I look at where I started it gives me a good sense of pride to know where I am at now. I don’t exactly know what I will do once I get to PR but if the past is any indication I will do whatever it is I set out to do. I’ve never really failed at anything I’ve tried (rentals, carpentry, flying, computers, sports, jobs, etc)

The saying is true. You can do whatever you put your mind to. The part they don’t tell you is that it takes hard work, perseverance and dedication. Most important of all is that you can’t give up. Ever. The best skill that I’ve gained thru all my hard work is that I will do ‘whatever it takes’ to accomplish something.

I feel the same way about our Puerto Rico goal. I’ll do whatever it takes. Sometimes its discouraging to not have already completed this. Cassie and I were talking about it and as it happens to be; we could complete our goal to move to PR today. We could do this pretty easily.

The issue comes from knowing ourselves fairly well. We have realized that we want a challenge out of this. That is what we do, seek out and accomplish challenging goals. We aren’t ready to retire, we want to get to PR and make a difference or a substanial positive impact and have an adventure.

Who knows. I could start out there doing whatever it takes to get by and end up somewhere I never imagined or thought possible asking myself, “How did I get here?”. I ask myself that pretty much daily already, I don’t expect it to change! lol.

To This?