Category Archives: Backyard Chickens

April Update -Finca, Flowers, Friends, Fruit and Fun


Hanging with my little guy in Rincon

If it weren’t for me being a chronic photo-taker, I don’t know if I would ever blog anymore. The pictures help me to remember what we have been up to which has been a lot of fun! We have been busy with visiting friends, the flower business continues to grow (literally haha), the cabana has been booked regularly and we have seen some cool sights as well. Aeden is growing up fast and at 7 months can now sit up on his own and eats sooo much regular food! Here are quite a few pictures that tell so much more than my hands can type.


Babies grow so fast! I had no idea. Compare 1 month to 6 months


Britton and Aeden at Rompeolas in Aguadilla


We have a bunch of new varieties of flowers coming in right now


Family fun at the farm


Why is Britton usually carrying Aeden? Because he is huge in comparison to me! These pictures were taken at the same moment in time 馃檪


And work -clearing out more underbrush and dead trees to plant fruit trees and flowers


One of Kitty’s last pictures 馃檨


We buried him near the bridge so we can think of him every day. We miss you, Kitty. You were a good cat


I am also so saddened by the death of our former bandmate, drummer, artist, jokester and friend, Rob


We finished the concrete staircase that enters the jungle and added solar lights


Fun in Aguada


With the babe


At the pool of Casa Islena -Aeden loves kicking water


At the pool of Villa Montana too!


With his sweet little friend and our new friends


At the pool of Rincon of the Seas


With friends Tracy and Fernando


We’ve had some large orders of flowers lately!


And more and more keep growing like these gardenias


Peek-a-boo!


New variety of starfruit started growing on a tree we planted!


And our first ever Siam Rose flower bloomed! We weren’t sure about this one since it usually takes a lot more rain than Rincon gets

Grosella tree is going off!


So I brought a bag of them to Roots Bar to see what magic Sashary can make with them!


These gals are so fun!


So sad to see our good friends the Kersches move away (at Ode in Aguada)


Chicken in the bushes


We spend a lot of time outside on the farm with the munchkin


Manzano guineos as they ripen – apple flavored bananas! Not your typical store banana!


It’s a colorful time of year! Ornamental Turmeric Flower and caladium from our farm and a Reina de las flores in the market

Our little boy is growing up too fast!


Go where love grows! My two cowboys!


Yeehaw at Cowboys in Rincon


Palm Sunday procession in Rincon


Gecko visiting an ornamental banana flower


“Bienvenidos” is too cool! And a great part of Rincon


Stopped in at the Ag Fest in Mayaguez


And the ArtWalk -we don’t go out at night much anymore with the little guy


Britton, bananas and baby!


Fun seeing our friends Matt and Jamie again


Hanging at the beach


And my friend from high school/Colorado, Sarah and her family at Villa Cofresi


Pineapples are growing good!


And more bananas! These are the “Cuban reds”


More flowers! Double hibiscus and orchid


We also ate our first jaboticaba after about 4 years of waiting!


The gardens are really coming in beautifully!


Driving along in Mayaguez, this horse was standing there like “Am I not Magestic? You should take my picture!” So I did


Plantain delivery in action!


Saw these ornate Don Quixote (I assume) carved figurines in a garden store!

Check out this stinky star flower I saw walking around too!


Cool mural in Aguada


Selfie time!


Papaya grows wild here! We didn’t plant this, but we sure did eat it! Tasted like cantaloupe


Well, that’s all folks! Until the next time!

Oh and here is Aeden’s 7 month update video! Enjoy!

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Hacienda Marak in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico


Aeden checking out the donkey Sancho at Hacienda Marak

We recently had the opportunity to visit Hacienda Marak in Mayaguez. I was very impressed with this farm as it has nearly everything I would love to do with our place only on a much larger scale. Markitto Tremblay is the owner of the property. He is the former owner of the unique boutique hotel in Rincon, the Blue Boy Inn, but has since retired to his 65 acre slice of paradise on the mountainside of Mayaguez. I have been following him on Facebook and just knew I had to meet him and check out what he has been up to. He has some exotic plants that you just don’t find in the nurseries here, a beautifully remodeled home (a former coffee plantation and hacienda), various fun animals and even the pond I have been wanting! The icing on the cake is that he is a native French speaker and I am currently taking a French class, so that was extra fun.

聽聽


Some very cool plants including even apples!


Gorgeous orchids


I loved his eye for style


And landscape design


The columns and terrace area got me thinking of some fun ideas!


The pond was one of my favorite parts of the tour! Something I have been talking about with our property for a long time to put under the bridge



The animals were so cool! Chickens, goats, sheep, parrots, a dog (that looked remarkably like Schnoodle), donkeys, koi, and we gave him some of our turkey babies too to add to his menagerie!


Sancho the donkey was super friendly and fun


I have always wanted a tortoise too. I think this one is an African Spurred Tortoise


She may live to be 100 years old!


Thank you Markitto for opening your home to us! It is lovely and an inspiration to us to keep going on our tropical property!

Here’s a video of our time with Markitto. Aeden was kind of squirmy and whiny so it is somewhat choppy, but I hope it shows a little what a magical, magnifique place Hacienda Marak is!

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Spring and Easter in Rinc贸n

In Puerto Rico because it is a tropical environment, many people think that there are not seasons. This is not exactly accurate. While it does stay between 75-85 degrees F year round there are still subtle changes. Because we work outside a lot and we live in a cabin in the middle of the jungle we notice these changes perhaps a bit more than some people. For one thing, many of the plants begin to flower in preparation for fruiting in the summer. One of my favorite flowering plants are the robles (Tabebuia rosea). For about one month these trees add a rose colored hue to everything including the ground! It is like living in a pink snow globe especially when you see them softly twirl to the ground.

Cassie with flowers
The trees and I are pink!

Carpet of robles
Roll out the pink carpet!

Turkeys
Turkeys enjoying the changing colors of spring

Rambutan flowers
The rambutan are already flowering! Let’s hope they form fruit!

GrosellasLike this grosella

Papaya markings
The papaya and bananas are constantly producing! I love the way this trunk looks like ancient carving

I think all plants are beautiful in a certain way, but not all of them are friendly! We have been working on clearing around the cabin and replanting with fruiting trees and ornamentals. In doing so we have to clear out some pretty mean and nasty stuff like the Puerto Rican poison ivy they call Carrasco that no matter how careful I am, I always somehow manage to get on me. About 2 days after this happens I swell up really bad and start itching uncontrollably. Then my skin erupts in a pus-y mess and then finally scabs over. It is not fun!

Carrasco berries
Spring for the Carrasco plant too!聽Here is its聽flower/berry

Another mean plant are the wild bromeliads.聽While beautiful聽they have the most vicious spikes on them. I have many pokes and stings from these bad boys. They are very difficult to eradicate from an area. We just threw them over the fence line. They would make a good living fence because no one would want to walk through these!

Bromeliad Spikes
Wild bromeliad and its thorny weaponry

Side yard
Side of the cabin that we cleared of bromeliads and other brush and have begun to replant

When we’re not enjoying spring in the jungle, we have been out with friends at various events including the Stand Up Paddleboard race, and Spring/Easter parties. The 2017 tourist season was a little slow, but that doesn’t mean the partying was. One thing about living in Rinc贸n (and I think Puerto Rico in general) is that there is never a shortage of parties! It’s a good-time island. We have to consciously choose which events to go to and which not because we’ll never get anything done around the property otherwise!

Villa Cofresi
Villa Cofres铆 and her famous piratas during the SUP contest

Logan Britton Chris Karen C B Sage
Fun times with friends!

On Easter weekend we went to a friend’s farm in Aguada and set up a campground. We sang songs around the campfire and toasted marshmellows and relaxed. The fireflies came out and danced alongside us. It was truly magical!

Road to Toms jungle
Road through the woods to the campsite

Camp in jungleCampsite by day

Camping
And by night聽(thanks Daisy for this pic)

Easter we had聽a wonderful time聽with a聽variety of聽friends!

Van Ees
The Van Ees

Slip n slide (2)Easter chicken
So much fun! Slip-sliding away…even with chickens!

Cassie and Britton easter
隆Felices Pascuas!

Beach party
And another party at the聽beach!

So yes, there is a spring in Puerto Rico even if it isn’t quite as pronounced as up north. Everything is in bloom, the birds and insects start mating more, the rains begin to come more regularly, the temperature and humidity go up a little and the ocean warms up just a bit. In Rinc贸n the northern tourists leave and the local Puerto Rican tourists start arriving. I hope we can continue playing music through this summer, but if not, come check us out at our next聽show this Saturday at Willie’s Bar and Grill in the marina!

Rincon Continentals poster
Rinc贸n Continentals Live

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Update: Limber de Teta, Demolition Derby, Flower Power, Rinc贸n Film Fest, Etc

Rincon beach road
Rinc贸n Back Road

Wow, it always surprises me when I think of what to write about for the blog. I think, I don’t really have any good topics. Then I look through my pictures and I see that we have actually been out doing quite a few things. Here are聽a few of them:

Rinc贸n International Film Festival
We enjoyed a beautiful and elegant evening at Rinc贸n Beach Resort for the final night聽of the Rinc贸n International Film Festival also known as聽“Best Of Fest.”聽 I like to聽watch all the short films聽that have been sifted through and chosen as the top picks. As for the resort,聽I have never been to this one聽and it was really nice. I have seen it advertised on Wheel of Fortune and it聽definitely has that sort of聽all-inclusive聽resort聽vibe.聽It even has a swim-up pool bar聽that is connected聽directly to the beach.

Rincon Film Fest
With friends at RIFF聽

Cassie Rincon Beach Resort RIFF with Markus and Daisy
Fun at Rinc贸n Beach Resort

Limber de Teta
I saw a sign for Limber de Teta and it made me laugh. What could boob limber possibly be? So we stopped and tried it out. It was a limber (like an icee) but sold in a little baggie the shape of a boob.聽Pretty clever!

Britton sucking teta
Sucking on a parcha/pi帽a boob

Limber de teta Artesan Boobs
At the Limber de Teta stand just off聽the 115 going towards Aguada

Demolition Derby in Moca
A friend of ours invited us to a demolition derby in Moca that was a fundraiser for his friend’s adolescent daughter who has a very aggressive form of cancer. I see a lot of fundraisers around here for various causes, but this was one of the biggest. We hadn’t been to a demo derby since the Greeley Stampede many years ago. Here it was definitely not regulation size or even in a stadium. People just sort of hung out everywhere, but it somehow worked.

F Cancer Demo car
One of the demolition cars

Demolition crowdDemolition Derby from above
Quite a crowd in the middle of a cleared out field!

As we were watching the events unfold a the derby, a young girl walked by that caught my eye. What was in her hands? Snakes! I was intrigued and began asking her about them. She could tell that I wasn’t afraid of them and said, do you want to hold them? I tentatively said yes and she put the large python on my neck and the baby in my hands. You never know what you may find in the randomest of places!

Snake Cassie edit
Cassie the Snake Charmer. Starting to get a little tight around the neck!

Flower Power: Playing Music
We played our most recent show at Willie’s to the theme of Flower Power/Hippie Night and it was a lot of fun.

Willies Hippie Night
Playing out at Willie’s

Hippies Kenny Markus CassieHippie Night
Good times! Peace, Love and Happiness!

On the Property
We have been focusing on property landscaping聽a little more lately and cleanup. While we’re not completely done with the house, it is functional. So now we are making it and the surroundings pretty! The finca has grown a lot in the last 3 nearly 4 years and we are starting to see the literal fruits of our labors!

Japanese Nispero Flowers
Nispero Japones aka Loquat first flowers!

Cassie Jungle 2 two
Amongst the flowers of our gardens

Kola cola nut flowers
Kola Nut flowers!

I hear something BK
In the jungle of our yard…Hey! What’s that sound?!

We have been clearing out some pretty nasty spiky and poisonous plants lately! Check them out:

Huge Spider Huntsman
Huge harmless spider (on a 2×6 to give you scale)…a huntsman

Cross that bridge
We’ll cross that bridge when we get there

As I was clearing聽some聽bromeliads and聽underbrush from behind the cabin, I found聽this old聽liquor bottle. We聽have determined聽based on the markings that it is from between 1932-1964! That’s聽a long time to be sitting out in the middle of the jungle! This old聽treasure says: Federal Law Forbids Sale or Reuse of this Bottle. John Walker and Sons Ltd聽Kilmarnock Scotland 4/5 Quart.

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Before it was Johnnie Walker, it was John Walker and Sons Ltd

The chickens and turkeys聽are all doing pretty聽good. We have to protect them a little more聽especially now that we are at the cabin and聽not as close to their coops.聽We collect quite a few eggs and enjoy their silly antics. Here’s some voodoo magic you can do with a chicken!

Out and about
And then of course聽there is the randomness of being out and about around the island. You just never know what you might see.

Whole lotta cans
Like a聽HUGE can of cans!

Muscovie duck
Beautiful duck, I think a Muscovy in a lagoon

Surfrider crewHanging out with Surfrider and a high school science club doing water quality testing聽

Mural
Cool new mural on a derelict building

Cassie derelict house
And nature reclaiming this one

Not even for one second
This sign made me laugh…No! You can’t park here, not even for one second

Sana
One of our favorite little food stands, Sana, moved across the street by the Post Office

Socato fruit
And at the Pulguero in San Sebastian I spotted these huge fruits. They call them Socato

Chilling cassie
Hanging out at one of our favorite bars, Olajas in Aguada

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