Category Archives: Kitty

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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Re-establishing a New Normal with Baby!

Not long after my discharge from the hospital (about one week), I began to feel very sick again. I soon felt weak and faint, could hardly breathe or walk and started to develop another fever. We ended up going back to the emergency room at Mayaguez Medical Center and I spent another week in the hospital with major hemorrhaging from placenta that was still retained even after having a D+C the week before. I lost so much blood that I needed 6 more units transfused for a total of 8 (the human body only has about 10!). Suffice it to say that it was a very scary time for us.

I am not sure we have fully processed that ordeal, but we are now looking forward to re-establishing a new normal as a family of three.


Britton and Aeden

Now we are happily trying to deal with the lack of sleep, feeding and changing schedules and the sheer confusion that comes with an infant instead of worrying about life and death issues. Thankfully, I am recovering quickly and am beginning to enjoy going outside and even working a little more in the gardens -something I hadn’t been able to do much of at all throughout the pregnancy.


“Hey, Momma, more boob!”


“Ok, enough with the pictures!”

We have mostly just been recuperating and settling in at home, but we have made a few voyages off the compound and we’re getting better at it.


A visit to the ocean


Enjoying our new normal at the finca -Aeden’s 1st month picture


And poor Kitty feels like he’s playing second fiddle, but we still love him! 馃檪

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Random Photo Update: Life in Toon Town

Here are a few photos that don’t probably deserve a post on their own but are just a part of the slice of life living in Puerto Rico. Sometimes the scenes and places we end up just seem so surreal, like we are living in a dream or some sort of cartoon. Sometimes it’s very strange, sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it’s just strikingly beautiful. But whatever it is, we’re living it up!

Palm Tree Cassie
The beach is always right around the corner

Ardilla Mongoose crop
I finally聽got a photo of the mongoose! The little egg bandit!

Turkey bridgeTurkeys need to cross bridges too! This particular guy聽is the hope for the future of our turkeys. The last surviving male.

Corazon
We are harvesting more and more of our own fruit from the finca聽like this coraz贸n, a fruit that looks like a heart

Bilimbe
And these interesting bilimbes that are juicy and so sour but leave a cool聽buttery taste in your mouth

More plants
And we went out and got some more plants too!

Kitty
I forgot to mention that Kitty is adapting well to the move over to the cabin too

Cassie Aquario
Out and about there is always something cool to see and do

Barrita Los cocos
Like this little Coconut Barrita

Hibiscus Flor
Or this amazing hibiscus flower right in the plaza that took my breath away

Britton and beer
Check out the view from this roadside liquor store

Mannequin house
And there is nothing like the bottom half of a naked mannequin to draw attention to your store! 馃檪

Britton congas
One of the conga players from the balneario came down and practiced with us in the jam space!

Sunset
There’s never a shortage of spectacular sunsets here!

Sunset
Marina Sunset

Sangria Cassie
And new spots to check out like Pal Monte

Cassie Ultimo Brinco stand
Which is just up the road from El Ultimo Brinco, Rincon’s little waterfall spot

Cassie wantedAnthony Loops and Cassie
Or at the restaurant Cowboys which is like a little slice of Colorado in Rinc贸n (with friend and musician, Anthony Lee). They even have rodeos here!

Cowboys Rubberneckers
And we got to see our friends play some country music – the Rubberneckers

Viking B
And if Puerto Rico聽is like Toon Town, we are now part of the loony聽fabric too! Here’s Viking man at the beach!

Cassie contemplating coco
Or聽the contemplation of聽a coconut in an abandoned聽house without a roof

Colorful downtown
And everything is so colorful!

Bienvenidos a rincon
Rinc贸n even has the cartoon-like welcome signs!

Cassie rock
And did I mention the beach is around every corner?

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Bee Removal From a House -The Easiest Way

Bee removal 2

Bees are a way of life here and like many things we were initially freaked out about when moving here (have you seen the rats?! haha) we have taken them on as a learning opportunity. We love bees and all the work they do. They pollinate so many of our beautiful flowers and fruit trees that there is no doubt that we want to help them as much as possible.

Tropical gardens flowers
Some of the beautiful flora we grow here

Pomarrosa flowerFlor de Pomarrosa

Bilimbe flower
Our first bilimbe flowers!

Berry thingsA wild currently unknown tree with聽beautiful red berries (anyone venture a guess?)

However, we really don’t want them to be living inside our walls.聽I wasn’t too surprised when I walked past the shed and saw a few bees entering the drain area of the wall. I knew exactly what was happening. We have had聽so many聽bees聽building homes in the cavities of the wood house that this was kind of expected. We have in the past聽hired people to come and take the bees away. And some people will use poison, but there is one聽other way to get the bees out of your house without actually touching them or聽harming them!聽And it is by far the easiest and cheapest!

Cassie and Kitty crop
Kitty and I are on a bee safari!

Bee time
Britton (and Kitty) getting down to bzzzzness

Cover yourself so that the bees can’t sting you and then just simply open up the cavity and walk away! In one day they will be gone. Bees need to have protection on both sides, so if one side is open, they will have no choice but to leave. And that is exactly what happened with this hive.

Bee time hiveIEmpty cavity
Lots of bees! And then one day later they are gone! Easy peasy!

The next level in this game would be to actually handle the聽bees and put them into a beehive where we could then harvest some of their honey. But for now we are pretty proud to be able to do this ourselves! We’ve come a long way since our first house bee hives!

Here’s a funky fun video of this easiest of bee removals. (Check out 2:45 for a close up of all the bees)

 

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