Monthly Archives: May 2015

Start of Summer in our PR Yard

It’s that time of year again. Early May when the whole town of Rincón seems to clear out. The seasonal folks go back to the (mostly) Northeast of the US, and even people who live here permanently start planning summer vacations. That leaves us die-hards with the whole place to ourselves!  Even the most popular beaches are completely empty! The weather can start to get a little hotter, but at our place under the cool shade of the mango tree, we still have to put on a light blanket at night.

Baby mangoes
Mango flowers and fruitlets

The other transition is in all the plants. Everything comes alive in the summer. The avocados are beginning to form again and mangoes have been dropping like crazy hitting our cabana roof.

The robles (tabebuia) have bloomed a couple of times. They have these dainty trumpeted purple flowers that the hummingbirds and bees love and when they are finished they slowly spiral to the ground and form a flower petal carpet.

Purple roble flowers
Pink/purple robles

We also have lots of different food growing. We recently saw that our Surinam Cherries were fruiting. These are interesting little fruits that are in the shape of a pumpkin. Sweet but also tart with a distinct, hard-to-describe flavor. Britton and I munched on a bunch of them though.

Surnam cherries
Surinam cherry AKA pitanga

And we were super excited to see one of our pineapple plants forming a pineapple! We have had some difficulties in growing citrus as well as pineapple. The citrus has all sorts of diseases here in Puerto Rico, and it seems that pineapple often succumbs to root rot. This one, however, is doing great!

Pineapple forming
Pineapple growing

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Roof Paneling is On

Work on the roof has been slow and steady. For just three guys to basically build this entire house (plus me, when I can) it’s a pretty amazing feat. For these roof panels, Britton and I spent about 2 full days painting them. The grooves were super difficult to paint and we needed to use 10 gallons of paint plus 5 gallons of primer (thanks John and Fran!).

Painting panels
Painting during the heat wave we had last week: The Saraha not only brought us its dust, but also heat!

Once they were painted the guys brought the panels down to the staging area and then carried them by hand the rest of the way there.

Waving the flag
Puerto Rican Parade? Nope, just bringing materials down

The pitch of the roof is fairly steep, so once the panels were over there, Waldemar took the lead on the top since he had the most experience  (and least fear of heights).

Putting up roofing panels
The amazing Waldemar in action!

As the roof became covered it is starting looking more and more like a complete house.

Back of cabin

Some of the panels got scuffed up in the process of sliding them around and some of the grooves still need touched up with paint, but overall, it is looking really good and the high ceilings make it feel more spacious than it is.

They finished placing all the underside paneling as well as tar-paper. Next week will be the purlins and the actual metal roofing. In the meantime, the finca has been exploding with growth. I will have to post more pictures from the gardens, but here’s a start. Lots of cool stuff going on lately.

Double hibiscus
Double hibiscus bloom

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