It’s amazing what you can get done when you don’t have internet.
No phone distractions make for a steady mind. Although I have many questions that I’d like Google to help me solve. Now I must write them down before I forget and look them up later– when I have driven down the road to borrow public wifi.
Even when I am using the wifi at the next neighborhood, I don’t stay long. Oh... the mosquitoes... They are something. I quickly load my emails, send off the ones I’ve prewritten and check in with mom.
Dust off my hands with a job complete and head back to my internet-free day... with a few new mosquito bites on my ankles.
…
We average a 6:00 wake up call via sunlight streaming through the port lights. It’s one of the best skies of the day. Big, bubbly clouds over the hills and the lagoon. Beams of light blasting through.
Such a nice way to wake up– an instant smile to my squinty eyes.
After a hearty breakfast (we've given up sugar, grains, and dairy for Nov.) we outline our day. By 8 o'clock, two others have shown up to clear debris from the villa above. We spend several hours sweeping glass, scrubbing walls, and removing family knickknacks that have fallen and splattered.
By lunch we are exhausted and smelly. The heat sets in so we eat and turn up the fan blast. Depending on my energy level, I will return to my garden and play in the soil some more. After I've had enough of the mosquitoes biting my bum through my heavy pants, I give up. Retreating indoors to shower and head up the road for wifi.
...
My mission since returning has been to create a good harvest– be more sustainable, organic, hippie-like. Last year I grew a few cucumbers and tomatoes in a bittersweet battle to have a successful garden. But after finishing a large book on Caribbean Gardening, I feel more confident not to screw it up, again.
I have many vegetables sprouting and need to transfer them into a protected garden soon. I was able to retrieve an huge white box from my neighbor's bushes. And I found a matching white fence that washed up in the mangroves. I am a few weeks in growing eggplants, zucchinis, tomatoes, squashes, pumpkins and cucumbers.
The plants are doing well, given they have taken a beating with the monsoon rains and erratic winds. I have boxes that I throw over them before big rains come. To offer them a little protection from wind and rain, but I don't think they appreciate it.
Anyways, I expect to have fruit in 3-4 months if we can keep the iguanas out. Just today we were sending bbs at one who came too close to the garden. I am lucky the neighbor's dog (a stray who showed up, made her home and adopted them) is an expert hunter. She will come to our marina and scale the mangroves in order to force the iguana into the water. Two much larger dogs wait for the lizard drop. Makes my eyes water; so proud of them. Margo, on the other hand, cowers from the screened-in porch.
...
The stars are out by 18:30. It feels so late by the sky-clock that we decide to have early dinners. Curry, curry, and more curry. I've just learned how to make it, and we've been so happy with the results we can't not eat it... often.
At the moment, I conquer the kitchen Whole30 style (look it up). Pumping up ze captain so he can fix the boat-lift motor and prepare the new mast. Andy is truly amazing. I have never seen someone work so long and hard (every single day!) Our kitchen is covered in his lists. A hundred-million things to do; he flies around all day fixing this and that. Now he is working on sawing a couple of masts and reassembling them.
Once he can get Nai'a fixed, he can have a vacation. But first we need to get a crane to take our mast out and put the new one in. In the meantime, we have to store both masts on the boat. They rest on giant, wooden Xs that are in place from the bow to the aft. Causing a bit of a hurdle to get on and off.
...
If one thing is for sure it is that we are sleeping well. We're expending so much energy, even at four meaty meals a day. Maybe it has to do with the low sugar in take or maybe it's the reassurance that hurricane season is over. People keep saying it is at least. The water has cooled enough so therefore hurricanes can't form. But I don't think Mother Nature cares much for slight differences in water temperature.
If she doesn't hit us with a hurricane, it could be something else... just as bad. But I shouldn't leave this on a gloomy note, aye? We are happy to see all the flowers blooming again!
My garden, the boat and the villa are all shaping up. One splattered mosquito, one bead of sweat, one coconut curry chicken at a time.
Slowly, but surely.
No phone distractions make for a steady mind. Although I have many questions that I’d like Google to help me solve. Now I must write them down before I forget and look them up later– when I have driven down the road to borrow public wifi.
Even when I am using the wifi at the next neighborhood, I don’t stay long. Oh... the mosquitoes... They are something. I quickly load my emails, send off the ones I’ve prewritten and check in with mom.
Dust off my hands with a job complete and head back to my internet-free day... with a few new mosquito bites on my ankles.
…
We average a 6:00 wake up call via sunlight streaming through the port lights. It’s one of the best skies of the day. Big, bubbly clouds over the hills and the lagoon. Beams of light blasting through.
Such a nice way to wake up– an instant smile to my squinty eyes.
After a hearty breakfast (we've given up sugar, grains, and dairy for Nov.) we outline our day. By 8 o'clock, two others have shown up to clear debris from the villa above. We spend several hours sweeping glass, scrubbing walls, and removing family knickknacks that have fallen and splattered.
By lunch we are exhausted and smelly. The heat sets in so we eat and turn up the fan blast. Depending on my energy level, I will return to my garden and play in the soil some more. After I've had enough of the mosquitoes biting my bum through my heavy pants, I give up. Retreating indoors to shower and head up the road for wifi.
...
My mission since returning has been to create a good harvest– be more sustainable, organic, hippie-like. Last year I grew a few cucumbers and tomatoes in a bittersweet battle to have a successful garden. But after finishing a large book on Caribbean Gardening, I feel more confident not to screw it up, again.
I have many vegetables sprouting and need to transfer them into a protected garden soon. I was able to retrieve an huge white box from my neighbor's bushes. And I found a matching white fence that washed up in the mangroves. I am a few weeks in growing eggplants, zucchinis, tomatoes, squashes, pumpkins and cucumbers.
The plants are doing well, given they have taken a beating with the monsoon rains and erratic winds. I have boxes that I throw over them before big rains come. To offer them a little protection from wind and rain, but I don't think they appreciate it.
Anyways, I expect to have fruit in 3-4 months if we can keep the iguanas out. Just today we were sending bbs at one who came too close to the garden. I am lucky the neighbor's dog (a stray who showed up, made her home and adopted them) is an expert hunter. She will come to our marina and scale the mangroves in order to force the iguana into the water. Two much larger dogs wait for the lizard drop. Makes my eyes water; so proud of them. Margo, on the other hand, cowers from the screened-in porch.
...
The stars are out by 18:30. It feels so late by the sky-clock that we decide to have early dinners. Curry, curry, and more curry. I've just learned how to make it, and we've been so happy with the results we can't not eat it... often.
At the moment, I conquer the kitchen Whole30 style (look it up). Pumping up ze captain so he can fix the boat-lift motor and prepare the new mast. Andy is truly amazing. I have never seen someone work so long and hard (every single day!) Our kitchen is covered in his lists. A hundred-million things to do; he flies around all day fixing this and that. Now he is working on sawing a couple of masts and reassembling them.
Once he can get Nai'a fixed, he can have a vacation. But first we need to get a crane to take our mast out and put the new one in. In the meantime, we have to store both masts on the boat. They rest on giant, wooden Xs that are in place from the bow to the aft. Causing a bit of a hurdle to get on and off.
...
If one thing is for sure it is that we are sleeping well. We're expending so much energy, even at four meaty meals a day. Maybe it has to do with the low sugar in take or maybe it's the reassurance that hurricane season is over. People keep saying it is at least. The water has cooled enough so therefore hurricanes can't form. But I don't think Mother Nature cares much for slight differences in water temperature.
If she doesn't hit us with a hurricane, it could be something else... just as bad. But I shouldn't leave this on a gloomy note, aye? We are happy to see all the flowers blooming again!
My garden, the boat and the villa are all shaping up. One splattered mosquito, one bead of sweat, one coconut curry chicken at a time.
Slowly, but surely.
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