Casa de Tortugas - Stories
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Month 1 - The struggle is real
Still having highs and lows and probably will for a while. The struggle to adapt to life here is real. Paradise has a price like everything else in life. For us it is the struggle to get use to life on a remote island and to get our home into a more complete state. Almost every day consists of some amount of work on the house and/or trips into town.
Because we still don't have doors on the house we are basically living outside so we battle the biting insects in the morning and evening. We use bug lotion/spray and insect repellent coils. It helps but they are still annoying.
The house is getting better every day. Some improvements include tile in our upstairs bathroom so we can stop showing in the outdoor bathroom except when we are very dirty from working in the yard. We got our puzzle table. It is 8' x 4' and was hand crafted by a local. We have started screening in all the openings above the walls. This wasn't important until now because we have no doors, but we will have them installed in the next few days.
The wild life is getting use to us being around. The birds will fly very close to the house. The parrots are amazing but noisy. They come by most days a little before sunset and they fill a couple trees making quite the racket. Surprising, they don't really bother us. It is pretty cool. A few big birds will glide through the yard between the house and solar as they scan for food on the ground. A bunch of frogs like to come sing to us when it rains and there are puddles near the house. They are so funny as their croak sounds more like a duck's quack.
A few animals are a little too comfortable. We have had two scorpions make their way into the house. They were easily dealt with (you don't need details). And of course there are the spiders that keep making homes in the rafters. We try to scoop them out and return them to the wild. We know they are eating the bugs but we still don't want them inside with us. We are looking forward to having the doors installed. A few days ago we were invaded by army ants two mornings in a row. On the first day we used up what little ant spray we had trying to keep them out. Tina stayed at the house and kept spraying them away with the garden hose while I ran into town for more spray. I purchased some Raid in the can for a quick solution, but also got some industrial spray that is much better. The second day I had the time to mix up the industrial spray and it worked like magic. We put a barrier around the house on the concrete. We don't want to poison the environment, but we don't want the ants invading either. Sorry, no pictures of the ant attack, we were far too busy with the fight.
This is the rainy season and with that comes some amazing storms. We love a good storm with lightning and thunder. Our porch is almost fully protected even when the wind blows. The back porch gets wet and so does the concrete. The front porch is staying nice and dry even in a heavy down pour. The rain keeps our water tanks full. The generally overcast days keeps the temperature down and makes working much easier.
A few days ago we installed two new tanks and after the first big rain they were full. We can collect a couple thousand gallons of water off the roof with one good storm. In the dry season we could go two weeks with little to no rain, so having four tanks is important. This gives us over 2,600 gallons of water.
We have only had a few chill days. With so much work to do we are busy most days, but we have taken a couple days here and there to relax. We have gone swimming a couple times, but mostly we just relax on the porch, do puzzles and watch some TV. Yes we have TV, it's all streaming services through our Starlink internet connection. So far we haven't really experienced the life we are envisioning. We are hoping to have more days where we just enjoy the quiet and wild life around us and go out swimming more. Once our major projects are done, those days will come more often.
All in all, this first month has been very rewarding, even with the pain points we hit.
We'll keep you posted as we reach more milestones.
| Living remote and off-grid requires many hats Published 09-Aug-2024 | Week 1 - Paradise, lost and found Published 06-Jul-2024 |
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