Back to work with chickens

Wednesday it was time to start back to work. That becomes interesting when you have no power and no internet. Fortunatly there are a couple cafes that let folks hang out and use theirs. I do have to deal with the background noise being open air, and the ocassional chicken walking by, but its worked for the most part. Besides, great smoothies and a lunch I dont have to make

This morning I helped the local animal shelter deliver dog food to folks that need it. Unfortunatly the shelter was destroyed. It will likely be at least 6 months or more before it can be rebuilt.

Most people I see are getting into a rhythm of life, but there are odd things. A typical how are you doing no longer gets just a standard response. Its now about how they are coping post maria

Time for me to work on the fence and gutters. Outside of the trees, that is the major area we got damage, so not bad

Rain and rambling

So its been raining for the past couple days. There are still minimal blue tarps on the roofs that need it, so we really dont need it. The ground is still very saturated so the streets are flooded, not so you cant drive, but you have to be even more careful.

I've notice how much light polution we normally deal with. Cloudy night, sun goes down and it is dark. No street lights, no glow from town, just dark.

Today also marks the end of day 7 for me here. Each day has been a bit different, but the day revolves around the generator. It needs to be run in the morning and evening to keep the fridge cold enough and to recharge cell phones, battery packs, and laptops

I also spent about 4 hours at Baked since they have good wifi. Was able to work from there. Great people there.

The new normal

This is cramers park. It hasnt been cleaned yet so still gives a view of what

In contrast here was hours after maria vs now

And tonight I was able to go to the first live music on island since maria. Thank you deep end for hosting fyah train

Tacos at ziggies

Did some yardwork this morning. Ziggies was serving tacos so of course I had to partake.

Tomorrow they are doing brunch for the first time since maria. Little steps toward normalcy.

I met a couple people from the EPA who are down to help. Great folks. They couldnt speak highly enough of the local crew out to help.

One of them hadnt been down since he was helping with hugo cleanup. He was telling me the differnce between yhen and now. Part was as a 26 year old kid, the rental suzuki samari soft top he had then was great, now in his 50s air conditioning is much better. Oh how our priorities change as we get older.

Egrets and generators

I’m just getting into the swing of things here. From my previous post you saw one of my first tasks was to mow the lawn. 

One of my favorite things here is to watch the egrets come while lawns are mowed. They take advantage and go after geckos, frogs and insects. While i was mowing, no egrets. I was ver disappointed. Then i got to the back yard and four came out of nowhere. That made me smile. 

As you saw from the updates from Patti, she and Beth were babying the generator. The day before I came, it up and died. Through Beths contacts we were able to score another one at a reasonable price. Nice to hear it running. Getting the fridge cool again so we can restock. Beth took all the freezer items to work, but the fridge side is all dead food. Oh well. Small trials.

How to quickly dehusk a coconut

This morning I learned how to dehusk a coconut in under a second.
Step one - put said coconut in tall grass
Step two - run over coconut with lawn mower while mowing the tall grass
Step three - check shorts for sudden wetness
Step four - look about 4 feet away for dehusked coconut


Mower and operator survived the experiment without injury.

Arrival

Patti dealt with the real mess of hurricane Maria. She flew back to Dallas Saturday to finish an idc. I arrived to finish what she had started.

She showed me a number of pictures shortly after Maria. No leaves on trees, roofs blown off houses lines everywhere. Short relief from curfew also made life here difficult.

I flew in on the first aa flight into st croix since Maria. The pictures don't do it justice. At the same time, I am seeing green coming back, longer curfews, better connections.  The island is getting to a temporary normal of life without power in most places. Curfew is now lifted from 9am to 8 pm which is amazing.