As many of you know, there is not a whole lot to do in Rincon, Puerto Rico, once the sun goes down. Luckly there are many poker players in town, so we play home poker games 3 times a week. Mondays and Saturdays we play at Marks house and here are the official poker stats:
(You will notice that I am currently #1) 
We are also going to try and set up a web cam so you can spy on us when we play. I’ll let you know once that is up and running…
Popularity: 54% [?]
Does anyone know if Puerto Rico celebrates the ‘non-religious’ side of St. Patrick’s day? Just to clarify that, I know that it is celebrated in the churches here, but do local Puerto Rican bars (not tourist bars) dye the beer green, hang four leaf clovers and discount Bushmills and Jameson shots?
Popularity: 60% [?]
Last week, I started feeling a little weak, it was getting harder and harder to get up early for surfing every morning, I had muscle and joint soreness and it felt like I had water in my ears all the time. It was throwing off my equilibrium, making be feel dizzy and all I really wanted to do was lay around an relax. It was not accompanied by anything else associated with being sick (vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, etc) For me, sitting around is a hard thing to do…even when I am exhausted, I do what needs to get done or my mind starts running through the list of things that need to get done like ticker tape and it ruins my relaxing moments.
Well, by Friday morning I realized that my body was going into shut-down mode. I was completely exhausted, was really achy, had a constant headache and felt dizzy. It was enough to retire to the couch and bed for the entire weekend. I didn’t sleep much more than normal on Saturday, just didn’t feel like moving. I drank tons of water/juice and watched movie after movie (Assassination of Jessee James, Two Days in the Valley, Death Sentence, He Was a Quiet Man) and read a junk food novel by John Grisham called “The Testament.”
Without ruining the book, one of the characters in The Testament got Dengue Fever while in South America…and it got me thinking. Hmmm…..symptoms of Dengue Fever; Headache, Joint Aches, Muscle Aches, Nausea, Swollen lymph nodes, Rash and vomiting. Dengue Fever is a disease similar to malaria as it is carried and transmitted by mosquitoes (Aedes Aegypti Mosquito: Only feed during the day) and it can be found in the tropics or tropical climates.
Instead of panicking or even caring at all (I am very melancholy when I am sick), I slept for about 18 hours yesterday. I woke up when Summer came to bed at about 1:30am and had a little trouble going back to sleep but woke up again this morning around 7:00am feeling pretty good. We’ll see how it goes today, hopefully I am on the road to recovery!
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Today I sent the check off to the Animal Rescue Foundation of Rincon. As promised, I matched any donations made and the total sent was $240. I know that ARF has been having problems staying open due to lack of funds, so hopefully this will help at least a little bit.
If you’d still like to donate to ARF of Rincon, you can send donations to:
ARF of Rincon
P.O. Box 592
Rincon, PR 00677
Popularity: 85% [?]
I have been really busy over the past week or so. Without evening mentioning work (the kind that helps pay for all this), I have been digging holes, chipping away rock, hacking down jungle, planting and watering like a mad man. I mentioned this in another post, but landscaping is something I can just zone out to and not worry about it being ‘up to code’ as far as construction goes. Dig it, plant it, water it, watch it grow.
Since there hasn’t been any surf this month, I have pretty much been working 7 days a week (why not?) on the property and this week I decided I needed a break. So I took a vacation and relaxed in the hammock for a few minutes. Laying there, i watched a little storm come in offering my new plants a much needed break from the sun and a bit of moisture.
Rincon Puerto Rico Vacation - For 3 Minutes
Instead of dozing off (like I would have done if we were simply renting a house in Puerto Rico), I fast forwarded myself 3 months to the start of the rainy season. I could only think of one thing; “I need to install our rain gutters.” My little Puerto Rico vacation was all over.
For those of you that don’t know, Puerto Rico doesn’t have a seasonal climate change similar to the North East (where I grew up). Puerto Rico pretty much has three seasons as far as i am concerned.
1. Dry Season (November - May)
2. Wet Season (June - November)
3. Hurricane Season (June 1st - November 30th)
When it rains, it really comes down. My little Puerto Rico vacation was over because i was starting to day dream about the damage all of the moisture could do to our offices if I didn’t do something about the water run off from our roof. So, I went to Hojalateria Hipolito Rosa, INC (a metal shop/factory) in Aguada and made a custom rain gutter order.
I ordered about 272 feet of 6” deep X 6″ wide corrugated steel rain gutters. They slide under neath the existing corrugated steel roof and will have to be fastened to the house from the top down…which is going to give me more work to do (sealing up all of the screws to ensure those holes won’t leak water into the soffits). Looks like it’s back to construction work! How do i do this again?
This is definitely a DIY (Do it yourselfer) special!
Popularity: 62% [?]
It’s weird for me to go from working out in a gym 4 times a week, to not really knowing what to do with myself, since we moved to Puerto Rico. I guess it’s just transitioning from Southern California to Puerto Rico, but I certainly got a workout today, while working in the backyard. Killing two birds with one stone!
Here is what went down…
Repeat steps 3 - 5 ten times.
Everything was fairly easy, except for running the wheelbarrow up the hill. That was HARD. I had to get a running start at the bottom, which would get me half way up. Then I would have to set down the wheelbarrow, (so it wouldn’t slide back down) and reposition my feet. Then I would literally have to inch up the rest of the way. I’m sure my neighbors probably were watching me and laughing their butts off.
Nonetheless, we got a nice temporary planter around the backside of the house so we can start growing out our jungle
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So I was was reading a trashy celebrity gossip magazine today (I have to catch up when I’m off the island ;)…), and there was an article about Martha Stewart and her pet miniature donkeys…
MIniature donkeys?!? What?! Awesome!!!
I have never heard of miniature donkeys before, but that is EXACTLY what Stefan and I need! We have gone back and forth on what sort of animals/pets we want to have for the property, in order to keep the jungle growth in check. First we thought we wanted goats (or a small flock of pigmy goats), but goats eat EVERYTHING, including the young trees we have planted, gardens, palms, laundry, shoes, the house, etc. Then we thought that perhaps we should get a horse or a cow, since they are good mowers, but won’t eat our trees, but I think Stefan and I are both intimidated by having such a big and powerful animal such as a horse or cow (I was leaning more towards a cow…ha). So, how perfect would a pair of mini donkeys be?! Look at how cute the little beasts are!
Couldn’t you imagine Monkey and Cheech riding Buck Rogers (the mini donkey) around the property while Kuta is herding them all?!?
I am SO looking into how much it would be to buy and fly a pair of mini donkeys to Puerto Rico…
p.s. I’ve always wanted to be Pippy Longstockings, so I am going to carpe diam, damn it!
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I am officially living in Puerto Rico full time now, and since I don’t have any property or assets on the mainland, I decided to take advantage of the very generous tax breaks both the federal U.S. government and Puerto Rico give to businesses that move their mainland companies to Puerto Rico. I am currently in the research stage and will be hiring a firm out of San Juan that has both Certified Public Accountants and Lawyers that will graciously help me through the entire process of setting up a Puerto Rico Corporation, filing for tax exemption, showing my business history and appearing with me in front of a committee that will question my business and its move to Puerto Rico (for a fee). I don’t think it is as easy as setting up an S-Corp back on the mainland.
It is my understanding, that because I am in the service industry (Marketing) and that 90% of my clients are not in Puerto Rico, if I employee 5 residents of Puerto Rico (can be gringo or Puerto Rican as long as they live here) I can qualify for a Tax Exemption. This tax exemption will completely relieve me from having to pay Federal Taxes and will reduce my state taxes to 7% after all of my deductions. I also we will not be double taxed. I only pay taxes on my business once, then all the profits are mine at the end of the year. If I pay myself a salary, I will have to pay taxes on that (but I can write that off as a PO) Now, 5 employees is about all I would like to have (I used to have almost 40), but it would be worth bringing them on just for the tax break!
The problem with having employees is that you have to work harder. You need to have a plan for them everyday and most of all, you need to make sure they don’t all asleep on your desk. Cheech’s first and last day on the job:
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Tonight, I am in an extremely clean and dog free house. After watering this morning, I pulled all of the furniture out of the living room and gave the entire upstairs of the house a deep clean. It has really needed it. We have had a lot of rain this winter and every time we get a little mud in the yard….the dogs track up the house within an hour.
At the end of the day today (a few minutes ago), I sat down on the couch and looked up the driveway through our cool ass teak window/doors at the front of our house and felt completely stoked on the house we have built (still building) and the fact that it is in Rincon Puerto Rico. Summer and I have been having so much fun exploring the island(mostly looking for construction supplies), learning the language (we would like to be fluent), eating the fruit, avocados, mangos, drinking the coffee and eating the quesittos, building our house, surfing, snorkeling and running our businesses. This place is rad.
I think this is the feeling people (sales guys) refer to when they describe the “Pride of Ownership.”
Popularity: 54% [?]
Is all of my hard work landscaping just taming the property or is landscaping the property taming me? I have been at it a lot lately and now I am quite enjoying it. I have come to the conclusion that I will be doing at least fifteen hours of yard work every week for the duration of my life at our house here in Rincon, so maybe enjoying the yard work is a good thing. Although it is still difficult land to work, it is getting easier two fold;
I am using the pick, a sharpened shovel, sometimes gloves and a giant steel bar that I can drop to the ground with a boat load of digging power. I have the hoses hooked up to one another so that I can water any plant/tree in the front yard without having to dedicated time to attaching hoses and switching water sources. I clear out all of the weeds, flatten an area to catch rain water (instead of it flowing right on past), backfill with a mix of potting soil, pete moss and local dirt. Then, I cover the dirt above the root structure with pebbles and rocks from around the property to shade the soil from the sun (it is amazing how much a little shed helps keep moisture in the soil)
When we first started landscaping (back when we had the topsoil dumped for the grass in the front yard) it really seemed like we had a long way to go. We knew that there wouldn’t be much immediate gratification (aside from the lawn) as far as mature plants and trees. Well, I think we have been working hard on the landscaping for a few months now, and I am starting to envision what it will be. It is hard to imagine what your front yard could look like when it is baron, dry, rutted and rocky. For me, I saw a few before/after pictures of other peoples yards and realized how fast and big a lot of these plants can get. Seeing those before/after pictures along with the solid schedule of planting in the front yard and now I am daydreaming in my hammock about a fruit and vegetable producing front yard that has plenty of shade, flowers to trim and privacy.
This first picture is of a young Canango tree. The Canango tree is a fast growing tree that will reach heights of 12 meters in just a few years. This tree produces the Ylang Ylang flower, made famous by Channel No. 5 perfume, which will make everything within 20 feet of the tree smell like it just finished a relaxing four hour aromatherapy session. Needless to say, we will be planting the Canango Tree and its Ylang Ylang flower in close proximity to the front master bedroom windows. Those trade winds will blow the fragrance through our master bedroom 24/7.
Ylang Ylang Flower | Potted Cananga Tree
I am envisioning the front of the property by the gate filling in with big trees. The ficus we planted right in the center of the yard will get huge, allowing us to plant things under it that will need shade and 30 feet further up the hill is the gate. I have planted about seven avocado trees in that area. As they grow up I’ll keep snipping them and try to keep them lower to the ground and fill in more space. I also planted a few different types of avocados that produce at a different time of year. I can see friends planning their visits around avocado season (or mango, or orange, or guava, or papaya). Here is the biggest of our avocado trees on the property (I just planted it today)
Avocado Tree | Five foot tall sapling
We don’t really know what we are going to do with the driveway yet. It is going to stay like it is for a while (both our trucks have four wheel drive 4X4) so I decided to plant some heliconia around the tree. It seems like a good enough spot to me. They will spread like crazy and should give us some beautiful flowers at ground level. The tree I planted them below is an African Violet. It has great flowers up high at certain times of the year.
Red Heliconia | African Violet Tree
This Egret or White Heron landed while I was taking pictures of the new Avocado tree. It is amazing what happens when you start to get some green. This property was so dry and baron after we scraped it that we weren’t getting any birds, coqui’s or any signs of life. It is cool that this guy decided to show up while I had my camera. I didn’t know it until I looked it up a few minutes ago, but the White Heron is all over the tropics eating fish, frogs and insects. Does this mean that our property is inhabitable by insects now (the bird is eating them)? This picture with the arrows of all of the plants we have put in the ground doesn’t show the 10 or 12 trees above me on the hill and you can’s see another half a dozen beyond the leaves of the palms. It is going to look good in a couple of years if I keep this up.
Great Egret | White Heron
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