Welcome to my blog. Another Day in "Paradiso" was created to capture and share news, moments, memories, photos, videos and more, that make our days. One of my favorite phrases is "another day in paradise", which we use often, sometimes sarcastically, referring to our daily living in otherwise not so perfect days. With this in mind, I have long adopted the phrase "otro dia en el paradiso" (another day in paradiso), remembering that in this imperfect world we must make our own "paradiso".



"Paradiso"

"Paradiso"
Viejo San Juan

12 ago 2015

The 3 O'clock Coffee

After a morning of hard work trimming down several palm trees, and fixing the fence and gate post at the finca's entrance, there is nothing like a hot, sweet 3 o'clock coffee.


We arrived this morning with many plans and projects in mind, besides fixing the gate. But after I began to dig out the old broken fence post I realized I was in over my head. The post was cemented at least 2 feet deep in very hard wet clay that does not break easy and I did not have the right tools to do it. As a matter of fact I didn't even find the pick in order to dig down, but while looking for it I only found the iron part. 

After trying to use by hand and found it to be a futile effort, it occurred to me that the palms that I cut down were so hard that they sounded like baseball bats when they hit the ground, so "a la McGuiver", I decided to create my own handle for the pick, and guess what, it worked like a charm. 


I have to say, I dare anyone to use this pick without gloves; your hands will be torn after you are done. 

As I was trying to break the concrete of the old post, the closest neighbor showed up to see what was the noise he was hearing, since the house is supposed to be empty. Before I knew it he grabbed the pick and started going to town with the concrete, only to be convinced that it was an impossible mission. So after some discussion we decided to leave the old base of the post in and insert the new pipe inside the old pipe, and sink the the old pipe besidev the new pipe to fill the gap. 



Although not a perfect solution, it worked, and thank God for Leonardo the neighbor and his help. Otherwise I would probably be still digging out the old post. For the rest of the projects planned for the afternoon, it was a bust, I'm now so tired it's not even funny, and not even the 3 o'clock coffee will revive me. 




11 ago 2015

A chain saw in paradiso

 At 6:00 AM this morning Lucy and I payed our fourth visit to Home Depot. When we are here one trip is just not enough in order to get all the supplies needed for the projects. Starting with wasp spray, a new machete, a chain saw, among other things, plus all the plumbing supplies to install the water cistern. 



Yesterday when we went to la finca, it had rained, and the power was out so I was unable to cut any trees because the chain saw and the pole saw are both electric. So, this morning after much debate we decided to get a gasoline chain saw in order to keep an upper hand when the power is out. 

Four years ago, when my father in law passed, we were hit by a hurricane while still occupying the finca house. A 60 feet humongous Australian pine was downed by the storm winds and blocked the access road to the property, locking us in. Since we didn't have a chain saw of any kind, we had to call the municipal Civil Defense crew to come remove the tree. 



This new chain saw will be of great help, and although it will mean more work, it will also mean working smarter not harder.