The rains have arrived! So far in May we have recorded 30 inches of rain. Lately we have had several thunder and lightning storms. The one the other night seemed to be right over us. The thunder was deafening! We have lost power and Internet several times this past week. About two weeks ago, it was raining pretty hard in the evening. Eddie heard a loud reverberating thud and went outside to investigate. He discovered that part of a tree had fallen, but it was too dark to investigate further. The next morning, we found that a large tree had split in half.
Rusty is checking out the damage.
Unfortunately, the tree was too damaged to save and we had to hire the tree climber to cut it down. It’s such a shame as the monkeys really like the fruit from this tree. Fortunately, the monkeys stopped by the day before the tree was cut down, so they were able to eat a fair amount of the fruit.
The upside is that our view of the mountains has improved.
Approximately a year and a half ago we noticed a few papaya trees growing where our builder’s workers had their temporary kitchen. The other day, we noticed that a papaya was ripe and ready to eat. The interesting thing is that the papaya is round unlike the rest of the papaya we have seen in Costa Rica. It tastes slightly different, too. Eddie asked our gardeners if this type of papaya was rare as we haven’t seen it in the farmer’s markets or grocery stores. They told him that it was a common type found in the fincas (countryside). So, Eddie did a little bit of research and discovered that the University of Costa Rica developed the kind of papaya that we see in the stores.
Last week, we took Rusty to our veterinarian in Quepos (a 30 minute ride) for his annual check-up, which included two vaccines. Rusty isn’t particularly fond of riding in the truck and it helps to have Wylder along. This time, Rusty didn’t meow his elongated meow all the way there! But, as you can see in the photo, Rusty was not thrilled.
We were pleased to find out that Rusty has lost two pounds! He is now close to his target weight, which should be around 11 or 12 pounds. It was lunch time when we finished with the vet appointment and we decided to stop by a little café called the Brooklyn Bakery. (They have the best bagels and sourdough bread. Both of which we buy on a regular basis.) It was Rusty’s first experience in an eatery and he wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. He hid under the chair most of the time.
By the time we returned home, poor Rusty was rather traumatized. It took him a few days to recover from the vaccines!
Olivia, Rusty and Wyler all get along quite well. We have so much fun watching them play and relax together. They are just too cute! We can’t help but to take a lot of photos of them.
Eddie has been working on welding another set of doors for the closet in the carport. This set are sliding doors. The projects around the house seem to be never ending. There is always something to do!
