We've made a little headway getting things done around here, so things aren't as dire as they were looking originally. At the very least, I've almost learned how to drive a stick shift, so I'm not stranded anymore!
Plants - Still haven't heard from the CGA (Citrus Growers' Association). A lot of area around the house has been cleared by the 8 men we've hired while our tractor is being repaired, and we should have the tractor back tomorrow. The lemon tree has survived, and we've been able to gather some limes from our lime trees to have fresh limeade daily, as well as coconuts whenever we can get one of our men to climb the trees to get them down for us. The nice grove area where we're going to do our medicinal garden has been cleared, and the fourth side filled in with saplings, so once it dries a bit we'll start mulching and preparing to plant.
Roads - Still no change in the main road, but we managed to get several loads of river rock and sand in to fill in our own roadway up to the house. We'll have to wait on the orchard road until after the tractor comes in. Baby coconut trees have been planted up one side of the driveway, and will be done down the other as well.
Buildings - We've got power to all of the house now, though lights aren't working in some of the rooms and we'll have to replace the fixtures with some that take non-fluorescent bulbs. Most of the house has been cleaned, thanks to a local woman who we hired to help with that. A good amount of paint has been purchased as well, and we'll start painting the exterior of the house on Monday. The floor will be torn up and re-cemented, but not tiled just yet; a rough estimate put the cost on tiling at B$3000! Also, rough estimate on the deck showed at more than B$2000 just for a small portion outside the breezeway, so we'll have to wait on that, too. We went ahead and trimmed those trees out front, if only so we can have a clear view of the gate from the house. We'll pull up the stairs and rebuild them around the same time that the floor gets redone. And finally, it'll definitely cost upwards of B$2000 to repair the palapa, so we're going to plant the trees that the thatching comes from, in order to cut some costs that way. We have a water-heater to install so that we can get hot showers, and the dryer and refrigerator have been repaired. We finally got the satellite up and running last night, which gets us connected to the rest of the world again.
Animals - Only one of the six pups remain, as we had our last caretakers go ahead and take them in order to find them homes. We only kept the male puppy that I got attached to, who I've now named Sergei. From out of nowhere a seventh adult dog showed up, and while one of our females had her litter, all three puppies died. We briefly had a kitten, but as we've decided to poison the rats, we've given the kitten back in order to avoid him eating the same poison.
Yard - Almost all of the yard has been cleared now, and the larger discarded items gathered up, but there's still a lot of little trash and branches that need to be gathered.
Plans - Lots of painting, lots of pruning. We're putting off the higher priced projects until later. We're going to start painting the kitchen today, B and I, which should be interesting. Painting of the outside of the house will wait until Monday.
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