What’s a honeydipper?

We’ve enjoyed another quiet week (relative to many of them since we’ve been here)! I took these pictures of some wildflowers growing in one of the empty lots down the street from our casa. Steve says they are weeds – but I thought they were pretty. I may have to go dig them up and try that “plant them and they will grow” theory!!












Oh – and here’s one of the plants we did just plop in the ground a few weeks ago…they are doing great and getting lots of pink and white blooms on them.

Monday was a holiday in the DR –they seem to have a lot more holidays here than even we do in the States. Here’s a little history lesson for everyone. 16 August (they put the day first…still getting used to that too!) was Restoration Day. Apparently the DR won its independence the first time on 27 February 1844, but then lost it again in 1861. The War of Restoration was a fight against Spain and the war ended in 1863 – on…you guessed it…16 August. Interestingly, this year (not sure if it’s every election year), the 2010-2016 Congress and municipal governments were sworn in on the same day. So that gave the Dominicans two reasons for big parties all across the country – and for a 3 day weekend!

On Tuesday, we thought that Jumbo, the septic pumping company, was coming to take care of our septic tank. They told us they’d be at the casa at 10. We had also contacted the plumber to let him know they’d be there Tuesday a.m. so he could come do the repair work the tank needed (which, if you recall, was never completed when it was built!). Well, Peter the plumber showed up around 10:30…but still no Jumbo! Peter had a couple other things he could do, so he left and told us he’d come back later.

After making a phone call, the Jumbo owner said they’d be out shortly after noon – and he was. But they didn’t bring the truck to do the work – he came to see what it would entail and make sure their pipes would reach. He then scheduled them to come back on Wednesday at 9 to actually do the work. We let Peter know the new plan.

And Jumbo showed up Wednesday a.m. – a few minutes early even– with the “honeydipper” truck (Steve tells me that’s what they call them in the States??) and they went to work. Here’s a picture of the huge pipe they run from the truck back to the tank. It only took them about an hour to get the work done and they were on their way. We called Peter to let them know they were done and he came a short time later. We asked him what the best way would be to reseal the lids on the tanks and we were very pleased when he told us he would do it for us. And the best news of the day – it only cost us $30! Honestly, I don’t know how those guys do what they do! Both the Jumbo guy and Peter had to get down into the tank (yucko!!) to work on it. Man – they earn every penny they make, for sure!!

We made a quick run into Puerto Plata on Thursday to pick up some packages that had arrived. As always, some interesting sights:



This poor kid has a backpack as big as he is…and he’s almost as big as the guy (we think…it was hard to tell) that is driving the moto.
And we spotted yet another “don’t try this at home” shot - no safety equipment at all! Even the work truck - parked on the wrong side of the road - has no cones or anything to warn oncoming drivers. For my friends at OSHA, let me know if you want this one to use in any of your training sessions! It continually amazes us how these people work – and seemingly have absolutely no fear or concern for their own safety. It’s really very sad!

Friday was a busy work day…I had a couple of hot projects and so most of the day was spent in front of the computer. Bamboo came over – as he usually does – and was happy to take a little siesta. Our two were of course doing the same.

We had hoped that Carlos, our gardener, would show up this week. But he didn’t. Last time he came, it had been almost 4 weeks between mowings and we were afraid we might lose Bamboo in the grass. Carlos was very contrite and apologized many times and I asked him nicely to be sure and come 2 times per month – every 15 days. Well, 15 days was on Monday, but since it was a holiday, we cut him some slack. Tuesday was kind of a rainy day on and off, so again…we get it. But by Friday night when he hadn’t come, we decided it is time to take matters into our own hands. I don’t feel too badly this time since we hadn’t paid him yet for the next month!

Fortunately, Tony had told us before they left for the UK that if we needed to borrow anything, including their mower, we could. So we did just that! We spent a good portion of the morning on Saturday doing yard work and I must say, the yard looks better than it has any time after Carlos had been there! You can also see that the plants we got from Glenda and “stuck in the ground” have, by and large, done quite well. (You can view a larger version of this picture-or any of them-just by clicking on them if you want to see more detail.) A couple of them are still struggling along, but overall, I’m pretty happy with our landscape at the back of the yard. Next on tap – color! We want to get some more flowering plants/bushes, to add some color to our landscape. Fortunately we should be able to get a lot of that from cuttings from our neighbors, which is a good thing since we now will be buying a lawnmower…sigh…

Next we tackled the casita. We wanted to give the seals on the septic covers some time to cure before we started messing around in there too much. Steve got the shop vac out and got the floor swept, then we moved the generator out there. We set to work on getting the threshold under the door built. We wanted it to be high so we won’t get water in there.


You can see how nicely it’s coming together. A few finishing touches, a coat of paint, and we’ll be able to check that one off our list – whoo hoo!! Oh – and move the rest of the garage-type stuff out there – double whoo hoo!!

We were both pretty tired after doing all that work, so we decided to run into town and get a roasted chicken and yucca from our roadside stand guy. Much easier than cooking and it was yummy too! I snapped this picture of Bamboo wandering around back in the rock garden while we were eating out on the back patio.



On Sunday, we headed to Cabarete for breakfast and the beach. Yep – FINALLY – we actually spent some time on the beach and swam in the ocean! There are a lot of, shall we say, enterprising individuals on the beaches – especially the more popular ones like Cabarete. If you don’t have your own lounge chair and umbrella, you can rent them. The first guy we talked to wanted 400 pesos (about $15!). Since we were only planning to be there for a couple hours, we decided that was too much. He offered to come down to 300 pesos, but that was still demasiado (too much). Oh – and we didn’t have that much cash with us anyway! We had intentionally brought very little with us and after paying for breakfast, we had less than 200 pesos left.

So we wandered down the beach a ways and in very short order, we were approached by another guy. He started at 300 pesos. I told him we didn’t have that much – so he asked how much we would pay. I offered 150 and he gladly took it. We spent the next couple of hours relaxing on our chairs and swimming. It was a delightful morning! There weren’t too many people on the beach, although it was getting busier and busier the longer we stayed. We headed home shortly after noon.

After getting a few groceries, ice and filling up Tony’s gas can (for his lawnmower), we took the lawnmower and full gas can back over to Tony and Linda’s. We sat and visited with Max and Richard, the couple who are housesitting for Tony & Linda. They have been here since October of last year, so it was fun to swap stories about our adventures. And what’s really cool? Apparently Richard has been wanting to check out the surfing here, but they just haven’t gotten around to it (and Max isn’t terribly keen on trying it herself). Steve also wants to go and me, I could take it or leave it, so we’ve decided we’re going to go together – the guys can surf while Max and I either boogie board or maybe just hang out on the beach and take videos! We’re very excited to have found another couple that we can do some things like that with. Now we just need to get it on our calendars!!

Monday was a busy work day, but Max came over late in the afternoon to spend some time with our dogs and she brought Archie over to play as well. We’ll be going to Santiago later this week and she’s going to let our dogs out for us, so we wanted them to get to know her a bit. Sierra took to her immediately and even Dusty did really well – perhaps her British accent reminds him of Linda who he adores!

I’ll close for now. Time to get back to work! Have a good week – wherever you are!!