If you haven’t ever written a blog, you don’t really have an appreciation for how much time it takes…and when you are already busy. Many times I’ve thought of doing an update, but when it came down to my choices: Blog or Eat, Blog or Sleep, Blog or Earn a Paycheck….well, you get the picture. But thanks to a few recent “prods” from a couple of my faithful readers asking “WHEN THE HELL ARE YOU GOING TO UPDATE THE DARN BLOG?”, I decided it was time. So here’s the Clif notes version of what’s happened to and around the Nixon’s in the last 3 plus months….fasten your seatbelt, we’ve been busy!!
Since most of you have been suffering through one of the more miserable winters in recent memory, I won’t spend a lot of time bemoaning on the fact that the sun doesn’t always shine in paradise either. We actually had our own “cold” snap (it’s relative, remember). We actually had about 3 weeks where the sun rarely showed its face and it rained more often than not.
This may not sound all that bad to you poor souls freezing your rears off, but it did have some down sides. Like the fact that we don’t have an electric dryer – we use solar. It’s a little tough to dry clothes when it’s raining 24x7! And we did have to actually break out the long sleeved shirts and long pants! I didn’t think it would happen to us, but we were actually cool enough to warrant putting on something besides shorts, a t-shirt and flip flops!!
And there is such thing as too much moisture – especially when it can’t soak into the ground fast enough and instead runs into your swimming pool and makes it a disgusting color of green…not that we were going to be swimming in the rain, but it does then require quite an effort to get the pool back to normal once the rain stops…just another hassle.
There were also some upsides to the cooler temps. It makes for great sleeping, we don’t have to run fans, and it’s actually pleasant to work out in the mornings, not killer hot. To keep things in perspective I keep repeating…we don’t have to shovel rain.
So let’s see…what else has been going on around here?
You’ve heard our stories about how the electricity isn’t terribly reliable, right? Well, up until November, we’ve had pretty good luck with our water supply. We haven’t had to pay for water and so when our cistern (that’s a water storage tank underground in our backyard for those of you who aren’t familiar with the term/concept) was down a bit once and a while, we never worried about it much. And being from Denver, we were used to conserving water anyway, so that habit was pretty well ingrained.
Unfortunately due to some design issues with the water lines coming into our subdivision, coupled with the fact that Corraplata (the water company) doesn’t turn the pressure up enough to push sufficient water through the system, a couple of our neighbors (Al and Glenda) at the end of the water line and on top of a hill weren’t getting water more often than not.
Long story short – they complained enough that the water company came out and dug a trench across the road to put in a different line to their house. Oh – and to make that work, they have to turn off the valve going to the rest of the houses to force the water to Al & Glenda’s house. Mind you, Al & Glenda have a 15,000 gallon cistern. Ours is maybe 2,000. So how long do you think it takes to fill theirs…all while ours and everyone else in the neighborhood are not getting any water? AND to top it off, for this “improved” service, Corraplata has required that each house now have a contract with them and PAY for water! Needless to say, this has caused a huge rift in the neighborhood. And we are making our presence known at Corraplata every time our cistern level gets down by more than about a foot…if we’re paying for water, we want water! The fun goes on and on…
We are happy to report that we FINALLY sold our electric stove. Needless to say, in a country not known for having a reliable electrical system, having an electric stove has been somewhat of a challenge. Selling an electric stove in the same country was another!
Ironically, the person who bought it was a Dominican guy. We truly figured we’d end up selling it to someone who either didn’t know or didn’t care about the cost and unreliability of the electricity here. This guy, Phillipe, was a riot. He told us that he was buying the stove for his wife and it was going to save his marriage. He then told us that he wasn’t worried about it being electric because he steals his power anyway! So we loaded the stove up and were very happy to see it go on its merry little way.
Guess what we did the next day? Yup – stove shopping! Have you ever noticed that when you don’t want/need to buy something but are just seeing what your options are, you can find lots of choices – but then when you actually need to buy it, they are all gone? Well, that’s what happened to us. We ended up going to 7 different places before we found one that we liked AND fit into our budget. We finally found one – in a store that I’m not sure we would normally have ventured into…but we were getting desperate. Turned out they had a stove we liked AND it was within our budget. Plus they gave us a 10% discount for paying cash and would deliver it the next day. We paid and headed home…hoping we hadn’t just been duped! Fortunately, they came did show up as promised.
Everything was coming together…we had a large propane tank so all we needed was the plumber to come over and hook up the gas line and we’d be in business. Steve called Peter, the plumber. Peter was happy to come take care of it – but couldn’t come until the following week. We weren’t thrilled about waiting that long, so we talked to our neighbor, Tony, who had done the piping at his house, and decided that the guys would tackle it the next day. I’m happy to report that the stove is up and running very nicely – and we no longer have to worry about not having a way to cook when the power is out – whoo hoo!!!
We also have a new house being built in the neighborhood. There were three empty lots between us and the next house. The two lots closest to us are owned by the same person. Fortunately they are building on the middle lot, but they are using the one next to us to store materials – including having built a casita to keep tools, etc. locked up. It’s also outfitted with a small area for a living space and a couple of guys who also work onsite sleep there to make sure the materials don’t take a walk.
We met the architect and he assured us that they would do everything they could to keep the noise levels down and not bother us. Since they don’t use power tools for much, it really hasn’t been bad and the workers have been good about keeping their voices down, especially first thing in the morning when they get here. We’re not thrilled about having all of that activity next to us, but there’s not much we can do about it either.
Check out this picture of them pouring the roof. They did use a cement mixer and a lift – then wheeled the concrete across the eaves of the house to the other side and dumped it out. Then they hand finished it. Amazing process to watch! Oh - and that is the architect/builder with the umbrella supervising!
The guys that stay in the casita, Antonio and Leonardis, are really nice. We let them charge their cell phones using an outdoor outlet on our house and they make sure the trash on the job site gets picked up (after I took them trash bags and asked nicely). A couple of times when we’ve been doing yard work on a Sunday, Antonio has cleaned up weeds on the opposite side of our fence – even sweeping the dead leaves away from our yard!
We’ve tried to do a few things for them as they have virtually nothing, including taking over a hot meal on Christmas day and an occasional tin of cookies or jar of peanuts. Antonio even made a point of introducing us to a woman we think is his daughter, Susie. She hugged us and thanked us profusely for taking care of Antonio. It is amazing how the little things we’ve done have been so appreciated! We’re pretty confident that we don’t have to worry about anything happening to our house while Antonio is around either!
Steve’s mom and dad came to visit us in early December. It was great to see them and to show them around our new island home. The weather wasn’t great – cloudy and a little cooler than normal most of the time – but I think they still enjoyed it and hopefully they will come back again soon!
The week prior to their arrival as well as the time they were here found us volunteering at the local animal shelter – AAAS. They had two vets in town who donated their services to do a spay/neuter clinic several days a week over 3 weeks. So we jumped right in and learned how to do intake – getting the pet and owner info, weighing the dogs/cats, getting them settled in a cage until they are pre-medicated for surgery, sitting with them after pre-med to keep them calm, as well as recovery, where you again stay with them and make sure they are coming out of the anesthesia ok. We learned a TON and met some great people who we have become good friends with.
And speaking of new friends…did you notice the third dog in this picture? Well, that’s our new addition – her name is Lexi. She was abandoned by some renters up the street and our original intent was to foster her until she could be spayed, then find her a home. We did get her spayed, but by that time she had grown attached to us…and us to here, so we decided we’d keep her. She was about 7 months old when we got her (late November) and still had (has) a lot of puppy energy and needed to learn some manners. We continue to work on both and she’s been a lot of fun – and good for the two older dogs as she coerces them into playing with her. Dusty and Sierra are also enjoying the more frequent walks/runs I take them on – trying to wear out Lexi!!
We have also expanded our DR-based property management business. We picked up a couple more units, luckily in the same complex. The owners were here in late December attending to the renovations that need to be done due to the lack of maintenance done by the previous managers. But once they left, we took on the oversight – and were incredibly busy for several weeks in January, making daily trips to Cabarete to check on progress, meet with workers, etc. etc. The condo finally went on the rental market a couple of weeks ago, so we don’t have to babysit it quite so much…unless of course there are renters in it.
Our time is also consumed by ongoing volunteering for AAAS. Steve has taken on keeping their adoption website updated – which is a feat in and of itself. On any given day, they may get 3-4 dogs/puppies in, adopt a couple out, someone comes to foster a dog - and depending on who is there when this all happens, we either get a little, a lot, or no information with which to work! So we go over a couple times a week and check the status, take pictures of any new dogs & give them names, and gather any info we can get to make the website updates.
Steve’s also volunteered to help Judy, the director of AAAS, do some renovations around the shelter as she received a donation for that purpose. He’s been doing the design work and will be helping her identify resources to do the labor. And I took on the pet photo contest fundraiser…of which you’ve all been notified (PLEASE go out and vote if you can – it’s for a wonderful cause down here!) Just copy this link and paste in your browser address bar to got see and vote for AAAS photos: http://photocontest.humanesociety.org/contest.html?page=viewIndex&contestId=3&orgId=89
Oh – then we almost had a 4th dog! One day when we went into Judy’s to get adoption updates, there was the cutest little black fuzzy puppy in a cage. She’d been brought in the day before and there were several dogs onsite who weren’t feeling well. Judy was worried about this little one since she was young and her immune system still developing. So we brought her home to foster her – for a few days. We named her Molly.
When we got her home, we took her to meet our neighbor, Linda. She had toyed with the idea of taking Lexi, but felt she was just too big for what she wanted. Well, she fell in love with Molly and now Archie, Linda and Tony’s West Highland terrier, has a new little sister! And Lexi is very happy because she and Molly are the best of buddies. They just play and play – and Lexi is so gentle with Molly – it is amazing! Here’s this 50 pound Rottweiler mix laying on the floor letting little Molly, who weighs maybe 5 pounds, crawl on her, bite her cheeks, even take away a bone!
Let’s see...what else? We’ve been to the beach a few times – a couple of surfing competitions that we went to watch and Steve and Richard trying to get back in the surfing routine after a couple of months off (Max and Richard went home to the UK and got married in December, then we were crazy busy in January). There are always beach dogs running around at the surfing beach, too.
Oh – another very recent development…they are building yet ANOTHER house in the estate. This one is further down past Tony & Linda’s house, but on our side of the street. They just started working on it this week and the traffic back and forth has picked up exponentially. It’s going to be interesting to watch as it seems like this crew is using more power equipment – like front end loaders to dig the footers, cistern, septic and pool. On the house next to us, they dug it all by hand!! Amazing how hard those guys work!
Now you are pretty much up to date…although I’m sure there are things that happened since October that I have either forgotten – or chosen not to include! Coming up soon – my mom is coming to visit for 2 weeks at the beginning of March. Although she’s traveled in the States, this will be the first time she’s been out of the country, so it will be a great adventure for her and fun for us to show her around. What she doesn’t know yet (but will when she reads this) is that there may be another spay/neuter clinic for us to volunteer at when she’s here – so she can either join us, or hang out with the granddogs for a few hours while we go. : )
We’re also looking forward to hearing when Dave and Sharon are coming back…they are checking options for April/May. And we hope to see Steve’s sister and brother-in-law, Paula and Dave, in late May/early June.
I’ll close with a few random pictures for you:
Here’s the Dominican artwork that I bought when Dave and Sharon were here – now gracing our dining room wall. The gecko came from the US with us…he was a natural blend with our new décor.
Talk about letting your buns hang out – we often see motos with the day’s fresh bread dangling off the sides…on its way to???
Who'd have guessed they have monster trucks in the DR??? Yep - we actually saw one on a big semi flatbed when we were in Cabarete one day. We have no clue where it was going, but we truly never thought we'd see something like that here!!
This is one of the plants we got from the neighbor. We’ve noticed several of them – trees – around the island. Not sure what it is but it has really neat flowers that look like fireworks – then they open in a bloom. Very pretty!!
Hope all is well wherever this blog may find you. I will try to be better about updating it more frequently…but no promises!! Take care and stay warm!
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