Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Back on the Farm in Sosua Dominican Republic

Nope, work has not stopped at the finca. We keep marching on. What you are looking at is a cistern which is used to store water. Although we have community water at the finca the pumps are not running all the time and not even every day. Rules state that you need a minimum of 10000 Gallon storage of water and that is what we are digging at this time. If you don't know how much water 10000 gallons is I have a friend with a 6000 gallon pool. The first 12 or so inches is Black earth which is great for growing plants, fruits and veggies. The white stuff is soft stone when compacted is almost as hard as concrete and makes a great base for roads and driveways. Since I am taking this all out of the ground and will replace it with water I am using the materiel for road bed along with all the rock I took out when planting my veggies and fruits. the stuff on the right is easy to dig up. The stuff on the left is way more difficult. It comes out with a Pic Axe and Shovel. It is less expensive to use Haitian Labor than to pay for the diesel in a Excavator believe it or not but just not as fast. Things take a long time to get done here because of this. This is going to be the entrance to the farm. I have frontage on the principle road but kept that all flowers and stone walls. Didn't want to ruin the beauty with a road going down the middle.
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BTW my servants quarters/storage building is complete. Doors and windows are in and the only thing left are the tile ridges on the roof but all the roof tiles are in. .
I have a TON of veggies almost ready now. Many different tomatoes, Yuca, Batata, melons, Passion fruit Chinola, cucumbers, squash, aloe, carrots, Noni and much much more!!! Looking good, looking good!
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I think the new finca is actually more impressive than the old one. I like it a whole lot more and so do the animals. I am pretty sure I have two pregnant goats and a pregnant sheep also. Have I mentioned that I love kids:) The ones I have are growing every day and looking great!
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I had to tie up the black female when I take her out of the pasture because she attempted to eat all my Yuca on her own. The other two babies are now restricted to the pasture for the same reasons. They love my Yuca and so do I:)
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The comments have been picking up but I would love to hear more from you all. Tell me what you think and if you have any recommendations I would love to hear them.
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Hasta Pronto!

Superbowl Sunday on the North Coast in Sosua, Dominican Republic

Say Hi to a friend of mine Jeff. Jeff is from Boston where he and his family own a few furniture stores. We have a lot in comon because I use to own a bunch of furniture stores.
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Jeff walks into Pedro McMurphy's where I am sitting to watch the Superbowl. I had a reserved table which was the best seat in the house. Jeff sits down next to this beautiful woman and thinks he stepped in the Preverbial "Shit". Little did he know that she was one of the owners girlfriends who was sitting with us. Poor Jeff, you had to see his face when I told him:) Deflation happened immediately when he realized that he was just going to have a great game to watch and no after game activities with this beauty! LOL First wrong thing Jeff did was to wear a Patriot T-shirt at this Superbowl Party. He got razed as soon as he walked in the door. POOR SOB thought he had this game and it was already over. If I could bundle his looks thoughout the game and his disappointment at the greatest upset of Superbowl history it would have been my pleasure. Even if the Giants had lost the game it would have gone down as one of the best games I have ever seen! See the guy taking the picture, his name is Tony and he is one of the owners of Pedro McMurphy's and the boyfriend and Heartbreaker of Jeff! LOL I always like taking pictures of the picture takers. He was trying to record the full house that they had. Standing room only but what do you expect when you have cold beer, 4 tv's, good food and of course beautiful women working there! This is one of the sisters who came to watch the game with me. She left me to go and watch the Caribbean Baseball Series instead of the Superbowl with me. Her team won that night and she was almost as happy as I was when the Giants fooled the world. This is Soleni one of the beauties that work in Pedro McMurphy's. She is NOT a sister of course but is beautiful and sweet as all the employees are! Just another reason to visit Pedros and say hi to the gals! Of course the sister hams it up for the camera. Actually all Dominican women love getting their photos taken. Try that in the US and you will probably end up with your camera broken and arrested:) I love this place and the attitudes of the women. Open and friendly with great smiles always and man you got to see them dance. You will be standing with your eyes bulging and your tongue down to the floor! . We all had a great time at Pedros, the place was ROCKING all night and the GIANTS won. Poor Jeff. Lost the game and the woman and his dog will never return~! Jejejejeje . Friday I have Eduardo coming to town along with two high school buddies of mine who I have remained friends with. Both are attorneys and one is with one of the most prestiges ones in NYC. . The other is a practitioner in New Haven and does mostly deals and closing for one of the major banks. . The one that works in NY is a bit up tight and I cant even tell lawyer jokes around him. Man that limits my flow:) The other you can't phase if you hit him with a taser. . I am anxiously waiting their take on the Dominican Republic. Frankly I have no idea what it will be but I am very much looking forward to them coming on Friday. . Thursday my buddy Earl is coming down from NY also. This will be a tough Juggling act with everyone in town at the same time. If I still had the restaurant I would just put them all at the same table and enjoy the hell out of every one of them but I don't miss the restaurant. . Hasta Pronto!

Bens and Marjorie's Property in Sosua

Ben and Marjorie are a couple of very nice people that I don't spend enough time with. Every time I see them I enjoy myself and of course learn something I didn't know before. They have property nearby my new finca and I have been working on cleaning it up. I have had 4 Haitians working there for nearly two weeks now and it is starting to take shape.
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Most people just slash the overgrowth down but in 3 weeks it is back to haunt you. I dig the crap out by the roots which is time consuming and way more expensive but this lasts a heck of a lot longer and I am talking in terms of years not weeks.

After we dig up what we don't want and keep what we do want we burn the digging off. The burn pile is also becoming a fertilizer pile and everytime I have planted in a burn pile I get supersized stuff out of it.

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This is what you call Multi tasking:)

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Hasta Pronto!