The parrots

Views from the roof!

(Sorry, no parrots!)

Between our mornings up on the roof and our late afternoons in the hammocks, we have been able to see Cozumel's parrots commuting back and forth from the north end of the island to the south. Our friend, Joan, saw them last year and since then we've found out that Hurricane Wilma decimated them in 2005. In the midst of all the sad, sad stories of deaths and injuries in Haiti, the parrots are a ray of hope- life will return given time. The parrots have a special squawk when the fly. Seems there used to large flocks of the green birds, but now there are groups of 4-10. Their schedule seems to be off to work about 7 AM and return at about 4:30 PM for a siesta before dinner!

Construction is done!

Looking out to the new metal stairs going up to the roof.View down to the backyard from the top of the stairway on the roof.

Hummers and Bananaquits share the birdfeeder


Part of the backyard taken from the roof.

Well, we should re-phrase the title - "No Mas Polvo" which means "No More Dust! We are not waking in the morning thinking that we should get downstairs and open our gate for our contractor friends, Pulpo and Alvaro. Instead, these days we are thinking about sunrise, orange juice and coffee on the roof!

The last few days with our friends were spent getting to know them better. Pulpo grew up on a farm in the Yucatan. After three years of school, he joined his family in the "Milpa". Literally translated, milpa is cornfield in English. It is so much more though. The milpa is a rotation crop method that has been used by the Mayans for centuries. They burn a swath of land by their house in the jungle. The potash from the burn fertilizes the ground. They plant corn first and once it is knee high, then they plant beans that wind themselves around the corn. The next year, they burn an adjacent swath of land and repeat the process. After seven years, they are back to the first piece of ground. Pulpo said the women grind the corn and make thick tortillas in the field while the men are tending the crops. Pulpo wanted to make sure that we understood that this is all done without chemicals and that their diet consists of absolutely fresh ingredients. This knowledge and wisdom in both building and farming from a man with three years of schooling!

The last project that Pulpo and Alvaro did before they left was leveling and smoothing the roof of our bodega (store room). You may remember that this was done for us last year. Pulpo pretty much insisted on doing this work. Ed and I kept trying to say that the existing roof was just fine by us. Pulpo, though, said that it was important to do this for both his reputation and also for our satisfaction. We were just amazed by the transformation when they were done. You'd think after 5 weeks of watching him work, we should have known that it would have been perfect.

Happy Birthday Cody Man!

Ridin'

Fishin'

Happy Birthday to our grandson, Cody Man, on his 7th birthday. Fishing, riding ATV's, working with his dad on the tractor, did we say fishing?, finding hidden pictures faster than anyone, fishing, playing with their 5 dogs, riding horses, having loads of people at his house, fishing again. These are all Cody's favorite things - did we mention fishing?

While we were gone!

This afternoon when we got back to the house, we found yet another ingenius invention by Alvaro and Pulpo. We had been amazed by how relatively clean the construction had been up on the roof - that there was so little debris from the stucco being spread on the outside of the new walls. We came back to find Alvaro using two boards. One has a paint brush at the end of it and another has a paint scraper at its end. You can see in this picture how Alvaro was cleaning fallen stucco off the top of our hurricane shudders. You can also see how they used an empty cement bag to cover the top of the air conditioner.

Happy New Year! Construction Update!

The new door and walls. For now, one side is open for Pulpo and Alvaro to get to the roof.

Rigo's steel staircase. Pretty blue, no?

Alvara filling buckets with sand that has been delivered to our sidewalk.

Alvaro connects the bucket to a line and pulley and then runs backward, hoisting it to the roof.

It was so much fun to spend the holidays with our kids and grandkids. Wow, the energy level is amazing. Now we're back to our island home. The contractor, Pulpo and I just had a discussion, in my very limited Spanish, about how our lives are full of laughter, activity and excitement with grandkids. Our life here, on the other hand, is tranquilo and contented. A great combination.

Pulpo and his son, Alvaro, were busy while we in Dallas for Christmas. It is truly amazing how they fit the puzzle pieces of building together. After they built the vestibule and two walls for the staircase (these all included three layers of stucco), they rigged up a pulley to get blocks and cement to the roof for the low walls they are building up there.

Before construction began, we didn't understand how a friend of ours could say that she went through withdrawal when Pulpo was done building a beautiful backyard patio and apartment at her place. She said that she was thinking of devising a 12 step program to wean people off of Pulpo!Really? She really missed the dust, the noise and the intrusion? Now, after having Pulpo and Alvaro here for 4 weeks, we get it. Pulpo's soft spoken, gentle yet proud ways are a wonderful thing.

We've enjoyed the experience and we know we will love our roof. We already do! Sitting up there with a beer at sunset on New Year's Eve was the best. The moon came up between the nearby cathedral spires, the cruise ships were decked out in their lights and floating away while the lightening bugs flitted around us.

So much for which to be grateful. We hope that you feel the same.