3 Things a Day from the Yard and Cat Circus

Since we have been here we have tried to eat 3 things a day from the yard. This isn't difficult. Today however we have outdone ourselves! The day started with cereal and guineos, mango, and coconut on top. Jeff went spearfishing (too bad spearing fish isn't legal on scuba) and after 4 long hours came home with dinner! Dinner consisted of fresh fish, packaged yucky noodles, bread and goodies from the yard - tomato, mint, lemon, aquacate, and mango chutney. The ginger ale was tinted with grenadine which we have growing as a nice shrub now but no pomegranates yet! So today's food total came out to 7 yard things. Yummy and colorful.

So here are some more things from the yard - giant parcha, a tomato and an egg. As I was wandering the property I came across a nest (no chicken in sight) with 6 eggs in it. The next day it had 8 eggs in it. Then it had 11 eggs in it. Not coming from a farming background and not knowing what is safe and what is salmonella I asked the expert Amparo (neighbor lady) who cracked one open on the spot and declared them to be good. We split the bounty (she wouldn't take them all) and I made some cookies and didn't kill us! The eggs were from at least two different hens (different colored eggs) and weren't fertile (nothing would gross me out more) which is why the hen wasn't there. Usually they sit on them for a month.

We had a few parcha from a neighbor when we first got here and were hooked. Unfortunately though it took 5 parcha to make a single glass of juice even diluted. We still wanted some so we went and got 3 1 foot starts from Jardin Eileen just south of Home Depot in Mayaguez. We have fruit already and they are HUGE! One parcha gives us enough juice to make a nice afternoon snack. I take the pulp and press it through a sieve, add the same amount in water and a teaspoon of sugar and it is wonderful. I read that you can throw the pulp in the blender then strain out the seeds and may try that next - I might get even more juice. Anyway, I am surprised by what comes out of that little weird, lightweight orb. It is a beautiful color and is very aromatic. Here I have half the yield of one fruit in my pretty glass. (Any one know where to get women's size 6 work boots locally? Tennis shoes suck.)

In front of the house and at the turnaround part of the driveway there were stumps. The stumps had pots on them with nice shrubs but they were still stumps. Jeff got a chainsaw on sale and we decided to take them out. In front of the house there used to be a large pine and boy was that wood hard! (Now we know why the stump was left there.) Besides being hard it smelled just like hamster bedding when Jeff cut it out. Here is the stump with a plant in it.

We now have to decide what to do with the space. It has a circle of bricks that demand that something be done. We already have a fountain. Do we want a big pot with neat flowers in it? Seems like that isn't much better than the stump-pot-holder. While we wait and hope to come up with ideas we filled it with cement leaving a level spot for some unknown future use. But for now it has become a cat stage! They either all sit around the edge waiting for story time (there once was a cat who was very very good and got to come in the Big House...) or they take turns performing in the center ring.

Sometimes they have to be coaxed by the bathing-suit -tie- on -a -stick toy and sometimes they just nap in the flat spot. Kind of fun.