Monday, March 29, 2010

Cats, Diving, Harvest and Rain

Today we went diving which is great since diving has kind of sucked for the past few weeks. Last weekend was superb and this weekend looked to be great as well. We went to the Sugar Mill and had a really nice dive and Jeff managed to find a lobster (so we had a small but tasty lunch). The visibility was wonderful and the water was calm and warm. The sun was out. What could be better? Sunday we went to the Aquadilla Wall and entered at the new entry spot. It was really nice, but not as clear as the previous weekend which was the best ever visibility at the spot. I had 100 minutes (the guys had an hour and a half) and we did the wall, came shallower across the top and then passed the entry to explore a new spot which had all kinds of really neat zooming-around urchins. On the dive we saw 4 mating flying gunnards, turtles, barracuda and of course 8 really big lion fish. Jeff caught 2 more lobster that were monsters so we had linguine with carambola, onion, zucchini and lobster for dinner and still have a lobster left! We came home and it was still warm out and sunny. Jeff cleaned the gear and all the cats were hanging out snoozing. Princess loves this little dirt patch under the Quenepa.

Mars prefers to hang out under the grasses outside the kitchen door.
Oh, here Jeff is holding up his treasures!
Blanco just curls up anywhere. He is sooooo beautiful.

Up close treasures - harvest from the sea!


While the scuba tanks were filling Jeff gathered up some more goodies - plantano and guineos. Today I am busy dehydrating before some of them spoil. I also harvested all the yucca and peeled it and cut it up and stuck it all in a zip lock in the freezer. I like stuff that is easy to process - it is easy to grow yucca (no water, no weeding, nothing) and even easier to deal with (just peel, cut and freeze)! I keep finding more and more cucumbers and desperately need cucumber recipes - I had over a dozen and gave some away, but how many can 2 people eat? I'll try making refrigerator pickles today minus celery seed (yeah, like I can find that) but again...how many cucumbers or pickles can you eat?


Then it finally started to rain which is great since it has been a bunch of weeks and longer than that since we have had anything substantial. I have baby fruits everywhere so I was about to pull out the hose when the rain started - .4 inches.The cats all piled into the house and lounged around there. Blanco, Mini and Tuca in their little pillows...

Chicken lounging on the bed (how can I move him to make it?)


They got all cuddly since it was cool.


Oops - looks like I disturbed them.


Mini mid yawn.


And then there is the cat pile on the couch. I was sitting there under them for a while. Little furry friends. Only five on the couch...where are the rest? After snoozing they started getting restless and tearing around the house playing chase going from the porch through the slats and round and round. A fun ending to a nice day.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Jeff and Katrina,

Long time reader first time commentator, What exactly do you dehydrate?

Jonathan

Anonymous said...

Hi Jonathan - I dehydrate bananas and carmabolas and mango from the yard. When SAMS club has decent kiwis or strawberries they dehydrate well. Papaya doesn't work (store bought stuff is full of sugars and chemicals). Herbs dehydrate well (we do those in the solar dehydrator) and tomatoes work well. I try anything that doesn't freeze well but ripens all at once. I don't like things to go to waste, but there are only two of us. If you like jerky you can dehydrate your own meats - I'm not into that. Apples work well, peaches, apricots, blueberries...unfortunately I haven't seen any of those (except apples - not a fan) for 2 years! katrina

Fran and Steve said...

Everyone looks soooo content! These are the "good as it gets" moments that make the "paradise tax" so worth it all. Fran

Lucas said...

Suggestion for the bananas (especially when they're brown) - If you peel them and cut them into chunks about 2 1/2 to 3" you can freeze them in a ziplock bag and then use them for shakes. They help keep the shake thicker and not as runny this way.