Major dig!

At the end of the day, Eriso and I made a pact that he would plant habanero peppers that have been sitting in their seeding cans for at least a couple weeks now and plant the chaya cuttings that give me no space in the not-s-great great room.
I need to get to Centro and my flu shot, assuming they got the vaccine in Monday, and to ask William at Ballyhoo if his mama still makes compost and track down Luci the plant lady for more bags of dirt.
While idling yesterday, waiting for the electric company to turn the power back on at the credit union, I bought some serano chilis and free range bacon. The beans are on!
I also started collecting small, sweet squashes to do some pilgrim thing with later this month, since we didn't get any pumpkins on the island.
This supermarket business on the island is really irritating. Locals have always referred to it as inferior. SuperExpress is a San Francisco de Assisi CV enterprise. I now just think it's their scratch and dent raise-the-price attic!
The veggies would not be offered for sale in Cancun. No way. The butcher shop gets de-boned meat. I wanted beef bones to clean up for Lora. No hay. The bones are in Cancun from the loins, etc. You can't even get a bone to scrub that would last forever for your dog. Forget about soup bones for humans!
If you read the papers, San Francisco has all sorts of items for sale, cheap. Here everything is 5 pesos more. I go to Cancun on Tuesday for an appointment my lawyer is taking me to. I will stop and get STUFF that will offset the ferry and cabs fares, if you could get it here!
Which brings me back to the dig. The whole project involved raising the flower beds and making a cement pole fence. With deeper beds, I can grow carrots, radishes, green onions, zuccini. All the stuff that looks like it failed the scratch and dent rack here. And of course, salad greens! Prettier flowers are a bonus.
Well, time to stir the beans and get doggie dog fed. And perhaps, dig a bit before I go!

Construction pals

Two Rosas work the front desk at Constructarama, aka Marma. This Rosa waited on me last time, so this morning, we were old friends. Jose and I had gone to run an errand for Eriso, who was working the supplies gotten yesterday. He is making his own rebar frames and we were there to buy bars.
Frames have been built to hold the new level of the garden bed. The front of the property is getting new beds, but we are rehanging the picket fence there for another year because the wood is relatively new and in good shape.
The tubes between the golf cart and bags will be cut and filled first with bar that Eriso has bent on his sawhorse at home, to be inserted into tubes, then filled with cement. The "feet" will go into the wet cement planting bed foundation.
Jose and I also went to Boxito to get more lengths of drain tubes. Their delivery driver quit at the end of his shift yesterday, so I am waiting on Abraham, across the side street, to get home from work. He has a truck.
Then Eriso will cut those tubes to be filled in the Marma bar, and stick the feet into the wet-cement walls of the garden bed. When set, the plastic tubing is peeled back.
When we got back, Jose went to work transplanting and watering, and cleaning up. I also asked him to place two layers of newspaper over where he had weeded. In rainy season, the newspaper will stay wet and keep the light out. When the job is done, some top soil will be placed on top and the garden will be weed-free for months.
While Jose worked, I made drunken chicken from a 4 pound Bochocco chicken he picked up across the street for $6US.
He was amused because he never heard of drunken chicken. It calls for pan fried chicken, sliced onions, rosemary, potatoes, carrots, garlic and a beer or two. Our chicken got drunk on two.
When he was done in the garden, the chicken was done and he said we had enough food for five! Or more!
He took some home for him and Sandi, so they don't have to worry about what to eat tonight.