Incredible Edible Wildlife!

Our first encounter with wildlife was when Morgan's bear was released.  She waited for months to see her bear again, and watched every box come off the truck until she was reunited with her sweet and cuddly friend!  Turns out the bear had taken a detour to Kingston, Jamaica, and had picked up a strange accent - and smoky aroma!  Okay, so her teddy bear isn't that wild.  Keep reading down the blog for some REAL Crucian wildlife!

 

I believe the most dreaded creature on the island is the centipede, and thanks to the monthly extermination service, the only ones we've found in the house were already dead or dying.  We've heard plenty of stories about how horrible their bite is, and they neither offer nor are afforded any  mercy.  The fear of them is probably comparable to the rattlesnakes in AZ.  One of our movers said we should catch several centipedes and soak them in a jar of alcohol (like tequila or rum).  Then the alcohol can be used to treat a centipede bite.  Then the other mover told us if we drank the remaining alcohol, the bite would hurt even less...  

 

There are public service billboards all over the island, with a picture of a woman and a giant centipede, and the sign saying:  "What's Scarier Than Unprotected Sex?"  and under the picture it reads: "Not Much..."  But centipedes are definitely a close second place. 

The picture below is of a mongoose.  Anyone remember Rikki-Tikki-Tavi?  It's a story about a mongoose who is adopted by a British family, in India, and he protects the family from a pair of deadly cobras.  This cartoon is based on the original Rudyard Kipling story.

Mongooses were brought to St. Croix in the 1800s to control the rat populations at the sugar mills.  What no one realized at the time was that the rats were nocturnal, and slept in the trees at night.  And the mongoose, well, they hunted during the day - and can't climb trees!  So now, about 150 years later, both species are thriving here on St. Croix.  

  

A while back I shared an experience on Face Book, about looking out my second-floor bedroom window one night and seeing an eight-legged monster crawling on my screen.   It was a LAND crab, like the one below, but with my first thought of it being a spider, you can imagine my terror at seeing it inches away from my face!!!  So I called for Jesse and Mike to come look out my window (I didn't tell them what they were looking for) and I was delighted to see Mike jump a mile when he finally focused on the creepy silhouette!  Hahaha! 

Our yard is frequented by one or more "Yellow-crowned Night-herons," who seem to delight in turning our driveway into a crab killing field.   Oftentimes we go outside in the morning to find little crab parts strewn all over, and the large body neatly emptied out (see pretty purple crab body below).

It took a while to figure out what kind of monster was making such a mess.  Sometimes I'd wake up in the middle of the night and just stare out the window, wondering what was out there.  I would occasionally see a shadow running in and out of the tall grass (like in Jurassic Park), and finally, a couple of times got a good look.  I'm pretty sure now we've unofficially-conclusively identified the culprit, and can sleep in peace.  If we have trouble sleeping, though, we can always go to the grocery store and pick up a "Marley's Mellow Mood" to relax us a bit...

 

Incidentally, tonight is a full moon and we were told that the land crab hunters would be out along the roadsides, catching these creepy crawlies to put on their dinner plates.  Our movers told us the crabs have to be "purged" by putting them in a box with clean (?) food for a few days, so whatever nasty stuff they've been eating will be expelled from their body and replaced with something less undesirable.   At this time, I don't know whether I'll be eating any land crabs.  Ever.  But if I get into a survival situation, at least I'll have an idea of what to do. 

Jesse, fearless hunter of the Lionfish, is displaying his catch below.  Normally we aren't fishermen or hunters, but the Indio-Pacific Lionfish is an invasive species that is doing terrible damage to the local, native fish population.  As such, we are encouraged to either set a marker when we see one of the fish (they hang out in the same spot and don't roam) or eliminate them ourselves.  Mike bought manual spears for Jesse and himself, and the next day we were snorkeling in the Salt River Bay and Jesse speared THREE Lionfish. 

 

I hear Lionfish are very tasty, but I'm not interested in learning to prepare them.  The spines are venomous, and some of the fish in this region are known to carry a toxin (ciguatera) that can make a person very sick.  I would, however, love to try them if I ever find them on the menu of a reputable restaurant!  What about you?  Would you eat the land crabs and Lionfish?   What about iguana???

Today we had to go to Jesse and Morgan's new school (they were going to attend school on-line, but our plans changed).  I was delighted to see two large iguanas while I was waiting outside for the kids to finish their placement testing.  These iguanas are used to people, and this one let me get within about five feet before he got defensive, so I was able to get several good pictures.

Below is a second iguana, with a much brighter green color.  It didn't let me get close at all, and took off into a tree, where it disappeared into camouflage.  

Incidentally, two of our movers (they were real characters) are from another Caribbean island, Dominica, and they love to eat iguana.  They catch them here on the island, and said they'll call us when they have their next iguana-Q on the beach.  They laughed as they told us the story about chasing a big iguana down the road, hoping to have it for dinner, but then a lady came out screaming at them not to kill her pet iguana!  They are really nice fellows, and immediately stopped their pursuit, allowing the woman to catch her pet and bring it home.  

Apparently there are at least five iguanas who live in safety at the school, and the kids have learned not to mess with them.  The iguanas can whip you with their beautiful, long tails, and I'm told it can really hurt.  The iguana below looks like it's posing for a glamor shot!  

Well, for now I don't think I'll be eating any iguanas, land crabs, lionfish, or drinking centipede-infused alcohol.  Of course what you do whenever you get here is up to you.  I'll give you the keys to the car and point you in the right general direction.

I'd like to end this blog post by thanking the person who brought our family to this beautiful island, and who is always reminding me to encourage our family and friends to come visit.   Let's not disappoint Mike, okay?  Here's a picture I took of Mike  yesterday morning, outside his office.  He has to wear his blues every Monday. 

So... Get your travel plans sorted out, and I'll help watch for good airfare...

Hope to see you soon,

Laurel

I Love da Coconuts!

One of my favorite foods on the island is the coconut!  I'm amazed by the difference between a fresh coconut, right off the tree, and the brown hairy things I grew up seeing in the mainstream U.S. grocery stores.  How could I have lived almost half a century without knowing what a REAL coconut was like???

Our (the kids and my) first morning here, we all went over to Mike's workplace, where there are several really nice coconut palms, and gathered a load to take home.  It was our first island adventure, and we had a lot of fun together.  I think that is when my love of coconuts really began.

We used a ladder and a tree-pruning saw to get the coconuts down.  Mike and Jesse fooled around with catching the falling coconuts, but it turned out easier to let them fall in the grass, although some did split on impact.  Incidentally, the following week, we were sitting at a beach restaurant and a heavy coconut fell (THUD) about two feet away from Morgan.  It was a shock to imagine having one of them fall unexpectedly on your noggin.  I will NOT sit under a coconut tree again!!!

The coconuts that Morgan and Jesse are drinking, below, are just becoming mature, as you can tell by the browning of the husk.  The have thick meat AND are full of yummy, electrolyte-rich, coconut water.  So refreshing, I would rather drink a coconut than a glass of water!

The coconut below looks super-appetizing!  Jesse worked VERY hard to get the green skin and husk off the coconut, and with all that removed, this is what the coconut inside looks like!  It reminds me of one of those marshmallows covered with toasted coconut.  Mmm.  If you look closely, you can see that it's full of clean, clear coconut water - perfect for drinking!  Here's a fun song to go with this picture:  Harry Nilsin singing "Lime in the coconut"

Casey was just tickled to see us all together again.  Look at that smile!!!  I shipped her (as cargo) to Puerto Rico about three weeks ahead of the kids and me, and Mike flew to San Juan to meet her and bring her to St. Croix.  What a journey that must have been for her.

There's a LOT more to coconuts than yum and fun.  Here's a link to the Coconut Research Center, where you can read about how special they really are. I also found a fun song about coconuts:
"Da Coconut Nut song" (I don't know who the guy is they keep showing the photos of, so please know that I mean no offense to anyone)


Our yard has about 15 coconut palms, but only a handful have coconuts. One of them is about 30' tall, and full of big, beautiful coconuts.  I really wanted those cocos, so I encouraged Jesse to look online and learn how to shimmy up a coconut tree.  He spent about an hour watching youtube videos of people climbing barefoot up the coconut trees.  Turns out to be harder than it looks!  I wish I had gotten pictures of my brave little monkey hanging on for dear life, about 15 feet up!  Too soon, Mike came outside and cut the party short, admonishing us for our foolishness.  So my partner-in-crime and I got out the extension ladder, and Jesse, my hero, got his mom the cocos the modern way.

From all our trees, we gathered coconuts of different stages, and I spent almost an entire day learning the relationship between my machete and the different stages of coconuts.   A young coconut is small, with a soft(ish) husk, and full of water.  An old coconut is hard and fibrous, with dense, oily meat (much like you'd find inside any other raw nut).  There are uses for the coconut at different stages, whether you want to quench your thirst, or make coconut cream.  

I decided to try my hand at making coconut milk.  I took all the coconut meat that I'd worked so hard to extract, and put it in my blender with a bit of coconut water.  This photo only has a few pieces of coconut - I actually filled it all the way up.

I blended it into a puree... 

Then I strained the pureed coconut over a bowl, to capture the coconut "milk."  I've since learned that I shouldn't use a metal sieve, something about reactivity, so I'll look for a fabric bag. 

I left the strainer and bowl in the refrigerator overnight, and the next morning the bowl was full of milk, and a thick layer of semi-solids at the top.  I separated the milk into one bowl, solids (cream?) into another, and pulp into yet another.  I added some of the thick coconut milk to my morning smoothies for several days, and it added a delicious flavor to something I already thought couldn't have gotten any better.  The solid "cream" is in the freezer, until I figure out what to do with it. 

After doing a lot of research, I decided to use the pureed coconut to make coconut "flour," which meant dehydrating it in the oven for a few hours to take the moisture out (then processing further to make the flour).  It was funny that every time I opened the oven, my glasses would steam up and make me blind.  I thought the coconut would NEVER dry!!!  Finally, when I opened the oven door, and my glasses DIDN'T steam up, I knew I was getting somewhere.  I do think I dried the coconut longer than necessary, and what I may have ended up with was "toasted coconut flour." That's okay, I still have no idea what I'm going to do with it! 

Most of the recipes I found that use "coconut flour" (I had never even heard of it before a few days ago) are for people with gluten intolerance.  Apparently you can make "flour" with all sorts of things, but the flour that we're used to using (from wheat), has something called "gluten," which some people are sensitive to.  Wheat, Barley, and Rye all have "Gluten," and I learned that up to 1% of the population gets very sick from eating gluten.  So they use things like coconut flour, as a substitute.

The difficult part for me is that the recipes I've found are tailored to gluten-free diets, and have all kinds of other recipe modifications, which I don't need.  I just want to be able to use all parts of my precious coconut!  If any of my tropical friends can advise me, I need to know what to do with the coconut puree left over after making coconut milk!

Enjoy this one last song, a very old one, and start thinking about how many coconuts you will eat when you come visit!

Merv Griffin singing "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts"

Have a great day,

Laurel

Sunday Fun-Day!

In keeping with a popular theme on St. Croix, we've started our own "Sunday Fun-Day" traditions. 

First, we go to church, then come home for lunch and to change into our beach gear.  After we spend a few hours swimming and snorkeling, we stop somewhere for a bite and watch the sunset.  When we get home, we hurry and clean up, then settle in to watch a movie together.  Sundays are definitely fun family days for us, full of quality time together.

Let's start this post with a little song again.  The song I gave you last time was a bit fast-paced for me.  This youtube video will introduce you to "Quelbe" and the associated dance, called "Quadrille."   I really like it! 


We found a great church called "St Croix Christian Church," which is inter-denominational and multi-cultural.  The service doesn't start until 10am, so we have plenty of time to sleep in, have coffee, breakfast, watch some news, and hang out, before getting ready to go.  The pastor and his wife, Gary and Alicia Moore, are really nice people, and the two (+) hour service is full of interesting and relevant teachings from the Bible.  They have a large, active youth group, and Jesse and Morgan are already getting to know some of the other kids, and will be attending a two week (in-residence) summer camp with YWAM (Youth With A Mission), starting on July 7th.  I've joined a women's Bible study that begins next week, based on the book "Bait of Satan." (here's a review that I think covers it well)

On most days the kids and I have fruit smoothies for breakfast, and last week at the farmer's market I  bought some fresh nutmeg, which we grate straight into the Ninja blender cup!  My favorite smoothies are made with local mango, local banana, milk, vanilla, and now local, fresh nutmeg!

Farmer's market fruit.  Clockwise, from 12:00 - Breadfruit, cantaloupe, 3 different types of bananas/plantains, egg fruit, mangoes, papaya, and more mangoes!

This is fresh nutmeg!  The one on the left has the shell, and on the right the shell is removed.  I just scrape the nut with a tiny paring knife and use the shavings.  The flavor is amazing! 

This papaya made four papaya-banana smoothies!  I love the papaya, but mango-banana is still my favorite!

We've been to several different beaches already, many of them having their own unique "feel."  Below are a few pictures of the beaches we've been to for our family Sunday Fun-Day.   By the time you come visit, we'll have a set of "favorites" for you to check out.

Butler Bay, on the west shore of the island, is usually pretty quiet, and a nice place to let our dog (Casey) run and swim, while we snorkel.

Butler Bay - facing south

Butler Bay - facing north

Butler Bay - facing west.  Casey tolerates her life vest, and enjoys swimming around with us

Rainbow Beach, on the west side, is known for it's Sunday Fun Day crowd.  There's beach volleyball, bbq's, and oftentimes live music at the adjacent bar/restaurant, "Rhythms."  

Rainbow Beach - facing south, towards "Rhythms"

Rainbow Beach - facing north

Rainbow Beach is a great place to watch the sunset and hope for a chance to see the elusive "Green Flash."     We haven't seen one yet, because there always seem to be clouds on the horizon when the sun is setting.

Rainbow Beach - facing west

So after a wonderful day of church, beach, and sunsets, we go home and finish our Sunday Fun Day with a family movie together.  Since we gave all our living room furniture away before moving over here, we had to go out and buy something from a local furniture store.  We decided on a functional, family-style sectional sofa, that we can all sink into at the same time.  And when I say "WE ALL," that includes YOU, when you come visit!  It's not your typical beach house furniture, but it sure is comfortable!

So hurry up and plan your visit, and join us for our version of Sunday Fun Day!

Festive music, good food, and beautiful weather...

I love to eat, and am enjoying the variety of new tastes here on St. Croix!  

The biggest difference (about eating) is the grocery stores.  They sell some really interesting products and brands, and it's fun to try new things.  But so far the grocery stores I've found aren't as clean and well-maintained as they are in the states, and three times now I've bought food that is spoiled or had bugs.  I hear there are some good stores, I just need to do some more exploring!  For now, I'm spending more time at the farm stands, and farmer's markets, buying locally grown, and mostly organic, fruits and vegetables.  We've gotten used to eating meat every-other day, at most, and I don't think anyone really misses it (the meat).

Before you look at the pictures below, let me introduce you to a Caribbean style of music called "Soca."  It will REALLY get you jumping!  The link will open in a new window, then you'll have to click the "play" arrow.  I hope you enjoy this song as much as I do! 

"Superblue - Fantastic Friday" 

Here's what my take-home was the first morning on the island, some of which I made into a stir fry:

I've read that it's good to get a variety of different colored veggies, as they have different nutritional values.  I think this stir fry must have been a power-house!!!

 

So far, every time I've gone to the market, I've come home with something new for us to try.  I couldn't resit buying a handful of the fruit below.  The skin was thick and waxy, and the flesh inside was sweet, but a little tough.  Who (those of you who are not on St. Croix) knows what they are?  I'll give you the answer at the end!

The star shaped fruit below is called "Carambola."  Mike and I had it when we went to Costa Rica, and I've seen it at the Mexican markets in Phoenix.  It's sweet, juicy, and very pretty in fruit salads.  The red fruit is called a "Malay Apple," and added a nice crunch to the fruit salad.  

Okay, for those of you (like myself, until recently) who have no clue as to what the funny yellow mystery fruit is... they are CASHEWS!  Yes, the sweet nuts you get in a can, from Planters!  Here is an excerpt from something I found on the web:

"Cashew nuts are actually the kidney-shaped seeds that adhere to the bottom of the cashew apple, the fruit of the cashew tree, which is native to the coastal areas of northeastern Brazil. While cashew apples are not appreciated in the United States, they are regarded as delicacies in Brazil and the Caribbean. Cashews are always sold shelled because the interior of the shells contains a caustic resin, known as cashew balm, which must be carefully removed before the nuts are fit for consumption. This caustic resin is actually used in industry to make varnishes and insecticides." (http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=98)



Well, it's time to stretch my legs and go over to the beach.  I keep thinking I need to take advantage of this nice weather before it goes away, then I remember, "Wait - it's going to be like this all year long!"  Have you planned your visit yet?

Our house

The kids and I have been here two and a half weeks now (Mike got here several months ago). 


We moved into a beautiful house, with a 3-year lease.  It is a 4Bd/5Ba, with the master bedroom and common areas upstairs, and three small bedrooms downstairs, along with a small living room and kitchenette.  Jesse and Morgan each chose a bedroom, and the remaining area will be for our family and friends who visit.  

When these photos were taken, the only furnishings in the house were those belonging to the owners.  Since our own household items were delivered, it's a lot more cluttered, and we're still working on getting organized.

The picture below is taken from the front door.  We're maybe a football-field length away from the sea (or less).  For the first few days, we left all the windows and doors open, and enjoyed the outside sounds and the constant breeze.  But it wasn't long before we decided that the humidity was too much of a problem.  The floors and surfaces were always wet, and we knew our furniture and electronics wouldn't hold up to the salt air.  So as soon as the movers left, we closed all the windows and set the A/C at 79, which seems to do a good job keeping the climate controlled inside the house.

With electricity costing 51 cents a Kilowatt hour, (compared to Phoenix, which is less than ten cents/kWh), we've been told that this house costs as much as $1,000 a month for electricity.  Ouch!  Many houses don't even have air conditioning, but the humidity and general climate is different, depending on where you live.  Where our house is, it feels like the waves are breaking right into the front door!

The front windows have electric hurricane shutters that come down with the touch of a button, or if there's a power outage, with a manual crank.  This is supposed to be a busy hurricane season, so I'm sure we'll get to use them.    Hurricane season is from Jun 1st to Nov 30th, so although airfare is less expensive during this time frame, it might not be the best time to visit.  Oh, it would be fun if you were already here safe and sound, but the problem would be delayed and cancelled flights and such. 

Also for hurricane protection, the front porch has a roll-down screen that is installed at the beginning of hurricane season, and removed after the season has passed.  When there's a hurricane, you unroll it and clip it into permanent anchors in the floor.  This prevents damage from flying debris, mostly.


The house has plenty of windows, which helps minimize the feeling of being shut-in.  You might notice there isn't much on the walls.  They're ALL made of concrete (as is the floor between the levels), so we can't just tap a nail into the wall.  I've never been in such a solid house before this, I'm sure it'll be unfazed by the hurricanes.

The kitchen is small, but gets the job done.  We haven't used the dishwasher yet, in order to minimize our water consumption.  We've learned to wash everything as we go along, which was a real pain for the first few days, but now we're used to it.  If you leave even the tiniest crumb on the counter, or juice in a glass, the ants will stream onto the counters. Everyone is doing their part, washing, wiping, drying, and putting away.  

Below is the view from the window above the kitchen sink, looking out at the very heavy vegetation of the unused lots behind us.  You can also see the top of the garage, and the solar hot water heater.  It does a good  job - the water is always scalding hot, and we've never run out, even when we all four takes showers after returning from the beach.

 

Speaking of showers, our water supply comes from the rain.  There are two huge underground tanks that fill up with rain run-off from the roof.  Then it goes through some kind a filter and is pumped throughout the house, just like with a pump in an RV.  Many people just add bleach to sanitize the water in the cistern, but Mike bought and installed a UV filter so we don't have to use bleach.  The water is soft, clean, and with the addition of a carbon filter in the kitchen, it tastes very, very nice.  

Of course you want to know where you'll be staying when you come visit.  The guest room currently has a nice set of bunk beds, and there is a queen bed in the lower living room.  I hoped we'd be able to fit the queen bed into the guest room, along with the bunk beds, but all the rooms are too small.  When we have the guest accommodations just right, I'll take pictures and dedicate a post entirely to planning your visit, including packing suggestions, airline options, etc.

I'll leave you with a picture of our driveway.  Just driving away from the house, with this view straight to the Caribbean, evokes excitement about all the beautiful and wondrous things that we might be on our way to do or see. So... have you planned your visit yet???

Until next time,

Laurel

First Family Day on St. Croix

This is my first post since the kids and I arrived on St. Croix, just a little over a week ago.

We got here in the late afternoon, on Jun 7th.  As soon as we landed, the ground crew pushed the portable stairs up against the plane, and we climbed down into hot, wet, winds.  One of the kids commented that it was just like they see on the news, with Air Force One.  I realized that all their previous flights had been straight from the plane into an air-conditioned walkway and straight into a climate controlled terminal.  Haha!  Those days are over, kids.   

As we walked across the hot and windy tarmac toward the terminal, where we knew Mike would be waiting for us, we were tickled to see this huge mural that was painted in Morgan's honor: 

Mike met us with lots of hugs and flowers.  The first thing I noticed was how healthy he looked.  The life he was living, and I expect the rest of us to adopt, is minimal junk food, healthy eating, and lots of physical outdoor activities. 

I had warned Mike in advance that we were carrying LOTS of luggage.  Our military PCS orders allowed 5 checked bags each, but between the three of us we kept it down to 15 total, including our carry-ons.  So Mike was prepared, having borrowed one of the government trucks to carry all our stuff.  Notice that the baggage carousel is "outside," by our definition.  That's just the way it is here! 

We had to drive straight from the airport to the police department to drop off the firearm I had transported.  The police gave Mike a hard time about the gun size, saying it was too big, but he convinced them to go ahead and check it into their armory, where it will be kept until either Mike or I get the permit that will allow us to possess the gun at the house.    One of the things that's challenging about this place is the lack of standard guidelines.  Many things just "depend on who you talk to."  This is particularly difficult for military people like us, who always have the "regulations" to go by. 

After we went to the rental house to drop off our bags (and for the kids to stake claims on which bedroom they'd have), we drove to downtown Christiansted for supper.  Friday nights during the "off" (non-tourist) season are very quiet here.  There was one other couple at the restaurant.  The waiter brought us a bottle of insect repellant and a menu, which was in English on one side and Danish on the other. 

 

At the end of this first day, I was so tired that I don't remember any more about how the day ended and I don't remember going to sleep.   I just remember that it felt really nice to be all together again, and I'm sure I was eager for all the adventures the following day would bring.