I promise I won’t only write about house projects, but that’s what we have spent most of our time on the first few weeks since we arrived.

Two things that are pretty problematic on the island are power and water. Power outages can be as frequent as multiple times per day and other times the power can go out for days on end. The frequency of the outages is inconvenient for a lot of reasons, but our house is on a cistern (rainwater collection that is stored in a tank under the house and gets filtered and pumped into the house), so when the power is out, we also lose water. There’s nothing worse than spending a day on the beach coated in sunscreen, sand and by evening bug spray, and not being able to shower (or flush the toilet for that matter). We’ve also had to throw a lot of food away over the years, which is nauseating given the price of groceries on the island is 2-3 times what it is in the States.

Sidebar: Who would like to guess the cost of the groceries in the photo below? No meat and very little fresh produce was purchased.

It used to be that generators were a luxury, but lately they feel like more of a necessity (especially with the kids doing online school). Initially, our plan was to go the generator route, but after doing some research and talking to several neighbors that have them, we ultimately decided to go with solar instead. Most people we know have had issues with their generators breaking, and there are not a ton of people on the island that could service one when we aren’t here. They are also pretty noisy and require fuel to run, so if the power ever goes out for an extended period of time, it could be the case that fuel isn’t widely available. The sun on the other hand is a guarantee. :)

So, before we arrived, we had solar panels and two batteries shipped onto the island, and the day after we arrived, Tom and Thomas installed five panels on the roof, and my Dad was a helpful hand on the ground handing the panels up to them. That part went really well, but getting the wires tied into the electrical panel was a battle to the end. The wires are SO thick, not very pliable, and we had to route them through 2” pipe that had all sorts of twists and turns. Finally, after a day of forcefully working the wires through the pipe, we were able to get everything up and running. We ran completely off solar for the first night and then the next day, Tom tied us back into the power grid, so we now have a fully functioning system with solar backup. The peace of mind knowing we have backup power is so nice. We’ve had two outages since, and the system worked just as we hoped!

It’s all hands on deck with projects in our family - and apparently we prefer to work in bathing suits ;)

The next project was installing a reverse osmosis system. Since the house runs off cistern water, it’s not drinkable, so we always have a 5 gallon jug of water in the house. The 5 gallon water is fine, but it can be a pain when you run out, and during busy season on the island, it’s not uncommon to have to go to several places before you find one that has 5 gallon replacements. We weren’t sure how well the R/O system would actually work, but figured it was worth a shot, so after the solar was installed, Tom tackled the R/O installation which went really smooth - except for the fact that we forgot to bring water test strips down with us! When Tom asked who was going to try the water first, I kindly volunteered him. :) You know, most people in this situation would just take a few sips, maybe half a cup at most, and then wait to see how they fare, but not Tom - he jumped in head first by downing TWO full glasses! Thankfully, he’s still alive and well, so we’ve all been drinking the water since then. We did get some test strips this past week and the water was clean as a whistle.

This past week we’ve had friends from home on the island which was wonderful….more to come on our adventures together, next week!