Just another "Normal" Tuesday

Yesterday was yet another busy and production filled day. Since we are cutting it close on budgets to get this darn place finished and ready to open we are trying to utilize as much stuff as possible that existed here before. My job yesterday was to clean and paint all of the wooden curtain rods, brackets and end caps. 4 windows per room X 10 rooms! That a lot of wood!!

I painted them a dark chocolate brown and we are looking at very simple tap style curtains in linen or cotton.

Trish, our "Main (Wo)Man" was here all day to help us. We did get to end our day in time to enjoy a little R&R and watch the sunset.

This week's evening views overlooking Saba have been just awesome.

Today 2 containers arrive on Saba so by mid morning we should have several large truck loads of deliveries. It's anyone's guess what may arrive today but I'm hoping the rest of the bed frames and Dining Room tables will be on today's inventory list so we can start putting rooms together and be ready for the doors to open.

The dark clouds are looming on the horizon and although we desparately need some rain to fill the cisterns, I am hopeful it will hold off until the deliveries are done today.

Happy Wednesday from Saba.

The Pool Debacle Clean Up - Ugh!

The pool debacle clean up was worse than I originally thought. After thousands of gallons of water pump itself into the lower level basement area I realized this "green stuff" all over and figured out that it was the chemicals in the pool that was actually eating away the concrete floor paint. While still wet it was this mucky, yucky green slime. We swept out as much of it as possible and then let it dry with box fans and open windows.

The morning's task was the take a stiff bristle broom and sweep out the remainder of it and then "shop vac" the rest up and then finally mop and clean the areas. I really shouldn't have been wearing flip flops while doing this and now have GREEN TOES!! (My God I need a pedicure - for that matter, I need a whole body extreme makeover!!)

This is some of yesterday's green slime which is, today, a green powdery and I'm sure toxic dust. It will probably take at least 2 or 3 cigarettes just to clear my poor lungs.

Getting down on my hands and knees was tons of fun trying to scrape this stuff out from beside, behind and on the pumps

and heaters!!

Not the most glamorous shot of me in the Hades-like conditions in the recesses of the basement but I just wanted to make sure you all saw my Super Fantastic Glamorous Life I live here in the Tropics!!

Happy Slimy Green Dusty Day from Saba.

It wasn't a Wet Dream but a WET DREAM!!

So I had this dream that all of the new memory foam mattresses we got for the hotel rooms had soaked up all of the moisture from the rains and humidity and the first guest had checked in and went to lay down and got soaked!! Kind of like sitting on a wet sponge.

I woke up in a cold sweat and remembered this video clip on you tube where a store had played this prank un unsuspecting customers with a water bed.

Check out this video (click here)

I guess with the pool mishap and the water flooding into the basement yesterday along with feeling a little stressed and pressured has taken my brain into overloand position.

Thank goodness the pool issue from yesterday is all fixed even though we lost thousands of gallons of water.

Today has started bright and early at the pre dawn hour of "5am" and promises to be a packed full one!!

We are D minus 4 weeks from tomorrow from our DROP DEAD opening date for the first wedding which is all booked.

Happy Monday from Saba.

Oops!!

Yesterday I spent a number of hours with a hand held scrub brush cleaning the coping tiles in the swimming pool, brushing down the sides of the pool, vacuuming it and testing and amending the chemicals. Something I'm learning to do as I go. Well, I must have done something wrong because overnight the O Ring blew out on the pump filters and drained more than a third of water out of it and straight into the basement!!

Chore #1 - fill the pool
Chore #2 - Re Do all the chemicals
Chore #3 - prime the pumps and get the darn thing working again
Chore #4 - mop and dry out the basement
Chore #5 - Wash and dry all the hotel linens and pillows that got wet
Chore #6 - Libate myself to make the stress headache go AWAY!!

Happy wet and soggy Sunday from Saba.

Creepy Crawlies

I keep finding all kinds of neat things around the property here at Shearwater Resort. Today I was straining some leaves out of the pool and found this centipede or fire worm which was over a foot long!! These mean fellows will sting the living daylights out of you if you were to step on them. Thank goodness he drowned in the water before I came along today.

We also have our fair share of Iguanas that like to sun themselves on the rock cliff just beyond the pool area.

So far I have 4 "regulars" that hang out each day. I've named them Iggy, Squiggy, Ziggy and Piggy. Only "Piggy" because that's the one that always races to the food that I throw to them first.

They enjoy salad leftovers, carrots and grapes but their absolute favorite is Bananas complete with the skins on!!

"Retiring" to the Tropics is all Fun and No Work - Yeah, Right!!

Today's task was to take "a few" boxes up to the cliffside cottages and arrange them for installation. Ummm, a few???

This is me hauling up, yet, another HEAVY box of CRAP up 91 steps at a sheer verticle incline of something like "ZERO"

And here I am hauling up another box of HEAVY CRAP on trip number 19 or something like that although it felt like number 2,198,997!!

If ONLY I had one of these (ABOVE) to assist me in my duties today!!

When we finally finished getting all this crap up the hill I came down to take a quick break and decided to turn on some tune-age to rest my weary soul, muscles and bones and got yelled at to turn the music down because they were talking on the phone!! Someone was just a little on the grumpy side!!

Happy Friday from Saba!!

African Tulip Trees and How the Other Half Lives

I took a break from packing, hauling, sweeping, cleaning and running up and down the steps today and decided to water some of the newly planted things around the property. Boy was it a hot one today!! I stood up to wipe the sweat from my brow (and other areas of my body) and noticed this African Tulip Tree in full Bloom.


Although this tree is indigenous for Equatorial Africa it does grow quite nicely here in the Tropics. There are several of them around the property and are all in bloom right now.

Here's a close up of the blooms the tree produces.

As I was coming around the balcony with the garden hose I saw this cute little dinghy passing by. WOW! Complete with its own swimming pool on the top deck.


Ahhhh, it's nice to dream just a little bit about how the other half lives!!

"Hot" Tub Night & "Hot" and sweaty Day Today!

Last night we were sore and tired from a full work day here at Shearwater AND were having some challenges with the hot tub heater so when we finally got it working we decided to warm up the water and soothe some of those achy muscles. The hot tub heater is propane fired so it's crazy expensive to have it on all of the time. One "to do" list is to change it over to a new high efficiency electric model.

Here is Paul enjoying the water and the bubbles! The weather had turned a brisk 79 degrees last night but the winds were calm so it wasn't too chilly.


Today it's hot and sticky all over again and one of my jobs today was to haul down some of the old beds from the cliffside rooms which are about 75 steps straight up the mountainside. I'm gonna have buns of steel by the time this is all over!


The owner's father arrives on the last flight today to check on things. He was the general contractor on the property when it was first built so I am happy to have him here and rely on his knowledge and expertise on the buildings and their "workings".


Happy Thursday from Saba.

The New Orchid Garden

There is a tall wall made of local Saban rock with natural rock outcroppings carved out of the mountainside next to the swimming pool here at Shearwater Resort. The "landscaping" has been neglected for a long time and we are working hard to try to get the gardens back into show condition.

We transplanted a lot of the flowering plants and orchids from the other house and have made this space our "Orchid Garden"

Orchids, being primarily air root plants have found a perfect area now to flourish. The nooks and crannies in the rocks are just perfect with the right amount of light and water.

We actually have about a half dozen or so in bloom right now!!

One non orchid plant that we transferred is a beautiful flowering passion fruit vine which (hopefully) will cascade down the wall from the top.

The whole area being draped in several colors of Bouganvilla should make a nice backdrop for wedding photos for the upcoming wedding which is booked for the 2nd week of February.

Gosh, I hope the place is ready!! Ugh, still lots of work to do until then.

Scorpions!

Last night we went down to The Bottom and had some ribs for dinner along with a handful of libations. The music was loud, the locals were having fun playing Dominoes and I was in a good mood. Wow, imagine that - Chris in a good mood?!?!

When we got home and after we had let the dogs out they came in a started chasing "something" around the room. It was this little Scorpion! Complete with its tail up and stinger ready to strike. Here's the little fellow (now Cemetary Dead)


It was a beautiful night so we sat outside for a bit before bed. Cool breezes, lights in the pool and a pretty starry night.

Happy Wednesday from Saba.