8/31/6

I got my truck back, and we picked up two more loads of sod. We finished planting that, and it has stayed green. I believe it has taken root, and now we are waiting for it to spread. I bought a lawn mower, and have cut the lawn once already. It will be ready to cut again soon. Last Sunday, we went and got another load of sod, to fill in some of the bigger gaps, and we had it all planted by 1pm. I am watering it regularly, as it is not a very wet rainy season, yet. I am starting to believe I will have a lawn one day soon.

My friend Olaf, from Holland is staying with me for about ten days. He is going to look at some lots for sale, and is thinking of taking up residency here. However, he spent his first full day at the beach, I think he would like to spend the whole day there, and his second day surfing. He is out fishing with Jose today, and he wants to go to Monteverde for a day while he is here.

Sunday, Raz started acting funny. He didn’t eat all his food, and appeared to be tired. Monday, when I was leaving to pick up Olaf from San Jose, he only ate half his breakfast, and Tuesday, he didn’t eat any. When I took Olaf to the beach Tuesday morning, Raz acted fairly normal, exploring the beach, wading in the water, but Tuesday afternoon, when I went back to get Olaf, Raz wouldn’t even get out of the car. Wednesday morning, I took him to the vet in Puntarenas, and a blood test revealed he had a canine form of Dengue. This affects humans like a strong flu, and Raz is showing all the symptoms, fever, weakness, and lack of appetite. The vet gave me pills for him to take, two per day, for four weeks. I hope he starts to recover soon, but at least it helps to know what the problem is.

8/10/6

The primary focus of this week is my lawn. The shoots we planted from the side of the road did okay, but isn’t getting thicker, and seems spindly. The seeds we bought came up in about 20% of the area we planted, and everyone insisted it wasn’t Grammia, the type they use for soccer fields in this area. Jose didn’t think so either, but asked an expert. Turns out there are two types of Grammia, one fine, and one coarse. The fine stuff doesn’t do well here, and the seeds only grew in the shade. Jose suggested we get a little bit of sod from his friend in Chomes. I also needed to get some poison for the grubs.
Monday, I went to Puntarenas for a mouse for the computer, Barranca for some money from the bank, and Miramar for the poison. I bought the wrong mouse because I read the box wrong, got half the money I wanted because my Spanish was bad, but did manage to get the right poison.
Tuesday, we went to Chomes for the sod. Jose talked to his friend, the owner of a huge farm, and we drove out into his field, dug shovels full of sod, put them into bags, and loaded them into my 4×4. When we unloaded the truck, we figured we needed 4 loads to do the lawn. On the way back from the second load, the truck made a loud noise in Judas, so I drove it about a kilometer to the mechanic’s house. The bolts had broken on the water pump. We left the truck there, and walked around Judas until Jose found someone who would drive us and the sod home. The mechanic has the water pump on, but the head has to be checked to see if it is warped. I was supposed to know at 10am if that was alright, but when Jose called him, he wasn’t home. If that needs to be fixed I will be without my truck for a few days.
Meanwhile, we spent yesterday afternoon pulling shoots from the sod and planting them in individual holes. Apparently, if you just lay the sod out, it has trouble penetrating the clay and spreading. We could expect half of it not to live. Rafa’s son Diego is helping, it is a very big job. Also, it rained all afternoon, good for the grass, but hard to work in. Jose makes the holes, I put in some poison, and Diego plants the shoots. Well, on the 13th hole, Jose hit the water line. He had a union, and some cement, so we repaired that. We finished up at 4:30pm, and had a good sized patch planted. They came back this morning and worked until 12 noon, getting a lot more done. This time, when Jose hit the water line again, he didn’t have any more unions. Without my car, I couldn’t go and buy more, so he heated up the ends of another piece of tube and used another tube to expand them. He cemented this into the gap I cut out of the water line, and we carried on. His favourite saying is “The only problem without a solution, is death”. Thank goodness he didn’t hit the electrical line.
Anyway, it has been a less-than-perfect week, but I am keepin’ on keepin’ on.