Virgin Islands today comments

Ca. Dreamers, the dock is at Green Cay Marina. It is private property and truthfully I think the rules state that there is no fishing off the docks. No one ever says anything about my son fishing there and we do have a boat there so I let him fish. I think some of the boat owners on F dock are live aboards and probably just don't want my son hanging out there. It is his favorite place to fish but there are plenty other places there so he's just going to have to find a new "favorite" place.

Thanks for your reply.

Tell your son to keep on fishin' !

CD

tami,sorry i haven't been in touch sooner. i was at tamarind beach wed. i saw a boy fishing,thought it might be jj,but the red highlights in his longer style hair made me not sure.god he has beautiful hair! i can assure you he did NOTHING wrong at all,just kept to himself and fished!! i never saw him on f dock and it looked to me he fished from the shore all day!sorry i didn't totally recognize him,just doing what a good kid should be doing...fishing and outside all day.hope to see or talk to you soon,love lily.

No worries lily. LOL about the hair. It sure grows fast and I have envied that beautiful red hair since he was born.

Sometimes people just think kids are up to no good I guess. Best just to avoid them. There are other places to fish. Thanks for validating his good behavior. All the people at Deep End know him and would correct him or call me if he was doing something wrong.

Hope to see you soon. We are on A dock all most every day. Come by and see us.

Tammy

Another wonderful day in paradise.
Today we went to coconuts beach. JJ loves it there and finds all kinds of beautiful fish. Today there was a cruise ship in. Yay!!!! There were quite a few cruise ships passengers at coconuts having a great time drinking and sunning themselves. Some of the passengers sunning decided not to wear tops, and some of them decided to wear speedos. The first thing JJ noticed was the men wearing speedos. I explained to him that europeans often wear very short swimsuits. Then he noticed that the women did not have tops on. His reaction, " OMG! those ladies don't have tops on! I'm going swimming, Ummm, tell me when they are gone. I'm not going to look at them mom!" I told him that they were just breasts and he could look if he wanted to that breasts were for feeding babies. Ummm, they don't have any babies. Well, they just like to be naked and it's ok. When we go sailing you will probably see lots of naked people. It's ok.

I am missing paradise.

Visiting in the states right now. Coastal Virginia were it normally doesn't snow. It snowed last night. Temps in the teens. Wind chill below 0. Hubby and JJ spent the day making a snow cave. Like an igloo. They spent all day getting it just right. I was amazed that my island boy who hates the cold, hates wearing anything other than shorts and flipflops and who has only seen snow once that he remembers spent so much time making his snow cave. He and hubby decided that they were going to spend the night in the snow cave. I just kissed them goodnight as they walked out the door with their sleeping bags, Ipads and a bag of snacks and drinks. I hope they enjoy their adventure, have great father and son man talks and are able to last the night. Cudos to my wonderful husband for making a special childhood memory for our son. I know he would much rather be in his warm bed.

St. Croix is our paradise but today our paradise is where we are together and happy.

good post, as much as i do not like the cold i really miss the big snow storms

Thank you for sharing, Tammy. You must let us know how JJ and Doug's adventure turned out!
Swan

I love this thread and trw's thread, stx today, comments, before it. It chronicles our lives on St. Croix. A wonderful walk down memory lane and JJ's childhood. I am so thankful that I posted of our lives on this message board.

We have been off island for the most part of two years, visiting for a few weeks here and there. So many things have happened during the last two years. New grandchildren, a business struggling back in the states, JJ crossing over from being a boy to a young man. We have missed St. Croix and our friends on the message board from all of the VI. Some have passed, some have moved on and some are still here, unchanging.

One unchanging fact is that JJ longs for St. Croix, his island. Now we are back.

Murphy's law rules our life as usual and nothing has gone as planned, utter chaos at the BMV, broken pipes, flat tires, credit cards not working, centipedes crawling on hubbys face in the middle of the night and the horrible mosquitoes forgetting that they are not supposed to bite me 20 times a day. I leave the island for a bit and they think I am a newby. JJ's feral Crucian kitten he adopted 2 years ago is now afraid to go outside.

I guess we have all softened a bit being in the States. Humans and animals. We have forgotten that the rules here are a little more slack, the bush is a little more dangerous, the creepy crawlies and mosquitoes have decided we are newbies once more.

I used to take things in stride. It took a few years of living here, learning to adapt and overcome. My first few days back almost unhinged me. Yes, I have become soft again.
I could only laugh as my husband described to me the difference between having a giant cockroach climb over your face with having a 4" centipede crawl over your face. I mean, really? How many people in the world have that experience? It is an adventure for sure.

So, we are back. A new time, a new adventure, new things to write about, new people to meet. St. Croix has not changed. It is still the same.

Tammy

VERY often I will say " I bet people in America never have this happen"!!

Welcome back Tam, soon you will be chilling like normal.

Thanks Bombi. You are right. After a couple of weeks I will settle right in. I am almost over the huge centipede that was in our bed. Finally able to sleep last night without jumping every time the fan blew my hair over my face. LOL!

Doug installed a new toilet so one leak fixed and today he tore out the bathtub and the wall to fix the broken pipes. Only the sinks and pool leaks left to fix.

Life in de tropics, mon!
Welcome back!

I've found the vacuum cleaner works best for those middle of the night invaders.
In my case, it's usually spiders. Brown recluse looking ones. Hate them and this property seems to have more than its share.

I had one on the opposite end of the bed from me one night. I leapt up and in the second it took me to do so the damned thing was one my pillow, where my face had just been. Fast little mfer. Got the vacuum, sucked it up, stuffed the hose end with a paper towel, just to be sure. Vacuumed the house the next morning to ensure death by dust and dog hair. No more chasing spiders or other unwanted creepy, crawling critters around with a shoe or a broom in the middle of the night for me.
Lizards are welcome, however.
Just no big spiders, centipedes or scorpions, all of which I find from time to time, with those brown recluse looking ones being the most abundant.
You're lucky hubby wasn't stung.
Bet you didn't fall right back asleep after that one!

my wife taught our dog to "get" spiders and, well anything "crawly"... it was awesome until she transferred it to things that "fly" also... now she'll stare at the wall and whine until we knock a moth down for her to attack; but she eats mosquitoes and flies right out of the air now... which is entertaining to watch (as she randomly snaps at the air through out the day, looking crazy as hell).

It's a 130lb dog; hilarious when she hones in on a roach and goes running around after it or eats a bee and realizes that was a terrible mistake then runs around rubbing her face on everything for 10 min.

Thanks Alana. I'll keep the vacuum cleaner in mind. Yes, hubby was very lucky not to get bitten and no, I didn't sleep well for a couple of days.

LF, I'm hoping that my cats will get back to being island cats and start ridding my house of creepy crawlies.

So hubby installed this wonderful new toilet. It has a senor on top that you wave your hand over to flush. It's an awesome thing. For some reason however, it flushes whenever I get near it. It works fine for Hubby and JJ. Very strange.

So hubby installed this wonderful new toilet. It has a senor on top that you wave your hand over to flush. It's an awesome thing. For some reason however, it flushes whenever I get near it. It works fine for Hubby and JJ. Very strange.

The senor he wear sombrero? He LUFF you, Tami, and get SO excited when you come close he just have to flush! :@)

LOL Tart! Senor inodoro need to calm down. All that flushing will drain the cisterns.

You need a Crusian senoir so he knows not to flush for #1.

Jeeze LF,
Aren't you afraid of your dog getting bitten or badly stung by something?.
He could have an allergic reaction and there could be severe consequences, especially with bees, hornets, brown recluse spiders, centipedes, and scorpions.
My dog was accidentally stung on her ear by a bee and the whole ear and side of her face swelled up and had to rush her to vet for a shot. Very painful for her.

"....The senor he wear sombrero? He LUFF you, Tami, and get SO excited when you come close he just have to flush!....' (OT)

"....You need a Crusian senoir so he knows not to flush for #1....." (Bombi)

Hysterical....!!! 😀

Look what I just came across!
http://www.mycrittercatcher.com/

Bombi, my guys are Crucian I guess because I am always reminding them to flush. That is why I was so excited about the new toilet, aka Senor inodoro!

Alana, I have to order one of those right away. I hate killing things, well except for centipedes and mosquitoes, so that would be perfect.

My critter catcher is always within easy reach. A 16oz plastic cup and a thin piece of cardboard. Pop cup over critter, gently slide cardboard under it, lift up the whole thing, take outside, set critter free! Baby iggies, bees, crickets, mice, moths, spiders, scorpions and miscellaneous creepies all fit. The only critters that don't qualify for catch and release are mosquitoes and roaches!

Yes. I've used that means for ground spiders and such but not for the recluse spiders. They are extremely fast and their bite can result in necrosis. Since they often like being up high on walls and ceilings it's a bit much to use that method with them, in the middle of the night. Hence, the tried and true method, the vacuum.

With baby iguanas, I usually just pluck off the screens and remove outside out of drooling doggie reach. Found a big land crab in bathroom one night.
Used a waste basket and dustpan to remove it back outside. For hummingbirds and bananaquits that fly into the house, I've used a spaghetti strainer and dustpan to catch and release. I've got a reusable humane trap for mice. They get in but can't get out and will release out to the bush. Not fond of killing anything I don't have to.
The recluse spiders are a whole different ball game as far as I'm concerned.

Jeeze LF,
Aren't you afraid of your dog getting bitten or badly stung by something?.
He could have an allergic reaction and there could be severe consequences, especially with bees, hornets, brown recluse spiders, centipedes, and scorpions.
My dog was accidentally stung on her ear by a bee and the whole ear and side of her face swelled up and had to rush her to vet for a shot. Very painful for her.

I'm not afraid of very much these days... fear has it's uses, but they are very limited really.

here's my quick mental process on that thought:

--------------------------------
Will I be able to monitor my dog 24x7 to stop it from eating or being exposed to bugs?

No.

Will worrying about the above change the situation?

No.

Is it still sunny out side & is the dog still alive and healthy?

Yes.

---------------------------------

one of my cruzan mutts seems to be alergic to bees, he got stung a year or so ago and his whole face was swollen, but the histamine reaction goes away in a few hours and it's not painful for the animal, just uncomfortable (assuming breathing is fine, if not off to the vet!).

I see Doctors and Vets in the same light... I'll go if I have to, but I better H A V E to go... it's far to easy to take care of the majority of issues myself... This is probably why we are popular with the local kids, we do minor animal injury & illness care basically for free (because that's how it should be).