Bathtub, Mail, Bugs and Road Fires

For those that have read this blog from the beginning, you might remember how excited I was about my inflatable bathtub. I am sad to say that this picture is after we found a hole in it and fixed it. I am afraid the tub is done for, but there is good news for me. The price for a replacement has gone down, so bathtub #2 is on its way.

Living in a place with 3 showers and no bathtubs is just not right! Actually, we have 4 showers on the property, but yesterday I converted one into a storage area for me. I figure if my husband gets to have a shop and 3 sheds, I can use a shower area that is no longer used. :)

Mail
The mail system here is very slow. My son just received his Easter card from his grandmother that was sent 1.5 months ago. At least it finally showed up at the post office though and was not lost in never-never land.

This is about how long it takes when you do not use a freight forwarder. The entire envelope (front and back) has stamps all over it, and it is kind of impressive. If we would have used the freight forwarder to get this letter, it would have only cost $3. But, when you add that up for each envelope a person gets in his mailbox in a day, it starts to get expensive.

Bugs
Below are pictures of a stick bug and a moth. It amazes me how camouflaged creatures can be. The moth picture is a little blurry, but it was hiding out on the side of our house by the roof-line and my phone just would not focus on just the moth. :(

​My phone is only 4 models behind....haha

Fires
One of the frustrating things here is that property owners that do not mow or cut down their empty fields, tend to set them on fire to remove all of the brush and weeds. Sometimes these fires get out of control and melt the pvc water lines, burn through internet/cable wires, extend to other properties...the list goes on. The fire department here is not like that in the States. There was one truck that did show up, but I am not sure if they had water in their truck. The fire ended up going through acres and acres of land.

This one was a fire on Friday that was just across the street from my son's school and was not one of the bigger ones that we have seen, but it still surprises me when I come across one. Now that the rainy season is almost here, we should not see any more until next year.

During the rainy season it is even hard to start a fire using paper and twigs, so wet fields would take a ton of gasoline.