It has been over four months since the hurricanes have passed. I know, with a fair degree of certainty, that I will not return to the islands to live. I envision myself visiting my old haunts, many years from now, as a tourist. My friends will have aged. Businesses and houses from my past will […]
We all react differently in a disaster. Some hit the ground running. Within minutes, action-types are doing something to help. If not clearing roads or checking on injured neighbors, these first responders are making plans to get the basic necessities to the affected. Others step back to reflect, nurture, and plan. These organizers are our […]
David Conro and Robin Eldridge are baby boomers. They grew up in small farming communities. Dave in the Catskill Mountains of New York and Robin in Northeast Iowa. Dave completed service in the Marine Corps. Robin graduated from college. Both set off for new adventures beyond the small towns of their youth. Near the end […]
Zip lining is fun for the whole family and we are proud to supply the USVI with the one and only zip line! We are also honored to say that we have been awarded “Best of the VI Tourist Activities” four years in a row. In 1996, Julie, co-owner of Tree Limin’ Extreme, spent a […]
The tiny house craze seems to have enveloped the Virgin Islands and the joke about tiny houses and their rentability just keeps getting bigger. Stained Glass Irene, who is almost always right, told me never to relate this following true tiny house story in print. Did I listen to her? Nope. This tale is macabre […]
As the sun began it’s descent, the colors radiated a golden hue and a zen vibe enveloped the space. The chaos of the busy town seemed distant from our 260 degree perch. The only intrusions were the distant sounds of church bells, a steel pan band practicing and the odd rooster. I asked this extraordinarily humble man about his life as a disciple of martial arts, a conscious excavator and his hopes for humanity and his Virgin Islands community. Our conversation seemed as limitless as the azure sky overhead.
The best advice I can give for being your own contractor is the closer you can be to the project with your tool belt on, the better the chance you have of not running up huge error bills. The “oopps factor” is huge here. And allow yourself to cry! You need to realize there are always going to be mistakes that will need to be fixed and that’s just one of the reasons why it costs so much to build here.
I remember seeing a large bright object fly over my house and I googled the NASA Space Station to find out more about what it could be. They have this thing called “Alerts for Your Area”. You enter the latitude and longitude of where you live and then NASA sends you an alert … turns out there are lots of people looking at the stars who are also curious about moving celestial objects.
