May 14th, 2020

In December, 2019 I arrived in Puerto Rico and on the 20th of the month, my tiny house and I arrived on the land I grew up on.  Since August, my friend and neighbor Elio Ríos had been working to clear enough trees out of the way to allow bulldozers in and in the first weeks of December the municipal bulldozer came to open up a road and clear space for both my casita and the house my brother and sister-in-law plan to build.  The house arrived with considerable damage done to it.

On December 28, Puerto experienced the start of a devastating swarm of earthquakes, culminating in a 6.4 quake on January 7, but with thousands of quakes, of which as many as several dozen a day were big enough to shake our houses.  While the shaking has not stopped along the southwest coast,  up here in the mountains we things calmed down by early February.  Just in time for the ramping up of the pandemic.  My nephew arrived February 6, on what was to have been a nearly four month stay, but went home on March 20 to be with his family and avoid being stranded. 

It's certainly been a rough reentry, bu bit by bit, far more slowly than I had expected, things are coming into place.  I don't yet have running water but my gardens are flourishing. I'm still waiting for my shipping container to arrive with most of my belongings, and it will take some doing to get a concrete pad built and my tiny house moved onto and safely anchored before hurricane season, but I am hopeful.

All my travel plans have of course been cancelled, but I am actively teaching and speaking online.  Most of my blogging is now taking place on Patreon, where you can subscribe to my writing for a small monthly fee.  I will continue to post seasonal updates here.