[veggienut]

Originally Posted by fischfam

A puddle jumper is a small commuter plane. They have one seat one each side of the isle, maybe holds 12-15 people. Its like a 30-40 minute flight from Key West to the Fort Lauderdale airport. There's also an airport in Marathon but I am not familiar with that one. Maybe a local can chime in on that one.
If you are going to be in Islamorada you most likely will need a car since, but in Key West it is not necessary. There is a Greyhound bus route that runs down the keys.

Someone I ran into here has been down there and told me that the puddle jumpers are locally owned planes whose business it is. Is it safe being a small plane~?

[fischfam]

pud·dle-jump·er
[puhd-l-juhm-per]
noun Slang.
1. a light plane, especially one traveling only short distances or making many stops.
2. an old, rickety automobile; flivver.

[StarfishKey]

It's been a while since I was on here, but thought I would post an update about what it's really like to live here. Living in the Keys has its good and bad, but is certainly different from pretty much anyplace else. I've been here nearly 6 months now, so settling in and noticing more local stuff.

Coconuts

I have more coconuts than I easily know what to do with. There are a number of mature trees on my property, and on my neighbors' properties that lean over mine (coconut trees don't care for growing straight a lot of the time). I like to save the shells to make things with so opening both green and mature ones takes a little time to keep them intact and in good condition - I'm getting faster at it but still maybe about 30 minutes. This means I only open a few a week (I try to stick to green ones because I can't possibly use that many mature ones since I don't tend to cook with that much fat, and I use a lot of coconut water). I have a pile of about 30 green coconuts and close to 20 mature ones in my yard, and maybe another 100 still in the trees that I haven't cut down yet because they're too high for me to get without a ladder [I have a 21' pole saw, but you have to cut at a wide angle so they don't fall on your head and kill you].

Creepy Crawly Things

There are a lot of critters living here. Palm trees in my neighborhood nearly all have rats living up in them. They chew off all the green fronds and you find them in the yard in the morning, and big green coconuts will fall on their own with big holes in them and most of the coconut water still inside. I have to keep moving my car to avoid damage from falling coconuts carried by the wind. The other problem with the rats is that they climbed over some of the palm fronds near the house and got in my attic - what a headache!!

There are scorpions here. I have not seen any living ones yet, but I saw a few crushed in the road just down the street. They are the large kind, so not likely to kill, but they will definitely hurt if you get on the wrong end of them. My main concern is doing yard work, I don't want to rustle any up or reach my hand in to plant something or move something and end up touching one. Gloves are a better idea, but when it's extremely hot sometimes I don't want to bother.

There are snakes, but I haven't come across any yet.

We also have fire ants. I was doing some work and leaned up against one of the palms and suddenly felt prickly stings all over my body. I had to run and take a shower to get them all off and wash some of the venom away, but I was still pretty uncomfortable for about 2 weeks with red bites all over.

I am so pleased that so far anyway, no bugs in the house. The house was built in the 80s, so not new construction, but not ancient either. Houses in the Keys generally don't get any older than the 1950s or 60s, so mine is halfway. Last night I found my first small spider, that was it. Not a single cockroach sighting, no evidence at all, which is so much better than my experience of living in an apartment in Miami. They're certainly around here, and I have heard that they do get into stilt homes, but I would think that having my home raised a whole story above the ground is a big help. I'm sure it depends on the season, though, too - I used to notice a lot more in Miami in the rainy season, and we're just about to start that here. Fingers crossed that the house stays roach-free!

Termites are a big problem here in the islands. Apparently we don't have much in the way of subterranean termites, although some reports of them have come out of Key West. But we have the airborne kind. I am fortunate so far that when my house was inspected, there was no sign of termite damage. But, my neighbors bought a house that was abandoned for quite a while (there were a bunch of those during the foreclosure crisis), and plan soon to tent to get rid of them. I'm hoping they won't decide to fly right over to my place instead and chow down! I think that's what happened with the rats, since nearly every house is under construction in the neighborhood (and a large percentage throughout the Keys - all foreclosures getting revamped after purchase) - they probably all migrated to the few yards that do not have heavy-duty building going on, like mine. I have to be extra careful with the termites, since my house has a concrete foundation but is not concrete construction.

Neighbors

In other news, some neighbors are more careful than others about the environment, and... being neighborly. When you live in the Keys, there will be some houses that are constant party houses, some that are vacant much of the year because they're vacation homes, and some with full-time quiet residents. It's hard to tell before you move in which will be which. I am fortunate to have fabulous neighbors, and I'm so grateful. But some others in the neighborhood appear to have wild parties with drug activity and it can get pretty loud, and some boaters are not careful about the water - a number of days I have seen the water now off my dock coated in oil slick, and most of the time since I've lived here it has smelled very strongly of sewage. That makes the water unusable for all of us when people don't follow rules, and don't carefully maintain their boat. Most people live on canals of some sort if they have water access, and the canals don't always have good circulation, so problems stay there a week or two, or even a month.

Water Critters

Still, somehow things manage to live in that water. There is a mini reef clinging to my old rickety dock, and I have seen tiny starfish and cool shells there. Only a few lots down from my place there is a massive crocodile who likes to sun with his mouth open, which is kind of terrifying to look at. Think the crocodile in the Disney cartoon of Peter Pan - very large, fat, with sharp teeth. So far, he has not become a nuisance because I guess he has plenty of fish to eat, so this is just part of life here. Some neighborhoods have swarms of crocs, we seem to only have the one. I have not seen any alligators here, but the Keys is the only place where there are both.

There are invasive iguanas that live in the palms along the water. I was sitting on the dock last week when two crossed my neighbor's yard, jumped into the water right next to me, swam past me, and climbed up onto my other neighbor's yard. They have sharp-looking points all along their backs that are yellow and orange. Iguanas are not native here, but there are tons due to irresponsible people letting their pets loose. Exotic pets being released is a major problem in the Keys, both for the environment - which they destroy and kill endangered species of plants and animals found nowhere else - and for the people. There are also more dangerous hordes of once-pets lurking all over here.

Manatees also live in the water and will swim near the docks. The laws are very strict not to disturb them in any way (including pointing a hose of water at them to get them to come up and drink). My neighbors have seen them, even with a baby, but I have the worst luck - I still haven't seen them here. Hopefully soon.

Birds

Birds have a crazy world here. This is a major stop for a lot of migrating birds going both North and South. If I sat in my yard a full day I would see probably hundreds of species. Parrots land in my coconut trees. Like the rest of SFL, mourning doves are the bain of existence and are everywhere cooing constantly. I often see pelicans or large white cranes flying overhead. Sometimes it startles you - it looks like the stork flying over the neighborhood to deliver a baby. Watch out when you look up! - instead of dropping babies, they will drop something else right on your face as they go overhead! I narrowly missed a dive-bombing recently.

A lot of Northern birds winter here. There are cardinals playing with my car mirrors constantly. Tiny yellow birds from the Caribbean daily slam themselves into my house windows, repeatedly until they almost knock themselves senseless. Sadly, a few flew so hard into the windows they died. Life in the Keys can mean loud banging on your house several times every day.

Rain, and No Rain : Water Issues

It doesn't always rain here. Half the year, in the dry season, it barely rains at all. The landscape becomes like a desert in some places and mud cracks everywhere, and plants die. Things look barren. This year has been worse than normal - no rain for nearly 2 months. A wild fire closed off one of the roads entering the Keys recently. There are pretty much only 2 options here - desert, and flood. Flood season is soon approaching. Fortunately though, this year is so far predicted to be a very mild hurricane season. At least during the dry season, there are fewer mosquitoes.

Water needs to be conserved in the Keys, because everything you get has to be piped in from about 50-150 miles away, depending on where you live. Otherwise, there's no fresh water here. If you know how to take care of one properly you can set up a rain catching system. But half the year, it's not going to catch much of anything. Thus water is expensive, and there are some restrictions on its use.

Produce, Plants, and Too Much Heat

One of the best parts about living here is the ability to grow tropical fruit. The Florida Keys are not the growing mecca one might think, though. There is the half-year desert, for one. Plants need to be able to survive a long time with little water, and then a long time with a ton of water and sometimes saltwater flooding. The other problem is the soil, which is highly alkaline, because we are living on a big coral rock, so there is coral all through the soil which has a very high PH. Only a small range of plants can grow in it well. [Careful, those numerous coral rocks in the soil were once living things - they are sharp, and if you or your pet cut yourselves, you can get a very bad infection from the bacteria!] But, some areas of the Keys have a lot of pine trees, and the pine needles make the soil more acidic so you can grow a variety of things. You can also alter the soil by composting, especially if you have a large yard so you can compost without bothering your neighbors.

Since I have access to both pine needles and composting, and I collect rainwater, I am able to grow a large variety of fruiting plants. I'm careful to only plant things though that are not considered invasive, to preserve the local ecosystem. I have some local plants that are endangered and native only to the Keys, and they produce small berries and things. I also have trees like dwarf mangoes and guanabana/soursop, pineapples, banana plants, lots of passionfruit vines, etc. etc. I am super excited that today I saw the first ever flowers on my strawberry tree. They are supposed to fruit prolifically with cotton candy-tasting berries, so I can't wait!

Growing traditional vegetables is hard here, though, because of the soil and water problems, and the extreme heat. So I only grow a few in containers that I keep indoors. It is so hot and so much sun, I am even able to grow a watermelon in my window! But it's also too hot for a lot of plants - the sun torched the strawberries I tried to grow outside.

Consider how much this heat affects your A/C bill. I keep the temp in my house generally around 82F, with fans constantly blowing. This has been during the colder season, and still my electric bill is still around $100/mo (I don't use a lot of other electricity), for a small house. For those who want a house in the 70s, you'd have to run the A/C around the clock most of the time, which could easily double that.

One of the downsides about living in the Keys is that the stores only carry a small variety of produce, that is usually in poorer condition than the mainland. It's not cheap, either. This is because commercial growing is not possible in the Keys, both due to the soil, and lack of land. There is a "farmer's market" in the Upper Keys, but it's very small, and a lot of it is stuff that the people bought in bulk from stores and then resell - they didn't grow it themselves, it's not organic, and sometimes it still has the plastic packaging on it, like the plastic sleeves on bunches of celery. That is an incentive to grow some of your own stuff in containers if you're able.

Hard Water, Salt Water

Note, the Keys has hard water, meaning that baked goods are not as good here. Also, colored deposits will tend to form in your toilet, in pipes, and around dripping areas. You will not get good bread down here, or bagels, or things of that nature like one can get up North for those who are used to that in areas of soft water, because it dramatically affects the way yeast rises. And, it's extra work to maintain your plumbing.

While we're talking about maintenance, salt water in the air corrodes everything. Expect rust on every fixture around your house, all your tools, and even under your car if you're not careful. You have to hose down the undercarriage of the car regularly, and keep metals that can rust out of the open air for prolonged periods. Aluminum, plastics, and maintained paint can be your friends.

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So that is it for today's installment of Life in the Upper Keys. I know I kind of stole the thread, but it seemed like a lot of people were coming here for info on the Keys, and so it's a good place to give more. For those who come to the Keys for the outdoor life rather than the nightlife (Key West) - which is maybe half of us - this is the kind of stuff that will affect your daily life. Weather, plants and animals, water conditions, neighbors.

It's a beautiful place to live, but it's really not for everybody. It's super-expensive for the most part, isolated, and full of wild things. Realistically, most people are only going to like it for a vacation, where you get the best of everything and pretty much none of the problems. For locals, life here is very different. For most people, it's a lot of hard work. If it's hard work you enjoy though, the Florida Keys can be a great place to live.

[fischfam]

Thanks for the update and it great to hear that you are enjoying your time there. In reading your last post if you are in need of fresh produce try 'Robert is Here in Florida City near Homestead. It's about 30 minutes away from Key Largo and last time I was there they have almost any produce you could imagine or want.

[StarfishKey]

"Robert is Here" is supposed to be wonderful. I have been planning to go for the last 5 years and still haven't made it. But, I hate the idea of having to go 'off the rock' and leave the Keys, and drive an hour round-trip, just for some fruit. I can't wait until I can pick all the fruit I want right out of my yard!

I have more than 50 different kinds of tropical fruit growing right now, because I am crazy... Some are fruiting now, most will fruit by next year, and some will take several more years for their first fruit to grow. I can't wait!

[Gecko82]

I have lived in Key Largo for 14 years now and we are looking to move. MUCH has changed here. If you want employment, I hope you have experience in the hospitality industry because that is about all there is unless you can afford to have your own business. Hospitality pays minimum wage and most employers do not pay benefits or health insurance. If you work for a dive charter you will be counting on big tips. Most of my friends have 2 jobs to to make ends meet and rent because they can't afford a home.

My husband has owned a dive business and I can tell you fist hand the condition of our reefs over the past 12 year has declined. A lot of the coral is bleached and there is a lot of silt and sediment in the water. They are not the beautiful reefs I remember from when we first started coming here in 2000.

If you want to live here come with LOTS of money. If you do not own your home you will be penalized by Monroe County and their contract with FEMA. If you live in a flood zone you will be required to carry Flood and Wind insurance by your mortgage company. These have gone up 25% in the past year!!! We pay over $30,000 in homeowners, flood and wind insurance per year and it keeps going up. Even health insurance premiums are more in Monroe County. I'm not sure whay on this one, but when I called and shopped around they all told me that Monroe County is higher. If you own a home with an illegal downstairs enclosure you will be required to remove it or rip it out and have an inspection. Our house had the enclosure when we bought it in 2001 and we were forced to remove it to come into compliance and that cost us $20,000.

More and more over the years I have witnessed the Keys being geared more to tourists and those with money and the locals who live here get the short end of the stick.