Ship's Log: Updated October 6, 2008

Diggin' Holes and Pullin' Poles

It's time to get the poles up the hill and get started on the main house. If you recall from a few logs ago, (no pun intended) each pole is 25 feet long and weighs almost 500 pounds. Moving them up the hill is a logistical challenge, but Tracy, ever resourceful, has it figured out.

Scavenging all the spare blocks and lines from Landfall---and some not so spare; he took the mainsail block and sheet---he rigged a come-along to drag the poles up the hill. The mid-point anchor tree is a laurel that the woodpeckers have taken a liking to, which makes me think it may not be the sturdiest tree on the property, but it's the only one in the right place.

It doesn't look very steep from this angle looking down, but it does from this one, looking up!

After reaching the first tree, the gear is shifted to anchor off the lemon tree on top of the hill, to bring the first pole the rest of the way up.

Then the gear gets shifted again, to help lift the top of the pole so the bottom will slide into the hole. This center pole is the most important. Once it is set solidly in concrete, we will use it to raise up and set all the other poles.

So the first pole planted is the lynchpin center pole. Once this one is in, the rest go up like a charm (that's the theory, and we're keeping our fingers crossed that it's true!). Wish this one had been so charmed! The bottom got stuck on the side of the hole, and had to be cajoled, carefully, to slip down.

Brute strength was sometimes needed: "Everybody, on three, UP! and move that sawhorse, quickly! quickly!"

And again--UP!

Well, it's getting there...

Last shove, come on, guys, all together now!! Quit looking at the view and lift!!

That was it! It's planted!

But isn't it supposed to be in the middle of the hole??

OK, a few last adjustments... let's dig a little round hole at the bottom of the big square hole... Notice how Tracy's doing all that work while Marcos, Joe and Emiliano watch?? Tracy says leading these guys is like working with cooked spaghetti: you have to pull, not push.

Everybody grab the "adjustment levers," and a few short tugs, there it is. "Now, Stay!"

OK guys, let's level it up and call it a day!

So, one up, only twenty-nine more to go!

Living in a Rainforest

Sue and George Hemming, our neighbors across the bay to the west, have been keeping track of the rainfall on their property since May 2003. They generously shared these charts with us.

Another look at it, in numbers of inches. As you can see, it was a fairly dry year last year, only 133 inches of rain. This year is setting up to be around average, with 93.68 inches through September, though who knows what will happen in the next few months. While we can usually count on around 30-40 inches between October and December, there is hardly a very strong pattern to rely on, with outliers everywhere.

While it may be counter-intuitive, the frequent rainfall is what makes this place so comfortable. The frequent overcast keeps the temperature in the 80's most days. Evenings are perfectly comfortable in the low 70's. The rain keeps everyone's water tanks topped off, and gives us a year-long growing season. And a lot of the rain is at night, when we're sleeping, so who cares, right? The sun is out in the morning, dries things off, and we have another perfect day in paradise!

The Arrival of Mantaraya and the Cement Materials

Every house pole will be planted in a cubic yard of concrete so the structure will be strong enough to withstand big blows. And how much concrete is that, you ask? Well, it's 210 bags of cement, 10 cubic meters of sand, and 15 cubic meters of gravel. The sand and gravel come in bulk, but cannot be transported in bulk, so had to be loaded into rice sacks. 1450 rice sacks! And then it had to get to Cerro Velero. But how? It would take us at least 100 trips in Cricket. That's a lot of gas and time! Even renting a big panga, it would take over 30 loads.

Enter Mantaraya, a 74-foot LCM (landing craft mechanized). Mantaraya is a former military ship now in commercial service and, conveniently for us, operating out of Almirante, next door to where we normally dock Cricket when we are in Almirante. The owner, Reynaldo, who owns a water taxi service between Bocas and Almirante, has just started a construction materials business and was eager for the work. Three large trucks dumped our sand and gravel at the warehouse next to Mantaraya's dock. Tracy and our neighbor/worker Joe tracked down 6 guys in Almirante willing to work, and it took the guys most of the day Friday to load the sand and gravel into rice sacks. Tracy was there in the thick of things with them, dragging filled bags. Then it took them all from 7-2 Saturday to load the bags onto Mantaraya.

Monday morning, Mantaraya was off to Cerro Velero. And here she comes!

And here she is, right on time, 11 o'clock on the dot! Our dock looked smaller and smaller as Mantaraya loomed closer and closer. But Captain Sam is an excellent boat handler and barely kissed the dock, stopping all that weight perfectly beside our dock for the offloading. Whew!

Let's snug her up!

Captain Sam let Sharon explore the wheelhouse, where she was able to take this photo: "Exactly how many bags, did you say?"

Nice logo on the wheelhouse. (Now does the boat's name make sense?)

The traditional ship's log, documenting Mantaraya leaving Almirante and arriving in Buena Esperanza.

We hired 14 additional guys from the nearby village of Buena Esperanza to help our four construction workers with the offloading. From above, it was looking like an army of ants! Tracy and Captain Sam got along great and chatted about Mantaraya's lineage while overseeing the offloading. And if you read Captain Sam's T-shirt, be assured that we feel the same way!

Joe and Emiliano, two of our construction workers, engaged in a friendly competition: "I can carry two sacks all the way from Mantaraya to the top of the hill, can you?" Did we mention that each sack weighs 95 pounds?

"Yes!" You can see why we have become so fond of Joe; his normal attitude is displayed all over his face here, and he is truly a joy to work with.

OK, just a few more rows and that's about it for the concrete.

Done!

Ooops! Tracy found a few torn bags that had to be loaded into sacks. He may be over 50, but he can still tote that bale!

The rest of the sacks can stay down below for now. Let's load 'em up! Neighbor Micky is really piling it on: four has got to be a record!

Marcos, a smart young man who has been working construction with Tracy for three months and is "not really into" hard labor, commandeered the wheelbarrow.

Now, to get them from the wheelbarrow to a set of shoulders, then on to the staging site...

It's not a long walk, it just feels like a long walk with all that weight on your shoulders!

Sharon watched as his sacks dumped him, rather than the other way around!

So, they'd drop the bags off, and take a deep breath...

And be ready for re-loads!

What is this man thinking? How about, "They're doing great! We can be done by dark!" Or...maybe...how about, "What in the world have I gotten myself into??"

Neighbor Tobe, Joe and Micky's Dad, came by to ask him that very question!

While his wife Judy, Joe and Micky's Mom, stayed safely on her dock next door, watching the whole crazy parade.

Just another few hundred bags, and it'll be done!

Curious Birds or Roadkill?

We noticed a half-dozen Black and Turkey vultures hanging around the bodega the other day. At first we thought they were just watching the goings-on, but of course they were not really that interested in what we were doing. What had their attention was a dead armadillo down in the gully. Gellie, ever the dog, barked and chased them off, then immediately rolled in the stinking carcass. Yuck!

The First Pour!

After looking for over a month for a new or used, buy-beg-or-borrow cement mixer, our friends Ken and Vonne finished up with their cement mixer and agreed to lend it to us. Hooray! And just in time! We picked it up Tuesday after unloading Mantaraya on Monday. It's heavy and unwieldy, and it took seven guys to maneuver it into Tobe's launch (much bigger than Cricket) and get it up the hill.

Now, we take the sand, gravel, cement and water in the right proportions...

Pour it into the maw...

And presto! Concrete! Tamp it down, and we have the first solid pole of the new house.

A Central American Stonehenge?

We have been getting a kick out of this: You can't imagine how many people, upon being told we're building an octagonal house, have asked, "How many sides will it have?" Hmmm... Though, that said, some friends left their builders with instructions to build an octagonal house, and when they came back to look at how it was going, they discovered that the house had nine sides...

Stay tuned...

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