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16 March, 2008

Just When You Thought It Was Over...

It ain't over.

But first, I must digress.

Here's a couple more pictures of our newest family member, Cindy. She's about a year old, has had one litter of pups, and just got "tutored" by Dr. Sheila. So, she's still moving a bit slow from that. She's an excellent watch dog, doesn't like motor scooters, squeaky cars or ambulance sirens. She sings really nice when the sirens sound off.

Cindy Practicing "Sit"
Getting Some Lovin'
Next door, Elsie's lot has a shitpot-full of loads of fill. Like on the order of 58 or so (we had 52 on our lot). Here's Edgar Sosa using his Cat to level those loads.
Ed and His Cat
Part of the load delivery process is keeping track of which trucks brought how many loads. I advised Elsie to hire someone to do just that, and suggested Anthony (Cody's brother) would be ideal for that as Craig had hired him sometime back to do that very thing. So she did.
Anthony Tracking Load Delivery
Here's Elsie's lot pretty much level. The bit around the trees will have to be done by hand. So, she'll have to hire someone to do that sometime down the road.

Elsie's Lot - Canal Side
and Street Side (right)
So, now, to the topic at hand. Just when you think it's over, it ain't over. Heck, the fat lady hasn't even begun to warm up yet.

I hired Abraham on a contract basis now, to "cast" the floor downstairs. That also entails footings for the walls. So he brought on his older brother (a major in the BDF) and two young guys from their village to do most of the grunt work.
Footing Trenches Everywhere
Digging Footing Trenches for the Generator Room
The other project that is still proceeding along is Cody's work on the curbing. He's a little better than half way done with that now. Then, we'll being in black dirt for the planter areas and gravel for the driveway and walk areas.
Trenches and Curbing Everywhere
Of course, cutting and bending rebar or "steel" as it's known here, is an integral part of the job.
Cutting Steel
Bending Steel
Here's a couple more pictures of the trenching going on.
Trenching Underway
More Trenching
We've got so much going on, we even had the sandwich guy stop yesterday to sell us drinks and sandwiches - carried now by his bicycle. He used to use a motorcycle and a trailer to conduct his business. But, with the change in administration now, they jerked his letter of authorization and his license. Seems that hauling a trailer behind his bike was illegal, especially since he usually had someone (wife or kids, or both) on board to help with sales. the letter allowed him to use the trailer.

Apparently, he must have voted for the losing party, ergo, jerk his ticket. He has applied to the new administration for a continuance of the letter. We'll hope it get approved. It's a nice feature having hot breakfast sandwiches and drinks. The old "roach coach" is alive and kicking down here.

1 comment:

Vivien said...

Hello, We have been following your blog since returning home in early March. We had been staying in the duplex beside Elsie in Feb. We have been thinking of buying there and find your information very interesting. It really looks like coordinating the building process is a full time, long term job and not something that could be done on a month or two vacation. We will keep on following your blog. Best of luck. Vivien and Denis Patterson