Sunday Morning Grab-Bag - A Little Late

Ok, so I didn't quite make it for Sunday morning's Grab-Bag opportunity.

First, Big-Ups to Corozal Community College - They took the victory in the 2010 Bandfest this past weekend in Corozal over the four-time consecutive champions Succotz Festival Band.

According to some of the news reports I saw, and my own experience driving in town Saturday morning, there were over 10,000 people in attendance for the parade and the competition at the Civic Center. Considering Corozal's 2009 estimated population is about 9,200, that's quite the crowd.

We even had some heavy-hitters presenting prizes, like Governor General Sir Colville Young along with a slew of local politicians.

It's surprising, since Bandfest is an annual commercial shindig (held in different locations each year), sponsored and run by Belize's largest radio station, Love-FM, that going to their website (http://www.lovefm.com/), that still says "Bandfest 2010 - Coming Soon". Looks like a lowly blog run by a ROF scooped them on their own activity! We weren't the only one either. I know of a couple other blogs that got the news out. It must be because the blog is a labor of love... or something.

Hey, I saw something interesting the other morning on the basketball court in front of the Thunderbolt landing - a full-fledged, honest-to-goodness aerobics class in full stride.

Jump To the Left, Now Jump To the Right

The gentleman leading was calling the routines just like on TV. It was quite impressive to watch. Of course, with the doggies on their walk, we had to move on directly.

Screen doors... Well, after about two and-a-half years, we finally have them in. He, it's Belize, Mon. Things happen when they're supposed to and not a minute sooner. We also have doggie doors installed. The one for the back door is actually in the screen door, with the front one being in a panel beside the screen door.

Back Screen Door

Of course, that was the easy part. Now comes the bit of convincing the girls that they can go through the doggie doors anytime they want to. Cindy's done it a couple of times on her own - sort of. Secret, on the other hand, acts like it's going to attack her. I can tell she clearly wants to go through, but is just really reluctant to put her nose in jeopardy by pushing on the door. I think they'll come around... eventually.

Flash! Latest news on the guesthouse - no workers today. Surprise, surprise. My guess is that we won't have any workers till after the Easter holiday. At least that'll give Cody and myself time to get the electric wiring run to the guesthouse. Actually, that tube will contain, 220V wiring, doorbell wire for the gate, switch controller wire also for the gate, and cable TV wire (not that we have access to cable, I'm just looking ahead).

Speaking of the gate, we've had problems getting the remotes to work well, lately. Like, it was hard to get them to work 15 - 20 feet from the gate motor and then sporadically. I thought maybe it was because I took a couple of them swimming with me at different times, but that turned out not to be the case. I went to talk to an electrician who has done several gates in the area. He showed me his setup and advised I add to my gate antenna wire and get it at least 18" above any metal - even if the metal was behind the antenna. He said metal would tend to reflect the RF (sorry, Radio Frequency) signal and at least partially cancel it out.

Man, was he ever right. I soldered on a length of wire and taped it to a piece of PVC to try it out. Now the remotes work clear back by the guest house and virtually all over our property. What an amazing difference.

Temporary Gate Antenna

I'll admit it's not very stylish, but what a ton of improvement in coverage and service.

The last bit, I alluded to already - the electrics for the guesthouse. Here's a shot of the PVC tubing that will encase all of it sometime this week.

PVC Tubing for Guesthouse

That's 240 feet of tubing there folks. It'll take a while to thread all the wires through the entire length. I'm thinking about setting up some sort of loom so we can funnel all of them simultaneously through. Shouldn't be too hard to rig up.

Well, that's about it for now. More later.

Cheers,
Dave

Can't Get Much Closer!

Well, let's see... Where to start, where to start?
Hmmm, Oh, I know. We got our new refrigerador (Spanish again) this morning. The reason we wanted a different one was this had an ice maker. I probably should have looked a tad closer to see what that meant.

In Belizean terms a device named "Easy Ice" is something of a modern convenience of the first order. What that means is, there's two small icecube trays set in a fancy rotating plastic frame with a bin to collect icecubes directly below.

All you have to do to get delicious ice cubes is pull out the contraption holding the two trays, hold it under the water faucet of your choice, fill both trays with water, and return the contraption to its holder in the freezer. Then, when the water has frozen into ice, you simply turn the handles to dump the newly minted cubes into the bin below and repeat the process as often as desired.

Yessiree! The twentieth century is speedily catching up here. Dang, and I thought we'd have to make icecubes the old fashioned way. Just goes to show what a little dose of technology will do for you. It is a pretty gray.

Fridge With "Easy Ice" Maker in the Freeze

So, just in case you missed it, here's a shot of the poop-chute. I know it's something everyone is just dying to see. Well, that's why I shot it. A lot of work went into putting it together to make sure it worked correctly, so just appreciate it for what it is - a shit-pipe.

Fresh From the Commode

Entering the Septic Tank

On a lighter note, we now turn our attention to the parking area just adjacent to the sewage treatment facility. In fact, you can see the overhead pipe run in this picture too.

It just seems so strange to be able to park in the shade. Something I could get used to in short order.

The Parking Area of Casa Rider

I spent about three hours or so this morning sorting out the reverse osmosis system. Pancho, the plombero for Franz and Jose's company, wasn't real skookum on reading English - as in directions. Still, all in all, he came close. I just had to read the manual and reposition about half of the tubing. Then it was working fine.

And it does too. it'll make and hold about 14 gallons of clean, pure, drinking water. It takes about 3 hours to make the 14 gallons which are stored in a pressure tank under the RO filter. Our system also has a UV light to zap the microbes still in the water.

Reverse Osmosis At Wor

Just a quick note - we still don't have the water softener hooked up. I haven't had the time to peruse the manual to figure out what it needs.

Next up, the on-demand water heater. As far as we know, it works fine. Of course, the only thing we've done with it so far is to turn on the shower and stick our finger under the stream till it gets warm, then turn it off. I guess the real test will come when we jump into the shower.

On Demand Water heater

Next up is our Butane gas tank. I think it's a 20 gallon job. We bought it at Cinty's - completely filled with butane. I also bought the regulator, hose, and clamps there.

Trusty Butane Bottle, Always On The Job

And last but not least is another shot of our gate area and gate lights. This afternoon, I bought a gate motor (made in China) from Capital Steel, up north of Corozal on the Northern Highway. If the gate gets delivered tomorrow, it might just be a short piece of work to get that installed. It even comes with a couple of easy-to-use remote controllers.

Gate Minus the Gate

Oh, and as far as getting closer, we're going to start by moving the big truck, our sectional, and probably just about everything else. So, I guess tomorrow's the big day.