Winjama: Work on the Well House

This morning, I got to the property about a half hour before the workers showed up, so I unlocked the barrows and tools. Taking one of the wheelbarrows, I began loading the left-over blocks and hauling them over to the septic drain field to build a temporary protective barrier.

I had backed into the berm twice and figured if I could do it and knew and appreciated the significance of the berm, what would some ignoramus that didn't give a hoot, do?

The Drain Field Barrier

Let's see, gray skies, drizzle, goes on for most of the day... Are we back in the Northwest? Naww, it's just one of those weird days down here that happen once in a while. It sort of slowed things down for the guys doing the concrete work.

After parging the inside of the structure, they had to cover it with a tarp in order to keep the rain from damaging the stucco, as they call it.

Trash Bin - Street Side

Well House - Canal Side

This morning, once the guys got there, framing up the forms for the roof pours began to move forward quickly. Both yesterday and today, I made several trips with lumber to Tony's house to cut it to required lengths for the forms.

Trash Bin Form Takes Shape

Myo Framing Up the Well House

The shots below show the guys finishing the form for the well house. It's amazing how well this technique works.

Finishing up the Well House Roof Form

Final Touches On the Well House Form

Esidoro Setting up Form Framing

Now it's moving. A three bag mix of cement, sand and gravel takes shape in the road. A big mix. I was at Villa's Supply this morning getting concrete and wood nails when Isidor called me on the cellphone. We need five bags of cement. I added them to the nail purchase and loaded the works in the Isuzu. Let me tell you the Isuzu is not built to haul 400 pounds of cement - it forced me to drive very gingerly back to the work site from Villa's.

3-Bag Mix Getting Done

Somewhere along the way, since we don't have a Porta-Potty on site, I had to answer nature's call. Well, while I was discretely doing so, I noticed a hole in the ground beside an uprooted poisonwood tree. When I was done answering the call, I looked around to see if I could get a better position for a picture. I couldn't get too close as all the downed trees right there are poisonwood. So, I just picked the best site I could find and snapped three successive view for your enjoyment.

Looks Like a Little Hole

Looks a Bit Bigger

Whoops - Don't Get Too Close!

As disconcerting as finding a hole like this is (it's on the neighbor's property to the north, not Jeff and Barb's), it's fairly common here because of the limestone substructure all around. About all you can do besides hoping it's not too big is to fill it in with as many loads of fill as it takes - hence the hoping it's not too big. This one looks fairly good sized, but not being able to get too close, I don't know for sure. I haven't heard of any one fall in one. In this case, the water table is only three or so feet from the surface, so you wouldn't free fall for a long ways. But still, it'll be a pain for someone someday.

While working on the well house, I noticed bees, flies and ants kept converging on a spot on a poisonwood antidote tree (Gumbo Limbo (Bursera simaruba)). What it turned out to be was a natural water hole in the crotch of the tree that collects rain water. This little pond is extremely popular and is visited by all kinds of bugs (and probably other small critters as well) all day long.