and More

We're ready for the big pour. I've got the blocks delivered last evening, the bags of cement and the sand and gravel should all be delivered early this morning (I hope). Then the pour will commence and probably be done fairly early.

Everything has the steel fabric laid down ready for concrete.

Streetside Breezeway

Generator Room

the Main Area

Canalside Breezeway

Here's the blocks being unloaded. About 15 minutes before they arrived, the Belblock office called to say the blocks wouldn't be delivered till the morning. Then, here they are at the gate. We're flexible.

Unloading the Blocks

Nothing is Palletized

Five hundred - 6" Blocks Ready to Use

Of course, planning and preparation are necessary. Dianna is finally able to get down to some serious garden design. We've got drawings from one end of the house to the other.

Cindy and Dianna Working Up a Garden Design

During all this flurry of major concrete stuff going on, Cody is still working on the curbing. Here's a shot showing some of the completed work and the trench for curbing still to come. Believe me, in real life it looks more serpentine than the erratic way it looks in this photo.

Cody's Curbing

Big Up Fi Progress Mek Wi

Hey Mon, This will likely be a long one. We've been making all kinds of progress. The Internet was down, as far as the Copa Banana was concerned. Even though we're staying at Bob's duplex, we've been using Internet from Copa. They have HughesNet satellite Internet and there was a problem with it for a couple of days.

Ok. So, where are we? Well, we're still waiting for the house to arrive. The rains have kept the roads in really bad condition, especially from Shipyard (where the house was built) to Guinea Grass. Rains hampered a lot of work on our property, but now that its slacked off, we have been really moving forward.

The well house was completed, we've got current, and running water. We've started building our fence. Turns out, this is a big project, as you'll see.

We'll start off with prepping for the foundation, bending rebar and tying it together, to get the foundation trenches ready for concrete.

Here's One of Esidoro's Brothers Bending Rebar

Here's Another of Esidoro's Brothers Tying Rebar

After it's tied, the rebar is placed in the trenches. Each trench is 240 ft. long.

Placing Rebar in the Trench

Esidoro Making a Final Check

Here's some of the loads of gravel and sand arriving on site. Almost all the dump trucks here are really home-built. They're cannibalized from other trucks, and really long dump beds are placed on them to be able to carry more (screw the rated capacity of the truck).

Dumping Gravel

Piles of Gravel and Sand

Isidoro hired a mixer and some additional crew for the day we were going to pour the foundation of the fences.

Rented Mixer

500 of the 1,380 Blocks for the Walls

Unfortunately, not everything comes together just the way it should. Case in point - We had everything except cement ready to go. Here's some of the crew waiting. Isidoro hired an additional 4 guys just for the pour. The mixer, came with 3 crew. We had 5 of our own. That's 12 workers, sitting around telling jokes, waiting for something to happen so they can work.

Hurry Up and Wait

We had been promised by Gomez Building Supplies that our 100 80-lb. bags of cement would be on-site first thing in the morning. After a couple of hours, Isidoro and I drove into town to see what happened. Turns out, when Gomez got his shipment the previous night, there was a mixup... He got a semi-load of 60-lb. bags instead. He figured we wanted the larger bags, so he just sat there... Arrgh! Could he have called the previous evening and asked if I could use the smaller bags? Of course not.

Anyway, we got that squared away. "Yes, we can use 60-lb. bags of cement". While we were there, I took advantage of the situation and spied a local sight I had been wanting to take a picture of for quite a while, but the opportunity never worked out. This was perfect.

There's these guys that pedal around town selling all kinds of housewares, sort of a department store on wheels, you might say. I saw this guy crossing the highway, just outside of Gomez' business, so I ran out and snapped these photos.

Department Store on Wheels

What Happens in a High Wind?

Three hours late, we finally have cement arriving on-site, and the guys can get to work.

Cement Arriving

Stacks of Blocks Everywhere

Thankfully, we have the water pump working. I had to buy 4 lengths of hose so we could fill seven drums to make the concrete. Below, you can see some of the stacks of blocks (which will be used after the foundation is poured) and three of the seven 55-gallon drums on-site for the cement mixing.

Incidentally, you may be wondering where we get these drums from, right? I thought so. So, I'll tell you. You have to go to Fruta Bomba, the papaya growers and purchase them for about $25BZ each. But, they seem to always have these things available for sale. Food grade and all (I'll be able to use one to create another pond filter).

Blocks and Drums

Blocks and Drums

Here's a long shot of the mixing activity on-site. It turned into a real bee-hive of activity for a good part of the day. Even with a late start, the guys managed to finish the pour at about 3:30PM.

Wide Shot of the Work Site

Work underway. Mixing concrete is a fast-moving activity. I takes a well-coordinated team of guys dumping measured amounts of water, sand, gravel, and cement into the mixer, and when the mixer is flipped over, a similar team of guys with wheelbarrows to haul the mix away. Below, you can see Eugene (in the center of the left photo, and Isidoro, in the red shirt on the right photo) hard at work in the process.

Teamwork Makes For A Successful Pour

Bucket Brigade

After mixing, you've got to dump it somewhere... Let's see, where would that be? Oh, right. We have these trenches with metal in them. Let's dump it there!

Esidoro Making Sure the End Post Rebar Stays True

This is the start of a lot of wheelbarrow loads of concrete. It goes pretty fast with a good crew.

Pouring and Pouring

A Long Pour

After the pour, and after it sets up for most of a day, Isidoro and his crew began setting some of the 1,380 8-inch, 3-hole blocks. This went really fast. I took the right-hand shot yesterday evening. This morning, my side of the fences should be done, as far as laying block. They'll move over to Elsie's side and do the same thing.

A Soldierly Line

Slowly Going Up

Good to the Last Drop

Blocks Everywhere

Adding Ingredients

Feeding the Hopper

The Machine That Actually Forms the Blocks

Freshly Made

Curing in the Sun

No Forklift Here

Starting the Next Course

Dave Holding Up A Post

Starting A Trench

Wiring Up the Water Pump

Dianna Supervising Mixing

Blue Kitty Hard At Work

Mr. Midas Doing the Same

Construction is Moving Along

The past few days have been hectic. Acting as my own contractor makes for a busy, busy day, even with small projects.

For instance, just finishing the septic drain field entailed hiring two men to move wheelbarrow loads of fill to the top of the mound, covering it to a depth of six inches. Part of the project involved cleaning up some of the area around the mound near the tank. We had several huge rocks that needed moving.

Our plan originally was to have the guys roll the rocks out of the way. Back-breaking labor at best. They came up with the most workable solution - the Taiwanese Ambassador's place down the road from ours has some yellow gear (front-end loader, bulldozer, etc) there. I went down and talked to Leeno the foreman to see if I could borrow/hire the front-end loader long enough to move the rocks. He was amenable to the idea. So, about an hour or so later, here chugs up the front-end loader.

The Completed Septic Drain Field

Short work was made of the rocks, to my worker's relief. Not only that, but he also placed four loads of fill up on the mound, speeding up the project immeasurably.

For about 20 minutes work, the fee I paid to Leeno was $20BZ. Very reasonable. It probably went into his pocket alone, but that's between him and his men. We got our work done and were able to move on.

Now the only thing remaining on that project is to parge the exterior walls of the tank, so it looks nice and finished. That'll be happening near the completion of the well house project, when it's walls are also parged.

I finally got the "Economic Assessment" from Belize Electric, Ltd., the fee for installation of a transformer at our property. It came to a total of $6196.35BZ or $3098.18US. Besides the oddity, to us, of having to pay it at all, most folks around here seemed to think it was a reasonable amount. Now, having paid that, we should have it actually installed sometime this next week and get our "current" hooked up so we can run power tools and the well pump, etc. Yippeeeee! Finally!

The project that is currently underway is the construction of the well house and trash house. It's coming along fine. We would have had the block work all done yesterday if we hadn't run out of concrete blocks.

Mixing Mortar On Ferry Road - Literally

It was my fault. I ordered 180 8" concrete blocks and I didn't check the invoice - the girl had written 1oo on it, so that was how many were delivered. Yesterday morning, I went to the block factory to order the other 80, only to find they were closed due to a death in the family (indicated by a black ribbon and bow hung from the front door of the office as is the local custom).

Well House Rising

What to do? I went back and told my workers no blocks today. They said what about Belmont? I'd never heard of them, so they explained to me how to find them. I had no idea there was more than one block factory in Corozal. Turns out there's three or four in the area. Amazing what you find out.

Another View of the Well/Trash House

I headed off up the Santa Elena Road (the highway to the Mexican border) to find Belmont Block Factory. It's tucked away back from the road. Of course, they don't have a sign on the road itself (it may have been destroyed in the hurricane). And of course, there's no rush to replace that sign if that was the case. Anyway, I found them and ordered the additional 80 blocks.

I missed the morning delivery since that all went to the Free Zone for construction going on there as a result of a massive three-day fire they had up there that had fire departments from as far away as Belize City respond. It's coming on the afternoon shipment.

I went back and spread the good news. The afternoon progressed. About 3PM, there were no more bricks to be laid. The guys poured some concrete down the holes where the rebar had been pre-positioned and waited for more blocks. About 4PM, I told them, I don't think it's coming and to go home and get ready for the independence day celebrations to come on Friday - a national holiday.

Speedily Running Out of Blocks

After locking up the wheelbarrows, shovels, rake, and level, securing the unused cement under cover from possible rainfall, I headed home.

After taking a shower and putting on clean shorts and t-shirt, and relaxing with a cold Belikin, I was getting into the swing of relaxing for the evening. All of a sudden, Dianna said there was someone at the foot of the driveway, which is the usual way visitors show up. That is, they seldom come closer, because of watch dogs, and Tanya's a big dog, even if she is a bit of a wuss.

I trotted down to the gate to see what he wanted. Turns out it was one of Isidoro's neighbors relaying a message for me (Isidoro is actually the contractor for the block laying. The two workers I had work for him.). He had a phone number for me to call. Something about the truck delivering the block had gone to our property, but no one was there, so he was heading back and ran out of fuel (in this case, butane).

I don't have a clue how Isidoro's neighbor got involved in this, but I'm glad he did. I called the number, explained things as I understood them to be to whoever answered. They said "Oh Shit! We'll get fuel to him." and hung up.

I explained to Dianna what I thought was going on, grabbed a grilled cheese sandwich (Dianna had been making our favorite meal - tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches) and headed down toward the property.

Sure enough, about 200 yards from our property was the block truck dead in the road. I put on my flashers and parked right in front of it. I got out, talked to the driver and told him I had called and what they had said. He seemed happy with that.

About 20 minutes later, here comes a dump truck from the block factory. I thought that was an odd truck for refueling butane. Turns out, the two guys in the dump truck brought a small 2-gallon gas bottle for him to refill his truck to get it back to the factory. I thought they would help him unload the blocks and get things done in a hurry. Hah! They dropped off the bottle and headed back for the barn. They weren't going to be late for any independence day celebrations.

After he got the truck running, he backed up down the road to our place to unload the 80 blocks. I grabbed my gloves, and we made short work of unloading. I'll admit, the last 6 or 7 blocks were weighted down with lead, at least. The driver was very appreciative of my help, and as soon as we shook hands, headed off to drop off the truck and begin his holiday celebrations.

I headed back to have another grilled cheese (cold) and a hot cup of tomato soup. Thus begins my own independence day celebrations. Happy 26th year of independence, Belize!