A 'Lee' Update

Just a short update on the planter boxes under construction in the shade house. The first  box is now ready to have the floor cast. That'll happen next Friday. Carlos ran out of time this Friday after getting the form constructed and rebar cut, positioned and tied in place.

Almost Done Building Form Bottom

After the floor is cast, the walls will go up two blocks high and will be made from four-inch thick blocks, so there will end up being about a foot of black dirt in each box for the veggies.

First Planter Box Bed Ready to Cast

Back to my 'thick' wallet and the family photos. Here's a couple more of April. As much as she zooms around the place when she's awake, she naps hard too - getting all that training for when she grows up and takes up napping as her full-time occupation.

It's Rough Being A Kitten

It's hard to be so cute, isn't it? Who could resist such a face. She went in to Dr. Sheila's yesterday for her second visit. Oral meds and a shot for something. She must have been a good little kitty. Dr. Sheila gave her a little white mouse toy.

Could She Get Much More Relaxed?

That's it for now. I have to start work to get ready for the Men's Group's Martini Meeting today. See, it's just all work and no play - ever.

We Just Had Second Christmas

Yesterday was a fun day. We had visitors from Succotz, a small village southwest from Belmopan, right next to the Guatemalan border. Linda and Mickey. Great folks. They're more or less from Ocean Shores, Washington (near where we used to live). I met Linda on the Belize Forums (http://www.belizeforum.com/belize/).

They're building a house in Succotz and living in an apartment in Belmopan while doing it. Linda is on her way for a visit to the States, so, with a pause for a day in Corozal while on their way to Cancun and the airport, they stopped by to visit. I hope we see more of them.

While they were visiting, Billy and Pam stopped by, having just returned from Oregon. They brought the holy grail of Oregon beer (well, one of them, anyway) - a couple of bottles of Black Butte Porter for Dianna. Of course, she'll have to share it with Midas, our elderly, beer-loving kitty. That was always his favorite brew. Billy and Pam will be here for about the next six months, then it's back to Oregon, and so on.

I was going to take photos of everyone while they were here, but with a few Belikins and good conversation, I forgot.

It was really nice having all those folks visiting at the same time. That's one of the nice things about living down here. It's hard to get much done because of interruptions - visitors, etc.

Guesthouse Construction Update

It's getting close to time for the guys to cast the roof. Here's a new load of rebar. Most of it will be for the roof with ome is being used to extend columns and other stuff.

Money in Metal

Along with the rebar, you need to have a stick forest. This is what holds the roof forms up and in place when the roof is cast and afterwards while the concrete cures.

Forests by the Trailerfull

Some more images of the column forms being positioned. Here's two views of the same corner - inside and out, showing how the forms are positioned. They're tied together with tying wire (what else?) run through the concrete blocks and then twisted to draw the wood closer together against the blocks.

Corner Forms Going In

Corner Forms From the Inside

A nice view of the back of the guesthouse, showing the corner forms in place and a central form getting ready to be positioned.

Forms and More Forms

Second Christmas

We just took delivery of a shipment of stuff we had ordered from the States. Generally, instead of shipping it directly to us, we have it sent to one of two shipping companies with regular runs between the US and Belize (Clifford Marage Shipping and Roy and Son Trucking).

We got about 7 boxes this time from Marage. A swimming pool cover and reel (in 4 boxes - fun to put together); Web cameras and headsets; a doggie pack for Cindy; and a couple of springy floaties for in the pool.

Here's our solar pool cover and its reel. The reel is mounted on locking casters, so it's easy to wheel out of the way. I'm going to have Alex the tailor make a nylon tent for it to protect it from the sun when it's rolled up.

Our Nice, New Pool Cover and Reel

And not only did we get this stuff, but miracle of miracles, my workbench showed up too! Here you can see the top piled with stuff still waiting to be put away. Still to come is the upper cabinets for my workshop, and largish set of shelves for my workshop alcove, and a bookcase for Dianna's workshop. But, it's progress. We've only been waiting about three months for the workbench. After all, it's Belize!

Fancy-Dancy Workbench

Since we each have our own laptops, it's only fitting that we each have our own webcams and headsets. Here's Dianna enjoying her new webcam as she's talking to her dad, Norman, and her brother, David in Pueblo, Colorado. She's using Skype, which works quite well for us... Unfortunately, at the present, not that well if both parties are using webcams. The system tends to dump the call in that case. Still, it's fun to play with and is a real improvement over old-fashioned phone calls.

Dianna Enjoying Her Webcam

While on the Walkabout

Yesterday morning on the walk with the girls, we stopped by the Thunderbolt pier, just to see what was going on. A couple of guys with castnets were fishing off the end of the pier. I got a shot of them doing just that. It's kind of a dark photo - the sun had yet to break through, but if you click on the photo, you'll be able to see an expensive blue castnet (they're pretty high-tech) in mid-air.

Early Morning Fishermen

The Generator Redux and Other Stuff

Ok, this is the third time I've written this bit. The two previous times, I used a Google Gadget "Blogger Post Gadget".

The first time, I changed pages in Firefox, my browser, and when I returned to the Blogger Gadget page, discovered nothing had been saved. That was my own fault. I should have known better.

The second time, I wrote the complete post of several paragraphs and hit "post" to send it to the blog. It clicked and whirred and then did nothing. Not a good sign. Anyway, that was a failure too. I've since deleted that gadget.

The whole idea was that it would give me a nice way to quickly make a text-only entry to the blog in a hurry, without me having to load up the blog (similar to opening a new program) each time. Apparently, there's no easy way to do it. Bummer.

Ok, so what had I written? Well, for starters, Monday, Anthony Watson, our electrician, came by to check out the problem I had with the full-load generator test. He looked everything over and had me fire up the generator so he could test voltages at the transfer switch (there is a way to defeat the safety-lock feature of those doors). All was good. Then he discovered the solution. I had been too gentle in switching the le ver. It seems to make a good connection, you have to slam the switch lever into place to ensure the knife switch really seats itself. That was the problem.

While we had the generator running, and were right there at the switch, I then went through the whole transfer process, following my spiffy diagram.

The Diagram Works Great

I brought up the breakers I had identified that needed to be powered up during an emergency. The generator lugged slightlly when I switched breaker No. 1, then recovered. That powers the whole upstairs - fans, fridge, and all. I then added in all the other breakers. It didn't even break out into a sweat.

I'm still trying to find a small tin of white enamel to mark each of the breaker switches, to remove as much guess work as possible.

So, that proved the generator can power up completely everything we have here and has plenty of room for more. Woohoo! Is that cool or what?

The next thing I had Anthony look at was the front gate doorbell. I wanted him to test the line from the doorbell button itself to the transformer, a distance of over 70 feet, all now buried. That all tested fine. Whew! What a bugger that would have been to try to pull a speaker wire pair (they don't have bell wire down here) through that 1/2" conduit all that way.

What the problem did turn out to be was the transformer. It had burnt out. Turns out, I made the mistake of following instructions installing it. That meant it had 12VDC across the coil all the time, which caused it to heat up some, and eventually failed the fine wire winding on the coil.

That all being done, Anthony went on his way. He had only his tester with him as his son, Jr., had taken all his tools to use on another job (he's an electrician as well). So, yesterday, I ran around doing my errands, and got a replacement transformer from Pablo Marin Electric. Anthony will come back Wednesday to install it, doing it so that it only has 12 VDC when someone pushed the doorbell button at the gate. In theory, it should last for a long time.

Some other stuff, I'm having Vasco Doors and Windows make a trash bin lid for me and a stand to hold six five-gallon water bottles. I've had differing bits of luck with them. Sometimes they do stuff close to on time and its really good work. Other times, they just don't seem to be able to make any sort of deadline at all. Really frustrating.

This may be one of those times. I gave them the order on last Thursday. They told me it would be ready Tuesday. They wanted my number in case it got done early. A good sign.

Tuesday came, I stopped by. "Ummmm, could you come back Thursday? It's not finished yet." Sure, no problem. This is not a good sign. I mean, it's only a garbage bin lid 26" x 34" with two hinges and a handle. The water bottle stand is simple welding. They even had an example there to go by - their own water bottle stand. Of course, it may have gotten complicated. Their stand holds 8 bottles, mine was only going to hold 6.

We'll see. If it's not ready on Thursday, it looks like I'll be giving Isaiel a call to do a couple of small jobs for me.

What else... Oh, the hurricane evacuation kit is ready to roll. Following the evacuation checklist I put together, we've got everything ready in that regard. There's just a few more pieces of scrap wood to add to the burn pile.

I finally figured out how I'm going to take care of the forms for the pool, which are just sitting in two neat stacks out in the yard. I'll hire a couple young guys to move them into one of the breezeways. That should protect them and give a bit more protection to the downstairs.

Where's Marlon Perkins When You Need Him?

First thing this morning... Well, alright, it was after breakfast, and I was sitting on the front porch waiting for time to pass so I could call to ascertain the status of our sand, gravel, and block deliveries today. Lynn came from their construction site at a brisk walk saying something about the huge beetle in their driveway and that she was going to get her camera.

That galvanized me into action. I grabbed my camera and hot-footed it down to their construction site driveway looking for this big beetle.

Wow! I found it. And it was - well, BIG!

Local Beetle Ambling Across the Drive

Five Cent Piece For Scale

The coin, a five cent piece of Belize money, is about a half-inch in diameter. This beetle is one big boy.

After that, I got cracking and got over to our work site. i didn't even notice that Eugene had chopped the trees at the entrance to our place and replanted the branches of those that would regrow. We had to do that so Franz could drive the house onto our property. With luck, most of the trees will regrow.

Bare Driveway Area

Here's some of the trees he's replanted for us. He swears up and down that they'll take root and flourish. We'll see. At least he's working pretty well and seems a reliable sort.

Re-Potted Gumbo Limbo Trees On Our Lot

Gumbo Limbo Sticks

Along with the re-working of the trees, Esidoro and crew have been busting it to get the rebar all configured for pouring of the fence - hopefully tomorrow.

Below, you can see some of the work area as they've been forming the rebar and tying it.

Layout Table Made Locally to Form the Rebar

Layout Table Made Locally to Form the Rebar

One of the several jigs they made on the spot to bend rebar - and lots of it too. Also, cutting the tie-wire to use to tie the rebar pieces together.

Working the Jig

 and Cutting Wire

Then, the gravel truck showed up - three times with several yards of gravel - 15 yards to be exact. For the pour tomorrow.

Dumping Gravel on Elsie's Lot

Ready For the Pour

Dumping Gravel On Our Lot