The Columns

The columns. Some folks have asked about them since the only thing that appeared in the blog till now was this photo showing columns at the end of the garden - and no detail. So, here's the story of the columns.

The Column Appears

They started off as plain old concrete columns that were destined to become a stair railing for the garden area. Carlos asked Dianna if she wanted a stone veneer applied just like back in the patio area. Dianna said yes, that it was a good idea and would help to unify everything.

I had wanted some sort of metal railing for the stairs. We had this piece of pipe left over from some project or other, so Carlos quickly incorporated it into the columns.

Hand Rail From the Side

I'm not sure that leaving the upper end exposed was the coolest thought we had about the project, especially since getting a cap for it seems to be somewhat problematical, but, it does give it that little original flair (sounds better than saying that we screwed up, right?).

Hand Rail - Back View

From looking up at the columns and rail, here's the next one looking down on the thing. Still need to find a cap for the end. I'll locate one sooner or later. It's not really a problem, just slowly solved, that's all.

Hand Rail - Looking Down

Of course, from this angle, we could call it a deck gun... "Swab out that barrel sailor! Load it and make sure your slow-match is burning brightly. On the up-roll... FIRE!"

Works As A Cannon Too

Another Sunday Morning Grab Bag - On a Tuesday

My Father-in-law emailed me the other day to report 'he had bought an Iphone4S. But, after trying it for a month he had returned it. It was much too intellectually intensive. Solitaire was more his speed.'

What you might not know, is that he's eighty-four. Not that that's a bad thing, especially as I too advance in years. He also still rides a motorcycle and has been known to go for some marathon rides.

Well, as Clint Eastwood said, "A man's got to know his limitations."

Here's a thing I saw on Reddit.com (http://www.reddit.com) yesterday evening and I had sent it to the Corozal Men's Group.

Here's something that would be a great hurricane season preparedness item (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1203647021/the-powerpot). The video explains a lot. Ignore the fact that they look like a poor-man's Bob and Doug Mackenzie.

I'm thinking of buying one for Dianna and myself. If we get whacked this season by a hurricane, a week or so without current will make cellphones and MP3 players die in hurry. Now, if it could only make ice, you'd really have something.

Speaking of hurricanes and communications... Does anyone know if the cell towers in Belize have generators as part of their setup? At least, those up in the northern part of the country. And, the follow-on question, how long does their fuel supply last? I mean, if there's no fuel being delivered, when do the cell tower generators die? Then we're right back where we would be with not much. Well, if we had the PowerPot, we'd at least have something hot to drink and could listen to the tunes on our iPods. See? It's all good.

And speaking of cool stuff, I saw a program on the tube (the TV-tube, not the inter-tubes, this time). I think the name was simply 'Quirky'. It's about a company helping inventors develop their inventions and market them. Well, their website has a whole bunch of really cool gadgets and stuff. Worth checking out at least once. I'm thinking the barbecue caddy thing just might be a good thing. Hmm, is that because the focus of the program was, in part, about the inventor trying to develop this thing to make her hubbies barbecue problems easier to deal with? I wonder.

Back to the stairs for the garden again. Here's the shots I neglected before. I tried uploading them yesterday, but it was taking entirely too long. So, this morning... Someone must have greased the tubes.

Garden Stairs Taking Shape

Obviously, these were taken a while ago. The stone columns aren't even up nor is the shade house.

Carlos Pouring Concrete

Carlos also added a walkway that curves to the right at the bottom of the photo (you have to use your imagination here).

Looking Good

Ok. That's it for another edition of the Grab Bag.

Last Day of the Big Holiday

Easter's about the biggest holiday around here. It was nice to just be able to relax and hang out in the pool during the heat of the day, and to not hear too much of dump trucks, dozers, graders, and more dump trucks, etc.

I've been meaning to mention something about this family of geese we walk by every day. Momma and poppa are very protective of their goslings, of which there number about eight or ten. It was funny the other day as their human caretaker was trying to herd them a little closer to the yard. Remember that commercial with the cowboys herding cats? very similar.

Keeping An Eye On the Family

We even fired up the barbie on Easter Sunday. Dianna fixed a dynamite potato salad and I cleaned some stuff out of the freezer that cooked up as tasty as you could possibly want. We ate under our patio palapa. As we had been in the pool since 10:30 AM, and we ate at 2:00 PM, we had been in the pool for three and a half hours, the break for a BBQ'd meal was most welcome.

Got Some Stuff to Grill

Of course, we went back in the pool after stuffing ourselves. We reckon we logged about six hours of pool time yesterday.

So, today, Monday, according to Wikipedia, it's called Easter Monday in some locations. For us, it was just another day to spend in the sun and in the pool. We did take time to finish the framing for the shade house, going up beside our main house.

The two views below show how the structure is shaping up. I tried out the shade cloth I had left over from the pool awning project, but, I only have enough left for about half of the shade house.. So, I'll have to get in to Lano's sometime tomorrow morning and see if I can get an additional twelve feet. I'll also be returning the fence gate-tee's I bought there that were too big. I do have the receipt.

Shade House Looking West

 I think this view actually give you a better idea of the size of the structure. It's about eight-feet tall at the center of the arch, so it is pretty good sized.

Shade House Looking East

Well, so much for the Easter holiday. We didn't even see any zombies. Tomorrow, it's back to the old grind - whatever that is. I mean, every day is Saturday for us.

I just noticed - the photo above shows the new step up to the raised bed area along with the stone columns supporting the hand rail. I think this was asked about by Wilma, so there's the answer to your question Wilma. Sorry for neglecting it for so long.

Stairway to Heaven and Other Stuff

We're starting with the other stuff, cause that's more or less how the photos were shot. Painting involves covering a fair amount of wall. We've got two basic colors - a terracottaish color and a sand color. There is a nice blue for the decorative blocks.

Finishing Up Painting in the Breezeway

Rolling It Out

Work in the Other Breezeway

Overall Look of the House

Once the palapa got finished, it became real popular for the crew to mix concrete under its shade.

Mixing Concrete in the Shade

Getting Ready to Add Watah

I had to trim the three openings to allow cars easy access in and out of the palapa. the first one I did sort of a "too short" job, the middle one is ok, and the other end is just right

Trimmed Opening From Inside

Cleaning Up the Leaf Debris From Trimmings

Of course, we're then faced with what to do with unused reject thatch, trimming pieces, and small bits of wood from the palapa. Cody took the bull by the horns and carted most of it to the vacant lot next door and lit it off.

Burning the Debris

Now, the stairs in the garden area. Here they're just being framed out.

Setting Up Curved Molds for the Stairs

More Complicated Than It Looks

I had the guys use a lot of broken block and other debris from previous projects as filler for the stairs. Then they covered the lot with the crushed gravel to get ready to pour.

Ready for the Pour

Pour In Progress

Here's a view from our porch of the pour in progress. The next shot shows it newly completed.

In Progress

And Done

Morning After the Pour

In the "Basement", work is proceeding on sheetrocking the walls in the middle of the basement. It'll all be painted bone white when done.

Trimming Green Board

Mudding in Corner Bead

We still get lookey-loos... Here's Mae and Craig stopping by to see how it's going.

Dianna Showing Mae and Craig the Progress

We were able to get Franz Ozman, the electrician again. He does nice reliable work. Here, he's adding outlets to the wiring.

Ozman At Work

Last so far is the solid mahogany doors and jambs we'll be using. Here they're drilling for the lag screws to mount the jambs to the concrete door openings.

Setting Up Mahogany Door Pieces

And Setting Up Door Pieces