St. Nick Takes Time

Good old St. Nicholas, Father Christmas, Santa, or whatever, took time from a well-deserved vacation in paradise, to have a mini-Christmas for one little boy.

Joshua (1-yr) Opening his Present

Our Godson, Isaiel, his wife, Amarilly, and their son (our great-Godson?) Joshua, came to visit this morning from Guinea Grass. We had a present for Joshua to open, which he did with gusto.

Rip It Open

Joshua is 1-year and 2 months old. I guess in the State, you would commonly say, he's 14 months old. They don't do that here. Anyway, last time we saw him - two months ago, on his birthday, he was almost walking. He could stand up and hang onto things. That's all changed. Now, he totters around without hanging on to anything. Oh sure, he still falls now and then, but the change is amazing. Next time we see him, I have no doubt he'll be talking, and probably reading too.

It's a Little Talking/Singing Piggy

See? All Mine

So, do we sound like doting grand parents? How weird. We've gone our whole lives without kids and now we have this little urchin we can spoil (within reason) and do all that sort of 'grand parent stuff'. Just seems bizarre.

Dianna Doing A Little Doting

This wasn't the only reason they came up to Corozal. They had a gift for us - a nice bottle of white Caribbean rum, and Isaiel had five hose holders I had asked him to fabricate for us. These things are so cool. They turned out much better and fancier than I dreamed we'd see.

Isaiel Finishing the Hose Hangers

Amarilly and Joshua Supervising Dad

We have five plastic hose hangers around the place now. Of course, with the sunlight we have here, the hangers lifespan is nearing the endpoint, so we had to do something. I found a picture a while back on the Intertubes, printed it and asked Isaiel if he could come up with something similar. These turned out much better.

 Four of the Five Drying

I can't wait to get them bolted up in place. I'll take a couple of pictures after they're installed so you can see them 'in action'. Well, as much action as a hose hanger will get, anyway.

We had a nice visit with them. It takes a while, culturally, I think, to become really comfortable and at ease with folks. Both directions. You don't want to say anything that will offend, etc., sometimes, you're not sure what they mean when they say something. So it does take a while to get that relaxed and comfortable feeling. I think we're there now.

There was also more work going on with the bulkhead today. The way they work is, a couple guys run the 'machine', filling up about a hundred and ten bags with dry-mix concrete.

Having Too Much Fun

That'sa Lotta Bags!

Then they wheelbarrow a couple filled bags at a time, dump them in the water, and one or two guys manhandle them into position, adding rebar and drain pipes as needed.

Lowering Bags into the Water

At the place in the canal (boat slip area) where they're working, it takes a lot of bags. The water is anywhere from 10 to 12 feet deep, so at 6" high (roughly), that's a few layers of bags just to get up to the surface of the canal.

Here's One Just About to Splash In

They are making good progress, although Emir says it's taking about double the amount of concrete that they estimated.

Later this afternoon (in about an hour), we'll be heading over to Sherry's new house to help her break it in, on New Year's Eve, yet. Then, this evening, we are all heading over to Tony's Inn & Beach Resort, for a sit-down dinner and some drinks. Then it's home. We'll be back home easily by 9:00 PM. That's late for Corozal.

Have a great, safe and peaceful New Years everyone. Cheers.

Dare I Say, Construction Starts Again?

Wow! It's been a good seven or eight months since we last had any construction going on here. Not that I minded the quiet, but I sure would like to get all this done.

Anyway, it's a start. We had our Godson, Isaiel, who built and installed most of the other metal pieces around the place get back to work finishing the back (canal-side) fence. He did the front fence so this was perfect.

Isaiel Readying Fence Pieces

Isaiel and Ramilo Unloading the Pieces

They unloaded them yesterday afternoon. Today is spent painting one side of the pieces and boring holes in the concrete for studs to mount the metal pieces, which will happen tomorrow.

Ramilio Carrying A Piece

Moving a Large One  

It feels good to finally have some forward momentum. Let's hope it continues through to completion.

Ramilio Positioning Pieces

Isaiel Painting Pieces

Isaiel PaintingAnother Piece

A little Rustoleum goes a long way to improving the looks of the pieces. Tomorrow, they'll be installing the pieces. Of course then, the doggies will stop talking to us for a while, once they realize their free and easy access out of the yard is history. They'll have forgotten all about it by suppertime.

Of course, while all the exotic construction is going on, the regular maintenance and upkeep must also move forward. Cody, our caretaker, is conveniently working near Isaiel and Ramilio.

Conversation has been going non-stop. That's all right. The work is getting done. Besides, it's not often on the job that Cody has company to chat with. He works alone a lot of the time, and he's a good steady, honest worker, so I won't begrudge him some company now.

Next One In Line As Of November 30, 2007

Here's Isael Pesch, the artist who is doing our burglar bars. He came to Corozal to show us his work. It really is a work of art, based on our design. Ain't nothing like it no where - One of a kind!

Isael Pesch Showing His Art

Work is progressing on the house. Most visible is the plastering of the concrete posts and beams, making them nice and smooth.

All the Concrete Works Gets a Good Going Over

All the Concrete Works Gets a Good Going Over

Our canalside fence is up and is being shaped as shown below.

Gate Form

Getting Ready to Shape the Fence

Here's The Fence In The Process of Being shaped

Here's The Fence Ready for Lighting

Shaping It is Dusty Work

Myo Should Be Wearing a Mask

Even Warpy Wood Gets Used

Tiki Is One of the Pooches We're House-Sitting

Every day, Franz's crew travels from Shipyard or Guinea Grass to work here in Corozal. It's about an hour and a half one way... Factor in riding in the bed of a pickup, probably on top of building tools and supplies, and you get the idea of a real fun time - if it doesn't rain, of course.

Jose Camera's Pickup Heading To Guinea Grass

Keeping a vehicle clean here is what you might call a challenge. Below, you can see our Isuzu. This is after only three days of daily town driving. I ain't been four-wheelin' neither, cause it's a 2WD!

Mud and squeaks and rattles are a fact of life

Mud and squeaks and rattles are a fact of life