New Arrivals

Ahhh, my pipe collection has just magically grown by seven. I now have eleven pipes in the rotation. Too cool. I admit it. I've always thought corn cob pipes were something from the Beverly Hillbillys, or something like that.

What tipped me to purchasing these, was reading a news item a few months ago, about General Douglas MacArthur returning to the Philippines. The accompanying photo showed him with his trademark corn cob in his hand as he was wading ashore. There's no way one could accuse him of ever being like the Beverly Hillbillys.

As They Arrived in the Bag

 So, maybe it has something to do with the quality of the smoke. I've always heard they smoked cool and dry, two very desirable pipe qualities. Probably another large factor is the cost. They are extremely economical. Especially when you buy factory seconds by the bagful.

To be honest, I can't tell what makes these factory seconds. I've looked each of them over closely, and other than a large black 'X' on the bottom of the bowl of each pipe, they really seem to me to be first rate - as far as corn cobs go.

Missouri Meerschaum has been producing corn cobs by the hundreds of thousands every year since 1907.

No Glamorous Packing

And, these things are economical to purchase. A little less than $4.00USD each, makes them very attractive.

Even if these were prime, top of the line corn cobs, they still would come in at around $10.00 per pipe. It's hard to beat that price.

The hype is true, however. I picked the dark corn cob to try for my first 'cob smoke,' as it were.

I packed the bowl relatively loosely with Ashton's Smooth Sailing pipe tobacco. Smooth Sailing is an aromatic mixture that's a little nutty to the taste, with subtle flavors of maple, coconut, and dark chocolate.

A Satisfying Smoke

I smoked that bowl-full over a good part of the day, yesterday, between runs to town to take Dianna's new cell phone in to Technicell to be re-flashed. I don't know if it was something I did (or didn't), or some other problem.

We also had a dramatic and very loud thunder and lightning show pretty much the whole time we were in town. The poor doggies were terrified as we drove around.

I had to take Bella's pack in to Alek the tailor, to have a strap re-sewn, chewed through, I'm pretty sure, by Coco, our young pup. I also had to get a new case of Belikin and a case of Schweppes' soda water.

Almost killed Daisy. She was in the back seat of the truck, hiding from the lightning. I hit a bump or something that knocked over the case of Belikin, pretty much on top of her. She made it into the front seat in a flash  That made for a close-packed ride with the three girls and me all in the front seat of the truck. What'er ya gonna do?

It was nice to get back home, get the girls all settled down from the lightning and thunderstorm. I settled down to catch up on email and fired up the corn cob once again.

I was quite favorably impressed with the corn cob. It truly was a cool, dry smoke. Very nice.

Wednesday and Thursday At the Worksite

Wednesday and Thursday were both forecast to be either overcast, or to have varying levels of thunderstorms and/or rain. Well, as you can see, both were just horrible days. The workers managed to persevere through it all and continued work on the column forms in spite of the sunshine.

Next Column Form Up

Taking one of the forms apart after casting. Believe it or not, the wood for these is one-inch thick mahogany. Used for concrete forms. It would be unthinkable up north, but is standard practice here. Also, each form takes almost three people to maneuver them around and into place. They are extremely heavy.

Blue Cheese Nut Bread

So, while I was waiting for a thunderstorm to show up, I found a recipe on the back of the label for some blue cheese that I had bought for some other recipe. It's for a cranberry, blue cheese, and nut bread.
Baking it was very easy. I didn't have to let it rise or beat it down. Too simple.
It baked up just fine and came out of the pan perfectly.
Some butter spread over a slice just tasted fantastic. I may have to make this one again.

Precarious Position to Pour

Ok, back to work. Here's Indir precariously balanced on a ladder, ready to pour buckets of concrete down the form.
As of this morning, we're a smidge past half way on filling all the columns - six done and five to go. Might be finishing the remaining five today. it'll be close.

Douglas Looking at Window Lintel

The pump house is coming right along. Blocks have reached their final height. Lintels are in and poured for both the door and window.
I'm guessing that next comes casting the roof of the structure.

Marl Pile Disappearing

Little by little, mounds of marl are disappearing. Here, about half of the marl pile is gone, used as fill for the concrete deck.

Eraca Palm Bed Back to Normal

Some of that marl has been used to re-establish the planting area on the north side of the pool where the eraca palms are located.
It's nice to see that area getting back to normal. I about gave up on it when the project first started. It looked like all of the palms there were going to have to come out. Such proved not to be the case. Overall, we only lost two palms, and both of those got replanted over on the south side of the property, along the fence line over there.

Mini-Lumberyard Under the Palapa

I mentioned the mahogany for the forms. Here's the lumberyard the guys established to create the forms.

Doggies Adapted Well to New Pen

To keep the dogs from getting underfoot while construction is going on, and to prevent familiarity developing with the workers, the girls get penned up every day while work is going on. It only took them about three days to decide their new zinc shelter was a good thing. It's shady, cool, and free of ants.

Bani - Electrician Installing Conduit

We had asked to have a couple of outlets placed in some of the columns. Here, Bani, the electrician, is positioning the conduit and boxes prior to the pour for that column.