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Everything seems to happen differently here. We have now had three cement deliveries for our house project, 50 sacks each. You might expect a flatbed "Home Improvement Center"
truck to arrive - if not a ready-mix truck - at a construction site with this type of material; but for us it isn't so. Happens that nearly all owner-operator buses and jeepneys have roof-racks and lower compartments for hauling things besides passengers. It helps the owner make some extra cash if it can be worked into the passenger schedule or done afterward. Here are the highlights of our typical cement delivery:
The bus arrives in late afternoon after its passenger-run from San Jose to Culasi (about 55 miles) since
it starts from nearby our place each morning. It is noticeably "riding low" as it has about 5,000 # of
cement in sacks on top, under a tarp. The steel re-bar which was also ordered is tossed off first.
Now come the cement sacks, 40kg - that's 88# - each - - ooof! it hurts just to watch it come down.
The first few sacks are stacked into a set of steps to make the reach a little easier. Sacks are then
carried about 25 feet onto the property and stacked along the wall of our bamboo "resort-hut."
But the big guy said that one-at-a-time was too slow to suit him; that's right, he doubled-up
to two sacks, 176# at a time.
Here, he has turned around the property fence and is saa-shaying over to where
the other sacks are piled by the hut. One of the other guys there helped unload him.
He made at least 5 or 6 trips like this, could have been more.
It's nearly all stacked in place now, and will be tarped for protection. The house-
site is 6 feet beyond the corner of the bamboo hut; plots of land are small in-town,
and we will use the area you can see, over to where people are standing for our
new home. Work will start tomorrow (Jan. 15, 2013) on the foundation.
A quick peek at the driver's seat, and you can see passenger seat-backs too. This
bus is well-seasoned, but carefully maintained and clean if "utilitarian." It has a fairly
new 4-liter engine and it can pretty well "rock-'n'-roll!"
It has taken several weeks to get this organized. Small apology to a few psople who received pretty much the same photos a couple weeks ago in an e-mail.
I'm basically trying NOT to do all construction blogs in a row, because other stuff is happening at the same time. But there are a LOT of construction photos piling up, and I've gotten luckier in the last few days with photos from "out and about" as we've been mostly on errands. SO I may have to step up the pace of how often I put up blogs, just in order to clear out the backlog. I'll try to swing back and forth between "what we're doing at the house" and "what I see while I'm other places." Next blog will probably be about house foundation and startup, but I've also GOT to get something up about TRICYCLES, Going to Market, Food in General, Salt, Fishing, Canoes, and the list keeps on coming.
This is a great place to live and I'm really enjoying it. I miss a lot of things about my job, and about my kife in KY generally, especially my FRIENDS who were my customers for years and years. But I DON'T MISS HAVING TO WORK!! I do things pretty much at my own pace now, and it's really a blessing.
Hope you're all having a fine day!
Tim Larson, Philippines
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