Readers who are new to the blog should probably scroll back and read a few earlier posts, first.
So far, I hadn't thought too much about just exactly what my "philosophy" is for this blog. I'm pretty sure it will stay mostly photo's, as they are more interesting than typescript. Have had a couple comments that Bernadette and I aren't in the photo's much if at all -so I may try to work us in a little. But she is camera-shy, and I'M usually the one holding the camera so it won't be very often. One point which occurred to me is that I don't expect the blog to be so much about ME or about US as it is about what we see around us in the Philippines that is different from the USA, and may therefore interest the readers.
I've been trying to figure out how to present the process of building a house here, a few photos at a time, without getting over-complicated for readers who'd rather just take projects like this for granted. Guess I'm trying not to "belabor" the subject; but it's an awful lot of what's going on for us right now, and I've taken many various-phase photos. I guess I'll just start putting them up 6 or 8 at a time, and work other subjects in-between as I've been trying to do.
The building pad area was cleared of most obstructions and four "corners" like
this one were staked into place about 18- inches outside of the actual house-
corner locations. Looking closely you can see string-lines crossed; the strings
guide digging and other lining-up functions as the foundation and walls are built.
All preparation work for materials happens on the site. Small-diameter
"re-bar" (reinforcing bar) is cut to length with a hacksaw.
Thick nails driven into a tree-slab make a bending jig so this worker
can bend the straight re-bar cuts into the "box" shape seen at right .
Hundreds of these boxes are cut and bent.
Meantime rolls of 16-gauge tie-wire are cut into zillions of ready-made
wire-ties by sis-in-law, nieces, and me. These are used like twist-ties.
Larger-size re-bar is wired to corners of the bent "boxes" and thus, long
lengths of rectangular-sectioned reinforcements are created to go inside
of concrete posts and beams of the house.
Concrete posts of the house will be poured later, around re-bar fabricated
("fab")sections like this one which is being braced and tied into foundation
re-bar already in the trench; we are just about ready to pour concrete.
Meantime several loads of sand, gravel and cement-blocks have arrived- by
TRUCK, not by BUS; this load of blocks is on top of 3 cu. yards of sand-
and-gravel mix. They will be "digitally downloaded" (that is, taken off by hand.)
This is NOT a dump-truck. But these guys are GOOD - they can shovel
that load out the side just about as quick as if it had been dumped. This
well-worn workhorse of a truck has been here so often lately that I can
recognize its sound when it approaches, without even looking.
I'm a little past my usual "photo- limit" for a blog-post already. I can't BELIEVE how many good pix just won't make it for lack of space, especially (this time) several of the "bending jig" process. I left out the "ditch-digging" and other things which are pretty much same-o to the U.S.
The motorcycle side-car "tricycle" is another vehicle specific to the Philippines; seen a couple of "blogs" back, delivering a load of lumber to us. I THINK that I finally have enough photos to make a decent blog layout of these versatile little vehicles, so that's most likely what will come next.
Hope you're all having a blessed day!
Tim Larson, Philippines
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