American Independence Day, July 4, this year marked 5 YEARS since the day we occupied our "new house" on this property. We had arrived in mid-November of 2012, and found ourselves a little "space cramped" as there were at times nine occupants of our original small cement-house, which at that time also was rather primitive in some of its facilities (it seemed like "camping out").
We quickly organized the building of this bamboo "nipa house"
on this property. Some of our very early BLOG-posts, such as
Mostly Photos and Five Weeks, give an idea of the methods
such a shelter can be put together. While THIS shelter eased
our problems somewhat (especially sleeping space) we pretty
obviously needed some more permanent additions to our
bathroom, kitchen, etc. I had said that I wouldn't try to build
anything in the Philippines until I was here for a year or so,
to look at local methods, be sure of drainage patterns, etc.
Fast-forward less than 8 months after our arrival, this "yellow house" was completed to the point of being livable. We were pleased to have OUR "independence" from the rest of the family members who were staying with us. Above shows the freshly completed work-room doors on the front, with their "giant quilt pattern" paintwork. Just around the front-right corner is the actual "FRONT entrance," which leads through a small parlor into the workroom and our "mini-master" bedroom/ bathroom. A few months of staring at a plain-flat door motivated me to paint optical-illusion raised-panels on it. It was replaced with a finely-made solid mahogany door last year.
In the five years since THAT July 4th, we have managed to complete quite a few other projects which have gradually improved on our situation. (See various postings from 2013 thru present; navigation links are above-right in this page). We now have 3 bathrooms and a nice roofed patio/kitchen- and-carport area, plus a solid storage-building and saw-shed working area. For all of which, we are grateful, as we feel like we are "home" now and not on a prolonged campout. Each year we have been blessed to celebrate Independence Day (among other annual events) with some guests and "special cooking."
"OLD ways" always meet "NEW ways" when our cooking situation gets complicated.
HEAVY - duty cooking of large batches like rice and "stew" items is done with wood or charcoal in the "dirty kitchen" (the name for "patio kitchen" here). The 220v. local current rice cooker is used for re-warming precooked items. The 110v. USA slow-cooker is connected to the voltage regulator, and used to slow-cook a large batch of BBQ ribs. Mean-while the inside propane-gas range is busy with several shorter-term or "oven-needed" projects. My boiled eggs for the potato salad didn't come out "pretty" so I layered the potato mixture into a flat 8 x 8 pyrex baking dish, with chopped up eggs in a middle- and a top- layer; which ended up looking OK and I got no complaints ;-).
The final "spread" had several items each of "USA familiar" and
Filipino-local specialties, and this year we managed 3 pies+
cookies, brownies, and cupcakes from Bernadette, and four
flavors of ice-cream from me.
This was our "second sitting" of guests, a few hours after the "first
sitting" which was more numerous. Meantime quite a few other
"passing by" guests got served in the carport/ patio area.
The "second sitting" above were all gazing and grinning at Joseph who was cell-photoing. As always, everyone who stepped inside removed shoes; first one to leave gets their choice of all - but somehow they always manage to figure out whose are whose. I keep several "table puzzles" of various types for conversation pieces, and I hadn't assembled this one in a while - - it took a while to remember the solution, so I made a photo after I was done. One of the guests was able to assemble it after quite a while of tinkering, and I think from HER 2 or 3 of the others figured it out.
July 4, Independence Day, provided a measure of relief to the month of June, which had been rough in patches. It was June 7 when I "posted" last month, and part of the delay had been a few days of internet ("intermittent-net") off- on- off which coincided with some change-overs and mishaps with the electricity. ON JUNE 7, the power was off and on several times; when it eventually went OFF AGAIN very late in the afternoon, and DUSK was deepening, I took a short walk to see if I could find out what was "zappening."
Sure enough, an Antico Cooperative truck was about 100 yards
away on the main highway, its crew and support people working
hurriedly to replace a line-transformer.
My little camera tends to lighten the sky in "near-dark" situations;
This photo logged after 6:25 p.m., after sunset, and it was dark
enough that in a few minutes he would have needed support-
lighting to finish his task. THIS TRANSFORMER location
seems to need a replacement quite frequently - - so the we who
live with recurring outages caused by blown equipment HOPE
that the "cooperative" will SOON decide to divide the
load by hanging at least one more transformer.
Well, there were also several "goofy projects" to occupy odd moments during June. This may became a fairly regular category in these postings for a while, as it seems I quite often find myself making things which could be bought, or modifying things which might not needed, if it were happening in the USA.
"Hands-on usage" made it clear to us that there was nowhere to put
"things needed for operations" in the new bathroom. Here, I have
made a slightly-undersized shelf from plywood and attached it
to the tiled wall. The clamps are holding a matched piece of the
tile, which is being glued onto the sub-shelf., to make a matching
surface. A little paint on the edges will make everything blend
in. We won't have to to set toothbrushes and other grooming
items on top of the toilet tank (behind-and-left from the sink).
I'm starting to look for a ready-made soap dish - SMALL -
to stick on the wall just above the sink.
Our microphone set is packed and moved after each use; its original box was getting pretty worn, so a few one-to-two hour sessions, scattered over a couple weeks, went to making something like a wooden "silverware box" out of plywood scraps. I couldn't find any type of latch for it, so I ended up adapting a nylon "bayonet latch" from an old luggage strap.
This plywood-box laminating method has proven handy for a number of small projects. Here are a medicine-cabinet, and some magazine shelf-boxes which I made several years ago. (Imagine - - "little stuff" that you could probably get at Wal-Mart, gets handmade here.)
I ended up making 10 or 12 of these.
I really could use a couple other "plywood box" items: an attache-case for carrying books and sheet-music around (none here; in USA I see them for about $20 on Craig's List), and a "household files" box which could hold a couple-dozen hanging file-folders. (Penda-flex type folders not here, either, NOR any small file boxes). I got some folders from Wal Mart USA in our annual "care package box" last year, but I will have to either build one or get-again from Wal Mart some other year, if I want to have a small file box. I'm considering if I want those items enough to invest effort and "hobby time" into making them, using the same general method I used for the Microphone box.
We're about to re-activate our rice-field, too. For several months none of the fields has been planted. This was during the "dry season" and there was consensus among various parties to leave the fields fallow, as the irrigation channels and the terrace-dams were needing a lot of periodic maintenance. These are usually three-crop-per-year fields, and any long period of inactivity is pretty uncommon.
Part of the "deal" with most farm-labor days is that the workers
get feed lunch and break-times. This particular day I hauled
the breakfast meal with the Suzuki, mostly to see what things
are looking like. I always like the surroundings, there.
A few days earlier, this terrace was plowed by a Carabao
(water buffalo) dragging an old-fashioned single-blade plow
(water buffalo) dragging an old-fashioned single-blade plow
This leaves large clods and furrows, which must be broken up.
These workers are using walk-behind tractors (common here)
to break up soil
A few 2-wheel tractors are used in the USA, but they are much
more common here. I say it looks like "a roto-tiller on steroids"
just an oversized and awkward "handful" of a device. Glad I
don't have to try wrestling with one of those in knee-deep mud.
I'm hearing (a day later) that the work-over with the tractors is not
enough yet, and a carabao pulling a "harrow" of heavy-sharp
metal teeth will finish breaking up the soil into silt.
A nearby field is a few weeks ahead of our progress. Here,
the workers are pulling up and re-planting 1-month seedling
plants, which are sown too densely to reach full growth. This
method gets the rice a "strong start" and then re- spaces
the plants for maximum yield. We no longer do this; our
direct-seeding may be not quite as productive, but the little
(questionable) gain in final quantity was being "eaten up"
by the labor cost and headaches of re-planting. THESE
WORKERS "got a break" as the overcast morning around
9 a.m. had held the temperature down for a while. Field
work in hot sunlight gets mighty uncomfortable.
In the last couple years, major electrical lines have been placed
through many of these fields, parallel to the "old" main-lines
along the National Highway a couple hundred yards west. The
gradual re-stringing of all the electricity supply is one reason
we have had frequent "maintenance" shutdowns.
I ALSO SUSPECT
that where the present main-highway CANNOT be widened
to 4-lane in its present route, it will be routed through these
fields - - - nothing is being said about that yet, but it looks
to ME like it would be a choice between using land in open
fields (which a lot of people will not like) OR tearing out long-
established neighborhoods, (which will be "liked" even less).
THE COST OF THIS PROPERTY, converted to acres/ dollars,
is actually QUITE HIGH compared to the cost of farmland in the
USA; ridiculously HIGH considering the Philippines economy.
I had parked the car to make a few photos on foot, and when
I got back I noticed the one scraggly little tree in a long
distance, had been used for a water-jug support. I ALSO
noticed the "composition" of the scene which turned out pretty
good I think (left-overs from 7th grade "art appreciation?").
good I think (left-overs from 7th grade "art appreciation?").
Even the right-side mirror cooperated. Serendipity.
(Other "dipities" preferred, here; like
chocolate, for example - - - )
With our rice fields ready to plant now, we still WILL NOT plant for several days as the Typhoon Maria, passing 1,000 miles north of us, is still intensifying our rainfall and causing the sea to be too rough for fishing. IF WE PLANT RICE and it doesn't have some time to root and begin growing before a major deluge, all of the seed will be washed out of the fields - an expensive loss and a setback of a few weeks' time. THIS morning, we have had furious
downpours for 20 or 30 minutes, followed by periods of calm-clear-sunny for an hour or so.
This substantial house has been built in the last 2- 3 years
near the west side of the rice-fields area; a much humbler
place stood here next to the wood-cutter's large work-shed
area (his house). Business has apparently been good.
The downstairs has a hardware and supply store.
The saw-shed area has several pieces of equipment, which
are sophisticated enough to manufacture doors and cabinets,
and to do quite-large wood turnings. Lately I have seen some
work there which looks to me like hand-made "pulley blocks"
turned from hardwood, for rigging sails on a ship. Or, maybe
for some other similar heavy-rope use. This obsolete-looking
project is interesting to me, but I don't have enough of the
language to ask what it IS. (AND, none-of-my-business ;-).)
LINK> A "doorable - - -" from last September, features our errand
to this business to have Ricky rip a 2-inch slab into 1- inch
panels - - an AMAZING FEAT to look back at if you happened
to miss it before. A couple of those photos show a stack
of "round-blanks," so he may have been "pulley-making" for
quite a while.
Recently I see a large metal-working lathe and some other
machine-shop equipment added. NOTED, as one or two of
my long-way-off projects may need some fabrication work.
The month of June held one particular disappointment for us, as I spent quite a lot of time and effort trying to apply for a USA tourist- visa for Bernadette. Several weeks of various efforts, including a 3-day trip for Bernadette to the US Embassy in Manila, and we are at a standstill. I can't figure out how to get the on-line application form to it's last section, "Sign and submit electronically." It may take some time to find someone here who has experience, to help us jump thru all the hoops. We had thought we might try to visit the USA in October, but the timing is getting too close - - we MUST have a visa-in-hand for her, before we can begin to plan and book flights, etc. We may try to visit in late-April/ early-May 2019, if we can get things lined up in the meantime.
And things just keep moving along, here - sometimes hectic, sometimes humdrum, sometimes a little boring. ACTUAL PROGRESS on things-that-seem-to-matter is usually pretty SLOW. IF the weather looks OK by tomorrow, I'll try to do the "monthly errands" in San Jose, about 1 hr. 40 min. from here. Drive-time both ways plus a reasonable number of errands will pretty well burn up the day. Getting "ahead a little" on the USA visa project, or on a couple other "stuck items," will make it seem worthwhile.
We hope you had a fine mid-week holiday, and that your year-2018 is proving to be mostly agreeable! Have a great day.
TJ and Bernadette Larson
Tibiao, Antique Province, Philippines
