We've had 4½ months of dry, hot weather, since the last notable storm came 2 days before New Year's Day. Overnight temperatures above 80°F., and daytimes above 90°F, with humidity higher than any of the "humid" places in the USA. Our city-piped water, coming from nearby mountains has, gotten down to a little more than a one-hour trickle after it is turned on around 5:30 a.m. We have had enough of this fresh water for cooking and drinking, but sometimes not for vendor-ice making*. Other neighborhoods are having to import water in 5-gallon plastic "jerry-cans." Our electricity usage has been higher than usual as the fans and air-conditioner (overnight) work harder to relieve the high air- humidity. AND the rice crops have been mostly empty hulls, not much grain. We hope for some relief soon, as we are several weeks into usual rainy season.
(*We sell ice from our freezer, pretty much "routine" for anyone who owns a freezer here. Newer readers, this link should open a posting which explains a little about the ice situation, scroll down in the text to the heading "miscellaneous." Also just above that is a GOOD, tasty general recipe for Philippines- style adobo which is meat cooked in a sauce similar to pot-roast.)
I've been keeping a pair of ear-plugs handy with my hat, for the last couple months. We have been in an election cycle (mid-term?) which seems to include the national legislature as its top level and everything "down" from there to the local barangay officials (who form the neighborhood counsel).
The ear-plugs are at least slightly useful when the campaign sound-blasters pass by. Seems like there are no legal regulations on the volume of sound broadcast here - - and these units can shake the reinforced-concrete walls from 100 yards away. We have heard re-tooled familiar melodies for weeks, now: "Life goes on," "You Are My Sunshine," "On the Top of the World," plus a number of Filipino folk songs, all re-worded into political jingles, to jangle everyone's nerves.
The elementary school is the polling place, and our road has been congested with voters, vendors, and vehicles, all morning (Monday, May 13). One good thing is that the sound-blasters have to stop operating beginning the day before the election. There seemed to be about 300 people waiting at the school around 9 a.m. Polls had opened at 7 a.m.
New School Building
I showed the beginning of this project two postings back. The
project began about 4 months ago and has moved steadily,
but fairly certainly it won't be usable for quite a few months
yet, possibly the 2020 school year. This view is as if you
had stepped around the left corner of the school office
building (above photo, polling site) and walked back 30
yards between other classrooms.
This view is from beyond the school campus, the diagonal-
opposite corner of the new building. The light-colored building
just visible beyond the construction is the elementary school
classroom where the palm trees were, previous photo.
opposite corner of the new building. The light-colored building
just visible beyond the construction is the elementary school
classroom where the palm trees were, previous photo.
This temporary stairway is made from many long bamboo
poles, with smaller poles wired into place as steps; usedfor moving all the second-floor materials upward
as the project continues.
We heard a rumor that the completed building will be used
for grades 7 through 12; I noted that its main entrance
and permanent stairway seem to be at the far end of the
building, away from the elementary school. If so, having a
high school within walking distance will be a nice asset to
our area.
for grades 7 through 12; I noted that its main entrance
and permanent stairway seem to be at the far end of the
building, away from the elementary school. If so, having a
high school within walking distance will be a nice asset to
our area.
The 60th- birthday LARGE-letters from a couple months ago got creatively re-purposed on the first day of Youth Camp a couple weeks ago.
My fondness for Tex-Mex/ southwestern cookery persists.
One morning recently there were "just enough" little bits of
beans, pork roast, cheese, and ONE home-made corn
tortilla, to put together this "take" on huevos rancheros,
= Rancher's eggs, which have a couple scrambled
eggs buried in them. Almost NO materials for such
cooking are available as packaged goods, here.
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We've had a fairly major "push" to get the second-story roof on our small building. The plastic tube our helper is holding is carefully filled with water - no air bubbles! - and is the most common way of determining whether points some distance from each other are equal/ level. The water-level in the tubing allows for the comparison, which in this case was for setting the position of one of the frame-members.
Because of obstructions it's hard to get perspective of the roof- shape; it is quite a steep A-frame, with the front also sloping like a tall hip-roof. There will be dormer/ pop-outs on both sides and front, to allow for windows. The photo at right is viewing from inside near the back wall towards the front. Above, the east-side dormer; 4 dormers with large windows will provide lots of fresh air and light inside.
Because of obstructions it's hard to get perspective of the roof- shape; it is quite a steep A-frame, with the front also sloping like a tall hip-roof. There will be dormer/ pop-outs on both sides and front, to allow for windows. The photo at right is viewing from inside near the back wall towards the front. Above, the east-side dormer; 4 dormers with large windows will provide lots of fresh air and light inside.
Goofy Projects Division Entry
The panels on the inside partition wall (downstairs) couldn't be fitted very closely at the edges, because of irregular cement-work. All the edges needed molding to conceal them. (The electric plug-in at the top of the wall will allow for a wall-mounted oscillating fan.)
Considerable table-saw and router-work (+ lots of sanding and painting) yielded about 75 feet of molding for the two sides of the wall. The object containing the mini- Coca Cola bottle will become a corner-block with a fake rosette-carving. Installed below, it still needs some paint and putty work; and we're discussing whether to paint it all white, or to paint the floral-motif bottle-bottom pale yellow. The walls are a very light dusty-lavender color.
Returning from a San Jose errand-day last week, we made
a planned side-trip a few miles to Sibalom; their market
reputed to feature good quality bamboo furniture at favorable
prices. The load racks on the Suzuki allowed us to easily
load and secure this bed for the 40+ miles returning home.
The 1600 peso-cost worked out to $31. (Seems like a
fair deal to me, but maybe we were bamboozled - -)
fair deal to me, but maybe we were bamboozled - -)
A day later, given a couple coats of varnish, it was ready to move into the house. Most native-Filipinos seem to prefer sleeping minus any thick pad or mattress; these hold the person's body-heat, so sleeping is more comfortable without them. Most likely, we will have available a memory-foam mattress pad to be used, or not used, by preference.
Bernadette's brother Alex has been doing all the welding for our roof framing, but he
stays busy with other projects in-between. I happened to walk through the family
compound one afternoon, and saw this just-completed table.
It is a simple Shaker-type table, but well-made; what makes
it impressive is that all the wood is hand-worked from rough
cut slabs sawn by chain-saw. There is NO SOURCE of
factory-made lumber pieces here. The table top is quite
a few pieces of varying widths, carefully planed and fitted.
This link goes to an earlier posting which has several
photos of our nearby chain-sawyer splitting a 2-inch
slab into 1-inch thicknesses. 1- inch stock wood is only
gotten around here with much effort.
Old road tear-out and new paving often don't seem to be
coordinated. The pavement on this one block of roadway
beside the MAIN PLAZA in our capitol city was pretty rough
and needed to GO, but now some new pavement needs
to COME. Soon, we hope.
I sometimes remember to take a few "postcard" type photos, to remind myself of just how much simple beauty is nearby. This house, nestled against a protruding hill and surrounded by rice fields, is about 3 miles from where we live. Scenic and peaceful looking.
(Still the constant format- struggle with the "blogspot.com" format, I note in the "preview" that nearly all my photos have moved from side-by-side to vertical, but at least most of the text is fairly close to the right places.)
It seems like we will be "busy by spells" with the roof project; I am about halfway through figuring out the metal-roofing order, only possible to do now that the frame is completed and measurable. Ordering and getting the material may take a couple weeks. No huge urgency to "put the top on," as any rain will only fall on the cement-slab upstairs floor.
We also have a couple weddings and at least one San Jose overnight trip coming up, plus I really want to get to ILOILO and take care of some "wanted items" sometime soon. (Actually I want to be there getting my stuff, without actually having to travel back and forth to do that.) There are always a handful of things-not-available nearby, which we desire as minor luxuries.
Hope you all are doing well - -
TJ and Bernadette Larson
Tibiao, Antique Province, Philippines
