(There are Tyrannosaurus Wrecks.)
We had an "interesting" and rare sort of a wreck nearby, a few weeks ago. VERY LARGE trucks are not common here, as the roads are just too narrow and certain curves are pretty tight, perhaps less than 10 mph for a really BIG truck. BUT LATELY in the last few months we have occasionally been seeing long flatbed trailer-trucks pass by. IN GENERAL, the trucks here are straight non-trailer trucks not much more than 30 feet long.
This unfortunate fella just didn't make it around a sharp curve
sometime before daylight one morning. HE IS A "rare bird" here
being a 40- foot flatbed trailer (fortunately, no load) with a USA
made FREIGHTLINER tractor (almost never seen, Japanese
trucks predominate here). Looks to me like he actually "ditched"
at 25 mph or less. Very little damage all-in-all.
It wouldn't have been his fault. He would have been driving for about 3 hours from the ferry- dock 80 or so miles from here. (And it's nearly 24 hours on-ferry from Manila.) IN DARKNESS (before 5 a.m.) his sensible speed would have been 35 to 40 mph, "hogging" the center line of a 20- foot wide road (almost zero overnight traffic here). The road curves here nearly ALL have ( "<" "<" and ">" ">") arrow marker signs but NO real indication of HOW SHARP. His "reaction time" approaching this curve would probably have been about 3 seconds and he just couldn't slow down quite fast enough.
It's hard to show in a photo, just how sharp this curve is. To
give an idea, I can go around it in my small car,
in daylight, at about 25 - 30 mph and stay in my lane.
In "record time" 3 days later this huge boom-crane truck
showed up from Manila (IZUSU made). This big boy would
have a pretty easy time pulling that empty truck "up and out."
I was interested to note that both the wrecked truck and the
boom-truck had "Heavylift.com" company decals on them. So
it was an in-company rescue. The wreck sat there beside the
road for about 2 weeks afterward, and it looked like they were
working on steering or front-suspension damage. PARTS for a
USA- truck might have been quite a challenge to get.
These vehicle-mounted rice polishing mills are common around
here. NOTE that the placard shows registration#/ license# from
Department of Ag. or whatever equivalent is here. For several
weeks, rainy weather plus mechanical troubles had kept us
from seeing one around our neighborhood, and we were getting
low on ready-to-cook rice. (We store it in sacks in "palay" form,
with inner- husks intact, and have 1 or 2 sacks polished as needed.)
Rice blog 1: Rice Blog 2
So we found ourselves making a visit to a local rice-merchant's
mill. The large expanse of cement pavement is used to sun-
dry large quantities of freshly harvested rice. It's all spread
out by hand from sacks, and raked and turned by hand, and
swept up and re-bagged each afternoon late. In HOT constant
sunshine, it can take just one day, but 2 days is usually better
to be sure it gets thoroughly dry before storage.
Inside the mill is pretty similar to the portable mills. Note that
even the power source is a vehicle engine and transmission (look
between stair treads at right). Rice dumped down a chute from
above is "scuffed" between drum-rollers and fixed- edge blades,
to knock off all the husks, and also 90% of the nutritional value
(which we feed to poultry). This yields the nearly- all- starch pearly
white rice most humans seem to prefer.
"Meanwhile, back at the ranch - -" a few handfuls of palm
leaves can quickly be woven into a chicken nesting- basket
if we have too many hens brooding at the same time.
I saw this place when we stopped briefly on a driving trip
a few weeks ago. The ornate design and overall proportions
"took my eye" so I grabbed the camera. (SAD FACT, in this
climate/ or whatever/ it seems nearly impossible to keep ANY
painted surface looking decent for more than a couple years at
a time - - note "mold" or "moss" growing on the fancy post).
Even the pre-fab cast cement railing panels and the nicely
made window security bars all just seem to "fit in."
The photo shows the present bridge, narrower and about 5- feet
lower. The span is something more than 200 yards.
UPDATE on the drainage culvert project I featured briefly last time.
This shows better, how ROUGH the cut side of a cement pipe can be
after it is hacked in half by hand. Too heavy to move in one piece.
A couple weeks ago, we got some brackets made and installed
above where the car is parked, so we can quickly unload and
store the top- carrier. The carrier isn't real heavy, just awkward
to wrestle up and down. This solution also gets it out of the way
when not in use.
We were pleased after several months of effort to acquire a
couple margarine- containers from a local bakery. Note the
coffee mug for size-reference; these contained about 90-
pounds of commercial-grade margarine, and they hold 20-
or- 25 gallons volume. Their twist-seal lids and heavy
construction provide varmint resistant storage. YES, some
plastic "Rubbermaid-type" totes are available here but
they aren't as strong and are pretty pricey.
"HOME ALONE?" No, Bernadette just happened to have the
camera handy when grandson Timmie got a taste of kalamansi,
a small citrus fruit that is almost exactly like a key-lime.
showed up from Manila (IZUSU made). This big boy would
have a pretty easy time pulling that empty truck "up and out."
I was interested to note that both the wrecked truck and the
boom-truck had "Heavylift.com" company decals on them. So
it was an in-company rescue. The wreck sat there beside the
road for about 2 weeks afterward, and it looked like they were
working on steering or front-suspension damage. PARTS for a
USA- truck might have been quite a challenge to get.
HINDSIGHT, I think it would have been a lot cheaper for them to have had someone in a small car driving about 1 minute ahead of the truck, for a "pilot." The "pilot" would stop at the curve and turn on 4-way flashers or whatever, to alert the truck to slow down.
BY THE WAY on that same highway, about 3 miles further, there are two sets of "double 90-degree" "dog-leg" curves (4 sharp corners in all, fairly close together). If he hadn't "parked" where he did, I think fairly likely he would have ended up in the rice fields down there. Not to mention that a few hours later he would have been in the mountain area between San Jose and Iloilo City - - but at least THAT would have been daylight.
BY THE WAY on that same highway, about 3 miles further, there are two sets of "double 90-degree" "dog-leg" curves (4 sharp corners in all, fairly close together). If he hadn't "parked" where he did, I think fairly likely he would have ended up in the rice fields down there. Not to mention that a few hours later he would have been in the mountain area between San Jose and Iloilo City - - but at least THAT would have been daylight.
These vehicle-mounted rice polishing mills are common around
here. NOTE that the placard shows registration#/ license# from
Department of Ag. or whatever equivalent is here. For several
weeks, rainy weather plus mechanical troubles had kept us
from seeing one around our neighborhood, and we were getting
low on ready-to-cook rice. (We store it in sacks in "palay" form,
with inner- husks intact, and have 1 or 2 sacks polished as needed.)
Rice blog 1: Rice Blog 2
mill. The large expanse of cement pavement is used to sun-
dry large quantities of freshly harvested rice. It's all spread
out by hand from sacks, and raked and turned by hand, and
swept up and re-bagged each afternoon late. In HOT constant
sunshine, it can take just one day, but 2 days is usually better
to be sure it gets thoroughly dry before storage.
even the power source is a vehicle engine and transmission (look
between stair treads at right). Rice dumped down a chute from
above is "scuffed" between drum-rollers and fixed- edge blades,
to knock off all the husks, and also 90% of the nutritional value
(which we feed to poultry). This yields the nearly- all- starch pearly
white rice most humans seem to prefer.
leaves can quickly be woven into a chicken nesting- basket
if we have too many hens brooding at the same time.
"LET it Rot" is the title of a book about organic gardening, I think referring to the practise of simply throwing any organic waste material out onto the top of the garden bed, for it to naturally compost itself into the soil.
"LET it Wrought" was my idea for a gallery of photos about decorative iron- work which I see much more prominently here, it seems, than I remember seeing in the USA. (Expensive!) No organized gallery of such photos yet, So maybe I'll just put them up as I find them in my files, with no particular "topical" organization.
a few weeks ago. The ornate design and overall proportions
"took my eye" so I grabbed the camera. (SAD FACT, in this
climate/ or whatever/ it seems nearly impossible to keep ANY
painted surface looking decent for more than a couple years at
a time - - note "mold" or "moss" growing on the fancy post).
made window security bars all just seem to "fit in."
Things don't happen very quickly, here. I just found this photo (below) from January, 2014; two- and- a- half years ago, showing the girders of the new Tibiao River Bridge about halfway installed. (Center-upper part of photo, the new girders show above the existing bridge rail.) At that time, the bridge had been under construction for at least two years already, it seemed - - the digging, forming and pouring of the pilings or supports (about 20 large towers underneath the bridge.)
.
The photo shows the present bridge, narrower and about 5- feet
lower. The span is something more than 200 yards.
This photo, taken within the last few weeks, shows the new bridge
with its decking finished and railings installed (every bit done
with hand-work) and the south-approach retaining wall finished
and nearly filled with material, waiting for the approach road
to be built. Seems like the overall time for the new bridge
project will exceed 4 years and get close to five years, before
"grand opening." NEW BRIDGES HERE are now mostly built
using engineered pre-fabricated concrete girders, brought in by truck.
At our provincial capital San Jose, this blue building is the
extremely BUSY Land Transportation Office (Dept. of Motor
Vehicles). It is situated at this dead-end unpaved clearing,
accessed by a barely- one- lane- wide elongated collection of
muddy holes. Since EVERY vehicle must have its ID
numbers visually confirmed by the inspectors each year
in order to be registered, it gets pretty interesting to see
larger trucks and jeepneys try to jockey past each other
getting in and out of there. While we were there recently,
the clearing was mostly jammed with enough vehicles to
make this shot a little unusual. It took us about 2 hours to
renew the car registration in early August. Not bad, I guess.
(Will they ever re-locate? I kind of HOPE SO!!!)
Projects IN GENERAL here are slow-moving and hard-finished. This is mostly because so much of the work is hand- work. A $100,000.00 piece of construction equipment is just NOT all that common here (and that is kind of cheap, for heavy equipment; it's a NUMBER I'm using for comparison). But $100,000 will hire about 20 people for about 2- and- a- half YEARS. Not MANY big bulldozers around here, just bunches of guys with shovels.
This shows better, how ROUGH the cut side of a cement pipe can be
after it is hacked in half by hand. Too heavy to move in one piece.
And here are a few of the guys with their rope- pulley crane.
2,000 pounds hanging on THAT thing would be plenty of
challenge. I'm impressed (you can tell)! AND I'm really
GLAD I'm NOT one of them!
This hand-made machete ("bolo") blade is really high quality
long-lasting steel (it is "forged" but not "fake!") Alex has just
fitted it with a new handle - who knows how many, before?
Around here, you're almost more likely to see a man walking
around without pants on, than without a "bolo."
above where the car is parked, so we can quickly unload and
store the top- carrier. The carrier isn't real heavy, just awkward
to wrestle up and down. This solution also gets it out of the way
when not in use.
couple margarine- containers from a local bakery. Note the
coffee mug for size-reference; these contained about 90-
pounds of commercial-grade margarine, and they hold 20-
or- 25 gallons volume. Their twist-seal lids and heavy
construction provide varmint resistant storage. YES, some
plastic "Rubbermaid-type" totes are available here but
they aren't as strong and are pretty pricey.
"HOME ALONE?" No, Bernadette just happened to have the
camera handy when grandson Timmie got a taste of kalamansi,
a small citrus fruit that is almost exactly like a key-lime.
Seems like he recovered from the "SOUR" ok, but I don't think
he volunteered to have any seconds.
One thing I notice here, and I don't remember in the USA so
much, is the amount of physical contact among the kids passing
by. It's real common to see them from pre-school to high-school
age, walking along with arms- on- shoulders. It's their culture.
Bernadette found some really nice medium peppers at the
market a few weeks ago. About 4 inches long, carrot- shaped
(NOT pencil-thin like a lot of small peppers here) so they're
easy to open and prepare; and medium- flavor, not too hot.
Here, a number of the seeds have sprouted nicely, so we
hope for a nice row of pepper plants. TINY super-hot
("Tabasco") are pretty available here; very small bell peppers
(tennis ball and smaller); and "string bean" sized peppers that
you never know until you TRY, their flavor (and TEDIOUS to
prepare). So we hope to encourage this NICE variety to multiply!
Well, that's a fair wrap-up of the last several weeks here. For those of you who had heard I was sick, that lasted for a couple weeks and I'm nearly one week on the "recovery" side now. It was basically like a really persistent achy- 'flu. I'm glad it's over.
We're getting ready today and tomorrow to have some "guests" for our "LABOR DAY a week late" on Saturday Sep. 10. We will do several "special" items (I'm trying to make homemade BRATWURST sausage). Looking forward to a good time - I'll let you know how it comes out.
Also I'm anticipating a couple short road-trips - - hopefully a few little interesting or "odd" things will show up, and I'll have the wits-about-me to take photos. Plus, a couple rice-crops to harvest (but THEY all pretty much look the same) and I'll just have to see what else pops up.
We hope that you're having a nice "entry into Autumn" and that you enjoyed your 3-day weekend. Have a great day!
Tim and Bernadette Larson,
Tibiao, Antique Province,
Philippines
