Nearby Places

(begun Wed. Aug. 1, late afternoon)  (Finished Mon. Aug 6 I got side tracked)

This last few weeks have had several camera occasions   which I actually NOTICED as I was walking nearby, mostly close to our home here at Malabor**.  One afternoon I was approaching a friend's house, located at ocean-side, and I was struck by the multiple bands of horizontal colors in front of me.

Cloud overcast, clearer sky, three or four distinct colors of the sea, and the beach + bamboo fence just seem to make a nicely composed view. This IS the same viewpoint which had an oceangoing ship,  featured at the beginning of the March posting.  Living in our area is a lot like "living in a post-card."


(**Malabor is a "Barangay" = neighborhood of Tibiao, our  "municipality" division of Antique Province. A municipality is roughly like a county in the USA; larger municipalities are re-designated "City" at some point, maybe above a certain population.This link should take you to the Wikipedia article about Tibiao, which is worth a quick skim; we are designated a "fourth class municipality," I think because of population.)

 We see a lot of ocean-fresh fish here, provided by Bernadette's

various relatives often "special deal" or barter before they
vend the rest of their catch.  I have joked here before,
about Humphrey Bogart's toast "Here's lookin' at you!"
from Casablanca.  These are lightly fried and then covered

and "steamed" in vinegar-water with garlic and tomato.

And of course you can see the sea-salt on them.

 50 yards from our gate is the main highway intersection where

vendors frequently have fish for sale.  This one caught my

eye as I walked out one late afternoon, as it is fairly large for

our area, and there were several like it in the same catch.

(Maybe they were in a "school?")

(Our road is the access to Malabor Elementary School!)
(Shown on the satellite view a few photos down.)

. 

Its size becomes more apparent compared to a 4-year-old

standing nearby.  The vendor had weighed it at 12 kg. =

around 26 lb., I'd say heavier than the child, most likely.

One afternoon I noticed this fishing canoe approaching from deep-water, as I was chatting with some of our "cousins"  at dela Cruz Family "compound," which is Bernadette's relatives' inherited place.  This particular fisherman is noted for going out when nobody else does, in rough-water times. It's pretty risky - - but worthwhile if successful - - and maybe he just gets bored and "antsy" with not much to do, this time of the year.

He made several approaches, apparently trying to get the best timing-of-the-waves to safely land.  Three or four times, he circled back outward after making a run at the beach.

He finally got a "set-up" that he liked, and came safely in to the beach, received and helped by a small crowd which had gathered as they saw his attempts to land. 

And he had a fairly successful voyage;  there were 5 or 6 of the

larger tuna seen above, maybe about 8- to- 10 lb. as compared

to the large "vendor fish" a few frames above.  And there  was

about half-a-cooler of miscellaneous 6- to- 9- inch fish (being 

examined by some of the small kids above). As there were at

least 8 or 10 "elementary age" kids nearby, I noticed that every

one of them walked away with several fish from that catch;

and I saw no sign of "transactions."  This is a "hard-and-

hungry" time of the year, around here, when rough weather

 keeps the fishing opportunities pretty slim. Also, we are in-

between rice crops for a couple more months.  So all that
fish  was surely a big help to a handful of families there.

I decided to walk out to the rice-field a few mornings ago.  I'd heard that the heavy rains which  followed our rice-seeding had pretty well washed out the all the seedlings, and same for several other fields nearby, so time to take a look. As I walked out our gate, I  realized that it was still "school traffic time," meaning that the gates of the elementary school would be open and provide me with a handy shortcut.  Here's the satellite-view of our immediate neighborhood, I think for the first time I've posted it here.

"Tibiao Elementary School" is actually "Malabor Elementary School." I've been trying to get Google to correct this for several years, but with only partial success.  Two bright-white roofs showing left of the school are our 2 houses. When the school-gates are open, I can save about 200 yards distance by cutting thru the campus to Malabor - Alegre Rd., instead of walking around via the National Hwy., diagonal-left on the photo.  The back gate, locked after classes begin, is just where the bright-white roof in the upper left corner of the school campus is.  Turning right from that gate, onto M- A- Rd., one passes by the cabinet-and-metalwork shop featured last month, top-right-of-center, and out through several hundred yards of rice-fields, including our collateral-loan fields, soon passing into the hilly area and out to the Alegre Barangay; our little "farm" is about a mile out there, and Alegre settlement is about two miles out, up quite a steep incline.  ALSO WORTH NOTING, the Sulu Sea is in the lower-left corner of the photo;  our walking distance to the sea is about 100 yds.

This view is from the front gate of the school, at the east end
of our road. The triangular garden-area shows distinctly on the
sat- view above.  For a few years after the big typhoon of Nov.
2013, the school (and almost everything else around here)
looked pretty drab and threadbare.  Now, everything is
brightly painted except the cement walkways, and gardens
of ornamentals and edible crops are everywhere, carefully
tended by staff, volunteers, and students (as educational
activity).  20  minutes after "flag ceremony," quite many of
the tenants were out weeding and sweeping.  About 2
years ago I noticed ALL the schools suddenly got large
numbers on their roofs, apparently for quick identification and
access by helicopter (military!) in case of some  emergency.
I just noticed the sat.-view is from before the number was put on. 

 Many planters such as this near the Office feature jelly-bean
colored stones and fake-tree-bark painted cement.  Everything
is almost inconceivably immaculate.
  

 

Actually the tree-painted cement is a very COMMON motif everywhere I've been for nearly 6 years in the Philippines.  These photos also show brightly colored sculpted mushrooms, and jellybean-painted beverage bottles.  One motto might be "leave no stone unpainted!" Kudos for creativity, there was a long row of the plastic-bottle + "retired motorcycle tire" flowers - looks like two 1.5 liter bottles are carefully not-quite-completely cut into 1/3s - the cap-threads hold the 3 pieces together - and overlaid to form 6-petal flowers.

This photo is taken looking to the right from the school's back-
gate exit (described above) towards the rice fields and Alegre.
The mountain ridge in the background is the same one seen
in the school front-gate-area photo above. Less than 5
minutes' walk from here to our portion of the  fields.


Sure enough, the several days of heavy rain came before
many of our rice-seed had firmly rooted, so we have a lot
washed out.  Nearby fields planted a week or two earlier
were stable enough to withstand the heavy water flow.
Bernadette has already found some replacement
seed so things should work out OK.


I STILL see quite a lot of one-wire electricity in places where
 the installation is "informal do-it-yourself."  But THIS is a
community funded street light  beside the road in the fields.
ONLY the "HOT" wire runs from light- to- light; each light
is then "grounded" to complete the circuit.  In this case the
large galvanized-metal main utility pole was handy; other
situations, the ground wire might just go to the lamp post.
 This method uses only half as much wire and usually works
fine for turning lights on - - - but any person who touches
that metal light-post might also get "lit up!"


As I walked back towards home, I encountered several "kids"
who weren't at school that day.  This one and two companions
had no ropes or stakes, and were freely moving and munching. 

 

With all the heavy rains lately, it wasn't exactly a surprise 

when we heard about this tree fallen down at our Alegre 

"farm."  I went there one afternoon (between downpours)

 with a couple others to investigate and decide what needed

to be done.  VERY LITTLE is wasted here, so the planning

mostly centered around salvaging usable wood for lumber, 

and firewood.  When we had returned home I heard that later

an acacia tree had gone down; A few days later both trees 

were cut and salvaged, and the acacia yielded four 2x4 x 14',

plus a lot of firewood came from the two trees.

0 = 0 = 0

This little guy recently became one-year-old.  His relatives

arranged a "Child Dedication and Birthday" celebration

at a seaside resort.  Here, he is held by one of the guests.

My connection to the event is that our pastor officiated

the dedication part of the ceremony, and about 10 of

our church members were among the guests.  I was

asked to accompany some of the music.

The motif of the party was racing cars; table decorations featured road-cone pylons, toy plastic racing cars as guest "favors," and  masses of red-white-black balloons.  There seemed to be about 80 people attending; there was quite a lavish buffet after the program;  I was impressed by the "engineering end" of things, so I include a photo which shows the roof-trusses of the pavilion, which is remarkable for its size, about 60- by- 40- feet,  entirely bamboo.  

0 = 0 = 0

This monument appeared not-very-long ago about 10 km. from
where we live, but in my frequent passings I was always too
rushed  to stop and investigate until a few days ago.  It over-
looks a stretch of beach, and memorializes defenders of this
area of the Philippines during WWII.  There is one minor "typo"
in the text (4th line from the end - never factor out human
error!).  The principal person mentioned shares the family
name of the current governorof Antique province. I know little
of the history of this area,as it is largely not published, so I'm
glad I finally stopped to see this.

Aside from getting out to look at things, I stay occupied doing little projects and repairs, plus scheming ways to move along projects that have stalled.  I noticed that my "goofy little projects" heading didn't get an entry this time, but there WERE several.  Right now I'm trying to fix the end on a microphone cord, which SHOULD be replaced, but  no replacement is available (you can "cast" certain types of plastic things using epoxy- putty, and that's what I'm trying).  And pretty regularly I get into kitchen-work, replenishing items that I "make ahead" here - big batches of plain cooked beans, for example, are easy to freeze and have available without any lead-time when they are wanted. And of course there's always my music-work - lots of hours happily trying to untangle my fingers; that's one occupation which is supposed to help avoid Alzheimer's Syndrome - guess I'll know in a few years how that works out (or maybe, I won't know at all - - -)

Well, I ramble!  I'll ramble on out of here for now.  Hope all of you are doing fine and enjoying what each day brings.

TJ and Bernadette Larson

Tibiao, Antique Province, Philippines

Independence Day

(Begun Mon., July 9, 2018) (Completed Tue. July 10.)

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.)

                                                                       This item got a mirror hinged onto the front.

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

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?").

  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