Upcoming Phils trip update

[Lancer]

Magic string...

[Lancer]

Clearing a stump, heavy work for Rigo and Bia...

[Lancer]

Very productive discussions with Tito today...

[Lancer]

I left Zkrib's place a little before lunch and upon arriving at my place I found Malou, Sho's wife hard at work preparing the lunch meal...

[Lancer]

Zkrib provides the best lunch in town.

[Lancer]

After a nice long swim in the ocean and a shower I settled in where the sea breeze blows the strongest, read my book, drank my beverage of choice and determined that the world was, after all, a tolerable place.

[Lancer]

Peace!

[Velociryx]

*sighs*

My word, my word, if I wasn't a married fellow.

Seriously...what a beautiful place.

wow.

-=Vel=-

[Zkribbler]

Some really great shots!
The one of you and Dolores is now my wallpaper at work*.
I'm glad to see your salacot is done. It looks tremedous [at least from the inside].
Nice shot of my place, with Tito observing. It gives the folks here a good idea of why I got the place.
And of course, Tina, NetNet, Dolores et al are all looking spectactular!

______________________
* This might have been a mistake. The pic takes my mind back to the Phils and I'm having a hard time getting my work done.

[Zkribbler]

I had to change my work wallpaper over to a pic of the property because seeing those two smiling faces was just too distracting. Still, everyone who sees me in the hall and asks how I'm doing gets a five minute speil. I'm like a kid on Christmas morning.

I did put you two, though, on my home computer.

[Lancer]

Cool, wouldn't want you to get fired and its our fault.

Vel, can always bring the wife for a vacation.

Pics coming up later tonight if the camera gets here. It got left in Garcia at our place but everything has been set in motion for it to end up here.

Was a little bit concerned whether Tito had given instructions on where to start the steps, but he had. What needed to be done is determine the height of the wall which Sho and I did, then determine the height and length of each step and calculate backwards from the bottom step up. I hadn't seen Tito doing this but Sho said he had been told where to start them.

The first section of the wall pour is underway as I type. I tried to be everywhere doing a little of everything to inspire the workers and I must say they poured it on and got alot done when I left at 11:30 to go back to my place.

Tito was there giving instructions to Sho. His big thing is that the wall rest on the firm foundation of the base material under the gravel. Well, Sho and I are 100% with him on that score. Plus, I instructed to use cement and spare not, Zkrib's house will sit on this wall and it must be solid! So another 50 bags were ordered and delivered this afternoon. The workers are more used to people telling them to scrimp, but this is too important to scrimp on. I was very happy when they filled in everywhere with the mix, a firm foundation it will be.

My wall took hundreds but I have no worries.

Dolores and NetNet stopped by and carried a few small rocks which inspired the young workers to show off their prowess and carry the big ones.

Aeson worked a little on a tripod to lift buckets from the seawall trench. It might be used next section if we can figure it out.

Nice day, wonderful ocean breeze. Went swimming after to clear the sweat and dried on cement then we all had a nap in the salacot upstairs.

[Zkribbler]

Cool, wouldn't want you to get fired and its our fault.

Come to think of it, would that be such a bad thing?

Can't wait to see the next pix.

Theresa wrote, suggesting I send more money. I thought I could get it off today, but it looks more like I won't make it to the bank until tomorrow.

[Lancer]

In the dawn of a new day I'm worried whether the stairs will be right. There were discussions with Tito in which I was absolutely convinced they were digging in the wrong area, that the place they were digging would be covered by the other wall, but I allowed myself to be assured that I was wrong. Still, I believe I was right again today. But! The guy is a professional and getting 10% of everything for doing something, and even though at the time of said discussion I was down in the trench digging out gravel with the crew and tossing it up over the edge, this is my vacation...

We'll wait and see. Whatever the outcome I can fix it and make it so you have very nice functional stairs but I just hope I'm wrong because it would shake my confidence again.

The pics are coming. I was beat last night and flaked out on the upload. Aeson is also somewhere in the process of uploading video that Dolores took but I have no clue how thats going and kinda thought you would have it already. The upload was taking forever so maybe it was just left to do so while everyone went to sleep. I had hit the sack early.

Don't know about the money except that I know how fast it does go even when building here. Here you can build out of pocket almost whereas in the US you have to go to a bank and sell your life for 30 years. Still, the money can flow out of one's pocket at a really brisk rate!

Yesterday Tito pulled the professional workers off the laundry because he was worried that the tide would push the gravel back into the hole and wanted to get the wall built high enough so it couldn't, a good idea imo but no laundry/storage room. So Sho and I agreed we should get 2 more guys locally in Garcia (good pr besides) to replace the professional crew on the dig and send them back to their project.

Now I think I'll see about a coffee. The church just started their morning routine so its time.

[Zkribbler]

IIRC, you said the seawalls should be a meter thick. So the plan is to have the first wall end, and then become a descending meter-thick stairway. Immediately next to it is the inner seawall. That way, the inner sea wall can support both the stairway and--probably for about a meter or so--the outer seawall.

I'd planned for bottom of the steps to end about a meter from the boulders. I figure that the ocean will wash pebbles up over the bottom few steps, but no matter what happens, they're always be at least one meter to turn in at the bottom of the steps. I don't think I communicated that I want the steps to be at no more than 45 degrees, that is, for every meter horizontally, they rise no more than one meter vertically.

It doesn't really matter how far from the house the stair begin. The more, the better, but what will be, will be.

BTW: I finally got the sawblades, etc. over to LBC this morning.

[Lancer]

I have a funny feeling the steps will be higher up on the wall than you envisioned Zkrib and that we'll have to go either out or double back at some future point. That said I wasn't there for the determining of the first step and Tito left before I did, so...

Yet Sho assured me Tito had instructed him on where to put the step so maybe its done correctly.

I just remember Tito explaining to me how the material that was thrown out of the trench in front of the seawall would become rip rap and me telling him that what we didn't salvage for use behind the wall would be washed away...

Anyway he may be basing the steps as dropping off on top of this loose material which he expects to remain. That kinda gave me a jolt. He expects that material will fill in in front of your wall and I explained the ocean current that was slowly eroding these shores that are unprotected but he was stuck in his mistaken view.

So, if he believes that, where will he drop you off into the ocean on your morning swim?

We'll know next time we go...