Tractor day

GB ordered an auger- so that we could "easily" and "quickly" dig tree holes using the tractor.

I picked it up in the am, and we had a plan to put it on the tractor and then dig holes for fruit trees. We had childcare and everything.... sigh.....
Things never go as planned.

The new toy

GB on the phone with Paul.... what do we do with this thing??

Well , we successfully got the thing partway on the tractor.... and then it got stuck. It got REALLY stuck.
It was so stuck that nothing would budge it- not even with GB banging on it with an o'o bar.

Bad news

So we took an arm off of the tractor and drove it into town for Paul to have a look see.

Turns out there was a paint drip that made the fit too tight. Geesh.


3 hours later....

it's finally coming togetherYay! auger on. Boo.... Karen has to leave.
So GB digs 17 holes in less than 40 minutes.
Frustration was HIGH for awhile there. But if we had dug the holes by hand- would have taken us the same amount of time (I mean including the snafu with the paint drip), PLUS we'd have a couple of visits to the chiropractor to make up for bad shoveling.

All together, not SO bad, eh?

Happy

We have the framing to the inside walls!!!! See the tower in the center!


That's MY house! : )

I'm going to grow up here!

Sad

Everything about having 10.5 acres of former rain forest trash dump is not "paradise". There are the mosquitoes, the uberweeds, strange trees that grow over 1 foot a week, and mud. Most of the time the mud is on the surface and easily visible to the eye. The tractor has no problem navigating surface mud with its 4WD engaged. This was not one of those experiences. This is like the D9 collapsing in the lava tube without the drama.

When we bulldozed the lower property we buried a lot of the trees we cut. I had the plan to put rock down in these areas...a plan that never was enacted....and lo! The foresight proved correct.

I was backing into one of the areas. The dirt was dry on the surface - shielded from the rain by one of the supertrees mentioned above. I backed to the base of the tree...if you have ever driven a tractor there is the ever present temptation to move to mow places it shouldn't because it can do such a fine and quick job which would take hours with a weed wacker. So, I'm backing up and the dry ground turns to mush and mud bubbles up as my almost 4 foot tall rear tire sinks in almost half way. Stuck, stuck in the muck by the super uber tree

The 4WD only ripped up the ground where it could get traction and dug the tractor down where it didn't get traction.

My flail mower weighs about 500lbs. So I thought if I dropped that I would have a better chance. So I hoofed it up the hill and got the truck with tools to disengage the mower. That done I tried again to get the tractor out. No luck. Stuck in the muck by the buzzing biting mosquitoes.

In the past, I would have sworn loudly, cut a few weed trees in anger with the ax (more satisfying), and still been pissed off, but I have been here before with our previous farm and learned that anger can only get something broken...

I had a tow rope in the truck. But there was no place for the kind of traction needed to get the tractor out. So I settled for pulling the tractor up just enough on two wheels to load rock under worst of the two stuck rear wheels. I called Karen on the cell...knowing it would take both the truck pulling and the tractor driving to get out.

So while Karen made her way to the land, I hauled a couple hundred pounds of rock and loaded it beneath the tire.

And when Karen arrived, within a few tries the tractor was freed.

The reason I wrote this story in long form is that it was a lot of work to get the tractor unstuck and the mower is still down there - waiting for drier weather for its liberation...and a lot more rock.

Framing Happens

And while we were on holiday..... playing with family, swimming with dolphins, and eating delicious food....

PreThanksgiving Goodness

We have much to be thankful for.
Before heading off to Lana'i to visit with the Hajims , we stopped by to see how things were going at the house.


We now have....

windows
A soon-to-be TV room
And so much subfloor

That we can have a photo op in our "bedroom"
Typical scene- GB and Jeff discussing particulars

Second Floor!

Here is a another view of the work Karen and I did last week

....but onward to...The glulam beams are in place. The joists are almost done.

The subfloor material is already on the 2nd story!

Underneath the joists. The first floor has a nice diffused light. Obviously it will be much darker, but also much cooler once the 2nd floor is in.

The "view" from the "kitchen".


This is probably the last photo of the naked pool before it gets its ferrocement skin!

Planting Day

GB and I set out yesterday to plant a bunch of palms we have had forever. It was a cloudy, pre-storm day- perfect for planting!

First GB mowed and cleared the area with the tractor

Here are the palms- waiting in the truck to be put in the ground and out of those pesky and confining pots.

We planted dypsis lutescens and dypsis vestiaria (otherwise known as areca palms- the vestiaria have reddish orange stems)

dypsis vestiaria
unfurling frond
full plant

In between working, I visited the house site to see how things are going. We're still waiting on the glulams, but there were a few there, so you can see the ceiling or the downstairs/ upstairs floor start to take shape.
I climbed up on some scaffolding so I could see what it would look like from the house. But I guesstimated that it'll still be another 5+ feet above where I was. Still, it looked cool from up there!

I love to take pictures of the little things. Here's a whole "forest" growing on some bamboo GB cut down.

Volunteer papaya tree is growing rapidly and already is forming some flowers.

Bamboo shoot

close up of said bamboo shoot. looks like it needs a shave.

All in all, it was a really productive day, and one where we could see the results of our labor right away. These palms grow fairly quickly, and will fill in this area within a couple of years.

Thailand- shop, shop, and shopping

Sawasdee Jao!



I learned a great deal in Thailand. Especially about the similarities between local style Hawaiian time and Thai time...It takes a long time to get anything done.

I'm not going to give out any recommendations yet...until everything arrives, but Suthep Suwanwichanee was incredibly helpful and did his best to show me all the options when buying doors and furniture.

Here is a typical door manufacturing work area.


This is Sanong's furniture factory where our patio furniture is going to be made.


I was most excited on the last days when I got to go looking for art. I found a beautiful Cambodian styled Buddha


and some sandstone bas relief to cover one of our CMU walls.


All in all I bought over 300 items from trim to a toy chest for Luka. On my one day off I went to Doi Suthep, a Buddhist temple in the mountains above Chiang Mai.


It was a great trip but it is good to be back.

Progress Report

The day after GB got back from Thailand, we headed over to see how things are going at the land. We're waiting on a delayed shipment of wood, and so there's been some building down time. The guys have been prepping our beams and other stuff.

Here's the beams staging area

The compound

Pretty stained beams (still need varathane on them)

Tent city on the right..... sanding, painting, storing, etc..... with all the rain we get, these tents are ubiquitous.