Today they were going to pour cement headers at the top of the solar bodega over the windows and door.  You've to to have some sort of support above those openings to carry the weight of the additional block and ultimately the roof itself. In the USA, we'd use big timbers turned sideways, or in some cash stell I beams.  But here they put the steel rebar in place and then fill it with cement.  And rather than getting from a truck, they just mix it, put it in buckets, and haul it one bucket at a time.  I'd estimate the buckets, half full, weigh about 30 kg a piece or about 75 pounds.  Watch this guy load him, carry them, and lift them.  He's a working machine. Video Here of on-site cement mixing and pouring

The Solar Bodega continues to rise higher and higher As the Solar Bodega goes up they have to stop after getting a meter high and let the mortar set.  So now work has started to speed up on the preparation of the foundation for the house expansion.   In the background, North of the house is what's left of an old palapala house that the former owner used for chickens.  It was leaning bad, so I had my helpers remove all the materials and roof so we could put some new post in and straighten it up.   Soon, I'll put a new palm roof on it, and in the future it will be for the laying hens, so my breakfast eggs will just be steps away from the kitchen each day. Normally in house or building construction you'd order a large dump truck full of sand or gravel.  In the pueblo, the trucks have to get into many small areas, as they do here for me.  So instead of bulk loading the material in a large truck, they load it in bags and carry the bags out.    

The ground is very rocky in the corrals near the house.  Too rocky to plant vegetables as I wanted to.  So, I decided to gather up all the loose rocks and make my own elevated and raised-bed planting boxes.  We built them high enough to fill in with about 10 cm of dirt (4 inches).  I was blessed to find a spot on the ranch that was wonderful read dirt.   I've got tons and tons of it, but just have to haul it up to the front to use.  The Mayans are very superstitious about the red dirt and believe it to be specially blessed by God and magical for growing anything.   Below we've started building the beds.  They are each 2 meters wide and about 15 meters long.  (7' x 50').  We have not added the red dirt into them yet.  And then there is 2 meters between each bed, and we're planting the fruit trees there.  In future years, as the trees mature, they will give some shade to the planting beds and help against the high heat of Yucatan.  I took advantage of the masonry skil

  Besides the work on the Solar Bodega progressing, the technicians came from the Solar company today to start mounting and cementing the frame for the solar panels.  The corral the panels are going to be located was solid rock and I had to jack hammer each hole to a depth of 70 cm by 40 cm wide.  What you see below is they have poured each hole with cement and begun to mount the frame.

 

 July 20, 2022 Today my fruit trees were delivered.  They came from Merida and the delivery man was not a happy man to see the road he had to drive on.  Fortunately for me, as you've seen in photos and videos of the road before today, it is barely wide enough for one vehicle and it is impossible to turn around in many spots.  So once he got about 1 km and was cussing at my foreman who was leading him, he could not turn around and had to go on.  Hallelujah for a terrible road.  Otherwise, he wanted to turn around and go back and leave the trees sitting in the town Palazza and us shuttle them out to the ranch. I got 20 Naranja (Orange), 20 Limons (Lime), 20 Mandarinas (Tangerine), 29 Toronjas (Grapefruit) 20 Plantana (Banana), 20 Mango, and 20 Cocos (Coconut Palms).  I also got 2 Avocados and am going to try them, but uncertain if they soil will support them?  Below is my plan.  I've got long raised planting beds that are 2m wide and about 20m long.  The beds are 2m apart and we

 July 20, 2022 Today my Architect Edwin showed up with his crew of four men to begin construction of the addition to the existing house and also the construction of a new bodega (warehouse/storeroom) for the solar batteries and tools.  I'm very anxious to get the house going but also anxious to have the solar working so we can have some electricity for the construction.  So we're going to start on the bodega first.  It doesn't have to be huge in floor space, so I'm making it 1.5m x 1.5m (about 5'x5).  But it does have to be tall.  At least as tall as the house that it is next to, and that's because it will also serve as the tower for a water tank that is back up water in case the pump breaks.  If the pumps is not working, then with the water tank about 4 meters high, it will give some natural gravity feed with enough pressure to take a shower or flush a toilet.  I plan on making it appear on the outside to match the house with exposed rock exterior.   That's

The property has a water well with a windmill that is about 14.5 meters deep.  At the bottom is has about 1.5 meters of water that comes into it from an ocean of fresh water that the Yucatan sits on top of.   But adjacent to the well is a cenote that has filled with dirt and needs to be cleaned out.   So the well was dug down thru the rock and then there is a cavern under the well, and another well that goes on to the bottom. The photo in the cavern with the worker with suspenders on shows the Mayan men that I had come and clean out the well.  This needs to be done every 10 or 15 year to get out any dirt that maybe have come into the bottom.   I did not get to video them going into the well, but I do have a video of another well I had cleaned out in Yaxcaba 2 years ago. It's interesting if you'd like to watch here. also interesting is that at the bottom of the cenote there is a cave.  You can see the opening.  A person would have to crawl into to get inside.  But once inside it