Since the day after we planted 120 fruit trees, it has been a battle against the ants. I guess they can smell them from a mile away and why they have to come for the fruit trees, when I have about a million other trees around me, is baffling to me.  But they invade every night if I stop looking.   I was putting out some poison for them when I'd see them in a line going up or down a tree.  But I prefered to find some natural predator.  Today my Mayan foreman taught me the "Mayan Way". You take some hard, like a hammer or a big rock and you take small limestone rocks and beat them into a dust, and then mix with water and coat the base of the trees.  It's not poisonous to the tree or harmful in any way.  But the ants will not cross over it. FYI:  The small rocks over the base of the tree are to let the water in, but keep the sun from evaporating the moisture in the heat.  It also lets the root and base of the tree breath freely.

 Salvador came to me about a month ago and said that he and the other men wanted to know if I would mind if they planted some watermelons on some very rock soil I had that I wasn't using.  I told him they could plant anything they wanted, but I would give them something better to use for planting. He insisted on the rocky soil and tried to tell me that Melons love rocks.   I was skeptical but told him to "go for it".  Well, he was right.  At the same time, they planted theirs, they planted some for me too in my nicely prepared beds.  Their melons are now twice as big as mine.  And that's fine with me. Besides the watermelons coming up and growing, I've also now got my cantaloupes in full bloom and hope for a few hundred of them in 6 weeks.  I could eat them 3 meals a day.

I was impressed that they put down a vapor barrier on the ground before they pour the cement floor.  They said it helps keep bugs out of the house and moisture too. The biodigester installation is a dirty job, but somebody has to do it. One day soon, I will be in that small minority of people in the Yucatan who can flush toilet paper. It's not the level of notoriety I had hoped for at this stage of my life, but it is nice to be in a privileged minority in at least one matter.  

The first photo below shows the workmanship of my two new masons-in-training.   I know that I've mentioned this in another post, but seeing these photos reminds me again, how pretty the late afternoons are in Yucatan.  The way the sun hits the rocks and the colors, and the sky blue.  It's very peaceful, even if still pretty warm.   Also, by the way, I already know the white casa 2 in the picture is ugly.  It's my next project and will have the sheet metal roof torn off and a Spanish tile roof applied to match the front porch on the Casa 1.  It will be a bedroom and bath only for guests. (if I ever have any?) Work continues on the inside of the house and plastering the walls and covering up the wiring and plumbing that was cut in.  This wall in the first photo is in the kitchen area and will have exposed rocks above the upper cabinets or shelves.  

We have finally finished the planting beds.  Not all are planted, but all are finished and filled with dirt, and fertilized with a lot of cow manure I bought from my neighbor and diluted bull's blood.  In a "limited" manner you might say I have some of the richest farmland in Yucatan.  :-) And my guys are all as proud as peacocks of the finished product.  I think I mentioned in another post, that they sort of thought I was some crazy gringo when I first drew this all out.  All they saw was the rocky corrals and weeds and I had to keep encouraging them that it would all fit together, even right down to the width of the beds and the placement of the fruit trees for some partial shade. All five of my guys have asked if I would mind if they brought their families out on some Sunday to see their work.  Of course I said yes.  In fact, when I get in the house and am living there in a few weeks, I'm going to have a little fiesta for them all with the families and we'll ce

So in Mexico different people usually do different jobs in construction.  Sometimes you get a crew, like I have working on the house, that everyone can do a bunch of different trades.  Foundation.  Brick layer.  Rock.  Cement mixing, Wiring, flooring, roofs, etc.   But typically for a rock wall you call a mason, and they have a rate they charge.  Also, Masons are a proud trade, and you refer to a Mason as Mason Joel, or Mason Pablo.  Just like you refer to an architect, as Architect Edwin, and so on. Well I'd mentioned before that one day when I wasn't there, and the guys didn't have something to do, they took it upon themselves to build two very nice round monument planters from two big piles of rocks.  So, I knew that 2 of them had some wall building skills.  I spoke to my architect and asked him while he was supervising the men in the house doing the construction, could I pay him to supervise 2 of my men, my foreman and one other, and show them how to build a masonry wal

I think I've already mentioned this on a post about wiring in rock walls.  But in case I didn't the way you run plumbing in solid rock walls is to just chisel it out, put the pipes in the wall of floor and then cover it up with mortar.  The first photo shows my breaker box for electricity and the plumbing for the washer and dryer.  The second photo is the wall for the bathroom sink and faucet. The shower will be in the right-hand corner. I think that God has blessed me with 5 of the absolute best co-workers a man could ask for.  I have shown photos in a prior post that if I'm not there, and they finish a task and don't know what to do, they can go and start clearing perimeter fence line.  There is almost 3 km of it to be done and it will take months.  That happened today.  I'd not left them enough to do, and I didn't go to the ranch this day, so when they finished what they were doing they took off on their on, and like a bunch of worker bees, went to clearing b

 Well, life has been a bowl off cheeries so far and I've been delighted with all the progress we've made with the land, and the planting boxes, and the discovery of acres and acres of good red dirt.  But today sadness came when I saw the work the blacksmith (Mexican term for welder) had done on the house for the porch awning.  When you've had a vision of something in your mind for as long as I have, and then someone shows you something vastly different, it is disheartening.  The building manager sent me the photos below to show me the progress and I was literally sick at my stomach.  I want to be finished so much that I almost just swallowed up my disappointment, but after an hour I called him and told him to tell the blacksmith to come back and take it all do and do it over again.   For comparison, look at the actual frame and house on the left, and my vision on the right.  Can you see the difference? If you're not seeing it, the roof is supposed to be steeper and come

There will be an elevated flower bed in front of the porch and we're building a short retaining wall around it. The retaining wall will circle the raised flower bed and loop back around to the front porch of the second Casa.  The porch rock will naturally flow out to a rock side walk that goes around to the second Casa and also down to the corrals, windmill, and parking.  There will be a porch that comes off the house and rests on the 4 posts you can see.   The wire shown hanging is only temporary for a light to the little palapala building the construction men use for lunch.  It will go away.  My goal is to either have lines buried underground, or hidden up in the tree branches. When the roof has its awning over it, with the retaining wall, it will give an impression similar to this photo of another house, except in reverse.  

 In the US, you would place the wiring inside the walls before you put up the sheetrock or texture.  If your walls are already solid rock, you just chisel out where you want to run a wire and outlet, put it in the gap and then mortar back over it later.  Same with plumbing.  Just chisel out the floor, and put in the pipes and pvc and then cement back over it.

 September 9, 2022 Wherever possible, I'm trying to use materials from the ranch in the construction and renovation of the primary Casa.   As I've already said, I started with the original building that was just one large room for sleeping.  (the Mayans do their cooking outside).   My design was to add on to the front of that building for another area of living, dining and kitchen, and then a large front porch across the front of the new addition.  This past week we finished the addition and now it's time to build the cover for the front porch.  The porch itself will be rock, rather than cement, and there is a short retaining wall in front of it with a flower bed and a few trees.   For anyone who is wondering, "no" the house will not flood.   Because the back of the house is also sloping away.    My supervisor needed the post and so he sent Salvador, my hombre jefe out with some men to find 4 suitable post.  A few hours I saw them come walking back and besides bei

 We caught a 3 day break in the daily afternoon rain cycle and are able to get several loads of gravel spread.  Thank goodness. They have started on the short retaining wall that is in front of the porch.  And on the inside now, started preparing the wall finishes.