New well

     The rings which line the well that was dug during the first phase of this project were poorly constructed, on site, and the rebar (the steel reinforcing bars/rods which add tensile strength to concrete) have become exposed.   This has caused rust to leach into the water turning it the color of weak tea.   The water's safe for laundry, strangely enough not coloring even white things, and for bathing.   I've even used it for drinking with no ill effects...but we weren't going to use it for drinking long term...so during the second phase, in went a new well.     
     Availability of water is certainly not an issue since False Bluff both fronts and backs onto water.   The big question is whether or not the water will taste salty since wherever a well is located on the property it's going to be close to the Caribbean.   However, the water in the new well is clear and sweet, fed by a strong underwater spring.   When the guys were digging and lining the second well the water filled the hole with an audible gush, working the pump pretty hard.   The pump removed the water while the well was being dug, thus making it possible to dig deeper and install additional rings down to the desired depth.  The rings that line this well weren't made on site but were instead hauled on the pontoon boat to False Bluff from Bluefields, all in one trip...making me glad, again, that I followed the recommendation to buy a pontoon boat.

Old well

New well

     Both wells are useful.

The house (5)

     The young couple that lives full-time at False Bluff was given a choice of space in the new house and decided to stay on the first floor in the same location that they've occupied for a year.

     This, the first building... 

  ...has become part of the new house...

...and is nearly ready to live in.

Let there be light...and keep that Kindle charged!

     It's early days in the project at False Bluff and miles from 'civilization' so mostly we do without conventional power sources except for the infrequent use of a borrowed generator to run tools during construction.   Batteries power  a multitude of light sources...hand held or hanging flashlights and headlamps are just a couple.   
     But there is light after dark even without batteries.   Crank the black handle on the underside of the flashlight shown below and you 'generate' enough power for three minutes of bright LED light...and the flashlight holds its charge between uses for at least a couple of weeks.  (I know, I know...the flashlight case says "China" right on the side, but I remember when so many things we bought said "Japan" instead.)  Although the paperwork with this little flashlight claimed 'three minutes' it gives welcome light for a lot longer than that!

     But what about a Kindle?   I'm one of many with a serious reading addiction...I can't make it through a 24-hour period without words, so a stay at False Bluff has been defined by how long the charge lasts on my Kindle and we recently had three Kindles at False Bluff.   
     Now a stay can be indefinite because of a small solar charger.   Most of these will charge anything with a usb port so I could even use my computer (though without internet access, for me that's pretty much a waste of time...but even the internet will eventually come to False Bluff).

Soaking up the sun, this charger is open all the way...

 ...part of the way;

and now it's charging a Kindle. 

The house (4)

     The second floor goes up and more rooms are enclosed with Plycem - which we use inside and out.   The first small structure built a year ago (see post dated September 2, 2011) is stripped of its wood siding and tied into the new building.   The breezeways both upstairs and downstairs  become defined by the new walls; and the view from the upstairs breezeway is stunning.

Front, facing the Caribbean

Rear

View from the upstairs breezeway

The beach at False Bluff

     Debris washes ashore with every tide and keeping the beach clean is an ongoing job.   Organic material is left in place.   Inorganic material is removed and buried.   Those who visit or live at False Bluff provide the only 'trash collection.'

A guest collecting trash during a week-long stay.

Some of the new house is visible in the lower left.

A clean beach

A clean beach

"Die Hard"

     Home less than a week to grey skies, falling weather, freezing temperatures, good wine, and a decent steak.   
     My landlady/attorney/friend said to me, at 5:30 on the morning I left Bluefields, "I'm not going to even say goodbye.   You're just going to Virginia for a visit.  This is your home now."
     But here I am with my dogs and cats and birds and three months of dog hair and dust.   Christmas is tomorrow.   Tonight I'm going to watch the all time, best ever Christmas movie.   "Yippee ki-yay, motherfucker!"

Our small canal, one year later...

     Take a ride down the canal at False Bluff out into Smokey Lane Lagoon...

Little papayas, big papayas

     The papaya trees were planted from seed less than a year ago and are already loaded with fruit.   
     The smaller, round papayas are about the size of softballs.   They cling to the green tree trunks like Christmas ornaments and are picked and eaten as soon as they turn gold in color.   The white flowers, that also cling to the trunks of the trees, are very fragrant.

     The other variety of papaya growing at False Bluff is much larger and hangs from the tree trunk until showing streaks of yellow near the bottom (most of them weigh more than a beagle).   The fruit is then picked, the top and bottom sliced off, and multiple shallow cuts made in the rind, top to bottom, so that the ripening fruit can 'bleed' and finish ripening:  after four or five days it's turned almost completely yellow.  Then peeled like a big fat apple, it's cut into bite-sized pieces.   Delicious.............

Paint

     My history with paint has been a litany of white:  linen, celery salt, eggshell, sand dollar, ivory, cotton boll, cream, white dove...   
     There's always a white I haven't used yet.  
     But recently I spent days dipping a brush into a can of paint labeled 'Flamingo' and carefully applying the bright pink color to woodwork.   I may need to go into therapy when I return to Virginia, but right now I'm going to buy another couple of gallons of this stuff.

The company of dogs is cause for thanksgiving

     There are three dogs at False Bluff, only one of which is there by design;  the other two showed up because somebody told them they could get food.  ND is white with spots (ND stands for Nondescript, which he most certainly is).   The two refugee females, just about as nondescript as ND, are Chinga and Una (it's the eye thing).   They get along better than most siblings and notify us when somebody or something shows up that they don't think should be there, thus earning their food.

The trio

 ND

 Chinga

Una

Bananas

     The banana trees, planted sometime in late December, 2010, as foot-tall sprouts, are already producing.   The bananas are short and fat with very thin skin which means, of course, they're not grown for commercial production because they sure wouldn't travel well...but oh, boy, they are sweet!

The house (3)

     After the foundation comes the framework for the first story and the 'floor' on which the second story will sit. Construction is different from what I'm used to.   Each interior corner is a 4" x 4".   There is a lot of diagonal bracing.   Much of the framing is 21" on center rather than 16" on center.   

Ylang Ylang

     One of many reasons for clearing several acres at False Bluff was to be able to plant things I wanted to live with.  I left all of the coconut trees and planted several hundred more.   I left and pruned selected clusters of sea grapes.  
     And I planted more than a dozen Ylang Ylang trees.   The 'cananga odorata' thrives in lowland tropical areas and was common at one time in this part of Nicaragua.   Two women here, one who grew up in Bluefields and one in Pearl Lagoon, told me that when they were little girls they would pick the tree's star-shaped yellow flowers and soak them in alcohol...and wore the scent that was thus distilled.   We all laughed when I told them that the essential oil of the Ylang Ylang flower is said to be the basis for Channel No. 5 perfume:  they enjoy knowing they'd been so sophisticated so young.
     I've had an Ylang Ylang tree in a pot at home in Virginia for years.   I'm pretty sure it'll never bloom because the tree has a tap root and even in a really large, deep pot there's just so much space for that root;  but I like the plant simply because of the way it looks.   The branches sweep down toward the ground like the skirt on a ballerina and the pointed oval leaves are emerald green.   
     The tree begins blooming young and planted in a place it likes, a young Ylang Ylang can grow as much as five or six feet a season.   When an agricultural technician from a nearby farm saw them he was pleased and surprised because the Ylang Ylang has nearly disappeared from around here.   Propagation can be tricky with fairly low seed germination and almost no success from cuttings.   Recovering from a rough trip across Nicaragua to get to False Bluff, the trees  are babies that so far seem to enjoy having been put into sunny deep soil.

The house (2)

     Buildings at False Bluff will be constructed of wood.   That's the easy part because the wood for this phase of the project is already at the building site:  cut, stacked, and nearly dry.   And beautiful wood it is, too...reddish-orange with a lovely grain. 

     But even houses built of wood usually sit on block and mortar foundations, so the materials for the foundation and for the concrete slabs (which make up the floors of the rooms and the breezeway on the first story) were taken to False Bluff by boat.   Buying and moving building materials here isn't quite like loading the pickup at Lowe's or Home Depot and driving right to the construction site.   First you go to the block store where you can usually - but not always - also buy rebar and cement and stone and sand (and for floors and foundations you need the black rock, not the red).   Then you hire one of the many public carriers who sit parked along the streets during the day waiting to collect stuff from one place and deliver it to wherever...in this instance to an area near where the boat was docked.   Once delivered by the carrier people, other people pick it up and, in my case, put it on a boat.   These materials were put into a panga rather than onto my pontoon boat by the guy and his crew who were digging the new well and thus heading that way anyhow.   Then the boat travels to False Bluff where the materials are offloaded onto my dock and, finally, carried to the building site.

Bags of materials coming off the blue truck and...

 being stacked, under the crew chief's watchful eye, before being moved into the panga.

The boat load

     I spent a good part of this trip to False Bluff reading a book on my kindle; and the crew shared slices of fresh pineapple with me.

Scrubs

     Common sense should have told me that dressing for physical labor in a tropical environment would be different than dressing for a vacation, but somehow that concept went right by me the first time I came down to swing an ax or use a shovel.   Simply by accident I discovered how useful scrubs are for working at False Bluff.   I had packed a set because they're light weight and don't take up much suitcase space, particularly with the legs cut off the pants to turn them into shorts.   What I quickly learned is how easy they are to launder and how fast they dry.   Halfway through a sweaty day I can wear the scrubs into the Caribbean and they dry on me before dinner - and while drying they help keep me cool.   After dinner I wash them and about a half hour after the sun comes up the next morning they're ready to wear.   I keep three sets going now....