The dolphin

     I found this treasure on a beach walk more than a year ago.  She spent most of the intervening time - between the finding and when the house was finished - wrapped in an old towel.  Right after I folded my tent I polyurethaned and hung her at the entrance to the house.  (She may be a male dolphin...I couldn't tell.)

The house (8): moved in

     The roof is on and the house is in use. I've moved out of my tent and the first guests are here.   It's all very comfortable even without electricity or running water, both of which will come in time. 

The house (7)

     Below are floor plans for the house, first floor first and then the second floor.  The bottommost edge of each sketch faces east, toward the Caribbean.  Bad weather, when it comes, usually rolls in from the Caribbean.  For this reason there are smaller or no windows on the east side of the house except in the living quarters of full-time employees...and when a storm hits that makes them shut both their east-facing door and window, they have a large west-facing window that opens onto a protected breezeway.  

     A thatch roof covers the entire house:  rooms,  breezeways, and stairs.  The covered spaces that are not named comprise open living areas...for simplicity's sake I call them breezeways because the breezes sure do flow through them.  When heavy rains or winds do hit, the north-south breezeways provide protection while allowing life to go on (cooking, eating, reading, hanging-out, whatever).  The windows in the kitchen (floor one) and bedrooms (floor two) on the south side can remain wide open even during a heavy rain from the east; and the thatch roof overhangs the east-facing bedroom window on the second floor enough that little or no rain gets in. 

     There is a walkway, also covered by the roof, that is shown at the front edge of the first floor sketch which is not duplicated on the second floor.  It is concrete like the floors throughout all the first floor of the house:  cool and easy to clean.  Although the 'laundry room' is under roof, the roof being the second floor, it is open on three sides, having only the single wall which it shares with the first floor bedroom.  The storage room is as secure as we could get it, with no windows and two doors that are sandwiched back-to-back, one wood that opens right up to a second interior door of metal bars.  The kitchen opening is about 6' wide and when the kitchen window shutters are open there's a lot of light.  The kitchen opening has a double door of bars which can be secured when nobody's in the house.

     Stairs are stairs, but the treads on these are nice and wide and when we've got visitors they've served as seats.  

     All the floors upstairs, except the bathroom floor, are wood...breezeways and bedrooms alike.

The house (6)

     The second floor goes up, the 'sticks' define the roof, and Plycem continues to define the interior spaces.   A new window here and there.   Shutters, doors, railings, and pink paint....

Unloading 'sticks' for the roof

     The spur has been really great for getting building materials closer to where they're needed.   An earlier post showed a panga-load of block, stone, and bags of concrete...everything in that load was offloaded at the new dock.  It all had to be carried by hand, but not as far as if the load had gone to the original dock and then to the building site.   
     And when time came for offloading the very heavy concrete rings for the new well?   Not an easy job under any circumstance, but for sure less distance to move them from the new dock to where the new well was being dug.
     Some 'sticks' to form the framework of the roof on the new house are coming off the pontoon boat, as well as a final couple of sheets of Plycem and some sheetrock.

Roofing framework, safe behind the gate, ready to be installed

The spur, an extension to our canal

     Partly for security and partly to make handling supplies easier, we dug a 'spur,' an extension of the waterway, and built a small dock and walkway at its end.   The spur branches off from the dock that was built during the first phase of the project: the original dock where most of the increased traffic now comes.   This spur and the new dock and walkway get boats and supplies closer to the new house where they are behind a gate that stays locked most of the time.

The original dock and at the left, the gate to the spur

  At work on the small dock and walkway, with the unfinished house in the background

From the small dock looking toward the gate, the main pier, and the creek

From the walkway another view of the unfinished house

    

      (It may become necessary to limit use of and access to the original dock.  Access to the canal will remain open as will access from the canal across my property to the beach.   I couldn't deny access to the beach even if I wanted to.   However, limiting how easy it is to load and unload things that aren't supposed to leave the area might be needed in the future.  Currently when a boat pulls up, everything that comes in it gets piled onto the original dock: tools, food, bedding, oars, dogs, sails, plants, chickens...whatever!  And the reverse is true: when people get ready to go back to Bluefields after a day, or a weekend, or a week, their stuff ends up on that dock for easy loading for their return boat trip.  For now, the only restriction on the use of the original False Bluff dock is to clean up any mess you make and - even that's a hard sell from time to time.)

SEA TURTLE HATCH

     A very recent hatch.
     Close to where a sea turtle was rescued at False Bluff last year, another sea turtle came ashore and laid eggs.  We never saw her...only her tracks.
    My sincere thanks go to Silvia Fox and Digma Blandon for these pictures.  Shown are the hole from which the baby turtles emerged and the remains of some of their eggs. What excellent news for Valentine's Day...

A traffic jam in the creek

     Ever since the creek was opened a year ago there's been a marked increase in boat traffic to False Bluff. People no longer have to travel on foot through the swamp to get from Smokey Lane Lagoon to the Caribbean.  Because the creek is now navigable, more and more boats are pulling up to the dock that I had built during phase one of the project.   
     And I have yet to see a boat arrive at dock with only one person aboard.  There are families who want a day trip to the beach; owners of properties up and down the beach coming out to clean and clear their land; fishermen; hunters; and the occasional coconut thief.   
     Opening the creek has been a boon to property owners but we're also experiencing an influx of people who do not own property and are not satisfied with just stealing a few coconuts.   One of many things that will help with trespassing and theft is that more owners are planning to build, or sell to people who will build.   

   

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...