The big push

Every time I make this return in late January I do feel like I'm going on vacation. SF can be pretty dreary during the rainy season. However, the sensation ends very quickly once I enter the shack. I did it again. I left the refrig on, hoping against hope, that the electricity would stay on while I was gone.
No luck. Something tripped the GFCI and who knows when the power stopped. The end results are not pretty. No need to discuss it here. Why I do this I'll never know. OK, I do know. I'm hoping to have a few days of food available so I don't have to jump to St Thomas right away. It takes a few days to settlein.

David, my neighbor, picked me up at the ferry. It makes all the difference in the world to be dropped at the top of the driveway.

As expected the truck was dead. The new battery charger worked, however. Off to St Thomas in a couple of days. I think I'll look at a new larger frig. Despite a serious cleaning, the stench won't leave the old one.

Lizzy showed up within five minutes, a little worse for wear. She'll be fat in a month.

After all the insanity with the mismatching stones, this is the best I could do. Lesson learned, never again. It's embarrassing how much time I spent on this to end up here. Perhaps over time, I won't see the difference as much. I wouldn't be surprised if years down the road I redo it again. On the plus side we now have a working shower with, wait for it, hot water! The cold water hose below can now be retired after almost 10 years. Despite what you are thinking, take it from me, cold showers in the tropics are cold, especially during the winter months. Standing around in the bush in your birthday suit doesn't help either.

Kitchen faucet or high end medical device? Very impressed with the machining on this. Hopefully, it works as well as it looks. Of course, the original hole I made was too small. I had to cut and clamp a template on top of it to make a new one.

I have a feeling peeps will be trying to turn on the faucet the wrong way. We'll see.

After the faucet, I connected all the upstairs plumbing that I left undone when I went back to SF. In a surprise, the dishwasher still worked. That has sat unused for almost ten years some of the time spent inside a termite colony. I hooked it up for shits and giggles assuming it wouldn't work like the refrig. I ran it a couple of times to get rid of all the termite trails that were inside. Yup, they washed right off. Some slight discoloring, however.

 ....a story worth reading....http://www.hokulea.com/heidi-sails-home/

Jacob's Ladder claims another victim.

http://vifreepress.com/2016/02/8212/

http://newsofstjohn.com/2016/01/25/u-s-marshals-seize-mister-b-barge/

Going back and forth to St Thomas just became a major problem. When a barge goes down think of it as a major traffic jam. In a perfect world, we have four. One at each port loading and two in transit. We have operated with three for short periods when one has to be dry docked. On a permanent basis, it will screw things up. There will be no fixed schedule of departures and arrivals.

Thor arrived March 2 and a few days later we set to framing the "outhouse" while I waited for two boxes of Monowi snap ties to arrive from the states. I need the ties to start a project I have been dreading, figuring out how to put stairs, retaining walls, parking slab etc down to the front door. I have obsessed over it for more than a year. There is not a day that goes by when I don't stand on the upper patio by the door and look up the hillside and try to figure out how to make it look. Even after I figure out what it will look like I panic at the amount of work it will take knowing full well that whatever my plans are they will change once I start.

Outhouse? Originally the idea was a platform built on top of the buried concrete septic tank. We are talking about a 13'x7'x8' with 8" walls and 6" slab top. Why the 12'x20' platform? Even though itis built into the side of the hill, resting on Blue Beach (blue bitch in local parlance) I didn't want to run the risk of any erosion. I have seen way too many major/minor rock slides caused by torrential rains. The platform provides an extended drip edge around the perimeter. Will it work? I can't be certain but it lets me sleep at night. I'm not worried about the uphill side and we now have a 3' foot overhang on the downhill. After seeing the sun and rain damage to my treated plywood it has now morphed into needing a roof! See how things get out of control....haha

No rest for the wicked. The power steering pump just blew. Our 18-year-old Tacoma is needing parts. Age, not mileage, seems to be the controlling influence. Caravan had the part and Bertrand dropped everything and immediately installed it. How wonderful is that!

The excavation starts proceded by the usual drama. We are on St John after all! Edwin, who has done a lot of work here, said he would be happy to do it when his current job ends. Best guess, in about seven days with a day for delivery. By his standards, this job is a little bit of a pain in the ass. Not really big enough to make any real money yet the delivery/pick up hassles remain. At best the job will take a day, probably much less. Long story short, he kept putting me off. This went on for almost three weeks. Yes, Thor and I had work with the outhouse etc but still, getting put off sucks. With the hurricane season looming every week gets more important.

Jose to the rescue. As fortune would have it I run into him at the marketplace in Cruz. He had previously worked for Edwin years ago and when he went solo he had also done some work for me. I didn't even to think to call him as I always saw him working on St Thomas. As luck would have it his machine was on St John and he'd be happy to do the work.

Before the digging even started I got a huge unplanned wakeup call. I would need thousands of dollars of fill to backfill all the retaining walls both new and old. The dirt would be reasonably cheap but it would be the dump truck deliveries up the mountain and then the front loader expense to bring it down the driveway. I knew I needed some but not the yardage he was talking about. Being late in the day when he delivered his machine I told him I needed to think about it overnight. 

Sometime during the evening, my lightbulb went off. I decided to solve the backfill problem by digging a bigger hole. haha. When you find yourself in a hole, keep digging! In the above picture, you can get an idea of the scope of the fill I would have needed. The light gray area would need to be filled. The truck is parked on top of the new fill taking care of that part of the surrounding retaining wall.

Before Jose dug the new "hole" he positioned his track hoe to reach down the hillside and dig out the opening you see above. We used that to fill the lower retaining walls as seen below. The gods were smiling that day. We had exactly the right amount. The slope of the excavation is all art on my part. It's all a guesstimate. I'm trying to minimize hand digging and wasted concrete. Do I know what I'm actually doing? Nope. I stand at the bottom of the hole as Jose is digging and I look at the slope and imagine steps leading up to what will be an imaginary landing area at the base of the new hole at the top. It definitely qualifies as "winging it". If I blow it, it means a lot of manual labor for Thor and I, possibly with a jackhammer. Mind you, I only had one evening to think about this. 

Total charges, $450 for delivery and $375 for three hours of digging. Three cheers for the machine age!

The dreaded "blue bitch". Thankfully it wasn't the real solid kind.

The reconstructed and relocated ramp. Can't live or build without it.

The hole becomes a 12'x16' storeroom with parking on top when it is done. Labor and materials come in less than the fill and we end up with a very large store room with two sets of 36" french doors. I can't believe I'm going to have a workbench for all my tools. It also solves any complaints I will be getting about a shortage of closets! 

Of course, we have to have a sidewalk ending with some steps down to the shack.

In local news....http://vifreepress.com/2016/02/8212/

First, it was SEG wanting a marina. Not to be outdone T-Rex, I'm not kidding about the name, continues to press ahead with hearings etc despite the EPA saying no.

With the EPA in mind, the Coral Bay Community Council was awarded the funds to begin cleaning up the bay of sunken, abandoned, and derelict vessels. Sea Tow out of St Thomas got the contract. This album may be open to non FB peeps.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/SeaTowVirginIslands/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1209304185765562

The walls begin. This is where we find out how good my guesstimate was! First we'll form the walls and later draw in the steps to see what I've got.

It needs to go up the hill to about four feet to the right of the storeroom. From there another set of stairs will go up alongside the storeroom to the parking area. That's another project after the storeroom is poured first. Right now we just need to get to the storeroom.

In more important news, a new 10 cu.ft. refrig. Small by stateside standards perhaps but 150% bigger than the 4 cu.ft. I have been living with all these years. $440 at Home Depot. Now the real challenge. How to get it into the shack.

We lowered it over the side. We did come close to losing it. A tree saved us without damaging it. Very impressed with the wooden base it came with. It saved the day. 

How the other half lives! A friend's vacation rental villa. I love seeing good work.

There's always something!. The opening in the lower retaining wall was not big enough for the future landing. Four feet vs the needed five feet. I was hoping to be able to get it done with my worm drive Skillsaw but no luck. While it cut through as promised the 10" walls were just too much hence the commercial saw below rented on St Thomas. Boy, did they hose me on the blade. They measure the wear in micrometers and the subsequent charge is outrageous. I could have bought three blades at Home Depot while only using one. Allied rentals, you suck. 

My Crocs rule when your feet are going to get drenched with a concrete slurry.

The new opening. Grand indeed. That's my previously underground power cable that needs to be moved now.

My first Passover Seder at the Silverman's. Susan sent me home with all the leftovers. I was Jewish for a week!

The bay clean up continues. I had no idea there were so many sunken boats.

Why people like carnival!

A beautiful small cottage being built alongside the road. I stop all the time to see how they do it.

Thor leaves to crew on a delivery yacht and Denise arrives. This is our "It's a Beautiful Day" cover. Hiking Ram's Head after a 15 year interlude. Time flies.

Back to the beach

The usual suspects at Shipwreck Landing. The Silverman's along with the Gale's. Greg and Lee Ann in front are long time visitors.

The day the music stopped. Ants invaded my player and their moisture fried it.

What it's all about. Denise has left and a couple of weeks from now Ryan will be returning after six years. I signed up for concrete with Heavy Materials. Sixteen yards on June 13 if everything goes right. Pass the Tums.