If I ever get electricity I'll be dangerous. As it is now I use hurricane lamps--they work really well--and a Miner's headlamp that Denise gave me for Christmas. My AT&T phone along with my laptop with the mobile internet connection, at a little faster than dial up, work reasonably well. None of this even existed six months ago so I'm totally thrilled. Net, net it's a great place to work, shower and sleep. Down in Coral Bay the Big Belly Deli just opened. Great food and more importantly great prices. They even have a vegi wrap on the menu. Homemade pizzas and the standard breakfast menu. At this point I don't need more than that. I have coolers and ice to supplement but the waste almost makes it not worthwhile. Things will change when electricity comes. We have been waiting over a year now. At least the poles are up!
Back to the hard work.
Laying in the footings for the upper retaining wall. A lot of digging to get the trench relatively level. So much stone and mud. This concrete work can't end soon enough. It just kicks my butt.
Finally something easy--putting the trim boards for the driveway.
I'm only pouring three inches deep as opposed to the normal five to six. I still have to bring back the big track hoe. It will bust up the driveway pretty bad. Afterwards I'll add another three inches when I'm finally done with the heavy equipment. Also it's only nine feet wide. This way one track can stay on dirt giving the operator pretty good control going up and down. Ultimately the drive will be about twelve feet wide.
They stop by every day.
The pool moves! That's it being dug below.
One of the significant advantages of being the designer, builder etc is you can make changes. The pool is a major change. Previously is was sited on the upper patio at the base of the retaining wall in the far corner near the exterior shower. Anyway I even penciled in french doors where the two windows were and was going to add an exterior door to the shower. With the french doors open you could look from the pool through the living room out the opposite doors across the valley and to the sea. You know the routine--curtains blowing in the sweet smelling breeze etc etc. Plus you didn't have to traipse through the house to use the bathroom. You would simply use the exterior door and walk through the 6x7 outdoor shower.Well cancel those grand plans.
With the sun moving south for the winter the upper patio doesn't get very much sun, in fact none at all for a couple of months until I drop some trees to open up the forest canopy. In addition at approximately a 1000ft above sea level its chilly in the shade. At night it's perfect sleeping weather in the low to mid 60's.
As the picture above shows, I moved it to the corner of the lower patio--the only place that gets sun in January. Now the hard work. On the upper patio, when the time came, a track hoe would dig out the pool in one hour. On the lower patio it would have to be dug by hand or, with great difficulty, bring in the mini track hoe that I used previously. The easy access is now blocked by the shack and retaining wall. There's no way I could dig that pool having already dug the footing for the pier. I said then, never again.
The Big Belly Deli to the rescue. The guy in the pictures below is Thor. We got to chatting while eating and he was looking for work while he was passing through. "I can pay you or I can pay Elvis and his machine". Two days later we started. Yeah I got roped into it to. Someone had to remove the dirt/mud as it came out of the hole. Seven days later a pool was dug and all the earth had been spread, back filling the footing that I had just recently poured. Patio and pool in one hard back breaking shot. Mostly his back! At 31 he can take it. At turning 60 this year I can't!
Thor in the hole.
The gut is almost gone!.JPG)
My grand plan at this time was to pour the driveway, the footings on the upper patio, the slabs for the septic and swimming pool, top off the pier and beams that suffered in the last pour and finally pour the lower side retaining wall which continues to suffer from mudslides. (It still needs some work.)
With that completed my next stage would then be to build the upper retaining wall and the pool and septic walls and frame up part of the lower patio. Then pour again.The drains you see above were purchased on St Thomas. You need two now, thank you California, and as it turns out they have to be inspected before you pour. Nevertheless I put myself on line for concrete. I should get it, weather and supply permitting in eight days. Off to see the plumbing inspector.
In a voice that is best described as "Kingfish" (you either know who that is or you don't) I was told that although my plans have a pool permitted my plumbing permit doesn't have a pool permitted at this time. "Say What?" You needs to have "pool" written on the actual slip of paper. "How do I do that?" You needs to have your licensed contractor submit a request which will be forwarded to St Thomas. "How long will that take?" Abouts three weeks. "I have concrete coming in eight days." Not to da pool. "It's just the drain. Has anyone ever been turned down for a pool?" Well nooo. "Well?" Wells yous have a problem. You needs yours permit. And on and on it went.
I got my concrete on the eight day. On the ninth my plumbing contractor called to say he changed his mind and I could pour without the pending permit. He just cost me an extra pour for $1200. Don't stop the Carnival!
Here's some pics of a place on Little Lameshur Bay lived in until the late 50's. The house and grounds, an old bay leaf farm, were lived in by one of the main characters who turned the island into a park. His name escapes me but he initially had plans to develop the bay into home sites--that is until he started living there. The raw beauty changed his mind. In fact he started the whole National Park in motion by writing Lawrence Rockefeller.
These pics show what happens in less than 50 years.
the cookers
Many folks are having a hard time with the park. All the ruins are going to seed. I mean what's the point. In fifty years what are they going to say "there used to be a plantation here". Hello, don't tell me you don't have the money, take care of these places or turn it over to private enterprise so these sites are preserved in some form or another. When we hiked most of the National Parks in the Northwest, including Canada, most of the lodges, tea houses etc were privately run inside the parks. You hike to a glacier and there's an old hut serving food etc. There are several plantations houses that could be somewhat restored and used for the same here, not to mention the revenues they raise for the park. They become hiking destinations. They hide behind the canard that this is some pristine untouchable landscape. Hello. This whole island was taken to the nub and planted with sugarcane for 300 years. The mongooses, feral cats, goats, burros etc are not original, not to mention most of the fruit trees and flowers. Lets get real here. Save these historical artifacts.
On a brighter note look what was spotted here. I might not have to smuggle any in from Puerto Rico!
In the old days they blotted out the sun on occasion until they were all eaten. I love the little buggers. They look like the ones we have in San Francisco.I already have shack guests.
RATS. Thankfully not ugly city monsters but nice golden brown country rats--but rats nonetheless. On the bright side they seem to travel alone and they are pretty bright. When they do visit it's one at a time and thankfully they slip under the screen in the same place rather that chewing a hole. They don't crawl over you here like they did in Jamaica where I had a shack on the beach. But they make a racket eating plastic containers or whatever so you do get woken up. I shine the flashlight, I chase them, they chase me and then they exit whence they came. They usually only come once a night, two or three times a week. I did have to set a trap for one however. We went through the chase scene four times in one night. Not cool. On the fifth time the trap got him which messed me up at the same time watching him breath his last gasps with those little clenched fists. I couldn't watch.
Then a loud noise. I turn on the light and he's loose. I'm kind of glad. Then I had to watch the Bataan death march as he slowly, hand over hand, climbs the chair to get to the ledge to get under the screen and then continue to climb up a 4x4 to the roof. He couldn't make it and came back down. I thought he was coming back in when I nudged him off the ledge and he fell ten feet into the brush. I have not seen him since. I hope he made it.
It's now the beginning of March.......
Part of the family that weaves the world's largest web, 3-4 feet across. You don't walk through them, the silk and your fear is that strong.
zoomed in view from the cul de sac
the back side of the newly poured 12ft upper retaining wall......
"Deadwood" comes together
This is the interior view I didn't like. At this point I changed the two main flaps overlooking the valley. By having the flaps swing outward I lost considerable views and light. Not to mention my flaps were 6x4 with reinforcing trim. They were a bear to open plus I had screening problems I could foresee. In the end I left two as they were and changed three others.
Altogether, not including rain delays, it took me about 15 days to put it together. Total cost in materials about $2500. Meanwhile I slept in my camper shell on the back of my truck for several nights. It was perfect. I backed it up to the end of the cul de sac and this is what I woke up to every day. Living large by my standards.
They crossed all the way over to clip the tree--we drive on the opposite side here
Two guys in the concrete truck weren't lucky. This is the truck after it was turned it over.
It's quite gruesome. In one episode a jeep flipped over backwards going up a steep hill when it lost power. Two young girls were killed. In another a parking brake failed and the vehicle crushed a lady against a retaining wall. The tree trimmer from California lost his life when he tried to jump back into his cherry picker to stop it from going over a wall--it took him with it. The list goes on and on. Per capita this has got to be the deadliest place going. What I can tell you is if you take your eyes off the road for even one second you are risking life and limb even at ten to twenty miles per hour.
some local ruins.......
Edwin showed up a couple of days later. Originlly he said it would be three weeks. We started getting a lot of rain and track hoes don't work when it's wet--they start sliding and there's nothing that can stop them. 
When he got to the bottom of the driveway after back filling the wall I had him turn left and continue very percariously down the hill to the cottage.
Finally the long awaited moment. Truth is, I was afraid to go down and get stuck. Edwin laughed as he roared down the driveway in an old beater Explorer. He even stopped half way up to rub it in! But my fear is well placed. If I get stuck on this mountain it could be a long time before I'm freed.
What a pain in the ass. The footings were anything but level, as a result of me forgetting to trowel them when I was dealing with the pier blow out. Then the rains came back. None of my forms lined up etc etc. Doing it alone made it near impossible. I kind of punted as there was no concrete on island and my road up the mountain was no longer passeable had there been any. Making matters worse a tropical depression that they thought was going to be become a hurricane passed to the south of us over St Croix. Massive rains and sustained 45-55mph winds lasted almost a week. Jungle debris everywhere. Limbs and branches covered the ground. Basically it wasn't safe to go out on the property. In fact on a day I was having a delivery of whalers I had bought, an enormus tree snapped in half narrowingly missing a truck. It snapped in half because, as it turns out, it was hollow. The occupants were very pissed. As we went to look, thousands and thousands of bees made for us or so we thought. When you see a swarm the size of a car moving in your direction you don't stand and calculate the distance. Regretably there were witnesses and they happily enacted our shrieking and running whenever we showed up at the bar.
Some wild goats show up.
These guys are not to be messed with.
