It's a New Year

Home was wonderful. Family and friends and X mas.

The view from our roof deck. Alcatraz with the larger Angel island in the background

Our future view....

A new year with one last big push to finish the majority of the concrete work and finally start on the house. Thor is expected mid January. Between us we should knock it out in a couple of months weather permitting.

I changed my mind again. The septic doesn't work as planned. I'll never be able to get it serviced. No current company will run 200' feet of pumping pipe down to it. Even Jeff, the concrete pumper, will not run pipe down that far. I have to build a sluice from the lower deck. With all that in mind I now plan on building another cistern. It fills the hole solving a safety problem for people and animals and provides another six thousand gallons of storage. In addition at some future date I can put a small in-law unit on top of it. I now have to change the rebar again and enlarge the footprint. No big deal in the grand scheme of things.

Throwing down the plywood from the deck

Ultimately these will be ten foot walls

We made sure everything brought down the hill was the worst of the lot, plywood that normally would be never be used again. Why? Because nothing is coming back up that hill. It is one thing to drag/throw wet ply down but it is a whole other matter trying to bring it back up. This stuff is going to the termites after the pour.

While it is hard to imagine now, originally the driveway was ending at this wood pile. Had it, the lower cistern would have remained a septic. The original "black diamond" driveway cancelled that idea.

That solved one problem. Next, where to put the septic, how to dig the hole and how to get the equipment in place? Yikes.

I brought Elvis up to run my ideas by him.

His small track hoe can weave its way around the new site.

I decide the only real place the septic can go is down and to the right of the cottage. Among other reasons, really the most important, it will allow any future servicing from the driveway above.

Everything went according to plan. Elvis came without making too big a footprint and he started digging the hole. A few hours in and we hit rock. Not blue beach but hard enough such that the baby track hoe was over its punching weight. The real problem, we were near the maximum extension of his bucket to begin with so that he could not get any leverage to break up the rock as he pounded it. With just another foot to go down so we opted to rent the jackhammer--again!

We have at it for a couple of days in shifts but I had enough. I call Jose with the big cat.

Godzilla arrives....

Why didn't I call Jose to begin with? For one thing he's not available on short notice and when he does show up it is like having Godzilla rumble through the property. Among other things it also means there is a good chance my thin concrete temporary driveway is going to suffer some damage. Not to mention a $500 delivery charge. For that money I have to think of multiple tasks before I commit.

Plan K!

Dig septic, grade side of cottage for future steps, level upper patio and ready for rebar/concrete, build temporary wood retaining wall and back fill it with the patio dirt. Reshape lower driveway and raise the turn so I can back all the way down to the cottage to deliver materials, steel, siding etc. Add four feet to upper retaining wall for the future driveway turnaround.

Someday I'll get to the house itself! None of this was in Building for Dummies!

Grading the upper driveway and patio. We put in the steel floor during the two weeks we waited for Jose. Remember everything has to be carried by hand down the hill.

Now I'll be able to back down with supplies. While we waited for Jose's schedule to clear we formed up another four feet on top of the existing driveway turnaround retaining wall, some 70'. At some point down the road the entire bottom of the driveway will be raised four feet allowing for a reasonably level turnaround while taking a chunk out of the steepness of the upper driveway.
The finished look. As usual, very steep. When the house is done a retaining wall will cut across the driveway starting at the blue tarp. Stairs and a walkway traversing the hillside will then lead down to the patio and front door.

Finishing the septic, breaking through the rock.

The graded upper patio with the beginnings of a house.

Jose took ten hours at $125/hr plus delivery spread over two days which allowed us a late afternoon to build the 8' high wood retaining wall. Ultimately we had to rebuild it the next day when the rebar spikes gave out. Dig out the back fill, take it apart and sink the 4x4's in post holes. Put it all back together and hope like hell it holds all the tonnage. Jose got a nice two hours talking on the phone.

Now the original concrete pour is getting very large. Twenty yards jumps to forty eight at the new $260 a yard plus $1400 for the pumper and crew. Thor and I start forming up everything using every scrap we have. All new ply went into the septic so we could use it again.

From the septic we jumped over and finished the jacuzzi that I had started last November and laid the remaining rebar for the lower patio.


the jets and the rebar on the lower patio


The rebar on the upper deck. We got in line for concrete right after being inspected. Of course the usual delays set in. Jeff the pumper said yes then said no--of course on the day he was due!

The view from the bedroom downstairs. Eight foot doors, seven and half feet across.

There is water out there!

Leo, who has the only other truck that can make it up the mountain, once again became the back up guy. This time I called his uncle ahead of time and got the pricing straightened out beforehand. As usual I had Leo provide the extra crew that I pay once the concrete starts pumping and not a moment before. Laying pipe etc is on his dime. My clock stops once the concrete does.

During the scheduling wait we put more steel up and spread plywood around for walking and safety for the upcoming pour.

The block and tackle I brought from San Francisco made quick work hoisting the steel. The posts weighed about 140lbs with the beams around 175. The cross beam in the pic was over 400. I had it made in two pieces so that I could drag it down the hill/driveway. The ridge beam still to come is the monster, one piece 400+. My erector set design is working!!

Still to be put in are floor joists over the cisterns. I found the pool ladder in the dumpster while diving!

Once again we are in a race with the concrete delivery and Thor's having to leave. If there is a delay Thor is gone. This is how he generally leaves or comes. This is how he came from Maine.

Just your average 63 ' . Not.

The porn den. Just kidding, just kidding. This is just half of the salon.

Roughing it in his private crew quarters.

Looking through the navigation station to the captain's quarters

Forward to more quarters

They let me pretend.

Another year

Finally returned to St John, mid September, after my return through Miami was delayed by a passing hurricane.

Okay where was I? Oh yeah, digging in the mud in the often mentioned septic. The work and new rebar were still in place with no new slides. Things are looking up despite the rains while I was gone. With the incomplete pour last May it was hard to know where to start. I had to leave up so much form work on the incomplete walls. The project seemed like a disorganized mess, no closure on individual steps. The septic, with constant fears of cave in's, was giving me heartburn, all kidding aside.

On the positive side I had a slab in the pool. I could set about framing the walls, slightly complicated because I had to form the walls around the beams and pier.

It was at this point I decided to flip it into a giant jacuzzi. Now I had to study up on Jacuzzi design. A few days later with my PHD in jacuzzi design I ordered all the jets etc from Florida. Along one wall with a bench will be all the jacuzzi jets. The bench will conceal the lights. I'll hide the pier by building the steps around it. All in all it will be an 8x8, five foot deep splash pool/jacuzzi looking out at the mountains and sea. I'll pour the walls 10 inches thick to double as retaining walls under the deck near the house.

Hurricane season in the islands runs June 1st to November 30th. Much time is spent eyeballing all the associated tracking sites from the coast of Africa. Thankfully the chances of getting hit by a hurricane are very low, lower still by the "eye". The last majors to hit were 1995 and 1986 resulting in total devastation for the most part, as Florida or New Orleans can attest when it happens. The normal path is across the Atlantic from the west coast of Africa. As one forms they are followed VERY closely. On rare occasions tropical depressions can form off of Panama or South America. I bring this up because in early October such a storm developed.

No one really talked about it until it made a dramatic turn and started heading straight north gaining serious momentum. Myself, I was busy figuring out the logistics of the pool when my friend Roger called asking if I had looked at my computer lately.

No. Why?

Take a look, we have a problem.

A Category 1 in the morning, Category 3 in the afternoon heading directly at us. I should have known there was a problem when the tree frogs went hopping by with their suitcases. Duh.

What to do with the Shack? A direct hit blows it away. A near miss and everything inside is wet and moldy afterwards. It will be any one's guess where the roof tin ends up. So like a nut I did this. I figured I'd steer the water to the sink!

Roger called again to see what I planned to do. I tell him I'll ride it out in the shack. He laughs.

The wait begins as darkness sets in. Heavy rains, winds, then no rain or wind. Roger calls. I tell him I think we missed it. He laughs.

An hour later, with the cell phone still working, I'm wailing on the phone asking what to do. The gigantic tree near the shack is twisting like a piece of spaghetti. It looks like it is doing 180's. If it drops a limb on the shack I'm dead. I ask Roger if I should make a run for it. He says it's too late. I'll get killed on the road. I hang up. It gets worse. Trees start falling. I can't take it under this monster tree. I snap into panic mode. A grown man holding his nuts like he has to go to the bathroom. Shear fright sets in when a humongous limb snaps off the tree and makes a noise louder than the 100mph winds howling by.

I collect all my electronics and plan a run to the truck. I have no idea where I am going. You have to see the route to understand the difficulty of getting to the truck. Plus, for added fright, it goes under the monster tree! It is no easy passage in dry times. I step outside the shack in the dark. BOOM! I stumble forward uphill falling off the planks with screaming winds, ankle deep mud, small debris hitting you constantly, all the while panic stricken by the large limbs above, sideways rain and all this with glasses on. I cannot see a thing. I'm so scared I'm laughing my ass off figuring I have finally done it. My heart is going to blow out. This is right up there with some one pulling a gun on you.

Stumbling, crawling, I make it to the truck. It is buried under small tree debris. Jumping in I try to calm down. I can't. The constant pelting of branches and small trees whipping the truck with the lightning flashing all around keeps my panic alive. Plus I'm still under several large trees. Your brain wants to race out of control.

With the rain and leaves making the windshield wipers useless I start up the driveway. My temporary driveway, as I have previously mentioned, is so steep you cannot see it as you go up. Under normal circumstances I use the tree line above to steer by. In low four wheel drive I start up going about 3 mph trying to feel the concrete. Somehow I make it through the world's most violent car wash with my windshield still intact knowing I brought this all on myself.

After what seems like forever I get to the top of the cul de sac and look down the road with the high beams. I realize I am not going anywhere, whipping trees and debris everywhere. The truck is rocking and rolling. I am so f'ked. I have truly outdone myself. Worse still there is a moon behind all this and you can see all the trees doing unimaginable twists and turns. There is no getting out of this one.

Frozen, I sit there in the truck for what seems an eternity. The panic becomes manageable as I imagine the lumber rack on top has to add some protection but.... these trees are so large. With that I finally get a good idea. If I can blindly back up the small road behind me I can slide my truck along side one of my 20' containers protecting at least one side from the wind. Hopefully any falling tree will hit the container before it hits me. At one or two miles per hour I creep up the road and CRUNCH. My heads snaps even at 2 mph. A huge tree fell on me? I jump out of the truck. Quickly drenched I realize I crashed into the first container. Forward, reverse and I'm along side the container. Immediately the truck stops shaking, the howling ends and an eerie calm sets in. I can't believe it. I almost pass out from the come down.

I look at the phone. I have bars, go figure. I call Roger. He laughs. Next I call Denise. We talk for an hour as I describe the hurricane in front of me. She's with her girl friend and they put the speakerphone on for a blow by blow. Her friend cannot believe I'm calling from the middle of a hurricane. With a full moon behind the clouds the silhouetting was excellent. All I can say, trees are actually rubber. Don't let anyone tell you different.

The phones go dead, I fall asleep. A couple of hours later I wake at first light. The truck is buried, it is hard to open the door. The storm is gone. Getting out it looks like a war zone. I start walking down the hill. I'm afraid to look. Trees have fallen across my temporary power lines knocking the pole sideways but not breaking the lines. Several large trees have snapped half way up and fallen onto my neighbor's property. Shit, more work.

As I venture down the driveway I assume the shack is gone. I can't see anything until I round the retaining wall. Under the debris it is still there with several large trees toppled right next to it. I go inside, everything is fine. I never had to leave! I collapse in bed and sleep all morning thinking St John has been trashed.

I awake, get my chainsaw, machetes and start clearing the driveway, cul de sac, power lines and free my truck. Several hours later I drive down the mountain to see the aftermath. Nothing whatsoever has happened. How can this be? Flowers in place, goats munching and all the palm trees swaying in the breeze. They even have electricity. Apparently I live in the twilight zone. I just lost my biggest trees that survived category five hurricanes in the past that wiped out 90% of St John's housing stock and folks are having breakfast drinking coffee on the patio at the Big Belly deli! When questioned they asked what hurricane? I was dumbfounded. I drove to Cruz Bay. A tree here, a branch there but nothing really. I lost my best trees and there was no hurricane? Later, depending on who you talk to, a few properties high on the mountain were hit by wind shears, small tornadoes or some such at probably 125mph. Most of my trees were felled in a straight line traversing the property and then crossing my neighbors disappearing into the jungle. The eye of the storm passed on the other side of Tortola about 20 miles away. The high winds were only at higher elevations and then only in selected spots. Whatever, my favorite tree, the one the hawk family perched in was gone. The hawks have never been back. Before and after......

Moral of the story? I won't be staying in the shack if another hurricane approaches.

With the torrential rains the pool filled with mud and silt, a lot less because of the boards I quickly threw up before fleeing. The lower septic had another cave in.

I spent the next couple of weeks cleaning up the trees off my neighbors property, digging out the pool and septic. I did not even try throwing out the mud and rock from the septic. I just saved as much of the rebar as I could and spread the debris around raising the floor about 18 inches. The pool I had to dig out. One of the fallen trees had a large beehive that Wayne, my neighbor, was all to happy to harvest. He now raises bees after taking lessons on island!

They're back. Mosquitoes. With the rains come the bloom. St John is basically bug free, even in the jungle when it doesn't rain heavy. I work shirt and repellent free most of the year. But when it rains in inches they bloom, do they ever, for a couple of weeks. The only part of me showing at those time is my face. Long sleeves, pants, gloves, Arab head dress, the works. You get very hot and in no time your clothes are soaking wet--head to toe. Rubber boots fill up with sweat. I'm good for about four hours and then I have to go inside. That was basically November while I formed up the pool and laid new rebar for the septic.

I am so ready to go home for the holiday's. Everything will be building for a large pour when I return. The pool, septic, and lower deck.

All in all, not a good year. With the weather, concrete delays, trips home, Greece and Turkey maybe four months of actual work. Even some of that was do overs. I dug the pool and septic out twice.

There's a house in here somewhere.