Day One Our Home Our Way Right or Wrong
I am in hopes that the following pictures will help somebody out there if for no other reason, not to do as I do, but to see , to come to learn to appreciate and better love your extended families like so many of us have.
Some or should I say most of these pictures, I really don’t yet fully understand what they are doing, for my foreman who is a wonderful kind gentlemen does not speak even a little English, so I try to ask the others what is this for and how will it be used.
For those of you who know me and have read my previous post you know I live right in the middle of the “jungle”, thus for that reason the path to our lot was not big enough even using the back road that we were planning to use for such things as backhoes, bulldozers and the likes were judged by my brothers engineer who is a bridge engineer for the RP and he told him, “no way you can bring your equipment across that wooden bridge” for you will have a backhoe sitting in a tributary of the Bayugan River.
So everything you see here is being done by pure sweat, determination and the wiliness to work for their wages.
Let me expand on that. There were 5 large trees including 2 over 60 foot high coconut trees that had to be cut down. There was one huge some kind of fruit tree that also had to go, the name of the fruit escapes me at present.
With every tree that was felled, I watched in open anticipation trying to capture live the shot of the tree landing exactly in the spot that the man cutting the trees said it would land.
I spent more than my fair share of time using a chain saw and cutting down trees when I was involved in my “wacko environment format” of trying to raise a family in the middle of a mountain in Maine, with no electricity, and only me as the sole provider for food, shelter, heat so I know a little about tree cutting.
What amused me, no wrong word, “amazed” me was at one point I watch this man, no shoes no towel to throw around the coconut tree to help him climb, but climb he did until he was almost at the top where he tied a rope around the tree.
What confused me next is where they had 7 boys holding the rope very tightly and the rope was heading right in my direction, I couldn’t figure this out for he had a clear path to cut down the tree in the vacant farm behind my property.
Then it all became clear, for the boys were not pulling the tree toward me, but due to the bottom diameter of its trunk, even after two wedge cuts, they did not want the man operating the chain saw to get his “chain” frozen in the middle of an to fast fallen tree, thus the rope was to slow the decent of the tree not to have it fall toward me or the others, and it went off without a hitch.
The whole point in this post is not about me, for I am no one special except to my wife and my extended family and to this neighborhood. If you feel I am to forgiving or to loyal to these people then you are simply incorrect.
Small point in case study. I because of my lungs, need almost daily a massage where someone who sometimes I have to teach how, can take the heel of their hand and hit me on the back between my shoulder bland hard enough so that I can spit and cough up some of is mostly mucus but also decaying lungs.
I have had several over the years I have been here, and most because they took one look at my long nose and blue eyes and charged me accordingly. I got my wife to intervene and the price was usually lower by 50 to 100 pesos. But it was always 600 to 1000P still.
Most recently I found a neighborhood girl who was very good and she was only charging me 200 pesos. But then I found out that she was usually massaging two older ladies in the neighborhood, the president of our parok and one other of my barcada, then my wife told me since she was only getting 25 30 P per massage, I had a fit, I talked with her with my wife present and she said it was all a big misunderstanding, I asked my wife did she believe her, she said, no, not until I find out tomorrow if she has gone back to massaging the other people, so today when I found out she has quit everyone because I pay her 200P, I just called her and told her I would no longer be in need of her services.
The reason any of the above has any relevance is because, I am an American Soldier first and foremost, I just have been blessed by God to spend my dying years in a land of constant smiles. I sincerely pray for the USA, for I think we have now forsaken our founding fathers and what that had in mind when they formed this great union.
Don’t fret my brothers and sisters this is the end of the start of another great American Novel, from here on out when you have the wish to come back you want have to listen to my senseless rambling, but see pictures only.
In closing please let me say one more thing, if God be willing and I finish this house, I invite you all to drop by even without prior notice, and that goes for all of you on here. I can offer you and yours only one thing, the best host you will ever met, for although a “old salt” on the outside, I am my family have hearts of pure gold. Are we without sin, oh my god no, but I can promise you this , plenty to eat, a clean environment, plenty to drink, and if Jack is here at the time some of the best Barbecue you have ever tasted.
The “Murf”
Pictures to follow.
They came by what seemed like hundreds but I knew there were only 21. Like the burden of the slaves of Egypt building the Pyramids (unless that is a myth also)
The first picture you see here is of my oldest brother , the first born 51 years old who at first I was afraid to hire, but after watching him for hours on end in the brutal hot sun carry bag after bag of not only sand, gravel, cement, I knew I prejudged him, He came to me, asked me if I would hire him and I told him yes because you are of my family, but if you can’t do the labor than please tell me so I can tell my engineer he has to let you go, no need, he is staying
And they still keep coming young and old alike for someone gave them a chance to regain what a man looses when he cannot provide for his family.
But unlike the “slaves” of Ramses the ll they were free men, under no burden or yoke of a cruel “task builder”, for when we as a people enslave other people sooner or later what we struggled for the most power, money, greed and control will be taken away from the very ones that you enslaved.
A picture of the “rebar cutting tool”. We have where I live at least two to six major earthquakes per year. Before I drew up the plans for this simple home of ours, I went to the areas downtown and what once was a nice theater and restaurant. I went there to see what was left and the rebar inside of the hollow blocks was 8mm thick. I am not saying that 20 mm will make me “earthquake protected”, but it does give me some since of security.
The strangest thing about this machine is not shown very well in the pictures, for it has a long iron pipe on one end where the boy steps on after the rebar is the correct since and it is simply cut. But then I was so confused about why the man left , retrieved a shovel and proceeded to dig a small maybe 6 inch deep hole where the end of the pipe was landing before, he found out he needed more leverage, so instead of moving the whole machine he just “adapted” and was more successful with each cut.
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The never seem less bags of sand and gravel, the shed you see behind it is also full. The shed belongs to my next door neighbor who I talked into storing bags inside and out for a 100P a month. 6 months ago she offered me to sell her property to me for 400,000P I wanted it badly for I could have gone vertical instead of horizontal and incorporated a pool and a Koi garden, But sometimes you just have to be satisfied with what God has in plan for you.
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My architect and trusted friend. Every day he comes to see me even though he has five current projects under construction, including a brand new Shell Gasoline store for the city. I can call him night or day and he always has time for me, even though I am one of his smallest clients.
I have many more pictures, but I am tired now need to check on the crew to ensure they have everything they need. For all of you who are following this, please remember, I submit to all of you there are probably much better ways of building in the RP, but I can only go where my heart leads me and with the constant help of my asawa have started a promise I made to her , many years ago.
Even as I lay here not being able to physically type anymore, for I sit up in bed when I write, and that puts pressure on my diaphragm that makes it that much harder to breathe, … but god would I do everything I have done in my life all over again…of course I would for that is the metal that forms my very being, when I shut off this computer, I will call downstairs to my asawa, and she will bring me a “cool one”, what more in the world can a man ask for.
More pictures to follow…lots just let the old man catch his breath.
Thanks to all of you who are following this, thanks to those of you who may see me in a different light… I have come to learn many things in the RP, and one of the greatest lessons I have ever learned …is certainly not about house construction but the nature and character of those I met on here has only made my life more valuable and for that I thank you all.
The “Murf”
PS. We have a new member, my god as tired as I am I can’t remember his name, but he wrote me off line to ask about VA health care for him and his wife here in the RP.
He is a 100% from the Persian Gulf War. Please make him feel at home, I did not have a lot of good news to share with him, for he was worried about his wife’s care in Manila VA Clinic. Jennifer was always entitled to free health care at the VA enrolled under me, but since the new administration, the funding to the RP has been cut by Nancy and Harry, two of our shining stars of keeping the promise off Abraham Lincoln,
