BobnRox in Ecuador

We have about 30 Coco Palm trees on our property, and we are under attack!  We are getting the same kind of problems that we used to have in Oregon, where pine beetles (and other pests) attacked and killed our pines, firs and Madrone trees.  Those insects are decimating the forests of the US and Canada.

In our Yard we had a perfectly healthy and high producing coconut palm tree, go from beautiful to dead in two weeks!  Now,  we know that we had the problem for a long time before.   The grubs that infest the palm tree keep eating away at the insides until there is no way to support life.

Here is the tree...  

 We asked around for a treatment that would keep the rest of our palm trees alive, and not hurt the iguanas, birds, and chickens.  In addition, we told people that our trees were about 40 feet high...

Well, everyone had an idea of what to do, but we couldn't get anyone to do the job, until Manual, one of our best workers, suggested a man who is a neighbor and an officer in the local fire department.

Antonio showed up to tell us that all of our trees were infected, and that it would do not good to only do some of the more prolific and pretty trees, they all must be treated.

Treatment is something like this--all dead pods and branches must be cut off, fronds must be dusted with poison to kill eggs which eventually turn into grubs, and grub holes must be treated with poison to stop their burrowing, and then the tree must have about two liters of poison dumped over all the new growth, to trickle down into the rest of the vulnerable parts of the crown.

All this is done while perching precariously at the top of a really tall ladder, standing on hardly any support...take a look...

 OSHA would have a heart attack here...notice highly polished street shoes and no hard hat...not to mention precarious base for ladder...and no safety harness.

These two photos give you an idea of how high they are going...

Antonio actually leaves the ladder and climbs into the top of the tree to administer poison.

Here are a couple of shots of the trees after being cleaned up and treated...not bad!

Antonio and his two helpers complete the treatment of 30 trees on Monday and hopefully these treatments will give our trees a new lease on life...

Cost of all of this special work   $200.

This Wednesday morning, as Roxanne and I were on our second cup of coffee, 12 men arrived at 7:00 to begin pouring our new deck and stairs--all in one process!  Every man present has many years experience, and it is a testimony to Alfredo, our Foreman and Papa Noel, that he is able to convince them to work like slaves for only one day's work.

We also thank Shell and Marsha for allowing us the use of their professional concrete mixer--this mixer allowed our men to spend their energy loading the mixer with water, sand, gravel, and cement, and transporting it, not wasting their time and energy on the actual mixing...

Here they are just getting ready to fire up the mixer...They have also just brought all of these 110 pound bags of cement from the garage...

There are five men manning the mixer...two loading sand, two loading rock, and one loading each bag of cement.  This man is one of the several "wheelbarrow men" who must walk this load about 200 feet from the mixing area to the front of our house, all the while, making sure not to drop this toxic load on the grass...

These three men are manning the "burro" which is the platform used for handing up the many buckets of concrete... 

 Up top,  "Maestro" Alfredo supervises the pouring of the base pour over the concrete blocks and re-bar, and then the second pour, while everything is still wet, of the second tier.  Plus, he handles the "vibrator" to make sure that the concrete settles well with no gaps.

 Although a mess now, this man Silva, will make these stairs look like artwork, before he is done...

 This photo gives you an idea of the many jobs it takes to actually get concrete poured into the stairway form...The man on the left has a wheelbarrow, two men handle buckets, one man relays the bucket up, another man pours it in the form, and Alfredo makes sure it is done right...

 At the end of the pour, these five men are tasked with making sure that Shell and Marsha's equipment comes back cleaner than when it came in.

    We, and all the guys were so grateful to Shell and Marsha for the use the concrete mixer, that we wanted to make sure that it went back home in really good shape...take a look, as it sits and waits for Shell for a ride. 

 After inhaling cement dust for seven hours of back breaking work, you can bet that these men appreciate the taste of an ice cold beer!!!

 All in all, a very good day--it even wore out Coquita! 

When you mention a deck in the Northern Hemisphere, the first thing you think of is Redwood (or Fir, Pine, or Cedar), but you never think of concrete, re-bar, and ceramic tile...

Well, down here in Ecuador, there are almost no wooden decks.  All decks are some variation of concrete pillars and poured concrete--many have formed concrete railings.

The flooring in our beach house is wood called Guayacan--Guayacan is naturally resistant to rot, abrasion, weather, decay, and termite attacks.  When we bought our place in 2007, the outside deck was too narrow, so we doubled the size of it using some wood planking that was not Guayacan--now five years later, we are replacing this deck, due to extensive dry rot.

This time, we are building the "Ecuadorean" way.  We will be using Concrete in our footings, pillars, and deck structure.  However, we will use wooden uprights for the railings, to maximize the ocean view.

The following photos will take you through process of building a "100 Year" deck...

We are using the same great crew that built our wildly popular second suite.

Here we are laying out the project for the guys to see...

Alfredo is staking out the project using a transparent hose as a level to get the snap lines straight.

 After pouring a concrete base to each footing hole, the guys drop in a re-bar grid, then attach a long re-bar column to that, then drop in huge rocks, and fill the whole thing up with concrete...

These three pllars were built, and then the guys had to knock down our deck...The stairs were made of Guayacan, and they probably weighed as much as a car.  We used one set to give us a set of "backdoor stairs" to our main house.

 We brought in a man with a chainsaw, to eliminate the old deck substructure...he told us he was more "sure-footed"  without shoes...

 These are the forms built for the concrete pour...

Although the guys have levels, they all use the "boulder hanging by a string" method to make sure that all the columns are standing tall...

Once all the pllars are poured, we call in a special company headed by father and son architects, who provide all the uprights and base for the concrete deck pour.  After they get the wooden base in place, our guys will provide all the edges and re-bar needed to make everything super strong.

 Just some of the many bags of cement we will be using...

 Here you see the new stairway being fabricated with a bunch of re-bar... 

    The deck will be criss-crossed with re-bar--all fabricated by hand...

Next week, we plan to make a continuous pour of concrete of the entire deck in just one day--for added strength...stay tuned...

We are having a lot of fun in our temporary new "home", which is our new suite...

We liked the deck on the new suite so much, and since our personal deck on our home was disintegrating, we called together our faithful crew, and they removed the deck and two stairways in short order.

This leads us to how we were going to spend a quiet Sunday, with us having a gourmet breakfast, and having our favorite for dinner, Chateaubriand, baked potatoes, sour cream, a whole box of sauteed mushrooms,  and lots of gooey soft margarine! 

We were enjoying a quiet afternoon of watching the beautiful waves breaking out front, soft breezes, butterflies migrating past the windows, and pelicans floating along, when Coquita began to get really excited...running around and finally running to the gate at the top of the stairs!!!

Coming up the stairs, were Agripina, her daughter Sonia, Isidro's brother, and Santos (nephew and his brother), carrying a huge rum soaked cake made especially for Roxanne.

Take a look...

Now, if it wasn't enough that they were doing this on Sunday, their day off, they also had a little boom box with them, and  sang "Happy Birthday" to Roxanne in English!

This rum cake is to die for...it melts in your mouth with a jolt!

 Feliz Compleanos is Happy Birthday is Espanol...and down here Roxanne is Roxana, sort of like I am Roberto.

Here is the last photo, before we dug in...

We didn't think that a really nice day could get any better, but it surely did!

Several months ago, several of our wonderful future guests responded to a call to send Jorge his trip fees in advance, so he could pay the $500 fee it took to enroll in Professional Driver's School.  These very generous folks responded within 20 minutes and, that night Jorge enrolled in the four month night school.

Well, four months is up, and here is Jorge posing with his new license!!!

The authorities are serious about getting unlicensed and undocumented cabbies off the road, so Jorge told us that to reduce the number of traffic stops, between here and Guayaquil, he decided to get his beautiful black ChevyTaxi painted Taxi Yellow!

 Here it is before the "Taxi" sign goes up on top.  This pocket-sized licence comes with a large notarized binder listing all of the coursework that Jorge has completed and his grade in each (He maxed all of his tests!)  In addition, he also has included a notarized document stating that he has passed the psychological evaluation and is "mentally healthy"--something even folks in "First World Countries" can not get!

Here is a shot of Agripina, Rox and Isidro, as she shows off the matching set of dinnerware that was part of the pile of gifts she received for her birthday.

Agripina is a great cook and the matriarch of her family, so we figured that it was time that she could set a table with matching dinnerware...