Week 2-3

Between the visit to the construction site in Pocone and the arrival of more helping hands, we re-mason lined and water-leveled the entire site with respect to the finished floor elevation (FFE) of the existing house. This means we will need a lot of fill to get 4 cm (slab thickness) below the FFE but we cannot move the FFE because of the rising water levels during the wet season. While we were doing this, Ethan and Julie built a barbed wire fence around the entire site to keep the cows out, for once and for all (this is both to save our time of having to restring our lines but also for the safety of the cows as we begin to dig massive holes for the column footings). We also dug all 60 cm deep pier footings for all interior columns and began the trenches needed for the slab form work and moved a few electric poles out of our way (please note the OSHA-approved ladder in the picture).

Learning Flexibility

We got impatient with hearing “the site will be cleared tomorrow” and decided to take matters into our own hands. After moving large obstacles (posts, satellite, part of a fence, etc.) out of the way, we began the ground-clearing process. While at first, an excruciatingly slow process with the few tools we had at our disposal – a short-handled axe and a pick axe; eventually, we were able to borrow some long-handled hoes (enchada) and rakes (ancinho) from the neighbor (about 10 km away). We successfully cleared the site and are happy we will no longer have to hear that the site will be cleared “tomorrow, for sure!” The pictures show the tools we used and the site after we finished our work, check out Picasa for some before pictures. Next up, some more digging (we think) for the column footings.
Otherwise, we’ve continued to see new kinds of birds and other wildlife every day and had some near encounters with more jaguars. There was a funny moment when we were clearing the site the other day when we looked up and everyone (as in, the tourists at the lodge, the cook, the housekeeper, the neighbor – who happened to be stopping by, and a couple tour guides) was booking it down the road and frantically calling us over to join them – “Jaguar! Jaguar! Jaguar!”. A jaguar had just crossed the road about 40 feet away, having hopped out from the swamp, swept up a capybara (giant rat – as in, small bear size) and walked off into the swamp on the other side. All we were able to see were the massive wet footprints the big cat left behind. There were also a couple tourists from the UK who we got to know the last few days. We spent an afternoon with them down the road at the neighbor’s (also the Eduardo’s uncle) place where we set up a TV in the semi-enclosed porch, and with cows, chickens, and endless wetlands in the background, enjoyed the USA VS. England World Cup match. Thank goodness for England’s butter-fingered goal-keeper! The tie game allowed us to remain friends afterwards. Chasing jaguars and enjoying futbol: some expected field conditions!!

We fashioned our own stakes out of scraps of wood and a newly sharpened machete and spent most of our post-breakfast daylight hours (8:30am to 5:30pm) at the site today. The new building site is an “L” to the west of the existing house. This orientation consolidates the space while also making the courtyard an important feature which connects the new buildings to the existing house. The task was not without its difficulties – mainly, extremely hard soil and mischievous cows who pulled out some of our stakes.