the ground below

With the roof installed our attention shifted to the floor. Rebecca has suggested that a dirt floor would be insufficient.


The first step was to fill the floor with rocks. Fortunately we have an abundance of rocks. Using buckets and bins we, as well as a number of other people, filled the floor with rocks.




The rocks serve to raise the floor up off the ground a bit. During the rainy season, the rain can come so quickly that it doesn't soak into the ground fast enough and pools up all around. Even on relatively high ground, a brief flood can be a problem.

The downside of raising the floor up with rocks is that all those rocks create a surface that would take an enormous amount of concrete to cover over. Cement is $8.25 a 110 pound bag.

Another task that needs to be accomplished at some point is the digging of a septic tank. I had planned that this would happen much later. However suddenly the problem of what to do with the dirt from digging the septic tank became the solution to how to fill all the spaces in the rocks.

So digging on the septic tank commenced. This was fairly slow going. Where the septic tank was dug had about two and a half feet of red dirt and rocks below which is white marl. The dirt was put down on the rocks first, and the white marl covered that.





Once the marl is packed down, the floor begins to resemble a floor. There are some houses that have just such a packed marl floor. It is cool and was considered plenty sufficient by Canelo, a dog from Xaibe who frequently hangs out at Chakha'asi.



Before concrete could be mixed, we needed water, a lot of water. There were several ways to do this. I could buy a pump and a lot of pvc pipe and bring water from the well. This has to be done eventually, but it will take a number of days before I can connect all that together. The other option was to beg water from the papaya company next door. Either way I would need a tank.



The tank cost $165, holds 1,100 liters and came with a bag of valves, a filter and instructions in Spanish. The papaya company ran a big flexible plastic pipe from the mainline of their irrigation system to our tank. When we need water we just go to the little road between the two properties and wave at the watchman for the field. He turns on a valve and we fill our tank, then after another wave and he shuts off the water. It works out very well for us, but it is a temporary fix.

With ready access to water, concrete mixing began. A space near the house was chopped, cleaned very good and then plastered with a mortar of cement and sand. Once dry, this was where the first batch of concrete was mixed.






Once the concrete was hard on the first quarter, mixing took place directly on the new concrete floor. This allowed larger batches to be mixed.









At least one night a week, Johnny and I do night security. Above is a picture of the camp fire we build to make tea and then cover with grass to make smoke to drive off the mosquitoes. This last time we watched as an amazing thunderstorm with wicked lightning slowly approached.