The next step involved renting a cement mixer and building concrete pillars and incorporating all the electrical wiring before putting it underground.
Forms were created and the electrical conduits fore the wiring were situated in the center.
The wire form required to create the columns which will be used to support our wrought iron gate. The Gate is being custom made and, I believe, is now ready to be installed.
During the column construction period our house became storage for the expensive wiring that was needed. Minor, the man doing the construction, also became a fixture in our home. Minor and Don had their moments while being roommates and in the end we hired someone else to finish the job.
As the columns progressed we were required to add concrete boxes along the route up the driveway that would make repairs easier in the future.
The ditch became a little larger and the columns started looking like columns!
This is a view of the inside of the Concrete Boxes.
The columns are complete and now tops need to be made for the boxes out of sheets of metal to cover the insides. The tops were finished fairly quickly, although not the correct size. In order for the tops to fit, Don had to chisel about 5 mm. off the sides of each box. Once this was completed, strips of plastic were placed over the wire conduit to alert anyone digging that there are electrical wires below.
Skeeter and I both helped to lay plastic! He He!
In addition to the columns and laying the electrical wiring we also had 3 lamp post created along the driveway to light the way to our home.
A view of the elelctrical box with the cover in place.
The next step is to cover up the ditch. Here Jeffery, Roberto's son, is digging dirt away from the Cana where it has been pushed by earth moving equipment previously working on the driveway.
Paco returned with his backhoe to fill in the ditch where we had the electrical buried and readied our driveway for gravel and compacting, the next step. Once he was finished Don and I did some hand work to dig ditches along the side of the road and fill in holes to prevent erosion. Quite a job for the two of us with Don's bad arm and me loafing for 3 months.
The columns, boxes and buried wiring are done and now we are ready to install our gate, add gravel and compact!! So many steps.
Up on top of the hill, while all the above was going on, there has been a bit of erosion along the side of our home site down through the coffee.
Skeeter is checking out the damage! Don says, " No problem, we now know where to put the 1/2 round." 
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| With Roberto helping with the electrical work, the coffee has been a little neglected! All things considered, it is doing very well and Roberto is back working on the coffee! |
