Busy, Busy, Busy!

In the last couple weeks life here has moved into high gear.  With the start of coffee picking season, the holidays and the construction of our house we have been too busy to sit and blog.  A day of picking starts at 4:00 a.m. readying everything to leave the house and gather our pickers and other workers at 6:00 a.m.  As we were short of pickers the first week, I worked and I have a lot of respect for anyone who picks 6 days a week through the season.  I am off today!!  Anyway, we have been finishing picking about 2:30 at which time the coffee goes to the recevedor for measuring and sending to the coop in Palmares.  Hopefully, home by 4:00 p.m., dinner and then bed!

Now to the great strides that have been made on our house.

On a regular basis materials are arriving by large trucks called vagonetas as shown in the photos here.

Heading up the driveway with a load of gravel.

 This truck is delivering a very black sand which is used in making the concrete.

The materials get dumped near the driveway, the only space available on the property.  Hard to believe we have over 9 acres as the building site looks so small and crowded.

This vagoneta is delivering cement blocks.  To me everything seems so heavy, however, the guys working the job pick up the block like they are nothing.





Almost unloaded at the front of the bodega, the cement blocks take up quite a bit of room.  What is amazing is how quickly this pile disappears and becomes part of the walls of our house.








Looking out from the front of the bodega.

One more truck, this time delivering 120# sacks of concrete.    Watching them unload is exhausting and I wonder why they all aren't suffering from severe back problems.  They, however, seem to take the work in stride as just another part of the job.

Here wood, Cypress, has been dropped and stacked.  This wood will be used for forms and where ever wood is required.  We have a number of Cypress trees on our property that are detrimental to the coffee and are thinking of cutting them and having them milled for the wood.  Our Architect/Engineer has said he would buy some which would help us with some costs.

Don is very impressed with the wood and as someone who enjoys working with wood is drooling at the thought of having a pile of his own to create furniture, shelving and just about anything.  Good wood is not as plentiful in Costa Rica and what is available is very expensive.

As I walk to the property I come across a view of our construction site and am a bit taken aback. Until recently, we had no idea how visible we were from quite a distance away on the main road!  It will be interesting to see what it looks like when finished!!

It is once again the season of breathtaking sunsets!  The photos never do them justice but I continue to keep trying! :)