Week 2

Things are going great here, got my property papers all done correctly now with Chino's name on the title. That saved me around 6-8 thousand dollars and the yearly Fedicomiso charge of 3-4 hundred. I hear a lot of Americans own property that way, unless you have lots of moola to go through the hoops...

I saw my first scorpion last week, he was out in the driveway in a bunch of leaves where I was cleaning up and picking up rocks to redo the driveway. I can't see up close without my glasses on so I almost didn't see him.. I called to Chino cause I saw something, he was all curled up, and he said yes that's a scorpion and stabbed him with a pitch fork then he opened up and he was about 3-4 inches long. Chino took him over to the fire we had going and so he won't be back! Thats why I ALWAYS were my gloves, problem is that now I have tan arms and white hands!! ha ha...

Then I got stung by a bee, it swelled up a little and itched for about 5 minutes then went away until the next day when it started itching again and got this big red spot around it and that lasted about 2 days then it went away.

And I almost sprained my ankle, phew that would have really been a bummer!!! it hurt for a while then finally went away too.

The final 2 sides of my foundation has been started. The foundation guy gets the highest pay of $5.00 and hour, the helper gets $2.50. All the god helpers are working in the fields, its harvest time for pinto beans and watermelon, so any guy who doesn't like to work hard (but good pay) are the only ones available in town. The first helper was a kid and he was good for nothing and we didn't have him back, the 2^nd guy wasn't much better but he lasted about a week, we now have another guy who isn't too bad, but he ain't no Chino! Chino is such a hard worker, man if I had 4 of him this place would be done already! He's a great foreman and really gets things moving. Gets the rock, sand, gravel and machinery here pronto, and makes sure they don't slack on the job.

During this watermelon harvest there is watermelon everywhere, people give it away like Zucchinni at home!! I have still 2 big melons to eat!

I have to get a small retaining wall built before I leave because the heavy rains that come in May or June would wash away all the newly moved dirt down the hill. I am probably going to have my airline return flight changed and stay another 3 weeks to help get that done.

So far the cement has cost me $400., Brick-$200., rock, sand and gravel-$220(will need more rock soon) and brick and cement....) Labor so far totals about $900., and the sewer pipe will be around $60.. and I have 4 windows and 1 door yet to buy.. those are going to be pretty expensive from what I hear. I don't think I'll have any money left to put in the floor or a roof, or the kitchen...darn it!!! I'm going to put a cement pad down for the toilet for now, I hope....

Its been 90 degrees nearly every day, once it got down to 86 and that all just in the shade! Its gets to about 60 at night.

I have to laugh when anyone speaks to me in Spanish... when I am looking at them still trying to decipher what they might have said, they repeat it slowly and MUCH louder...like that is going to help!! ha ha...

I was going to buy some hamburger to fix some burgers here, but there is no such thing as hamburger to be found and no bacon! You can buy hamburgers on the street, but not raw hamburger to fix at home, weird...I'm sure Puerto Vallarta has much more selection, but thats 1 ½ hours away and to drive in the bigger cities here is to really take you life at risk.. They have a Walmart there I have heard too. When I go to the airport in Puerto Vallarta, I'll be going by bus and taxi.. still way no fun!!!

Guess I'll be putting a meat grinder on my list of things to bring down next time.. I miss B-B-Q-ed burgers!! there is plenty of beef around. Just not ground up for burgers! Well until later...

Week One

Well, My place has been quite the center of attraction in the neighborhood, usually the rich Americans are building up on the hill and this part of the neighborhood doesn't get a lot of action, so lots of people have been coming by to check it out..even though I am on a dead end street and not that many people know its happening.

Somehow, I had my camera on the internal setting so I will have to add the couple of beginning videos when I get back since I forgot to grab my USB cable, thank goodness my laptop has a card reader! Things are rolling along pretty good, something happened with my electricity and the fan works (thank goodness!) but bummer, my fridge and cook plate seem to draw too much electricity and now won't work. A guy came by and checked everything out and stripped all the ends on all the connections but that didn't help, ( the charge was $7.00!) he said the full power is not coming from the main meter, so we have to take a trip to the next town, Las Varas, to talk to the electric company to come out and see whats up. Hope that gets fixed soon! I can't have coffee or cold water and milk!!

Man its been terribly hot, just won't cool off for me, makes it really hard to work in! One day it did only get to 86! but everyday has been 90, guess I'm lucky it hasn't been 100! (yet?)

Even when I come home (to M's mom's) and I'm hotter than heck, it still is no fun to take a shower with cold water. I'm going to do solar water with black pipe on the roof. You can bet that will be plenty hot enough. I will pipe it to a kitchen sink too. A few people here have electric instant water heaters, but I'm sure solar will do just fine without the cost of electricity, just need to see how may hundred feet of black pipe to make it work well. I will see what the cost is for that here, hope its as cheap as home. A lot of things are more expensive here like anything that is a luxury... like cars, washing machines, tools, cement, refrigerators, mattress's, windows. Gas is about the same as home though. But water and electricity seem to be a bit cheaper than home. I talked to a guy who works in a camera shop and he gets paid about $100 a week. The guy doing the cement work is $40 a day 7:30-5:00. The rock load cost me $70 and the sand/gravel was $75. The cement is $10 a bag (yikes and I need lots!!)

The foundations they build here are humungeous, guess its cause they build with brick and not wood. The foundation they are building will hold 3 stories. If I can ever even afford the second story I will be doing good. Thats the biggest cost for sure.

I am hoping that there are not so many Roosters at my end of the street as there are here at M's mom's!! They start crowing well before daylight and its funny cause you can hear them all over town, near and far...so I'm sure it won't be much different..My neighbors across the street have some but at least not a tree full of them right outside my bedroom window! Its so cute to hear the baby roosters, I'll try to get a video of the baby one that is across the street from me, such a little baby crow, it is funny..

Well, I could bore you all day with just tales of this week, so I'll get more on next week sometime. Got lots of video here!

Made it!

Well we made it!! Got here >Friday Yesterday at 3:00. Cost $350 something in gas, 3 nights in motel for another $150 or so, and the toll roads about $100. I´ll say this much, I do not recommend anyone to do this drive!! I know Mexican drivers are maniacs, but they sure proved it on this trip, holy cow.. I can´t believe we made it without some idiot clipping us as they pass so close you couldn´t get a hair inbetween the cars. And tailgating? ha, you don´t know the meaning till you drive this country!! Speed limit was (on the good hiways,) 75 which means nothing to them!! Alot of the road was at least freeway like.. only some was really rough and you really had to watch for potholes...THEN.... WE HAD A BREAKDOWN!! man was that a bit of a scare.. but we were very lucky it didn´t happen the night before when we drove past dark to get to a bigger town and again very lucky we were in a spot where there was room on the side of the road to pull over!!! much of the time there was NO PLACE to pull off.. and then lucky also that where we were there was some guys with tractors out in a field spraying and Chino walked WAAAAY out to them and they brought him back and the guy found that our battery had come disconnected from all the rough roads and ridiculous tope´s (speedbumps) that they have all over the place. I wish I had remembered to take a video of where he was walking darn it...way out in this corn field. I sat at the car and waved this VW that was passing on the other side of the fence where the fields were and a nice gentleman, well dressed , older, stopped and I did my best to convey to him that my amigo in a blanco shirt (pointing) was going to get help and our truck would not start. I picked up from him that he was going somewhere quick then he would come back and go get chino out in the field.. but chino had gotten to the tractors and they brought him back just as that gentleman came back and the tractor driver tied up the battery enough to get the truck going and the nice gentleman had us follow him to the machanico just 5 miles up the road.. Phew!!! lotta luck there!!

Today the backhoe came and dug a trench for one part of the foundation but chino is having a hard time finding the help that was going to help us cause alot of americans are buying up land here and getting all the people to work for them so helpers are now hard to find!! and they are paying better than what we were... the back hoe was $35 for an hour..pretty good!

I got my place all set up and if I can find an english speaking person sometime at one of the internet cafe´s here (or get Chino to come with me) I´ll see if I can load the video´s of the ¨"camp"... I have a hot plate and a tarped off corner for a bathroom and my Boom box and a table and 2 chairs.. what else do ya need!! I won´t be staying over night in it this trip.. not till everything is all sealed up good.. don´t want any bugs or scorpions getting in!! I did bring alot of lunch stuff, PB and jelly, soups, Ramen, cereal, coco, coffee, so I do lunch fine.. But I sure wish I could cook! Oh and I brought my little fridge too. and a fan!! it was 90 today!! yuk!!!!

Well, can´t think of anything else to add... Flying is sure cheaper and much less stressful and of course quicker!! But I really need to bring down one more truck load.. bummer,, what a trip it is!!