T.G.I.F.

It's been a busy week at Casa de la Macha.
There are four houses being built on the mountain in front of me and a new public access road to the beach is being built near me. The dump trucks for the fill dirt pass by my house to make the new road to the beach. All day, for weeks, I have heard earth-movers coming and going. They are also bringing in fill dirt for the houses under construction BEFORE THE BIG RAIN comes.

I caught the "construction" bug and decided I needed to prepare for the rain, also. We are just in the beginning of the "wet season". It's hard to imagine how much rain we get here. Last year, I counted over 100 days we had rain, everyday! I'm from S.W. Florida and thought it would be similar rainfalls. NOT. We have mountains here. I have a mini-river next to my house when the rain is flowing down the mountain in earnest.

One of my projects this week has been to dig out, again, the entrance and fill with rocks (again). I did this same thing before the fence was installed but the back-hoe took out most of it for the entrance gate and driveway.

Monday started with a trip to the river to order the rocks. That's where they set-up shop, by the river. It's a money-making business out there. I ordered small river rocks - $88 for 6 meters. They were too small for the driveway so I had to go back out there and order larger ones ($100). In my experience, you always have to do things twice here before you get it right. ("Trucos" - tricks) (Pink words have photos under them)

It rained hard yesterday so I was able to see where the water would collect. Today it's bright and sunny and my worker is shoveling diligently so I can close my gate by nightfall. He needs the money/work. I have offered to pay a back-hoe to make his job easier but I think he's waiting until he gets tired or the rain comes and then he'll go get the back-hoe guy who is making the beach road. I pay Jose $3.00 an hour which is double the typical wage. A back-hoe, to do it on the side, would be about $30. Funny thing about workers here... when Jose works alone, he does the work of two men. When he has help, it's half the work with double the guys.
They like to talk.

WELL, beta.blogger will not load my photos so more to come later..... HELP!!!!!!! The only way I could insert photos was using a Link.
I'll keep trying.

Update: It's noon and I'm able to close my gate before Jose takes his lunch-time.
Jose worked like three men this morning and I didn't need a back-hoe!

My girlfriend dug an entire pool with just three guys and three shovels.