Keeping Busy

Denise and I are still waiting for the cistern plans so we can submit the permit application, but we're keeping busy each day.  We helped a neighbor demo his bathroom for a few days last week.  I had a good time with the change of pace removing a wall, ceiling, shower, toilet and sink.  The finished bathroom will look pretty good.  I also worked on some electrical issues and repaired a few things for other friends in the past week.

Since the majority of our nights are mostly clear skies, with an amazing amount of stars and little light pollution on the north side of the island, I purchased a cassegrain telescope.  This type of scope allows for great day and night viewing so we can see the stars and the surrounding islands.  We had a few good nights but it's been cloudy for the past few days.  Naturally, the "mostly clear nights" haven't happened after I bought the telescope.  It should be clear Monday night so hopefully we'll have some good views.

While at a friends house I noticed an older telescope he had in the corner.  I told him about the one I just bought and told me to take his if I wanted it.  His was solid brass and had been through the hurricanes that bent the front lens mount.  The tripod also had solid brass linkages and had good looking hardwood.  Overall it looked nice and I figured I could repair it.

I decided to start the reconstruction with the telescope itself just in case it wasn't repairable.  If not it would still look cool in the new house as-is.  The optics came apart fairly easy and each of the six lenses were in great shape after a bit of polishing.  The focus ring (Bottom tube, middle, between the two screwed down rings) was seized but did release after a bit of work.  I was able to remove all the brass screws and completely disassemble the scope.  

The front lens mount required a good smack with a block of wood to remove, but the main pipe and threads were in decent shape and could be reattached at the correct angle.  With all the parts in repairable condition I got to work on the surfaces.  It had enough pitting that I needed 400 grit on most surfaces.  I wet sanded all of it and continued with 800, 1500 and 2000, finishing with #0000 steel wool.  

I considered different finishes or clear coats but figured I'd try WD-40's corrosion inhibitor.  I found it at Home Depot and figured it would be good to try on this, and the aluminum on my power tools due to the salt air.  I'll get started on the tripod in a few days.  

I've also been busy ordering, shipping, picking up and assembling the miter saw, and the mortar mixer used in the dome assembly.  I was amazed at how much assembly was required on the mixer but it went together easy.  Lucy, the big German Sheppard is posing for a picture inside.  She's loving the daily routine of our morning walks with her and Bella, Kent's bush dog.  We take two trips around the hill and every morning Lucy grabs her tennis ball and is ready to go.

The cats have been doing well.  Big Ivan as usual loves the morning and evening feeding time.  Every other time is used for sunning on the chair by the sliding door, or chilling under the bed to prep for the next feeding.  Here he had too much sun but didn't have the energy to get up and grab his sun glasses.  If all else fails, throw an arm over your eyes and continue your nap.

Tonight we had the invasion of the hermit crabs in their feeding area.  Usually we have about 50 crabs but tonight I counted at least 114.  Any time you walk near them you hear the clanking of the shells as they knock into each other.  The largest one is in a shell larger than my fist and the smallest shell is about the diameter of a dime.  

That's the latest.  

Kevin & Denise

Construction delays on a tropical island, can I really complain?

After weeks of delays waiting for our house plans with the official USVI engineering seal we finally received the reason.

According to the engineering company, their engineers had valid USVI seals, although the local building department couldn't validate the authenticity of the seal since their building and contents were destroyed during the hurricanes.  They had spent time dealing with the issue and finally had to fly their engineers to the island to apply for their seals in person, and wait the 2 week validation period.  This is the short version but it's caused delays for us.  We could not get the cistern designed until we had the sealed house plans for reference.  I had a conversation with the owner of the engineering company and explained my frustration.  I provided my plans for the cistern and he said his company could engineer it.  I'm still waiting to hear his cost for performing this work.

Below is my idea for the ~ 30K gallon cistern which will double as a 10' deep deck around the 3 primary entries of the main dome.  I'm not a great artist so I hope you get the picture.  The design will allow us to minimally cut the hill for a level pad on the dome itself and have some space behind it.  Without it we would need to cut deeper into the hill, build a wooden deck up front, or not have usable outside areas with our three northern 12' entry doors and sea views.  Since that was not an option I decided to utilize the hillside for our water and use the top as our deck that won't blow apart during a hurricane.   We plan on attaching solar panels to the vertical concrete walls of the cistern over the hill.  This way they will be facing up and not visible from the house, or from below us on the hill.  They will be removable for storms.

The second half of the delays is with the permitting department.  There were issues caused by the hurricanes and a new permitting process will be implemented July 1st.  I'm told they will not be accepting any new permits until that time.  By then we should have the house and cistern plans and be ready to break ground.

Denise and I have been keeping busy at Kent's house and enjoying island life, so I really can't complain too much about the delays.

Mike from the Farm Pod called us yesterday to join him and Beecher for a planting session at the pod.

We had a great time and helped plant 10 or 12 rows containing various types of lettuce and basil, and also a few rows of nasturtium's, which are edible.  The two closest rows in the picture above were planted earlier.  Some of the fish are in the tanks now so it was great to see them.  I enjoyed our Vancouver yard and garden and I'm pretty excited about having one of these on the property.

Denise and I went back to the Baobab tree today.  We briefly stopped by on the day we picked up our second car and didn't have time to appreciate the size of the tree.  This thing is huge!

The tree has massive trunks although it's one tree with a single root system.  You can get a better idea of the size by our car in the back ground and me on the right hand side.  Here a link to the story behind this tree for it's dedication in 2009.  The hurricanes did some damage to the canopy but it's coming back.

The fruit of the tree is pretty cool too.  The ones on the ground were about the size of a pear and covered with soft bristles that were around an eighth of an inch long.

It was a bit windy today with some clouds but as usual the day ended with a great sunset.  Tomorrow we're going snorkeling with our new masks.  They're newer versions of the full face ones we've had since last year but these won't dig into your nose and cheeks.   

That's all for now.  

Kevin & Denise