Plans submitted to CZM

Today marks 5 months since we've arrived on the island!

Our site plan is complete and the entire package has been submitted to the Coastal Zone Management department for review.  We had to have the house and cistern plans, site map, topology, flood zone and other maps, adjacent neighbors report and proof of current property and federal tax payments.  This is a 45 day process where they take the info and create a packet for adjacent neighbors.  They call us and we go pick up the packets and mail them certified to the adjacent neighbors within 150' of our property.  Those neighbors have 30 days to review and contest any development plans.  We were told this is mainly for commercial use and there's never been opposition to a private home.  Either way it's a long process but we're moving now.  Once the CZM process is complete then the plans are sent to the Department of Planning and Natural Resources (DPNR) to approve our building permit.

The site plan below shows the placement of the domes, driveway, cistern, septic, drain field and elevations.  There's also cross section views but I didn't add them here.  The added stuff in the upper left was not part of the submitted plan and only for this blog.  It shows the location of the rock area I mentioned in the last post, along with the trail from the house, up the hill through the rocks, west to the camping area we created last week, and over to Tito, the tourist tree.

The Tito area will be another private sitting area overlooking the sea.  I mentioned in an earlier post that Tito the tourist tree got his name when we were here in February buying the property.   The entire property is in the jungle so this is a private area, and a pretty large tree with a great canopy.  A few months ago I dug out a flat area above the tree with the intention of building a retaining wall using the rum barrels from Sajah Farms.  Now that we have a few barrels Denise and I went down and started construction of the wall.

The picture below is the Tito area, the tree and the sea are on the right.  I forgot to take a picture before I started digging on the hill so it may be hard to visualize what it looked like with a flat area. 

Here's what it looks like with one barrel in place.  These barrels are heavy with 1" thick oak slats and heavy steel bands.  The land in this area of the property is about 75% rock and 25% soil.  Denise and I dug out the area for the first barrel and used a gravel screed to separate the rocks and soil.  I created a rock base, set the barrel and filled it 50%with rock.  The barrel is offset at a 10 degree angle.  As we dig out the next barrel position we'll put the rock in the existing barrel and the dirt over the edge.  Once the next barrel pad is ready I'll set the barrel, bolt them together in the middle with lag bolts, and fill it with the rock from the next location.  When complete we will have a slightly curved retaining wall with 6 or 7 barrels and a rock pad.  I'll probably use large flat rocks from around the property for the pad, but that will probably wait until we start excavation.  This will give me access to a greater selection instead of hiking the jungle and breaking my back hauling them up or down the hill.  Stay tuned.  

Denise and I have continued our volunteering at Sajah farms and finished the tables for their bush cook today.  Below is the advertisement for the event.  Our friend Mike Straight from the Farm Pod will be one of the chefs.

Dale from the farm went to one of the communications companies and picked up some of their recycled plastic cable reels to be used for the table tops.  These turned out far better than the wooden reels we originally had since these are smooth topped.  The barrels in the picture below are not on level ground so they appear to be crooked, but are all straight and a standard 30" height.  We made 21 tables, 5 garbage barrels, 3 bar tables and 3 coolers for the bartender.  This has been a lot of fun for us.  I've got some ideas for lights using barrel rings, and a few other ideas for other items we will create.

Yes, it's another awesome sunset!  This was from a few days ago when we had a full moon, or pretty close to it.

The moon was so bright as one of our quick showers passed over that we had a moon rainbow on the hill below us.  I couldn't get a good picture with my cell phone but added the one below.  You might be able to see it if you look at the right side of the tree branches down to the house below near the center.  There was no color, only white light bent around the shower below.  It was really bright and I wish I could have captured a clear picture.  Denise tried with here Canon camera but it was too late and faded away.     

Here's a picture of one of our 5 minute showers Wednesday as it passed to the west providing a great rainbow.

Leftovers from tropical storm Kirk will hit us tonight with some wind, rain and lightning, but the sky is still 50% clear and turning a nice orange and pink color from west, all the way to the east as the sun sets.

The sounds of the jungle at night are amazing with the the waves from the sea, bugs, frogs, night birds and the occasional rain shower.  It may not be for everybody but we love it.  I included a an audio recording and hopefully it will render properly in this blog.  (Update 9/30/18: Video should be working.)  We discovered that your brain shuts off the sounds while you sleep and you still hear anything around you that's not normal, such as a door closing.  If I wake up at night it takes about 15 seconds for me to fully hear the sounds again.  Pretty cool phenomenon.

That's all for now.

Kevin & Denise

Weather, or not.

Not much to report on the home.  We're still waiting for the site plan to be finished to submit all the paperwork.  Hurry up and wait, but it's not really a big issue since we're in the danger month for hurricanes and I'd prefer to not be mid construction and have one hit, or deal with washout from heavy rains on the excavated portions. 

Tropical storm Isaac is on its way but appears to be slowing and weakening according to the hurricane center.  The one in early July was pretty mild and this one appears to be the same.  Helene behind it will head north out of our way.  Good luck to my friends on the east coast for Florence.

The last two days have been calm, possibly the calm before the storm.  With winds below 5 mph the sea has been calm leaving the interesting currents visible.  The clear skies between the islands gave us unobstructed views of the US and British Virgin islands, and views of Puerto Rico we hadn't seen before.  On a really clear day we can see all three of Puerto Rico's main islands but the views a few days ago were amazing.  Sorry, I didn't take any photos, but you can see the US and British islands through the clouds in the one below.  

As I said in my last post, weather here typical doesn't vary from day to day, or throughout the year.  I was curious about the amount of rain during our brief showers, and the trade winds that come through in the afternoon so I purchased a weather station.  Mike and Beecher from the Farm Pod had been using the Acurite version that uses your phone or computer instead of a dedicated external reporting station.  They were happy with the results so Denise and I purchased one and installed it 18' up on two 3/4" EMT conduits.  This will provide accurate data without mechanical interference and turbulence to skew the results.  Here's a link to the station data on Weather Underground which is also accessible through the link on the upper right hand corner on a full web browser.  Knowing the rain collection area of our home, and the data from the weather station, I will have a better idea of the volume of water added to our cistern after a shower using this calculator.  It's more a curiosity for me since a simple measuring stick dipped in the cistern would provide similar data, but I tend to be a bit nerdy and like to know more.  

Denise and I met the owners of Sejah Farms after a discussion about rum barrels.  That's the short version but basically I was looking for some barrels to use in a few of Denise's oasis areas on the property and heard they had some.  I'll talk about that later in this post.  Yvette mentioned they were going to use some of their barrels for their bush cook, a yearly farm to the table event.  They were wanting to make coolers, chairs and other items out of the barrels but their workers had not been around.  Since I had plenty of free time while we waited I volunteered our time and tools to the project.  Denise and I built three coolers that will be used at the bartenders tent and are working on some designs for chairs and other items.  

I played around with different base designs using barrel parts.  These things are heavy and will be much heavier when filled with ice and drinks.  

The chair designs are a bit tricky.  The barrels are charred so we'll need to incorporate a design that can be easily reproduced on about 30+ chairs and not have the person covered in any charcoal.  Below is one that I started with a base cut to try some ideas for the back rest.  

I've been doing other work around to keep busy working on our dishwasher that started leaking, and fixing a neighbors refrigerator.  I've also been working on our mini garden.  We don't want to plant anything on our property near our home site until the excavation is complete so we're planting things in pots for now and will move them later.  

We have Thai, lemon, Italian and Lettuce leaf basil, rosemary, oregano, chives, lemon grass, peppermint, Genip trees, avocado's, soursop, cherry tomatoes, mango, spider lily, sweet banana peppers, common peppers (an island pepper), coconut and Christmas palms, cilantro and star fruit.  The star fruit tree next to the garden area dropped all its fruit and is now in full bloom again and covered with thousands of bees.  It's a pretty cool sound when you stand close.  Hopefully the seeds from the dropped fruit will germinate soon.  My mahogany seeds haven't come up yet but it took the neighbors about 8 weeks to pop up.  

Our property has some really cool hidden areas in the jungle.  I've hiked most of it and marked areas of interest with the GPS.  It's only 1.2 acres, but the brush is thick on the hillside and easy to miss things 20' around you in all directions.  Two specific areas are a hidden reading-sunbathing area on a large rock outcropping, and a private seating area under Tito, the large tourist tree.  

Here's the before picture of the rock area.  I came across this one day when I was alone exploring the property and thought this would be a great area for Denise to sit, relax and enjoy the awesome views.  I cleared the brush and exposed more boulders below.  This gave me additional ideas on how to sculpt the area.  

After a few days work I had cleared the brush and created rock stairs to the top.  These stairs lead to the trail to the West that ends at the Tito oasis about 60' away.  The path I cut between includes the perfect camping area so plan on sleeping outside for at least one night if you come to visit.  

I wanted to accent the rocks but showcase the surrounding vegetation.  Our friend and neighbor Gerry is doing some work at his house and removing a bunch of aloe vera plants.  These are some of the ones I mentioned a few months ago when I harvested some gel.  I hauled a bunch down and planted them around the perimeter, with a few on the trail too.  We built a 1/4" gravel screed and sifted the top soil from the rock as I built the stairs.  This provided additional soil on the aloe plants.  I used the leftover small rocks to fill in the cracks of the large stair rocks, and the larger ones for fill in other areas.  

The triangle seat rock in the top middle was about 15' up the hill.  I saw this upper area as a great seat or throne and wanted to move the rock down the hill.  Gravity was against me but everything went as planned as I slowly rolled it down.  The last turn was crucial and it could have ended up rolling too far but it all went as planned and became the perfect seat.  Denise calls it King Kevin's throne.    

The Tito oasis will utilize the rum barrels as a retaining wall.  I'll dig out the hillside behind about 10 additional feet and fill the barrels with the rock.  At this point I don't plan on starting that area until the road and driveway are cleared.  Work smarter, not harder!  I don't want to carry the barrels through the brush.  Denise hauled a double love seat plastic chair gifted to us by Gerry down to Tito so we have a usable area for now.

Our friend Ronda arrived Saturday and will be staying with us for the next eight days.  She's enjoying the weather and the views.  

I'll leave you with the rainbow of the day picture brought to you by our five minute shower.  Enjoy!

  

Kevin, Denise and Ronda too.