The Trade Winds of Change

Greetings Dome Blog Followers,

Sorry for the delay in my posts, the past month has seen many changes. 

Kent, our 83 year old friend, neighbor, and owner of the house where we're staying died March 3rd.  Denise and I moved in with Kent Mid May last year and have been caring for him.  He had a terminal lung disease and heart issues, and was on oxygen 24/7.  In the beginning we would get up with him in the morning and cook him breakfast, have lunch available in the fridge, cook dinner and spend the evening with him watching his TV shows, or listening to his many stories.  His long time friends said he was 83, but lived the life of a 115 year old with many stories of his adventures.  Denise and I were staying in a second master bedroom at the end of the house, adjacent to his room so we could assist him at night, if needed.  Kent's health started to decline in the past few months and he was needing more nurse visits and full time assistance during the day, more than we could provide while trying to build a house.  The downstairs apartment was empty, so we were moving down there to give our room to full time nurse.  Here's Kent with Denise back in July when she went to Minnesota with him.

Kent's three kids, all in their 60's, have been on the island at various times sorting through the house and weighing the decision to keep or sell the house. Initially their plan was to let us stay here until our house was built, but the condition of the house and general monthly maintenance costs may be changing our living arrangements.  I won't go into the details but we're working on plan A, B, C... for where we're going to live.  We've had offers from other friends and neighbors so we're grateful for all the great people we met on the island.  I've been designing a 10' x 20' temporary house next to our 20' container on the property.  I'm working with the trucking company and excavators to prep the area and get the container moved and septic tank installed.  The roof will collect the water into a water buffalo storage tank until the cistern is built, and we have solar and a generator for power.  The property is isolated, quiet all day with the wave sounds, millions of stars at night, and the nice breeze from the trade winds in the afternoon.  It will be small, but we live on an island with big plans in the works, so it's all good! 

Our friend BJ hooked us up with some new tires and wheels for the jeep.  He had a friend that was building a jeep from the ground up; he had everything but the jeep.  He couldn't find the vehicle he wanted so he decided to sell the wheels.  The day after he sold them he came back to BJ's asking for them back because he'd finally found a jeep he liked.  Too late, they were already sold to us.  The rotten rock on the island can be sharp so having the larger tread helps to avoid flats. 

Our neighbor Ryan is the IT director at a local private school and asked for help on his fiber network due to our past communications experience.  I worked with some of my old vendor contacts and helped him order fiber inspection and cleaning equipment (thanks EXFO for your help).  Denise and I went down one Saturday morning to teach him how to use the gear and saw a big work in progress.  Here's some Cruzian fiber management for all our communications friends reading the blog.  He's slowly getting his network in order.  A fusion splicer is his next major purchase. 

Excavation started again a few weeks ago but it was hit and miss because of equipment and the rocks. Smith's jack hammer was doing a good job but he hit a rock the size of a vehicle.

The hard blue granite would not break or budge after many hits with the hammer.  Once he cleared the rocks around it he exposed the rotten rock base, but couldn't get the angle to chip away the rock.  The dozer could not break it free from its hold.  Our only option was to get a bigger hammer.  They reached out to their contacts and were able to get a track hoe with a very large hammer.  Within five minutes the large rock was broken into around five larger pieces. 

With the large boulder out of the way the large hammer could work on the rock face behind the house location. Unfortunately the dozer broke a water pump and couldn't clear the hammer debris, so we were stuck not being able to chip the rock at the base to make a vertical wall.  With the equipment failure we were going to be down for the weekend.  Turns out they were going to charge me to keep the track hoe over the weekend, even when not in use, and they were trying to charge me a 6 hour minimum per day, not per-job as the standard, so I sent him on his way.  $2,700 for nine hours of work, including transportation cost was enough for me. 

Chico had his friend Richie come out with his Traxcavator to keep the excavation going since he needed to do some major repairs in addition to the water pump.  Richie's machine is $15 more per hour but it has a 2' wider bucket and could move more rock.  Here's Richie clearing the terrace area above the house pad.  All the rock debris below him is covering where the large boulder was.  The edge of the dozer track is a 20' drop. 

One afternoon Richie got too close to the edge in the fill on the left side of the picture and almost rolled his machine down the hill.  After a few hours he was able to get another machine on the property to pull him out. 

My parents, Jim and Bonnie are visiting on the island.  Originally they were going to stay in the apartment downstairs but Kent's death changed the plans a bit.  Our friend Gerry offered his guest house for them so they've been enjoying their stay, and taking care of Gerry's dog Cosmo while he's away.   

We started their tour with a trip down to the property.  My mom was all ready to help with the excavation.  Too bad Smith didn't leave the keys to the back hoe. 

We piled into the jeep and headed up the hills to the top of Blue Mountain, a whopping 1,096' to see the views of the island.  Our road to the property is at 800' so we're also pretty high up too.  The highest peak on the island is in the west end at 1,160' but we didn't drive to the top.  We've explored many parts of the island and took a trip out to Point Udall, the southernmost part of the US.  Buck Island is in the background. 

Buck island is one mile wide but looks short and round from our perspective at the property. 

Yesterday we took a trip out to our friend Roniel's house, the VI honeyman.  When we arrived, Roniel had the smoker and a bee suit ready for my mom.  He took her down to the hives and gave her an up close tour of the bees. 

The green racks holding the hives are what Denise and I helped him build last year.  They're designed to strap the hives to the rack and stay put during a hurricane.  He lost a few hundred hives during the last hurricane, and about 40 more after the storm during the drought.  This design should help during the next storm. 

My mom had a great time and was able to see one of the queens.  She's the larger bee on the right side. 

We took a tour of his garden, banana and plantains, and left with honeycomb, papaya, bananas and other good stuff. 

Last week we drove through the rain forest and explored Creque dam.  Denise and I had driven past it a few times and enjoyed our stop with my parents.  The 45' high arch dam was built in 1926 to store water for Frederiksted.  It was designed to hold nine million gallons but is now shallow and full of silt.  Denise and I walked across the top, but my mom and the other dam visitor in the picture stayed at the railings end. 

We hope to get my parents out the the Farmpod today and maybe lunch at the Serving Spoon II, a local food place with great flavor. 

I woke up early today to work on this blog entry but found the internet was still slow.  Denise came out from the bedroom and said she thought we had another rat in the tool room because of the noises we had been hearing.  We went back to the bedroom and found one of the land crabs outside our door.  The locals say they're good eating and I miss dungeness crab from the NW, but decided to move him off to the side yard instead.  If he comes back we might have some crab dinner. 

Our plan was to go to Puerto Rico Sunday for a few days with my parents but the work on the property may keep us here. 

That's all for now.  I'll try to update the blog a little sooner if we have some down time during all these changes. 

Kevin & Denise

Our Second Agrifest

Last weekend Denise and I enjoyed our second Agrifest.  Normally they are held in mid February, but the hurricanes delayed last years until May so we were able to attend.  Since we met Dale and Yvette with Sejah Farm last July we've had fun helping them build things for their bush cook event, and helping on the farm.  (Here's a link to a Foodie Insider video from the bush cook). 

I mentioned in the last blog entry that we built the panels for this years display and installed them in the booth area.  Here's a picture of what we started with.

With the main display mostly completed we were able to add the quarter barrels to see if they'd work to hold the produce. 

Here's the final product with Yvette before the judging. 

Left to right, here's closer look of each section on the first day.  They would change things around on the other two days depending on items available.  The left section had green tomatoes on the left, going up to ripe red ones, cherry tomatoes, okra, zucchini, sweet season peppers, pumpkin, egg plant and herbs in bags.  The back wall had seasoning, honey from the VI honeyman and a book, Hidden Secrets by Clarice Clark, pictures of historical and natural parts of the island.  The large leaves between the barrels holding the vegetables came from our property.  I had found them a few months ago and marked them on the GPS so I was able to hike down the hill through the brush and get some. 

The middle section contained spicy season peppers,ginger, green papaya, turmeric, carambola, sweet potatoes, three different types of banana's, and eggs from a local church youth group.  Dale and Yvette donate the unmarketable produce to the group to feed the chickens. 

We added a shelf to the door so we could display the green onions and chives.  Denise is with one of Yvette's grandsons, and a granddaughter hiding on the right. 

The right section contained all the greens with Kale, Swiss chard, Pac & toy choy, chinese cabbage, turnip tops, arugula, lettuce, collard greens and spinach. 

Dale and Yvette came in first place for their display, and grand champions for their products.  One of the local newspapers came by to get a pictures so they had Denise and I join them for the photo (the paper misspelled Denise's name). 

The event was Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  We were up early Sunday and Monday to harvest more vegetables and herbs, wash and bag them, then head to the fairgrounds.  Monday night we took down most of the loose items, then Tuesday morning we were at the fairgrounds by 6 AM.  In about an hour Dale, Denise and I had the entire display disassembled and on the trailer. 

We had a great time and are really happy we could help them this year along with other their other volunteers Christina, Paige and Andrew.  We met many great people from the US mainland and other local islands.  They shared recipe ideas for the fruits and vegetables from different cultures. 

Last week I had a little adventure on the way back from Home Depot when I witnessed this accident. 

We have one highway that runs east to west.  The construction had the left lane closed (we drive on the left here) and signs and barrels were in place to move vehicles to the right lane.  I was behind the truck with the boat, and he was behind the red car.  The red car waited too long before merging.  I was going to move over but noticed two white Japanese mini trucks (steering wheels on the right) quickly approaching in the right lane.  I waited for them to go by then moved over.  The woman in the red car started to merge near the end of her lane but notice the trucks coming.  She hit her brakes hard then stopped to avoid the trucks.  Both trucks sped by, but by that time the truck was breaking hard.  The trailer swung to the right and broke his passenger tail lights.  At the last second he decided to swerve left while braking but hit a few construction barrels and forced his nose hard left.  With brakes still on, the trailer was on two wheels sliding sideways about to roll when it slammed into the back of the red car.  I was far enough back to avoid the carnage and pulled to the left shoulder.  Both drivers were fine but their vehicles were badly damaged.  The boat trailer is tweaked a bit but should be fine. 

We're still waiting for the excavator to be fixed.  The correct part came in but he still has hydraulic issues.  Hopefully Chico will be up and running by Monday. 

That's all for now. 

Kevin & Denise

Still waiting for machine parts, still finding things to do.

Chico is still waiting on the correct parts to arrive so we can continue the excavation.  He received the incorrect part for his traxcavator, had to send it back, so the waiting continues.  Denise and I spent some time cutting and trimming trees around the house site to open up the view.  Our final view will be about 220 degrees and will give us sunrises over Christainsted and the east end of the island, and sunsets over Ham's Bluff on the west end.  We noticed the other day that we're able to see a little bit of the sea on the south shore through a valley over Christiansted.  Sorry for the shaky video and wind noise.  It was a bit windy yesterday and I forgot to edit the sound out before uploading.

We received more plants from friends and have most of them planted on the property.  I'll add photos on the next blog update.  Denise and I helped our friend Gerry plant some fox tail palms, and also helped him build two raised beds.  

Last week Kent's son Tom was on the island to help us finish the repairs to the small cistern.  I had it prepped by draining it, cleaning and pressure washing it, then drying it out.  I had to remove the storm plugs from two downspouts to divert the water from that cistern.  We drilled a hole about 8' from the bottom for the overflow to the large cistern, and diverted another downspout to the large cistern.  Once we were done we had to seal it using a product called Thoroseal.  This is basically like a sandy cement water proofing mixture you paint on the walls and floor.  Tom and I were down in the cistern spreading the product while Denise as up top with the large drill mixing the goop.  It took us a few days but everything is sealed, downspouts reconnected and it's raining as I type so water is flowing in. 

The VI Agrifest is this weekend.  Last May I put some info on the blog from last years agricultural festival.   It's normally in February but the hurricanes set it back to May last year.  We had only been on the island a month and so much has changed for Denise and I since that time.  We've met so many great farmers and many of their friends.  Our favorites farmers, Dale and Yvette from Sejah Farm will be there again this year.  We had so much fun with helping them prepare for their bush cook, and are glad we're able to help them with this years Agrifest.  Keeping with the barrel design we used during the bush cook, and in their market, we decided to flatten barrels on boards to create a wall across their booth. 

We had 29' to work with in their display.  They'll have three 8' wide tables and and entry into their booth from the front.  We decided to create three 8' panels using the barrels.  A flattened barrel covers about 6.5' so we started from one end and worked our way across as we disassembled them, keeping the center plug centered for that barrel.  The picture below should give you a better idea of what I'm trying to explain.  The ground is a bit uneven so they look warped, but they are smooth when they're vertical.  I had to find barrels that had similar curvatures to keep a consistent look. 

Dale and Yvette were asked to showcase the VI's agriculture at a Havana Nights Cuban festival fund raiser for Project Promise last weekend.  Dale decided to use the barrel panels we built so we packed them up Saturday and took them to Fredericksted Fort for the event.  We took all three panels, and nine quarter barrels from the market for the display.  They already had some full barrels at the fort so we used them as corner pieces to blend the area together.  We didn't worry about top or bottom of the panels, or which order they were in. 

Here's a view from the back side looking out to the guest seating area before the event started. 

The event appeared to be a great success.  All the tables were full (I believe $65 per seat) and the food and live music were great.  There were a few quick rain showers as expected on a tropical island, but the party continued through them.  We stayed dry under the tent in the display.  After the event we took down the display and loaded them on the trailer.  It was a long day and we had a good time.  

Today we took the panels to the agricultural grounds to build their display.  We were able to get the panels mounted and the gate installed.  I built two shelves for the back wall (painted and drying on the front two tables) and still need to mount them, and finish the boards at the top that will hold their banner.  There will be shade cloth covering the window in the back.  The windows had some damage that hasn't been repaired.  It's still rough but should look great in a few days, and be the best looking booth during the event.  Denise and I are glad we're able to be a part of the adventures.  

Ivan decided to sit with me tonight as I updated the blog.  Normally he's nearby but tonight he had to get in a little closer.  He hung out over my arms for awhile then sat between us as I finished.  Jack is at my feet where he usually sleeps.  

Some people get emails when I update the blog.  I see that Google+ has gone away so I'm not sure how it will affect how followers are notified of my blog updates, or how comments will be handled or displayed.  

That's all for now.  I'll post pictures of this weekends events early next week if possible.  

Kevin & Denise.  

Broken Machine, Excavation on hold

The dozer's steering clutch on the right side broke last week.  Due to the weight of the machine, and the hill it was difficult for him to get it off the property so he could fix it.  It took another machine to pull him out and gently ease him down the concrete hill at the start of our road.  Looks like we're delayed at least another week. 

I've been keeping busy working on Kent's cistern.  There was a leak in the small cistern, about 5k gallons.  I drained the water into the main cistern, pressure washed it and vacuumed it dry.  Kent's son Tom is coming in a few days so we can work on the repair and reseal the cistern. 

We have also been working at neighbors house demolishing their kitchen.  We pulled out everything including a dividing wall and island.  It's been fun work to keep us busy.  I've also continued to work on sanding and repainting their sea-side aluminum windows. 

The rotten rock on the island can be sharp so we need to check the road and driveway after each days excavation if we drive down to our property.  We were reminded of this the hard way when we got a flat tire in the jeep.  We made it down to a flat spot where our driveway starts so I could change the tire.  Bad news is the hole was too big to fix so we had to buy a new one.

With the road to our property cleared we were able to have our three 40' containers with our dome panels delivered.  That was an adventure, and a bit expensive because they needed two vehicles to get them up the hill, one to pull and another to push.  The containers have been on the island for around five months in a secured area with the original seal.  It was great to open them and see the size of the panels up close.  You can go to aidomes.com to get an idea of their size. 

I haven't been updating the blog because we've had long days and I'm too tired to work on it.  I believe I've mentioned before that our internet is slow here so it can take awhile to upload pictures.  I find that my writing gets worse as the night goes on, sorry in advance for any run on or confusing sentences.  Below is the draft post I had from last week before the dozer broke. 

                                                                                   

Rock, Rock, Rock!!!!

Did I mention our island is hard granite rock?  The other VI's are volcanic, ours was formed by plate movement.  The rotten rock on top was easy pushing, but the granite under has been tough.  I've talked to three neighbors who have modified their house designs due to the amount of rock, and the cost of chipping it.  We have plan B in place if we need to raise the house on columns to the terrace level if the rock chipping becomes too expensive.

All has been going great for the last few days.  I haven't posted updates because it's hard to see the elevation changes and progress as they chip down and remove the rock.  The camera makes it look like very little has been done each afternoon.

We wanted to save the turpentine tree on the west side of our house.  It would have made a great tree outside of our bedroom.  It's the largest tree in front of the dozer in the picture below, from when the track was off, but the elevation change over the last two days would have put it too high, and the roots would be compromised.  It would eventually die so it will come out in a day or two.

Our neighbors on the other side of the hill have had Chico work on their property as Smith hammers ours.  Smith breaks the rock as far as he can reach with the back hoe, then Chico comes back and moves the debris.  It's worked out well for both of us since they're paying half the cost to bring the equipment out here.

Our neighbor have a drone and took some pictures as they were working today.  You can see me to the right of the jeep picking up flat rocks out of the quarry to be used as stairs and a patio.  I'd load up the jeep, drive up to the terrace area and haul them to the camping area to the west (right).  Denise is walking down the hill with Bella.  The terraced area is the upper part and may be fully cleared tomorrow.  It will follow the curve of our ridge and lead down to the septic tank on the right of the picture.  The elevation of the picture doesn't give you proper perspective.  I'll see if he can come back and get a good picture at house elevation.  The picture shows about 1/3rd of our property so I'll also see if he can get a higher elevation shot.

That's all for the update.  Hopefully Chico will be back to work soon.

Kevin & Denise

It's Hammer Time

Saturday's excavation was going well for the first three hours.  Chico was making progress on the house pad and started the terrace area above it.  The terrace is the area that started out as a mistake when he was cutting the road and he should have turned right about 20 feet earlier.

This will work out fine since we had planned for a terraced area, if the hill had to be cut steeper than we wanted.  It will also allow an 8 foot wide area to plant trees and most likely be my herb garden.  The East end of it will still be the generator house.  One of the main advantages to the terrace is the view of our property from down below.  When looking up to a big hill cut the rock really stands out.  The terrace will hide the area so all you should see is the house in the middle of trees.

The dozer is 8' wide and Chico was mainly in rotten rock for the first 30' and he could break it.  The hard rock vein was pushing the dozer towards the edge so he went back down to the house pad to finish up what he could before we brought the jackhammer out.  On the lower area he caught a hard rock with the edge and knocked the track off.  Digging was done by 10:30 am.  More on the repair and today's excavation below.

Sunday we went to the Honeyman's property and helped him construct hurricane proof beehive stands.  They are two rows of cut power poles set in the ground with 4x4's going across each of the pair, I believe there were 11 or 12 pairs.  Down each row we placed 2 rows of 3x8 wood for a total of 110' of area to place beehives.  He said he should be able to fit around 60 hives on the stand.  Both Denise and I forgot to get pictures but he'll send us some and I'll give an update.

This morning Chico arrived to fix his dozer.  Alvin dropped of the backhoe with the jackhammer and Smith stuck around to help fix it and then went to work on the rock.  Here's the dozer waiting to be fixed on the lower level that needs the hammer.

Here's the dozer on the lower level with the track off and being aligned under the dozer.

Once the dozer drove back on the track, the backhoe pulled it over the top as Chico drove forward.  When the end draped over the wheel he was able to pull tension with the backhoe and bolt it back together.  

The plan was to have Smith break the rock and Chico would move it but he also had a blown seal on a hydraulic connection.  Chico got the dozer up the hill to fix the leak while Smith got to work on the rock.  He did as far as the arm could reach but his backhoe doesn't have the pushing power so the broken rock will be removed in the morning once Chico finishes repairs.

Here's Smith chipping away at the rock.  He's a bit more per hour than Chico and it will probably take him another day or two to finish.

That's all the adventures for today.

Kevin & Denise

BEEn Wondering what happened to the bees?

After I published last nights update I realized I had a draft post from the bee resolution.  I guess I was a bit excited with the progress and didn't check the site.  Long story short is we were finally able to get the queen out of the hive.  On the third day we found there was a forth chamber hidden in the tree on the left seen in the picture below.

We knew about the middle tree, broken tree on the right, and the mostly empty chamber in the rocks.  We found a crack in the wood inside the hole of the middle tree and could hear many bees inside.  Once we were able to enlarge the hole enough to stick a one inch pipe through we were able to smoke them out.  That's the first time I've had around 50 thousand bees swarming above my head.  It was really amazing to see, but what I found most impressive was the behavior change once the queen was removed.  Instead of having their butts in the air while crawling around the inside of the hive, they calmly walked around looking for food. 

Many thanks to the VI Honeyman for the time and effort he put in for us.  Denise and I are going to his property Sunday to help him build more hurricane proof hive racks. 

Today's excavation went well.  Here's a shot looking East towards Salt River Bay.  Same view as yesterday with the jeep but he's widened and lowered the area. 

Here's the North view.  The rain shower over the sea is blocking the view of St Thomas, St John and the British VI's.  

Tomorrow we should have a West view of  Baron bluff to Hams Bluff at the west end of the island and Puerto Rico.  

Here's my Super Denise supervising the action.  The view is looking south east up the driveway.  

Tomorrow will be the last day of the dozer for a few days while we hit out the rock with a large jackhammer.  The rock seen on the previous picture's right side side is called rotten rock and can be removed with the dozer.  The harder rock below, locally called blue bitch, needs a bit more negotiation to make it move.  The hammer will cost us a little more but it's needed. 

That's all for today. 

Kevin & Denise

Excavation down to the house location

The bees have relocated so Chico was able to make great progress on our driveway today.  We had a brief concern of an additional hive as he progressed.  Some bees started flying around him and he was stung on the nose.  I put on the bee suit and searched the hillside but didn't find anything so he continued without any other bee issues. 

Over the past eight months I've created trails through the hillside where I wanted the driveway, house and other items on our property.  It was hard for him to follow the trails as he's cutting the hillside into a driveway, and pushing dirt onto my trails, downhill and out of his view. 

Here's a picture of the trail after the right turn of the S curve.  The left hand turn is about 40' lower.  You'll see the actual driveway he cut on that trail in the video below. 

I stayed close by and directed him as he cut through the rock and dirt.  I ran back up the hill for a few minutes and when I returned I noticed he hadn't made the right turn down the hill.  I designed the driveway with a gentle S curve so the house will not be visible from the road.  I had him stop again, showed him the path and after a course correction he was on his way.  Turns out the extra straight area he cut was in the perfect spot.  I planned on having an 8' X 10' concrete diesel generator/solar controller and battery house around that area, so that's where I'll put it.  This will keep the generator noise at the house to a minimum during power outages.  It also makes a straight shot up the hill if we decide to connect to commercial power. 

Here's Chico heading up the road towards the viewpoint.  Our driveway is on the right. 

Basically the same picture but this shows the dozer at the start of the S curve.

After another 40' down the hill he made it to my trail to the west headed toward the house.  It was quick work for him to cut a path straight through to the center of the main dome area.  Now the work begins to cut down the house pad to fit both domes and the link.  After the house area is cleared he'll drop down and cut the straight sides around 3/5's of the main dome for the concrete cistern/wrap around deck. 

Once Chico left for the day Denise and I were pretty excited so we jumped in the jeep and headed down the hill.  Here's  a picture of the jeep at the house location.  The house will actually be about 10' lower once the pad excavation is complete. 

Sorry blog readers, I put us first today and completely forgot to get better pictures to post.  We had been down on our little trails so many times in the past eight months with trees extending over our view.  This was our first time seeing a wider angle at house level, with a wider view still to come (210 degree view).  We were also busy with the GPS confirming excavation areas and marking other points.

Denise recorded a video of us driving down the road and turning left on our driveway to the house location.  The driveway and road are still in the rough cut stage so don't be too alarmed when you see it.  It will be far different when we're done.  The switchback from the road to the driveway will also be changed so you'll make it in one turn with most vehicles.  larger trucks, including concrete trucks will pull past the driveway and back down.  When we reach the bottom you're facing West.  The tree's are still high but as we dig down those will be removed so you'll see Hams Bluff on the West end, and Puerto Rico.  The video took a long time to upload so in the future I'll probably stick to pictures. 

Christmas time brings a larger number of cruise ships to St Thomas, 34 miles to the north.  Every night we see the bright lights of the ships sailing away.  I've tried to get some pictures but it's too dark. 

That's all for today.  We hope tomorrows excavation will be as smooth. 

Kevin & Denise

Plan Bee

I woke up Sunday morning and decided I would go tackle the rocks above the bee hive.  If I could pull them away I could expose the base of the tree and we'd have better luck removing the queen.  I put on the suit and headed down the hill. 

I didn't have smoke, but I knew I would really annoy them anyways due to the rocks that would need to tumble over the hive entrance.  I didn't want to be out of breath using a pick ax and breathing smoke so I figured I'd get in and get'r done.  I removed two large watermelon size rocks off the top of a broken tree next to the hive.  The tree was about 1' diameter and appears to have broken in the last hurricane, and I now know why it was weakened.  The bees had created a tunnel in the roots between the two trees and both were hollow at the base.  I'm guessing that the water from the hurricane pushed the rocks down and covered the top of the broken tree.  Looks like nature can sometimes work faster than FEMA when it comes to repairing roof damage.  When I pulled the smaller rocks around the hole in the top I was happy to see many bees and good looking honeycomb.  The picture below shows what I first saw. 

Here's the same picture with some highlights.

I called up the Honeyman and he said he'd be out if a few hours.  That gave me time to sharpen, oil and fuel the chainsaw.  With good smoke around we spent about an hour clearing rocks from the top and bottom of the new opening, and could smoke from the old to the new holes.  This gave us a good plan to get to the queen.  Once we exposed the lower part of the right chamber we were able to pull out honeycomb down to about an arms length in the hole.  This was still about a foot higher than the chamber on the left.  We used the chainsaw and cut a 1' square section out of the side which gave us deeper access.  That additional arms length let us find the brood we were looking for.  There were good larvae in them but we couldn't find the queen.  After a little more digging we were able to heavily smoke from the original opening to the new hole and drive most of the bees out of the hive.  The video below is vertical but I was quickly trying to get a shot of the hive openings and of the bees congregating on leave clusters.  We hoped the queen was there and they were following, but that was not the case. 

With no sign of the queen we figured there had to be another spot in the hive where she could hide.  Once we stopped the smoke, some bees would return to the hive so she had to be in there.  I noticed an area in the rocks above the second tree that seemed to have a void so I pulled out smaller rocks until I found a basketball sized chamber.  We could see a small amount of smoke filling the 3rd chamber as we smoked the other two.  We tried many things, including using a long 3/4" PVC pipe to get smoke deep in the chambers but couldn't locate her due to the many hiding areas in the rocks.  We were running out of daylight so put some ammonia in the hive to deter her from returning and set up a bee box up wind with some brood in hopes she'd left and would find the box more appealing. 

I returned Sunday morning to find most of the bees had returned to the lower chamber. 

The Honeyman said the queen was most likely still in the hive when we left, or she left but it was too dark for them to search for a new home so they went back.  Either way he said he'd come back Wednesday morning and we'd smoke them out early, and for a long time.  Hopefully she'll take the hint and leave so we can continue with the driveway. 

We did end up with over 2 cups of excellent honey.  Here's one of the darker combs. 

This is me after a long, exhausting day with the bees and extracting the honey from the combs.  Sometime this week I'll melt the combs and extract the remaining honey. 

Chico did work on the road Monday and was able to clear and level the viewpoint area.   Here's what we started with back in May. 

Here's when he started working clearing the area. 

The viewpoint is a curve in the road on our property where you can see Puerto Rico, the other US and British virgin islands, Buck Island, Salt River bay, and Christainsted.  Our house will be below on the left.  The road curves to the right and goes down hill to our driveway so we will see this view as we leave or head home.  Denise and I are going to build a rock bench/love seat on the left side that will face north (Left in this picture) so stay tuned for the finished product. 

Here's the road entrance when we started clearing it the first of May.  It took us almost a week to get down the road to the corner. 

Here's a look after Chico took a few hours to clear the road.  It will take some final grooming work after construction is complete. 

This view is from the viewpoint looking west down the road to the entrance.  The Christmas palm on the right side with the orange marker was one I had him dig up at the edge of the road and move down here.  The bench will be beside it. 

Here's a few hours later after he'd cleared the road to the entrance.  More had been done but I forgot to get a final picture but it's dark now.  Since the bee's are still around Chico is going to spend a few days doing some excavation for our neighbor. 

All this work could not be completed without proper supervision.  Here's Super D making sure the dozer is on the right path.  

Now for some other fun stuff.  Denise liked this picture of the sunset when I was on the phone with the Honeyman discussing the next days plan.  Lucy has her favorite ball she takes with her on our morning walk.  

We went to "The Village" party in Frederiksted which has food and alcohol booths in little buildings (the village part), a stage with live music and rides for the kids.  Our friends who grew up on the island said they won't let their kids ride them because they're the same ones they rode when they were kids.  They said after the festival the rides are stored on some property in the rain forest.  Steel and salt air do not mix so they don't trust them. 

We woke up early this morning and watched the first sunrise of 2019 from the viewpoint. 

Later today we watched the first sunset of 2019 from the deck at Kent's house.  2020 sunrises and sunsets will be from our house!

Lucy and Bella were being funny a few days ago.  Lucy was minding her own business with her ball when Bella walked up to her and ended up giving her a Bella hat for a few minutes.  The picture's a bit blurry because I took it through the screen.  I figured they'd move if I got up to open it. 

An finally, Jack and Ivan are still hanging out being best buds, spending the days relaxing in paradise.  It's a rough life for them. 

That's all for now.  I hope to have the bee situation under control tomorrow and good pictures of the hive. 

Kevin & Denise