This is the fourth part about the (slow) conversion of the land I bought in Guatemala and my new life here, you can read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 if you missed them.
Good morning everyone, hope you are doing well! This last week was busy busy and we started a lot of projects. First, the work has begun on the safe room. It will be just a room with a bathroom, partially built underground to keep cool, with a garden terrace on the roof. It should be free from bugs and scorpions, and let us sleep safe and sound at night.
Excavating the land for a new room.
At the moment every time I wake up at night, I need to watch my steps for any crawling animal. I have had no bad surprises so far but you never know.
A contractor came by to give us a quite expensive quote to excavate and level the land, and we offered the handyman to do it for a little more money than usual. We bought him a motorbike that he is paying back with his work, so by earning more he should pay it quickly, win-win. He has since then brought over his dad and three little brothers to help around and go even faster, and says since everyone is going to use the bike, it is their way of helping him pay for it.
Everyone is lending a hand (you can see the old pit toilet behind the boy)
His brothers are really small but they are happy to help and on holiday from school anyway. They are never forced to work by their dad, and do small tasks that are age appropriate. BF calls them the anthill. The also spend a lot of time sliding on the mountain of sand that has been excavated and laughing. Their mum comes at lunch time with two more sisters, and the whole family has a picnic and a swim on our beach. I like those tight family bonds and that everyone is lending a hand when in need.
With all the soil that was excavated, I used the brown, upper soil to start an herb garden and will start a bigger garden this week. The lower soil is a sandy, white kind, that we will use on the beach to make a pétanque (the national French game of bowls) field, and a white sand beach. I find it pretty sweet that everything here is finding a way to have a new life, being reused and re-purposed.
The big problem is there are four nice huge trees, two palms and two typical ones that we are trying to move, or incorporate in the build and that sounds complicated. Having the tree inside the room is super cool, but we would have to say goodbye to our bug-free dream.
Now that there is water, light and electricity, we have started smaller projects. We installed lights in the garden and next to the car to unload it at night, some neon under the deck for a night swim, and took off some more leaves of the house roof to avoid all the dirt falling on our heads.
The plug for a night swim
Garden lights
The hen cage was pimped with cute little nests made of construction blocks and we left an egg there hoping they would put some more.
Added nests to the cage
A posing rooster
On the hen side, I am now an octomom to 7 hens and 1 rooster. Poor little Snack, the 8th and weakest hen, was attacked last week and we spent a whole day making the hen cage more secure. The other hens came from the ranch and are really big and beautiful. The ones from the nearby village are of lesser quality.
After a week of living on the beach, Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner the first three hens have only given one egg. It can be because of the stress to be on a new property, or because they are nesting outside of the cage, as they spend the whole day outside. It is impressive how they go back to the cage at night, when the sun goes down, without the need to call them or chase them around. They climb up to the thatched roof of the cage and sleep there.
Another work starting this week is turning the one big room into two small guest rooms inside the house. As we may have visitors for Christmas (and the End of the World, some friends are super psyched about spending the 21st of December here), it will be nice to have some privacy. The bathroom will remain common to all rooms.
And… the disgusting animal of the week award goes to…..
I’m loving all the photo’s in this series of posts. It really helps me visualize the transformation that is taking place.
My friend had similar issues when he first got his hens. It took them about 2 weeks until they finally got cracking again. The way he got them to start laying was to have a darker area for them to nest in and all of a sudden they started. Not sure if it was a coincidence or not, but it worked for him.
two weeks! thanks for that, I was starting to explore the land next door to see if they didn’t go over there instead. I was planning on changing the nests to the other side because there is a lot of sun on it during the day, and I think your friend did right too, they don’t like heat very much.
I love your chicken stories and their demented names. That is one huge snake! Good luck on building your safe room, i fear I’d never leave!
Thanks Catherine, I think I’ll spend a lot of time inside too! The deck and hammock are pretty safe as well.
Like everyone else I am loving the pictures. Although, I am no fan of snakes, so that one was not one of my favorites. 🙂 It really looks like things a really coming along for you guys, especially now that you’re able to start on some smaller projects.
Sorry to post a snake on a Monday morning John! It is coming together slowly but surely, and hopefully by Christmas most of the house will be fixed. It is already very liveable compared to the start.
I can visualize the children romping together on the mud hills. What a grand time for them! That snake is pretty yucky. You found him slithering far away from your little abode, I hope?
Oh, and welcome to the Yakezie Challenge! 🙂
It was behind the house but not too close. I am pretty sure one lives in the roof…but never seen any inside so far!
Snakes I actually don’t mind as long as they aren’t in my house or poisonous. They eat other less desireable critters. Not sure about scorpions though. Maybe they eat those, or maybe scorpions eat snakes? My Grandma used to put golf balls in the hen house to make them lay eggs. Not sure if that was the reason, but she got lots of eggs.
Good question, I have no idea who eats who… they both look sneaky to me. People told me rounded face snakes aren’t poisonous, triangle faced are and can be lethal. I’d rather not wait and see.
Scorpions definitely can’t eat snakes. They’re about the size of a cricket most of the time =)
Always a pleasure to read your photo posts! I must have missed a weekend post or something because your blog looks so different now.
I changed my theme 🙂 Hopefully this is the last one for a good while. Still a lot of work but I am hoping by next weekend to have some of it done.
Wow, you’re getting so much done! Nice work. The lights at night will be awesome.
It is so beautiful at nights, so quiet with lights from the city in the distance and the garden illuminated… my own little slice of heaven.
Looks like things are coming along well. But I have to say that one look at that snake and I would be outta there in a big hurry!!!
In a few months you can have the bunker room as a safe shelter!
A snake! I’m afraid to see what you’ll post next lol. Your house is coming along nicely. Amazing what a little electricity will help you along with.
On my first trip to Mali in 2006 I visited a small village where they had just received electricity for the first time. The people were so grateful; a humbling lesson learned for me that I am very blessed to live where I do.
great lesson, we take everything for granted but are truly blessed.
If you’re worried about snakes, you might want to take a look at this resource that I use to identify the ones in FL.
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/herpetology/fl-guide/snakekey.htm
I’d be willing to bet that *some* of our snakes overlap, but perhaps there is a similar resource out there for central America/Guatemala specific snakes.
Either way, your snake friend doesn’t look like any venomous snakes I’m familiar with, FWIW.
Love the updates, Pauline – but what’s the deal with a “safe room”? Will you really be in that much danger on this property?
http://www.discoverlife.org/20/q?guide=Snakes
try that!
Thanks Mrs Pop, I’ll have a look! scorpions are the size of a big cricket over here!
The idea of the safe room is mainly so we can leave the property for a few days without worrying about intruders. At the moments we have no windows, just mosquito nets so anyone can get in super easily. We want to have our computers, and anything of value inside some room that locks and has good windows. Otherwise this part of the country is pretty safe, but it is a poor region so we can’t tempt people to break in easily.
ha ha! The disgusting animal of the week!!! Amazing how quickly things are moving along…and I totally don’t blame you about the tree. Small sacrifice to make to not have bugs. Love the lights for the night swim. Now are there critters in the lake you need to be worried about too?
Not many critters to worry about when having a swim, people say they see gators sometimes but they are so rare I don’t worry about it. 50 years ago things were different but now, unfortunately, the development has gotten rid of most wildlife. I’d say it is just as safe as Florida. Things are moving fast thanks to affordable labor, I wouldn’t have done 10% of it on my own!
Congrats on the progress that you’ve made so far. When you say safe room I keep thinking of a panic room, it’s basically a hidden room that rich people run into if you get robbed.
I’m glad that you’re chicken family is growing and there have been no more attacks. Perhaps you can add chicken farm to your investment portfolio. 🙂
I can’t wait to see what you do next. Best of luck.
Hens are kind of an investments, the eggs are almost $.25 each and having 10 hens should give us our egg supply when they start laying! It is also a way to know what we eat, and be independent from food providers, which I like.
I always had you pinned as the octomom.
I’d almost forgotten it’s the end of the world. Maybe I should use the fine china that night….
Things are progressing quickly! I think its awesome that your handyman’s family is helping. I hope you dont run into any creepy crawlies at night!
We just redid the roof today and two scorpions escaped, we don’t know where they are. Sounds like a sleepless night…
What an exciting project you have going on. Guatemala sounds fascinating and I hope to go exploring Central America someday.
Congrats on joining the Yakezie Challenge btw!
Thank you! I could go on all day about how fascinating Guatemala is, I hope you have the chance to visit it one day!