Jamaica: (Was - Re: Money, Taxes, and Rebates)

Ja Construction
    I knew from past experience that nothing goes as planned, but there were several nice surprises.  Upon arriving at Casa Spiegel around 930 Wednesday, Lordi, a young man I always hire for casual labor when building stopped by to say hello and thank me for what he considers my having saved his life.  In actuality I was present when some idiot put paint thinner in an unlabled bottle and Lordi took a healthy swig, thinking it was water.  I merely walked him through the procedure of spitting, coughing, and vomiting, followed by drinking water and repeating the procedure, as per the emergency instructions on the side of the tin.  Doubtless he would have done just fine, but my also giving him a day off with pay is knd of unheard of in Jamaica, so he felt he owed me.
      I mention this by way of explanation as to how I came into possession of a lump of really nice black hash, along with around half an ounce of first rate Jamaican Ganja.  In return, I changed the style of the music, with my something for everyone approach.  Jimi Hendrex (Including his last performance), Carlos Santana – Buddy Miles Live, Grateful Dead Barton Hall May 1978, Bob Marley 1973 Live and The Stones’ Begger’s Banquet Live.

    Also spent around J$94,000 (or around 1,340 real dollars) on obtaining ten cubic yards each fine sand, concrete sand, and concrete stone, along with ¼ ton of half inch rebar, and 1,125 kilos of cement, not to mention miscellaneous hardware and plumbing supplies and 200 cement blocks.  Then there is the matter of the J$34,000 I spent on cedar, plywood, marine spare varnish, and the like for making one king sized waterbed frame with six drawers underneath, along with some extra material for a few odds and ends projects.  The prices all include hefty delivery charges to Sticksville and we will see if tomorrow (29 March) if the trucks materialize.
    The uprights have been cast for the kitchen sink, the top will be cast on Sunday assuming the carpenter shows up to frame it for the pour early in the day.  Meanwhile Lordi and another casual laborer, under my direction, are excavating near the water tanks, to prepare for an 8 x 15 workshop/storage shed to be constructed.  Then there will be some footers for a modest retaining wall in the back, so as to allow complete backfilling with stones.  Coupled with a few minor corrections that have to be resolved (remember the splicing in a much earlier post) and correcting a screw up by the electrician, and there are a few minor things to do as well.  Things seem, however, to be falling into place and my goal of being able to leave with things completely habitable looks good.

After three days staying at Mr. Irving’s marvelous Palm Treea Guest House, I was going to stay an extra two days, just because I wanted to, but was informed by Sharmie that my standard room had been rented and there were no more to be had.  Mr Irving kind of smiled and asked me if I would be disappointed to stay in a cottage, a suite actually, at the same price.  So, here I am in the lap of luxury, sitting in a leather armchair, ceiling fan whirling lazily, fruit punch next to me, typing away.  I do not think I mentioned the bed is as large as a small playground, able to sleep three without any contact between them whatsoever if desired.  Cooking area as well, and including gratuities and taxes, I will have to shell out $50 US a night.  DS&WW, the fountain even works and the pool is magnificent.  The boys will have swimming privileges when they come down.

Today I purchased a two burner gas stove, gas, a water cooler and water, plus some staples and a fan.  Move in tomorrow  Whoo Hoo.!!  Serious shopping this Monday with Jeff L.  Life is good.

In case you have not yet figured things out, this is a stream of consciousness work.  As it goes into excruciating detail about things that mean nothing to you, unless you are interested, save the time for something else.
    Will have to borrow 150# from Bingie and replace it next week. Bingie owns the nearby (half a mile) convenience store and is on the way if you come via Pell River or Cauldwell. Bingie must wait a bit before he can use it due to a paperwork snafu.  Today Coke is going to pour the top of the sink-countertop section.  Naturally after he framed it I walked over and measured things and lo and behold, it would wind up two inches higher than the drawing.  Coke, who is a Pastor in the Cauldwell Seventh Day Adventist Church, made several unPastorlike remarks as he ripped down the frame and lowered things by two inches.

    Glory be – the alternate route through Francistown is good enough to pass small trucks.  There will be steel tomorrow.  Tomorrow will work because Paco, the steelman, got caught up in a church meeting.  Note to self:  TELL ABOUT GOATS AND BLOOD.  Got your attention, there, didn’t it.  Gosh, I’d love to get Sonya to come to an Event and have her prepare curried goat ala Sonya, which entails killing the goat on the spot as well as cooking it over a wood fire.  Very OT, if you read the parts about animal sacrifice.  The sprinkling of the blood is merely to appease the spirits.  Their concept of Christianity, but I suspect a deep and abiding strain of Santaria runs through it.  In any case, except the skin and bones, everything, and I mean everything save the digestive system contents, are consumed. 

    My driver, Delroy, has to move his house, as the land, which is owned on his wife’s side of the family, is needed for something.  He had more than adequate notice, but as they were preparing the move, someone died on his wife’s side, necessitating a one month delay.  Just as he was getting reorganized, another on his wife’s side keeled over, causing yet another month’s delay.  Jamaican wakes and funerals are something else.  A superstitious family, I told Delroy, might well take the two deaths as omens from the gods that it is bad juju to force the move.  His wife’s side, I know, is VERY superstitious.  Ya gotta work with what Valos gives you, I always say.

    Cloudy, a little rain, very cool, and the 2400 gallons of water storage at Casa Spiegel are topped off, along with around 1800 at the fortress and all of Dimock’s 1800 gallons.  We are water rich, as they say in Dune, and I for one, know that one cannot have too much water, although the rainy season officially begins in a month or less. 
::SIGH::  Must speak with Trevor, whose loose goats ate some of our fence plantings, not to death, but to the vine.  The discussion will center around adequate compensation, preventative measures against future occurrences, what the consequences of said further incursions will be and do the words “Curried goat will destroy the evidence” mean anything to you?  I confess that after two years of various untended goats belonging to various people snacking on our plantings, my patience, never in high supply when it comes to the errors of others impacting me, is at an end. 

    I have taken pains to learn the ins and outs of Parish council, as well as having spoken to the local police and our Jamaican attorney and I have a chat set up for April Fool’s Day.  Since Mr. Frater retired last year, I should get to know her better, as she is our legal line in all manners.  Talk is cheap, literally, as she wants to get to know us better as well.  It is part of my job description, so maybe Jeff and I will learn a bit about each other’s bailiwicks this trip – he arrives today and I have laid in a supply of beer to go with the other supplies, to help facilitate the thought processes.  Our Parish councilman is a Mr. Allen, and we hope to convince him to put either the Francistown or Whitetown road approaches on his list of discretionary spending.  I will have to be diplomatic about this, but I know the language.  Maybe in May, as there will be a given two to three hour period each day when it will be raining.

Put a coat of varnish on the thirteen 6” square supports, which makes the fifth coat, four being applied last year.  I want to put another coat or two on them this trip, as well as getting another two on the eleven 4” square ones out back.  My list of small things to do grows as I start checking off the big ticket items.  Interior deadbolts, buying mops, brooms, etc., as well as whatever.  Two stands of bamboo both block our view and are too close in the event of a wildfire.  I can utilize the cut wood for terracing projects and will have someone here tomorrow who does bushwork, tedious, hard, miserable, unskilled, but it pays and a large lunch is included.  If I only can get Garnett to actually have lunch around 1PM as opposed to today’s 330PM, life would be better.

The wood for the bed and cabinets are here, finished and ready to be final sized, drilled for final assembly, fitted, disassembled, preserved, varnished and final assembled.  That is going according to schedule.  ::WOW::

April Fool’s Day for me started appropriately enough when I awake to a hissing sound.  As I exited the room heading toward the source of the sound, I wondered how the water pipe broke.  HAH – the plumber neglected to use adhesive on the first right angle connection from the hot water tank.  Easy enough to fix by hand, allowing Coke to properly repair it later. 

Sitting on the porch typing while a downpour interrupts the day’s routine (its only 1340, and the rain usually arrives around 1500.  There is no open sky in the direction from which it is coming, which means the rain will not be a 10 minute heavy shower, rather a road closer for the rest of the day, so far as trucks are concerned for the last 2 klicks.  As some of the improved road washed out due to the attitude of the residents along it, with out money, as part of the arrangement with JPSCO (Jamaica Power and Service Company) had us putting in electric/telephone poles (concrete) from Whitetown, which is a total to our property of 1.4 miles.  We fixed and improved the road through Whitetown as well, providing some employment for some of the people there for a week.  There was a verbal understanding that they would maintain the drainage (ditching) but they did not.  Having gone through this before, Valley View (the Ltd’s formal name, chartered to do anything legal and customary) decided not to do anything about it this year and use other, dirt roads.  Accordingly, truck deliveries must occur before a serious rain, or problems can ensue.  We got everything we need before today’s rain EXCEPT the cement blocks, because the driver did not want to change the order that he was loading (it was our order, after all).

Picked out the maho (a local hardwood) for our rolling island, a 48” x 24” x 34” high rolling whatever.  It will contain our flatware in two drawers built under the top, and the top will serve as a cutting board.  The lower shelf will hold “stuff.”  Whoo hoo – two of the three ceiling fans are up.  I made a deal with Jeff, trading him one of our 48” ones (the third one) for a to be delivered 52 incher.  Life stays good.  Also, the rolling island’s 48” turned into 42” with appropriate changes to the wood frame.  This was as the longest board we could find that would clean up to 2” plus thick was 7’ 3” feet x 14 inches, so if cut in half it will finish to one piece 2 inches thick, 42 inches long and joined to 24 inches wide.  It’ll do.  Flexibility/adaptability is required to have a good chance of success.

We are long on paint thinner, as the 55 gallon drum required for Casa Spiegel’s gray water system had 4 gallons remaining in it, so I bought them to allow simultaneous delivery of the drum with some of the sand needed for making concrete.  If things keep moving like they are, I will run out of money (construction budget) before time, which means I get to play for a few days, i.e., visit friends in Negril.  I can live with that.  It’s the shock of having this happen that will tax my system.
Our first guest mammal (defined as by finding it asleep in the house, as opposed to outside was a – well, first guess.



And the answer is



a BAT
2 April begins (after a breakfast of tea and fruit) with a call from the driver delivering 200 cement blocks, wanting to know the condition of the roads.  I told him not to come from Prospect or Grange, but from Francistown.  I asked if he knew the way and he said yes.  Said goodbye to the Dimocks (shed no tears; they were in residence over 3 months), got my final) and Jeff’s shopping list and chartered a ride to Savanna-la-Mar (Sav) a 40km ride through a main road, that is two lanes, twisty, uneven and occasionally washed out.  Ignore the cane trucks that easily take over half the width, and that is without considering their maximum “loadout) width at your peril,
Scored the tile, home cleaning stuff, a 52” fan, some fittings for the gray water system, while fielding a call from the truck driver who was stuck in the mud somewhere on Spragg Land after deciding that the white guy doesn’t know crap about local road conditions even though he drove them that day and the guy who drove him lives along the road, in Francistown.  Hope you had fun unloading 200 cement blocks in the sun, getting unstuck, and reloading.
Although the tile did not arrive until around 2:30PM, the tile guy and I are mostly on the same page and he is well underway and still working at 7:45 PM as I prepare to go up to Jeff’s (He and Diane are uphill from Tina and me).  Good thing I did hang around, because he got one little thing wrong that would have looked awful. 
While I was shopping (another day, another $J40,000, although half was Jeff’s money) Lordi excavated a pit for the graywater system.  I would have liked it deeper, from a design perspective, but when a jackhammer (hand held) was required…  Tomorrow he will dig a narrow trench for the ½” pipe that will empty the drum.  Since the system will collect used water, it must be emptied every day someone is in residence.  Need to do some measurements to determine what I/we/ use. 
Naturally, municipal water is now 1800 feet away.  To hook up to it will cost around $J80,000.  The investment would pay off in two or three years at the most, but this year we have no capital budget, feeling we had enough special assessments for necessary capital improvements.  FYI, Rob, we had to replace the manholes (access ports) to our electrical and plumbing systems at $J16,000.  This was solely due to the fact that we made our own to start as a cheap placeholder.  I keep using J because the mental practice is good.  70:1, so $J1,000 is $14 (ok, $14.28, but that would make things harder to do). 
The current electrician is really upset at the miserable standards of his predecessor.  Should make for an interesting situation.  I have this thing about not paying for work I have not inspected and Mr. Daly, the first electrician did not finish on time and had to finish after I left in April 07.  This was my next trip and a great deal of the wiring is wrong.  Since my contractor, Coke, insisted that I pay Daly, I am insisting that Coke make good on Daly’s work and pay Junior, the new (and much better) electrician.  The difference comes to $J30,000, a not insignificant sum by any standard.  It represents a full week’s pay for Coke, who is the highest paid person on the site.  Stay tuned for news at 11.  Junior understands that he will get paid regardless, which is important.  Backtracking, today Coke agreed that he would make Junior whole for the labor and materials he must expend to do the job that Daly did not.
Still need to get the doorstop strips put on all my doors.  They got the first coat of varnish today, which means a Saturday installation.  This is good.  Callie (along with his brothers, Neil and Dwayne, and the latter’s girlfriend, Simone, will finish installing Jeff’s cabinets tomorrow (Thursday) morning.  Afternoon and evening they will work on our bed.
Fourth night, coming up, and I have eaten breakfast and dinner here, dinner being chicken salad, and three different fruits, papaya, watermelon, and mango.  Jeff approaches, as Callie has finished installing his cabinets (and can restart my stuff tomorrow).  Time to restart the thinking process, fueled this time by Fresh OJ and Red Stripe.  Need to buy salt.  Should be able to hook up the stove Friday (two days) night. 
Jeff and I dined on chicken salad sandwiches, with tomato and lettuce followed by watermelon and banana.
WONDERFUL HOT WATER PRESSURE.  DS&WW and my heir know what this means.  Life is damned good.

Today the tiler finished almost everything, and would have had he told me earlier that we need more than the 90 tiles I purchased.  A few minor mistakes and my cutting things close necessitate another box of tiles.  Unfortunately the tile store (Fairway, in Sav) closes early on Thursdays, a not uncommon practice here, but one that hit just wrong, as the tiler did not tell me in time.  No biggie, as he will finish if not Friday, then certainly Saturday.  In the interim, the plumbing of the sink and the boring of a hole for the gas for the two burner stove will take place tomorrow, Friday the 4th.  The carpentry for the base for our waterbed is finished, with the drawers ready for their first application of mineral oil.  The bottoms of the 6 drawers will be fitted tomorrow, and work will commence on the top part of the bed, a much simpler, though more exact construct.  I’d really like to go to Negril and play a bit, but I need to be here when they start it.  Jeff will handle this shopping trip, getting my tile, along with bread, eggs, bacon, and jam.  Omelets loom on the horizon for Saturday’s breakfast. 4 full days to go and its looking like most of my checklist is happening.  The May trip can truly consist of a major cleaning and furniture set up, with just a little furniture making and some simple things.  The cost of doing this will be greatly reduced due to a cheap ticket and being able to live and cook here.

I get a bat; Jeff has an iguana.  About a foot long, the thing is an insect eating machine.  After having seen the original seal-a-meal (a spider spinning around its caught prey), and a brace of parrots flying by over the first breakfast I cooking in Ja (onion, green pepper, thyme omelet with bacon and home fries accompanied by coffee.  Watermelon and a banana rounded things.

Here is a link to some photos I took and Tina uploaded.

www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=lvi6dsn.nd0...99kwi&localeid=en_US

Picture Key

1 – Outside of the water storage room (2,600 gallons capacity)

2 – Rough casting of the kitchen sink/work area

3 – Back of the house, Paco installing the steel for the two courses of block which in turn will hold the 16” of stone for the walkway

4 – Dwayne and Simone working on some trim

5 – Installation of one of the three ceiling fans

6 – Finished installation of the fan in Tina and my bedroom

7 – Cut bamboo

8 – Tile being cut for the kitchen

9 – Water storage area – the dark areas are rough cast as preparation for the installation of the grates.

10 – Finished detail of the sink.  The tile at the curve was later changed.

11 – Excavation of the graywater system

12 – Removing bamboo

13 – Burning bamboo stumps

14 – Backsplash Kitchen tile.  The gash was used to move wire and will be covered by tile

15 – Front of house, with view of the bed under construction.  Cedar

16 – Dang, its looking good

17 – Nice Sky

18 – Top view of the base of the bed with the drawers not installed.

19 – Simone, Michelle and Callie taking a break from working on the bed

20 – Storage container and clothes hamper

21 – Tiling almost finished and the fridge is working.

22 – Lived in look

23 – Paco finished the steel and Woody laid the block (see #3)

24 – Excavation prior to putting 12” of stone over the water pipes.  The ramp to the top is juxtaposed to the steps on the other side of the house.

25 – Nice rain, view of the Dimocks and a path along with some bamboo retaining wall.

26 – Lordi posing by the bamboo retaining wall

27 – Water cooler and mechanical room/pantry.  The new kitchen counter/.sink is to the right of the door.

28 – One of the grates installed for the water storage system.

29 – Ready to burn bamboo

30 – Burning bamboo stumps

31 – After

32 – a poor picture of Colleen, who upon seeing a photo of our son, asked when he is coming to Jamaica

33 – ditto

34 – Lordi shoveling stone

35 – the result of shoveling stone.  See 3 and 23.

36 – Step and manhole details.  The covers contain the water and sewage junctions.

37 – under the front, note the excavation for a workshop in the background.

38 – Close-up of excavation footers poured

39 – Water storage system grates installed