September 30

It has been a bit since I last posted. Work is ongoing on the house. The inside is mostly finished. The plastering on the outside is going well. I believe they will finish that toward the end of the week. When that is finished they will then put the flat stones on the bottom, below the windows. At that point I believe the house will be generally finished as far as construction is concerned. There will still be things going on but on a smaller, finishing scale. Doors are still needed on several of the rooms and the house has no furniture in it just now.

Our plans for this week are to bring in two large loads of “black dirt” and one of sand for the area around the house. We will then level and prepare to plant some grass. The sand is to mix with the soil which tends to become very hard so we need to “lighten” it so to speak so it will not pack so hard and prevent things from growing.

It is getting noticeably hotter now. October is when it really gets hot as we move toward the rains in November or so.

One thing here has to do with tools and materials that can be purchased. Much of what you encounter is made in China. The synonym for that would be cheap. Others would come to mind but an example is a sledge hammer that I bought for working around my plot with stones and such. I bought it about 2 months ago. Take a look at what it looks like just now…after 2 months.

Our stones here are really hard but not enough (or should not be) to cause this kind of wear and tear. At this rate it will only be good for a door stop before 6 months has gone by.

Last night was what was called a “red moon.” It is the first night after full moon at this time of year. When the moon comes up it appears red. This is due to all of the dust etc. in the air. You are looking at it through the thickest part of the atmosphere as it comes up over the horizon. Later it appears normal once it gets high enough in the sky. I tried to get a picture of it. I don’t know how clear it is but it was pretty to see.

I believe that the builders will finish plastering the outside walls tomorrow (Wednesday). After that it will be stonework.

I have a carpenter putting some shelving in the master bathroom so we can have some storage space for towels and such.

The carpenter’s only power tool for this is a drill to anchor the frame to the wall. All the rest of the work was done by hand. He uses a hand saw and a hand plane. Many of these individuals are quite gifted with their hands.

One of the concerns is the falling lake level. What it will mean in the coming months is still unknown. You can see from these pictures how far the water has receded since I arrived.

Today ithe lake level is significantly lower as you can see. The time between the first two pictures was less than a week. The last picture was taken today.

There are some signs that the rains might come early. Usually, however, that is not a good thing. When this happens the rains then stop and resume much later than normal. This really impacts the farmers who do not start working their fields and planting until the rains begin. If they get a crop in and then the rains stop they run the risk of losing the crop altogether. If that does not happen then the production is greatly reduced. But the weather is the weather so we will see what comes.

Hotter today than yesterday…

…