Ojo de Agua, Panama

The kitchen in Ojo de Agua was designed with functionality in mind. I enjoy a large kitchen with plenty of space to spread out while cooking.
Dexter and I built the bar and counter frames out of scrap wood cut-offs from around the job site and thick 3/4 inch plywood. We choose to hand make thin slats for the shelves to help with ventilation. Humidity is always a problem here in the tropics. Mold is a constant issue. Closets, cabinets any closed in areas should always have some ventilation at all possible.
Although, I must say, now that I have spent a lot of time in the house I don’t think the ventilation was necessary. The house is incredibly dry. When designing the house I took note of the style of the houses in the panama canal zone and back home in Florida. Obviously, building up off the ground, proper ventilation, roof design and large overhangs are the key. The ventilation under the house between earth and floor keeps the structure separate from the humid ground. The air space gap between the steel roof and sub-roof keep very little heat from penetrating the interior and the little heat that does enter is circulated out through the screened eave vents. In the hottest part of the hottest days the house is cool inside, in the early morning hours it’s rather chilly. I highly recommend building up off the ground here.
Anyways, back to the counters and bar. As shown in a previous post we built a granite inlayed concrete counter top for the main bar/dining area and had granite installed for the kitchen sink counter. I ordered the granite from a place in Las Tablas that specializes in granite, marble and other stones. Right now Jose in Guarare is working on a set of cedro margo uppers to go over the stove, fridge and chest freezer. Once the kitchen is totally completed there will be plenty of storage room and cooking space. Can’t wait!

Panama is known for it’s abundant food production. Over half of the three million plus population live in or near Panama City. The rest of the small country is very sparsely populated other than the cities of Colon at the caribbean entrance of the canal and David in Chiriqui province near the Costa Rican border. The low density of the nations geography allows for plenty of land to be used for agriculture. Almost everywhere you look their are food sources. Cows are nearly everywhere. Corn and rice are predominate crops nearly all over the country. Chiriqui is known as the bread basket of Panama. In Chiriqui people grow everything from international award winning coffee to incredibly delicious fruits and vegetables like strawberries, pineapples and broccoli. If I were not a surfer and addicted to the ocean I would want to live in the chilly, abundantly agriculturally rich and stunningly beautiful Chiriqui highlands.
Here in Los Santos Province where Ojo de Agua is located it is rare to see a yard with out food growing in it or chickens running around. Panamanians eat a lot of poultry. They make a chicken soup called Sancocho. It is cooked up almost every sunday and Panamanians love to serve it at almost every special occasion.
I am doing my best to follow the locals lead by planting crops anywhere I have space. I have already planted corn, yuca, platanos, bananas, pigeon pea or guandu, pineapple, peppers, cucumbers and melons to go along with all the fruit trees planted back in 2007 such as papaya, oranges, limes, mango’s, healing noni fruit, star fruit, guava, tropical cherries, and of course coconut palms.
My plan is to always have many different crops growing for my consumption and for future neighbors to propagate.
One thing is for sure here in Panama, one will never go hungry, food is always growing or grazing somewhere nearby.
Here are a few photos of some of the food producing at the moment, plus a photo of the local church in Canas with it’s new paint job.
Enjoy,

It’s that time of the year again.

While I have been busy on the septic system Dexter took care of the outdoor shower platform and steps down from the back porch. I still have to install the fixtures and connect the drain, but as you can see the shower is going to look beautiful especially after some landscaping is grown up around it.

I am a firm believer in outdoor showers. Although I grew up in Florida and am accustomed to heat I still sweat profusely in this tropical humid climate and love to shower off outside before entering the house after working on the property or returning from a surf. Dexter and I thoroughly thought out the design so as to take advantage of the corner of the house and the side of the back porch floor incorporating the positioning of the steps so the housing features can work as hand rails or “lean ons.”

Dexter really did a good job. He painted the under floor structure with the tar we used for the post treatment and plugged all the screws so no rust will appear on the deck and the high water use will have minimum wear on the tar treated wood. A little sanding, water sealing and plumbing and this custom outdoor shower will be ready for use.

Using the restroom in comfort is one step closer here at the house in Ojo de Agua. We just finished the septic waste water treatment system.

I decided to go with a two tank system that supposedly treats the water enough to be later used for grey water irrigation. First, the toilet water flushes to a normal plastic septic tank with baffles where the majority of the sediment settles to the bottom and the “black water” carries on to the second tank. The second tank has a false plastic bottom about five inches deep that creates a space where the four inch diameter perforated outlet pipe from the first tank drains. The dirty black water comes up from under the false bottom and filters up through about two feet of gravel to where it skims into another perforated PVC pipe and drains into the leach pit.

The directions for the system call for a small leach pit where the grey water can flow into another perforated pipe and out to a drain that can be used for irrigation purposes. Since I have no shortage of water due to my spring fed water system with back up well I choose not to have a drain. Irrigation here in Ojo de Agua is not a problem.

I converted the grease trap that came with the system into my leach pit. I’m running all the other kitchen and bath fixtures to composting grey water platanos or banana pits, so no need for a grease trap. I drilled holes into the side of the small grease trap tank around the middle and filled the tank and surrounding area outside of the holes with river rocks and gravel. I sandwiched the gravel outside of the tank in between geo-textile cloth to keep out the dirt. I buried a exit pipe with a cap in case I ever do decide to have a drain and also left a T with a pipe sticking up covered and protected under a valve box so I can know exactly where the drain is in case of future irrigation needs and to be a able to keep an eye on the water level and clarity in the leach pit.

After the tanks were set into place we back filled and compacted the dirt around the outer walls of each tank while filling the tanks with water, maintaining a consistent equal level of both dirt and water, the water pressure keeps the weight of the soil from caving in the tanks sides. We compacted every few inches so it took quite a few days for me and Jose Maria to finish the job. Luckily it rained almost every day in the afternoon so the rain helped compact the soil we had worked on.

The instructions for the system recommended the construction of solid concrete lids over the tanks. Instead, I took some of the leftover M2 panels from the house construction and stuccoed them and placed them over the tanks. I layered them between geo-textile cloth to keep them clean in case I ever have to open up the system for cleaning or maintenance. These panels are really strong and much lighter then solid concrete.

I have seen many people building here with septic problems including commercial businesses on the ocean, friends and neighbors. Tanks have been known to sink, walls collapse and also not drain sufficiently. Some folks here have concrete tanks constructed and many times they end up with a ugly concrete square in the middle of the yard from the exposed lid being to high. As with a lot of things here in Panama I like to search for a method or system where the majority of the work I can do myself or with minimum laborers and always try to leave an easy manner to access and maintain. Especially something as important as a septic system. I hope to never have a problem with something that could be so smelly.

Dexter was so impressed by the system that he decided to take a swim in the tank before I sealed it up. I think he enjoyed his self.

We are working on the floor as of late. This is the second week of non stop sanding. Lenny, with Canstruct S.A. in David, the lumber distributor, gave me the directions on how to sand with a variable speed disc sander, the same used to buff car wax. Lenny recommended multiple passes with different grit sandpapers, each pass a long tortuous grueling process. All I can say is that after a few days in a row with a paint can tied to my ass, hunched over for hours at a time breathing gnarly dirty wood dust, the floor is going to be a little rustic. One good pass and a second pass on the rough areas with the orbital sander and Im calling it good.
Dexter started the process by sanding the porch area, this was the practice area. I came behind staining and sealing. After practicing on the outside he moved inside with the sander and worked for nearly a full week. Now it’s my turn. After a few days getting a nice lower back workout I am almost finished with the first pass sanding. I choose to go with a nearly black wood stain. After living down here a while one realizes that it is almost always either dusty or muddy here. A dark color will hide the imperfections in our sanding and dirt from regular wear and tear of daily living.
Normally you do not sand a floor with a disc sander because of it marking the wood, but in the outskirts of Panama you cant just look in the yellow pages and ask a floor guy to come over with his special floor sanding tools and bid the job. There are floor professionals that live five hours away in Panama City, I have met one of them and he was the grumpiest person I have ever seen. His hat even had his name on the back of it with “Grumpy” on the front, literally, he was proud of how grumpy he was. I prefer to do it myself, then deal with him. So like many things here you have to invent or ask around for some one who has already done what you are trying to do and see what solution they came up with. Hence, Lenny, who has sanded many a wood floor with a disc sander. Thanks for the idea Lenny.
Although, it will not have the perfect finish, you will still be able to slide around in your socks like a kid at grandmas old wooden house. Just remember to leave your shoes by the stairs. Socks or bare feet only please, I do not want to refinish this floor anytime soon, my back can’t take it.
Here are a few photos of the process, I will post more in a week or so once it is all done.
Enjoy.

Here are a few photos of the first few plants I have started around the house. I am going to try to have as much edible landscape as possible. I planted five Coconut Palms, seven Aloe Vera plants, nine Platanos plants, three Vetivers, two Moringa trees and a bunch of Lemon Grass. I am working on a grey water system to drain to the platanos, they never get to much water. Plants and trees grow so fast here, in a few months it will look completely different. We also planted a patch of corn from some seed my worker Jose Maria saved from his last harvest. Cant wait to roast some ears and soak them in butter!

As to keep with the theme of mixed element construction in the house being built in Ojo de Agua we decided to build a concrete bar. The bar was built and formed with plywood screwed together in the living room floor a few feet from where it had to be finally set. It took a few days to build the forms and wire the rebar skeleton, place the granite, glue the inlay, a day of classifying and cleaning the sand and river gravel and a day to actually pour and work the concrete. After letting it set on the floor and cure for over a week I encouraged (two cases of beer paid for at the local cantina) ten of my strongest neighbors to come over on a sunday afternoon to help lift it into place. Once in place Dexter spent a couple of days sanding, polishing and sealing the finished product. Dexter really got into it, I have never seen him so excited about a concrete project. It really turned out beautiful, functioning as a work space, cooking, dining and entertaining area. I can not wait to cook my first meal with friends and family in this kitchen.

Here are photos of the beautiful hardwood doors I had custom made by a professional fine carpenter named Jose from Guarare. Famous for its annual cultural event named La Mejorana, Guarare is a small traditional Los Santos town located near Las Tablas.
One of the neat things about this country is that in many of the small towns their is one thing that many people are good at. In Arena, near Chitre, everyone makes bread and ceramics. In Guarare many men make their living with wood. It seems as if almost every other house has a wood mill, piles of saw dust, scraps laying around and freshly varnished pieces of furniture on display. Jose’s home is no different, he is a third generation carpenter. He has a nice little shop just out the back door of his house. His neighbor does all the finishing and sealing on his own back porch and apparently inside his living room. As with many of the “sub’s” on this build, I got lucky meeting Jose.
Jose “busted out” the Cedro Amargo doors and a beautiful Teak vanity ahead of schedule.
I am really pleased with Jose’s job. The doors add a nice touch to the house slowly taking shape in Ojo de Agua, Panama.

There is no job as monotonous as painting. First coat of primer, then second coat, then first coat of paint, then second coat, rolling, brushing, trim… jeez when does it end! Okay I cant lie, I only painted about ten percent of the house, Dexter was a little faster then me and he painted about fifteen percent before we threw in the paint rag. I had to bring in professionals. Two brothers referred by Uri Valdez, the dependable electrician, came in to finish up and they did a hell of a job. Clean, fast, mess free and had their own brushes. Hired! In a couple weeks they knocked it out. The house is shining like a new diamond! Sasha Cole, a professional designer friend, helped me pick out the exterior colors, thanks Sasha, the house is looking great.