The problem area was on the cut side of a curve coming up the community drive. A few years back while having some excavation done on the building sites of the lots we spread tosca over the road base at this curve to smooth out the steep incline. It really helped the curve but during a heavy down pour some of the material washed away leaving a large rut on the edge of the road. So I placed a marker on it to keep people from driving into it and “put it on the back burner.”

Many developers around here make nice neat concrete drainage ditches, but many times what happens is the water starts to erode around the outer edge of the ditch and eat the road. A professional mountain road engineer I met years ago by the name of Peter Scheiss told me to avoid concrete ditches as much as possible and if I ever needed one make them with a mix of concrete and as many rocks as possible. The rocks help to cut the velocity of the water down to limit erosion and create a zig zagging broken border that minimizes the erosion along the outer edge. Plus, it looks more natural. I was fortunate to have the rocks and concrete material left over from other past projects, I only had to move the material onto site and buy some cement. It took me a few days to get all the materials on site and prepare the work area. Once we had everything ready, Jose Maria and I started early one morning and were finished just after lunch. I positioned the rocks in concrete while he mixed using my concrete mixer and brought over the wheel barrels full of concrete. This was a physically hard project, but fun. We definitely got a good work out. Once the ditch was finished we backfilled the washout and ruts in the road with tosca and clearly marked it.

I can not wait to see how the new ditch handles this years rainy season.

Here are a few photos of the progress.

The gate was a fun project. Dexter spearheaded the column form work and he, Jose Maria and I did the concrete pour for each column. I came back later to prime and paint the columns. The metal angle iron frame for the gates I had Toni, the local welder from Canas, fabricate. Toni also helped me locate the teak slats in Tonosi. I worked on the sanding, sealing and fastening of the Teak slats to the gate. Once I had the gates ready, Toni returned to weld on the hinges and mount the gates.

I know James and Laurie are going to love the new improvement to their beautiful property. Thanks for your patience.

Any beach comber would consider it a great find. A large piece of Cedro Espino, or Spiny Cedar, these are the native trees with the large spines on the trunk and branches. I have lots of young ones planted around the property.

Dexter helped me load the log into the back of the pathfinder to get her to the property and then came up with the idea for the frame using wood scraps from around the job site.

The large furniture piece took a number of days to plane, sand and seal. After all the work, the table turned out beautiful and is a nice addition to the home.

If all goes well I will start building in a couple months during the early part of the rainy season, translate that as starting late, probably in the worst part of the rainy season. We will see how it goes. My plan is to sell either the home I am finishing now or the new one. It’s going to be a tough decision, one that I dread to have to make, but I can not keep both of them.

For now I will look at the copies of the drawings I have taped to the wall in my home and visualize the future building project. Fun stuff.

Thanks Bradley.

Enjoy!

“…It boils down to this. Do you love it when your sitting out and it’s spring weather and you have nothing that you have to do? Outside of what you want to do.

Do you love eating new foods and learning and seeing things that you have never seen? That’s what it boils down to, not the cost. You guys want something new in your life, so go for it and grab it or you could just stay home to what your use to your whole life. Panama changes people, many times for the better. It makes you say oh well, ok sure, tomorrow is fine, and not care if they don’t show up. It forces you to get off your ass and do things you never dreamed of. It pushes you to just take that extra step because you hear running water and you can’t wait to see it.

Want me to tell you how the people are here? Today my good friends Tom and whats her name, oh well doesn’t matter, hehehe, they took a hike up the mountain and got lost and ended up in someones yard. The people came out and not only showed them where they needed to go, but gave them fruit and water and told them they could sleep in their home if needed… WHAT?? YOU MUST BE KIDDING… well no I’m not. Someone posted they could live in the U.S. in some places cheaper then here… well maybe so, but show me that in the U.S.

Panama is a wonderful woman, she can be loving, she can be a mother and yes sometimes she can be a bitch, but in the long run she will force you to see a side of yourself that you never dreamed was there. You ever took a dug out up a river not sure where it was going and when you hit shore were surrounded by little kids all smiles and wanting to just touch your lilly white skin because it is something new to them? Sit with them and eat fresh seafood they just caught and drink from a coconut and watch as the sun dances on the water? Or maybe see so many stars at night that it reminds you of just how small we all really are? Does being with these people make you feel better when you do return to your a/c homes and makes you thank GOD for the things he his given you? If not don’t come here… because Panama will force you to look inside yourself and feel things you never knew were in you…”