Category Archives: How-To

Exciting Siding!

The siding for the cabin has been an ongoing project for quite a few months. The first issue with it was simply deciding what type of siding to use. We really didn’t want to use T-111 as siding if we could avoid it at all. It is just sort of a cheesy, cheap material (that’s still sort of expensive) and to me it is just not the style aesthetically that I would prefer. So we looked into ordering various types of siding online, but the cost to ship something like ipe siding was more than the siding itself!

This cabin needs some siding!

So we were back to trying to find materials on the island. We have seen a few of the older style Puerto Rican houses with horizontal lap siding and we liked how this looked. A rustic sort of style that would go good on a cabin hidden in the jungle. So then the question was where to buy it, and indeed if it could be found anymore. It was not at Home Depot, National or any of the closeby hardware stores. We found one place listed in San Juan, but to save our sanity we would really prefer not to have drive there (but if need be we were trying to steel ourselves for it).

You have arrived at Comerical Toro! Woohoo

After a treasure hunt of sorts with clues from one hardware store and friends to try this or that, we finally ended up at Comercial Toro in Cabo Rojo. This is probably where we should have started for anything wood related. In fact, all the wood from the old wood house was marked from 1990/Comercial Toro. They mill some stuff and also pressure treat the wood themselves. It’s a huge facility!

With the chanfles in Cabo Rojo

We found out that in Spanish they call these boards chanfles or in English drop siding. We ordered up a bunch (hopefully enough) and they delivered them in a few days. Then the prep work came. Before we could put up the siding we needed to put in all the windows and also the trim and paint everything.

Piles to be painted

Trim and siding

Britton installing trim while a turkey inspector pecks around

Finally this week we began putting on the first few boards of actual siding! Exciting! It’s looking pretty good too! There’s a learning curve to all of this, so Britton is starting from the back and working his way to the front. The really challenging part will be the “tall side” of the house where there is no deck and it is about 20 feet off the ground. We may need Waldemar-the-Fearless’s help on that part!

First few rows of siding on the back

And then a few more!

Otherwise things are going well. When we’re not working on the cabin we’ve been playing music and hanging out with friends. Life’s good.

Went to see our friend’s band, Superluna, debut at Pool’s Bar

And stopped by Step’s Beach for a bit

What do you think of this post?

WOW (3)
Awesome (9)
Interesting (0)
Useful (0)
Bummer (0)
Whoa (0)

Let There Be Luz! Electricity to the Cabin

4 Replies

Luz is the shorthand way of saying electricidad in Spanish. It literally means light, but in our case it will eventually mean a full size fridge (amongst other things)!! Yay!

It may not look like much, but getting this hook-up was quite the achievement!

We finally made a decision about a month ago after much deliberation and chose to go with grid-tie electricity instead of solar power. Since then, it has been a lot of work to get to that point! Even though we hired out the work, we have learned that it is important to be involved or at least present in any project.

The first step was to dig a trench about 500 feet. At first there were only two middle-aged guys doing it and it was getting done, but the going was slooow because it was hot, steep, and hard work. I have never seen a skilled 50 something-year-old electrician getting down and dirty digging a trench like Papo, but I have come to expect the unexpected in Puerto Rico!

Checking out the sanja (trench) with our friend Anthony after the guys left

After a couple of days just working with one other guy, Papo brought in a larger crew and the trench-work (literally working in the trenches) went a lot faster. It was still super hot though and everyone on the team had to change clothes at the end of the day because they were just drenched in sweat. Late summer is not the ideal time to do manual labor in the tropics because if it wasn’t super blazing hot, it was raining! Also, Tropical Storm Erika did nothing in Rincón, but in Maricao it downed a lot of lines. So Papo took about a week working there instead, helping restore people’s power which was definitely more important than our project.

Trench almost to the cabin!

When work commenced again it was time to lay cable -the thickest cable I think that is available. In order to do this, they had to unspool it and send it down the trench. And then cover it with the conduit tubes and seal them.

Unspooling the wire!

Orlando, Papo, Cocolo and Ivan with the spool of wire

Covering the wire in conduit and running it down the trench

Tube is laid and ready to be filled in with caution tape

The next phase was to build a junction box and run the copper wire into the cabana and chip out a space in the wall for the breaker box. Britton helped bring supplies and materials and oversaw a lot of the work. His Spanish is still a little bit Tarzan, but I think he could work on a Puerto Rican construction crew now if he wanted. These guys speak virtually no English, so necessity is the mother of invention. As I reminded Britton, immersion is the key to learning any language (though construction Spanish has a distinct dialect and vocabulary ha!)!

Junction box

Double breaker boxes in the cabana

The final steps were to hook everything up, plaster the holes, cement the lower portion where the conduit crosses the quebrada and check to make sure it all worked. Well, everything seemed finished, until the sky opened up and just dumped an aguacero on us.

Trench in the torrential downpour

Britton and Papo went through the rain and mud back to the cabin to go do a final check, but alas, it didn’t work. No sense in trying to mess with electricity during a storm like this, so they called it a day. He would need to return a final time to figure out what went wrong. We were a little nervous that the fresh cement wouldn’t hold through all that rain, but the next day we checked and that, at least, stayed solid.

The turkeys went with us to check the quebrada crossing, and everything was still intact

When Papo returned, he figured out the small issue. He connected some wires and we all walked to the cabin for one final check. Amazingly, not only did everything work, but it had hardly any voltage drop at all! Well done!

Voltage at the cabin was almost exactly the same as at the studio cabana 500 feet away

Luz! Literally!

Afterward, our friends needed a little help from Papo but since Papo speaks no English and they don’t speak Spanish, I went along as interpreter. As we were heading up, Papo honked and signaled us to stop. For a beer! Then after we left our friends’ house, he wanted to stop again for more! Since it was Friday, and we had such a huge accomplishment we went with the flow. The bar was called called El Nuevo Encuentro (The New Encounter) after all! How could you not stop at least once (if not twice) with a name like that! It was hill top with a great view and the wind blew my hair all around as we enjoyed some cervezas, billares, alitas, and amistad.

Having a new encounter and beer with Papo!

Sometimes it’s hard to put into words exactly why I love Puerto Rico, but this is part of it! I mean, come on, our electrician took us out to the bar! How much more welcoming can it get?! Rarely are things completely straightforward here and lines (like working/playing) are often blurred. And I just can’t help but love it so much. It lights up my life! 😉

Hill top pool

What do you think of this post?

WOW (2)
Awesome (6)
Interesting (1)
Useful (0)
Bummer (0)
Whoa (0)

Trail Blazing

8 Replies

When we first arrived at our property, we hadn’t even walked the whole perimeter. When we finally did, we took a machete and a spider stick and just hacked our way along. We got lost multiple times. We looked for flattish spots to place our feet and eventually as we walked it over and over again, a few trails became apparent. This was true trail blazing. Since then, our trails have become more and more refined.

One of the more “raw” unworked trails

Most people would probably say that we should have built trails (or better yet, a road!) BEFORE we got started on the cabin in the woods. And that would make sense. But, we took the old wooden house down before we had selected the site of the cabin. So therefore we had basically set the timer on using the wood since it was sitting outside on the ground. However, since the shell of the house is basically done we are doing some of the trail building and access-work now, in between major projects on the house.

Single track path as it has been for a while that turns into the wider, flatter, more accessible trail

Building trails is important because most of the property has a slope to it and when it gets wet it can become super sketchy to walk on. Britton and I are used to slipping, sliding and occasionally falling, but if we bring over people who aren’t, well, results vary wildly. Plus, when we live in the cabin and need to walk there in the rain with groceries or whatever, we’re going to want to make it as pleasant and easy as possible.

Britton standing on the newly flattened area and turkeys on the graveled area

Here’s how to build a trail, or at least how we do it:

First, we bring over some of the wood that remains from the deck of the old wood house. Wood that is not structurally as great as the stuff we used to build the cabin but that will work for outdoor projects like this. They are about 12 ft long 2x8s. Then we stake them with some cut rebar. Next, we dig out the side of the hill a bit and flatten it to the wood.

Britton loads the arenon into the truck and brings it to the halfway point where he then wheelbarrows it over to the trail

And finally, we bring over some sand/gravel to pour over top. In the future we may concrete it, but probably just put pavers to keep it rustic.

Turkeys are enjoying it so they can walk side by side

There are other parts of the trail that dip down with a more obvious incline and so we also have also learned how to make steps.

First steps we built. Need a little more work

Steps are basically the same idea except you want to keep the rise pretty standard at around 7-8 inches and the landing on the steps should be flat. Some of our first steps we are going to have to re-do a little because they slope downward and/or are too steep. They can be made with fallen wood, boards or cinder blocks.

Moving cinder blocks for steps (with more wood to move!)

To make cinder block steps, just place them where you need (they are naturally about the right height for a step), place the rebar in the holes to stabilize them so they won’t move. Then just back fill the top and inside the holes. Concrete them if so desired!

Cinder block steps

And, eventually, the biggest part of the trail/access to the cabin will be a bridge. It is actually not necessary since the quebrada rarely has any water in it, but it would cut out a lot of the up and down walking and we wouldn’t have to make as many stairs. And if it DOES rain enough to have flowing water we wouldn’t be without access (or have to wade through muddy water). We had been considering a huge suspension bridge that would be about 100 feet across the whole property, but now we are thinking of just a smaller 20 -30 foot span down below that could either be of wood or wire suspension. We are thinking of doing this once the exterior of the house is completely finished (with siding/windows/doors) but before we start on the interior.

Once the trail to the cabin is complete there are always lots of other trails to build throughout the gardens and jungle. And we love that we’ll probably never truly be finished.

Red hibiscus with banana along one trail

What do you think of this post?

WOW (4)
Awesome (8)
Interesting (2)
Useful (0)
Bummer (0)
Whoa (0)

How to Catch a Baby Chicken

2 Replies

When the chicks have a problem they will let you know. They start to chirp and squeak. Sometimes this means they need water, or food. Sometimes it also means they are playing football with a nail, yeah they do that… Run from one side of the chicken tractor to the other with the nail or bugs while being chased by the rest of the flock.

Chicken Tractors

The other day we heard them squawking and Cassie looked out the door to see what they might be up to. She says “Uht oh BK, some of the chicks are loose!”. They had apparently snuck out thru the bottom of the chicken tractor that was laying on some uneven surface. We had made one and then a larger “chicken tractor” because they had quickly outgrown the bathtub and a chicken tractor never has to be cleaned…only moved. Anyhow, we were able to catch 2 of the 3 fairly easy but there was a small leghorn that simply didn’t want to be caught and she is, as we found out, much faster than we are. Plus she can slip thru a chain link fence with ease and taunt us.

We spent quite a bit of time chasing her before we came to the realization that it just wasn’t going to work. She has some talents we simply don’t. Speed.

I had just about given up when I decided that we are humans and should be able to outsmart a baby chicken. Right?! So I devised a ‘cartoon trap’.

Chicken trap
Cartoon Trap

I put some bait under a box and held the box up with a stick attached to a string. We tried food as bait, no dice. We tried water, nope. It came to our attention that the only thing she wanted was to be with the flock but she couldn’t find a way back in. So I made a small cage out of wire and put another chick inside it so she could not escape.

It worked perfectly! In about 2 minutes she had walked over to see the other chick and was under the box. Trapped!

What do you think of this post?

WOW (2)
Awesome (4)
Interesting (4)
Useful (2)
Bummer (0)
Whoa (0)

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31

Lifetransplanet

Colorado, Puerto Rico and life elsewhere on the planet.

Category Archives: How-To

Exciting Siding!

Let There Be Luz! Electricity to the Cabin

Trail Blazing

How to Catch a Baby Chicken