Natural delays

The last couple of days we make slowly progress. Nature is bringing our pace a bit down. 

This moment we need to work on the front (East side) of our site office/living space. Although we wake up early temperatures soon are very (too) high to work in the sun. Painting and even welding is not possible. Bye the way, welding is going better and better. 

So we have to wait till the afternoon to work on our veranda, balcony and second roof. But, no schedule, we have the time. 

The mornings we use for long breakfast, walk with Kadhow, some shopping, etc.. The afternoons and early evenings to do what we want to do. 

More and more we also have to deal with tropical rain showers. The nice thing is the air quality at the moment at our place is more than great. And we get some extra breaks for a nice drink and a good chat. 

And... in the evening, if possible, we go out for dinner at our nearly private restaurant or we pick up some food to eat at home. 

Kadhow likes the veranda we are building. It gives him even more comfort to keep an eye on the property, the cows and his friends who come to visit him on a regular base. 

Some pictures of the last days. 

Ready to go for dinner ;) 

Frans Captijn
e-mail: pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

No Songkran this year so construction materials available to buy today.

April 13, 14 and 15 we normally celebrate Songkran (Thai New Year). Especially at the place where I live with the elephants a nice celebration (I think). This year no Songkran for the first time ever, like no Easter celebrations for the first time ever. 

The good thing of it was that we could buy construction materials, especially steel, for the veranda. 

During breakfast Phatsamon discovered a Songkran Breakfast visitor watching us. So nice to see this wonderful animal in his camouflage skin. 

The last couple of days we got more and more cow friends enjoying the daily free water supply. Soon we will not see them for a while anymore. More and more thunder, lightning and rain is arriving now. The farmers started to prepare their lands for the new rice harvest and in that period the cows are not welcome on the land but good taken care of in their stables. 

While I was cutting steel and welding, Phatsamon was pre-drilling the floor planks. Today we have to seal the welds and paint. After that we will take the next steps for the balcony and preparation for the sandwich roof construction. 

Some pictures again: 

Frans Captijn

e-mail: pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

Welding is not an easy job and more

Early this afternoon we got a lot of rain. So we took a break. 

After a short time thunder and lightning. A long power break. Happy to have the generator. A great exercise. Still... you have to walk to the power plant to start it up so, yes, wet ;). 

Yesterday I worked on the door of the power plant. Today I discovered I needed to do some changes. I had to cut the steel bars and started welding again. I am still not used to stick welding and it took some time to get it 'so so' right. I think doing and trying is learning but YouTube, so far, did not really help me a lot out. 
Finally I finished to fix the door. I need to buy some small stuff to make it even more nice. Tomorrow we will buy. 

The rain offered us a good possibility to see if the digging so far for preparing the labyrinth was right. After the rain showers we could see the base is level so in a couple of weeks we will go on with it. 

As a big surprise, after not even one and a half week, the old tree showed us it's alive and growing. It made and makes us really happy. We hope this will go on. 

First thing to do now is to make the veranda. Welding again. Indeed, welding is not an easy job. It really is a profession. 

In the evenings and early morning Kadhow acts as a puppy playing with his toys and, he did it again, he found the empty milk and coke bottles. His favorite toys. 

Find some pictures again. 

Frans Captijn

e-mail: pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

All kind of small things

Again we are happy not to have any schedule. 

Two days ago we got a message in the afternoon the bamboo entrance gate for the labyrinth was already finished. So, although we wanted to start welding to create our veranda and sandwich roof we decided first to pick up the gate with our Kia truck. 

Driving with it, it looked as if we started a business with a snackcar ;). But soon we were at our building site. Pity for us I found out the gate was much heavier than we thought. All around 250 kg. So it was not possible to get it from the truck (workers from the bamboo company put it on). We had to wait till this morning 6 AM for family help and... succeeded. 
Another thing was I made a mistake with the foundation for it. So I needed to fix that. Happy to do it early this morning with lower temperatures. The thing, for us, looks great and the Lipstick palms have the shadow they need to grow as well now. 

Yesterday and the day before yesterday we did do painting work (steel preparation and floor planks for the veranda) and last concrete pouring. A small foundation for the Buddha head statue West of the labyrinth and a foundation for the stairs to the veranda of the Knock Down Home. We also fixed some small things inside to make life even more comfortable. 

This afternoon we will start with the preparation and first welding activities. First I will make the door for the power & water plant. 

Find some pictures again. 

Frans Captijn
e-mail: pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

Foundation for veranda ready

The last two days we had some difficulties to get the building materials we needed. Many shops are closed because of (social) media fear. But... it took some more time, we succeeded. 

We got the steel we needed and also the floor planks to build the veranda in front of the site office / living space.

We also ordered a gate as entrance for the Labyrinth already because we learned that my favorite Lipstick Palms also need shadow. We bought the foundation already and the bamboo gate I designed will be there in four till seven days. 

We made the foundation for the veranda ready. Phatsamon digging the holes so I could pour the concrete. 

We had breakfast and saw a most beautiful Kingfisher on one of our electricity wires. Relaxing in the evening we got a full red sun to say goodbye for this day and to be thankful for it. 

And... the cows enjoy our daily free water for them. 

Find some pictures of today.

Frans Captijn
e-mail: pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

Swiss life feeling and Kadhow got a new friend.

Although the world seems to be in crisis, so far no crisis at all for us. 

Today we got the possibility to buy a lot of building materials (most steel) so our process can go on. And yes, when we enter a shop we have to ware a mouth mask. As soon as we are out of the shop we take it off again. It does not protect at all and... it gives me/us a very unpleasant feeling of disturbance of breathing. But we want to be cooperative. 

The foreman of the tree replacement team told us the Lipstick palms we already planted at the entrance of the new to design labyrinth needed shadow as well. So we decided to order a bamboo gate with a grass roof to give protection. The Lipstick palm is my favorite palm so I want them to survive and on the other hand a gate to the Labyrinth will create an even more inviting feeling. 

After unloading the truck (great to have this workhorse) we decided to take a break. Sitting there, watching and enjoying what we already both created in only one month it gave me a great feeling. What a retirement I have. Thankful for that. A real Swiss life feeling ;). 

Early this morning Blackey was there to come to play with Kadhow. The same ritual for Kadhow once with Whitey at Mae Rim. Both dogs are happy playing and running together and making fun. We are not always happy with the peeing rituals ;). 

We got a question of the present (Baby Buddha tree) of the old tree offered us. Find a picture in this blog. 

Frans Captijn
e-mail: pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com

Saudi Arabia feeling back again

After we woke up we started to water the new plants and the tree. 

Soon temperatures were rising up till 48 degrees C in the shadow around 11 AM. I really got my Saudi Arabia feeling back again. Once I worked as a constructional engineer and architect for a Dutch company in Dhahran (Saudi Arabia) with Thai and Korean workers. Same temperatures. 

We worked in the garden and finished the roof and walls of the power & water plant and pump house. Also back up lights in case of power break are installed now. The only thing that need to be done is to make and fix the door. Next week I have to do a lot of welding so I decided to do that next week. 

The new (very old) tree got today his (or her) first birds and.... brought a surprise.

We discovered in one of the 'armpits' of the branches a small Bodhi Tree as a parasite was growing. A seed brought by a bird or the wind sprouted there. It took some time to get the small tree of the old tree but we succeeded. 

We planted the small tree behind the place where we will put the Buddha statue / head on the West-side of the labyrinth. 

Because of the high temperatures today we stopped working at 4.30 PM and started to water the garden again for the night. 

Pictures of today:

Frans Captijn

e-mail: pyramidhousethailand@gmail.com