Sunday, July 30, 2006

Home Construction Week 8........
July 24-30, 2006
Sandra and I were visiting Texas for the past 2 weeks so we missed posting pictures for home construction weeks 6 and 7. This posting will show the work done on the lots retaining walls and the house foundation. The stone foundation for the bottom floor of our home is finished and truck loads of filler rock are being dumped to level the ground so the lower floor can be reinforced with rebar prior to being cemented. The retaining walls and lower house foundation work took 8 weeks to complete. Next week the workers should begin the actual construction of our house. Needless to say, Sandra and I are very excited to see the construction to begin. But we are glad, even though slow, the building of the retaining walls has leveled out our lot and will give us two very nice garden areas.
The above photo shows the finished retaining wall. Picture taken from the street below our lot.
The two photos above show the nearly completed stone foundation for the bottom floor of our home. The foundation is about 8 feet tall and towers over Sandra.


The two photos above show where filler rock is being dumped to level out the foundation for the house. It appears that about 5 more truck loads will be needed to completely level the foundation. Then rebar will be laid and concrete will be poured over the rock to complete the bottom floor of the house.
The above photo shows me standing at the retaining wall at the back of our lot. Filler stone and garden soil will be dumped to level out our lower garden. I plan on having fruit trees and a vegetable garden along this wall. This is the same wall, seen from the other side, as the first photo in this blog. We will have a very beautiful view from our garden. Sandra and I think it will be a view of more than 180 degrees. We will see parts of the city of Morelia, the canyon where the Tres Marias golf course is located, the club house and the mountains named Mil Cumbres (Thousand Peaks).
The two photos above show how the workers mix cement and mortar. Even though there is a cement mixer, it is not used. They mix the cement and mortar on the ground. They then carry it off to be used on the foundation and retaining walls in 5 gallon buckets. Hard physical work, every thing is manual labor, no machines. Our architect, Arturo Vargas, has tried to get the men to use the mixer, but when he is not around they always revert back to using the ground. It's the culture of construction and the workers are not comfortable doing otherwise.
This last photo was taken from the street above our street and shows the house foundation and the lower retaining wall. In my next posting I am going to recap the first 8 weeks with before and after photos and give a listing of the materials that have been used so far.

Monday, July 24, 2006

Ft. Worth, Texas
July 2006 Vacation
Sandra and I visited Ft. Worth for 10 days from July 13 to July 22, 2006. After mom's birthday party Annette and Susan took us to visit the Stockyards, Botanical Gardens, and many beautiful residential areas. These pictures are some of the things we saw.

Fort Worth Botanical Gardens
http://www.fwbg.org/gardens.htm
Japanese Garden


Conservatory (Tropical Rain Forest)



Ft. Worth Stockyards
Ft. Worth was one of the many stops along the famous cowboy Chisholm Trail, where the Longhorn Cattle were driven from the Texas-Mexico Border up to Abilene, Kansas to the railhead for transport back East. We got to view a mini-cattle drive down the closed off street in the stockyard. The temperatures were over 100 degrees for the entire 10 day visit and the cattle seemed to wilt in the heat. For Steve and Stacy, I researched the Chisholm Trail and Texas Longhorn cattle and included the information I found.

Chisholm Trail

The Chisholm Trail was a route used in the late 19th century in the western United States for cattle drives, the movement of cattle overland. The trail stretched from southern Texas across the Red River to Abilene, Kansas and was used from 1867 to 1884 to drive cattle northward to the railhead of the Kansas Pacific Railway, where they were shipped eastward.

The trail is named for Jesse Chisholm who had built a number of trading posts in what is now western Oklahoma before the American Civil War.

History

In 1866 in Texas, cattle were worth only $4 a head, compared to over $40 a head in the North and East, because lack of market access during the American Civil War had led to increasing number of cattle in Texas.

In 1867, Joseph G. McCoy built stockyards in Abilene, Kansas. He encouraged Texas cattlemen to drive their herds to his stockyards. The stockyards shipped 35,000 head that year and became the largest stockyards west of Kansas City, Kansas.

O. W. Wheeler and his partners used the Chisholm Trail to bring a herd of 2,400 steers from Texas to Abilene in 1867. This herd was the first of an estimated 5,000,000 head of Texas cattle to reach Kansas over the Chisholm Trail.

On these long trips the cattlemen would have a lot of difficulties. The trips to the railroads were not easy. The trips took about two to three months. Also they would have to cross major rivers like the Arkansas and the Red, and innumerable smaller creeks, plus the topographic challenges of canyons, badlands and low moutain ranges. Also the weather was not always great. In addition to these natural dangers, there were rustlers and other badmen, unpacificed Native Americans (Oklahoma at that time was Indian Territory, governed from Fort Smith, Arkansas), and the natural contrariness of the half-wild Longhorn cattle themselves, who were prone to stampede on little provocation.

Longhorn Cattle

The Spanish brought the first longhorn cattle to America in 1493. Descendants of these longhorns formed the first cattle population in North America.

The first Anglo-American settlers of Texas came to raise cotton. However, they brought with them a few cows, mostly of northern European breeds. These cows mixed with the Spanish breeds already in Texas and soon grew into considerable herds. Most of the cattle for the first stocking of the central and northern plains came from these herds.

These Texas cattle had long legs, lanky bodies, with legs and feet built for speed. It took a good horse with a good rider to outrun a Texas Longhorn. Their narrow faces, sullen expressions, and horns that swept out horizontally, gave these cattle a sinister look. And indeed, they could be mean.

A century or so of running wild had make the longhorns tough and hardy enough to withstand blizzards, droughts, dust storms, attacks by other animals, and Indians. They did not require great amounts of water to survive. Their horns served for attack and defense. A strong sense of smell made it easy for the cow to find her calf and she would ferociously defend this calf.

And the bulls... There was probably no meaner creature in Texas than a Longhorn bull. The slightest provocation would turn him into an aggressive and dangerous enemy. The bull's horns usually measured six feet or less from tip-to-tip, but could measure over eight feet long. In addition, the sharpness of horns of any length, the speed and muscle power of the bull, and the ease with which he could be aroused and enraged, made him a dangerous and uncontrollable animal. When two bulls met, there was sure to be a fight, often to death. And only a very well-armed cowboy had a chance against a Longhorn bull.

Lake Worth
These are two photos of the home and property (Elliott Trotter) where Mom's surprise 80 th birthday party was held.

Mom's House
Photo of Mom's new house in Ft. Worth and a view down her street showing the beautiful landscape.



Sunday, July 23, 2006

Mom's Birthday
Fort Worth, Texas
Mom (80) and her sister Hallie (97 in September)
Shortly after our move to Mexico my mother and sister(Susan), along with her son(Eric) and daughter(Ashley), moved from Los Altos, California to Fort Worth, Texas. Then about a month ago, my other sister(Annette), her husband(Mark), and son(Matt) made the move from California to join the family. Annette planned a surprise birthday party. There were approximately 70 relatives and guests who surprised Mom at cousin Elliot Trotter's lake house. Mom was 100% completely caught off guard as everyone managed to keep the surprise from her. The party was a huge success and everyone enjoyed themselves.
Annette and Mom


Bottom Row: Annette, Eric, Mom, Hallie
Second Row: Ashley, Susan, Matt, Sandra, David
Top: Mark

This is a picture of the first cousins who were present at the party. It is the first time I have met many of my cousins, (since I was about 8 years old), so I can't name them all. I will wait to hear from Bill Trotter who is creating a family history and can help me with names.


Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Drawings of Future House..........

102 CaƱon San Felipe
Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico
These photos show the preliminary architect drawings of the front and back of our future home. The home will be two levels, the main level where we will spend most of our time is at street level with no stairs. The lower level is down a stair case. The upper level of the house will have the kitchen, dining room, living room, office, service room and the master bedroom. The lower level will have two bedrooms and a television room.



Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Home Construction Week 5 July 3-9
It has been 5 weeks since ground was cleared on the lot. The two pictures above show the work on the foundation for the house. It is slow manual labor, as the men chisel and hammer each rock into the proper shape to fit into the puzzle. Cement is embedded between these rocks to anchor them into place. When finished the wall will be about 6 feet tall and the lower floor of the house will sit on a leveled concrete platform upon the wall. Stairs will lead from the house down the rock wall and provide access to the upper garden, which will be about 35 feet by 120 feet. In this garden we plan to have a waterfall and fish pond, along with a palapa for entertaining. Sandra wants to landscape this garden with many beautiful flowers. The two pictures below show the progress on the lower retaining wall along the back and side property lines

These retaining walls will level the bottom portion of our lot and allow us to have a lower garden where I plan on having fruit trees and a vegetable garden. This garden is slightly smaller than the upper garden. The walls are nearing completion and should be completed by the time we return from our trip to Fort Worth for my mother's 80th birthday celebration.




Monday, July 10, 2006

David's Flower Drawings
For those of you wondering what I have been doing to keep busy, well, I've started drawing. I'm using colored pencils now, but plan to advance to water colors and oil as I improve my skills.
Wednesday evenings at the Club Britania here in Morelia, Sandra and I have been taking painting classes. The instructor is a famous Mexican murialist, Gilberto Rameriz. Gilberto has been commissioned to paint murals depicting Mexican History in both the United States and Mexico.
I'm still learning how to shade and show depth and texture in my drawings. I enjoy the time drawing, it's very relaxing for my mind. I don't know what my style is yet, though I'm leaning to impressionism. As I mentioned in the previous post, I plan on painting and recording the wild flowers at Tres Marias. The flower drawings show here are in order that I painted them, starting with the most recent painting at the top and the oldest here at the bottom. I think I'm improving in my technique. Well, anyway, this is one way I'm keeping my mind active here in Morelia. A future Blog will show Sandra's drawing and her style. She is must more perfectionist and realistic with her art than me. It's interesting how we both have developed our unique styles.




Friday, July 07, 2006

Wild Flowers
The summer rainy season has arrived here in Morelia and the former dry, brown country side is now a brilliant green. With the arrival of the rain, wildflowers are growing and blooming at Tres Marias. Here is a sampling of a few of the different wild flowers that are blooming now.



I will post more flowers as they bloom throughout the summer. These wild flowers have captured my interest and I intend to catalog, by way of drawings, the different flowers. I hope I'm able to learn the names of these flowers. In retirement, I have in interest in drawing and painting and these flowers will be my first subjects.

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Home Construction Week 4
June 26-July 1, 2006
This is Sandra and our architect Arturo Vargas. When Sandra and I first moved to Morelia we spent about 4 months looking at homes, homes under construction and talking to architects. We decided on hiring Arturo to help us design and build our home. At the time, Arturo was building one other home in Tres Marias. We called it the palapa house because it had a palapa (palm leaf covered outdoor BBQ like you will see at the beaches in Mexico). We were impressed with the quality of construction and the beautiful finish work of the home. Arturo really has an eye for detail and the finished house had lots of nice custom details which we especially appreciated. We have been working with Arturo for about 9 months in the design and construction of our home.
Sandra and David visiting the lot during 4th week of construction of the retaining walls and foundations.
The foundation is shaping up. It looks like it needs 2 more weeks to finish, then construction of the house can begin. This past week about 16 men have been chipping and shaping the rocks. Sandra says it's looks like they are putting a puzzle together, getting difference size rocks to fit together. This must be how the pyramids in Mexico were built.
The lower retaining wall is now about as tall as the men building it. When complete it will be about nine feet tall. We will plant climbing and hanging vines along the footing of the wall to help secure and beautify everything. We estimate another week or two to complete this retaining wall.