| | We have encountered problems with our new Living In The Philippines . com /jjsblog site.
I am not sure what the problems are but we will save the information here and transfer it to the
other site as soon as it is up and working.
JJ
Hello:
Thanks for your kind comments.
Mama is my wife.. thanks...
my mother has been gone about three years now.
The water goes off to save the energy of pumping
the liquid into the minicipal line in the evening and
during the night.
We intend to turn our rice field into a homestead.
We have made a home so far. We made the home
by filling in part of the rice field that was behind our
rent house, an old house made of bamboo and setting
up on high piles. We brought in 35 loads of 3 cubic
meters of gravel and filled in our house site with gravel.
Then we brought in a few truckloads of sand and gravel
and with a small mold a man made about 200 cement
blocks each day. After making the blocks, the man
stacked the blocks and allowed the blocks to season.
After there were a few thousand blocks, a foundation was
set and the home's walls started to take shape. The walls
of the home were
cement blocks and rebar, on a 1 foot
cement and rebar foundation. The home is three bedrooms,
two baths, one with a bath tub and both with hot water, a
real oddity here in the Philippines. We have a large living
room, a dining room and a clean kitchen. We have a dirty
kitchen on the side of the house, toward the back of the lot.
We have a wood fired, red clay brick oven on the other side
of the house. We have verandas in the front and on both sides
of the home. The house faces a neighbors house. The side
door is the one facing the street. Odd arrangement but the
house fits the land scape and the area. We cut trees on the
property to made lumber for the house, and roof. The covering
of the roof is galvanized iron. We put red brick around the house
on the outside. We also used the same island made bricks to
make our oven. We have slowly
filled in the rice field behind
our home. We still have a drainage problem, but we do have
several nice gardens that are raised beds and productive. Our
future plans include filling in the remainder of our back yard,
with dirt and sand, and then building raised beds. We then will
continue our interest in vegetables and ground fruits. We will
put in about 75 to 100 trees in the back year and the steep hill
behind our home.
We have chickens, turkeys, pigeons, guinea hens, quail and
ducks. We find the ducks the cutiest of all and the chickens
the most practical. We plan on pigs, rabbits and goats in a
year. We also plan to build or should we say dig a fish pond
and then use the fill in an area to build a pig pen and a small
shelter for goats. With the oven, the gardens, and the animals
we will be nearly self sufficient.
We do plan to render pig fat
for lard, and make lye from the ashes
that come from the oven. We will then make and sell goat milk
soap. We figure that we are about 1/2 to 2/3 the way through
the building and establishment of our little homestead. We have
lined up a pair of Nigerian Dwarf does that are bred for Feb and
April of 2007. Those does are young, a two and one year old.
They are good and registered stock. We want to get experience
in making cheese while we are in Houston. We also hope to
gain experience in canning and make jelly and jam.
I have a blog entry that will be published today about fruit
and the orchard that we plan. Trees are very cheap here, from
free to 30 cents for the ordinary trees at the public nursery, to
250 pesos or about $5 for a grafted tree. We put in an orchard in
the past but the orchard did not do well as we put in in and the
gardener we left in charge did
not take care of the trees. Also,
the drainage was poor, a real killer for both fruits and vegetables.
We therefore are planning the fill first and then the fruit trees.
We put in 8 coconut trees yesterday, all free from family members.
I am a retired military officer with a small pension that goes much
farther in the Philippines than it would ever go in America. The
rate of pesos to the dollar keeps slipping for the last two years
after over 30 years of going from 5 to 56 the rate has now slipped
back to about 49 pesos to one US dollar. We expect the dollar to
go as low as 44 pesos per dollar. This will increase our costs of
living in paradise by about 20 percent, plus inflation in the islands.
Labor here gets from 100 to 300 pesos a day, depending on labor
status. A houseboy,
maid or gardener get 100 pesos a day. An electrician gets 300.
A mason or carpenter gets 230 to
250. So my oven required 5
days to build. The mason charged me 230 pesos a day. I gave him
a little bonus of 20 pesos a day, or in total paid him about $5 a day
or about $25 to build the oven. The platform was built by the same
mason/carpenter and also cost about $25. The total cost of building
the oven was less than $200, including labor and materials.
Our home cost about $7500 to build, on land my wife owned.
The improvements have that much or more again, paid as we
went (go) along. We have never had a mortgage here or never had
any intrest payments of any kind. The taxes on the two rent
houses, two barns and the house and 3.2 acres of land are about
2000 pesos or about $40 a year. The natives speak Filipino/Tagalog
but also speak some English as a second language. Most of the
natives are Christian, and in fact most are Roman Catholic, although
almost any
prostastant group is represented here on our island. The
natives are likeable and they like foreigners. My pension goes a long
way and when I am not here, my costs are about $150 a month, including
24 hour guard to watch the property.
Thanks again for your post...
JJ
Garden Gnome <sfg.oamc@yahoo.com> wrote: Hi
JJ, interesting blog. I'm looking forward to seeing a few pictures.
From what you have written the Phillipines sounds like a poor country
if people are going without enough food to fill their bodies. I'm
curious as to the water being turned off. Why is that? Also is Mama
your wife or mother? I couldn't quite figure out. I'm also very curious
as to your homestead. I take it you are setting this home up to be more
self sufficient or at least grow vegetables and perhaps have some
livestock. What is the climate like there? And sorry to be so nosey,
but are you now on a pension or have a source of income that allows you
to pay for the help? Finally, what is a peso worth say in US dollars?
TIA
Have a GREAT gardening day!
Garden Gnome
Ontario, Zone 6A
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