jayjayphi's Xanga

One Of Our Last Blog Entries

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 23:12:36 GMT

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

http://livinginthephilippines.com/jjsblog

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 12:44:49 GMT

We have a new blog address site that is newer and better software.
Please find our blog at that new address.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

JJ - Editor

Hello Once Again!!

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 23:29:53 GMT

Hello to all;

I have been very busy doing nothing! We had a week of walks in the cemetery, and never
got one 'trick or treater' at our home on Halloween. We had candy ready, but never saw a
single adult or child. But the next day the cemetery was full of folks just cleaning graves and
paying honor to the dead. We attended mass at the cemetery. Several years ago the Knights
of Columbus constructed a large cross and alter on a small spot at the cemetery. This year I
had hoped that the Knights would also construct a small trench lined with hollow block around
the perimeter of the spot used for the mass. Inside this spot was to be put a large amount of
sand. The sand would support candles that the natives lit after the mass in honor of the dead.
Perhaps next year. Perhaps? Maybe in 2008, or 2009. But, I do hope to see that lot filled
with sand before the end of my lifetime. The current method is to put the candle against something,
anything really, and to let it burn. Soon there are so many candles that the grass is on fire and most
of the grass also burns. Putting the candles in sand, as is common in many Armenian Chruchs, the
oldest established Catholic Churches in the world, is just second nature. I would like to do the
project myself, and I think that I have the parish's blessing to do it... maybe next year, maybe by
2009.

Our birds are doing well. Daughter duck has a nest somewhere, but we can not find it.
I am sure she will just show up one day with a brood of newly hatched ducklings.
Mama duck has her same nest she used to hatch out 9 ducklings out of nine eggs in
August. I remember the date as I had been in Davao and Cebu and returned to the
island on my brother's birthdayt, August 16, just to see the first of the ducklings hatch
out. As time would tell, all 9 eggs hatched. I would have had more eggs and ducks
but several locals like duck eggs and the eggs seemed to leave ever third day or so
Now the old nest is full of eggs. I just counted and she has 17. I
have heard of muscovy ducks hatching 20, but that is about the best I have heard.
She moves the eggs around as if she knew what she were doing. She seems to lay
one egg a day. Then she heads off to lead her brood about their daily activities.
We hope to get some pictures of mama duck and her current brood of nine. I managed
to get one of the males in my hands yesterday. That male did well until let him go and
he gave me a deep scratch on my small finger. I did not think much of the scratch
at the time, but now that finger is letting me know that it is there. I was offered 100
pesos a kilo for the ducks this morning. At two kilos each, I may just break even with
my food bill. The males seem to be pecking at each other, establishing a pecking order.
The females are much small but also much prettier, and with fewer peck marks. The
back yard sure looks a site when we look out and see those white ducks. The seem to
graze, and I guess in reality the ducks are just looking for a few bugs to round out there
diet. These are definitely Filipino ducks, they all seem to prefer white rice to cracked
corn or to corn grits.

There are three mama hens in the field too. One has five chicks, one is brooding 8 and
the other is brooding 9. Our chicken project has been a real success. We have a
sack of rice bran that was given back to us after we harvested out second few bags
of rice from fields we have here on the island. We have a cousin that dries the rice
for us, then mills it. He gives us back the rice, and also the bran. The turkeys and
ducks will eat the bran if mixed with enough feed. The chicken will not. Anyway,
one chicken perched on the top of that bag of brand. We discovered a few eggs
on the top of a cage. I set them on that bag of bran hoping the boys (gardeners) would
get the chicken into a laying basket. Mama added two eggs while we were trying to coax
her into the basket. We left the five eggs, she added three more and is now setting. She
should have hatched the cluch before we head off to America. We also have another
two hens sharing one basket and setting on 19 or 20 eggs, depending on which gardener
is telling the story.

The gardeners are loving the weed eater. The now go out to the field and wear sunglasses
as eye protection, and mow with the greatest of ease. We are hoping to fill in that rice field
in a year and make it into orchards and gardens, with raised beds. We now know that the
concept works. We can garden with raised beds. We will need to be more selective of
our papaya seeds in the future. The seeds from Belize and Thailand did not do so well. The
seeds of the local papaya seem to do well and bear fruit. I will be getting just local seeds from
now on. Most imported seed does not work well. I may try to find a supply house in Hawaii,
but will avoid most seeds from the USA. My advice is that the stateside seed just does not
work. Also, ants carry off the seeds before you have them well watered. The local ants come
in twelve different kinds, each competing for the treats you put out in the garden.

The peso will take a nose dive soon. We understand it will be going down to 44 to the dollar.
I guess that is up if you are a local. Sad, but it went from 56 to 49 in just a short time. We used
to figure 50 for a dollar. I, and many other expats need to rethink our spending and savings.
We have more building projects in mind and we will be needing to spend to get them done. We
will be spending about 20% more, give or take, to get the projects done in the future. I never
remember the dollar going down or the peso going up that much in value... I am sure the value
of the US $ is based on our weakened status because of the war in Iraq. I hope that war will
be over soon. I am watching the dollar against the yen and the won. Both of the Japanese and
Korean currencies seem to be stable against our money, but we will look forward to the end
of the month.

Well we are letting our garden go. We have lots of egg plant that will be bearing after we
leave the island. We have oregano that is about gone, we have basil that is about done.
We have just set out about two dozen tomatoes and they seem to be doing well. We don't
seem to be doing too well with our peppers. The birds seem to love them. The birds, as
in birds like sparrows and such, love the tender shoots of the new peppers... We are also
having a land office business as far as sweet potato tops too. We have ginger and garlic that
are doing well. We are picking more than enough beans for our table, and we are still picking
patella. I am hoping to put in some more upo before I head out to the USA. We have squash
that is in, but I will not be here to care for it, so well will start again new when I return to the
islands next year after spending the holidays in Houston.

Well, I shall leave now. I do hope to write more and look forward to comments from the
visitors.

Regards to all,

JJ

Hello Once Again!!

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 22:20:48 GMT

We are back

Sun, 15 Oct 2006 09:20:12 GMT

We have been gone a few weeks and not doing much of anything.

My birthday came and went. I have applied to teach English as a Second
Language in Koea and have been given a few good job offers.
I may start after the Christmas Holidays, depending on what the North
Koreans do in regards to more Nuclear Testing.

Our chickens have done well. The duck too!
We have two chutches of baby chicks that are doing well with
mama chicken. One group is with 8 baqbies and the other cluch
has nine babies. The nine ducks are now our of their cage, on their
own and walking around and seeming to have the run of the back
yard.

We are planning for our future orchard and have located a small
truck to bring in dirt and other types of fill.

We have purchased clay bricks for building our wood fired oven.
The oven will be completed later this week. We hope to be eating nice
homemade pizza by the end of the month. I am not sure how long it takes
for a clay oven to dry and be fired off. I do know that we have toset small
fires for a week or so as the inside dries. We have slowly gathered reccipes
for mortar, and for the overall construction of the pizza oven. We also want
to make so bread. We have been told that bread ovens and pizza ovens
have different stypes of construction. Hopefully we have made the right
choice in basic design. The elderly man making the oven does seem to
know what he is doing.

Well that is about it for todays entry.

See you all later....

JJ

Our Hopes For A More Self Sufficient Future

Sat, 23 Sep 2006 21:58:54 GMT

:Subject

Re: Our blog - Self Sufficient Life on a Tropical Island in Asia

The entry below was written to a self suffiency blog in the USA.

There seems to be a large self suffienct movement in the USA.

Some of you fellow group members may be interested in
reading a blog about a self sufficient life style in and on the
island of Marinduque.
On our island we have about 3.2 acres or 1.3 hectares of
land, the bottom part was all rice field behind a century old
bamboo house. We made our own blocks and then sun
dried the blocks and then stacked them up and made a
three bedroom home, with two baths, a clean kitchen,
a dirty kitchen and a dining and living room. We also have
started a flock of native chickens, ducks, quail, turkeys,
pigoens and guinea hens. We have put in raised beds
to allow us to garden even in the rainy season. We set out a
large orchard but it did not do well because of the poor drainage.
We have built raised beds and continue to get vegetables
right throught the rainy season. We will now fill in the rest of
our rice field and make raised for more vegetables and
for our fruit trees. We do have mangos that we put in that
we set out in January 20003 and which bore fruit in May, 2005.
We got a lare crop of mangos this year and hope to see further
crops in the future years. We have put in other trees on the
hill near our home, and now are looking forward to fruit from
the hilly area in the next few years.
In short, where we had just a rice field and a hill full of
coconuts three years ago, we now have gardens, some
fruit trees, and barns overflowing with animals. We look
forward to more self suffiency as the years go on, We
tried to get goats started, but it was of no use, the gardener
was not too quick on caring for a goat. We also will be
getting some pigs and rabbits soon. We start two new
projects each year, and work them well and adjust for
problems and continue the projects.
We are currently building a brick oven. We anticipate
the foundation being finished this Monday and then
the oven, made of clay blocks that are hand made
on this tropical island, just as soon as the bricks are
dry and kiln dried. Things here take longer to do than
in America, but things are also more rewarding.
My neighbors think I am crazy. Why would a rich
Americano want to grow their own when all that food
stuff can be purchased in the market. Why would we
go to the effort to make our own cheese and sausage
when it can be purchased. Why raise our own eggs when
they can also be purchased.
Our gardeners birthday is today. We gave him two
chickens yesterday. We insisted he wait until after the
chickens roost and then put them in a cage. He butchered
them and this morning is cooking them for pancit, a local
dish that is made of rice noodles and minimal meat. With
our vegetables and those two chickens, this man is fixed
to feed about 50 people. He is happy and we have the
knowledge that when those birds were hatched two months
ago, the were destine for the pot and we never fed any
chemicals or antivbodics of any kind. The gardener has
little knowledge of 'organic', but he is learning. Times are
getting better. We are now feeding several families with
vegetables that we are taking from our gardens. We have
so much that we seldom buy any vegetables. We hope for
our garlic and spices, herbs and all to be more than
enough for our future use.
Our blog is at:
www.xanga.com/ jayjayphi
should any of you care to look it up. Being we are building
the oven we have not made daily entries but will start back
with daily entries as soon as the oven work lets up. We
hope our next project goes as easy, We have a pig pen
and a fish pond to complete. We will put in the fill for the
remaining area raised beds and then set out fruit trees.
And what do you think of our plans to retire into a self
sufficinent lifestyle. Who mentioned retirement, did I?
I'm JJ
Santol, Boac, Marinduque

.

Starting Our and Keeping It going

Wed, 20 Sep 2006 22:46:42 GMT

We are in the Philippines. We have a terrible time using modern cookbooks that call
for a box of this and a can of that. Here the boxes or cans are just not available, at
least on this remote and tropical island. We have an old cookbook that is falling appart.
The old book tells me how to use flour, sugar and eggs to make a cake. We mix the
cake with a modern mixer and bake in a wood fired oven or one heated by a small
tank of bottled gas. We have to grate coconut, make our own butternilk and ferment
our own yogart. We bake our own bread and make our own pizza dough from the
flour up. We do have some basic ingredients and we use those to create some fantastic
meals.
We are building a perminate brick lined wood fired oven. We had to have the clay
brick specially made and just getting the bricks took over three weeks. We smile
at getting anything done fast here. I can look at 40 cookbooks, most of them I can't
use as they are using modern ingredients that are not available on our small remote
island in paradise. When we cook here, the natives watch as if I was a master chef.
We made pizza from scratch the other day, or from the flour up. Making pizza that
way showed the natves that it is possible. We also grow large gardens and are
putting in orchards. We raise quail. pigeons, ducks, chickens , turkeys and
guinea hens. We hope to add geese soon. We have tried goats and will try again.
We will also try pigs as the gardens come into full production.
We also read cookbooks like novels. We do not have a Chiropractor
available on the island, but we are about 1000 foot from a basic hospital.
Here medical care is about 50 years behind. We bring in our own
medications and with good food and healthy exercise we are doing well.
We also keep a notebook after we find a nice recipe. We repeat the good
recipes often. We avoid cats but have a native dog. Back home we had
Chiahuahuas. Now those little dogs have spirit. Pound for pound, not
other dog has such energy.
We have a small oven that uses bottled gas, cica 1980's. We also have
a small wood fired oven and we are building a brick lined, wood fired oven
in our back year. We have a two burner stove in the inside kitchen and
a two burner stove outside. We have a clean and dirty kitchen plus the oven
we are building. We enjoy cooking but we are much closer to our food chain
here than we were in Texas. Here we raise and butcher our own meat.
We hope to add pigs and goats to the lauder soon. We do not can much as
most food here is eaten fresh. They do not even age meat, most is eaten
fresh. We sometimes go and catch our dinner from the sea or local river.
Sometimes folks come by with seafood they have just cuaght, such as shrimp.
We have even started to trade vegetables for seafood. We hope to trade
more vegetables, homemade ice, (reefs are not common here), and baked goods
for more seafood in the future. We make it sound like we are in the middle of no
where. Well we are. But we have cable TV, DSL, phone Voip phone and internet.
There are few libraries and we are a 1 1/2 to 4 hour boat ride from the mainland.
We are another 4 to 6 hour road trip to Manila. We can get about anything in
Manila, but we avoid the hassel and polution of the city if possible
Here we enjoy the slow pace and gentle nature of the native people. We eat
well, exercise by walking a lot... We continue to become more self sufficient as
the days roll by. We start a project on a limited scale and then expand the
project if the project merits expansion. We modify projects that we want to
continue but that are not working for us Neighbors think we are crazy. Few ntives
here have gardens, and everyone has open arms as we give out excess vegetables.
Why would a 'rich Americano' want to grow their own when they can get about everything
in the local market. We get a great deal of produce from our gardens. We are hoping to
get our share of the rice harvest soon. We use rice for the table and to feed chickens.
Blessings to you and yours....
JJ

The above taken from a post made to a fellow homesteader who
was complaining about moder cookbooks, spirited dogs
and commneting on life in general.
JJ

How Much Land, how Much time

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 00:47:21 GMT

Hello:
We have 1.3 hectares here in the tropics. For those of you
who perfer acres that is 1.3 x 2.47 or about 3.2 acres. This
land is about 1000 feet from the provincial capitol. We have a hospital
between us and the provincial capitol building.
About half of our land is quite steap, and that part is planted
to trees. We also want to clear it again and plant more trees.
Here some trees fruit during the dry season, some during the
rainy season and some, like coconuts and citrus, fruit year around.
We have about 1 plus acre that is fairly flat. It was an old rice field.
The rice field sat behind an old home that is a truditional home here
on stilts and with a small storage area under it. That old home
was where many of the older family members were born. We have
renevated that old house several times over the 30 years we have
been married. We now rent that old house out by the month and
get more than enough income to pay the taxes and maintain the
home.
We should have knocked the old house down and built the new
one, the one we are living in, on the land near the national highway,
or land on which the old house sits. We did not knock the old
house down for two reasons, the family heritage and why knock
it down after we renivated it and spent hard earned money on the
renivation.
So, we got permission to change our rice field frrom agriculture to
residencial. We then filled in the rice field with about 35 +/- loads of
large gravel. We let it set for a few months and then tamped it
down and leveled off the space just behind the old house. We
put in a small area for a drivewat\y and also we used that area
as a work area when we constructed our home. We acturally took
a small mold, mixed a bag of cement with a few bags of sand and
a few bags of gravel and we made blocks. One man can make about
150 to 200 blocks in a day if he works at it. We then set the blocks aside
on the future driveway and let the cement blocks, hollow blocks, dry and
season. After a month we stacked up the blocks and made room for
more blocks. We kept the gravel and sand as well as the cement
coming in the gate. As one supply item deminished, it was replaced.
Within a month we had a large amount of blocks and we started to build our future home.
We had gotten a permit fo be able to build on our rice field. The 2000
pesos we paid for that permit, (~$40, was the only construction cost
that we do not have a reciept for. That office did not give a reciept for
that permit. I still believe we lined someone pocket with that $40, but
we could never prove it.
Anyway, while the bricks were being made, we got the plans
approved. We had sent over a book of house plans, one we picked
up at a local food market, from Houston the our remote tropical island
in the central Philippine Paradise. An elderly cousin designed a home
that would pass local regualtions and not cost an arm and a leg to build.
We chose a small, one story, block home, with three bedrooms,
two baths rooms, a kitchen area, a small dining room and a decent
size living room. We built a dirty kitchen outside the home. Now let
me discribe the home a little more. We have white tile floors throughout.
We have a main shower and comfort room for the home, towards the
back of the house, near the back two bedrooms. We also have a
bathroom off our bedroom, this one more spacious and with a tub.
We installed coils in both showers as we like hot water showers,
something the natives think is making us soft. We have put up
glass panels to insure that our shower areas stay dry. Here in the
islands it is not at all uncommon for shovers to spary over the
commode area and for bathroom floors to be wet and smelly.
We have commondes with seats on each commode, and
toilet paper in each area of each commode, something that
is not common in this country.
Our working kitchen has a refirgerator and a cooking area, a lot
of counter space and plenty of cupboards. We installed
the cupboards last year and extended the kichen counter
at the same time. We also put in other shelves to make
life more grand and living more of a blessing. But still we have
a few things wrong. Our sink faces a wall and our two burner
stove set in front of the window. Every house we have ever had
has always had the sink facing the window. We have
water that comes on at 4:30 AM and goes off between 7 and 8 PM
each evening. We get used to that and keep water on hand for
emergency use when the local water is not available. We made
most of our own furniture, including closets, tables, chairs, beds and
the like. We have three verandas outside. Two came finished
when we moved into the place and we finished one more off
last summer after we did the counters and cupboards. We moved
our old bamboo furniture from the living room to the verandas and replaced
it with western style furniture inside the house. Now both look fine and in place and as if they belonged where they are. Bamboo furniture was made
locally and a whole set rans about $60. The stuff is over 3 years old
now and is as strong as ever.
We put in raised beds for the gardens in the back yard. We did three
beds initially and found out that the raised beds idea works in and on
our former rice field that we designed for and with poor drainage. We
will therefore make the rest of the back yard a raised bed area. With
raised beds we will then plant an additional large number of fruit trees.
These trees will come from a private and a provincial nursery. The trees
are rather cheap, about 60 cents each, on average. We have planted
a lot of trees on our steep hill but want to have cuttivated fruit coming
from our back yard. Filling in the area and makeing rasied beds will
assist us in that area of being self sufficient in fruit production.
We had two goats, both died as our hired help did not seem to be able
to care for them properly. We will try again with an adult female, or a
pair of adult does. We also hope to put in the pigpen we have wanted
for several years. The pen will accomodate about 6 to 8 pigs and will
be on the flat, as far away from our house as possible. We have a
large shed that we use for birds. We have turkeys, ducks, chickens,
guinea hens, texas hens, (used to produce fighting cocks), quail, and
pigeons. We hope to acquire a few homers and start to hone that
hobby. We hope to trade a few ducks or chickens for a pair of small geese.
We expect to start making cheese with the aquization of a
milking goat. We expect to start making sausage with the slaughter
of a few pigs. Between the sausage, the freezer, the birds and
the goats, we expect to be almost self sufficient in terms of meat
production, We are now almost self sufficient for eggs. With the
addition of a few more raised beds we will be sufficient for vegetables.
We have found that a lot of temporate vegetables do not grow well
in the tropics. We also found that some vegetables from the USA grow
well during the dry season but not during the rainy season. We keep
honing our gardening skills. We have also ageed to work with nature
and to grow what grows well here in the tropics and not try to grow
what we can not grow with out a great deal of difficulty. We also have
an advantage of having a ready retail market for our produce and
other farm products. That market is our own kitchen table. So, you
can see that out little corner of paradise will be very productive indeed.
We have found out, by trial and error, mostly error, what not to do in the
area of gardening and trying to produce a good share of our own food.
With success comes many failures. With each success comes a great
deal of happiness.
With our use of the land for the last three years we have made a home where
a rice field stood before. We have build pens and a barn. We have planted mango trees and harvested mangos just two years after the first trees were
planted. We have harvested vegetables and seen chickens grow to set on their
own eggs and hatch out their own babies. We have seen ducks grow, pigeons reproduce to the point they are almost a problem. We have seen turkeys become so tame they all but eat our of our hand. We have decided quail are not
for us and have decided to concentrate on other types of birds. We hope to add
rabbits to out production schedule in the next year. With pigeons becoming so plentiful, imagine what will happen to rabbits. We have become good at making and using compost and other organic fertilizer. We work with nature as much as possible. We are now in the process of building
a wood fired oven and will use locally grown wood to make our own bread. We
do not plan on raising wheat but we do make bread and pizza from the flour up.
We do plan to alternate our lives between the City of Houston and the island of
Marinduque over the next few years. Mama and I have had a lot of financial problems with a business we sold and that seems to have been ironed out. We are now on the road to financial recovery. We hope to therefore comtinue our
building projects in the area of self suffiency. We are in the process of writting
a cook book and have collected over 5000 tried and true recipes. We have also started a book in living a self suffient lifestyle in the Philippine Islands. We have been workig on many projects over the last few years and have decided to publish a small book about our experience so that other may copy us and not have to go throught all the trial and error.
We will end by telling you that we have a yard with about 50 types of plants. We put in our lawn for less than $20. The $20 was for buffalo grass that a local man hauled in by the wheelborrow and placed into the area where we wanted the grass. We removed a little grass after we came back to the island for subsiquent visits.
We planted different cutting and trimmings. We routinely go to other homes in the area and see plants we do not have. We trade our plants for others. We have a steady upply of flower plants in our driveway, growing in small plastic pots and just waiting for a neighbor to come by and trade. We have other trades planned for birds and fruits. We now give away lots of vegetables and some fruit. We have learned to enjoy our life here in the island and to trust in the Almighty for His blessings. We hope for the best, and expect beter than the worse as we go along. Every day is a learning experience.
Regards to all.
JJ

Men and Women are Different

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 09:20:08 GMT

Women and men have different names:
Women are Erlinda, Lorna, Elizabeth and Pacita. If they go out
for a gathering, they call each other Linda, Lorna, Beth and Pasing.

If James, Gerry, Ludigario and Rapheal get together, they
will affectionally refer to each other as Fat Boy, Killer, or
Jun, Dong. JR and Bong.

Eating out:
When the bill arrives James, Gerry, Jun, Dong, JR and Bong will all
go after a 50 peso bill None of them will expect change. This happens
unless one of the crowd is an American, in that case, the kano
will pay the bill. In the case of the men, none of them will admit
they have anything smaller than the 50 and none will admit they
want any change back.

In the case of the ladies, the calculator comes out, the bill is
split down the center, by then number in the group, adding 10, or 15
percent for a tip, depending on the level of service and how well the
evening went. They will wait for their change, even if it is just 10
pesos.

Money:
Most men in the islands will send mama to buy something they need.
For those that shop for themselves, a man will pay 100 pesos for a
50 pesos item he needs. A women will pay 50 pesos for a 100 peso
item she needs, and she finds the item she needs on sale.

Bathrooms:
A man will have just five or six items in the bathroom. These will be
a razor, a bar of soap, a towel, (often borrowed from a hotel or neighbor),
A tooth brush and tooth paste.

The average number of things in a women's bathroom depends on how westernized she is. This could be from 50 to 450. A man is not able to
identify many of the idems and can not understand why so many are needed.
These can include two dozen sets of ear rings. A few dozen hair pins,
elastic bands, slippers and robes and towels. Most of the towels are
new.

Arguements:
A women will get the last word in on all arguments. Any thing that
a man will say after that last word is the beginig of a new argument.
Wonem are also subject to Tampo.

Cats:
Women love cats. Men say they love cats, but when women
are not present and looking one, the men kick the cats. Men
love dogs... the more western the man, the more he interacts
with the dog.

Future:
A women worries about the future until she finds a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.
The Filipinos seem to be just like Kanos in this regard!

Success:
A successful man is the one who makes more than his wife
can spend. A succesful women is one who can find a
sucessful man. Filipino women are better at squeezing the
peso until it starts to squeak, but she still likes to control the
movement of that peso from the mans hands to hers then on
to the vendor. She does not like the peso to pass from the
mans hands to the vendor directly.

Marriage:
A women marries a man expecting him to change, often change overnight.
A Man marries a women expecting that she will not change at all. He does
not change and she does. Problems ahead!!

Dressing Up:
A women will dress up to go shopping, to feed the dog, to water the plants,
to get the gardener to water the plants, to answer the phone, to cook
breakfast or lunch or to get the maid to cook breakfast or lunch. She
dresses up to go out with Linda, Lorna, Beth or Pasing. A man dresses
up for weddings and funerals. Unless he is a professional, he has one
basic suit, hanging in the far end of his side of the closet that is crammed
with her stuff. Her side of the closet is full and her stuff is overflowing onto
his side of the closet. He may have two ties, two shirts and two pairs of
slacks. He tries to avoid weddings and funnerals. Mama avoids Filipino
time for both weddings and funerals and goes out of her way to make
sure her and papa arrive early, and set up frount.

Natural:
Men wake up almost as good looking as when they go to bed. Women, somehow deteriorate during the night. Mama will need an overhall in
the morning, The guy gets up, comes his hair and puts on a new
set of shorts and a clean teashirt.

Children and Grandchildren, Neices and Nephews:
A women knows all about each one of the family that is a generation
or two or even three, younger than she is. She knows about all the
appointments and the dates and the freinds. She knows who are
the best friends the past loves and current loves. A man is vaguely
aware they are younger people around. Filipinos seem to stack up with
Kanos on this regard.

Thinking:
Any married man, Filipino or American, should forget his mistakes.
Why should he forget? There is no use of two people remembering the
same thing and the man can use his energy in socializing with his
friends, smoking, drinking and cockfighting,

These are not all orginal thoughts and I did have help with some of
the passages. The thoughts were revised to show how Filipino
men and women differ.

Smiling,
I'm JJ in Boac, Marinduque

I Need To Get More Matches

Sun, 10 Sep 2006 10:14:36 GMT

Hello Dear Ones All:

I am still toughing it our here on the island of Marinduque. I have taken
the correct numbers of Continuing Education Units for reinstating my
State Professional Licenses. I am now waiting for the lawsuit to
force the buyers of my business to pay me, Paying me may be
difficult for them. I will have to wait and see what happens. The new
owners are now paying me a reduced amount each month, of which
the lawyer gets some and we get the rest. This still enlarges the
new owners debt each month and the debt just ''keeps on coming'',
getting larger with each passing month.

That said, I have looked back over some ot the newsletters on this site,
Someone asked me why folks that are not in the Philippines want to
move (t)here and start a business, and those that are here just want to
use their income earned outside the country to live on and have a decent
lifestyle and conduct life in this magnificant paradise.

These islands are the home of a wonderful group of people. The natives
are by large poor but happy. Most make a meager living and most live
in homes that are anything but palacio, Some still live in nipa huts, but most
have gone to unfinished hollow block. The homes are largely unfinished.
One can count the blocks in the walls with out much difficulty. The floors
are often clay, or unfinished concrete. Some have big foundation problems.
Few have windows. Many have bamboo that has been placed over the
window area of the home. The bamboo keeps out dogs, and cats, but
few birds and insects. The sun shines in as well as the rain. Nipa has
to be replaced often enough that the natives can not keep up with the
repairs. One that travels these islands on a regular basis will see a
few houses in the rural areas going up, but most are quite small and
cheaply built. The family often moves in soon after the roof is on and
the first three walls are up. The family often does not have the money
to finish off the homes and often, even years, after the home is inhabited,
the walls remain unfinished, (the last remaining wall may be completed), and
the roof leaks.

Now where am I leading? There are few good paying jobs in this
country, jobs that can go to non-filipinos and jobs that a person
of western roots can live on in a confortable manner. These few
jobs that do go to westerners are highly gone after by many folks
that want the same thing as a person coming into the situation.
A man marries a Filipina, and then falls in love with HER culture and
decides he would like to live here. Many, but espically the young
ones, do not have a pension or any real money coming in each month
and they decide they want to make a living in the Philippines. Most of
us older guys can tell you that it is dam near impossibe. That said,
there are a few younger guys that are thinking outside the box and
making a decent living over the net or with contact on E-Bay and the
like, but these lucky ones are few and far between. Most of the
younger guys that I am aquainted with are either retired military or
agressive thinkers that have learned to think outside the box.

Some men make a living or make an income by writing. I have
been published and fit into that group. Selling articles is tough,
low pay as a general rule and something that is hard to make a
living with. Remember, the average islander makes about 150 to
200 bucks a month, (USD), but the average per capita income is
about $4000 (USD) a year, or about $333 a month. The difference
is rather large and accounts for a few very wealthy Filipinos and
many, many very poor ones.

With modern methods of communication, including the internet,
voip phones such as vonage and others, faxes, dsl and such,
one could operate a business in the islands with some skills
that one could acquire from many colleges in the western world.
One will read of resorts and restaurants and such being for sale.
I can take you to a hot springs that is availble for about
five million pesos, or about $100,000. But, would you want
to wait at the gate and maintain the current resort in order to
attract the visitors that would be willing to use the hot springs?.
Are you sure that the springs will stay hot and that you will
not have to pay off folks just to stay open. The old man
selling is a relative, he is 83 and wants to go to America.
Email me is you are interested, (pugoclaire@yahoo. com).

Let us go on...
Finding a spot of land in this paradise is not hard. The areas
that are very derisrable are available but remember, the locals
now know what these areas have sold for. If a nieghbors sells
a patch of ground for 1000 pesos a meter, near the road,
that the next native with land near but inside that patch, feels
that his is worth 1500, or more. As home go up, the natives
start to see the potential of the property that is perhaps that
with a clear title and that which can and could be sold. That
title issue is important. There is also lots of land here that is
available that does not have clear title but which will be shown
to a potential buyer and which will have ''fake'' papers and
stamps all over the papers to show that the title is ''clean'', read
that the tiltle has been 'laundered'. I have seen plenty of them, and the more stamps, the more one would want to question. Buy a peice of ground that
even one relative has not signed off on and you can be building
a nice home for that deserving relative.
Now lets supose, and that is a big supose, that you get clear title.
Then you have to get permits in most areas to build. In cities, these
permits are required and most rural areas do require some type of
building permit. We had problem getting our rice field converted from
rice field and rural to a residencial lot. We did it at a cost, we paid 2000 php and my cousin tht was the architech, was not able to get a receipt for that money. Why we still do not know. . We got a permit,
but no recipt for the permit. For us the money was small, but cetainly
enough for the government offices and officials to line thier pocket.
Go to the home of a government clerk. That home will often be finished,
and have a nice car or two parked in frount of it. How can a lowly clerk
afford a car when a shop owner or professional struggles to take the
tricycle every day... you figure it out.... that is all together an post for
another day. We paid, got our pernit and then waited for the fill to settle
and waited for the building of the home to start. In the mean time we had
approved plans for several suggested floor plans and outside fasades.

Now, the building starts. You send money from your western country each month. You are called in the middle of the night and told that you need
more money sent in their direction. You agree to the cost overruns. You are
8000 to 18,000 miles away and just want a home built. You have lots of
pesos, or dollars, or Euros, or pounds, whatever, and the contractor wants
his share. Building a home is not recommended unless you are close at hand,
How can you be close at hand when you are in the western world and you land
is in the Philippines, and you contractor may not have a phone, beeper, fax
machine or the like. Again, I will say, like making a living, building a home is
darn tough. Materials go up weekly here on our island. The bags of cement that were 90 pesos when we build our home were 10 pesos in 1950 and are now 190 peso a sack. The nails, lumber, hardware, pipes and all the rest also go up quite often. The peso exchange rate has gone down for UD$, but the prices have not
seemed to have done the same. We recently we bought a few bags of cement at a reduced rate by a distant relative. That relative had relieved the government of a few bags and sold them to us. We did not know the source until after the
bags had been incorperated into the back veranda. After the cement was used
the bags were burned. After the buring of the bags we found out where that
few bags of cement came form. Needlesss to say I was pi--ed, but what
could I do. I, and my native wife, had been taken. The money we paid was
cash and the cash was spent at the cock pit. Needless to say, the relative lost the whole sum of payment we had paid in cash. We did have the final smile, but who had the final laugh. This is not uncommon... but it could get a
person building the home into big and deep trouble. You, as a westerner, can
'get set up and step in it' even if you are careful. It happens.
Anyway, onward with contractors. A contractor is often hard to get ahold of. He is out working after all at the site you selected or at a site of another person who
this same guy is also managing a project for. The plans are supposed to be
followed, but often the builders will leave out windows or air conditioner spaces or other items as the building progresses. The cess pool will be smaller than needed for westerners who use indoor plumbing and use more water than natives. Also, electric outlets will be fewer than needed for maintaining a western lifestyle. Also, the contractor may or may not be able to add 110 to the house current. The local current may be grounded or it may not be grounded.
Grounding is common in the USA, Canada and other places, but it is not so common on our island. When I use my kitchen aid mixer with a step down to make a cake, grind meat or what ever, it need to keep my hands dry and also need to ware rubber shoes. Wihout the dry hands and rubber shoes I will be the
ground, not a comfortable feeling. Also, insect bore throught utility lines in this country and lines need to be replaced at regular periods, or at least inspected for damage.
Added note: Cement is now 195 yo 198 per bag, depending on vendor and brand.
When we were building our home, we had a set of windows that were not
but in the wall but were on the plans. The workmen did not have the windows right in front of them so they built the wall without the windows in front of our future home. Mama happened to see it as she was there, from the USA, to personally inspect the project. She questioned the project, the wall and demanded that the plans be followed as written. She demanded the workers remove the bricks and add the windows as was on the plans, which she had a copy of, and do so at no further cost to her. The worker bawked, but did as she demanded. We are egrateful for that visit, as the added light is very welcome and makes a big difference in the interior of the home. She also demanded a two basin or compartment sink in the kitchen. She lost when the sink was near the wall and the burner was put near the window. But overall, mama won. WE, mama and I, have heard of many, many horrer stories that occured while a person in a western country was building a home in the
Philippines. The money was sent on time. The contractor was called and finally contacted. The contractor told the clients that the work was behind schedule and would cost more than orginally estimated but was going along with some sort of progress. When the westerner came to the paradise of the Asian Pearl, the westerner found their contractor was not to be found, their materials were no more and their money was gone. They then hired a second contractor and that man took over only to correct what ever was done wrong on the first go around of the first work force, and then the building progressed, only to be finished much later than was planned and often at far greater expence. This is not an average senerio, but it is also not uncommon to hear such stories.

Now lets talk about workmenshop. My tub has a peice of galvanized pipe that comes out of the wall. At the end of that pipe is a faucet that would be used for a garden hose. That is the ugliest tub in the world in my estimation. The bathroom was then tiled and finished. We then could not use the lever that allowed the water to stop and flow from the tub. I was told that we could chop a whole in the side of the tub and fix the problem. When I asked what the worker would put over the whole that was ''chopped'' I was told they would use a piece of plywood. I objected. My only other option was to retile the whole tub area and
perhaps the whole comfort room, just for a small lever the raised and lowered to allow water to settle in and flow out of out bath tub. I opted and purchased a small plastic stopper for the tub, Works for me and looks decent. We also asked why the small 10 inch pipe was put above the tub area and not below the tub area and attached to the tub. I was told this was the first tub this plumber ever installed and he did the best he could. Even with providing hardware that was common with tubs in the USA, this tub was installed in the uglest manner I could ever imagine. Now, going on, we lacked shelf space... We then installed
cupboards in the kitchen. We did cabnets in all the bed rooms. These cabnets require that the door of the cabnet be fully open to allow us to use drawers that
are used for socks, underware and the like. The carpenter was not used to drawers in a cabnet with a door, so we are stuck, but we do manage. Now, lastly, we did not catch it on the plans, but when we had the kitchen built, we had no place for the reefer. We did manage to extend the kitchen counter and
provide a place for the refrigerator, but only after remodeling the kitchen to be more suitable for our western tastes. Mama, ever a tride and true Filipina, had developed western tastes and wanted things done right. I smiled and agreed 100% during the remodeling.

We did not get any 110 volt sockets in our new home. We settled on using 220 throughout and using 110 with stepdown. We are now replacing most of our 110
appliances with 220. We are also buying 220 locally, things like turbo broilers, blenders and the like. We have replaced our TV with 220, added a VCR that is 220, as well as a DVD that is 220. When you have 110, that appliance will be plugged into 220 eventually. Trust me, it is not if, but when. We have replaced many strings of Christmas lights with 220 in order to have lights at Christmas.
Having 110 on this island is always a danger as folks plug the plug into the socket without thinking.

Now let us talk about the government. You will need to pay a fee to hook up to the power grid. We did. We have and we are reasonable pleased. Westerners are not encouraged as they usually use more power than natives and often have more complaints about the power delivery. I resemble that remark... Westerners also use more water. Using more water requries a larger leach field that is the custom in the Philippines. Open sewers are the common rule here and not the exception. Seeing and smelling a sewer is part of daily life. A drain system is supposed to have the commodes and sinks/showers seperate. But, do not count on it. Redex will work wonders, at least for a few years. Been there and done that too. The last two terms the govenor has promised to put in a drainage canal past our home. Promices made but not kept. We have waited for 12 years now and still no canal. We can dig it and build it ourselves if we are willing to file for the permits and pay for the
whole project. This would cost about 75000 pesos and we are not willing to spend money where the governent promised the completion of the project. An example of governent spending.

We have slowly replaced our native furniture with western style furniture. The native is now outside where it looks at peace and in place. Inside we have our own style of decorating and are now getting things where mama is happy and were we are both smiling. We hope to add a freezer soon, along with a microwave, and a few other 220 appliances.

Now, I know that this has been somewhat negative, but I also know the each word is from the heart and is true. There is no place that I would rather live other than this tropocal wonderland of paradise. There are many wonderful and desirable places to live here, but one has to carve his own life and lifestyle into these islands. No one is going to give you anything. Life here is much more differenct than in the west. You will have to keep your eyes open, and be taken for a few small rides before you will understand how things work here in paradise. Things are not always perfect in paradise, but for me, this is still paradise.

Regards to all,

JJ