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13 October 2009 – About Sixty Reasons

This morning I tried not to swear, out loud or to myself. Pretty good success with the former, and fifty-nine failures with the latter. One for each of my, as of today, mounting years. Work was unhinging me. Once I thought the top of my head was going to blow…...

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4 October 2009 – Karai

When it comes to construction, things are usually pretty straightforward here. We dig, we stack, we shape, we hoist, we level, we pass heavy things one to another. We obey the laws of physics, as much by inclination as constraint. Take the karai, as an example. Elsewhere it might find…...

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11 July 2009 – The Grey Line Walking Tour

Hello ticket holders, I’ve been married to this property for so long now  that it’s easy to forget that you might be a little confused about what’s what, or more accurately, what’s where on the property. So, I thought it might be fun to take you on a “walking tour”…...

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6 July 2009 – How The Light Gets In

Howdy from California, This just in from Monte, who is still out and about in Croatia or Montenegro or Modesto. . . How The Light Gets In . That’s a photo of my last sunset in Kenya, this time around, as it was slipping through my fingers in a bittersweet…...

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7 June 2009 – Everybody Must Get Stoned

Hello friends, Most of you know by now that Monte–Martin–as he is known here is back. Fresh off an Italy trip with his mom, and here until we both leave in late June. And since you’ve been good, we have a special blog-double treat for you. Not only do you…...

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30 May 2009 – Purlins

Hi, It’s Madaraka weekend here. It celebrates a half-way stage in Kenya’s independence. And our building structural independence took a big step when we got all the roof stuff glued together. Here’s the story in brief. Once the trusses were in place, we welded the purlins to them. Our purlins…...

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20 May 2009 – Very Big Triangles

Hello from all of us here, I think my laptop is acrophobic. The minute I started talking about a mid-flight  disposal, it started apologizing and attempting reform. Babysteps, but it might be the leg up I need to get through the next month’s Mac-stuff. I’m so far behind in posting…...

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8 May 2009 – The House of Several Gables

Happy ocho de Mayo, A good many things have conspired (successfully) against getting this little slice of project life up here for you to see: a very busy building schedule, the fifty things that spin off of that, a built in aversion to this kind of work when other things…...

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22 April 2009 – Ring Beam Me Up

Hello out there, . In my continuing, and only partially successful attempt to fill in the gaps for you in our construction process, here’s a look at how we made the ring beam. It had to connect all the interior and exterior walls and the thirteen posts in a continuous…...

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16 April 2009 – Heavy Metal

Ladies and Gentlemen, . I know I haven’t caught you all the up with the proceedings here yet, i.e., the pouring of the ring beam and such, but I wanted to leap frog a little and bring you some of today’s action while it was still warm. . . .…...

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