Ambergris Caye – “Mud on the tyres”.

The heavy rainfall during Sunday night didn’t fill me with much confidence that it would be a good day on the build today.

When Rose and I visited the site on Ambergris Caye where we are building our house early yesterday afternoon it was extremely squelchy ( great word isn’t it) and, in places, underwater. The heavy rain that followed could only have made it worse, maybe even creating a quagmire, so we thought.

I set off for the site this morning around 10am fearing the worst.Would the poor ground conditions prevent meaningful further work on preparation for the water tank.

My fears were somewhat reduced on the drive up because when I was approaching the build the puddles in the road were nowhere near as wide or as deep as I had thought they would be . Thank you sunshine!

When I got to the site the guys were busy at work laying and compacting the sand that will provide the base for the concrete that will be poured to create the base of the tank.

Wheelbarrowing sand in. Heavy work over a difficult terrain.

The sand was then spread evenly across the sections formed by the rebar.

Shovels at work.

Having spread the sand it was time to compact it. No automated jumping jacks on this site, it is all done with hand tampers.

Tamping.

It was then time to fit the 6 mil polyethylene sheets. These sheets, when laid, provide a vapour moisture barrier when the concrete is poured.

Sheet being unfurled.

Sheet being positioned.

Sheet being pinned in place.

Sheeting for what directly above the water tank will be the Ground Floor self-contained apartment.

All sheets in place.

In the afternoon the tasks were to put in place the rebar and start filling-in where the ramp for the golf cart will be.

East to west rebar in place.

Golf cart ramp being filled.

During the next two days the remaining rebar will be fitted and the forms will be fixed in readiness for the concrete pouring.

The weather had improved but the tyres ( on my golf cart) were muddy, hence the title of this post. The title comes from the 2004 song by Brad Paisley which made number 30 in the Billboard Hot 100 but number 1 in the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.