Fencing Team – My Family!

The crew of us! The fence is all done.

We had so much luggage space with all of us going, so we took down most of the things we need to outfit the kitchen. But it did make for a lot of suitcases to deal with.

Waiting in the Haitian airport while the luggage came in.

At Leogane, before heading up the mountain… we were so happy to be there as a family!

Ready to roll…

At my cousins Don’s place in the mountains, they were so gracious to loan us their new house for the week.

We had lots of chadeck on our place, and it made some lovely juice.

Trying out the new juicer

Two gallons of juice every day… umm it was so good!

Getting started on the fence, we had to level out the ground along the first stretch.

Some posts were too tall and had to be trimmed off

Then a load of block came and had to be unloaded.

Brace bands, tension bands and rail cups had to be put on the end posts before anything else.

Meanwhile, Michael was making a porta john…

There it goes

Nicely camouflaged, not?

The first length of fence – we rolled it all out in one place, and carried it to where it needed to go.

Time for lunch

Rice and sauce for lunches… Wilmon is a good cook.

Rolling out the next fence section

Stretching the fabric with ratchet straps worked really well.

Putting up the fence on the wall at the back corner of the land was a difficult job. Where we had to walk was terribly rough and the rocks were slippery, but we got it done with everyone working together!

“Hang on tight till they get it stretched and fastened”

Time for supper, back up at Don’s house.

I was glad we had figured out all the meals and made sure we had the ingredients before we got there.

Heading down to Granfon for another day; the 4-wheelers were so fun! (And we HAD to use them as transportation) 🙂

Figuring out the first bias cut; Michael and Papa got it down to a pretty good science!

There are tons of biting ants all over our land. It was awful if you stepped in them, and the bites itched worse than mosquito bites.

We got bit so many times that we decided to try to get rid of the biggest hills. Used diesel and a bit of paper and a match… that ought to help the problem. It did a little, but we ran out of diesel before the ants were gone.

Closing the gap in the longest stretch of fence, down the right side.

This small section was on a hard slant, it took quite a bit of work to get it right; and we had to work on top of a sharply sloping wall!

See the “ti moun yo” (children) above the wall? We often had people watching from the road above, and once a young man came walking by and stood with his mouth open, staring for 10-15 min. Then he went on his way, never said a word. I really wonder what he was thinking!

Jackson (in the purple shirt) and Wilmon were excellent help. They both work for Michael, and they were easy to work with even with the culture/language barrier.

Fastening the fence to the post where it was hard slant took a while.

Lovely pure water from the well. We drank it without filtering it and never got sick. We are very grateful to God for giving us good water in the well.

A beautiful Sunday morning! Not too many times you have view like that while you get ready for church!

My Mama… 🙂

Waiting for Sunday dinner, and cold cokes!

Making bars, à la degaje.
Meaning- we didn’t have everything we needed, so you add a bit of this and that and hope it turns out!

They did turn out, and were almost better than the original recipe!

Christina is making the juice for the next day. That juicer is worth the cost. If you know someone in Haiti that makes a lot of juice, this would be a wonderful present for them! It saves hours of time. Literally.

Rebekah kept a fairly thorough journal during the trip. I’m glad she enjoys it.  I like to try, but it normally takes too much time, in my opinion, so I never can keep it up. 🙂

Tripping over a stump is never fun, so when this one caught several people by surprise, it was time to do something about it.

Ready to go for another day…

… but first you have to wipe the clouds off of the windshield. Cool your head with a damp hat – this is a two for one deal!

As we pulled up, you can’t see what has been done, but progress has been good so far.

Laying out the bottom tension wire…

… and stretching it tight. Ratchet straps are great tools.

Duck under and around… we looked like a caterpillar walking.

The back line

Weaving together two fabric pieces… it was so easy and looked perfectly seamless when finished.

Dressing the fence. You had to space out, grab it firmly and shake hard while Michael tightened the ratchet straps.

This line of fence had a slope at one end, she is ready to hold down the tension wire so they don’t tie it off too tightly.

Fastening down the wire so we don’t trip over it as we carry the fabric across the line.

Screw this cap fast, it wants to pop off the top of the post!

#1 Rule – Don’t step on the neighbor’s cabbages growing 6″ from the fence line! (I think we managed it, but it was tough.)

That slope at the end of the section of fence was hard to deal with. We had to hold the fence down while fastening it with wires to the top bar.

Time to quit for the day, but let’s mark out the lines for the walls of the house before we head up to Don’s.

Nathaniel and Jackson had so much fun catching and playing with lizards. Jackson caught them, Nathaniel played with them.

I don’t exactly want to put it on my ear, Jared, but the hat works just as well and doesn’t have blood! (Those lizards have a hard bite!)

Bananas from our banana grove. They ripen evenly in the basement.

They were so good! Right, Susanna?

See the face looking up?

A clear view of the valley looking from Don’s land. This is the last nice sunset we saw up there, it started raining the next day.

Oh Yay! We got to see a tarantula! Unfortunately it was a baby one.

Rebekah does most of our laundry at home, but not this way! “It was fun for something different…”

“… but it doesn’t get the clothes as dry as spinning them out.”

Within 30 minutes of hanging it all up, it started to rain. So rig up a line in the basement. (The clothes never did dry till we got to Port. It rained the rest of the time we were in the mountains.)

Let’s keep going, a little water won’t hurt us.

But a lot of water might! “Take cover till it slacks off.”

Cute little frog! I really like those critters.

Living in the clouds… This is Don’s house where we stayed. It wasn’t always cloudy, but it could be sunny, then a thick fog within 15 min.

It was so much fun to be together as a family!

We were glad to have running water, even if it was in an unconventional way.

Anybody home??? This sight always made me grin.

Uh oh. Black veilings and rain… it stained her dress! But thankfully boiling water did the trick to clean it up.

Don’s son came up to stay with us for two days. It poured rain, so he and Nathaniel played all kinds of games, and talked mostly nonstop. 🙂

So damp and cold. Anyone want some coffee?

Ahhh… perfect! (Who cares if it was made in a kettle instead of a coffee pot? It was SO good, just don’t drink the last swallow unless you like grounds.)

Waiting for the rain to stop… should we just go and get wet? Finish your coffee, then we will decide.

Dig out the raincoats and let’s just do it! “Let me get a picture, you all look hilarious!”

It was just across the front that needed done…

… can we finish it? We will do our best despite the…

… rain…

… and curious school children and adults…

… and a little sunshine coming through the clouds helps make the wet, cold feeling seem not too bad! Right, Breanna?  Actually, we all enjoyed the challenge of working in the rain.

“Hold me up someone! This is slick!” (This particular piece didn’t get the bias cut quite right, and we had to wrestle it a bit to get it hooked up. I guess that is what happens when you have to work under a tarp in the pouring rain.)

The last stretch to be done!

Let’s go!

“Shake it!” We were so excited to be almost done.

Tightening the last nuts… What is he using? We put the drill in a bag to keep it from getting wet. it worked beautifully!

The next day it cleared off and we had a nice day for the trip to Port. This is the finished job! Of course there is still some things to do, hang the gate, string the wire around the top, and put on all the fasteners we didn’t get done. But the fence is all hung!

Looking towards the back line from the end of the driveway

This is what it looks like from the road above. I think it looks nice, not too conspicuous, but definitely doing it’s job.