I first wanted confirmation, but it seems that my trenching activities turned up the first arrow head. I checked with Bob and he thinks it could be Comanche.
That would have been around the year 1740. It’s fascinating to possibly hold a bit of Native American history in your hand.
No, literally; I’m crushing rock with my pick axe to cut my trench. It’s a slow process which has taken about a week to get to 10″ deep.
This bad boy is the biggest one I came across that I could not pick axe through. But other sections have a more clay like base, making it a little easier. But a shovel is useless here; it really does take a pick axe and many blows. But I’m getting there and a trencher (big machine with diamond saw tooth on tracks) would have been impossible for me to get out here alone, as they are super heavy. And the rent alone would set me back a thousand bucks. So that’s why I’m ok with the manual labor.
Friday GVTC (Guadeloupe Valley Tele Communications) are planned to hook me up to their fiber internet.
Going from a few Kb to 250Mb will be a delight. And no more data limit. The LTE I’m using now is ok, but hugely expensive and capped at 30GB per month, which I reached in about a week.
I had power for a long time, in fact earlier than a roof or windows. But a requirement for fiber internet is a power outlet outside, to feed the router they will install at the end of the conduit. 
I will probably glue the conduit pipes together tomorrow. Today I took a 26 miles bike ride to Wimberley to get a pulling line and lubricant, so the fiber cable can be pulled through the conduit pipe. I did not want to take my truck there as I like the ride and last time I drove my not yet passed inspection truck to Wimberley, I got pulled over by two not too friendly cops. I don’t want to risk running into them again.
Apart from flat tires, the bike (that I bought two and a half years ago) was in pretty good condition; all it took was some vegetable oil to lubricate the brake lines.
Vegetable oil turns out to have many purposes besides cooking; I also used it to fix the hood of my truck not popping open when the lever was pulled.
Although I’m not complaining, it’s been a little too hot to dig trenches with a pick axe. To minimize blisters (avoiding them altogether won’t be an option; that ship has sailed) I’m digging for short times, and then take a break. Some parts are relatively easy, like tough clay, yet other parts are literally hard as a rock. But it’s doable.
Here’s what it looks like near the pole;
It’s not very deep yet, I think I will stop around 10-12 inches. The guy from the cable company stated; we don’t care how deep it goes. And fiber cables can take frost.
A long time ago, in the previous century, there was a project in the Boston area called the Big Dig. It was a highway that decreased travel time through Boston. It took over 20 years to complete and cost billions.
My Big Dig project will hopefully take a little less time and a lot less money; I have to dig a trench for a fiber glass conduit pipe that will speed up my digital highway.
The length is 130 ft (40m) and will cross my driveway. The plan is to make it as straight as possible as any corner means more friction to pull the fiber cable through.
The picture below shows the trajectory;
As you know, I have a Ford F-150 cabin crew pickup parked next to Ozuye. I knew that despite being disconnected, the battery would be flat. But much to my surprise, after recharging the batteries this morning, I tried starting it and it did without any hesitation.
So now I can get my insurance running too and hopefully get the truck approved again. It beats having to rent a car all the time, every time.
This is the first time in over 2 years that I’m back at Ozuye myself. COVID travel bans made it impossible. Luckily, thanks to Arnoud fixing things, Ozuye has rented out fine since then. One downside of guests is that not all guests behave as such. Some either have parties or fights, causing some damage:
Above is what used to be a table. My guess is someone not only stepped, but jumped on it.
Saloon doors might trigger saloon behavior; two pieces are missing and can only have been kicked out.
Luckily both of these I can fix, so I’ll add them to my todo list.
It’s been a rare winter in Texas, with weather that took out power and water for many, and made roads hard to travel on. Here are a few pictures taken around that time.
What good is a bar without stools? So here’s the first two stools making their appearance. I originally looked at another model, with curved wood seatings, but the reviews said they looked better than they felt. These stools (“Super Jare”) are comfy and remind me of a horse riding saddle, which seems fitting in a loghome. The backrest is nice, I’m posting this post from the stool at the bar, like below.
In time, there will be four stools, as the bar is wide enough for that.
The Master bedroom now has a Matte Corbin Mahogany Engineered Hardwoord floor. Sounds impressive, right? I picked this floor up at the Home Depot in Houston last week, at a great bargain price. It was easy to put in and looks pretty nice, if I do say so myself.
What still needs to be done is the baseboards finish. As I still have some Cedar left, I will use that to make the baseboards.
Hopefully I will get that done tomorrow.Update: The baseboards are in now (Thursday). I did not put up a new room picture, as it’s hard to see from a distance, but it looks finished now. The baseboards were made from the seemingly everlasting stock of surplus cedar. It was a bit of work, as I first had to convert my router table to a table saw using the router mounting hole to fit the cordless circular saw, and as I like to keep all my ten fingers, I wanted to make sure it worked safely.
Then I took some thicker and larger cedar boards and sliced them up to baseboard dimensions, and used the router to round the top edge. I also made a threshold to make the transition from mahogany to tile (see below). The only downside of the relatively dark color, is that dust is well visible; I’ll have to get a swiffer for the bedroom.
