It's A Roof 🛖 & An Injury-Free Construction Site 👷♂️
The framing of the veranda roof is going up, and so far this barefoot cliffside construction site has remained 100% injury-free.
Wife, Banana Tree, Muddy River 🌱
Pov tries to keep an eye on the progress of the construction and create social ties with the neighbors, and I more or less am stuck behind the computer trying to fund this project with HBD from my not-so-great post payouts. Powering down HIVE and withdrawing it is not ideal in this situation, so the stress levels are......nevermind, let's move right along.
I Can Imagine 😶🌫️
Even though there are no roof tiles or floor, I still try to imagine the finished result, but I'm quickly realizing the staircase to the river and hammock hut may have to be put on hold until I get some more income built up. It's okay though because they place will still be livable without those features, and we'd only use the rent money to continue construction as long as it didn't bother the renter.
Despite no masks, safety glasses, and a choice to work barefoot with axes and powertools, no injuries have happened. 15 years ago I was doing construction on a daily basis, but the techniques used in Cambodia are so different than my experience, I choose to mostly not help unless asked. I fear I'd make things complicated by wanting to do things at perfect right angles and make precise cuts, only frustrating some guys who've been doing things differently for years and years.
Usually everything needs to bent or forced into place, and watching this does makes me thing I might have OCD, because getting things a few centimeters wrong in the USA can result in a lawsuit. Needless to say the fear of making any small mistakes that could be critiqued by the customer causes a high level of quality in the USA, something I am actually proud of even though I still choose not live there 😜.
Monkey-B Doesn't Approve 🙅♀️
Monkey-B obviously doesn't approve of Dad on the construction site. The look on her face seems to say "silly foreigners don't do construction." Despite her disapproval, I occasionally do some tall guy stuff and grunt work. Well, perfect timing, right as I finish this post I am being called to dinner.....
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Oh, I can certainly relate to that, but funny how relative things can be! I remember talking to German carpenters who have worked in the US, as well as Mexico, and how they complained about "cowboys shooting from the hips" describing American imprecision. 🤣 On the other hand, when comparing things to Mexico, they said that in the US there is such an abundance of tools, which can be good and bad. Mexican lack of precision is usually because they need to improvise more, making things work without good tools, so in a way they are more skilled at building things decently enough without exact measurements.
That is a good point, Germans are definitely on point with their engineering. Timber framing and carpentry can be done at a high skill level without even having power tools. The Amish built my childhood home using only 1800s style tools, and the quality was arguably better than that of a local crew with power tools.
Japanese wood joinery is incredibly beautiful, and most of it done with manual tools. The guys here have all the power tools an American team would have (minus the safety equipment), but there is a general attitude in Cambodia to do things just good enough. There aren't many people passionate about their work here, and I think that's a big problem. The genocide killed and/or chased out all the skilled workers years ago, even wearing prescription glasses or being Vietnamese was enough to get you killed back in the day.
I think a lack of mathematical skills like geometry prevent a lot of nice angles and things. Just focus on the plumb bob and hit everything until it's straight, and anything that can't fit will have wooded chipped away until it works. These circumstances usually create some bizarre angles. There are some talented woodworker crews in Cambodia, but their scarcity demands a high price, so these guys almost exclusively work for resorts and rich folk.
Oh wow... Respect for the Amish built house! I bet it must have been much more sturdy than the typical American home, slapped together with stick-frame and drywall!
Of course the attitude of doing something just "good enough" can be seen all over the world. In Hungary there is a new word jóvanazúgy meaning exactly that, where you can see all kinds of horrible examples of construction fails. But even in legendarily precise Germany the culture is aware of builders cutting corners. There is a surprisingly funny film about that called Was nicht passt wird passend gemacht, with the English title: If It Don Fit, Use a Bigger Hammer.
Oh, regarding math skills, I noticed it on myself how pointless it is to torture students with the theory if it remains unconnected to applications. Seriously, have them plan and build things (with their minds and hands), or apply geometry in sailing / navigation, or surveying the topography, or anything practical. Otherwise the conceptual theory will never make sense. At least in cases like myself, where I had to literary rediscover geometry in applications, years after learning about it in school.
Typical American homes barely last 50 years because of that, but my boyhood is brick and still standing to this day, bu that's not the norm. Now I've got a new word in the vocab, jóvanazúgy, how beautiful there is a word for this, I don't think we have it English, perhaps the word adequate doesn't have the same feeling.
I was horrible in school as a kid, and I was lucky enough to attend a wilderness guiding school for several years, where experiential education was the focus. Learning to use math for orienteering, construction, or other practical things is so much more engaging, totally agree.
Well, I don't think "jóvanazúgy" is officially a word (yet!) But it's literally jó = good, van = is, az = that, úgy = like that, meaning pretty much That's okay like that. No need to go overboard, it's fine the way it is. 🤓
As for applied math, I'm sure on your property you'll be using tons of it! And if you do it with the girls, they'll know it inside out by the time they first encounter it in their school books.
wife, banana trees, and a muddy river,,, I will try to interpret the words you wrote, if I'm right applaud, if I'm wrong please reprimand... hehehe...
wife.........
your wife is taking shelter under a banana tree so it's not too hot in the sun, because she wears a singlet so she takes shelter there so she doesn't get too hot..
banana tree.......
the banana tree was planted by the owner before you bought the house, while the coconut tree behind your young wife.. it was @sreypov who planted it.. if my research is not wrong...
muddy river...
it is clear in the picture that the river water is cloudy the color has also changed, of course the river is muddy because the soil on the edge of the river is yellow, so when the rain starts to fall it has wet the homeland that descends into the river it will definitely change color, that's where the mud comes from.....
smile a little with my comment, because this is different from the others... I wish the big family of @justinparke to be healthy always......
All correct, good eyes my friend. Hopefully when we have more plant life we'll be contributing less and less to browning the river. Thank you for your always positive and uplifting comments.
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STOPSafety at construction site is of utmost importance. Happy to hear that so far accident free. Let's hope it remain that way.
Me too, I'd hate have anything bad happen during building. We offer masks and safety glasses, but they are mostly refused.
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For an extra need to know information, I'm a certified ISO auditor which I obtained some 20+ years ago when I was a quality control officer in a steel mill factory. With that certification, I'd like to point out ISO is a set of parameter set for certain product by certain country and patterned at certain year. For example, BS1387:2001, whilst BS not only meant for bull shit, but it also mean British standard. 1387 is the article number, pointing to Steel Tubes and Tubulars Suitable for Screwing to Bs 21 Pipe Threads. 2001 was the year that article standard being documented. We also have American Standard AS120 that matches the similar specification. We do have our own MS version, but even myself as the quality control officer, I can't remember the article because people simply doesn't buy the same product that printed MSxxxx or AS120🤣
Sorry to bore you, but I'm just trying to tell you, they're the same shit. Whether it's (BS) british shit, (AS) American shit or the (MS) Malaysian shit, sometimes our pipes need to force fitting regardless which stencil we print the article🤣
I think they know their shit bro 🙂 by the look of it, with my expired international shit organization auditor license, they're coming along pretty darn nicely 🤘
Well said 🤪😂
My stepdad owns a machine shop, so I grew up around mills and lathes, and therefore very familiar with ISO because of this. The job is going well enough considering these guys are primarily brick and concrete workers. When it's all finished I'll hope you come and see if you sink or swim in the river 😉.
If the water is shallow enough, I'll walk with the dolphins 😁🤜🤛
Hahaha are you feeling manly? Asian construction is enough to shut down and fine everyone on a building site here!
Back in the US we have OSHA (Occupational Safety Hazards Association), and as I've worked in almost exclusively dangerous jobs, my mind can't help but point out all the OSHA violations, but I keep it to myself because this is Cambodia, but I sure don't want to see the guys putting themselves at risk just to finish a job faster.
That's true, but as you say they know what they are doing.
People unfamiliar with life down here would look at this with a sense of horror as far as safety standards are concerned in that there aren't any. However, once you live here for a just a little while you realize that this is the norm. My favorite lack of safety is probably the welders who make a little peep hole with their other hand rather than wearing any sort of eye protection mask.
Without a doubt, welding with a motorcycle helmet plus sunglasses inside is pretty common, and of course there's the lookaway method for used for quick spot welds back home, but here in Cambodia you can not look at your weld for several seconds before finding out what you've done.
Great to see being tall has its advantages in the building industry. No Occ health and safety there I see. Or maybe your safety officer should be Monkey B.
Haha, it's mostly the wild-west when it comes to construction and other normally licensed trades. Monkey-B would be the most corrupt safety officer, easily bribed with something as cheap as a glass of sugarcane juice.
Well, that's cheap bribery then 😂😂
You've got to wonder if they are actually more aware and careful because they don't have protection.
It's coming along nicely. Will we be seeing a roof soon?
Well, Puu Mab can't do certain tasks because he fell off a building in Thailand on a jobsite. You would think an experience like this would make one want to invest in safety gear, but nope. The roof is partially finished, some tiles up, but we're having trouble finding some more to finish up the job. This is a very remote area, so even finding a can of the same paint twice is a miracle, but we persist. Hopefully a finished project in a few weeks.
I'm reminded of that 1932 photo of Lunch atop a skyscraper!
Reminds me of Portuguese builders ( at least here in the countryside ), the only difference being that here they do wear shoes. Safety measures hardly exist and protective clothing is hardly ever worn - by these machos - and it's
not uncommon at allpretty normal to stand on top of a roof, 10 metres above a concrete floor, without safety lines and all that after drinking a litre of red wine with their lunch. Crazy stuff!Nice to see the progress of this project :<)
Luckily my in-laws don't drink, so at least that makes me feel a bit better, but Puu Mab does have a bad back injury from a previous rooftop fall, so I still worry for their safety. Now the floor planks are in, so there are no more death-defying heights to worry about.
Glad to hear the more dangerous part of the building is over :<)