The plan. We needed a more secure site. Above was what we came up with. We went to the hardware stores, and some local brick makers and spent quite a bit of money. Of course it wasn't MY money. That's what PIs are for.
Our small caravan made its way back up to the site loaded with stuff. Along the way Tito made a couple of stops. I wasn't sure what he was up to until he cut a specifically shaped tree from this place of little trees.
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Along the road to the site were two huge banyan trees. Banyan trees have regular
branches like any other tree, but coming down from those branches are hundreds
of small sticks that start out as roots, but that become so dense as time
goes on that they begin to grow together and turn into the tree's trunk. You
could have lived inside the trunk of this tree. Along with all of the spiders
and small animals you could stand no doubt.
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Poof! That Tito was a clever guy. The small tree trunks where the frame and the small banyan tree roots, when split in half, made perfect rope to attach weights to the corners of our tarp. I used vines in the Philippines, so I should have known what he was doing. My jungle skills from a previous life are slipping away.
A man and his castle. We ended up using this structure the rest of the days we worked at the site.
Tito knew a local carpenter, Tala, that quickly -- and I mean quickly -- got rolling and put our plan into mortar. We had trouble mixing cement fast enough to keep up with him.
In the jungle your best friend is your knife. They have many more uses than you would think. In the Philippines we called them bolos.
The work went fairly quickly. By early in the afternoon we were finished.
Phase 1 complete. It looked like someplace you could store a body. The sensor barrel at one end and a pedestal of bricks for the electronics. Looked just like the drawing.
When the brickwork was finished we packed everything up and headed back to the office. We weren't finished for the day just yet. Our sarcophagus needed a lid. Tala put one together out of some lumber and plywood, and we all took turns pounding a lot of small nails to attach a tin covering to the lid to protect the plywood from the weather. Once this was finished we drilled some holes and attached the solar panels. It was getting dark by the time we finished.
2018-02-03