Pigs!!

Towards the end of 2017 we took a break from rebuilding Lolo's house, and constructed a piggery.

The piggery a joint venture between our family and Sweetie's sister's family, with us putting up most of the money for the structures, and Sweetie's sister and her husband doing most of the hard work raising the pigs.

The piggery

Inside the piggery, as it was being built

It's important to have a pen you can clean easily

Piggie food!

Happy pigs

An interesting construction technique

Hi Piggies!

In the pen

Gravel, used to make cement, (or concrete - I don't know the difference!

Constructing the pens

Improvised gate

Not related to pigs, but very important anyway.  Dodot, the son of Sweetie's sister, got an award at school!

Sweetie's sister and her family are still living in the chicken coop until we finish rebuilding Lolo's house.  This is a view of what it looks like in the chicken coop.

Piggies!

The finished gate

Human food

The chicken coop "pantry"

Is that a sack of rice?

I think that is rebar?

Delivering the gravel

Happy, healthy pigs

The piggery under construction

That looks like bud-bud to me

The smooth surface makes these pens easy to clean

All the construction work was done by hand

Happy pigs in their new home

I am NOT a pig.  I am a cow!

Before the gate was installed

The pens have a faucet where the pigs can get a drink whenever they want

Building materials

Fixing Lolo's House - Part 3, The Walls Begin to Rise

Despite the fact that our promised "steady stream of funds" for house building has turned into an intermittent trickle, the walls have begun to rise on the rebuilt version of Lolo's house.

The following pics have been taken by different folks using different cameras, so they are out of sequence, but we wanted to include all of them to give you an idea of how construction of a house proceeds in the provinces of the Philippines.

The interesting thing, to me at least, is how solidly built this house is, with the first row of cement blocks being placed well under ground, the corners reinforced, and lots and lots of rebar being used everywhere.

The walls go up

Everything is done by hand!

Papa's rooster must inspect the work!

The rooster approves!

Rows of blocks laid underground

I'm sure Dodot wonders if the house will ever be finished!

Dodot in front of what will be his house

Building materials

Some more pics showing how the "foundation blocks" are underground:

The first row of blocks placed underground

The walls are getting higher.

... and higher!!

A reinforced corner

While the work goes on, Sweetie's sister and her family continue to live in the "chicken coop".

Home sweet chicken coop!

We can't wait to see what this house will look like once it is complete!  Hopefully the funds to construct it will continue to flow, although Old Grump didn't help the project any by recently choosing to "retire"!