The driveway moves up on the priority list.

I stayed on the property in La Paz for the first time - for 3 days. Got rained out on Friday; mixing and setting cement doesn't work very well in the rain.

First delivery of sand, gravel and blocks on Wednesday. I have water that runs across the driveway and when the first truck of sand and blocks came in I didn't even think that it may have blocked the drainage across the road - well it did. Flooded the lower half of the driveway, so when the second truck went to leave it got stuck in the muck. For about 5 hours we carried my newly delivered sand and gravel to the driveway by the bucket and the truck inched up the driveway until it reached the halfway mark, where the drainage ditch is. The drainage ditch will be the next project. I'll pipe it across the driveway and bury it - there is quite a bit of water coming out of the side of the hill next to the driveway. I can probably use it for livestock water and garden and crop irrigation which can all be gravity fed.

I'll be laying blocks for the front gate posts next week.

I've dug out the footer trench.

Poured the footers before the rain the next day - good way to slow down the cure time - keep it wet.

Because I will need to keep the block courses level over a 12 foot span I needed some line blocks for a string level and couldn't find any, anywhere. Naturally I decided to make some - same lack of tool problem, different project.

I glued some wood scraps ( great glue in Ecuador ) cut groves with a hacksaw blade and drilled a relief hole for the string. They work great and I can't break that glue joint.

I'll be playing with mortar next time around.