Glenn's Underground Cabin Update

glenn kangiser · February 25, 2013, 12:08:55 AM

My pleasure, Andrew. Watching it work I hope I fully understand it too but I think I have a pretty good general idea.

I have a few more detailed pix if there is anything you are unclear about.

We continued on the road to Mount Popa zooming by the locals transporting their goods to one place or another via oxcart.....

Just about anything you could get on the cart would be transported on it......

....as with about any means of transportation in Burma.......

It seems in this area oxcarts are very common.

We stopped at the intersection to get out and have a look around. The venders of course had to try to make a sale if possible...

I was going to show this little fellow some bubble soap I brought along ... an idea from a travel site on the web.... wouldn't you know it.....

I got defective American bubble soap... so watered down it wouldn't make a bubble and the poor little fella went off crying... I apologized in English but... he wasn't too happy...

A Dragonfruit farm as we were leaving the village...

and our first good view of Mt Popa...

Complete with more venders... a bunch of nice kids just trying to earn their daily bread....

Sorry kids... I wish I could help support you all but not possible.....

Here one of the things they were selling was magic rocks.... maybe something like a concretion with a hollow center and a pebble rolling around inside loose to make a rattling sound.

glenn kangiser · February 25, 2013, 12:33:33 AM

More on the Dragonfruit...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitaya

Consumption

QuoteTo prepare a pitaya for consumption, the fruit is cut open to expose the flesh. The fruit's texture is sometimes likened to that of the kiwifruit because of its black, crunchy seeds. The flesh, which is eaten raw, is mildly sweet and low in calories. The seeds are eaten together with the flesh, have a nutty taste and are rich in lipids,[13] but they are indigestible unless chewed. The fruit is also converted into juice or wine, or used to flavour other beverages. The flowers can be eaten or steeped as tea. The skin is not eaten, and in farm-grown fruit it may be polluted with pesticides.[citation needed]

Ingestion of significant amounts of red-fleshed dragon fruit (such as Costa Rican Pitahaya) may result in a harmless reddish coloration of the urine (pseudohematuria) and of the faeces.[14]

Several of the Padres who missionized Baja California recorded an unusual form of consumption of pitaya that is also shared in some O'odham stories from southern Arizona. It is called the "second harvest" of pitaya seeds. With the scarcity of fruits in their lands, the pitaya was such a prized fruit that once it was eaten, the natives would wait for their own excrement to dry, then break it apart separating the pitaya seeds. These seeds would be ground into a flour and eaten again, giving the pitaya's "second harvest" its name. Interestingly, the O'odham name for the Milky Way translates as "the second harvest of pitaya."[15]

February 25, 2013, 11:46:08 AM

Sassy's left hip surgery is today about 10:45 so I will make a brief entry this morning then head on down there. Maybe I'll get a chance to post more later tonight.

We continued on toward Mt Popa.

Mt Popa itself is actually a big volcanic caldera and what is commonly referred to as Mt Popa is a volcanic plug of Basalt on the side of it that is home to a monastery at the top.

Here you can see the roof over the 777 steps that rise up the plug to the Monastery.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Popa

QuoteSouthwest of Mount Popa is Taung Kalat (pedestal hill), sheer-sided volcanic plug, which rises 737 metres (2,417 ft) above the sea level. A Buddhist monastery is located at the summit of Taung Kalat. At one time, the Buddhist hermit U Khandi maintained the stairway of 777 steps to the summit of Taung Kalat.[3] The Taung Kalat pedestal hill is sometimes itself called Mount Popa and given that Mount Popa is the name of the actual volcano that caused the creation of the volcanic plug, to avoid confusion, the volcano (with its crater blown open on one side) is generally called Taung Ma-gyi (mother hill). The volcanic crater itself is a mile in diameter.[5]

From the top of Taung Kalat one can enjoy a panoramic view. One can see the ancient city of Bagan; behind it to the north, the massive solitary conical peak of Taung Ma-gyi rises like Mount Fuji in Japan. There is a big caldera, 610 metres (2,000 ft) wide and 914 metres (3,000 ft) in depth so that from different directions the mountain takes different forms with more than one peak. The surrounding areas are arid, but the Mt Popa area has over 200 springs and streams. It is therefore likened to an oasis in the desert-like dry central zone of Burma. This means the surrounding landscape is characterized by prickly bushes and stunted trees as opposed to the lush forests and rivers Burma is famous for.[5] Plenty of trees, flowering plants and herbs grow due to the fertile soil from the volcanic ash. Prominent among the fauna are Macaque monkeys that have become a tourist attraction on Taung Kalat.[3]

Finally we entered the picturesque little village.

glenn kangiser · February 26, 2013, 01:45:48 AM

Before we get too far away from them....

I was just looking through previous pix and wanted to post a few more of the cute kids along the way that kind of struck me as photogenic...

The kids waiting by the road.....

Likely the brothers....

The little fella I made cry....

A lady vendor showing me some cool roots at Mt Popa.... I can't remember... were those the ones Myo told me were supposed to make me dead sexy... ? Guess I'll never know now....

Some interesting bamboo and rope construction pix...

Why can't we do that... oh yeah... no bamboo....... and codes... no freedom.... (reality... it would not come under a taxable heading so...vernacular architecture officially not allowed...) ... but hey... we don't need no stinkin' officials anyway... lets give it a try....

One of the few squat plates we were offered the use of here... most places we went to had American style toilets.....

A cute little kitty... pet me please.....

You know, little puss.... I think I'll pass... sorry.....

rick91351 · February 26, 2013, 05:02:28 AM

Glenn

How is Sassy doing? Everything going OK?

Tell her Rick and Ellen send best wishes and get well!!

February 26, 2013, 11:28:49 AM

Hey Rick and Ellen, she said, "Thank You."

I stayed here at the hospital with her last night. She had a great surgery with no problems and very little pain. Both her feet point straight forward now rather than one to the side....

..or both to opposite sides as they were before the first surgery.

rick91351 · February 26, 2013, 12:17:42 PM

So long as both feet point the same direction. (Hopefully forward.)

glenn kangiser · February 26, 2013, 12:19:03 PM

That is a benefit, Rick... yup... I think they got it right.... [ouch]

We started toward the stairs leading up the mountain after a short walk through the vendors wanting to sell us their wares.

The Macaque monkeys this area is famous for were everywhere....

...up to various small amounts of mischief.....

...or some were up to even more....

As usual I always try to get pictures of the various vernacular architecture along the way...

There are very few codes here and most are not well enforced. Most of the safety of a project is left up to the contractors or master builders is my understanding....

Here is a cool idea for a walkway going up a hill... multiple roofs... could work for multiple buildings that were under permit size too.... alternating roof heights with no connection....

The monkeys are a bit of a problem and ones that are fighting or otherwise carrying on are dispatched by monkey chasers....caretakers or vendors with slingshots and ammo....

Looking down the stairs... note the monkey on the left....

More to come soon...

glenn kangiser · February 26, 2013, 01:01:56 PM

As we progressed higher up the mountain the view got more interesting....

...tons of Pagodas in the distance....

...and it was easy to pick out great telephoto shots from the higher elevation...

I have to admit the mischievous little rascals are rather cute......

Google even asks you to tag their faces as if they were people for Google+.... perhaps we could have a little fun putting our children's or friend's names on them for Facebook?

....ahhhh yes... that was my son, Aaron when he was a baby as I recall....

...cute little fella, wasn't he.....

February 26, 2013, 01:57:16 PM

I wanna hop on those handrails and ride them to the bottom.

glenn kangiser · February 26, 2013, 02:16:22 PM

Hmmm... wonder what your speed would be as you launched off of the bottom, Ben?

A little side note here.... there were people working cleaning the stairs ... probably as a kind of volunteer thing that they would ask for donations for to keep doing it. Another helpful way of trying to make a living...

There is a plastic and waste problem here... monkey food wrappers etc...

If I get to spend some future time there, volunteer cleanup crews is one thing I would like to help organize. The plastic packaging plague... the waste left over from purchased goods is a problem throughout the world. Now some in the US volunteer to clean the highways. I would like to motivate school groups or others here to also start a similar program. The country here is too beautiful to be buried under so much waste plastic...

It would be my intent to get the government involved in the efforts also... maybe free dumping for the volunteers, incentives, or just spreading the program........ not that I am a radical environmentalist.... I just hate to see the plague spread over their countryside....

To their favor Myat told me the city had placed garbage containers downtown for cleanup.. but it seems that most of them went off to a new life elsewhere possibly serving the poor???

So another solution is needed... maybe concrete containers the lighter ones can be fastened in or something....

glenn kangiser · February 27, 2013, 03:06:41 PM

Continuing up the stairs at Mt Popa, more monkeys and ... more stairs...

Off to the side was a crew of guys and gals working, likely plastering... maybe they were taking it to the top where the scaffold was.

Thinking about the pix from the top down, I am pretty sure that is what was going on.....

I think this worker repairing the sledge hammer was right around the corner from them on a different stairway from the one we went up on.

Here is a shot looking down on the different elevation roofs over the stairs below...

I enjoyed taking pictures of the 240v power panels in the different places along the way.

Here is the scaffolding being used for the plastering or stucco I think.... Remember the girl in Bagan who mentioned that even the ancient Pagodas had stucco on them... Stucco was invented by the Romans (any others?) several thousand years ago.

Nice scaffold. Maybe we could use those ideas ourselves....

glenn kangiser · February 28, 2013, 01:52:19 PM

A few more shots at the top of Mt Popa,

Myo in his UC Davis shirt....

Gold plated Pagodas,

and ancient retaining walls still doing their job....

We stopped for a great bowl of soup cooked over a charcoal stove from this nice lady then continued on our way down the stairs

The soup was nice and hot. She also had her slingshot for the mischievous monkeys...

On the way down I noted some construction going on that could be of interest to us here on the building forum...

Note the brick infill with reinforced bond beams as well as concrete beams, floors and it looks like roof....

In the US this would be done with a concrete pump normally though on our own projects or on the extreme side of a mountain as here it would make sense to do it as the Burmese do with a great force of willing hands... manpower and a bucket brigade, getting it done nearly as fast as a concrete pump as I will show you later on in the adventure....

Heading down the road from Popa, Myo stopped at a great Chinese restaurant where we had tons more food with some quail eggs included this time...

For dessert... a bit of the Palm Sugar candy ... just a hint of smokey flavor to it...

Hmm.... Low voltage.... as is common here.... when will the people be favored with the use of their own resources and have stable power... maybe a while coming.... for the most part they are used to it, prepared for outages and don't complain though it could be better and possibly reforms here can begin to improve it.....

Maybe Unocal and the government could drop a line from their gas line project to Thailand for a new generator plant for Myanmar....you think?

Couldn't miss a shot of the Water Lilly ? in the small fountain outside of the restaurant.....

glenn kangiser · March 01, 2013, 03:00:01 PM

The Lily looks kind of like a painting, eh?

I use Picasa to bring the colors up to the level I remember seeing, but the Lily looked so cool that way I thought, that I left it up a bit extra. [idea]

In reading yesterday about photography I found a blog that says it is better to not over-process in the camera and do it afterward in the computer as doing it in the camera eliminates a lot of possibilities you could have in the future.

Here is a link to some of the information I read.

http://blogs.stonesteps.ca/showpost.aspx?pid=56

More good information here on the ZS1... a predecessor to my ZS20 and some insight into the workings of compact cameras.

http://blogs.stonesteps.ca/showblog.aspx?uid=1&cid=7

The ZS20 has more control than the ZS1 and I hope to check out some of the points made by the author.... when I get time....

A great article on Putting A Compact Camera To Good Use - much insight here...

http://blogs.stonesteps.ca/showpost.aspx?pid=49

Currently working on a broke down Bobcat 963.... [ouch]

I hope to get more pix up soon...

March 01, 2013, 11:50:04 PM

We continued on down into Mandalay......

.... to the Mahamuni Buddhist Temple to have a look around.

Gold is everywhere but they wouldn't think of stealing it... around here....New Gold Rush California... gold is stolen daily and nightly from claims ....... heck.....the new fad in the valley is to steal the tailgates off of the pickups in the WalMart parking lot... I heard 17 went missing the other day. I bet that bought a lot of meth..... back to Burma...

Don't get me wrong... there are problems in the outlying areas of Burma also, and I read of a couple recent problems in Bagan, but I did not ever personally encounter any problems that bothered me in the slightest. Everyone was wonderful to me.

While the ladies have quite a bit of power there, there are some things a man just has to do.... stay behind that line, please, ladies....

Possibly it will be many years before the feminist movement hits Burma...and the sign has to go?

OK... just razzing you a bit, Ladies... I'm not a total male chauvinist .... just to prove that statement I have to defend myself....

This lady was in need and was looking for a bit of change.... the temple caretakers sent her away but quickly before she left I walked up and asked her for a couple pictures (gestured ok?) and then gave her 1000 kyat or so (I was in a rush since she was supposed to leave - don't remember if it was more..).

Lighting wasn't great so forgive me.. I couldn't get a better pix as there wasn't time....

but I did get a couple more ...

On the way out we passed a couple of rather large lions.....

Getting near dark now......

glenn kangiser · March 02, 2013, 10:54:55 AM

Hmm.... I may have some pix out of sequence as I think Mandalay Hill was the last place we went unless the place we ate was on Mandalay hill road.... at any rate.. I got the city right....

The streets are full of motorcycles, bicycles, pedestrians and about any other means of transportation late into the night.

We headed toward the restaurant to meet Myo's... and now my rice miller friends.

Good for me they spoke English as well as Burmese and Chinese........

They and Myo decided they all wanted hats like mine and offered to pay me to send them as they were not available there that they knew of. I told them the least I could do was send them all a hat on my nickle, so the hats are ordered - to arrive here middle of the month. Back-order but I didn't want to substitute one that was not the same...

We had another great meal and made plans for the next day. My new friends decided to take the day off so they could spend it with all of us as I mentioned earlier if I recall correctly....

The soup was divided so if the spicy stuff was too hot for me I could stay with the mild stuff.... I sampled the hot stuff after a while and decided it was not too spicy so we pulled out the divider and mixed it all together. The chef kept adding things to the soup as we ate.... I'm never going to go hungry when I am with my friends....you see where the 8 extra pounds came from.... [ouch]

glenn kangiser · March 03, 2013, 12:03:58 PM

We took off early out of Mandalay for Pyin Oo Lwin with our Rice Miller friends. They we leading the way to our explorations for the day.

We stopped in at a very nicely decorated kind of open air restaurant there. It highlighted some modes of transportation....

I had to get a few shots of building techniques for the forum....

I noticed a lot of notching and fitting for strength there in all types of building.

Possibly we should think about places where it would be appropriate in our building...

glenn kangiser · March 04, 2013, 03:32:05 AM

At this time... things got a little confusing.... My second camera's sensor and lens was covered with dust internally from taking pix out the window as the car was moving..don't try this at home kids... (Later found a video on cleaning this at home but had insurance so sent it in).

After examining the quality of some of the last pix I decided that it was too bad to continue with. I was later able to get some of it out of there but at this time switched to my Samsung Note II and then the learning curve began... lots of features I had not yet used.... Can't remember If I had set the GPS to on at this point. Importing to Picassa to find out.

Once I learned a few more things about the camera in the Samsung I found out that it also was pretty good - not all of the features of the Lumix but it did a pretty decent job once I learned about it's zoom in the camera mode... silly me... it was the phone volume control... guess I should have read directions, eh. [ouch]

More to come as I get the pix sorted out.

I have around 10,000 pix and a lot of video from this trip so even with technology it gets confusing.

ben2go · March 04, 2013, 07:54:29 AM

Technology can whoop a man.My phone still kicks my but from time to time and it's not even a smart phone.Smart phone,yeah.Got to be real smart to operate something that doesn't have the end user in mind.

glenn kangiser · March 04, 2013, 01:33:34 PM

Pretty well got it figured out now. It is actually pretty good. Only 4x zoom but beats not having a working camera.

So.. our friends gave me the choice of going to the World Class Botanical Garden or the waterfall I think I mentioned earlier.... still looking for some of the pix... after the waterfall we went upstream - found loggers....

and the combination crossing, vehicle wash and swimming area...

Before I get too far will look a bit more around here....

March 06, 2013, 01:59:01 AM

Logging for Hugelkulture yesterday and today....

...and today I went for logs but ended up herding cattle to get a birthing cow into a pen so my friend and the mid-wife could help her with a too large calf...

Things got hectic for a while... calf was stuck with one leg in - head and one leg out in a wild cow they couldn't get close enough to until there were enough of us to herd them into the corral.

Not a chance of getting it back in to change it no matter how we tried, so last chance ... I was the only one left with a free hand after I tied off the halter rope... the mechanic wasn't going to do it but offered me his knife... emergency episiotomy to try to get more room for the calf to be pulled. I started with his knife but soon it was apparent that my Leatherman was sharper. Got it out and started cutting but no room between the calf and the pelvis. In a short time - it was over - My friend had to put her to sleep... we tried to do all we could though. The calf was just way too large.

That is why he wants my bull for breeding to have smaller calves for the first year heifers.... I heard my bull took care of all of the cows in the country - been spotted at two other ranches... and now I heard he is back home, though I haven't seen him yet.

The neighbor said he saw my bull yesterday in with my cows again. I called Bully Boy the other day because I thought I heard him, but I didn't see him. I told my friend if we can get him he can have him. We'll swap cows or something.

More travel pix to come.

glenn kangiser · March 06, 2013, 12:18:07 PM

OK... found the missing file ... it was during my camera problem time and went to the small camera for a few pix of the area at the waterfall. I posted one or two before from my phone I think.....

The falls were quite a sight.

I hate to get my shadow in a picture but it was unavoidable in this location due to cliffs and brush.

A look downstream... I tried to go further down but it was quite a jungle....

The water buffalo were right after we left this area. It was about a 1/4 mile hike back up the hill to the car.

Now back to trying to find where the next pix are at.... [ouch]

glenn kangiser · March 06, 2013, 05:15:28 PM

Looking through Myo's pix here...

Found he got one of me coming back from a bit lower, though I could not get around the point to the base of the falls... turned out that I had passed the short way there in favor of following a jungle trail downstream...

The kids along the road again as I was taking their picture...

...and showing them their picture..... remember that some of these kids may never have seen a digital camera...

Farther up the road...

Kids with my favorite animal....

The water buffalo..... they had to take him across the road...

glenn kangiser · March 07, 2013, 05:25:16 PM

We were taking pictures and the little boy finally got tired of holding the Water Buffalo back for us to pass so he shooed him along to the other side with the dust flying...

A little farther up the road was a cowboy herding his cows along as they munched down the grass and brush along the road...

Our miller friends were ahead of us as we dawdled along taking pictures of the fields and animals....

It was a great trip through the countryside... one more place that most people will not get to see...

Ernest T. Bass · March 09, 2013, 10:39:13 PM

Gorgeous pics! Between your CA homeland and all of this sightseeing you must be getting almost numb to all of that beautiful nature.

Sounds like the cow escapade was a mess.. That's the problem with all of these big animals; every once in a while they have big problems. We just had to put down our 14y.o. family milk cow, the first of our herd.. That was pretty hard. Such is life..