The mixer had ceased solid

Tuesday 7th January

The remaining material was taken up the hill at a struggle as it had heavily rained the night before. More shells were being used than should have been for the road, so I put out an urgent call to the Rama people to get 100 more sacks of shells.

By using more sacks of shells on the road they lost some of their precious stones, which are hard to come by and expensive in Nicaragua. Though I was now able to get the tractor up the hill to get the remaining material to the site.

I was now struggling with a shortage of shells for mixing in the concrete until the 100 more sacks arrive.

The Rama people were working hard to provide these for us the following day.

2:30pm they prepare to make the first mix – the water containers are filled using the well pump for the existing property to pump the water up another 300 foot of hose pipe to the site. We were ready to go – I pulled the lead on the mixer, and nothing happened!

The usual checks are made for oil etc. Then I discovered the start stop knob on the side of the mixer had ceased solid. This was removed and we tried to free it up, it still wouldn’t move!

I try connecting the two wires together that go to the start stop knob assuming this knob breaks and makes the connection. Still nothing.

Almost 4pm now, so I decided to not start a mix today. Around 5pm the mosquito’s start to come out and at 6pm its dark.

See a full collection of images from the Rama Cay project here