bunker building

the underground portion of the bunker is done, covered in plastic and buried in soil. the exterior floor has been poured and will eventually be tiled in Mexican-style pavers. the side half-walls will be shaved and shaped to a Grecian-style sloping roll, following the slope of the island. the half-walls and beams will be slurried and painted, the ceiling lined in varnished bamboo sheeting, and the 2 skylights will be finished with stained-glass window hatches. half of the arched roof has been poured, which will eventually be covered in soil and teeming with plant life so you can barely see the structure from on top of the island. underneath the roof is where we plan to have a full outdoor kitchen to service the restaurant area. and soon, moving out toward the sea, we'll add a large bbq/Tongan umu-pit and a living earth-roof covered restaurant table area and woven pola covered bar. don't worry, we'll be sure to include the fire-pit out toward the beach! should make for some relaxed entertaining during future evenings!

don't fall in the hole!

Here's the giant hole, dug by hand over the course of a month... this is where the 'underground' bunker is, which will be our workshop, storage, and place to run to if the weather gets tough! Most important rule: when playing laser-tag, whether during the day or in the dark, no falling in the hole!

up to three!

We've got 3 columns up and are beginning to see the vision materialize in front of our eyes!

in the moment...

It's been awhile, but we finally are back at it and are taking a reprieve to catalog what we've been up to. At the moment the beach looks like a construction zone with fantastically big piles of rock, sand, and blocks for mixing concrete. We've got big holes dug in various places and a few random arched concrete columns that we have yet to tie together with a domed living earth roof. All in good time... for the moment we're having fun, moving forward, and living in the moment as much as possible!

Building A Temporary Fale!

we're gettin' there! on goes the roof! up goes the pola! wait... how cool would it be to not only have a bed and closet, but also a day-bed that extends onto the porch for chillin'? okay, here we go. it's lookin' a little messy right now, but it'll all come together and be tidied up. the roof is a hybrid of red ondura roofing sheets, a pola ridge cap, and pola will extend off the bottom for an eave as well. we've framed 4 windows into the walls, a doorway, the day-bed porch, and now an extended archway entrance. we're painting the plywood for the floor and plan to floor the entranceway with cedar rounds from a stack of off-cuts. the pola on the roof will lay down after a bit of time. it's definitely bush construction, but it'll be dry, cool, and comfy. we seem to like comfy, don't we! =)

Weaving 'Pola'

we're making a bush fale! the idea is that Jason can live there while Ben and Lisa live onboard Waking Dream during the building of the house. so, we have the framing up, which we made from sticks we cut with a chainsaw. now it's time to plan the walls. what do you make the walls out of when you're making a bush fale? simple... POLA! pola is woven coconut palm tree leaves, the inner or younger ones to be specific. but how would you do it? first you'd find the coconut trees that you have permission to take leaves from. then you'd climb the coconut tree while holding a bush knife. then you'd cut down the innermost leaves big enough for the job. then you'd collect the leaves, drag them to the boat, and ferry them to Fetoko island. once there, you'd drag them up to a comfy, shady spot and begin weaving (langa in Tongan). after weaving you'd tie them up on your bush frame with twine, or better yet bailing wire. over the years we've been taught to weave pola, which of course always gives the Tongans a giggle, but it still takes us a good 10 or 15 minutes each. in this situation, being that we have Tongan staff working with us, (and apparently some very good Tongan friends!) within two days of determining approximately how many pola we'd need, they arrived completely woven and bundled to the old harbour area where our boat was ready to pick them up and take them on to Fetoko. amazing. in the Tongan community, when someone sits down to weave pola and others in the village happen by or see them doing so, they go over and help for a bit. Tongans culturally always think about doing what is 'best for the community'. truly amazing. what we didn't do is correctly estimate how much pola we'd need. so... Jason and Matangi went to Mafana island next door and did exactly what we described above. once the leaves arrived to Fetoko, we began langa pola ourselves. in fact, we've been weaving a lot of pola and have been doing so over the course of the last week. after the easter holiday, when our staff came back to the island, they marveled at who it was that wove the pola! it looked like a Tongan did it they said, but we were taking the credit... looks like we've been getting some practice! ha! so since we will put several layers to keep the rain out, we're now down to needing about 50 more pola, which is about 25 more coconut leaves... almost there! luckily we all find weaving pola to be a most relaxing activity!

It's All About Comfort

why live in a tent when we can have a roof? why bucket water to and fro when we can have running water? we've asked ourselves these questions, and more, and so decided that the first step for us is to build a temporary and comfy shelter... so here we go! Fetoko island is now equipped with a 5000 litre water tank w ample rain water catchment guttering, sink w running rain water, solar panels, battery bank with 12V and inverted 110V AC power, bbq, stove, oven, dry storage, large capacity 12V freezer, laundry system w antiquated wringer, chill spot with glass table and chairs, rubbish and composting bins, nearby shower (soon to have a hot water callifont added!), and the beginnings of a Tongan-style fale made mostly with materials we've cut from the bush ourselves. the sides of the kitchen area fold down in case of big rains accompanied by wind. Lisa will be getting a lot more exercise while cooking after being in Waking Dream's little galley for so many years! it's a fantastic beginning and we're comfy!