Bricks are being laid, basic underground plumbing is done, and occasional family tuk-tuk trips keep building materials from running out.

👷 Brick Walls Are Going Up 🧱

The hardest part of the construction process is over with our lodge, and now there is no more need to worry about rebar, pouring concrete, hauling rocks, and other labor intensive work. Now the bricklaying has begun, more fun for my in-law construction crew and a much more satisfying step of the construction process.

My brother-in-law Kaev is in the above picture, and he's kind of the foreman because he has the most experience and all of the tools like laser levels, jackhammers, and whatnot. These pics were taken in late May during my blogging hiatus, but not long after these pics were taken construction was halted in order for Kaev to return to his village and campaign to become village chief.

🛺 Tuk-Tuk Supply Run 🪛

Occasionally we need construction supplies from the town 45 minutes away or the town more than one hour away, and what would normally be a 5 or 10-minute trip in most parts of the country is a half-day family event for us. This is due to the extreme lifestyle we've chosen within a wildlife refuge in tops of the Cardamom Mountains here in Cambodia, there is a law preventing any villages within the refuge other than the military outpost where my family and I live.

👷 Not A Bad View ⛰️

When I took the above photo I had some flashbacks of me in my mid-20s. Back then I was living in Colorado and building outdoor sidewalks, driveways, and tile floors. I often had some very scenic backdrops while working, but it was usually freezing cold and often at altitudes in excess of 3,300 meters. I prefer the Cambodian sun and heat to frozen fingertips and the extreme weather of the Rocky Mountains.

Sidenote unrelated to our lodge construction - the construction work I used to do was mostly in South Park, Colorado, the one made famous from the comedy cartoon series on Comedy Central in the USA. So, this is kind of funny, but my last name is Parke, and I lived in trailer park in Park County, Colorado, and it doesn't get much park-ier than that.

🤳 I'm Still Cute 👨‍👧

Sometimes I have to literally grab my teenage daughter and hold her hostage to get a photograph together. She still doesn't understand that her struggle to resist only makes the photos better, and also that I am as cute as ever at 41 years old.

The guys are making quick work of putting up the walls, and it's nice to finally visualize things and adapt the original plan when needed. Instead of building three bathrooms with showers I decided to build three small toilet stalls and three small shower stalls, hoping this will help to keep prevent congestion a little more. That's all for now folks, 2:24am as I publish this, past my bedtime but I really want to get back to posting frequently.