Building a Small Lobster Hatchery here in the Philippines

[jamesmusslewhite]

   This is the 6th video in the weekly series. At the time the video was taken we were finally getting settled into the residence and the roofing project on the lobster facility was progressing nicely even with two weeks with some rather heavy rain days. But this would be the last real rain we would see over the next two months.

   These next four videos I took back in 2013 about two weeks before traveled to Maldives for three weeks to design a mariculture project and consult on a possible floriculture facility. Just before I traveled to Maldives the Speaker of Parliament of Maldives traveled here to the Philippines. My wife and I traveled up to Manila where we met with him and an associate to talk about my traveling there for three weeks. We flew down to Davao so they could see a working floating net platform where lobsters and groupers were raised in nets, and then we travel further down the coast to tour a small shrimp hatchery. These four short videos were taken on that Davao trip and show a small glimpse of the platforms and the shrimp hatchery.

 

 

 

 

   I may still have some more video from that trip which I was not able to load on Facebook because of their video size restrictions for video uploads. I will have to go through my old external hard drives and if so I may later add them to this thread.

Edited October 2, 2016 by jamesmusslewhite

[jamesmusslewhite]

   The roof construction on the facility was coming along nicely and was ready to start fabricating the gutters which run down both sides of the nepa roof. The gutter layout was designed to be a four gutter system. Each gutter to handle 1/4 of the total rain runoff of the nepa roof. Each gutter has three downspouts. These three downspouts will to a 3 inch drain pipe, and these four drain 3 inch drain pipes where designed to channel the rainwater to different three locations. These three locations having a raised rack of 55 gallon plastic barrels (connected in series) to use to water the gardens, greenhouses and lawns.

 

 

   The guttering became a priority project as it needed to be completed The nepa roofing material had been ordered and was beginning to arrive by boat. This gutters must be measured, cut, fabricated and securely hung in pace before the nepa roofing is if added over the roof frame. The gutters need to be nailed, glued, sealed and finished before the nepa squares can be nailed and tied in place. The nepa also needs be trimmed along the edge overlapping the gutters. If trimmed properly the water runoff will easily flow into the gutters as intended and without unnecessary debris causing disruptions, leaks or overflows along the edges of the four gutter setups.

    This facility will be using quite a few concrete recessed floor sums where the discharge saltwater from the various equipment collects to be then be pumped into the three filtration storage tanks. It would be catastrophic to have freshwater flood into these sumps contaminating the recirculating saltwater. Water becoming suddenly brackish would quickly change the water salinity and pH levels as well as a rapid water temperature swing.

   If this water then was introduced into the larvae pots it could cause shock and loss possibly to the whole crop within merely a few hours. This is why proper drainage is paramount and the guttering must be able to handle even the heaviest rain downfalls and quickly get the runoff out of the structure and into the rain barrel racks stationed outside of the facility.         

Edited October 2, 2016 by jamesmusslewhite

[jamesmusslewhite]

  Two projects really go hand to hand. I am constructing the first raised garden bed, when I am done there will be quite a few such beds incorporated into the final landscape I am designing here. These are three rough sketches I drew a few years back for my son's High school. The ones I will building here will be lower than those that I drew in these designs. They will be constructed out of hollow block and I will be employing 'square foot/ square meter' gardening techniques for vegetables, herbs and flowers.

 

 

   The beds I am building here are temporary as I still have so many other projects needing to be finished before I will be able to work on the final landscape. This is so I can get crops in the ground now and established good working soils. We had 80 laying hen chick ordered at this time and was awaiting their delivery. I hope to also be raising some rabbits later this year or in the early Spring, so building the raised beds now will allow me to make good use of the manures and future compost piles. What I used to build the temporary raised beds is something that is usually simply discarded when cutting coconut trees for lumber. The outer rough-cuts made by the chainsaw man when blocking the timber as they ready the logs to be cut into board lengths. These rough-cuts make great sides for raised beds and can easily last a year before needing to be replaced, which makes them perfect for this task; especial since I already intend to remove the wooden sides and replace the wood with hollow block sides. This also makes for a really cheap alternative for those who are on a tight budget and want to build raised garden beds.

   This bed is on a slope and needed to be filled with dead coral and shell which is plentiful on this island, and then the coral/shell fill will be topped with rich clay and top soils. This project took me less than two days  to complete. First I staged all my materials and cut my stakes and with a machete cut a point on each stake so they could be driven into the ground. The coconut tree rough cuts are then laid with the cut side against the side of the wooden stakes and nailed.

   Now as this garden bed is on sloping land I need to add a heavy layer of fill. This is a lot easier if one waits to add the ends until the wheelbarrows of fill are pushed and dumped in place. Once done the end on the slope side of the bed can be cut and nailed in place.

[jamesmusslewhite]

 

 

This is an old landscapers trick. It is much easier when one can still access the bed from both ends with the wheelbarrow. This is because if you get impatient and nail the ends too soon then you must dump over the wooden sides which can scar, damage or even loosen the bed frame. So once the fill is laid down as desired then simply nail the end pieces and use a rake to level out the grade.

 

Now if while you are leveling the grade of the fill and you see that you still need some additional fill, then it is still very easy to just roll in however many wheelbarrow loads are needed. When the fill level is done then you are ready to add a clay soil layer and then a decent topsoil layer. Doing it this way will make your work much easier than if you nailed the ends first before adding fill and soils.

 

Now I am ready for the soils. And it is a lovely 9th of July.

[jamesmusslewhite]

Now I mentioned that this was a two part project. My business partner as well as my wife and I love orchids and we had quite a few that were delivered that needed propagation, root and tip trimming and then mounting. While I was building the garden bed my wife was working on the orchids.

 

She picked a nice place in the shade, toned the radio to her favorite station and started work on the orchids.

[jamesmusslewhite]

As she was nearing the end of her task I was emptying the last bags of soil she was almost done with the mountings.

Now it is time to finally put the two projects together.

 

 

 

 

And now tomorrow I start the next project which is the rain gutters for the facility as it must be done before the nepa roofing sheets can be installed on top of the roof frame. I am suppose to get a delivery of more bagged soil tomorrow and My wife will be working on more orchids. These to will be added to the raised bed in three rows. If the soil comes as scheduled then in the next couple of days the vegetables will be planted in the bed. Once I am finished with the installation of the gutters I will be adding one more raised garden bed. Once the nepa roof is finally finished inside the facility then we can finally start pouring the concrete forms for the saltwater tanks. Even as we speak the first 700 hollow blocks are being made in the city and will be delivered here to the island when we are ready to start construction on the tanks.  

Edited October 2, 2016 by jamesmusslewhite

[jamesmusslewhite]

 

Video of the progress as of 15 July, 2016.

 

 

I have been working on fabricating the heavy rain gutters which I will be using for the nepa roof in the facility and will start hanging them this morning. I will add some photos of that project this evening so members can see how they are made if they are interested in making a strong inexpensive rain gutters for their own use. The first raised bed garden box is finished and my wife has been planting assorted vegetables as the soil was delivered and spread already. She still has quite a few orchids that need to be taking off their old mounts, trimmed and remounted, as she likes to refer to the process ''she is giving them new shoes.''   I hope to have the gutter work finished by tomorrow evening so I can start building the next raised bed garden box. They have delivered the second load of hollow blocks which we had made in the city and are having them delivered here as they are being finished. Most hollow blocks are made on a ratio is i sack of cement to 70 or more blocks, but due to the weight of the seawater which will be in these tank and the internal stresses which will be on these blocks I had these hollow blocks made to a ratio of 1 sack of cement to 35 blocks which will give more than enough strength to do their intended task. With luck by next week we will be able to start setting and pouring the concrete forms for all the saltwater tanks that will be needed. So the work is moving on nicely and the progress is steady. It is hard to believe that we have only been here about 7 weeks now. 

[jamesmusslewhite]

You know that I prefer Heirloom seeds whenever possible. I have a good friend here in Surigao City who had to go to the States and he picked up two assortment packages of Heirloom vegetable and herb seeds and shipped them back in a Balikbayan box. There where 54 varieties in all. I also have a couple of members on my Facebook Farm & Gardening group who also sell Heirloom seeds and I let them advertise them on the group page. For members who do not know, most seeds sold are hybrids which once harvested either the seed are sterile or they will revert back to one of the varieties which was used to breed that certain verity, which is of little good if you wish to harvest the seeds for the next crop. Heirloom seeds are true breeds which will yield viable seeds of the same variety. This means you can harvest the seeds and store them for the planting cycle. If you can find Heirloom seeds you should get and store as many varieties as you can as it will make you independent from the seed companies as well as insure you always have the seeds for the varieties you prefer. Far too often when you find a seed rack here they all are carrying the same 60 seed varieties. Collecting and harvesting Heirloom seeds insures you can always have diversity and choices when you set up for you planting cycles..

 

If you type 'Heirloom seeds for sale' in a search engine you will find seed banks with huge variety selection. Most 'Zone 8' or 'Zone 9' variety seeds will do well here.

[jamesmusslewhite]

So the roof frame in the facility is almost ready for the nepa sheets to be added. So now is the time to start hanging the gutters. I need gutters which can handle heavy rainfall and also the weight of the water runoff from the roof. For this I am using standard 10 foot lengths of corrugated roofing tin sheets.

 

These sheets I will cut down the center the whole length of the sheet. Then we will place the sheet halved between two 2"x6" the top board we ripped making it a 2"x5" only because I wanted extra high sides to the gutters so I can nail one side to the concrete wall and the other to my 2''x3'' top rail by slightly bending over the gutter edge and nailing it along the outer top edge of the top rail.

 

We simply step on the top board and pull the sides of the tin sheets while tapping it with a hammer, this makes a crease along the length of the tin sheet which required very little extra bending by hand. This first bent gutter length we will set aside and us it as our measuring standard. This is so each gutter will be the same size. If you keep using the last gutter to measure your next then each will get a little larger. If you use the first one to measure all the rest, then they will stay the same size each time. We simply lay the first gutter piece on top of the next sheet and mark the bottom edges with a black permanent marker, and slide the first sheet down the length marking it every one to two feet. This makes it easy when you are bending the sheet by tapping it with a hammer because you can see the marker marks which helps you keep a straight line.

 

This is important as you are tapping the bottom of the tin sheet to make the bend, that the hammering will move the wood. Stop regularly and check your marker marks because it will get out of line quickly. Place each sheet between the two boards with the same side out and the sheet with the same side up. This is important when you start attaching the sheets together, if your corrugation does not match up it can complicate things quickly. Reputation is paramount so double check yourself regularly.

 

This is why I like to stack each gutter on top of each other, if you made a mistake then you can catch it quickly and make corrections.

 

[jamesmusslewhite]

Now that I know all my gutters are all aligned properly I will start making my end pieces and spacer/braces. These to save money will be cut from some old scrap tin sheets. First I will cut a pattern for the end caps.

 

This pattern (hole is not an issue) is quite simple to make. Place under the bottom edge of the gutter sheet so you can properly measure the gutter width, then simply allow an extra two inches on each side as well as the bottom. This is so the sides and bottom can be bent and allow plenty of room to drill and rivet.

 

then mark and cut an end piece and bend the edges for the sides and the bottom.

 

 

 

Now once again pay attention to the corrugation patterns to insure that when it is place on the end of the gutter that the bottoms match making it much easier and cleaner to rivet together. Repetition is key 

 

 

The spacer/braces are easy to make. I like to cut them out of the top crown of the corrugation at the width of the gutter bottom, adding 2 inches both top and bottom for the bends. Cutting the pieces from the crowns utilizes the ark shape which adds to it's strength and helps the gutter maintain a rectangular shape .

 

Now it is time to start connecting all the gutter lengths together.