Transportation Costs leave me Sitting on Sand

One of the things that has been most challenging about living on the margin is access. Many basic supplies like cement and sand are quite cheap per pound all around the world, but their prices rise excessively 'on the margin' in areas where access is difficult and hauling adds to the bill.

This is in line with a known sociological phenomena called 'the Poor Pay more'.

Here in this pile of bags is near a half metric tonne of sand, as well as 220lbs of cement. Each bag is practically unliftable by normal humans. All of this and a little more cost me just 30 dollar, very cheap.

But there is still work to do, as I live just under two kilometers up this road.

Today our neighbor and his horse Rocinante is helping us with the heavy task, a horse can carry two bags of cement or sand, one on each side.

With the help of our neighbors, we can avoid the even greater cost of hiring a mule team, which generally don't even like to show up for quantities as small as just half a tonne.

And we can use less cement and sand, as we are trying out a new technique of concrete posts, to avoid making an entire rectangle, which is likely to shift and crack before too long anyway. Above, our two-story warehouse will serve as a test of some new hybrid building techniques we are working with.

But the most boring job is sitting on the sand. Here I left Marco as I went up to the farm to eat some breakfast, and cut some fresh grass for Rocinante.

I doubted whether cheap sand would be a risk (though cement could be an obvious target), but my neighbor informed me that his neighbor lost 7 bags of sand when he left some overnight at the drop off point.

So, we dutifully sit on the sand.

As I publish this, Rocinante is taking the third to last trip, leaving just me swatting mosquitos and four 110 pound bags of sand.

Freedom and Friendship