Dear Family,
I worked on the tower for Internet all week. I hiked in with 10 people on Tuesday and spent until Friday afternoon there on the hill, working from the first morning light till we couldn't see to pound nails in the evening. It took 1 1/2 days to haul the 6x6 main supports to the top of the hill, they weighed about 1500 lbs each. The last 50 feet was the hardest. I measured it, it is 50 feet from the bottom of the tower to the base of the cliff the tower sits on, inches from the tower legs. We finally got the tower stood up with the help of the come-a-long and tied to the nearest trees. We built a whole scaffolding beside it to assemble the first A and stand it up. The next day, we stood up the last 2 poles individually and braced them. Then we built a platform on the top of 2"x12"x9' Mahogany. It took Greg and I a few hours to set up the antennas, batteries, and solar panels. It then took a few phone calls to get the Internet cafe to get the Internet plugged in properly, and then we got Internet in Tronquera! We were so very happy! Unfortunately, it isn't solid enough yet to get mail or browse the web, we need to go to Waspam and align that antenna a little better to try and get a better signal.
The tower looks impressive with razor wire around the top and an electric wire through the center. I hope it stops thieves.
Happy in Tronquera,
Clint and Marilyn
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