Lingayen Beach, Pangasinan

After our visit at Mt. Zion, Bugallon, we rested, had lunch at Danny's house, then we headed to Lingayen, the provincial capital of Pangasinan. Elle Marie  and Bien Mary wanted to see a beach, so we were heading to Lingayen Beach.

No cottages, no resort-hotels, no fishing village, only an open area for visitors and promenaders to enjoy.

I like this shot. The wind is blowing dry sand towards the sea. Btway, all photos here are from my sister in law, Baby.

Elle Marie and  Bien Mary, enjoying the beach.

I was chasing Elle. She can run fast though.

Elle and Bien doing their favorite activity on  the beach -- building a sand castle. I have to help them gather the sand, they design.

Bien and her cousin, Yoshi, Baby's first child.

 Miscellaneous photos. I like the sight of  white waves going to the beach. That day, 3rd weekend of January 2015, the wind was very cold, it was blowing  towards the sea  while the waves were moving  towards the land. Nice view.

The pick up served as our small wind breaker. Dry sand were blowing fast, dangerous for the eyes.

Ran-ran, Danny's eldest, and Bien. We left the beach around 6pm. Nice view of the sunset.

* See also:

North Phils., Feb. 2002 (part 2), November 20, 2005

Lingayen, Pangasinan, June 13, 2006

My Treehouse in the Farm, Bugallon, Pangasinan

My treehouse, built around March 2004 or 10 years ago, has experienced a major facelift last month. Here is how it looks now, when I visited the farm two weeks ago.

And how it looked as of February 2014. The old cogon roof on the second floor facing the rice field has been replaced by iron sheets.

The slatted bamboo floor have been replaced with wood, from slabs of big mahogany trees that were harvested two months ago. Now, view from below, from another side of the house.

The extension on the left side of the second floor.

And the extension on the right side.

The slatted bamboo as flooring has been replaced by wood, about 1/3 x 4 inches, from mahogany slabs. Note new branches and leaves sprouting out of the trunk.

Another view of the new flooring on the second floor.

View of the rice field from the second floor.

The extension on the ground floor.

Before: old and decaying slabs behind our rotary club banner during my term as Club President, RY 2006-07.

Now.

The toilet on the ground floor.

Thanks to Sid, our carpenter for seven days. He was assisted by our caretakers Nong Endring and Danny Paragas, and Boknoy.

Trees in Our Farm, Part 2

I went back to the Millora Farm in Bugallon, Pangasinan, last Sunday, more photos here. These are mahogany trees near my treehouse. I like visiting the farm and walk in this area. This used to be a marginal and cogonal area with no big trees.

We planted these trees sometime in 1993-94 I think, so they are about 20 years old now. We -- together with the farm caretaker, Nong Endring Paragas, plus his boys now grown up Danny and Junjun -- actually  started planting in 1992, just a few hundreds of seedlings that year.

It's a hilly area so soil quality is not really good as topsoil can easily get eroded during heavy rains. But the trees have managed to thrive. The stone terraces we constructed greatly helped in stabilizing the soil and keeping some of the rich topsoil.

In the mid-90s, we grew our own seedlings and we were able to plant several thousands of young mahogany seedlings then. And only from June to August or even September, where there are lots of rains. We planted at an average distance of 2-3 meters apart.