En la lucha

Still in the fight. Just have not had time to update the blog.

Snowy days recently. People tell me it is unusually cold for November. Global warming, they say. I guess if you tell a big enough lie often enough, the mindless will believe it. There was an interesting related discussion with the Chilean Antarctic folks, who reminded us that for much of the life of that continent, it was considerably greener and warmer than today. Oh, well; a topic for another time. Just received a message from the Chilean Antarctic Institute asking for translation help for the next two publications.


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El Aguila is one of the local hardware stores, ferreterias, where I get materials. Prices for common materials are high -- perhaps double what you might pay at a Home Depot in Colorado.
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It is good to have a little office in Casa 7 Bis now. The window admits good light but the view is not terribly distracting. I varnished the table I made from the damaged 75cm door.

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The carpenters earlier framed the bathroom in preparation for the tile. We have made corrections and modifications as we go along. I can't be away from the place for more than a few hours since issues come up with surprising regularity.
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Much of the work being done by the present building group is to fix shortcomings from the first crew. Here a beam was sagging considerably and we extended the wall and reinforced the support.



There had been some sort of accident on the ferry that brings supplies to Puerto Natales. Ironically, there have been more boats in the areas recently. But tourism is down by a great measure.
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Since the window suppliers have not come as promised, more than several times, I went and picked up the one needed for the bathroom. The window situation remains one of the biggest problems, and the most disgraceful.
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An earlier foto of the table I made from the damaged door. Here, just after the coat of varnish.
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Here, José M is at work in the bathroom. This seems to be one of his specialties, and he is happy at this part of the job. His son-in-law has been coming in the evenings to help with the tile work.

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Started a new project today, the framing of part of the space above the stairwell.
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Lunch in Puerto Bories.

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Still in the fight.

Toward Las Nieves

I tried to get away from Natales during the time they would be closing the roads, including my access to and from Puerto Bories. The reason is the annual 3-hour sports car race, which has a tendency to kill people. This year it was a drunken 19-year-old girl, killed instantly it was claimed, when she tried to cross the track in front of a fast-mover. The force of the impact evidently made quite a mess of both the body and the car. There are a lot of drunken kids, and adults as well, around Puerto Natales.

The trip toward Las Nieves started with a departure from the pavement of Ruta 9 just a bit north of Tehuelches. The unpaved road was initially decent, and I noticed it had an official roadway system number, though that by itself will not get you very far.





Loose livestock, just as in Colorado.



Sometimes keeping an eye on the evidence of broken parts from previous vehicles is a good idea.


A vacant sawmill.



At some point, 4-wheel-drive became a good way of dealing with the mud.


As I got into the trees there was snow from last season, and more spring snow falling.


In the end, there was too much snow.


I had the good sense to not get stuck way out there. Maybe next time. Or perhaps I will just wait until later in the season. Perhaps this area would be good for a bit of exploring via motorcycle.

Tabled

Now that I have a little office at Casa 7 Bis, it was time for a table. So I built one from a damaged 70cm-wide door.



And in the little office.... first the table and then a little "light fixture."



Meanwhile, the concrete for the bathroom floor was put in. Then after two days of setting up, the framing was done and the internit is going up.




































Making some corrections to previous construction, with the first builder. I had the current group extend a wall to support a too-long span with a proper header. A mix of metal and wooden construction, but we make it work. When the new wall was put in, we took 2 cm of sag out of the span. The carpenters prefer working with the steel framing, called "metalcon" around here, after the trade name used in Chile. It is much faster to do framing with steel but the stuff is frightfully sharp and the cutting is done with a special narrow cutting disc ("discos de corte") and eye/face protection is mandatory. Personally, I prefer the rather more pleasant smell of sawdust to the stink of burning through the steel.


With the recent cold and snowy weather, we appreciate the wood-burning stove. Two of the rooms are now drywalled, with doors and locks installed, along with the first light fixture. Water and indoor plumbing are getting closer.


And this, of course, it what all of the blood and grief is all about.

Approaching Bories

When it all gets just a bit too challenging, relax and enjoy the views. In this case, the approach to the village of Puerto Bories, with the two glaciers in the background.

And the carreta at the end of the lane.

The work of the little Panasonic/Leica Lumix DMC-TZ4 pocket camera.

Another snow day

Another snowy day in Pto Bories. Not an altogether bad thing since it helps feed the cistern.

That is the José Márquez truck delivering materials.





Drainage in Natales is a bit lacking, as seen in one of the fotos here. But the town did spend an enormous amount of money recently on the pretty green fences that say "Puerto Natales" but otherwise serve no useful purpose, along with a very expensive statue of a milodon at the entrance to the hamlet. Apparently such things are more important than satisfactory street paving, stormwater handing, and a decent community hospital.



Meanwhile, at the worksite, the snow filled the gutters and caused some overflowing. But the flow rate for rain/snow water from the roof looks promising for the eventual water supply.




From this morning's run to the Aquila hardware store, we have insulation and drywall.




And the drywall is starting to go up in the guest room.




And the central heating tubing is going in.



Added later: for the benefit of a commentor, I have attached here a photo of the mylodon statue at the entrance to Natales.

Citibank again...grrr

As we all know, the US government is running a streak of monumentally bad decisions, and one of the worst was the bailing out of bankrupt Citibank, also known as the World's Most Irresponsible Financial Institution. From prosecution for money laundering to abysmal consumer credit practices to leaky security practices, Citibank has earned its negative stories in the media.

Now I see that Citibank has become such an icon for lousy banking and associated criminal practices that the satirists have added Citibank to their stock. There was a recent faux news item titled "Somali Pirates to Acquire Citibank." Thus the following foto:












It is not unreasonable to periodically contribute a few words on this blog, and in other suitable media, to remind ourselves that Citibank has taken bad service to new depths. Not surprisingly, Citibank is being prosecuted around the world for just about every imaginable sort of misbehaviour. In rare moments of lucidity, the conventional media have been covering some examples.

The image here was borrowed from somebody else, and it turns out that the blogosphere is also full of citizens expressing their undying hatred of Citibank, stories of outrageous actions by Citibank, and a general disgust by the citizenry that the US government bailed out such a criminal institution without as much as suggestions that they perhaps clean up their act.



The latest experience with Citicards here is basically a reprise of the previous events, which is another way of saying they have not fixed the problems, nor learned anything: I call them before leaving the US to remind them that I will be using my bloodly little card in Chile and Argentina, and it will be for multiple purchases and for over $1000 a day at times. Any problem with that, I ask? No problem, say their lying little minions.

And so what happens in Punta Arenas? Can't use the card. It is blocked. Drive into the city center and get to an international call booth and make that $16 phone call to remind those idiots that their stupid fraud detection scam is not working, that all they are doing is preventing me from using the card and I don't appreciate it one little bit. I remind them that yet another letter is going to the FTC with an additional complaint, and would Citi now reimburse me for the $150 costs for the trip down here and the cost of this call? Of course not.

There will soon come a time to hang Citibank management, and I'll throw in the rope, thank you very much. Actually hanging would be too good for them. Let's see if Vlad the Impaler can come up with something more fitting. There is, after all, a special place in Hell for Citibank.

Return of the cold

Light snow and strong winds again today. And the carpenters spent much of the day working on the windward side while I reworked the windows from the inside. The efforts to seal the windward windows are starting to pay off. The amount of cold air flowing through the upstairs has been significantly reduced.

Power is in. There are five circuits installed, with a subdistribution box in the furnace room. No more 80-meter extension cord running up from Casa 7. In the next phase I will probably be able to get the rest of the house wired, but this first experience with the electrician was something of a test. And I was generally pleased with the results.

A few more windows are visible from the south and southeast sides of 7 Bis.

Vista still sucks

Let us take time away from the essentials of construction to recall that Windows Vista is an abysmal operating system, a sucky resource hog and a slow mover as well. It reminds us of what is wrong with Microsoft. And it is all made worse by today's revelations that Microsoft expects about US$120 to upgrade from that POS OS that is Vista, to Windows 7.

And let's not forget that it takes somewhere between 4 and 21 hours to install an upgrade to Windows 7, so let's figure in some compensation for that sort of silliness.

I unwittingly bought a machine with Vista and after initial introductory aggravation, it went into a box, where it has been for the last two years.

In a decent world, Microsoft would acknowledge the rubbish that was shipped under the guise of an operating system and would pay present Vista owners $120 to remove that crap OS and install a suitable replacement, be it Windows 7 or XP or Linux or whatever.

And now back to our regularly scheduled rant.

Progress check

Wednesday, and we are doing well. Except in the windows department.

The carpenters are doing better with the expanding polyurethane foam (that stuff is not cheap down here). Earlier they were spraying it through the large gaps in the window rough openings and down onto their car. You can probably guess what a mess it was to remove a two meter long stripe of polyurethane foam from the windshield and roof of a car. But they are also learning to properly fill the gaps in the structure. Little by little we are cutting down on the air leaks in the entretecho area.

The power poles are in and the conductors are connected to the power source. The meter is installed inside the house since it is serving as a "remarcador" to measure use from Casa 7 and not for a separate power company account. The electrical boxes are in and wired for the bathroom, office, and guest bedroom.

Tomorrow the plumber ("gasfiter") is supposed to start working the furnace room and connections to the upstairs bathroom. Bathroom sink and toilet sets are standing by for installation later. The design solution for the floor looks like a thin concrete layer and then tile.




Below we see one of the Tecalum folks cutting the steel sheets in preparations for installing one of the 1.3 x 1.3 meter windows in the main bedroom. The workers arrived without the cutter, but I happened to have my own. They didn't have safety glasses or face protector, so I provided that, too. This is not the way it is supposed to work. In fact they ended up using a hatchet for the final inch or so of steel to be cut. Not my idea of the right tools for the job. In contrast, the electricians are quick and expert in their work.

Someday, when all of this is further along, I will very much enjoy the views from these windows, but I doubt that I will ever forget the pain it has been to get them installed and working properly.

Camera stuff

The Balmaceda glacier is about 30 km or so to the northwest. The first shot is with the Nikon D80 digital SLR with 28-105mm Nikkor lens, at the 105mm telefoto setting and normal autofocus. This is a tiny portion of the original file but cropped via Photoshop to show "actual pixels" of that small section.




Then the same area, a small section showing "actual pixels" from the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ4 point-and-shoot pocket camera with 10X telefoto.


Then just for reference, what the whole scene looked like at the 105mm lens setting for the Nikon.

Weekend work

The construction pace is picking up. Today I received the posts to be used for the temporary power poles, and the electricians rather quickly performed several steps including the preparation of the conduit for wiring in two rooms. The carpenters have installed most of the relleno or filling that goes between the joists and allows the 18mm thick HR100 subflooring to be attached to something. Unfortunately the exposure to the rain for so long a year ago, due to problems with the first builder, resulted in some damage to that subflooring.

I got into the act with some of the electrical outlet box installations. It is rather different from what we do in the US but conceptually similar.


Plenty of time for the thousand-yard stare out the new windows. And supposedly more windows to arrive on Monday.

Edit from the following Wednesday: still no windows, and the opening window I installed does not work properly (opening hardware mechanism is faulty)

There and back again

A long day. 150 miles from Puerto Bories to Punta Arenas. The morning there spent in banking matters and in buying the electrical materials for wiring the house. The meter had to wait for the afternoon, when I went to the retail outlet for the power company Edelmag. A lunch of salmon and wi-fi. Then off to buy more hardware and materials, including two inside doors with frames and hardware, lumber, fasteners, a bathroom lavamanos set, silicon for window sealing, and on down the list. The truckers' strike had resulted in almost every gas station in Punta Arenas being out of gasoline. I think I found the last open station. And then the 150 miles back to Pto Bories, with a stop in Rio Rubens for a ham and cheese sandwich.

Continuing Cold

It seems as though there was a bus accident yesterday morning, on the morning that Duncan was taking a Fernandez bus into Punta Arenas. At first I heard that it was a bus from Natales to Punta Arenas. After a while I discovered that the accident involved a Pacheco line bus headed up from Punta Arenas. Several people were injured. Hmmm... I usually ride on the Pacheco buses. I inserted a foto from the Prensa Austral, credited to José Villarroel. Eight people were reported injured and some were taken to the "hospital regional" in Puerto Natales. It's not really a hospital as we know it. It is more of a ill-equipped clinic and triage-redistribution point since anything requiring serious medical attention is redirected to Punta Arenas. The "hospital regional" is also subject to strikes which further limit what little they can do locally. When I delivered an injured worker to that clinic/hospital last year I was reminded of the hospital scenes in the movie "Reds." Actually the comparison is valid for several reasons but we'll put that off for now. Dear reader, don't get hurt in Ultima Esperanza.

Which reminds me.

The other day I was using the galletera to cut an opening to install one of the 1 x 1 meter thermal windows in casa 7 bis. In an unguarded moment my gloved finger touched the cutting blade in full spin. It went through the leather as if it were tissue paper, and the finger underneath did not feel very happy about events, either. Miraculously, the finger was not actually cut, but it was certain frightened. Dear reader, don't get hurt in Ultima Esperanza.




As if the weather were not enough, there is now a truckers' strike which is reportedly blocking the highway into Punta Arenas, preventing food and other materials from reaching the city. There was also a report of similar blockading by the truckers of Puerto Natales. There was a time when the Chilean government knew how to deal with this sort of thing. But now the country continues to be beset by strikes that periodically paralyze operations. The weakness of the current administration is evident.

The other fotos are of Puerto Bories. The cold, snow, and wind continue.

No Snowbird

Screaming winds last night, with a bit of rain and sleet. Then at dawn I could see that it had snowed down to the water, with more snow on the wind.

Roof in the Wires

Patagonia, we all know, is where wind was invented. It's a significant hazard for those trying to build anything, as well as those who might be downwind from a construction site. Consider the combination of sharp sheets of corrugated steel used for roofs and siding, and the winds that can reach 160 km/hour at times. Today we see that the metal roof on a neighbour's shed was carried away by the winds, and parts of the roof ended up in the overhead wires that supply power to the local community.




The debris path for the roofing suggests that the material must have had a dramatic flight. Apparently no one was injured. Not this time, anyway. Down here people have been seriously injured and in some cases decapitated by flying sheets of metal. I still have my scar from being badly cut last December while working with the corrugated steel sheets we were installing on the roof of Casa 7 Bis. But then, nobody said it would be easy. Or safe.



Late report: Woke up this morning, the 12th, to a cold house and snow around. But the roof pieces were removed from the overhead wires and the power pole set back up. Power was finally restored about noon.

Things As I Left Them

Back to Bories, and Casa 7 Bis. Things are very much as I left them.
Today, Wednesday, the weather is nearly perfect. Just a bit of wind, the sky with hardly a cloud.

In the rush to get going back in May I had not disconnected the Toyota truck battery, and I was expected it to be completely discharged after the long, cold winter. Much to my surprise, that Walmart battery was still strong, and the engine started easily.

There was a quick visit to the window supplier. It was nearly a year ago that I ordered the windows, and many of them are still not ready. So things are indeed very much as I left them. The window guys said they would be out in Bories next Monday at 2 pm to install whatever windows that might be ready at that time. We'll see.





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The last foto is out of chronological order: that is a shot of the Chilean presidential palace, La Moneda, on the afternoon of my arrival on Sunday.

Patagoniax in Winter

The house in winter. Photos by Mattassi, the ever-vigilant neighbour.

Ancient Egyptian Washing Machine Lift Procedure

As we all know from our previous lessons, ancient Egyptian (Middle Kingdom, 2040-1640 BC) engineer noblemen often found themselves with perplexing and weighty challenges involving domestic appliances, particularly when their household slaves had been called away and the nobleman was no longer in the prime of his lifting life. Recent deciphering of pictograms found in pre-Grecian home improvement outlet sites has provided some clues surrounding strategies for these noblemen, working alone in their modest dwellings.

In the accompanying photos, we see how a single houseperson was able to surmount the 2-slave lift requirement that characterized ancient washing machines. Here the use of cinder blocks and wooden planks simulates the fired-clay blocks believed to have been employed in these remote times. Note how the washing machine package need only be tilted on one side, involving a force of less than 40 foot-pounds, taking into account changes in gravitational constants and Coriolis effects since the time of the Middle Kingdom. In this example, we see incremental tilting that allows blocks to be placed on one package side, and then the other, and repeated in stages until the package is raised more than 1.25 cubits (or 7.1 palms, for those unfamiliar with Middle Kingdom metrics).

For next week's lesson, we will cover kitchen furniture and stovetop utensils used in the discovery of nitroglycerin.