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.

Longer Shadows

Although winter is rapidly approaching, today offered a respite, with slightly warmer temperatures and no wind.

The last foto shows the progress on the furnace room.

Yes, those are flamingos in two of the fotos.

A bit of local color here in the late fall.

No, the rest of the windows for the new house are not here yet. Five months late.

Cold Mornings

Another cold morning in southern Patagonia. But the work on the installation of gas, sewer, and water continues. The guys from the window shop arrived and attempted to install two windows. Windows continue to be a problem.

Special Tools

Anybody who has ridden a motorcycle for very long in Patagonia knows two things. One is that there are no spare parts for your bike. The other is that certain local mechanics can do things that you would never expect to be possible by those who call themselves mechanics "back home."

Here in Puerto Natales, one of the magicians is Samuel. He used to be with the Chilean KTM team for races like the Paris-Dakar. For people like Carlo de Gavardo.

Back in 2001 I had a problem with my 1997 KLR650. One of the fork seals had gotten a bit loose and was allowing oil to spray onto the front disc rotor. At the time it was not clear where the offending oil was coming from and I thought it might have been coming from the brake caliper. Samuel quickly found the problem and told me there were of course no spares within 1000 km or more. And he had no tools for disassembly of the forks. He did determine the internal hex size inside the fork for the tool that would need to fit into that recess so that the Allen bolt at the bottom of the fork, on the outside, could be removed. Samuel found a hex-headed bolt that was about 2 mm or so larger than the required size, and ground down the flats until it fit into the internal hex inside the fork. Then he disassembled both forks, cleaned them out properly, and eventually re-seated the Argentine fork seal that had been leaking (it had been installed in 1999 at a shop near Mendoza).

I was amazed to find fork oil in Natales back in 2001, and a bit dismayed last year when we went through the forks again and I found that nobody in Natales sold motorcycle fork oil anymore. But Samuel still had that "special tool" that he had kept around since there are a lot of KLR650s that come through these territories.

Fast forward to 2009, and Samuel is dealing with two KLRs with balancer system problems (including an offending 2008 KLR). He had no special tools for removing the craftshaft rotor bolt to do the repair. To hold the rotor to remove the rather substantial bolt, you need an offset wrench. So Samuel took a crescent-type wrench, adjusted it to the required opening, cut off the handle, and welded the head of the crescent-type wrench to an offset handle. As you see in the foto.

Now that the rotor bolt was out, he needed a rotor puller. Again, Samuel did not have the special tool, but he had the rotor bolt so he determined what the thread size was. Then he found a piece of pipe with about the right diameter - that is, the same outside diameter as the Kawasaki special tool used for rotor removal. He went to a machinist in Natales and got the proper threads cut into his new tool, and used a pipe wrench to turn it. Bingo, the rotor popped off nicely.

Now, if you bring in a BMW or other overly modernized bike and expect Samuel to fix a problem with an electronic item, you will probably be disappointed. There are certain limitations even for Patagonian magician mechanics.

Invierno de golpe

And suddenly it is winter in Ultima Esperanza.

It is not surprising that the workers have not shown up this morning. That their performance has been unsatisfactory lately has escaped neither my glance nor that of their boss, José. Alas, they started out well, particularly when compared to the first builder. But recently their previously good work had become uneven, and they had been borrowing my tools (ladder and cordless driver) to work on projects other than Casa 7 Bis, often without even asking me. I think some of my materials went into other people's projects as well. That they have failed at times to follow instructions I thought might have been my not pressing them or José firmly enough. José is aware of my aggravation with the decline and we will resolve it somehow. I had suggested that he, José, provide them with some rather firm guidance. It's possible that before a fortnight has gone by, they may be replaced altogether.

For some reason this reminds me of the title of a book. A Douglas Adams book. The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.

Aftermath

The wind continued to blow last night. With the electrical power out for much of the day, I became a believer in the little fluorescent lantern that came with my Craftsman 19 volt cordless tool set. However, I was greatly annoyed that the workers had borrowed my cordless screwdriver and along with it my spare 19 volt batteries, and had apparently taken those home with them. Won't let that happen again.

The power company, Edelmag, showed up at about 10 this morning to start to work on the outage. See first foto. By afternoon I had word that we had power back on in the village.

In the second foto we see the downspouts that will eventually feed the rainwater storage tank. I dug the trench in the foto as a provisional measure to keep water away from the structure. The rain feeding those downspouts was not particularly heavy but I opted from two spouts to try to keep from having too much weight on the canaleta in the event of a surge in rainfall, or in times of hail mixed with rain that could slow the flow. Speaking of which, there was a good bit of sleet falling as I returned from Natales today. It was good to come home to a warm house (thank you again, D&G - you know I will be forever grateful).

The Almost-Hurricane, and other arguments

OK, it wasn't exactly a hurricane. But locals tell me it was the strongest wind in memory, and it did its share of damage, with phone lines down, electrical power out, at least one chimney blasted, windows broken, and the slaughterhouse shredded and effectively gone.



The boat belonging to the carabineros, the national police, was porpoising terribly in midmorning today, and we who passed by suspected that it would slip its surly bonds and become just another wreck before the storm was over. And when I went by late this afternoon, that boat was on the beach.



The last foto is the delivery of the galvanized pipe for the gas line to be installed later this week. It was a bit much to haul on the overhead rack of my pickup so José used his truck. The gas line here is not the "black pipe" we are used to in North America. Instead, the practice is to paint the pipe with an anticorrosive paint, let that dry, and then assemble the gas line, then cover it with a tight wrapping of tarpaper. Should be a foto of that here somewhere. I suspect that leaves a lot of opportunity for weak points in the system but I suppose it is the best they can do down here.







And the local best has proven in the recent past to be none too good, particularly where firestopping design is involved. When the lads started preparation for the furnace room they removed the corrugated steel from the existing structure....exactly what I did not want them to do but evidently that didn't get communicated between builder José and the workers. The design was supposed to install the fibercement board over the corrugated steel for optimum fire resistance, rather than having just the 8mm fibercement placed directly against the combustible felt paper and OSB with no air gap. It does not surprise me that so many buildings around Natales have been destroyed or damaged by fire. And that includes the most prestigious hotel in the city, just a few months ago.

After all, we are still in Chile. A tremendous bureaucracy, but little in the way of productive utility, or the benefit of cost-effectiveness trade-studies, or real technical substance or, evidently, the probable outcomes of much administrative and legislative foolishness (in this there is an attempt to emulate the worst of the West). A hungry and expensive bureaucracy, and one that, in some corners of the country, does not stoop to compliance with its legal requirements (as is the case of the legal system, it turns out, which in the case of Punta Arenas has determined that it is above the law itself).

One of the elements of local culture that escapes the casual visitor is the extent to which myth and nonproductive tradition conspire against the potential for greater good. I often see the shrugging of shoulders and hear "Es lo que hay" - "it's what there is." As if alternatives proven useful elsewhere should not even be considered. I am reminded of an Alvaro Vargas Llosa book on the subject, but let's not go there right now. After all, I am still a guest. A critical guest, but a guest nonetheless.

Citibank

Let me start this be reminding everyone that Citibank continues to fail miserably as a credit card provider. That they are headed for bankruptcy should not surprise anyone. What should be surprising is that they are even permitted to continue in operation.






The rain gutters are now installed, along with the double downspouts that will feed the roof-water storage. From the tank will be a gravity feed to the filtration and Hydropack pump in the external furnace room. That room got underway today.

The other view is of Whale Mountain from the Llanuras de Diana.

Sunday Morning in Southern Patagonia Fjordlands

Preparing for the drive down to Punta Arenas to attend (and work) the "Cold Regions Science and Technology Seminar."

I would rather, however, stay at home and watch the rain.

The last foto here, with the rain splattered on the lens, shows the utilities ditch that was started yesterday. The old guy doing the work was here again today, Sunday, in the rain and mud. I continue to be impressed with the work being done by the new crew, in contrast to the first builder. But there are still some problems that I hope José can help to resolve.

Punta Arenas

Had several reasons to make another run down to Punta Arenas. Bank. Univ of Magallanes visit. Building materials. Dollars for pesos.... since the rates are much better than here in Natales. Recall from earlier posts that Puerto Natales is known by many of its own as the ass-end of the world.

Got in last night after an interesting drive back from Punta Arenas, with the wind catching the material in the pipe rack and blowing the truck around on the highway.

But the trip was largely successful, save for the repeat offenses of Citibank in screwing up my Mastercard. Word to the wise: forget any sort of credit card that has the word Citibank on it if you plan to travel more than 6 miles from a home in the Lesser 48.

As can been seen in the images, the chiflonera now has a locking main access door. And the lads are working on installing the rain gutter which will eventually feed the roof water to the storage tank on the upfill side of the house.

Milestone

Yesterday I did a test fire in the wood-burning stove on the second floor, in its " instalación provisoria." One of the images may show smoke from the chimney.

Another small milestone.

Bids taken on installation of the natural gas, water, and sewer runs, each about 100 meters and some serious trenching all to be done by pick and shove. Selections for Friday after I get back from Punta Arenas.

Bids accepted on work for the furnace room and installation of the canaleta, the rain gutter system that is going to feed the roof-water storage.

Windows, who knows? I visited Tec-Alum and they said they have the materials in and can deliver the rest of the windows later this week. We will see.

Stove and chimney installations

There are now just two workers on the site, but they are pretty good, though there are times when that third set of hands is useful. Today I see good progress on the installation of the chimney and the stovepipe, though I see that my directions for the anchoring of the section of stovepipe above the roof level were not followed. Oh, well. Can correct that later.

The chiflonera is not quite done but some progress was made. I had hoped that the structure might be sufficiently finished this week to be able to lock it up, but we are only close.

Portones y estufa

The workers surprised me the other day by asking where my wood-burning stove had gotten to.... it had been safety stored and covered in the garage. And there was a long story to that stove, since it had belonged to a good friend of mine in Colorado years ago. It was an older Orley insert and I bought it for a very fair price, but it languished in my Black Forest garage for many years since none of my house or barn installations could readily deal with the minimum spacing requirements for such a stove. So when it came time to design a house around a stove, the Puerto Bories place, Casa 7 Bis, was laid out to accommodate the old stove.

Well, the workers had, unbeknownst to me, moved the stove upstairs and started the preliminary work for the chimney installation. They removed the protective packaging from the glass windows, which made me a little nervous, but so far no damage is done. In the time that the stove had been stored (since November of 2007) it has had time to develop some surface rust. So I started to clean up the stove and do some touch-up with the high-temp stove paint I found up in Argentina.

Elsewhere at the site the portones, the garage doors, are now installed. And work on the chiflonera is concluding, though that structure is not turning out as nicely as I had hoped, at least for the external appearance.

101 Views of ... Cerro Ballena

Must be getting close to tying Hiroshige's magic number of views of Mt Fuji, though by now my gentle readers may be weary of seeing Cerro Ballena. In that case, stay tuned for other subject matter. But here is the view this morning. You can click on it for a larger view.





And another morning shot of Cerro Balmaceda as well. So maybe "101 Views Down the Fjord."



Later in the day we see that the wood-burning stove has been moved into the second floor, where we worked the issues of location and components that would have to be made locally for the installation.

José and I obtained the rest of the large hinges needed for the installation of the portones, the garage doors. We set one of them in place temporarily to see how it would look. The previous builder constructed the foundation so unevenly that for the door opening on that side (in the photo) there is more than 2 inches of difference in height from one end to the other. When the final door work is done the upper sheet metal will be cut away, and the bottom edges of the portones will be skirted individually to work the problem of the uneven lower edge.

Windows? Well, more explanations and more promises. Supposedly there is a materials shortfall due to transportation from Punta Arenas of the thermopanel glass components. The material is supposed to be here on Thursday and built-up window assemblies are to be delivered a week from today. That makes them three months late.

Portones and stuff

The great building project proceeds with the beginnings of the portones, the garage doors. In a Saturday search of the open hardware stores, there were no suitable hinge sets to be found. That does not mean that they are not out there, just that my usual hardware stores were either closed or were out of the stock. So far, the "Aguila" hardware store, which was supposed to hold so much promise, has not brought much to the local game.

It rained a great deal yesterday, and I had the chance to do a leak-check for the roof. There were no leaks to be seen, but there was no wind to spray the rain around. The roof still has some flaws that will need to be addressed to keep out wind-driven rain and snow.

In the attached fotos we see the start of the portones, and the stairs leading to the second floor. In the third photo, a loadbearing wall was recently added as a correction for the first builder's problems. That wall will be getting some additional cross bracing with steel strap. Then for the rest of the insufficiently supported span, I will probably get another "viga maestra" similar to the one that supports the other end.

Those corrections are still underway as we continue to discover errors. But things are coming along, even as autumn races by and winter settles on us.

The Birds of Casa 9

This rainy morning the long-beaked bandurrias (Theristicus melanopi) were outnumbered by the Patagonian "upland geese" or caiquenes (Chloephaga picta).