At the lumber yard, Uruguay

I’ve been on a bit of a roll lately, refinishing kitchen cabinets, fixing and cleaning things, and looking at the ugly kitchen light fixtures I threw together 15 years ago, thinking, “What if I did that right?” So off to Aserradero Rocha, ten minutes away, to buy 1 x 10 x 240 cm clear pine –that’s less then 1/2″ thick and almost 8 feet long.

It’s a “take a number and wait” place, so there’s time to wander around. The rough bits always stoke my creativity. Elsewhere they have larger pieces – two inches thick and a couple feet or more across – that are obvious tabletops. Much less imagination required.

I see a clear pine eight foot 1 x 20″ board. No immediate need, but duly noted. Certainly not something I ever saw at Home Depot as I picked through their tortuous-but-cheap 2x4s.

I further note that, if a fella’s willing to put up with a knot or two, the same is available in 4-meter (13 feet) lengths.

No, we’re definitely not in Kansas anymore.

Doggifying with class

Eight years ago (can it be?) I started walking our dog with Syd and his five, in a wonderful wide-open setting that involves driving a few kilometers. It quickly became clear that the back of the folded-down rear seat was not designed to support a dog, so I glued some old door mats to a scrap of thin plywood and have been using it to doggify the vehicle ever since (removing it to accommodate biped passengers I call de-doggifying).

Somehow recently I got the idea I could do better. Got the lumberyard to cut to fit a piece of MDF (medium density fiberboard) which I sealed with various products that have been sitting on a shelf in my workshop for years, used the last of a caulk tube of glue to attach new doormats (felpudos) ordered from Mercado Libre, and voilà.

A little easier on the eyes, for sure.

The plant experiment

I took two cuttings from the same branch, put them in identical soil and pots, each with a copper antenna. The only difference was that one antenna was wound clockwise, and one counterclockwise.

Several days later, nothing but the stalk remains of one. No signs of the leaves, snail trails — nothing.

Why would something eat one cutting but not the other?

Nor touch the three cuttings from the same bush right next to it?

I will definitely have to repeat this experiment.

Cayó.

Small house among pine trees, Atlántida, Uruguay

April 2023

November 2024

2:30 Friday afternoon, no particular wind, no cars, no pedestrians, and boom–down goes a leaning pine tree. Obviously, this could have been serious.

And here’s the crazy part. Ten meters up the trunk, the rings indicate this part of the tree is less than thirty years old. Some of the earlier rings are one inch wide.

I’ve gone by this tree almost every day for fifteen years, and only noticed it in the last few because of its tilt. Strange to think that in our early days here, it would have been less than half its present diameter.

Well, duh.

I’ve settled in for not being a connoisseur. Cheap red wine here turns out to be very drinkable (white much more dubious) and if you ask me how it is, I won’t be saying the nose is decadent but not overdone with plum liqueur, Christmas cake, cedar, Chinese spices, licorice, tea leaves, tar and hot stones….pretty acidity and a long finish. Rather chewy and needs time.

Ain‘t it funny how the experts never mention the taste any non-drinker will identify most strongly: alcohol?

But I digress. I’ve never wondered about the name of the brand, Faisan. Probably a family name, right?

Only recently did I actually look at the label.

Guess what faisan means in Spanish?