An inquisitive old fart with a camera
My wife asked me just last night when we get our first frost, and I said usually in June.
First frost of 2022: June 1.
Last year it was July 5.
In 2019 it was July 7.
2018: June 25.
2017: June 20.
2016: June 11.
You can almost feel the ice caps melting.
Long expected, this huge dead tree went down in a windstorm last week, taking with it a parrot nest. I saw one dead parrot, and of course there could be several more.
The tree had a double trunk. One side fell on one side of the power pole, and one side on the other. But the power line was still there! How was that possible?
It took us an embarrassingly long time to figure out that the power company had already been out to repair the line: note the shiny new clamps on the darker pole….
One of the stranger Google Earth images I’ve encountered. Downtown Atlántida.
A job I am happy not to do myself. Removing the “sombrero” to clean the chimney from the top down. The other guy removes the “ceiling” of the wood stove and pulls the wire brush down. Unlike the nearby wood stove company whose owner died a little over a year ago, these guys (Tatton) insist it has to be done this way. How they navigate the roof tiles without breaking them remains a mystery to me.
The rest of the harvest from my strange volunteer hybrid squash plants that grew out of a non-compost bin.
Another dead turtle (link to 10 April), which I only saw because I went a block east en route to the beach because I intersected with someone going my usual route with two apparently-not-friendly dogs on leashes. This one about 1.5 m long.
You may recall that I don’t actively monitor our “neighborhood watch” Whatsapp group. But when I did, I saw that someone said he had gotten a cassette player, but didn’t know if it worked because he didn’t have a cassette to test it.
Which reminded me of the silliest thing Syd brought to Uruguay 15 years ago (we all have one, or maybe a list of silly things): cassettes, probably 200 of them, never played since, as far as I know. So I arranged for them to find a new home! And a short while later received from the new owner a short video of his new music library in action.
We had a small freezer delivered yesterday, and the transit company’s bill is stamped “without responsibility for breakage.” So I guess I should be grateful the delivery guy carried it in, instead of just dumping it off the truck into the driveway?
Ah, Uruguay, after twelve and a half years you continue to mystify.
Finally finished my “weekend”project, a mini greenhouse outside the north-facing kitchen window.
We have a large pine tree in the back yard, so during winter the hours of direct sunlight are limited.
It’s built of 100% recycled wood, and 99% recycled nails and screws. For some reason I already had plastic. My only cash outlay was for two small hinges, less than a dollar.
I was sweating, shirt off, installing the plastic, so looked the thermometer: 78°F/25.5°C in the shade. In late April, equivalent of October in the north.
A small selection of my basura screws.
My basura nails. The ones on the right I salvaged from the wood that came off the casita roof. There were many, many more I simply chucked.
Now to figure out what I want to grow….