Yellow stone

The walls were built with local pebbles, sand, chalk and earth. Also my lovely green stones are used here and there. And, this very nice yellow with black spots one!

Someone must have held it 200 years ago, and thought "what a beautiful stone!, I must use it in this wall". And yet 200 years later the plaster is removed, and someone else wonders again "what a beautiful stone!".

I have not seen any yellow stones here of this yellow, until this week when walking the dogs in the sierra above, the sister stone of the stone in my wall!

For a stone sitting in a wall 200 years is not a long time, I guess. It must have been sitting in the ground for a few million years, until a few monkeys put it in a plastered wall. And who know how long that will last. 200 years more? 500? These stones will outlast us, and the house, a long long time.

I wonder if the stones enjoy to be together again, after 200 years..

Curiously, the yellow is just a thin layer.

Homework2

When you remove the plaster from a 200-year old house you are bound for surprises. Like old openngs in walls that were there in the past. This one is in the back wall of the house, and a lucky one. We wanted a new ventilation opening for the toilet,
as we used the old one for the pellet stove exhaust pipe, just around the corner at the same height. If only we'd known!

This we'll use as the toilet ventilation. And a nice big cap stone! Perfect!

Same with the front wall. We want a solar air heater there, that needs a pipe inside. That needs a hole in the wall. And it's already there! Near perfect spot!

Other surprises are that some people use old cement bags to "fill" holes, and simply plaster that over.
We call that "ansteystyle" work, after the previous owner, who used this kind of "finish" in more places.

Also at the back of the house: the donkey ring. That was used to tie your donkey. And that happened often,
as the ring is well worn. And see how it is attached to the wall? Smithy work around a pebble, and that set in mortar. Sorry the pebble is broken while removing the plaster.

I'm using the opportunity to treat all woodwork of the windowframes that are now accessible, with the plaster removed. Permethrin against termites and woodworm, and a few treatments with tung-oil for protection against water and humidity.
Around all window frames there's actual plaster (gypsum). That is traditional here, but also a bad idea. Gypsum is not waterproof. On the contrary, it attracts water. Lucky we have a dry climate here, and all woodwork is in very good condition. One exception is the lower beam of this window frame. It has been nibbled in the past. Now it has permethrin on/in it, and every termite or woodworm that sets its teeth in it will be taught a lesson.

If you look carefully you can see there was a door here, once.

The wooden beam is still in the wall. Just a bit of tree trunk, complete with bark. The bark is all gone (eaten), but the center wood still has some strength.

iSnow

It's time again: a new Snow for Mac, aka iSnow Classic. The old one from 2012 doesn't work well on the latest macOS anymore. An update is almost ready. And it also works on multiple monitors at the same time. 

The first snow was in 1984, on the first Macintosh. So now we're 33 years later. (Xsnow is from 1993.)

UPDATE: the update is accepted.

Homework

Here we go again. One more job, hopefully, because of the state of the house. The plaster is loose. Wether this is caused by age is a good question.
It's not 200 years. Yet it needs replacing. That will happen the next few weeks. With an electric thing the plaster is hammered off off the walls, and that's going pretty quickly. Which is for the better, as we have a lot of walls.

Grand Marnier ish

Grand Marnier is very nice, but not readily available here. At least not at Mercadona. They do have Cointreau, but no regular triple sec, while this is orange country. Odd. Mercadona does have a quite good tequila, so we don't have to spend our lives here without Margaritas. (Don't worry.)

Grand Marnier and triple sec are available, but in only one liquor shop that we know, in Vera. Mercadona does have a nice Spanish brandy, for less than 10€. The good thing is that this brandy mixed with common triple sec is not quite unlike Grand Marnier. Which makes life here a little cheaper again.

Still really unavailable is Poire William eau de vie. Unknown here. Which is a pity. What they do have here are the Williams pears themselves. Never seen those elsewhere.

Limes

So many limes from such a flimsy tree. And see the giant lime on top? Funny, this tree cost about 15 euro,
and already pays back in fruit. Yes, true, tub and soil cost money too, but that is not what really matters, eh. Much worse is there is not enough tequila in the house to consume them all!

Are these Australian finger limes ready yet..?

And the keffir limes / djeroek poeroet?

Citrus update 2

Do you remember this sorry orange tree, last year, 2015? Else have a look at Identify this citrus.

Watering, fertilising, and Zoomba peeing have paid off.

And look now, 2017.

Kitchen counter oil

Sanded, more or less lightly.

First layer tung oil. Pity the shine vanishes the moment the wood has absorbed the oil. Only after many layers the shine stays.

What a pity, it did not "hold". Apparently the previous owner did not use oil but some teak varnish or something, not oil. Dickhead. Some heavy sanding to gt it all off is in order. Not a great job, this is iroco wood, and very tough.

This is the fourth(!) treatment. Not layer. Oil does not really build up in layers. It sinks into the wood. Another layer tomorrow.

And the sink was put in place first, only then the counter top was treated. Under the rim just silicone. Because, what you don't see does not matter. Sigh.

Waaah! Cold!

It's November, and while the temparture of the pool water was 100º in the summer, it now is a measly 21º,
and that is... COLD! Yes, we're wuzzies, but we have a trick up our sleeves for that: exciting neoprene swimming suits. Sort of 2.5 mm stretchy foamy rubber that will insulate you from the poolwater.

And you look like a Kraftwerk robot too, this way.

Poolwater... HAHAHA!

Grapfruit

Flimsy tree, but so many grapefuit! The fruits are still green, though already bright red inside. Still I harvested them, as the tree loses leaves and has aphids. It's not doing well, so off with it’s fruit! 

Papaya - spayed

Not Papaya's greatest day: she got spayed today.

We were not looking forward to this. It's an operation, anesthesia, a wound, stitches, pain. We'd prefer her to stay as she is, integral, but we're strongly advised differently. Dogs get a lot older than wolves in nature, and that means their wombs and mammary glands have a high chance to react badly to their own oestrogen hormone at later age. They'll have nasty inflammations or cancer. When spayed the risk is greatly reduced.

If we'd had done this before her first period the chance wold have been negligible, but we were too late.

Well, she spent 10:00-17:00 at the vet's, in a cage. Now she has to take things easy for a few days. No running and/or jumping. Hm.
But she eats well again, pills and all, and she looks happy, and wags her tail again. We think she's well.

Delonix Regia - Poinciana - Flame tree

 You all know the Jacaranda, so I won't bother you with that. They look a bit like Paulownia, but are better suited for the climate here. They also grow very fast, and can stand heat and draught well.
And they flower with those nice blue bells that I so like.

And what do I see in the garden center? (40€ for a tree of ca. 3-4 meter)

I know this one from Australia, and I even took seeds from one in Brisbane, that I still have. (Hi, Anne!)

Oe!

Antas cocktail 2 - Grenadine

The Antas cocktail is great, with fresh pomegranate juice, but what to do when the season is over..?

Bag full of pomegranates. (We have two.)

Avoid these nasty black ones!

1 liter juice, 150 g sugar, juice of one lemon, boil 5 minutes in a skillet for evaporation = grenadine.

No, it's grenadine.

Antas cocktail

If you've got it flaunt it! We have pomegranate trees. And thus pomegranates. For the curious of mind: military grenades are called after the fruit, not the other way around. But here I thought of this combination: 1 small pomegranate, squeezed like an orange to get the juice, and one smallish glass of white tequila. Add ice. And yes, it's pink, and yes, it's lovely. It's called the "Antas Cocktail" from now on.

Coco and the clean teeth

It was an interesting week, especially for Coco, who needed to come to Veravet for a teeth-cleaning procedure.
She's a lovely dog, and very cuddly too, but that is no fun with her mouth odor. This was no surprise, as she had big crusts of tartar. Black.
I managed to scrape of some with a blunt knife, but I could not reach most of her teeth.

I feared for the condition of her teeth, but it turned out quite well, actually! She has lovely white teeth and molars under the crusts. Tooth cleaning with dogs is done anesthetized, else they wriggle, as I already experienced.

But: all fresh now!

Balsa leak

We have a leak in the balsa. Lost 200m³ water. Now wait till the water level drop stops, so we know where the leak is located. My guess is at the bottom, as we can see a dark spot next to the drain pipe.

Matacarcoma - Permethrin 2

As you have probably read in this piece about matacarcoma-permethrin, you need to treat structural wood against termites and woodworm in this region. The ceilings and beams of the roof were done a few weeks ago, but the ceiling of the kitchen = first floor floor still needed to be one. 40m² wood, but with beams of 21x7cm you need to add 30m², so about 70m² total. You need to apply 250cc per m², so that's 17.5 liter. And that is about right, I have sprayed about 3 cans of 5 liters. Nasty work.

At the end of the day: below 90 kg! All water I'm afraid.