A new gnome from an old tree trunk

We are busy getting our after school enrichment program here in Sauce ready for the upcoming southern hemisphere school year.  A dead orange tree in the back yard had to come down leaving a stump that I just formed into a gnome by chainsawing, sanding, carving, painting and making a nose on my wood turning lathe.  Tobe Halton took the photos.

Recycling an old boat

My friend Tobe Halton is here.  We've been playing lots of music as well as working on renovating this old abandoned wooden boat with a view to converting our sailing catamaran into a trimaran for improved flotation and carrying capacity.  Right now we are covering it with two layers of fiberglass which gets fastened to the wood with LOTS of screws.  Nasty work but hopefully we will enjoy having a better boat at the end of the fiberglassing marathon.

After repairing inside and out this third boat, which was kindly donated by some friends, we will launch it and locate it in the middle of our catamaran.  This will have the effect of creating a trimaran which should float higher in the water.  More freeboard you see.

Normally traditional wooden boats last only about a decade here as there is a marine worm which slowly eats the wood away, which is why we are seeing less wooden boats and more made of aluminum as the years roll by.  By covering this one with fiberglass below the waterline it should last several decades more.



Tobe driving screws

Martin drilling

Christmas Eve Rowing on Laguna Azul

John is in the bow with Bondo.

When we get the other side he jumps in and swims back one kilometer to Sauce.

Lourdes is in the stern taking photos.

Our street nearly finished

It used to be a dirt road, very muddy in the rainy season.

Now after many months of work we have luxurious brick pavers.

Our lakeside community of Sauce is changing quite rapidly.

Happy Solstice, Happy Holidays!

To all of our friends, family, past volunteers we send warm greetings literally (it's very hot here) and figuratively.

This year has passed by so quickly!

Today we had our end of year farewell celebration with our Club de las Abuelas, 24 grandmothers who meet once a week for health excercises, making crafts together and socializing.

Yesterday we sang carols with 60 children and gave them all gifts and a snack.

In the photos above I played Chrismas songs in three languages: Spanish, English and German with Emma on guitar and Yanna on violin.  I think it was our best Christmas band yet in seven years of doing these year-end events in Sauce.

Lourdes joins me in sending Christmas greetings to all.  Please come see us in Sauce in 2019!

Our wonderful volunteers from Germany and the UK

Much appreciation for our three volunteers who daily help Lourdes with 60 children of different ages as well as 24 grandmothers who come once a week to Estrella de Sauce.

In the photo above appear from left to right: Stephanie Hemmen from Bavaria, Yana Dinkelmayer from near Hamburg and Emma Ulzhoefer from Berlin. Stefanie is a freelance volunteer while Yanna and Emma are with us under the auspices of the Weltwehrts program sponsered by the government of Germany and die Freunde der Erziehungskunst Rudolf Steiners which is a worldwide Waldorf outreach program.

They are all rapidly improving their level of Spanish by attending weekly evening classes with Lourdes who has a real talent for teaching the lingo.  In the photo above they are eating soup after last night's Spanish class.

We also have a fourth volunteer, John Griffiths from Cirencester in the UK seen on the left.  He comes to us via the Workaway international volunteer program and has a variety of skills including being a football coach, long-distance swimmer, mathematics teacher, gardener and handyman. At the moment he is doing lots of boat maintenance and painting.

The Quest for More Freeboard

I'm back working on fixing up my jungle catamaran 'Estrella del Lago' which needed a lot of repair and painting.

The idea arose to gain more freeboard by converting it from a catamaran to a trimaran.  What is freeboard, you may ask? It's the amount a boat sticks up above the water. Freebird is another subject entirely.

Estrella del Lago being an experimental vessel, did not have quite enough, hence the idea to increase freeboard by adding one more hull in the middle of the boat to increase flotation and carrying capacity.

By good fortune some friends donated a boat in reasonable condition, just needing a few repairs.  Only trouble was that it was about one meter too long.  Fortunately I have a chainsaw - now it measures 9 meters long instead of 10 meters.

I'm presently making a new transom for this boat - the back end in other words.

Here are some photos of moving the boat with chain hoists and cutting it with the chainsaw.

Thanks to our volunteer John Griffiths from Cirencester, UK who took the photos and is doing a great job helping me paint the boat.