Gringos de Marimán

After spending so much time watching the paint dry, we really looked forward to the actual installation of the tejuela and siding. On Monday morning Mother Nature dampened our enthusiam a bit with another reminder that it's still winter and that we always have to keep the weather in mind. Heavy wet snow fell during the night and in the morning a white layer covered everything. Sure, I marveled at the covered calles and the muffled quiet.

I also enjoyed discovering that a winter wonderland had displaced the mud wrestling pit.

On the other hand, I knew the conditions had to hamper the crew just a bit.

At first I thought maybe the crew had extended the filter paper over the windows to protect them in case the snow reached that height. I felt safer when I noticed they hadn't bothered with the upper windows.

If we were experienced Chileans we'd relax and realize that we could always count on the Mediterranean climate to clear the snow quickly. In fact, the next day rain chased the snow away and the crew teamed up to try to make up for lost time.

Still, tejuela requires a lot of detail work around the corners, the windows, the doors, at the edge of the roof, and so on. Pieces had to be lined up horizontally and vertically, smaller sections measured and cut, corners caulked, and every piece fastened with screws.

By the way, the snow did melt quickly but a few monos de nieve contributed by local artesans survived for a few days more. What did you expect in the Andean Aspen?

More rain fell on Wednesday, but the crew continued moving up the wall. Juan cut and handed out tejuala all around as Jorge manned the corner by the main bano.

Leo took care of the corner by the lavadero.

And Valdovino worked the entryway.

On Thursday, everyone switched around a bit as Jorge climbed up over the windows.

Valdovino worked over top of the door frame.

Meantime Leo handled the small cuts on the side of the door. The sun even decided to show up for a while in the afternoon.

Assuring that there is life after tejuela, a flete arrived on Friday morning with a load of unknotty pine. Valdovino told us that they'd be using this madera in the ceilings and above the garaje and the pasillo.

By the end of a beautiful sunny day the entry way lacked only the top layer of tejuela.

A few spots also remained on the backside, but we were almost done.

Notice the sheet metal trim installed over top of the windows.

We're hoping this trim will divert the steady drip of water from the window frames, hopefully adding a few years of life to them.

The gasfiters took advantage of the nice weather on Friday and Saturday to dig a couple of fosas profundas.

Of course these pits will hold the septic tanks, although I imagine that I could use one of them to keep the pinhead at bay.

Here's another sign of the good weather, Juan started working again to repair the fallen section of the pirca wall. We'll see how long the sun stays with us. Hasta la proxima!!