'Ulmos' trees in flower

The bright yellow bloom of the Ulmo tree is a sure sign that winter is definitely over, and warm days ahead. In fact it reached 20c today, a perfect day for the '18' Independence of Chile celebrations.

Ready to Lime

The vegetable garden has now been fully dug over and is now ready to lime - being close to a volcano, the soil is quiet acidic! However, it should be ready to start sowing the first crop by the end of September.

Fenced-in

A few weeks ago I made start on digging over the soil in preparation for planting in the coming spring. Our dogs thought this was great and promptly began to contribute to the digging by carving out burrows to lounge in - amongst other things! Ummm my vegetables don't stand a chance; fortunately my friendly neighbor agreed to build this fence for me - I supplied the materials and encouragement ;-) 

Closet in 5 days

Over the weekend I set myself a challenge - fill the space pictured above with a closet by Friday August 26!

I purchased the materials on Monday and began to dimension the interior of the closet on Tuesday. I used the over-head beams as logical divisions for the closet. The closet doors and frame were pre-purchased many years ago - so I hope it fits!

Below is the result as things stand on Friday; I got a bit distracted with other projects like my lattice tower and fencing for the vegetable garden so its not 100% complete, but I'm nevertheless happy with the closet.

Wood Stove Project

A country home is not complete without a wood burning stove! In Chile these stoves are very common and relatively cheap to purchase. The stove we chose came pre-fitted with the copper piping in the combustion chamber to heat water. Below is the plumbing diagram:-

1. Security expansion Valve
2. Hot water exit
3. 150 litre tank
4. Chimney
5. Hot water flow into tank
6. Pre heated return
7. Cold water feed
8. Copper 'Serpentin'
9. Wood Stove


The water tank (point B) should be 50cm above the stove hot water exit (point A) for good circulation.

Given this requirement I positioned the stove next to an exterior wall with easy short access to the expansion tank. An unused kitchen doorway was filled-in to provide a suitable space. I constructed a simple stand to support the tank at the correct height. Then fitted the pipework and plumbed in the hot and cold feeds. Insulating foam was wrapped around the heating loop to and from the stove.

I fitted a 'T' connector and valve in order to drain the system if necessary.

The system was filled and tested for leaks. In takes around 2hrs to heat a tank full of piping hot water - enough for several showers! Once I was satisfied with the functionality of the system, the tank was fully enclosed to protect it and be more visually acceptable :-)

All that is left to do now is to stain the wood enclosure to match the rest of the house.     

Vegetable Garden - Part 1

Approximately 50m2 of turf has been cleared in preparation for our vegetable garden in Pucon. The next step is prepare the soil for the plants and seeds that will be sown in spring.

Ash cloud visible from Pucon

I took this picture Sunday afternoon with my iPhone from the marina in Pucon. I was very surprised to see the plume of ash coming from the eruption of the Puyehue volcano range which began Saturday evening. It was a beautiful afternoon, warm autumn colors, no tourists!