Mortar progress

A picture of the mortar while it was drying.

It hasn't had the top on it for a few weeks now. Lots of rust, but nothing terrible.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

picking up a woodburning kitchen stove

Image
 Ah... in the Netherlands, old technology is cheap.  People dont want it. I picked up a woodburning kitchen stove for 40 euros. It will need repair of course, but the bones are good and I have some sheets of stainless steel I got for free.   The plate directly over the fire box has been run too hot and has cracked. It should just need a new plate. It is wedged in the rectangular piece, but I am hoping I can pop it out with a hammer. Baking box is shit. This will be completely rebuilt in stainless. lots of odds and ends inside the baking box.   The side with the firebox is damaged from being run too hot, but this is an easy fix. very minor rust on front   firebox looks good. Bottom of firebox looks good. Often these iron grates are in bad shape. ash box has been repaired once before and is still usable.
Read more

Urban or Agricultural?

We have had some sad news from a friend this week. They found out that the property they purchased in Portugal was agricultural land and the building ruin AND wooden cabin on the land were illegal. The local camara (government) is permitting them to stay in the wooden cabin for now, probably because it still has wheels or it isn't considered a permanent structure. How did this happen? Non-Portuguese folks sadly often purchase cheap land with a ruin, believing they can put in sweat equity and have a lovely future home. They don't realize the odd history of these cheap land lots. They believe anything the real estate agents tell them. In the past, all land was "urban" or "rural". You could only live/reside on urban land. To avoid paying lots of taxes, farms would only make the smallest footprint of the house "urban". Illegal structures would be built, or the main building would be built on to illegally. Now we have Google Maps Satellite images, and t...
Read more

Coming home sucked

Image
The only highlight of the drive home was taking my yeast dough and making bread on the gas stove in the van. I have a clam-shell pan and it kicked out this English muffin like thing that was pretty tasty. Near Paris the gas shortages caused me to drive off the highway to find gas. There were huge lines everywhere and I luckily found a place with only 10 vehicles ahead of me. Since the bed was taken out to bring all the solar panels and sofa down, a brand new mattress from IKEA in Lisbon was laid in the van to sleep on. When I got home, it was installed on our master bedroom bed (which needed a new mattress as the old one was 10 years old). It was okay like this for one person and two little dogs. Didn't seem to hurt the mattress. Now we get to rebuild the van bed and reposition it because we got a new composting toilet!! woot woot.  
Read more