What time is it?

The Handlers bought a couple windup clocks last time they had to make a "Visa Run" over to Buenos Aires at the Mercado de San Telmo. The reason for windup over battery-operated is that batteries are freaking expensive (in a moment of desperation and weakness they bought a clock battery last January in Montevideo for US$13). They tested the windup clocks as best as they could in a very noisy market:
"Can you hear it tick?" "I think so." Check
"Does the alarm work?" "Sounds like something is chiming." Check

This green one is especially wonderful. Aged gracefully, and still ticking. Maybe.

Love the second hand!

Easy slapping of the alarm.

The nature of windup clocks is that you need to WIND THEM UP! Male Handler (MH) seemed to constantly be winding up the clock. And after a couple of minutes....it would die even when he was staring at it. Female Handler (FH) suggested he stop micro-managing the clock. 

But if you know MH the way I know MH, he'll figure out a way to make it work. And he did! It was only a matter of figuring how best to lay the clock down. We're not talking slamming it down on the counter, or paying homage to it daily with flowers and fruit....but rather how best to orient the clock. 

So....ummm, yeah, so there you have it. This is the best way to orient this particular clock. And it will keep on ticking with only ONE daily windup.

His and Her's

This winter is getting a bit more bearable. The reason why is because Keika and I have our own hot water bottles. BELIEVE ME....we like our hot water bottles. Mine is the retro green one and Keika has the red one.

The Handlers went out yesterday to buy two more because family is coming in today and one of them is a whimp when it comes to the cold (we actually figure she'll spend most of the time holding the hot water bottle against her). Female Handler covered theirs in a fleece wool combination. I whined a bit that ours were not covered as well. I mean, seriously, what cat wants to be laying against rubber?!? Give me a break! So now the entire stash of hot water bottles are covered!

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

Sleepmates

So...I pulled this out of Female Handler's sent emails this morning:

The flannel sheets are on your bed! The good news is when I asked Mum to bring the flannel sheets last summer (our summer), she brought the ones for the full size bed, and not the ones for the queen. So you guys get to use the flannel sheets and if necessary, we’ll crawl in bed with you! The temps are dipping into the 30s next week, but will rise a bit for the week that you’re here (fyi, there is no such thing as “central heat” in any house or building in Uruguay, and our ambient heat is exclusively wood from either the wood stove or the fireplace) . There are 7 layers on your bed (including the sheet) so I think you’ll be good. Plus I put a small fleece throw on there just in case Shawn is still cold. We bought some wool yesterday and I’m embellishing them slightly and making them into throws for the living room for sitting around the fire. If necessary, we’ll bring the kids in, and Shawn can sit between them. Their coats are heavenly right now. Timi’s is about 2” thick. Bill, you might draw the line with Shawn’s desire to bring Timi to bed with her…I’m just saying….someone’s going to get hurt if she insists.


Hold on to your goats Ms Martha. If any four legged creature is brought to bed, it's most definitely going to be me. Flannel...how long have I been howling for those sheets and now you put them on the bedroom that's closed up most of the time.

Let us do a simple comparison on heavenly coats.

Timida's coat:

My coat:

I could rest my case on that alone, but let me just add that I do not have 6" horns to contend with. I will lull the family to sleep with my purr.

Feather Dinner?

One of the more common ground birds in all of Uruguay is the perdiz comun (spotted tinamou). They're all over the farm, living in the grasses. They tend not to fly unless they are startled from their roost, and even then they don't fly far. Just before they take flight, they make a double popping sound. Remember Princess Bride (1987) and the rodents of unusual size in the Fire Swamp, and the double popping sound that always occurred just before the flame burst? It's something like that (minus the fire, oversize rodents, swamp, and of course Wesley and the Princess)....so I always brace myself in anticipation.

My goal has been to catch one. And I finally did.

The eyes were a bit eerie ... They never did shut, but quite honestly I wasn't paying too much attention to them. I was trying desperately to get the feathers off my tongue. There are waaaaay too many feathers on this bird to make it worth while.

The 4 P's of Marketing

Yeah, we're so not even close to figuring out packaging, price, promotion, and really we don't know if the product will be raw almonds or will it be something that has almonds in it...but we needed to give a little gift to our neighbor for his 51st birthday, and this is what we came up with:

A re-purposed 20 kilo potato bag, transformed into a bag with shelled almonds and a ring of unshelled ones near the top so they can have the pleasure (!?) of trying to crack them. This particular neighbor happens to have a bright yellow house, and so now they have a bag of almonds to match it. Shouldn't everyone?

Benefits of 4 Feet

I'm a cat. Cat's have four feet. I'm sure I could find studies that show four feet are better than two. Maybe even a correlation that those with four feet are more intelligent...

This past Thursday I witnessed a case of diminishing intelligence. Or maybe it just was never there.... Hard to say.

The Handlers came out to attend to the goats in the morning. Prior to milking, Female Handler (FH) went out to one of the front pastures to check on the goat stakes. She had on her rubber boots as usual. She could have walked through the front gate and crossed over a path from the driveway, but she selected the shorter more direct route over the wire fence that separates the house garden from the pasture. She's hopped this fence probably a 1000 times, but every now and then she doesn't lift her foot up high enough, and the tread of one of her boots gets caught on the wire. And almost in slow motion, you see panic, a futile attempt to gain balance, and then complete resignation....and she's down on her back in the tall grass with a leg hooked on the fence. Fortunately no damage is done other than to her ego, and she gets back on her two feet, brushing the dew moisture off her clothes while surveying the horizon to see if ....anyone caught that graceful attempt to scale a 3 ft fence.

Thursday evening was a slightly more comical scene. The Handlers were lollygagging at the barn overhang where the goats are put at the end of the day admiring the coats on the kids and wondering what they would be like as bedside rugs... It was dark, but the light was on outside the barn door. FH was leaning against one of the polls where both kids were tied. Male Handler was rubbing Tontín’s head beside their tire "jungle gym". Something out in the darkness spooked the kids, and Tímida circled around the pole knocking FH down. Being tied to a pole, the only thing she could do was go around it. So she circled around the pole again with Tontín right behind. The outcome was FH was on her back with her legs up in the air again this time with them tied to the pole, and a sore right jaw from a close encounter with a goats' hoof.

Four Feet = Greater Intelligence? Just maybe we're on to something...

MH went into town Friday morning to pay the house and car taxes. On the way, he stopped in at one of the supermarkets to get some things. He grabbed their weekly flyer. It wasn't until he got home that he saw they had a special going on printed sweatshirts.

Would be appropriate for at least one member of this family.

 

Fall in Uruguay

It's a full moon weekend. A "supermoon" weekend at that. The combines are working overtime into the night to bring in the crops (soy, sorghum, and corn). Tonight I'll be out late catching mice. Hey, it's what I do. I may stop for a momento to catch a glimpse of the Aquarid meteor shower that is suppose to peak tonight down here in the southern hemisphere.

A few shots of the local sights:

The bouganvillea is blooming...

The shadows are getting longer....

Keika, soaking it all up

What's not to love?

Thankfully the woodpile is stacked high and the evening fires have already started.