Progress…

Took advantage of the good weather, last weekend, to get the siding up. I didn’t have time to put the trim pieces on, so I taped the corners up with Tyvek Tape. It’s not a permanent seal, but will work until we get back up, on Sunday, to finish the job. We’ll also be installing the door. Which reminds me, I need to buy a door knob and deadbolt set…

The next step will be to get the soffits in, and sealed up and I think we’ll be good for the winter. Probably won’t get the actual shower up and running, but it will be a secure, dry place to put stuff until spring. THEN, we’re going to get a propane shower set up, with a real shower pan and grey water drain; a basic RV toilet — there is an existing septic drain in place, installed by the previous owners. All of this will be made easier with the water pipe stand that we’ll have put in, after having a solar pump dropped into the well-head. Yeah, it’s a bit of a to-do list.

And, while that is all happening, I’m going to build the ”Roman” cooking platform I’ve been daydreaming about. It’s going to be out, on the back edge of our patio, next to the giant horno, that I rarely use. It will consist of two square base/columns topped with a concrete slab. At one end, I’ll have a firebrick surface for wood fired cooking, under a grate, and the other end will be a surface for the small wood fired pizza oven. Between the bases/columns will be a dry, sheltered alcove for firewood, tools, etc.

For now, I use a hot water heater pan in lieu of a fire pan.
I’ll ditch the metal base, and we’ll set the oven on top of the concrete slab.

I’m back…

It’s been a long few years of quarantines, furloughs, booster shots and hours spent searching for the perfect face-mask. I’ve basically gone feral. Well, after all that I am finally going to venture out of my cave, hop a plane, and journey back to “The Continent.” Yep, I’m going to get into a metal tube full of strangers (masked or not) and fly, for 15 hours, to Italy! It has been 12 long years since I’ve been to my beloved city of Pompeii — far too long. Like others in the past, this will be a “working” vacation: I’m volunteering for three weeks, with ArchaeoSpain on their Archaeology of Death project. For more information on their work with this, here is a great write-up of the research from their last season: https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/3550/students-discover-preserved-pompeii-skeleton/.

Mixed in with the workdays will be time for fun (the work itself is thrilling), making new friends, exploring and, of course, eating. I’ll keep a running inventory here of what I see, do and eat.

Feel free to follow along.