Preparing for Winter!

Uruguay has a temperate climate, at least where I live. Something called a Biome says that Montevideo, Carrasco, and Prado roughly at 34º50' S (51' S and 52 for Carrasco and Prado respectively) Latitude. and 56º 1' W Longitude (12' W for Carrasco and Prado) have a "warm temperate dry forest" type of climate. But it's said that Uruguay in General is classed overall as having a humid subtropical climate. If your wondering why I added the Lat. and Long. map directions, it's because I just found out how to make the degree symbol on my keyboard ººº yeah!

The Capital of Uruguay is Montevideo, I live 40 Km (24.85 miles) away from there.

Some of you readers from places like North Dakota, or Buffalo (up state, in New York State), Canada, Germany, Sweden and etc... Might start laughing when I mention that it gets cold here in the winter! How cold does this temperate climate get? Well, we do really have to bundle up during our average 57.2º F high (14º C),  down to our average low of 42.8º F (6º C) winter weather.  I have experienced it getting down several times in winter to 2º C which is 35.6º F. The coldest temperature ever registered in Montevideo was 24.8º F (-4º C).

The temperatures of 45 to 35 degrees that I have felt here may seem as nothing to you readers up North, but they feel much colder down here because of the humidity and lack of insulation in the buildings. To add to the unpleasantness, in winter there is also an occasional fog that strikes, sometimes quite dense.

A view of my neighbors house with some fog.

In case you think that I am just a wimp to complain about our seemingly mild winters read on.

I have lived in places where it snowed regularly in winter. Wally and I lived for 3 years in Brooklyn, New York USA and have seen some tough winters there when I was younger.

In Brooklyn, New york USA

Photo #1Digging our Volvo out of the parking lot.  Photo #2 Me and our friend Gordon Grant at the Lincoln Center in Manhattan
 Photo #3 The Brooklyn Bridge  near the Fulton Ferry.

Even in Seattle, Washington where we lived for 18 years, it would snow at least once or twice each winter with at least one of the snow falls being very heavy and dumping lots of snow on the ground . Of course, everyone would call into work and beg off from going in that day. Seattle wasn't really equipped snowplow wise to clear off all of the streets. Even buses would go sliding down the streets.

Our house in Kirkland, Washington State USA and our puppy Maggie!

Wally and I also lived in the south of Germany near the Swiss border. Once during winter we had hung our clothes inside to dry in the living room of an old farmhouse we were renovating for a friend. It was winter and we had strung up a clothes line in the living room to dry our work clothes after washing them. They hung out to dry in front of the ceramic fire box. Well, we went to see and visit a neighbor and when we came back the fire had gone out and our clothes had frozen stiff!!!  Another time in Germany, Wally was wondering why he couldn't open our car's door when he realized it wasn't the door lock or the handle but the fact that his gloved hand was too cold to work, it was 23º F (-5 ).

Blumberg Germany and The Römer in Frankfurt, Germany

We have visited cold places in winter, like Denmark, where we saw ships frozen in the harbor canal and ships being repaired with fire pots lit right on the frozen water.

Denmark, Europe. It lies above Germany in the North, it snows in winter.

The Capital city of Copenhagen, Denmark and the "Little Mermaid" at Langelinje pier.

It's true that we had great coats on and always wore scarves, hats and mittens (gloves for Wally) and so we felt warm in these places but the Uruguayans also dress up like Eskimos about to venture toward the North Pole. They need to because I and several Canadians living here, all say that, we have never felt colder living anywhere else, than here in Uruguay in the winter.

You never seem to warm up during the winter because you don't have heated places to go into. Even schools are said to be kept cold. It's due, as I said before to the lack of quality insulation or any insulation. My house is pretty well built and will retain heat once heated but still without a heat pump or central heating neither of which I have, I, like the rest of the majority here, have to bundle up most of the time inside and outside.

Barney my poor guy doesn't have much fur, not like the other longer coated pets. I usually wrap him up in a towel so he can sleep toasty and then Nathan (the cat) will come and sleep on top of Barney. Sheila wouldn't allow that. All of my animals sleep in doors at night.

So preparing for winter by buying firewood beforehand is a must. You want dry wood, it will burn hotter. I use about 4 1/2 to 5 tons of fire wood a year, most of it is used only for the winter months. Depending on where and from whom you buy your wood from currently the cost per ton here is anywhere from 2500 pesos to 4000 pesos a ton or about $125 to $200 per ton each (USA dollars). So figure on an average of 5 tons of fire wood times $175 and you end up spending $875 a winter just on heating your house. If you plan on keeping your house warm 24 hours a day with some usage during non-winter months, the expense really adds up because you need to buy more than 5 tons of wood. So the average Uruguayan home is somewhat cold. Most have fireplaces without inserts and the heat goes up the chimney. At least I have a wood stove with a blower.

Photo #1. My wood stove in Uruguay and photo #2. My Seattle gas fireplace.

Winter officially starts around June 21st; but I consider June 1st; to be the start of my firewood use. I will put up with shivering with cold in May and only use a movable tank gas heater inside, stoically watching the calendar until June first rolls around.

It was cold last winter and we got frost covering the grass.

I have 3 cement covered wood storage areas built into my backyard, each one holds 1 ton of wood, divided into 1/2 ton spaces. So at a quick glance I can see how much wood I've used or need. The problem is that I have to wait and use 1 ton of wood up before I can buy my needed 4th ton and then repeat to buy a fifth ton. I reserve money for those 2 extra tons of wood that I need to still buy. One day I will need to build a 4th storage unit so that I can buy 4 tons in summer not just 3. I can also put about 1/4 of a ton under my parilla/BBQ area.

 Winter also means, that we have to clean the chimney and flue belonging to our wood stove. "Magna" the company in Montevideo that I bought our wood stove from offered a cleaning service, 2200 pesos or $110 USA. So I took advantage of that. I really needed that service this year because during a recent wind storm our chimney cap blew off. I didn't realize that until I saw water pooling under the wood stove. When I opened up the stove, it was rusted and had water inside of it.

I bought a new cap and paid the delivery men a little extra pocket money to carry the heavy cement top up our rickety ladder to the roof and then to lay it on the chimney. I then wired it into place.

The man from Magna made this wreck of a wood stove look new. He scraped, then painted the rusted areas, after first vacuuming out the chimney (we have a short run up to the roof). He then put some new fireproof cord around the door. I was glad that he did that as I was afraid I would have to order some and then not see him for many months. It was a full service winterizing for our wood stove.

Winter means, me trying to finish up, painting the rest of the rusted ironwork around my house. Because we live near the beach it corrodes very fast if left unprotected. Wally and I both hate painting, so most of our iron work was in sad shape.  I've been paying others to have it scraped, sanded, primed and repainted with 2 top coats. The idea is that once it is done, I should be willing and able to maintain it in the future, like I should have been doing all along, me bad!  My giant gate leading to my backyard needed painting after some 5 years of neglect. Yes I already admitted, me bad.

My iron railing surrounding my terrace also needed attention, as it faces the full burnt of the salt water. I think I will have a separate post in store outlining that job.

Even though I fixed my parilla doors' rusted lock problem earlier this year, the putty surrounding the window panes needed replacing which is going on right now as I type.

I have only 3 more weeks until my winter deadline arrives, starting June first. I should try and get my exterior walls pressured washed clean before then. They are spotted with mold but several other things will have to wait until after I go through winter. I just don't have the money or ability to tackle everything that needs to be done. I have already faced a lot of repairs this year and had to meet those instead, as you blog readers already know.  I should have my shutters repaired and painted which is a major job but I just can't afford that yet. I will have to save up money for several months during the winter for that. They are still strong and lockable, so I will just have to wait.

Instead of any more projects, I plan to buy an electric blanket or heating pad and some knit hats and then bundle up for our very cold "temperate" winter climate" burr...

Purrr..fect!

On my way to the local farmer's market, I heard some unusual chirping, high up in a tree. This sound was echoed from another tree across the road. I didn't think much about it at the time since our neighborhood is full of parrots but I did think it was amazing that those parrots could sound so much like kittens. In my defense we also have frogs that sound like cats howling at night.

It wasn't until several hours later when I was again walking by those same trees, (across from each other), that I just had to look up and see what kind of parrot could mimic a kitten so expertly. Well duh! You guessed it, when I looked up I saw 2 kittens instead of 2 birds. Each one had climbed a different tree for protection but they were calling to me as I walked by.

I went to look at each tree then decided to go to the kitten up the tallest one, the kitten most high up. If I could coax it down, then the other one should be no problem. It would be up to the kittens however to try and come down, as even a tall ladder would be too short to rescue them just then. My tree climbing days are far behind me and actually I never did any climbing as a kid anyway.

So I walked up to the tall tree and made eye contact and just said "Kitty, Kitty, Kitty, here Kitty, Kitty
Kitty" (in English) and it worked! This tiny bit of a kitten used every climbing skill in its repertoire and never wavered in its determination to come directly to me. Animals can sense when they need help. Despite, my being a stranger and big and scary looking, that kitten just knew she had to come to me. She leaped into my arms and stayed there as I crossed the road to try and rescue its little brother.

The second kitten, in the other tree was not so high up, he came down in a snap. He too stayed in my arms, as I carried the two kittens back to my house. At that moment, with the addition of those 2 kittens, I now had 3 cats and 3 dogs inside of my house.

My 3rd dog is named Noche. She was abandoned in front of my house (across the street) in December, 2013. I found her living in the drain pipe in the culvert along side the road. She was smart to do that as it was very hot weather at the time and it was cool in there.

"Noche" my 3rd dog. This is where I found her living.

I had the neighbor take photos of Noche and he put them in the window of the veterinarian shop (which I saw later). I put Noche's photo on Facebook on a Uruguayan site and had a false promise of a placement. Needless to say, that did not pan out and no one else came forward for Noche. So  I ended up keeping her.

The only reason that I don't have 4 dogs right now is that I took the puppy who I purposely just called "Puppy", which was abandoned 4 weeks ago, (again, across the street from my house), I took him, to the Farmer's market (feria).  Lo and behold, someone at the last second adopted him! Yeah!

"Puppy" had been slightly bite and had a little open scar on his cheek and a dot of missing hair on the top of his head where, I guess, a tooth grazed him. I took him to the veterinarian for some parasite pills and to have the Vet. look at his cheek. A few days later, at the weekly feria I found a vacant spot and sat among the vendors and I hawked out-loud, his availability.

My local weekly Farmer's market/Feria in the town of Salinas, Uruguay.

My loud North American verbal ways must have been a novelty because the vendor next to me started to advertise the puppy as well, instead of his own goods! A young woman took pity on "Puppy" when I told her what was up with his face and that he was okayed by the Vet.  She adopted him!

I should have taken Noche during the first few weeks of finding her, to the feria as well, because that is how I got my other 2 dogs, Barney and Sheila, from someone giving them away there. Because I didn't take Noche right away to the feria, Noche missed her opportunity of being placed while she was in the throngs of extreme cuteness. She was named Noche because she was jet black in color at the time but she has since turned grey!!! Now she wears a grey skunk like mask and silver streaks are appearing under her black coat.

Noche with her grey odd coloring, 2nd photo with her toy hamburger.

Had I known then that her coat would change, I might have named her "The Silver Fox" or just "Zorra" (La Zorra de plata. Zorro means Fox in Spanish) I'm not sure why the whites of her eyes are not white, white, like my other 2 dogs. Noche's eyes always seem a little blood shot to me. I make sure all my animals go to the vet; so at least I know that she is supposedly healthy. She has lots of energy. She is intelligent, playful and does well with the other dogs and even with the cats! However, there's definitely, not too much hope of finding her a new home.

I knew, I would need to keep her myself once she started to grow large and she turned grey. Now at about 6 months old, she is almost Sheila's size (Sheila is 5 years old). Noche is a very happy dog and plays with Sheila well.

Getting back to the 2 kittens, the 2 kittens were taken to the vet. for their parasite pills after several days had passed rather than right away because of the rain and my lack of a car that week. I also, got more parasite pills for my other permanent mascotes/pets.

It was purrr...fect timing, my bringing them to the Vet. when I did on that particular day. As I was walking along the rambla  toward home, I was carrying them in my other cat's carrier (Nathan). I approached everyone on the way home and asked if they wanted 2 kittens. Then a few blocks from my house, I saw 2 ladies just getting out of their car. I mentioned the kitties to them and they lit up! They said that they try and place cats in homes whenever they can because they love cats. They made me come inside their house right then and there.

"Cali" the Calico kitten on the left and "Felipe" my lover, right. 

They wanted to photograph the 2 kittens. They have a website. They are Persian cat enthusiasts. They sell Persians but they place any abandoned cats for free! Wow, I had struck gold with these two!!!

Alejandra and Alicia

Please click on their site WWW.GATOSPERSASURUGUAY.COM
Persian cats are so comical to me because of their flat smooched in faces. If you go to their site and hunt around through it's pages you might still see the  wonderful photos that they took of my little kitties that I named "Cali"  (the female/hembra) and Felipe (the male/macho), yes, I decided to name them a real name, unlike "Puppy". You will also see several adorable Persian cats.

I hadn't realized this before but Calico cats, the ones with 3 colors are (almost) always female. It's just known that they will be girls.

I have fallen in love with the boy cat that I have named "Felipe"  or Philip in English. I named him such because I was thinking of the Phil in Philadelphia, "The city of brotherly love" that's because he is so loving a kitten. He likes to snuggle. Also, since he is a feline, I used a play on the first 4 letters of the word feline in the name Felipe. Ph in Spanish is always changed into an "F". example photo = foto, Pharmacy= farmacia, etc...

Cali is a Calico cat and I was born in California, so "Cali" was a play on the first 4 letters of the word California and Calico.Which is also represented with the first 4 letters of her name.

Note: Now after saying, all of this, I have since renamed him, see the postscript at the end of this post.

Unlike the puppy, "Puppy" who "peed" everywhere for a week and a half throughout my house, the kittens learned to use the cat box during their first day with me! I had given them a little personal box to use and they used it all day, never once making an accidental mess! The second day they discovered where Nathan's litter-box was kept and from then on they used his box (the big boy box). Smart little kitties!!! To be fair Noche as a puppy, learned right away to "ask" to be let outside, to go in our backyard, she was never a problem either.

Well, I had mixed emotions when I received the call that "Cali' had found a new home. Someone in Maldonado wanted her. She had been inseparable from her brother for a week. Yet, she had started to be independent. She had started to want to sleep apart from her brother. Also, even though Nathan my grown boy cat is neutered, he had started to show an interest in her that was not befitting toward such a baby cat. Nathan tried to pin her down. Also, the night before in some rough and tumble play with her kitten brother (formerly known as Felipe) she had accidentally scratched his eye, so that he kept one eye closed all day. Fortunately, I had some animal eye drops on hand. So, I wasn't too sad that Cali would have a separate home from Felipe.

Alicia, let me know that she regularly delivers cats to their new home. She has the use of a car on Mondays and Tuesdays or Tuesdays and Wednesdays and she was to deliver 2 different other cats to Maldonado that day and that Cali would make up the 3rd cat going to Maldonado.

I got Cali ready with a little toy I had bought her and that she liked and put that and her and a little bag of food into Nathan's carrier and took off down the street to the ladies house nearby mine.

They had several cat carrying cases ready to delivery them in.  We transferred Cali into one of theirs so that I could get Nathan's case back. A couple of their many cats were quite interested in Cali and had to check her out.  I think it was quite an honor for Cali to be picked as the third cat to travel to a new home.

One was an Cream orange colored Persian kitten someone had bought from their website. The other was an adorable Black and White cat named "Whiskers" because of a white mustache that it sported. I was told that Cali was being eagerly awaited because of her colors.

I was inside of Alejandra and Alicia's house. They DO NOT run a kitten mill. They just truly love cats and they never asked me for a cent to help me place Cali, nor did they ask me for this post. They were happy that I said, I would write something, so I have their blessing.

Again, they are enamored with Persian cats, so I took a few photos of the various ones they own. Most of the ones I saw are permanently theirs but look on their website if interested as well. By the way their house smelled fresh and clean. The animals were doted on and healthy, Persians just look annoyed!

One cat was named "Betty Boop" because of her large eyes. I couldn't resist taking her photo along with my own Betty Boop statue.

Black hair with large eyes, the two Betty Boops!

I was afraid that Felipe would start to miss Cali but then I saw him with Nathan who even tolerated his laying on the same chair with him and when I heard Felipe loudly purring in my arms I knew that finding Cali a separate new home was the right thing to do after all. I really want to keep Felipe and not give him away. Wally says, that having 2 cats is okay. So if you see Felipe on the website, admire him but move on. I'm purrr..fectly happy with him.

PS. I don't often rename an animal, so as not to confuse them but Felipe is so loving that I have since renamed him  "Romeo". Wally agrees that name suits him well!

DON'T MISS IT!

Don't miss this important event!

Your invited to attend this Monday night, April 14th, 2014 a celebration that millions will be coming to, the commemoration of the death of Jesus Christ. This is the only event that the Lord Jesus Christ himself commanded his disciples to memorialize! You can read this command in the Bible at Luke chapter 22 and verse 19. He says, "Keep doing this in remembrance of me".

Some people might be familiar with this event as known by the term "The Last Supper" but they may not have realized that as a believer in Christ, any of his professed followers were told to attend this celebration each year afterwards until he says not to. Jesus being born into a Jewish family first partook of the "Passover", as was his custom, on the night of Nisan 14th, under a full moon. Then on this same night as an adult about to sacrifice his life in behalf of others including me and you, he created a totally new celebration for his faithful Apostles and future disciples to keep yearly after that. Christians no longer keep the Passover but we do attend this memorial to his death.
 

This is what the invitation to this event looks like in Spanish! I am publishing this so that you have a day's notice (this Sunday) and you can plan to attend tomorrow night at your local neighborhood Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses.

This is what our Kingdom Hall in Salinas, Uruguay looks like at night! The memorial of Jesus' death is always held after sundown because the" Passover" was held after sundown and later that same night Jesus instituted his celebration.

Inside the hall looks pretty much like the photos on the invitation below. We don't have crosses or images in our halls. They are simple places of meeting and Bible study.

I don't often get my photo taken as I am the photographer in the family but here I am in attendance at a memorial of Christ a few years ago. On the table you see for this night only are some glasses of wine and some plates, napkins are covering some cracker like unleavened bread. The wine represents the blood that Jesus would later pour out in sacrifice for our eventual salvation of a wonderful future ahead. The unleavened bread represents his unblemished body that he gave up in death also for our sins. You can read about this in the account of the explanation of these symbols and of his coming sacrifice after that very night. 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verses 23 thru 26.

All meetings held at the Kingdom Halls of Jehovah's Witnesses are held free of charge and NO donation plates are ever passed! You will never be asked for money or hinted at for some. Likewise this celebration is also held free of charge. 

Most Jehovah's Witnesses do not actually, "drink the wine" or "eat the bread" (1 Cor. 11; 27-29) because we are like invited guests who watch a couple getting married while not getting married ourselves. We feel, we are more like his disciples rather than his Apostles but those of us who do not partake still have a wonderful future ahead of us, thanks to Christ's sacrifice in our behalf as well. We are like his other sheep mentioned in the Bible book of the Gospel of John chapter 10 verses 14,15 and 16. We look forward to a Paradise on earth once the full effects of his Kingship take place. 

You don't have to be one of Jehovah's Witnesses to attend any of the meetings held at our hall. The public is welcome to attend too. The above photo is of Wally and his sister Valeria when he was visiting his father in California, USA. That is were both Wally and I were born and raised as children.  Wally, myself and his sister are all three of us Jehovah's Christian Witnesses but his father is not!  His father is not very religious but he was willing to attend last years memorial at our California, Oakdale Kingdom Hall when Wally was visiting him in California, last year. I hope to hear that he attended again this year (tomorrow night) with his daughter Valeria.

So whether you are not very religious minded or whether you are not one of Jehovah's Witnesses or if you are. I hope that this invitation despite it's quick notice will get you to at least consider attending the free and very short event with a discourse explaining that night long ago when Jesus Christ asked that you, "Keep doing this in remembrance of me."

Check your halls for the local time that they will be opened up that night. Our hall in Salinas will present the program at 6:30 pm (18:30 hrs) and again at 8PM (20 hrs) so that as many who want to attend can. The program will be brief. (30 to 45mins only).  See you there!

Ps. The following Sunday a special talk is always held. The same new talk is given around the world so you can look forward to that either on Saturday the 26th like us in Salinas or on Sunday the 27th. But the memorial of Christ's death is only held on the original Passover date according to the Jewish calendar and that date is this Monday after sundown, so come for this special once a year only happening.

Korean Restaurant in MVD!

The "Good tasting" Korean restaurant.

My last post was on eating so I will continue the trend with this one.

There are times that we expats just need a kick in our taste buds. While the food here in Uruguay is very,very good and wholesome, it nevertheless is just your basic meat and potatoes and yes Pizza.

 For most foreigners (I duck as I say this) it can be pretty bland. For some reason this upsets the majority of Uruguayans when you say that their food is bland. I get arguments that not everybody needs their tongues burnt off with "spicy food".

I have yet to make any of them really understand that when we expats say "spiced"or "seasoned" it doesn't necessarily mean hot, peppery or picante. Sometimes just a little less watered down sauce-wise, somehow richer tasting than normally served here or at least a little more salt added would do and yes I know, too much salt is bad for you.

So now I'm going to sound like a real hypocrite and say that yes, at other times we expats also want a rock-um, sock-um, kick in the mouth taste and yes, that means we want something,"spicy hot!"


So here is good news and some bad news. There are 2 Korean Restaurants located right in downtown Montevideo!
Both restaurants are on a "competing" block from each other (on the same block!). The bad news is only one of them has a good reputation among expats.

On a face book site for expats, some expats ate in the "spit it out quick" restaurant and it had a lot of complaints about yucky food. The good news is that I ate in the "Good" Korean Restaurant. So I wanted to tell you which one that was.

If you stand next to the casino in Montevideo near Old Town/Cuidad Viejo, turn your back away from the casino, and you will be looking at the restaurant you want to eat in. (see the title photo of the place)

The second photo above that of a wooden box and metal chops sticks is an important photo, since a couple of expats I went out to dinner with recognized that box and those chops stick from another expats' photo online and so they knew, we were in the right place, the "good" one.

We had a sweet, waitress who spoke English (She was Uruguayan) she was also learning Korean. I wish, I remembered her name. I feel bad about that but it was kind of unusual. She said that the menus were only in Spanish and Korean.

The menu book had pictures of the various offerings. Since she spoke English we could ask her for her suggestions. We were offered our choice of steamed or fried dumplings. We choose steamed.

We ordered like we would in a Chinese restaurant meaning each one in our party ordered a dish and we all shared the many dishes together so as to taste the lot of them. There was a rather strange looking pink rice, I think maybe it was cooked with black beans? There were several other dishes but the table was filling up fast with little bowls and platters so I had to put my camera away and start eating!

We had to order "Kimchee", since we were in a Korean restaurant, that is so synonymous in our minds with Korea being the national dish of Korea. We were given a bowl of the traditional "napa cabbage" Kimchee as well as other Kimchee fermented dishes using other vegetables such as turnips, and seaweed.

The restaurant had a Korean family, eating there, always a good sign to show the food is authentic.

Everything was delicious and rich tasting but boy was it HOT! It was just the break I needed as I am now rather enjoying my Uruguayan milder tasting and yes less picante food. Tonight, I'm having an enjoyable meal of meat and potatoes and I'm taking it easy on the salt too! I did say that Uruguayan food was very,very good and wholesome remember?

Of special note, some other expats recently ate in the 'other" Korean restaurant and they LIKED the food, which just goes to show you, taste is a very subjective thing. To each his own. ¡Buen provecho!