A frame for Frauke and Summer School News

Hi ho.

That's a citation to Kurt Vonnegut in case you didn't know.

Today I made a frame for Julia's mother. She wanted to hang this painting Julia made years ago and Sebastian needs to work on that. Frauke said you can just screw it. I said, "I literally can not."

So haunched mortice and tenon had to be, with a dovetailed middle bar

 It's a small tenon, 5mm width or so

The pieces where a tad different, but the good thing of working with hand tools is that you make the whole frame oversized 2 or 3mm, and then put it through your planer, ie yourself. This works for any size.

I realised, when taking the picture, that it looks quite similar to a window. So I guess I can make windows now. This is the painting.

Not my favourite from Julia's but her mother likes it.

Now for the summer school news.

I wanted to be sure that I will have people in Chile to help me with this crazy idea before giving more details about it. I hope at least 2 of my ex-students can join so there's hope already for the school happening with more than myself there. The kiwi has already confirmed for the two weeks while the chilean only goes for a weekend.

The place? Somewhere around here: -36.807075, -71.639315

What's there? There is a river next to the place, 5000 m^2 of forest that we can use, and hot springs 4 hours walking.

If I'm not mistaken there was also a saw mill next to it, and a slate quarry near by. But pretty much is like Jason's piece of land, somewhere where man hasn't put his hand yet.

What's my idea? Stay there camping 1 or 2 weeks in february. Build a structure. Maybe something as simple as a deck to sit and chill out, or if we are more people and have more time, a roof and some beds to sleep during summer afternoons.

If we have some time we could cook some charcoal, build a fuigo, and start making saws right there.

At the moment I don't have a car to go there so maybe we need to hitchhike or walk with the tools in the back or what not. But we should be able to arrive there somehow. We will need to carry food since there's nothing around where to buy. (Maybe we can buy a small animal and make a big bbq but that we need to see once there.)

For sleeping you need to bring a tent and stuff to put you inside of. Or wire and an axe and make your own shelter. If you are coming from abroad and don't want to bring too many tools, a good axe, a few stones and big saw would be helpful. Small tools I have enough for all. I will try to buy some japanese axes for then too. No electricity I'm aware of, so leave your computers and cellphones in Santiago.

The weather should be lovely by then, around 30 degrees at midday, perfect for a swim in the river. The nights may be a bit cold but there is wood to make a fire. Arriving there we need to build a table, a compost toilet, and some forks. Maybe a lathe to turn some plates?

God knows what we will make.

But we will know the why and the how. And that's what matters most.