Here are some pictures from the “Utilitarian Furniture Making” workshop I am giving through the Chilean women’s foundation PRODEMU. I got hired to do the workshop thanks to the fine craftsmanship I displayed with the furniture I built for our house (I’ll post some pictures and%20add a link here in the coming days), all of it made out of the finest, least expensive laminated particle board available at the local Homecenter. There are eight women involved in the% workshop, all of them residents of a recently constructed, subsidized housing complex. Their houses came with only bare bones installations, so they were interested in learning how to build some of their own furniture. We do the workshop at 0their local”community center”.

The workshop is divided into 10 two hour sessions which will likely be extended. None of the women had any previous experience with power tools, design, etc, but they’ve learned quickly. We finished the kitchen sink cabinet yesterday after five sessions. Only three of those were actually dedicated to construction and use of power tools, as the first two were spent designing and purchasing materials. All given, I think we worked pretty quickly given the constraints of this type of project (number of people, need to practice with tools, etc). Next up, they want to build similar cabinets for their homes. They’ll have to design them on their own, which will be a sort of test, but they’ll work together to build them. If all goes well, they hope to continue building similar things to sell to other residents of the housing complex. It would be a good way for them to make some income, not to mention make a name for themselves. I’d say that there are four or so who would probably put the effort into continuing beyond the scope of the project, or at least to apply for a second phase of the workshop.

Click on the image to open the photo gallery of the kitchen sink construction.

It looks more dangerous than it really is, but the burning has begun at the lake. I’ve been getting some help from my buddy Pablo, who I plan to hire to for the job of clearing out the chilco (fuscia) bushes around the base camp. I figure that it’s about four acres or so total. The weather hasn’t been all that cooperative, but Pablo plans on camping out starting this weekend (hopefully). I’ll camp some and travel from Coyhaique other days and within a month or so the area should be cleared. I’m hoping to have it done by the time Wendy and the Antarctic crew get here at the end of October.

We are mostly burning the small branches and are chopping up the trunks and fallen logs to store away as firewood. We are of course leaving all of the trees standing. I don’t think the hummingbirds will be too upset about losing a couple of acres of chilco, as there are plenty more around the perimeter of the work area and beyond. Once this area is cleared we should have a better perspective on possible locations for the house, easier routes down to the lake, etc.

Besides clearing brush, goals for this summer include building two floating docks, a storage shed, firewood shed and a quincho. Carpenters, architects and engineers are most welcome

Click on the image to open the photo gallery of the initial work we’ve been doing.