Week 6: Project 365, the 2015 edition

I'm behind with a couple of promised posts. At least here's the weekly P365 (only one day late... compared to the post I said I'd write last week about life after the celiac diagnosis [which is coming, pinky swear]). We ended up being gone a good portion of last week, with no internet access. Es lo que hay.

Tuesday, February 3

Went to the doctor this morning, and there was this little stove in the waiting room, which is obviously not needed during the summer, so someone decided it made a nice helmet rack. Ivan thought it looked rather Darth Vader-ish and I thought the stove with its legs looked like a cast iron duck. Duck Vader?

And what's up with the orange walls? Orange is an invigorating, stimulating color which you'd think is the opposite of what you'd want in a waiting room. If you were a doctor, wouldn't you prefer calm patients?

I was catching up on laundry and just a few things remained on the line when it started raining, so I draped things over the kitchen chairs to finish drying.

There are canning jars on the table because Ivan brought home more figs from Totoral, so I was busy making jam. And starting more whole figs in heavy syrup.

Wednesday, February 4

Headed to Sta. Rosa for a few days. I wanted to include a photo of the brick wall around the water tank; I know mom will be interested in seeing it. We had it build last year -- looks a lot better than before when it was just a big black tank on top of a concrete pad.

 

Thursday, February 5

Busy all day with visits and while in neighboring Belgrano we stopped for gas. Normally we use GNC (compressed natural gas), because it's significantly cheaper than regular gasoline. When we bought the car, it had already been converted to use GNC, with a big tank in the trunk. But we're getting ready to go to our annual missionary conference in Uruguay in a couple of weeks, where they don't have GNC at all, so we decided to finish filling the regular tank with gasoline for that trip.

It already had more than a quarter tank of gas, so this is for about 3/5 of a tank. It's 13.10 pesos per liter. Once you do the math, it converts to about $6 per gallon.

Friday, February 6

I stayed at the house to finish canning some whole figs in heavy syrup while Ivan headed to the campgrounds where he went to camp every year while growing up. It was family camp week and he was able to see a lot of people he knew. These photos will be of most interest to his mom and siblings.

Doctor Alcantára, who knew mom and dad from their time in Río Cuarto.

Mrs. Tissera, also from Río Cuarto, who remembers dad and mom visiting her on a regular basis.

Mr. and Mrs. Juan Romero. Juan remembers dad and mom taking him to Sunday School when he was just a boy in Don Bosco (a suburb of Buenos Aires), although it wasn't until he was 33 that he returned to church and accepted Christ as Savior. They had laid the foundation so that when he was searching for some glimmer of hope, he knew where to look.

 

Saturday, February 7

With all the rain we've had this year, these bushes in Sta. Rosa have gone CrAZy!  In some places they are at least three feet deep, creating an impenetrable wall of green.

The folks who used to take care of the house planted these all around the property in an effort to keep out the horses which kept breaking through the post-and-barbed wire fence to graze on the lawn. Well, a horse certainly couldn't get through there now! Except maybe in that one corner... lower right corner of the collage, you can see there's a small spot where the bushes haven't spread. This fall Ivan's going to have to do some serious pruning!

 

Sunday, February 8

On the drive home Saturday Ivan noticed the car had a "hitch in its get-along" so this afternoon he pulled it into the garage to check things out. Afterward he came in to tell me he had "good news, bad news". The good news was he'd found the problem:

One of the tires was split all the way around, as you can see. We just replaced the two front tires a few weeks ago and we aren't really excited that the rear tires also need to be replaced. Es lo que hay.

 

Monday, February 9

I spent some time today sewing. Every year I make something to give away during the ladies tea at conference. Some years it's the prize for a game, other years I might mark a paper plate on the bottom so whoever gets it, gets the gift too. I can't remember all the things I've made (probably should have kept track, eh?) but I'm fairly certain I haven't made an apron before.

I could not get a good photo. It was raining and kind of dark inside even with the light on. It has a 50s vibe to it, and you can't tell but there's a pocket on the front.