Chile Forum

Quoting myself
"Una casa nace cuando la compramos, crece, nos da dolores de cabeza y nos cuesta mucha plata, igual que un niño. La única ventaja es que no se hace caca en los pantalones." http://www.bradanovic.cl/page21.html

May I add, it is also like an handicapped son: cost you tons of money, never full your expectations and the worse it looks the more than you love it

I would just do the best you can do and the minute you are forcing it , then you will know that its too much....remember that the traditions and way of things are all different and most likely after you are ther a bit you will institute something that they will do in futa at the asado a hundred years from now and some new gringo will be on the web saying they did this and that, and the old hands will all try to decipher the meaning and the method...there aren't really rules, just guidelines...I agree with RWS...better to have a hasty asado now then a well prepared one later...you don't have to have it on Saturday ...its just better because they can sleep off the drunk and relax..and you have a good Monday for work....do your best, break some rules, make up some new tradition and off you go...


good luck, tell us about it...

I wouldn't use the spade unless the cooker of the meat wants to do it that way...they have their way and thats that...I can smell/taste the choripan...hungry now...

laters,

p out....

Try the harina tostada in wine its good...

PS 2: you will know you have a good one if the maestros dance and sing, they willl each get up and do a jig solo or dance cueca solo or with each other as a display two at a time...they will laugh and comment on the dancing merits of each...they may ask you to dance...i would opt for a thing where you sk them to teac yo the cueca and that way its all prticipatory...the order should go like this:

ceremony and placing of the flag, twig, wreath or flowers or whatever

Chicha or wine toast/madre tierra to start chile mierda at the end(don't say your self chile mierda, let them)

40 minutes max of drinking and snacking on pre asado treats...meat samples, choripan etc all done standing around the fire.
the asado..everyone fills their plate, cook stays at fire and keeps bringing the meat...you have to finish whats on your plate...refuse 3 times and they will know that you really have had enougth.

drinking is going on during al this...talk waht ever...usually classical music from the radio is played or something benign and folkloric...this comes from the old days when there were music show on the radio on saturdays and sundays...almost like npr style radio with music...

dishes will be cleared and food put away for the flies...people willl drift off for the siesta....this is sacred...

at 5 or so people will drift back for mate or tecito, and wine is sipped as brandy sort of....fruit, maybe some more meat, mote con huesillo, sandia etc...(dishes are done now while drinking and people pitchin witht he cleaning and talk etc...)drinking will start again and the guitar comes out , more drinking, maestros lighten up, more singing or the radio is played, people will start to sing or play guitar....and then dance or tell jokes or poem or ghost stories or stories of mapuche treasure or elf type forest nymphs or wild dogs etc...then it all just drifts into the night to where ever you want it to go...


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Thomas,
I wish our inspectors were as easy to get along with as yours. Good job.........

Oh, remember that Chile is "pituto-land" (you can do anything you wish with friends, and I have a lot everywhere)

Gloria...I wish you were here too! I could use a hand drawing water from the river to wash all the dishes when the feast is over, and someone to blame my bad cooking on! Hahaha! When are you coming to Chile? And where are you aiming?

And the illustrious Mr. P...Thank you for the rundown on the whole tradition. I think now I can throw this together, stop and invite friends and neighbors, and relax. The construction started just three weeks ago, so I wasn't thinking of something so quickly. In the US I would still be standing in line at the permit department at city hall while my wallet was being nibbled to death.

I have a whole new respect for the kind of people who settled Futaleufu and other areas of Patagonia. Building right from the earth up, no electric, no running water. We do come into town to take hot showers, wash clothes once a week and there's always me with this damned internet. But for the past two months we've lived in our little cabin, cooked outside, filtered water from the river for drinking, cleared brush and cut up downed trees, read by candle light and written real, honest-to-god, old-fashioned letters to family back home. Some nights dipped into the high 30's! Other days were so warm we braved the ice-cold river. The early pioneers here probably did much the same, but with greater haste and seriousness...they had no store to buy food from, and when the snows came, they damned sure better be tucked in and ready! While I am excited about the real house going up, I have grown quite attached to the cabin, like how I can sweep the floor and the dirt falls to the ground below through the cracks. No glass windows to wash! Just roll-down plastic for rain purposes. Spill something on the floor? Not to worry, just splash some water on it. We've made some mistakes and been frustrated, but usually I can attribute the situation to PPP (as in Pis# Poor Planning).

And now I'm off to remedy our latest calamity, and do some party shopping! Thanks again to all.

Thomas, Do all of your inspectors have 4 legs?????

Beppy the dog is only deputy inspector, the titular ones was drinking beer with me while Beppy did the hard work

It will be cool to build something like this in Chile!Minka

Once in this mountain village, the American puts on his old soot-covered clothes which have been kept in a chest; his thatched cottage, like those of all the inhabitants of the village, has the central hearth of old country residences surviving a bit here and there from pre-history, from Japan to Italy, and from Italy to the island. The smoke escapes, when it escapes, through a hole made in the roof. Here vegetate, as it were, the ancient descendants of the Taira, a few of whose survivors reached Shikoku after the naval defeat of Dannoura, and who still speak among themselves the archaic language of the 12th century.

Marguerite Yourcenar, from Le Tour de la Prison