Call the man, or how to grow your own $23 tomatoes

It´s bring your granddaughter to work day at Marabierto


I first became aware of "call the man" as a Uruguayan cultural trait when my mother visited me in New York and insisted on coming to work with me, back in the day when I was working in the flea market at Spring and Wooster. After watching me pull a couple dozen loaded boxes from a basement into a truck, followed by a clothing rack that I "walked" along two cobble-stoned Soho blocks to our flea-market spot, whereupon I spent two hours retrieving the boxes, tables and other fixtures from the truck and setting up our "booth" for the day (you know, then undo everything 5 or 6 hours later), horrified, she demanded that I "Call the man." At that point I explained that anyone I had to call to do my job would have my job, and therefore, I was the man.

On a subsequent visit on occasion of my moving into my newly purchased condo in Jersey City a couple of years later, and after inspecting the yard and noting there was no tap anywhere to hook up a hose --hence my bringing the hose from the sink across kitchen and living-room into the yard-- my mother again decreed "Call the man. Get him to put a tap outside."My answer, in this case, was "There is no man."

Team Sousluaga, with Pelusa

In the first case "the man" was my own job description, while in the second example it was something I could not possibly do on my own (major plumbing) and that neither could I afford to hire someone to do for me. Hence the years of watering the yard from the kitchen sink.

But look at me now. I am certainly back to my roots, or becoming my mother, or both, probably. No two days in a row go by without some man or men coming over to work at our place. There´s the pool guy, who does the regular maintenance and is different from the solar panel guy. There´s the gardening crew (good thing I consolidated the two landscaping outfits I used to hire into a single one), and most recently there´s team Sousluaga, who first built a shed structure to place the solar panels, and this week is improving my vegetable patch making it into two very long wooden boxes with a sort of nylon wall behind it against the existing fence.

In between we have the guys from Telecom, the alarm company, who come to install new devices, fix a malfunctioning sensor or check the satellite TV or the weird cellular-based fixed phone on a pretty regular basis.

The vegetable patch encased in wood.


In a way, it´s a miracle. We work hard, earn money, and that money is enough to be able to afford all these people who are constantly doing things to improve our house. Considering we have neither the time nor physical condition, not to mention skills required, I am always in awe at the fact that we can afford to pay for these peoples´ services, considering we are not actually wealthy. We´re also in awe of the end product.

But then again, after factoring in the amount spent on landscapers, top soil, and team Sousluaga to set up my very fancy encased vegetable patch with windbreaker and all, we´re estimating a unit cost of $23 per tomato that comes out of that yard...

It works

I finally swam in solar-panel warmed up water on November 1, at 6 pm, minutes after the installer had left, at a perfect 26 C, or 78.8 F.

We had turned on the system at noon, on a test basis, so not at 100% capacity because our cautious pool guy Alvaro (not the same person as the panel supplier-installer) wants to double check the pressure on the pump and other technical stuff.

When he turned it on, we measured the pool at 20 degrees (68 F), and the water coming into the pool at 23.3 C (74). This low reading at the pool is because although the water from the panels was coming out at about 40 degrees (104F) there was a long stretch of pipes to warm up.

From what I saw during the installation, only a fraction was insulated, and improperly at that, and then there´s the entire length of the filter circulation which is also not insulated. So initially all the pipes and earth surrounding it needs to be warmed up before the water coming out from the panels and the water arriving at the pool have a similar temperature.

All this will eventually be fixed by Alvaro, but right now I don´t feel like engaging in further works, just patching whatever leaks remained, and maybe in February when we have to travel to Asia the rest can be dug out and insulated.

When is Google Earth sweeping by my neck of the woods again?!?!?!?!?!

Really, it´s pretty upsetting to keep checking for years and to see nothing more than the track my neighbor´s car made when using my lot as his drive-way earlier in the decade.

I have changed the template for this blog, and boy, what a relief. That previous one was suffocating, this new one is so airy and light, it´s great.

And another thing. I don´t know how to post without a photo. So here´s Lunes, Oso and Tulu ready to pounce on each other as they do all frigging day long... that is, when they are not chewing on pieces of halogen lamps, or on workers´ knives, or stealing and burying the workers´ stuff. They are something like 7 and a half and 5 and a half months now, so there´s still loads more fun to be had.

Just four more days for warm pool swimming

Luis the engineer seen in the pictures installing the panels says he will be finished on Thursday and the water will need a couple of days of filtering to raise the temperature. The water feels like 20 C (68) to me right now, so I have decided I will be swimming on Saturday afternoon. I only need it to be 24 degrees (75F) in order to swim comfortably.



The next project once this is over will probably be to turn the structure into a working greenhouse, with some PVC. My tomato plants are so buffetted by the wind that I feel like a serial killer for exposing them to such inclement conditions. Plus, I really do want to eat home-grown tomatoes, if possible year round.

Captain Hook, Scarface and the greenhouse cum pool solar collector

Captain Hook looking very fly with his home made sling...

It's been a tough month of October, what with Barbi taking his passion for DIY and bricolage to a bloody extreme two weeks ago, and Lunes showing up with an L-shape cut on her cheek yesterday.

Lunes aka Scarface at the store, tied to her granny's desk. She had a barking fit when confronted with a large Buddha statue, but otherwise behaved sort of OK, within Lunes standards...

Both are doing fine now, Lunes all stapled up, and Barbi ready to undergo second reconstructive surgery and starting physical therapy soon, although far away from me, in Istanbul. Good thing his brother and doctor is there to help, so we know he's in the best hands.

On the home front, the greenhouse cum solar collector for the pool is all ready and waiting for the solar panel installation. There's been a delay of a few days, but by the end of next week I will be swimming in warm water. We measured the water temperature today, and it was 19 centigrade. My guess is that if the heating system works as stated, the temperature will soon climb up to soup levels, but we can adjust the flow of hot water to our taste. After all, I want it for swimming, so too hot is not good.

The black rubber panels will cover the metal sheet rooftop. I like the rural look of the structure.

Yesterday Zuluoaga and son came over to put the roof sheets on, and of course they brought Pelusa, to the delight of my male puppies. I guess compared with the big psycho tom boy bitch that is Lunes, the only female they know, the tiny and dainty and feminine Pelusa must be quite a novelty for them

Pelusa in all her splendor by the pool.

And while we're on the subject of OPDs, below is a picture of Blitzen. Peter and Nadine's dogs for some reason sleep covered with fleece blankets, it's quite a sight.

Saint Blitzen

Trying solar on the pool

So I could contain myself no longer when I came across what I have dubbed the "poor man´s solar collectors" and before I knew it I was on my way to a heated pool.

The "poor man´s" modifyer is because these etylene-propylene-polyetilene panels (don´t ask me the actual composition) cost about a third the cost of the other regular ones with glass and metal. Also they are made in the ROU - that´s the Oriental Republic of Uruguay...

Because panels have to be placed on some sort of inclined surface and I didn´t want to compromise my roof, we´ve been debating for months where we would place them, and what would serve as support. Container building was finally discarded in favor of possible future greenhouse, at savings of about 90%.


Finished structure pending metal sheet on roof and solar panel installation.

For the reasonable sum of $5,500 I now have the structure (wooden) for a greenhouse, measuring 12 meters by 3.5 meters and the solar panel installation for a heated pool. Not bad I think. The structure was erected by Zuluoaga and co. in one day. They didn´t finish the roof metal sheeting because I neglected to get the sheets on time. They also came along with Pelusa, a heartbreaker as Tulu and Oso can attest.



Zuluoaga and his gang, our dogs and guest star Pelusa (the tiny furry thing near the pool)

The panels are called Solarflex, by the way, and I´m heating a 3m x 14m pool with an area of solar collectors equal to 80% of the surface of the pool. I will buy a thermometer and report later on the water temperature...

Close-up of the collectors and pipes

Now let´s see how it works in the end. Thursday we will have the roof finished, and between Saturday and Monday the heating panels should be operating.

Spring!!! Gardening obsession!!!

The view of our yard from the road on Oct. 2. Notice the many many many leaves on the poplars!

The birds made such a racket this morning that I found myself touring the grounds with my faithful entourage, leaving behind a husband who mumbled "King of the bed, I'm king of the bed," his expression of joy at my leaving the bed before him.

Never mind him. Spring has exploded, everything is chirping or budding, and the sun comes up at around 6 or 6:10 AM. If only I had already installed my pool heating solar panels... but I'm not lamenting too much, because I am obsessed with gardening. It's not the first time. Any of my friends during my Jersey City gardening phase may remember as I forced them to pay attention to every single blade of grass, every new leaf on every new shrub as toll when they visited me. Now I mostly torture my husband when he comes back from work.

"Did you see the trays with the seeds? No, I mean, did you really look at the purple basil? It's like one inch tall now!"


Mustard on the right, in the herbs box. The left one is peppers and tomatos...


How many times a day do I go on gardening breaks? Good thing that the spring makes me productive, because otherwise the 85k word edit job would not get done in 4 days... I spray my seedlings every couple of hours, go visit my seedlings outside, go visit the fledgling vegetable patch, with all of 10 plants (3 green peas doing swell, 3 red peppers borderline dead, one oregano, two thyme, one mint all doing just fine), I try to thin the trays of oversown seedlings, etc., etc., etc.

Tomatos! Peppers!


Every couple of days there's a new batch of cut-off plastic bottles, a new bag of fertilized topsoil, new tools (those baby tools for seedlings made me scream at the supermarket) and I now am the proud owner of a probably China-made gardening stool, fully loaded with a gazillion pouches and pockets to store all the tools and a very handy handle for carrying it around like a purse. All for about $15.

Lunes curses the electric fence that keeps her from destroying my veg patch.

The ants needless to say have discovered the changes going on here, and have taken aim at my yard. I couldn't suppress a scream yesterday when I saw them having one of my oleanders for lunch... Good thing there's William, from Greenes del Este (with the "e" in greenes) ready for my 911 call. Containing the ants is part of our contract.

As for the dogs, they watch me in wonderment but in general welcome my increased time outside around them. Lunes the Destructor still tries to have her way with my precious seedlings (she got to one this morning, dumped a pot with topsoil a few days ago) but in general there have been no casualties.

William was shocked today to see the stairway nursery, after just two weeks of showing me how to do it, and declared there will be no room in the patch for all those plants. "I guess I will have to give them away" I told him. So I have to start potting tomato and pepper plants. So I need pots and I should order another truckload of topsoil to have handy for the patch expansion, which I'm planning to triple in size.


The stairway nursery has expanded.

Yeah, I know, all a bit manic, but that's the good thing about having such a big yard after all, having tons of dogs and tons of shrubs and trees and tons of own-grown vegetables and fruits, right?

Which brings me to the new additions: we have planted 5 guava trees on the new lot, because they are indigenous and beautiful and I loooove guava in various forms. And also because the new lot has a tiny "monte criollo" or indigenous forest (with a bit of wishful thinking on my part). It has two indigenous trees (a tala and a canelon) and a lot of espina de la cruz (a thorny bush with cross-like foliage) and now, 5 guava trees.

In addition, I have planted two quince trees and two pomegranate trees in two different spots of our yard (hedging my investment). Greatest problem may be that the strong winds may blow off the blooms in the spring and I may have no fruit, according to William, but if so, I will wrap them in something to protect them from the wind next year... this year it's no use.

The lady at the nursery, Frida, smartly refuses to close my tab because she knows I will be adding on to it...

The fierce guardians

The dogs are getting big, and a little bit fat too. We neutered/spayed Lunes and Tulu, and experienced none of the "one week of convalescence" I had been warned about. They were back to their crazy selves the day after. Oso weighs as much as a cow, impossible to lift him now. They all bark in unison, very threateningly, at any car slowing down, motorcycle approaching or, the worst offenders, bicycle or horseback riders. Very impressive until you notice their tails wagging...

Happy hunting days, Lunes always dying to trespass into La Carolina

We did a lot of long walks into the fields around here in the past couple of months, but I'm afraid that will have to stop now as the nasty snakes are waking up all stressed out, and these dummies want to eat them. They have brought me a dead eel, a dead snake and a dead field mouse in the last two weeks, so their sniffing expeditions are off for a while. Only the beach, which involves less risky terrain and mostly dead seafood, which they chomp on with great gusto and later puke.


The will be house that Barbi built for Lunes and Tulu. Tulu doesn't allow Oso to sleep with them, he growls nastily and sends him away.

But they all nap together