timbuckthree.com

Wow! What a great day in Puerto Varas. We got up around 6am to get everyone ready to get to the bus stop at the end of the road at 7:20. It started out very overcast and a bit foggy. Mist was rising off the grass and flowers as we walked down the road. It was absolutely beautiful. A couple of buses later we were in Puerto Varas(PV). It was almost 9am and very little was open. Most shops open around 10-ish so we had some time to walk around the center of town.

It’s really easy to get around downtown PV. It’s only about about 10-15 blocks long and wide and Lake Llanquihue is always close. We found the only restaurant that was open, Cafe Dane’s, which is known for their large portions and their empanadas. After a nice big breakfast there, we went down through some tourist shops, through the Plaza de Armas, and then finally down to the water front and what they call a beach. The beach is a bit dirty and brown, but the kids took to it quickly and had a blast. Before we knew it they were soaked and they got down to their underwear and t-shirts.

We ended up staying at the beach for a couple of hours. The clouds that started our day burned off and we soon found our selves on a picture perfect day in Southern Chile. Berry met a girl from Holland via Canada who was heading down to Antarctica. She’s well on her way to visit all seven continents before she’s 30. She just has two more left, Africa and Australia. I ended up renting a canoe and taking both kids out on the lake. It was a blast.

We left the beach then grabbed some fantastic chocolate. We consumed about $6 worth of chocolate in less than a minute. After that we figured out we were all ravenous. We grabbed lunch at a nice place just down from the beach. We met some more people from Holland and Spain. Graham talked with them for quite some time. It was a nice afternoon. We tried a new beer called Kross that we heard good things about from Bradley. Their Mai Bock is absolutely fantastic.

By the time we finished lunch it was almost time to leave to catch our bus back to the campo. We walked quickly through some more markets and stopped by Cafe Dane’s again to grab apple strudel and empanadas for breakfast and dinner the next day (the apple strudel was delectable by the way). We grabbed the bus back to Puerto Montt. After a little bit of a wait we caught the bus back to campo, the Calbuco Por Costa. It was a Friday afternoon and the last bus that goes through the campo so it was jam packed with families, grandparents, workers, and gringos (the Bumble Bees and us).

It was such a great fun day for our family and we plan to make more trips around PV and the surrounding lakes. Berry and I are planning to try to climb Volcano Osorno later this summer. When we go we’ll definitely let you know about our adventures.

Chao!

UPDATE: Here is Berry’s version of the day.

Although the country side is beautiful, I find that my eyes always are drawn to the sky. We are about an hour from the mountains so there is plenty of open space to see the everything above. That is when it’s not raining. The picture to the left does not do any justice to what I actually experienced walking across the campo a few days ago. It was fantastic with the wind whipping around as the clouds were racing through the sky. Another front was coming and we would get a huge down pour that night.

We had a late night last night so we decided not to head to Puerto Varas today. We will go in tomorrow. We slept in and were greeted with an absolutely gorgeous day. We even saw the elusive Volcano Yates which is much more shy and rarely seen than Osorno and Calbuco. If the sky holds we will have some stunning pictures to come from the sunset this evening.

Below are a series from last night as the last batch of rain left. Again pictures just do not even come close to the magic that was on display.

So for my first four day weekend (i.e. not working on a computer), my project was to make us a nice kitchen table and benches. We had only one little plastic table and if you glanced it with a foot or knee your drink or food would end up all over the table. It was quite frustrating. Berry was very adamant about getting a table up there as soon as possible.

I wanted something sturdy that would last for a long time. I sketched out a few ideas and started in promptly at the crack of noon last Thursday. They had a drill and some screws and I figured I would bust it out in a day or two. Well, that did not happen. The screws they had were flat head screws and if you use the drill you end up with nice gouges in your wood (which our table has a few).

Luckily Lisa made a trip to Sodimac (think Home Depot or Lowes) and brought back some 3 inch phillips head screws just in time for me to work on the legs of the table. I quickly found out that the drill has only one speed. Fast, super fast. It stripped the head of the screw in less than five seconds, even when I pre-drilled the hole. I looked around for regular screw drivers. None to be found. Tools have a tendency to get misplaced around the campo. For the legs I screwed in the 3 inch screws by hand with my Leatherman that I got for Christmas. I finished the table after a long day, but it was done and we drove it up to the hill house. My forearms were aching. At the end of the day, I was missing my DeWalt 18 Volt Multi Speed Drill more than a tall MaiBock at The Terminal.

The next day we get up and visit some of the neighbors around the farm. It’s a nice little walk in the rain and we get to see where some people that we’ve met live. After lunch I start on the benches and looked a little bit harder for any screwdrivers. No luck. I get about half way done before it’s time for dinner. I leave it with just the legs and support to do the next day. After a few hours of twisting the screws in and a little bit of compromising on my table/bench plans, we had two great sturdy benches.

Below are a few more pictures of la mesa.

One thing that jumped out of us when we got here, even driving in at 1am from Santiago, was foxglove was absolutely every where. Berry literally squealed as we were weaving through the bumpy country roads and saw the flowers when the headlights shined on them.

Here are some shots that Berry took while she stole borrowed my camera for a day.

I hope everyone is safe, happy, and trying to stay warm. Chao!

We had a great Chilean Meal for New Year’s Eve, roasted sheep over an open pit. We got a late start on so we didn’t eat until well after 10pm. The kids were wiped out and the adults got to stay up till midnight. That’s the first time I’d seen midnight on New Year’s in a couple of years.

It was raining a bit so we cooked the sheep in the shed.

The fire is getting closer.

The sheep is ready to cook.

Finger Lickin' Good, ya'll

*cough*cough* Smile! *cough*cough*

Bradley (one half of the Bumble Bees) channels his inner Fred Flintstone.

A great shot of Scott and Lisa

Berry with her sweet sleeping baby boy.

We had a really good time, cooking, eating, and talking all evening long. Not a bad way to ring in the New Year.

Taken on my commute to work this morning.

You have a different perspective living in rural farmland 45 minutes outside of Puerto Montt. Splitting fire wood for a fire in the evening with friends and family  is different from splitting wood because you cook all your food on a wood stove. Running water is not a given even in such a wet and rainy place Ilque is. Our water comes from mainly cisterns or an old well at the back of the property. Our picky eaters know realize that if they don’t eat what they are served, they get nothing else. Dry shoes and feet are very important, but some how very difficult to achieve.

This morning I woke up early to start to fire for tea, breakfast, and to knock off the chill of the morning. Once the flames started going good enough, I went to brush my teeth. No water. I checked the kitchen sink. No water. Awww, crap! I put on my boots climbed up to our cistern which supplies the house. Bone dry. There was an absolute monsoon last night while we slept so there could only be one thing. A leak. No time to fix it so I turned on the well which is the back up when the weather dries up later in the summer. I now know one of the projects I’ll be doing on my next day off. That is if Berry doesn’t get to it first.

The morning bright, warm, and sunny, but now rain has moved in. It looks like it will be a bit like that for the next few days. The farm house is quite. Berry and the kids are back at the Hill House and the McLean’s are out visiting neighbors. I’m able to knock out a good bit of work and poke a way at this blog.

I’ve got a couple of more photos that don’t really belong anywhere right now… so here we go.

Our breakfast table this morning.

Yerba Mate - Tea of the Gods! It's like main lining caffeine with a cool straw.

Bacon. The family pig. It is the quintessential pig.

To find out how they got Bacon The Pig you can go here.

Every morning when we walk across the campo to get to the farm house, it’s like a mini adventure. You walk through fields of knee high grass, dandelions, and scrub bushes, through marshy wet lands, over small creeks on old faded boards, and finally through the gates to the farm house where our host family and the internet connection lives.  Mmmmm, sweet tasty internet.

The past few days have been absolutely gorgeous. Saturday we mainly hung out at our house on the hill and had all the children with us. Sunday I mainly worked inside on various projects on line. I worked mainly from the main dinning table for most of the day. It’s the main source of all activity and noise on the farm. Needless to say it didn’t help with concentrating or sinking deep into thought on some things that I needed to get done.

After I was finished with my on line work, I decided to make a small little office desk to go upstairs where I could be a little bit more out of the way. I took some scrap pieces of wood from the bodaga and fashioned myself a nice, light, little desk. You can see it in the picture above. That is my new work area. It has a nice view out to the eucalyptus trees and a small field. Right now I have the window opened and a fresh breeze is coming through.

Hopefully I’ll be able to go out and play some this afternoon or this evening. We’re so far south the sun doesn’t set until 10 pm. It’s really been tough to get accustomed to it. Off to go get some work done.

La lluvia, lluvia, lluvia, siempre la lluvia (Rain, rain, rain, always rain).

We’re here. Granted not after some difficulties, some of our own making, and a few minor set backs, but we’re here. There are plenty of stories to tell. But I want to tell them in order and when I have time to get some of them down. Right now… how about some pretty pictures to look at? Everyone likes pictures.

Heading into Puerto Montt on a sunny day.

Berry with one of her Christmas presents.

The kids climbing up to roll down.

Our front porch on the campo.

A view from our front porch.

Of course a kitten found us here. His name is Sombro.

Boats at the ferry in La Arena.

On the Calbuco Por Costa bus heading to the farm.

New Friends.

Taken this morning while walking across the campo.

That’s it for now. More to come later. We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and are gearing up for a Happy New Year.

Wow! That was a long, fun, exhausting, and energetic weekend.

The event was at CreateHere in Chattanooga which has a very hip and modern facility. The staff was always helpful and friendly even at 2am on a Saturday night. I’ve said it many times, but I’ll say it again if it wasn’t for the great work of Sheldon Grizzle, Ben Johnson, and Alex Lavidge this weekend wouldn’t have been as successful or fun as it was. Also there were so many people who floated in and out of our team offering help, ideas, and moral support through out the weekend I wouldn’t know where to begin. To all of you who helped, thank you so much!

For a good break down of the projects that came out of 48 Hour Launch go to CreateHere’s post about the weekend. There are a few mistakes and misspellings, but it will give you an idea of what came out of this weekend. The projects range from the power houses that were FloBuckle, HyvMynd, and the extremely intriguing non-profit chattanooga3d.com to smaller scope projects of mStrandz, AllMyStitches, FarmWars!, and our little project, Lokewl.

The whole experience was very positive and extremely collaborative. I had a chance to meet a lot of really fantastically, enthusiastic people from all walks of life. We came in with one idea, left with something related but definitely different.  I think it is a much more solid project and will allow us to expand in several different directions.

It was a fantastic event and even if you don’t have an idea or business you want to try out, you should check out the infectious buzz that happens when there are that many creative people working together in one place. It’s worth a look. Where else can you go to lend your imitation of a farm animal getting zapped by lightening for an iPhone game? Nowhere else, really. If there is a 48 Hour Launch in your area, I whole heartedly suggest you go.

If you are coming with an idea to launch, I offer one caveat. Have your idea down. No, no, no, I mean it really. Know why the people you’re going to try to sell it to would want to use it. Have the market research done. Do as much up front work as you can. Otherwise you’ll spend almost half your time scrambling and readjusting. Trust me.

We came in with a good idea, an iPhone app where people can make to go orders to local restaurants, anything from Mom and Pop to mid sized local restaurants. It’s in the same vein as the Pizza Hut or Dominos apps, but on a local level.  It’s simple, very straightforward, but there was really no initial impetus for a merchant to buy into it other than the cool factor. They would either have to enter in their menus themselves or pay for us to enter it for them. Of course the iPhone would be free for users. We would charge the restaurants a subscription service to be on our system. That would be a tough sell when they can simply take orders through phone or fax today.

Our problem was that we didn’t ask the right questions when we latched onto the orders to go idea. Other than the coolness/high tech factor, why would our target customers want to buy into our product? Even better, why would they not want to buy our product? What problem or pain point was our production going to solve? We didn’t answer those questions. It’s a cool idea and it’s on this really hot, stylish gadget, so why wouldn’t anyone want to try it.  Well, not everyone is as enamored with  technology as people who do nothing but eat, sleep, and breath it everyday. Duh!

That realization came crashing down on our heads around  9pm Friday night. Luckily we had a table full of really smart, passionate people who know to ask those questions. We started looking at it from a different angle and figured out what would be useful and valuable to our customers. Hopefully valuable enough to pay for it.

We took that idea and for the next two days ran with it. We flushed out our use cases. We did market research. We mocked up some screens for both the web site and the iPhone app. We even began putting down the core tables of our data base, but we didn’t have any code to put with our UIs.

We ended up collaborating with HyvMynd that had a database framework that was looking for an front end site. We were a front end site looking for a database. I was a bit hesitant at first to do this, part of this was simply my ego, part wanting to finish this ourselves, and another part not wanting let go of the control of the project (which probably goes back to ego). I’m glad we did work together and I think the end products for both of our teams were very well done.

So what’s next? Well, first rest and sleep then back to the daily life of family, work, and friends. There are a few loose ends to tie up with the name of our project and the business but hopefully those will be tied up within the next week or so.  Let everything settle in. Then get together to see where we stand as a team.