When it gets dark, on our island that is around 7 PM during wintertime. The first thing I do before making dinner is to turn on a lamp that is just behind the window where we usually eat.
It's the best way to have bugs trying to get to the light behind the window while we enjoy the meal. Mario developed a few years ago a thing for minimalism and recycling.
That is why we have given our couch away to whom could not afford it and lots of other stuff we bought as part of buying a home here. He is on minimalism big time but without compromising the style. He's Italian after all...
He has been looking at this lamp for a while and kept saying "It just doesn't fit with the rest of the changes we made". He never complains about something without acting but I was indeed surprised by him not changing what was bothering him.
Well, that's what I thought, that he wasn't doing anything about it. As it turns out those strange grinding sounds and drilling like someone was in a chamber of torture were actually Mr. Mario's lamp in the making.
Here's how it went down. He takes walks in the mountains every chance he gets. I would like to go but I have broken my toes, once again, and I am a nice house trophy until I can wear shoes again... During one of his walks, he found this rock.
Heavy to say the least and the shape "it talked to me and it said: are we going to do this or not?" - he took that to the maker's lab, cleaned off, blocked between three pieces of wood to keep it still. And then start chiseling away a socket for the steam of the lamp. Yes, that is the base of the lamp!
The dirt here has a ton of iron in it, that's from where that red hue is coming from. I like working with him, I always learn something new but those heavy-duty super dusty projects are not on my top list of enjoyment. So while he was murdering... tsk crafting the rock, I did a bit of greenhouse work.
Making more fig trees
We learned this technique from one of our followers and we are eager to validate the teachings. Su from South Korea generates more fig trees by cutting lightly the bark layer of a shoot, trapping the limb in a water bag, and then sealing all with a zip tie. If all works out, the shoot makes roots, you then cut the shoot and you got yourself a fig tree starter pretty well grown!
I also checked on other babies in the process of being ready to be moved into bigger pots.
Back to the cave
For the steam of the lamp, he recycled the leg of a table that we dismantled a while back because it wasn't good of great quality.
I was a bit skeptical when I saw him grinding away from the rock but I was definitely sold when I witnessed the fitting on the first try!
The hardest part of all
Surprisingly working on the rock was the least difficult part of the project. To power the light bulb it was necessary to drill a hole throughout the piece of wood and the rock. The bottom of the rock has a socket for the attachment and the wire.
However, the wood of the stem was so super hard and longer than the drill bits that we have that it kept getting stuck. At one point the drill bit was so hard fused in the wood that the only way to recover the bit was to split the wood!
The second attempt required two days of trial and error but finally, the inspiration came to the man in need - I don't have any footage of the eureka moment because I was the one the pushing the trigger on the drill and he was using pliers around the chuck of the drill to make the bit reverse back.
We recycled some electrical parts of the original lamp, including the headlamp.
and the rest of the lamp is now my favorite paper towel holder!
I didn't see the finished job until the next day however, I do know that Kauna was playing with pieces of wires left from the hack job of electrical parts because that little shit kept running the rounded parts all around the house while on a hyper trip. When papa yelled at the pest, she figured that the most obvious thing to do was to stop playing on the floor and dirt dancing on the bed by my side. #catlife
