Day 2 - Blackout!

After the astonishing productivity of the post-Thanksgiving rush, it was back to "normal" activities.
The only Presépio work done involved emergency utility crews (aka Phil) coming in to service some underground electrical cables - part of the town was plunged into blackness!

The bakery, A&S house, and the windmill were affected.  I panicked, as I thought out only alternatives would be a) leave them without power all season, or b) rip up a huge amount of wiring that had been so neatly taped down, then so perfectly covered with a layer of the finest hand-sifted earth that had taken Ana all day to perfect!

Thankfully, our chief engineer knew that 99% of all power problems happened at the junctions - so we were able to dig up only a tiny portion of the ground.

As you can see, the lights are now working all over the village  - and tomorrow is another day!!!!!!

(Soon we can get started on the gardens and farms!!)

In the beginning...

The 2010 Presépio season is upon us!

Thanks for coming back for the second installment of our blog...a bit of the behind-the-scenes action, some how-to and tips, together with some miscellaneous musings...

This year I THOUGHT I was getting an early start - while planting my daffodils, I filled 2 buckets with the soil we would need... (It's important to do so before the ground freezes!). David helped out by bringing the table up from mothballs, but not much more happened till this past week.

However, we have made up for lost time, thanks to Vóvó and Ana! While Phil and I set the table up, together with much wailing and gnashing of teeth, so that it would be ready in time for Thanksgiving, it wasn't until post-Thanksgiving Day that our productivity rose through the roof!

Everyone was here for bbq'd turkey, but we were so enjoying our own company, especially seeing the college kids home-for-the-holiday, (and of course the yummy foood), that no work was done at all. Happily, Vóvó stayed through Monday, Phil diligently wired, and with a surprise visit from Ana, a major progress was made!! Click below to see my fairly pathetic photo-montage of our progress to-date...




And here is our lovely bbq'd turkey!

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...BELOW THIS LINE IS LAST YEAR'S HOW-TO...