Skip to main content

Tapping in

Image
By

“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.”
                                                                            G.K. Chesterton

We are busy renovating our 104 year old house. The main focus at this stage is the bathroom. At the time the house was originally built people didn’t have inside bathrooms. They had an outdoor toilet and they usually washed in their bedrooms using a pitcher of water and a bowl. From time to time they would carry a tub into the kitchen, heat water on the stove and take a bath. No easy process! 

That being the case you can see how, over time and with the development of indoor plumbing, they converted one of the bedrooms in this old house into a bathroom. For some reason or the other, they chose one of the larger rooms. The result was a ballroom sized bathroom with a toilet in the one corner, a bath in the other and a basin in the third corner. You almost crossed a time zone walking from bath to basin. It was not only wasted space but also very impractical. With the bathroom occupied by a single person, the rest of the house had to wait in line.

A total change was necessary, especially with the retreats here at Barrowfield in mind. By using drywalling and adding a shower, basin and another toilet we are transforming the old bathroom into a mini ablution block where four people at a time can use the facilities.

That is the plan on paper. Now it has to be executed. Which implies a lot of hard work done in stages and a juggling of time and priorities. Everything else on the farm that needs to be done can’t be neglected and we must still generate an income. Slowly but surely we are getting there.

Which brings me to the picture of the basin stand to be used in the new bathroom. Friends of ours renovated their kitchen and asked whether we would have any use for all the old Kiaat (a type of teak) kitchen units. We did not say no. From that stock we took one of the small wall units. By using a piece of off-cut Kiaat I had on my wood pile and wood from old Oregon floor boards I made legs and a base to gain height and lift the little cabinet from the ground. That same Oregon floor boards provided material for the top as well, which was cut out to accommodate the original basin.

Off-cuts, the discarded, the previously used, the old – call it the remnants and markings of tradition – all coming together in serving a new enterprise. I love the way woodworking often acts as choir master blending all these voices into a beautiful new song. Making me part of democracy in its widest sense.


George





Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Whistle while you work

By
Drawing by Ron Leishman When last did you whistle while working? When last did you hear someone else whistle while working? Somehow it bothers me that whistling has become an almost absent element in our work. The sound of a person whistling a tune while busy somewhere in the house or out in the workshop conveys something of an underlying happiness, satisfaction and contentment. An enjoyment of the work itself. The tune need not be flawless. Applying more air than sound won’t lead to disqualification, as long as the intention is there. Whistling can even be replaced by singing in all that I’ve said up to now. The same principles apply. The absence of any of these two activities bothers me because it says something about us doing the work and the type of work that we do. Can it be that our type of labour in this 21 st century is not conducive to either whistling or singing? What type of work is that then – draining, stressful, pressured? Or are our conclusions ...
8 comments
Read more

A likely Hero: Jara Cimrman

By
As Matilda has already indicated, one of the most difficult things to do after you’ve visited a country is to return and convey something of what you’ve experienced. How do you show a city’s many faces, introduce its inhabitants? How do you tell of the effects a history has on people and of a stance towards life that can actually not be translated into words? In the case of Prague, it is very helpful to have someone like Jara Cimrman. ~ ~ v ~ ~ Petrin Hill, on the left bank of the river Vltava running through Prague, is in many ways a site worth visiting. Climbing the 299 steps of the Petrin Tower, inspired by the Eiffel Tower, gives you one of the most beautiful views of the city. But by going down into its basement, you enter into the psyche of the Czech people. Here, quite unobtrusively, is the museum for the “ Genius, who has not become famous ”. Matilda and I almost stumbled onto it by chance and as we went through the exhibition, our amazement over this brilliant ...
Post a Comment
Read more

You never can tell

By
This morning I was out in the vegetable garden looking for signs of sprouting cabbage and spinach that we had sown a week ago. Among the weeds, I did find the tiny seedlings pushing through bravely, but I had a surprise coming. The young Zulu gardener drew my attention to an abundance of ready food growing in the ruins of the tiny stone cottage only meters away: Umbido, a type of wild spinach, and a staple food in the rural areas. I grew up with much the same in the northern parts of the country, but called Marogo in the Sotho language.  Enter my new helper and friend, Winnie Nkosi. She lives on the edge of the Zaaihoekdam in a traditional mud house with no electricity. Twice a week she walks the four odd kilometres to help me with all things domestic. She has also taken it upon herself to teach me the Zulu language and culture with optimistic determination. The planned lunch menu was immediately ditched in favour of a lesson in local cooking and Winnie showed me the differenc...
Post a Comment
Read more