updating

So, i'm updating my last posts with some of the pictures that i wished to share. shouldn't take too long to go back through.
cheers,

Wow-
ok so i'm back. it is amazing how one, that being me, can let things go so easily.
for shame i say.
anyway. so yeah bolivia.
what an incredible experience.
learning about large scale glass furnaces. how they are constructed. how they function. how to make them efficient. then translating all that into spanish supplemented by lots of charades.
what constantly overwhelms and inspires me is the ingenuity i find in the people from that part of the world. a lifestyle i hope to emulate in the south american microcosm my parents made on our farm...and beyond. how a group of people who want to develop factory glass figure out how to do it quite successfully relying mostly on their eyes and ears to decipher such a project. how the need for refractory materials arises so the guy down the road figures out how to make them and there they are...of pretty damn good quality too. this supported by a working energy that is not to be believed is astonishing.
So after five days there we durk valkema (integrated glass systems) and i produced designs for their new furnace implimenting changes that should save them up to 25% in fuel and increase the quality of the glass that they are melting. i cannot wait to return...hopefully this winter to see how the project has come together and if our ideas and communications worked.