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Somewhere in Yunnan, China

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Somewhere in Yunnan, China

The Giants Republic 2025

Weaving commenced

Loom"
The weaving loom setup finally got sorted and weaving has started
Loom
The loom now properly set up
Detail
Fixing a broken warp line

The loom has now the warp properly installed and some test weaving has started.

No pizza and new entrance look

Missy Potato
Missy Potato wanted to come back for more pizza but that got cancelled because she had to go for a photoshoot for being a hundred days old
Entrance
A lot going on at the neighbours. This includes a new water tower in the far corner of their plot. This changed the look of our entrance

Weaving

After installing a new and bigger rain screen and an additional sun screen the weaving loom could be moved to its working location.

Loom
The weaving loom in situ

Before weaving can commence the warp wires have to be installed. This turned out to be more complicated then thought. To many wires were twisted around each other and in the end we had to take down most of them and decided to start with a smaller set of wires of a shorter length to first build up some experience.

Test
Xu Ying having a dry run at the loom
Warp installation
Installing the warp wires
Warp disaster
The totally failed warp wire installation. Note the shadow of the new sun screen on the ground

The old and the young

On a Tuesday in April there was a get together at the Giants Republic that brought together the old and the young. Xu Ying’s mother had invited her old primary school classmates and her sisters came along. And the latest grandchild, Missy Potato. This was the first time a baby visited the Republic.

Playtime
The old class mates doing what old people do; play Mahjong and card games
Pizza
Pizza time

The president of the republic was ordered to make some pizzas to show that he has more useful skills then painting blue squares.

Baby & artwork
The baby at the entrance to the museum
Baby
Sound asleep

Missy Potato was wheeled to the entrance of the museum and the artwork on display made her straight away fall asleep.

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And no Giants Republic get-together is complete without a BBQ. On the above picture pork rips and belly are drying up after marinating.

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Then the lot was slow cooked for four hours in the drum BBQ.

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Once ready they were cut up by the three sisters.

Weaving loom

Loom"
The magical parts of the weaving loom, the heddles and reed
Loom on workbench
The loom on the workbench in the workshop
Loom detail
Detail photo

The mystery machine turned out to be a weaving loom.

The frame is made out of galvanised steel, aluminium and wood. All the wood is recycled wood mainly from an old bunk bed. The aluminium parts come from the roof rack of the minibus. Since we don't have the minibus any longer we could recycle the material.

The metal heddles (The things that lift up and pull down the warp wires and the reed (The thing that works as a big comb) are bought from a specialised supplier but all the rest is handmade.

Soon we hope to up the machine into action and show some results.

Sausage night
The freshly made sausage hanging out to dry and firm up

Sausage

Chinese sausage is to fat, salty and above all far to sweet. Therefor we make our own. To do this safely it is best to do this on a cold winter day so the sausage can hang out to dry in the natural cold.

Sausage day
The next morning
Chopping
Chopping up the nearly frozen six kilos of pork is a cold job

On the 19th and 20st of February, when it was still rather cold, we made five kilos of sausage.

First the meat is shilled to near freezing and then chopped up to fit into the meat grinder. After grinding spices are added and some water. The same grinder is than changed into a sausage filler. The pork gut casing is fitted around the filler nozzle and the filling is fed into the machine and the sausage coms out. The sausage is than hung out to dry and firm up overnight.

The next day we slowly grilled / smoked some of the sausage in the drum BBQ. The resulting sausages turned out to be very tasty.

Sausage cooking
Grilling the sausages slowly in the drum BBQ
Sausage ready
The gift-packed ready to eat product

The mystery continues

This time no solar system but something else.

On the picture two completed parts that form part of it.

loom
These are not clocks
Gate

Spring Festival

This year no activity during Spring Festival at the Giants Republic.

But in accordance with local tradition new gate decorations were put up and some incense burned by the landlady and her family.

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Sunscreen

When I returned to the Giants Republic after Chinese new-year I found that the sunscreen was broken.

The metal hook in the wall that keeps up the steel wire had snapped off. On top of that the fabric of the screen itself had ripped to shreds.

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Given the amount of UV radiation here it was expected that the fabric one day would give up and therefore a spare sheet was in stock. This new sunscreen was soon up and this was needed as well because it became very sunny.

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Renewed road

Road
The resurfaced road five hundred metres before the Giants Republic. Looks like we have a LGBTQ+ zebra-crossing.

Not much going on at the Giants Republic so some pictures from outside.

Granny
However the text states "Beautiful green scenery, enjoy your trip"

The big pile of earth on the middle of the picture is from digging a hole for an electricity pylon. Apparently they are upgrading the power grid as well.

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