I´ve been on the farm for a week and a half. It´s taken some getting used to, but I´m liking it more now.
The farm is on a mountain, about 45 minutes from the town of El Bolson in Patagonia. There are 30 hectares of land, but most of it is unused and activity is centered around 2 abode houses- one for the family and one for volunteers. There are 10 other volunteers here, something I wasn´t expecting. It´s a weird mix of people and a little tough because I no hablo español and have no idea what´s going on most of the time. I´ve made some friends here- a cool Swedish couple and a hysterically funny American girl- but they´re leaving this weekend. We´re getting 5 new people this week, so we shall see... it´s close living quarters, so the people matter a lot and, depending on the mix, I may stay at the farm another 2 weeks or leave at the end of next week and go traveling in Patagonia.
Daily life at the farm consists of- getting up at 8am and making breakfast. We have to make all of our food completely from scratch, a time consuming process. As most of you know, I love to cook, but I mostly find it a pain here due to lack of things like a fridge and a real oven (more on that later). Work starts at 9am and mostly consists of construction projects as they´re not completely finished with the houses. Last week I insulated our house with straw, sealed it with a mixture of clay, sand and straw, and then finished it off with a smoother layer made of horse poo, sand and clay. Apparantly, this reduces the amount of firewood needed to heat the house by like 90%. I don´t know, it´s still really cold inside.
I told them that I´m a painter, so this week, they showed me how to make natural paint out of flour, water, chalk and powdered pigment. I got to help mix the colors and then paint the inside of the greenhouse and also the fine detail work on the outside of the house. I hope to buy some of the pigments in town and incorporate what I´m learning into my studio work.
We eat lunch together around 1 or 2pm and then lay around and drink mate for an hour or so and avoid going back to work. We finish work at 6pm and then have some free time before dinner (unless I´m on cooking duty). If it´s not raining, I´ll go off and explore the area and have some time to myself.
The other day, I went with the Swedes and the American to the neighboring dairy farm to buy fresh cheese and eggs. It´s about a 45 minute hike down the mountain from our farm, over the river and through the woods (literally). The farm is owned by an awesome German couple and the stuff they sell is amazingly rich and delicious. I feel lucky to be doing things like that.
But I think the hardest things to get used to here are the lack of conveniences and lack of independence. I came here to live simply and get away from it all, but by conveniences I mean things like a hot shower every day and a real heater (we use a wood stove to heat the house, the hot water, and as our oven to bake our daily bread). I´ve grown accustomed to having dirt everywhere and having to make more of an effort do things that I took for granted before, but still, sometimes I just want to throw out a chip bag and not think about where it´s going and have to walk it outside to bring it to the plastics only area.
The lack of privacy is also tough for me. I was hoping to sleep in my tent, but it´s been so cold at night that it´s not really possible. So I sleep on the floor in the upstairs of the volunteer house with the others. We are in such tight quarters and so interdependent for just the basic living stuff. You run out of things to talk about and get sick of the same people, so things in the house can get really awkward and boring. I try to go off by myself whenever I can, but I think this makes the others perceive me as snooty or unfriendly (ironic since most of them are French).
Overall though, I really like living off the grid in a self sufficient way. Everything is work and everything is hard, but it´s more real than just turning on a switch and having everything done for you. I was hoping to do more actual farming though. They have a small gardent, but it´s been too cold to work in. I´m hoping to go to a different farm in January, in Mendoza, to get some actual farming experience. My American friend was there previously and recommended it, so hopefully they need some more volunteers. I think I´ve gotten a good idea of life on this farm and will be ready for something different.
Ok, going to upload some new pictures then off to the market to meet my friends and get some food!
