Wind at last!

This morning when I took the dogs out for their morning walk there was a full rainbow in the sky.   I wished momentarily for a cell phone so I could call Luke to tell him to come out and look since I was already a ways off, but I realized that it was just one of those fleeting moments that would have to pass by. 

The wind finally started blowing last night and we have electricity for a little while!  Last night as we made dinner we were able to listen to music and charge the battery on the computer.   That is what I miss most about not having power—the ability to listen to music whenever I want.   The littlest things are so exciting now…being able to listen to a few songs, not having to wear a headlamp while making dinner, and only having the dogs wake us up one time last night!   The sound of the wind sends us into a flurry of excitement, but we try not to get our hopes up because in order for us to get power the wind needs to blow at 20 km/h for 2 hours.  The other day Luke accidentally knocked over the windmill and we had been really nervous about whether or not it would still work after we resurrected it.   But all is well!    

The temperature has been warming a bit.  After a week of waking up to 20 degree weather and shivering for the first four hours of the day, hovering by the fire, the past few mornings have been much milder.    I am able to compose this post at the comfort of the ranch and copy and paste it later when we go into town thanks to the wind.  My mind works a little better here.

We are overwhelmed with the number of eggs we have to eat on any given day.  My already high cholesterol is sure to take a beating from these weeks of trying to incorporate eggs into nearly every meal.  I am learning things I had not expected to learn here due to our need to experiment with limited food.  We make our own nut milk, and our major “vegetable” source comes from lentils that we sprout in mass quantities.  It is slim pickings in terms of what is available to purchase, and to buy anything we must drive an hour into town.  I have been baking fresh bread and homemade tortillas. 

We both spend time each day studying Spanish, and things are coming along in that respect.  The Spanish they speak here in Patagonia is almost like it’s own dialect.  When people speak to me in town I only catch about 50 percent of what they are saying.  It reminds me of being in Sicily and not knowing what they heck people were talking about even though my Italian was pretty good (much better than my Spanish is now).   Here, our interactions with other Spanish speakers are so rare as well that it isn’t such an issue, but we need to make an effort to improve our Spanish so that when we hit the road we’ll be in good shape.

I hope that the warm summer days and nights are finding everyone well.  It’s hard to imagine summer right now as I look out the window at snow capped mountains!  

One week out

We've been here at the ranch for a little over one week, and things are beginning to settle into a routine of sorts.  Mary Ann (the caretaker of the ranch) just left two days ago, so Luke and I are making it work with the six dogs now.  We are both a bit surprised at how much of our responsibilities entail the care of these six dogs.  It feels like we are caring for six two year olds.  Today as we attempted to leave the ranch to go to town to do some emailing, four of the dogs chased us down the road, and Luke, forever a softie, let them all in.  We sleep in a little room that is separate from the main house of the ranch, and now that Mary Ann is gone we were instructed to leave a low window open in the night so the dogs could go out as they needed.  We tried that the first night, and the dogs barked incessantly outside throughout the night until Luke finally shut the window and closed them in.  When I went in the main house in the morning to make a fire, I was greeted by piles of poop and vomit!  It was a bit of a frustrating first morning on our own.  Last night we tried for round two, and once again, at about three in the morning, incessant barking ensued.  We just dealt with it, opting for lack of sleep over poop and vomit again!  We're really hoping the pooches are just adjusting to life without mama.

Having natural light entirely dictate your activities has its enchantments.  Now at around six o'clock we must begin lighting candles, get our headlamps within reach, and make sure that a fire is burning in the wood stove in order to do the cooking for the evening.  The days have been surprisingly warm, but as soon as the sun drops behind the mountains, which happens around 5, the temperature plummets.   This morning we awoke to a thick frost on the ground.

Life is peaceful here, and so simple.  It's a throw back to another time period without any of the amenities that we take for granted every day.  I've thought a lot about this since we got here, how we run the water while doing the dishes, the energy we use to run the refrigerator in the dead of winter when we could keep so many things outside.  Here there is a refrigerator that sits outside unplugged.  It's cold enough that there is no need for power.  I don't know that I would want to live a life like this indefinitely, but it feels good to gain some perspective on the things that we consume and use up without too much thought.  Although as I type this post and my fingers are numb with the cold, I wouldn't mind some heat!

Jon, who is a  guide here, has offered to take us out into glacier territory when they return from the north in a month or so.  Our days are tied to the ranch now, so we are both excited about the opportunity to be able to get out and experience some of the wildness of this territory.  It's amazing that there are still parts of the world that are as untouched by civilization as this place is here.  The only reason we even have access to the internet is because Jon has it for his guiding business.  He is the only person in the town who has it, and there is no phone reception here!  You need to drive an hour to use the phone, and after that it's another seven hours until the next town.  The "highway" is a dirt road filled with potholes that are so bad people here need to change their shocks twice a year!

My fingers are frozen and Luke is awaiting the computer, so it's hasta luego for now.