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!