Fotos de Spencer

Just across the Rio Azul

Here are some photos from a friend´s iPod taken during the last few weeks I spent at the farm. I´ve left now, and am headed south to see a bit more of Patagonia. At the moment I´m in El Chalten, near the Fitzroy Range and Parque Nacional Los Glacieres (the world´s largest icefield outside of the polar regions). The meteorgram is predicting exceptionally good weather wednesday, thursday & friday this week. So I´m kicking around town one more day before I head out for a few days in the mountains. More to come soon!

The farmyard just after a rain

Alex with a harvest box

Harvesting wheat

Rio Corcovado, near pillan mauhisa

On route 40 enroute from Corcovado to Bolsón

Mari Chi Weu!

Pillan Mauisa- translates to Sacred Mountain

Here are some photos from the week I spent at Pillan Mauisa, a Mapuche community near Corcovado, Argentina. Spencer and I spent a week here, helping to prepare for the Mapuche Nation´s first annual enviromental conference. The photos below are courtesy of Llanka and Rain, and were taken during the conference.

Otra semana ha pasado

Looking over Bolsón with Piltri in the background.

Otra semana ha pasado en la granja. No puedo creer que he estado aquí dos meses ya! Hemos pasado el pico de verano y ahora la temporada está terminando. El ajo ha sido colgada a la curación, las chicas están empezando a madurar, los tomates son de maduración, y las moras están empezando a color. Estamos empezando a borrar camas de la planta de abono verde de invierno. La vida es buena!

Momma #1

Cosecha de Ajo. Lo colgamos de seco.

Rosita: don´t mess with this cow.

Tao is one of the most intelligent dogs I´ve ever encoutered. I caught him here at one of his less flattering moments.

Sunset in Valle Azul.

Lo Que Pasado

Un arco iris sobre el bordé. Argentina en el fondo.

¿Que onda amigos? Aprendía mucho castellano en las semanas pasadas. Voy a provar escribir todo en mi nueva lengua. Perdon, habrá mucho errores, pero creo que puedo comunicar mis adventuras suficientemente. Vamos a ver.

En la semana pasada me fui en dos mochila viajes a las montañas. Primero me fui a Motoco con Mariano, un amigo de El Hoyo, y Jenna de nuestra granja. Motoco es un valle muy escarpado. El camino seguía el Rio Motoco para 25 km a un refugio muy tranquilo y aislado. Encontramos un lugar muy especial donde el rio estrecha y formar una piscina 3-4 meteros profunda. Estaba un piedro perfecto para saltando. Estaban muchas vistas panoramica, de el valle y los picos escarpado y irregular. Dos horas más arriba del refugio, esta un bosque de alerces que son 2,000-3,000 años viejo.¡Que lindo!

El dia despues me volveré de Motoco, me fui a Chile para extender mi visa. Esto tiempo, me fui con Hernan (Bonsi) y Juan (Juanpi), algunos amigos de Buenos Aires, su amigo Leandro, Racheal y Jeremy de la granja. El camino empeza cerca Lago Puelo y seguiá el bordé de Puelo, y despues Lago Inferior. Los dos primeros dias, lluvió mucha. Caminamos en la lluvia toda la tarde, cruzando rios y arroyos a veces casi un metero profundo. Estuvimos todo mojado y frio. Acampamos circa el Gendarmaria, la pratrulla fronteriza Argentine. Lluvió toda la noche y la mayor parte de el dia siguiente. A veces, estuvo un camino duro, pero no estamos demasiado incómodo y tuvimos buena onda. La lluvia estaba necesitario porque estaban inccendios forestal cerca El Bolsón. Cerca el bordé de Chile, el bosque transforma en selva fria. Encotramos muchos lugares hermosos en el camino, que eran imposibles de describir con una foto. Esta tiempo, se tuve solo un vistazo de Chile, pero voy a volver. El ultimo dia caminamos más de 25 km. Por suerte, estaba soleado y podrimos ver el camino en una luz differente. Creo que me fui más de 100 km in 5 dias.

Vida en la granja esta bien. Ha habido muchas visitantes. Yo encontraba muchas personas muy buena. Nuestro trabajo ahora se centra en la cosecha de frutas. Haciámos dulce con cerezas, frambuesas, grosellas, y corintos. Semana siguente vamos a cosechar mas corintos para hacer chutney. Hay dos gallinas se sienta, y esperamos a tener casi 30 pollitos en una semana, mas o menos. Ahora trabajo en la huerta esta más tranquilo, y se hace muchas verduras. ¡Es la época de la temporada!

Algunas cosas desafortunadas haber pasado también. Mi amigo Patrick fue picado por una viuda negro. Despues de tres dias en el hospital, él se vuelve a la granja ayer. Hace mejorando, pero él tiene mucho, mucho dolor. ¡Queremos que te recupere rapidamente Patricio!

La selva fria de Chile.

Lago Las Rocas.

Lago Puelo en el dia soleado.

Provando hacer seco en la mañana.

Izquierda a derecha: Racheal, Jeremey, Bonsi, y Juanpi.

¿Que pasa? Abajo o arriba una pasarela en el camino a Motoco.

Rio Motoco. Piscina natacíon a la izquierda.

¡Dulce dulce dulce dulce dulce!

Feliz Año Nuevo

Cañon Rio Raquel, no lejos arriba Rio Azul de la granja.

Un foto artistica.

Vivo en esta cabaña con un altra persona. Es simple, perro es refugio.

Pasé Navidad aqui.

Un altra foto de la granja.

Vistas de Valle Azul

A view of the southern end of the valley Azul

Granja Valle Pintado. The community kitchen on the left, garden in the center, and grain field to the right.

Further up the valley. Our farm is the little green patch furthest to the right.

This week I had a chance to hike around a bit. I spent yesterday afternoon exploring the umarked network of trails on the eastern ridge. I found some beautiful views of the valley and a wild cherry tree full of sweet ripe fruit! There´s a lot more to explore. Just a few kms up river from us a fork of the Azul turns up a steep gorge towards Hielo Azul, the glacier at it´s head waters. Further south the river empties into Lago Puelo, a beautiful lake sitting on the Argentine Chilean border. I´ll explore both in the next few weeks.

It´s been a busy week on the farm. I´ve been focusing on pest managment, and construction of the new invernadero (greenhouse). Aphids are starting to show up in our brasillicas, and pilmes are reaking havoc in the favas and potatos. We don´t use any chemicals on the farm, so our pest managment strategies involve strategies like not weeding in well established beds to create pest habitat, and hand removal. When we make sweeps through a bed to remove pests, we dump them in a bottle containing water and a little bit of oil. We leave the bottles full of the pests near hot spots. Within a few days it begins to ferment and the bugs clear out. Usually u can protect a 10-15 meter radius with one well filled bottle. Other strategies are the use of ash, crushed eggshells, and fermented herb solutions. Every pest/plant combo requires a unique solution.

I´ve been reading a lot since I´ve been here. I just finished One Straw Revolution by Mirukami Fukouka, the Japanese farmer famous for achieving very high yeilds with a very passive approach. He talks a lot about the infiriority of human developed systems in comparison with the complexity of nature, pointing out the inherent instability of a cultivated ecosystem and the many advantages of farming methods with mimic natural ecosystems and allow plants to follow thier natural form or life cycle as closely as possible. Some pretty interesting points. My favorite being "the farmers greatest tool is observation". I´ve also been reading about how to hatch and raise a new batch of chickens. We´ve started to allow eggs to stack up in a few nests to stimulate brooding. We aim to hatch 60, hoping to raise 30-40 new hens, and harvest about half of our current flock. Yum!!!

Another thing that has really peaked my interest is fermentation! I´ve been reading a couple of books on culturing, brewing and other fermentation processes (Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods by Sandor Elix Katz, and Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers: The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation by Stephen Buhner). Did you know humans were making a primitive form of mead (fermented honey and water) well before we´d figured out how to manage fire!? The world of fermentation is super interesting! I love the idea of using all sorts of tiny creatures to render unique artisan brews, breads, preserves, cheeses, and other things. Fermented food posses some amazing probiotic properties, and are really darn good. I´ve already had a chance to help with brewing some lemon rose-hip wine, an IPA pale ale (the locals pronouce it "eepah pawleh awleh"), and some ginger ale. I have also started keeping kefir! I´ve had some experience with a different form of kefir in the past that eats milk and renders a yogurt-like superfood. This is a different kind though. This sort of kefir eats a sugar water solution, and creates a slightly carbonated, very refreshing, and nutritious drink. I am maintaining two jars at the moment. I´ve added slices of oranges and peaches for flavoring in the large one. Lemon, mint and sage in the smaller. We drink a bit every couple of days and refill the jars with fresh agua y azucar integral. It´s very simple.¡Y que rico!

My Kefir expierement!

Musica Americana del Sur

It´s crazy how easy it´s been to get by without electricity! I rarely think about it. Probably the toughest thing for me is the inability to listen to recorded music. Fortunately there are lots of talented musicians around, and we make our own. They´ve introduced me to some of their favorite South American artists. I really like a lot of them, particularly some of the old folksters. Here are a couple: