The story so far:  As the result of a very early frost, we had been told not to water our vines any more this autumn so that they would go dormant for the winter. Yesterday we  learnt that the irrigation water to all the farms in the area was going to be cut off for 2 to 3 months for canal maintenance and to conserve water as the levels in the lakes up in the Andes were so low. (Normally water is only cut for a month for cleaning and usually it is cut in June). This totally changed what all of us in the area had been planning to do, so we needed to give the vineyard a really good soaking to help the plants survive over the extra long dry spell.

No problem, except that we had already started to fill in the vineyard’s irrigation system in order to install the permanent system for next spring. Our turn for the irrigation water started at a few minutes after 12:00, so it was an early start Tuesday to clear the ditches in order to allow water along them.

And that was when the mostly unplanned ‘busy day’ started:

On the way to the farm we stopped to chat to two neighbours about the last irrigation of the autumn and to arrange who takes water and when.  Then off to the farm to start to move lots of earth out of the small ditches that feed the vineyard so that we could irrigate it.

Shortly after arriving on the farm, Graciela sent a message to our builder to see if he had a start date for the house building. Much to our surprise he said he was on the way to our farm and would start initial marking out this afternoon! The lack of water in the main canal for the next 3 months seriously jeopardised the building work as he needed the water to compact the earth where the footings were to go.

So, frantic digging out of irrigation ditches took place and with just 20 minutes before starting the 2 hour long job of irrigating the farm, the builder arrived to look at the site we had chosen for the house.

The original “casita” had been demolished by us, the old footings removed and back filled with earth and rubble. But he needed the area flat and raised above the level of the irrigation ditch so we would not flood. Panic! We had only the afternoon to move tons of earth, so it was off to a neighbouring farm to see if we could borrow an earth mover to fit behind our tractor.

Back to the farm, spend 2 hours irrigating it, send the water to the next neighbour downstream, then take the tractor to collect the earth mover. Our farm would now need a new entrance for the building site so that lorries and cars could get access, therefore a new entrance was also needed.

The earth mover’s attachment would not fit our tractor’s 3 point linkage - but a solution was found and the earth mover was fitted to the 3 point with chains – and it worked! The farmer’s son came along to give us a hand levelling the site, so I picked up our brush cutter and started creating a new farm entrance close to the building site. This involved cutting down some small trees and clearing an area of scrub from the municipality (council) land.

Clearing the brush to create a new entrance had a dampening effect on everything. Not for any emotional reason, but due to our neighbour being so keen to take the last drop of water, his irrigation ditch was overflowing and water had seeped into the work area. As the light, sandy earth of the entrance filled with water it turned into quicksand, so work squelched to a halt.

Whilst I worked on the entrance, Sergio, the farmer’s son, used the tractor to drag earth onto the bilding site and then started to level it.

It was now near dusk and the builder, Hector, turned up and despite frantic pleas from me, he drove up the new entrance and promptly sunk up to his rear axles in mud. Never mind, we would pull him out with the tractor later on.

Hector approved the huge amount of work that Sergio had done with the earth mover and whilst Sergio finished off, Hector started to work out the height the floor level should be so that the house could not be flooded.

Four stakes were placed on the site ready for work tomorrow when we would compact the earth before digging the footings.

Sergio went home, I pulled Hector’s pickup out of the mud, and as we tidied away our tools we decided to have a take away and a bottle of wine to celebrate a busy day.

And the start of a new phase, the construction of our house on the farm.