‘Wildlife’

We are now racing against the clock because winter is approaching and we have to get all the cement and brickwork completed before the temperatures start to fall towards freezing.

We designed the layout of the house that we wanted built and a Maestro Mayor de Obras designed the structural steel work that we would need. Looking at what happened in Japan and Chile recently we decided to implement the latest design of columns and footings to resist earthquake damage.

Tons of steelwork went into the house footings

The house will end up as a box made of reinforced concrete columns and beams infilled with bricks.
Our first lorry load of sand and gravel for the footings arrived and I was a bit worried that the temporary bridge would not hold its weight. It did and it was with a sigh of relief when the lorry tipped its load onto the farm.

The sand and gravel lorry crosses the temporary bridge into the farm

Unfortunately the lorry’s reverse gear had failed and he could not get out the way he entered. But we managed to get him across the farm and out of the main entrance in the end. (Later he turned up unexpectedly with a load of sand which we had not ordered. The whole front of the lorry was pushed in and the windscreen and glass windows were broken. He had had a head on collision with a van on the way to delivering to the wrong farm. Poor chap, not one of his best days).

The footings were poured and terminated above ground level so that the house could not flood if the irrigation ditch walls failed.

The raised footings

As the first building work started there were some additions we made to our original plans, such as adding a woodburner and a wood fired boiler.

Discussing the plans with the builder

Neighbours came to see how the construction was going on and also to see the house layout which  is designed to blend in with the local houses here and will be a single storey house with a pitched roof.

Marcelo dropped in on his way past to see how we were doing

At the time of writing this we have not had any rain for over 4 months and no irrigation water for nearly 2 months. The well on our farm has dried up and we are borrowing water from a neighbour’s well in order to keep work on the house progressing. But the wild life is suffering from the drought most of all. I had a number of 6 or 7 litre plastic bottles filled with water and spread out around the farm so we could water trees such as the lemons and pecans. Every one of the bottles has had it’s top bitten off or the bottle itself punctured. I assume it is foxes, wild cats and feral dogs desperate for water which have done the damage.

Wild animals desperate for water have drained all these bottles

For most of the last month we have been fighting off the weeds and ants that seem to attack the vineyard on a daily basis. But this has not been without a few laughs and ‘events’.

A line of soldier ants on their way to the vineyard

One of our farm boundaries runs between our internal irrigation ditch and the public irrigation supply canal for about 410 yards. The fence here was almost non existent, and when sections did appear out of the undergrowth, they consisted of a single strand of rusty barbed wire.

We had taken the decision some months ago to replace this fence with a traditional Argentine boundary wire fence – 7 very taught wires held apart every meter or so with wooden stretchers (varillas).  This is a  fence that keeps out animals as well as making it very difficult for humans too to cross. A contractor quoted us a stupid amount of money to for the work, so we decided to have a go ourselves. The posts were put in earlier in the year (see earlier post).

A homemade reel to hold the wire was constructed and a 1000 meter roll of 17/15 oval section wire was loaded onto it ready for the first  wire pull through a 110 meter section.

Home made wire reel holding a kilometer of wire

The first wire was difficult to pull through the posts as it had the weight of over 60 wooden spreaders (varillas) on it, but subsequent wires became easier and easier.

Wire pulling in progress through the forest section

By the time we had 5 out of the 7 wires in place it was beginning to look like a serious boundary fence at last. This is a view from the public side of the irrigation canal.

View from the public side of the fence

Just to the right of the post in the picture are a group of wooden spreaders waiting to be slid along the wires into place.

Until all 400 meters of wire is in place we have used temporary straining posts to take the force of the tension on the wires. Here some local watches the work going on.

Some chap kindly leans on the post to stop it falling over.

But, shortly after this picture was taken, I stepped down into our internal irrigation ditch only to see a huge snake laying on the damp earth. It was the largest snake I had seen outside a zoo, and at first I thought it was a rattlesnake. Graciela identified it as a Yarará ( Bothrops alternatus), known locally as a “Vibora de la Cruz”.  The snake was just under 6 feet (2 meters) long and about the diameter of my arm.

We presume it used to live quite happily in the rough land where the old fence ran, but our work had driven it out into our forest. So from now on it is knee length boots for fencing operations!

A Víbora de la Cruz - the most agressive poisonous snake in Argentina

At the time of writing we have completed all 7 wires on the first 110 meter run of fence – and at a cost of one eighth of the quote we were given.

Near to where we were erecting the wire fence there is a huge white fig tree. Last year its fruit never ripened. This year, due to it being watered every week, it is covered in green figs that are slowly turning slightly yellow and soft.
The figs do not all ripen at the same time and each day or so we collect a few handfuls to dry or eat.

White figs awaiting a little more time to ripen

On one side of the tree is a wasp’s nest the size of a football. They do not bother us when we walk past, nor do they get annoyed if we pick figs close to their nest. Well… not until the other day.

The wasp's nest in the fig tree

I was up a ladder using a long stick to get some ripe figs above the wasp’s nest and accidently knocked it. In a few seconds my head was covered in a black and yellow buzzing beret and I raced down the ladder and dissapeared across the farm heading for an irrigation ditch! As I ran I pulled off my T shirt to wipe the wasps off of my head.

Graciela said it looked like a cartoon with a long black cloud following my progress across the field. Fortunately for me these wasps are not aggressive and after a short while they left me and returned to their undamaged nest.

I was lucky as I was ‘only’ stung on my lips, in my mouth, on the back of my neck and on one arm. The stings have cleared up and now I treat the nest with respect.

The dog wonders what all the fuss is about.

When it is too hot, around noon time, I often take a siesta in a hammock. Graciela, meanwhile, opens up the portable office in the shade of the woodland.

The portable office in action

What a nice life!

Our weather has been awful this month. According to the local paper we have had nearly a whole year’s rainfall in just 2 days! For the first time since moving here we are actually thinking of not watering the farm as we have had so much rain. How different from last year when we saw no rain at all in the three month period December 2009 to February 2010. Let’s hope this is not a permanent state of affairs as the solar powered drier we built has not been capable of drying any fruit recently.

Apricots drying in the sun last month

The other day we were driving down one of the dirt roads to our farm when, passing a neighbour’s farm entrance, we saw their grandson waving us down. So we stopped and out came the neighbour, the family and all their dogs. After discussing the weather, horses, fruit prices, the lack of irrigation water, local gossip, the problems with teenagers and watching the dogs all play in the sun, they finally got to the reason they needed to stop us. Their tractor battery was no good and they needed a jump start very early  next morning so they could go cutting alfalfa.  It is a different rhythm in our part of the country as well as very different ( and politer) customs. How nice to be able to chat for nearly 2 hours before asking someone a favour. So different from the rush of modern city life.

The road to our farm

However, one not nice thing in this part of the world, especially around holiday times, is the number of pets abandoned by their owners in the country. We have seen many dogs by the side of the road and have come across wild dogs passing through the farm. Working near one of the irrigation ditches a couple of weeks ago we heard loud meows and went to investigate. Crawling out of the public irrigation canal were two very young kittens. We fed them and left them for a couple of days in our woodland, then Mary and Fred went all soft and we brought the cats home for them. The kittens are settling in but appear to be a little on the wild side!

The two abandoned kittens just out of the irrigation canal

There is a family of woodpeckers on the farm who have raised young. As they get used to us moving and working on the farm it is not unusual to have one perched close by.

One of the woodpeckers keeping an eye on us

Our vines plant should be pruned so that they do not produce grapes this year. Instead they are meant to put all their energy into growing. But we let a couple of plants grow a bunch or two so we could see and taste our first home produced grapes. As these are wine making grapes the skins are quite tough and full of taste (tannin) and very, very dark.

Our first bunch of real wine making grapes on the tractor bonnet

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