Posts Tagged ‘Andes’

We have been without a drop of rain for over 4 months and have been nearly 3 months without a drop of irrigation water. The farm is looking like a desert and the well has dried up. When you walk anywhere a cloud of dust rises from your footsteps and coats you with a fine, grey layer.

Yesterday (29th July) it rained! And not the normal quick downpour, but a fine drizzle all day long. At last the dust has settled and the moisture is actually penetrating the ground.
Then, last night, it snowed and has continued to snow all day. At the time of writing we have had a good foot of snow which is a blessing as the melt water will help fill the dams up in the Andes.

Snow in the town of San Rafael

Here, in this part of Argentina we received a foot of snow in a few hours. All the transportation systems are still running, there is no panic buying in the supermarkets and no panic queues for petrol. Life goes on normally, except that work outdoors and in the fields stops. Not at all like in more ‘civilised’ countries where an inch of snow brings everything to a complete stand still.

Winter time

It is still snowing, late in the evening, which means that the skiers will be out in the higher mountains, the rivers will fill up and we will be able to water before spring growth starts.

The house building has come to a halt with the change in the weather, but we are not complaining.

April has been a busy month and one which has seen dramatic changes as we enter autumn.

We have had a couple of days of high winds followed buy some early morning frosts and a steady drop in day time temperatures.  The trees are stunning as autumn paints their leaves in infinite shades of green and brown and yellow. Our vines were caught by one of these frosts and at first we were terrified we had lost them all. Apparently not, provided daytime temperatures continue to fall, and provided we do not water them (and it does not rain either), they will start to go dormant for the winter.
A big sigh of relief all round.

Our first section of perimeter fence (last month’s post) now has all 7 wires fitted and tensioned and the wooden spacers wired in place. It looks impressive when viewed from outside the farm and well worth the effort. Only another 300 yards to go!

All 7 wires are now in place

Our quinces ripened and we harvested some to make our own quince cheese (Dulce de Membrillo) and quince jelly (Jalea de Membrillo).

Harvesting quinces

The best fruit was selected

Selected quinces for the cheese and jelly

and once again our kitchen became a jam factory

Quinces in the pan

And now we have quite a selection of home made jams to last us the year.

Our home made jams

At the time of writing a fruit buyer has purchased the rest of our crop but we are still waiting for him to turn up with a lorry and gang of pickers.

Hare hunting with dogs (usually greyhounds) is a very popular pastime here. Many a time we have seen and heard them hunting close by the farm. The other day, when we drove into our entrance, we saw a group of men and dogs at the far end of one field. We drove over to where they were and chatted with them and explained, politely, that we did not want any hunting or shooting on our farm. No problem, they accepted our request and left.

A hare hunter leaves the farm with his dogs

And his friend leaves too

Now that autumn has arrived the whole farm is covered in a carpet of fallen leaves.

27 acres of leaves to sweep up!

Next time you moan about having to sweep up the leaves in your garden, spare a thought for us with around 5 kilometers ( about 3 miles) of various sized irrigation diches to keep clear of fallen leaves!

Ditches become nature's collages at this time of year

But with scenes like this it is a pleasure to rake them up.

Although we are only about 115 miles from the highest peaks of the Andes the atmospheric conditions can considerably change how much of them are actually visible to us. From our viewpoint there seem to be 3 or 4 groups of peaks behind each other. This picture was taken from near the farm on a rare day when the tallest, snow covered peaks were visible. Later, on the drive home it was getting cloudier and the tallest peaks became visible, showing themselves above the cloud layer. Impressive.

A rare glimpse of the snow covered peaks

Sorry, but it is artistic photo time again. This was taken as we left having just completed a night time irrigation of the vineyard.

The moon rises above the farm entrance

One year ago we left the UK to fulfill our dream of turning an unworked farm in the foothills of the Andes into a vineyard and our home.

Well, was all the hard work worth it?

This evening we harvested apricots until the sun went down behind the Andes. Then, as we walked across our newly planted vineyard in the moonlight, the fireflies lit up the posts and wires like little flashing white lights.

I think the answer can only be “Yes”.

Merry Christmas to all our friends.

Harvesting our apricots

Sunset over the Andes