Posts Tagged ‘clay oven’

Having given up any hope of our container with all our possessions arriving in time for Christmas, we replanned what to do for the holiday period.

Our neighbours Ernesto and Victoria asked us over for Christmas Dinner, and we gladly accepted their kind invitation.  Here, Christmas Dinner is held late at night on Christmas Eve so it made sense to sleep on our farm instead of driving back to the hotel El Paso in the small hours.

In the evening of the 24th December we drove to the neighbours’ farm, dropped off the drinks and ice cubes that we had bought in the town, and then set up camp on our farm.

The back of the pickup was covered with blankets and sleeping bags to act as a mattress and the all important mosquito net was tied over everything in order to ward off determined attacks by starving insects.

Temporary bedroom

At about 10 pm we crossed the fields and joined Ernesto and Victoria.
An ambient temperature of about 20 degrees centigrade at night meant that the Christmas Dinner could be cooked outside in a clay oven.

Clay oven

Everyone sat around in the dusk talking and drinking with only the stars, moonlight and huge fireflies lighting up the scene. That is something we cannot see in the towns due to the light pollution.

As the food started to be ready it was taken into the farmhouse where everyone congregated, guided by the smell of empanadas, asado and wine.

Christmas Dinner is ready

As midnight came and Christmas Eve changed to Christmas Day we all toasted each other.

The Toast

All the food was grown and cooked on the farm. Only the drinks came from shops. And it was seriously tasty food too!

PS: If you look at one of the photos of Graciela outside you will see something hanging from hers belt. It is a swiss army knife which she received from me as a birthday present. Why such a romantic and girly present? A colleague from work kindly gave me one and it has seen much use. And Graciela wanted one too!!

In the early hours of the morning we walked across the fields to our ‘bed’ in the pickup by the light of an oil lantern. It was a wonderfully romantic experience.
As we lay in the back of the pickup we could see nebulas, planets and stars with incredible clearness and brightness. Also being 2000 feet up with no city close by helps enourmously.
Then, covered by the mosquito nets we watched the stars until we fell asleep…..

…. only to be woken up by something sniffing in my ear.
“Regalito*”, one of the neighbouring farm dogs had decided to guard us. And obviously part of this duty  neccesitated seeing we were OK by putting his front paws on the side of the pickup and looking inside.
Eventually Regalito went to sleep under the pickup, but we were still occassionally awoken by his tail thumping the underneath or the side of the pickup as he stood guard!

Our volunteer guard dog

Sunrise was a pleasure to watch and we were surprised at the amount of dew on the grass first thing in the morning.

Dawn

Time to undo the bed, pack up and head back to San Rafael for breakfast and Christmas Day.

Late Riser!

An outside toilet with full do it yourself facilities was also available to the early risers.

Outside Toilet

Finally, when packing up the bedding we discovered a recluse spider had joined us in the night despite the netting. As these spiders are venemous, it calls into question the efficiency of Regalito as a guard dog!!!

Unwelcome visitor

* Regalito means “Little gift or present”. In this case he really was one!!!!

Saturday morning and a visit to MACO again, where we bought a chainsaw to speed up the work.

Over the next four days we cut down trees, cleared up branches, dug out huge yucca plants, cleared ditches and even climbed down the well to inspect the state of it.

Removing Acacias from the track

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