farming and such.

we´re still at la stala. not sure how long we´ll stay. i´m not sure this place is awesome for nancy´s soul. so we´re talking maybe language school for a month or so, maybe a farm where they speak english. i can imagine being around 6 people who speak a different language that you don´t know would be a bit difficult.
anyway, more about la stala: everyday we wake up at about 9. it´s really hot in the day time and really sunny. and at night it gets super cold. so at 9 we get dressed, go inside and eat breakfast and have tea. then we go out back and feed the pigs and the chickens and sometimes the rabbits. there are 4 pigs that are separated from the rest because they´re pregnant. and 2 of them are going to have baby pigs any day now. i can´t wait! the family sells the baby pigs for christmas. i think that baby pig is a traditional christmas food here. so they´re going to have like 50 pigs to sell. oh my. so after pig feeding we get the eggs from the chickens. and we start the work day. we pull weeds, cut oregano to dry it, put compost on the garden. last week we dug sort of trenches to water the grape vines. we did a pretty good job i think. it doesn´t rain too much here so the watering system involves one giant canal which is 300 meters away. you have to go there, block it off a little so the water is redirected through several people´s property down a little man-made canal and then directed to different parts of the farm, depending on where you want to water. then it goes down between each row of plants. and everything is muddy for three days.

we eat well. a lot of food. and at this point, i feel like i´m physically active enough that my food is just fuel. there is no recreational eating. i´m still not used to the dinner at 11 pm. i still would prefer a 7pm dinner and bed at 10 or 11.

i´m loving this place. tired, but loving it. i think the family is a little more comfortable with us now, because they bicker in front of us. kind of often. and they all have this like sing-songy whiney voice. except the mom. that can get annoying.

so today when we get back to the farm we´re going to have lunch then cut oregano and tie the grape vines to the fence-support thing above the vines. and then maybe weed some more and cut off chamomile flowers to dry for tea.

oh my goodness! this happened today: we use the dry bathroom, which is a composting toilet, which is outside. it´s like a little room with a toilet seat and a bucket underneath to catch all the business. so one scoop of sawdust gets put on pee and two scoops on poo. and you can pull the bucket out when it´s full and put it on the compost. so i did my business and i was scooping sawdust into the bucket and then appeared a dog head in the toilet! dulce is the dog´s name. she stuck her head in from outside the bathroom. oh my.

not sure when we´re heading out from here. or to where. i could stay a while but i think foo´s soul could use a change. so we´ll see.

i guess that´s it. i could use a bit more salad and fresh veggies and fruits in my diet. we eat tons and tons of bread. delicious, but a huge change from how í´ve eaten for the past year.

i´m looking extra forward to having my own farm and making it run how i want. seeing what works, growing my own foods.

but i think i´m learning more spanish, which is good. i´m thinking that to not overwhelm ourselves with learning yet another language, we´ll have a stop over in an english-speaking country for a bit after this. but who knows. at this point there are no definite plans at all......

much love,
katie