Our past couple days at the estancia have been filled with not terribly exciting work, but occasionally we find something worth writing about to do. For example, this past week we helped to slaughter a sheep. That was not a regularly occurrence back in Schenectady. Skipping over the details, I will simply say the priests who slaughtered sheep in the Old Testament would have stunk after offering a lamb on the altar (we all took showers afterwards). The next day we ate some of the sheep and cut up the rest and stored it in the freezer.
One evening we had crepes for dinner (remember, the estancia owners are French). Jim and I both had the chance to cook our own crepes, complete with the turning the crepe by flipping it into the air! We had leftover batter, so the next morning we practiced our crepe flipping some more. Of course we didn’t mind eating the results of our efforts!
The weather finally stopped being unusual and started being usual. The unusual consisted of no wind and a dry heat. One day it was just over 100 degrees in the sun. Needless to say we sat in the shade until the heat subsided a bit. Now the wind is returned, likely to stay, since Patagonia is known for its wind. The windmills that generate the electricity have been spinning all day. The air is not cold, but the wind has a chilly bite to it that makes it slightly more uncomfortable than refreshing.
The owners of the ranch are about to leave for a two week vacation. Jim and I agreed to spend those two weeks at the other estancia they own, 15 miles from the one where we are currently living. The estancia we are going to does not have internet. Actually, it doesn’t even have electricity. It does have gas for the stove though. We thought we were in the middle of nowhere now, but apparently this other estancia is even more in the middle of nowhere. It was described to us like this, “You can see the cars from this estancia [they are little dots with lots of dust behind them]. At the other estancia, you can’t see the cars.” When the owners bought this remote estancia someone told them it was a prime location for a serial killer because it is in such a lonely location. Oh! And we need to watch out for the pumas too.
Con cuidado!
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