Life on the Farm – Part II

Lago Rupanco, Chile

I’m sure it’s easy to see from my previous post that this farm isn’t your typical farm. There are animals, but the main focus here is to create a permaculture system to provide for the nearby community and act as a retreat and learning center for those that want to visit. (I could do a whole post on permaculture itself, but if you’re not familiar with the concept, I’d recommend reading this article.)

Daily Schedule

8:00 – 9:00am – wake up & get breakfast ready. Our breakfasts were usually oatmeal, bread with jam, fruit salad, and eggs for those that wanted them

9:30am – clean up dishes & such from breakfast and get ready for work

9:30am – 2:00pm/2:30pm – work around the farm (see below)

2:30pm – 3:30pm – lunch time!

3:30pm – Bedtime – clean up from lunch & free time for the afternoon/evening. We would do anything during this time from hiking to the nearby waterfall, walking the 30 minutes to the barn (always with the dogs. Whether you wanted their company or not!), reading one (or ten) of the hundreds of super interesting books here, etc.

What Exactly Did We Do?

The awesome thing about staying at this farm was the total range of things we did each day. Hardly any two days were alike! On our very first day, I made bread. This may not sound like a big deal, but it becomes one when the oven used is fire powered. First, you have to make a fire. Then you made the dough. No measurements were used, just a crap tonne of flour; some crushed corn flakes, barley & wheat seeds; a handful of salt; a hearty sprinkle of yeast; and enough warm water to make it sticky. Who needs a recipe??? After we divided the dough into bread pans, we put them on a rack above the stove to rise a little bit. After about 30 minutes, the fun of baking begins. The oven has 2 shelves, and the way that the heat circulates through the stove means that the top left side gets the most heat. This means rotating the pans every fifteen minutes or so in a sort of dance that involves trying to avoid burning the crusts while simultaneously avoiding opening the door to the oven which would let the precious heat out. After about an hour, the bread should be finished! Mac & I both took turns making bread and we each made about 10 loaves (we go through bread like mad here! The one other volunteer that was here with us ate at least 2 slices with every meal!). We’ll enjoy some bites of the warm, fresh bread (so good!), before bagging up most of the loaves to put in the freezer. We usually made bread about once a week.

Thankfully, not all of our jobs were as involved or stressful as bread making! One task that we did the most of was stacking & chopping wood. Mac got very good at axe handling over our 4 weeks on the farm! I even managed to chop a few too! (With only minimal injuries…) We stacked piles of wet wood to dry out, piles of dry wood to use in the fire, and piles of freshly cut wood to just get out of the way! After our 3rd pile, we became pretty good at the art of stacking!

One project that Mac & I tackled with gusto was building a retaining wall. We sought out big rocks from all over the property and hauled them to the site. After we had perfected the slope of the wall, we got to work making a sturdy barrier out of rocks. Similar to stacking wood, building a retaining wall of rocks was kind of like a big puzzle!

Other chores we did included: hauling loads of soil to the new garden beds, feeding the chickens (a daily activity), planting rose hip seeds, transplanting shrubs & bushes, etc.

The only downside to our experience was when it rained for NINE DAYS STRAIGHT!!!! Obviously there were some stretches of time where it didn’t rain, but those times were filled with wind, grey & cloudy skies, and cool temperatures. We spent the days going stir crazy inside. Finally, the rain went away and we pretty much RAN outside and just stood in the sunlight! Oh happy days!

Like I said, the insane amount of constant rain was the only negative of our time on the farm. In my next post, I’m going to share some of my favourite experiences from our month spent on Lago Rupanco!