January 5, 2010

Tim got up this morning to find that after a night of pouring rain we had no water in the above ground cistern that captures rainwater and has well water pumped into it.  First order of business this morning, in addition to getting a fire built in the stove, was to solve the lack of water dilemma.   It turns out that the cistern has a leak and despite torrential rains it had emptied.  Oh the joys of living off the grid.

When the stove finally heated the water in the kettle (yes, an old fashioned kettle) Tim and I had a cup of Yerba Mate which is a type of tea made in South America that is delicious.  Traditionally you tea leaves directly into a gourd, add water and let it steep.  Then it is drunk ceremonially from the gourd with one metal straw (that has small holes in the end to keep the tea leaves from ending up in your mouth) and passed from one person to the next.  Minus the gourd we both have a metal straw and drink from our own mugs.  The bumblebees introduced us to this traditional tea that we now love!! A man in the shop where I bought the straws said Yerba Mate is great spiked with Jack Daniels on a cold morning…I am not sure that anything could get me to drink Jack Daniels in the morning at this point in my life…well maybe something.  Graham has her “coffee” in the mornings.  It is a cereal that is finely ground and served like coffee with “milk dust” (again Graham’s word…powdered milk) and sugar.  She has also learned to love chamomile tea.  I am working on getting our shower working this morning.  We have been going down and showering in the bumblebees cabin thus far.  I have to make a square pvc curtain rod, hang the curtain, hook up the gas to the on demand hot water and stop a leak…then we shower here!!!!!

Another gorgeous day in the campo.  The below picture is of potatoes drying in my window and tomatoes ripening there too.  The potatoes are covered in dirt from being just ripped from the ground when you buy them here.  They grow tons of tomatoes in southern Chile.  Graham and Bennett have learned to like them already.