ONE MONTH!!!

Bienvenidos a Chile! 

Hi all! Thanks for being here. My lovely husband Connor and I are officially in the Patagonia region in the south of Chile. I’ve had to say that maybe 100 times since getting here for it to actually set it. It has officially been one week since arriving, and BOY has it been eventful!

After a 26 hour travel day involving 4 flights, an hour bus ride, taxi ride, and a 30 minute walk downhill with our packs, we finally arrived to the Fundo (farm). We found our place we were told to stay in, what they call their “sheep shed,” and made ourselves at home. Two twin beds and a sink in a closet-like space is pretty cozy, but we have found our way (thanks to Connor and his years of organizational practice). The next morning we met all the people on the farm which includes a family of four that owns it, a ranch hand with his wife and baby, and then two other temporary helpers who are here for the rest of the month of April. 

The farm here uses the model of regenerative farming with cattle and sheep as their main focus. We were put to work right away with learning the daily tasks of feeding all the animals. The chickens and pigs in the morning, the dogs and pigs in the afternoon. LOTS of buckets of oats and raw meat. In between those daily tasks, we were given others involving harvesting apples (a lot of tree shaking, squatting to pick up apples, and snacking on them), cutting and gathering firewood, cleaning gutters, and other miscellaneous tasks. It has been a lot of movement throughout the day, but has been keeping us busy and sleeping well. We have been eating a lot of delicious cow and lamb this first week, and they sure do taste different being fully grass fed and pasture-raised. The water is from a fresh spring and has been amazing to drink! 

After a week of being here, the shock has definitely dissipated. The first couple of days were a bit of “What did we get ourselves into?” And “Where are we?” But it is wild how quickly the human brain and body adjusts and adapts to new situations. We are already finding our own comfort and routines. 

Some new things we’ve learned this week:

• Chilean Spanish is extremely challenging to understand. I had heard this before, but you really don’t know something until you are in it. The different words they have for various items as well as their accent is a tough combo for us learning folk. 
• Pigs eat LITERALLY everything. Like egg shells, rinds of fruits and vegetables, animal carcass, everything. They are also the loudest creatures ever. Especially when they are getting their testicles chopped off (another fun task we got to be a part of).
• Chickens have a peak of egg producing years ranging from 6 months to 1 year, where they can produce up to 1 egg per 16 hours. It starts to decrease after 1.5 years. 
• Everyone has different levels of cleanliness and ideas of what “trash” and “usable” look like.  I am learning that I can tolerate the sensation of being dirtier and doing dirtier tasks than I thought I could. 

Our plan is to stay on this farm through the month of May. It is Chile’s fall season right now and the weather is definitely getting chillier and rainier by the day. Hoping to share more as we progress in our journey. 

We miss and love all our friends and family. It has been amazing to actually be here and do what we set out to do, no matter how challenging. We appreciate all the support from everyone who pushed us to go out and do it!

With love, 

Abby and Connor