CommUnity

It has been a long while since we last posted, but this blog will explain why!!!

Community...

Since our last post 1 month ago (time is flying!) Alec and I have traveled South of Buenos Aires to Mallin Ahogado (drowning waters), an alternative farming community just north of El Bolson. Yet again, we have been fortunate to find welcoming and friendly people. In our time here, we have gotten to know many people in the community to the point where we go to town and run into familiar faces.

The community here is unique, one that neither Alec nor I have ever experienced. Here, many people compost their food and feed it to the soil. They recycle their bottles and reuse them for other storage. They collect their plastic bags, stuff them in containers, and use them for insulation in alternative building designs. The majority of people here are conscious. Conscious for their own personal reasons. Some practice alternative ways of living for cost, others for environment. Either way, Alec and I are witnessing practices that are having a positive impact. We are also learning different ways to use and reuse the various daily products produced by nature as well as by man.

We have had the opportunity to attend workshops on alternative building and permaculture; and in the near future, biodynamic farming. We have been working on a biodynamic farm named `La Paciencia` (patience). For Alec, he has been brought back full circle as he grew up on a biodynamic farm.

For the last three weeks, we begin our day on La Paciencia at 7:30am (including Saturday and Sunday - the farm life doesn´t sleep in).

We start our day milking cows and from the milk we have learned to make butter, cheese, and ghee (clarified butter). We work with chickens every day, feeding them and collecting their eggs. We had the opportunity to learn how to kill, pluck, and gut 7 chickens, something Alec has experience with from childhood.

We have also been working in the greenhouse. According to the biodynamic calendar that closely follows planetary cycles(http://www.stellanatura.com), the optimal time for seeding and transplanting was on November 18th and 19th, of which we spent the majority of the day doing. To our surprise, directly after seeding it began to pour.


We have also learned how to make beer. Right down the road lives a German man they call Cuba, who makes and sells beer. He also teaches beer making every Monday. We attended one of his classes and left that night feeling good:) We found out that there is a ping pong table in town that Cuba is the champion of...he and Alec have a match in the near future!!!

Alec and I have made some friends here and attended a couple of farm parties. We have spent our days getting to know the community, practice our Spanish, and learn how to live life more sustainably.
One of the things that we most love about Mallin Ahogado is its barter system(trueque). Here, they try their best not to exchange money. Every Saturday there is a market a couple of miles down the road. The community gathers, brings what their farm produces, and exchanges.

Alec and I have been inspired, and continue to be inspired, by the people surrounding us. Not everyone here practices these systems, and of course, not everyone here gets along. One Saturday, Alec and I arrived where the market should have been to find none, but instead a group of locals in a circle having a heated discussion. These group of locals had been supporting one another and their farms, but as the idea of expanding the group was considered, anger arose and people began to leave the group.

So our only excuse of not being attentive bloggers is that we have been attentive community members. We have been learning, working, and talking a lot...as we will continue to do. And as for Alec and I we are coming closer to knowing what lives we want to create and/or be a part of in our own home, and in our own lives.

A conscious community is imperative to the survival of our planet. Mallin Ahogado is an amazing example of the honest and hard commitment of a community trying to positively support our environment. It is the hard working farmers that we will all turn to when our computers fail, when technology ceases to exist. If there is one important lesson that Alec and I will take from Mallin, it is to learn to be more sustainable and to always treat our earth with respect!:)


p.s. We promise to try our best to keep this blog more up to date...even if it is just posting a few pictures sometimes. We encourage you all to register as followers, and pass on this site to anyone interested. In the future there hopefully will be a growing conversation between you the viewers and us the doers..(we always apprectiate your comments) Thank you for all your thoughts and support!!