However, we're not really abandoned. There is a constant chatter or life all around us. Some are familiar like the baying of calves for their mothers while some are new sounds like the screeching of some strange bird crying that the sky is certainly falling. However, their sound mimics something made of metal and in the evenings they simply don't quit. We prefer the pleasant sounds of spring.
Christmas day we had visual phone calls with each of our kids and made traditional Johnson cinnamon rolls. Check out the brown sugar below. They call it azucar negra (black sugar) for a reason.
We decorated them with green cream cheese icing with nuts and raisins to decorate. They rightly resembled a cinnabon and made us feel at home. Note, we ran out of icing for the last one.
We had chicken and mashed potatoes along with green peas and salad made with tomatoes and red pepper. Looks "Christmasy" don't you think?
Parana, Argentina
We took a family to Parana a couple of weeks ago. The father, Jauncho, has a tumor the size of an orange and though it is not malignant, the doctors are treating it with chemo to try to reduce its size. His wife came with us and fortunately for us, their son who is 26 also came with us. I forgot the name of their helpful son, but we were sure glad he came to help us get around because this was Jauncho's first treatment, so no one knew exactly where to go and what to do except for their son who currently works at a college in Parana. While we waited for Juancho's treatment, helpful son showed us some fabric stores. More on that later
You see Parana is pretty modern and busy!In fact, Parana is very big with lots of crazy drivers and one way streets. After chemo treatments, Jauncho needed us to stop at a pharmacy for medication. The full hour or more we were double parked while waiting. Though we were clearly blocking traffic causing all to form one lane to go around us, we received no annoyed honks since this is apparently the norm. Good thing helpful son knew this particular trick.
While waiting, we watched this ladder go up. Looks a bit precarious don't you think?
We also watched this crazy...I mean...brave soul repair the electrical wires.Back at the ranch, we took more cow pictures. Summer is here and the world has turned dry.
Cows are happy now with plenty to eat. During the winter we saw plenty of skinny cows. One time Yuca said that they were taking two thousand of the 14,500 cattle to market early because there was not enough food to go around. Looks like we had too much rain in the spring and summer.
The new school is finished. We are just waiting for the lawyers to work out a gifting of the property from the LDS church to the government. This was suppose to be completed in August. Now we are wondering if it will even be done by March when school starts up again.
We arrived early to church one Sunday so I got this picture while Gregg played prelude music. The question is, "Does Gregg occasionally make mistakes or is the piano just badly out of tune?" We'll never really know which strange sound is which. :)
Vanessa finished her t-shirt. Excellente!
Victoria finished her pillow case and is now working on a wall hanging. Like I said before, these people are amazing--even the children.
Some of the gates have been painted more recently like this one which just needed a touch up but most have little to no paint. Roberto, father of student Sofia, said that the last time the gates were painted thoroughly was 16 years ago when his older children were babies. (Roberto has eight kids which is very unusual. Most families just have a couple of kids and are spaced about 8 years apart. We guessed that to be the case so that the family can travel by moto or horseback with just one toddler to carry.)Gates and more gates!
While we were painting a gate along the main road one morning, a herd of cattle needed to pass us by. (You may think that Gregg is dressed for subzero weather. Actually, it's the only way to avoid bug bites.)
In harmonious beauty, the cattle were rounded up.
and moved through our gate.
There were probably 2-300 calves.
One calf ran into our freshly painted posts and left some of himself behind as you see above. We wondered if he took some of our paint with him. That would have been a great picture I think.We finished painting all the metal parts of the gates yesterday. The paint used for metal surfaces was crested with a skim of dry paint yesterday so we decided to hurry and use it up. In order to finish, we painted early in the morning-6:30 to 8:45 am and again from 7 to 8 pm just before the sun set. Boy was the evening hot. It gives the term sauna a new name. It was 95 degrees but with the humidity it felt like 101. That's better than 107 degrees that we would have experienced during the heat of yesterday. Time to be finished don't you think?
We probably just have an hour or two left but with the prediction of rain all week, we are finished for now. Yuca says there may be 90 cm of rain this week. We had to leave church early as we saw the clouds rolling in. We got home before it rained very much but already there are puddles around our patio.
Humor:
We live in an old house--right? It ought to be a museum like we said so there are always things breaking down. Our favorite saying is that there is another hole in the bucket dear Henry (a line from a silly song we know--there is always something broken so the hole can't be fixed). Well, the other day I showed Gregg my cup with a bug in it. Now our saying is, "Would you rather have a hole in your bucket or a bug in your cup?"
Miracle or Coincidence?
One day this week out of the blue, Yuca asked us to go to Federal and get some real receipts for some items that we had turned in for reimbursement. He wanted us to stop everything and go that day and then on to Los Perales to give the receipts to the ranch manager there. Apparently, receipts need to be computerized or contain a "Cuit" number to be accepted by the auditors. This is the first we have heard of this situation, but whatever, right? Coincidentally, all of the needed receipts were in Federal.
So we traveled to Federal and got the first receipt. However, when we got in the truck to move to our next destination the truck wouldn't start. Coincidentally, we were in Federal where the ranch mechanic works. However, no one answered the phone when we called. But, we had coincidentally put our little jump starter in the truck just that morning which we had coincidentally picked up in the US, which we had coincidentally decided to bring with us to Argentina. (It's a cute little "packable" jumper that can recharge computers or cell phones as well as jump a vehicle.)
We jump started the truck and drove to the mechanic's shop. However, the mechanic, Walter, is getting cancer treatments and was not available, but coincidentally his co-worker was still there since it was coincidentally before noon. Their shop couldn't repair alternators and Walter's brother who was capable of helping us was on New Year's vacation, but coincidentally, he knew someone who could help. Coincidentally, the other shop was located along his way home for siesta so coincidentally, he showed us the way and told the shop mechanic what we needed. Coincidentally, the other shop was still open and the mechanic agreed to recharge our battery during siesta and repair it that afternoon when he reopened at 3:30. After walking to nearby grocery shops which coincidentally stay open until 2, we retreated to the truck to wait for our appointment. Coincidentally, we got to the truck before a downpour. Coincidentally, the shop owner during his siesta observed the imminent downpour coming our way. He coincidentally suggested that with the heavy rain predicted that afternoon, we should get back to the ranch. Coincidentally, the battery was charged enough to get us home, and coincidentally, he sent us with a new battery in case we needed it to get back to Federal. We did.
Long story short--two days later, we have a rebuilt alternator and didn't have to walk anywhere (except around the corner for groceries) or bother Yuca for any favors. We didn't make it to Los Perales, but we have all the receipts, functioning vehicle, and groceries that we'll need for the next week or two of rain.
Coincidence or not?
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