Have Kids Will Travel

Deepening the well.....

2012-01-08T07:46:00.000-08:00

Our well ran dry a bit ago because we were too shallow. So we yanked out the pipe, bought an extension and had to pound it back in. We went down 35 feet or so.... Here is our journey!!

getting it all set up. Dad hooked a rope from the pounder to the trailer. Then we all stood at he back of the trailer and pushed it up. Then let it go with a bang and it drove the pipe in. Our nieghbour came over and saw our set up and said... You never do anything normal!!!!

The pounder is the the bottom several inches of a 5 gallon bucket that is filled with cement and has a meter long pipe stuck in the middle. You put the pipe inside the pipe in the well and raise and drop it to pound in the pipe.

Tying the rope on to pound. After a while, the rope snapped and we had to chance to a chain.

Dad is in the well, standing on the pounder. The more weight the faster and farther it goes in. I will try to post a video at the bottom for you to see how we did it...

Hauling Dad out of the well.

Our very nice neighbour came over and helped us pound and pound!

our pump. We are trying to pump all the rock salt, sand and rocks out of the pipe.

Dad trying to get the pump we borrowed from a neighbour to work

Dandy the visiting dog (she lives by the river, but plays all over town) Getting a drink after running with the boys.

Lorin keeping the suction on the borrowed pump. Ci wants to help!

Dad Bill and Dandy trying to figure out the pump.

Putting Daddy in the well.

Us pushing up and slamming down the trailer

The shriek at the first is just Peter making noises while pushing....

Epuyén Fire

2012-01-05T16:37:00.000-08:00

There is a fire in Epuyén down the mountain from us... These are pictures of the smoke from our own backyard.......

Asado again! Yummy!

2012-01-03T16:10:00.000-08:00

Luis and Norma invited us out for another asado. We took cupcake and strawberry Icecream. I make homemade icecream and they love it! We arrived a bit late so the chivo was cooked more. It was so good! My favorite part is the ribs. They are nice and crisp.
We wish we could share with you! And share it is! The chivo is just set on the table on some old carboard. Knives and bread are dropped on the table around it. They make lettuce salads, tomato and onion salads, and at times mashed potatoes. 2 forks are put in each dish and you just ask for the dish you want and eat off the fork in it and then hand it off to the next person. It is a really great method because there is very little dishes to wash! We would all love to share cups, forks and food with you! :)

Getting the Asado set up YUMMY!! This one was the best ever!

Philip making the goats his friends with fresh green leaves. They have eaten all the leaves close enough for them to reach off the trees and bushes.

Visiting before we leave...in the shade! Jaja It was a very warm day!

Lucrecia

A friend of Luis went hunting Wanaco and gave him the skin. Luis hung it on a tree to dry. Wanaco is kinda like a llama....

A Goat hide is on another branch.

Peter and his pet goat. she followed him all over. :)

Gramma and Denis!

As we headed back, we saw Ñandu again!! this time Mom was able to get a pretty good shot of them on the road and I cropped it way it.

2011-12-24T06:03:00.000-08:00

We had our last sewing class this year! Summer break from school, means summer break from night school as well. All the night school classes got together and had a goodbye party. The classes include sewing (Ours) carpentry, get your high school diploma, and a couple of others.

Ci went with us and he and Debo's son Laudaro got along really well. They had a great time playing.

Viviana our teacher is cutting the cake. Pablo the director for the school is standing behind her. Maria is the lady straight ahead sitting down. She is Blanca Nieve's sister and is really nice. not sure who the lady standing up is, she goes to another class.

Nelly, Blanca Nieve and another lady from sewing who I can't remember her name now. The boy is Nelly's son.

Well, this is just a general view of the room. The lady straight across is Fabiana.

Deborah's little boy Laudaro, not sure what that would be in english....

Deborah and Andrea, they are really sweet ladies. Also the 2 closest to our ages.

Neither of these ladies attend our sewing class, but the baby is so cute and the gramma seemed really nice.

School break!

2011-12-08T03:13:00.000-08:00

The kids do school for a month, have a big test and if they pass the test, have a week off and lots of goodies!

Preparing the crazy cake!

The crazy cake. The layers have to do with the kids school this month. Music on the bottom layer, Science on the middle and medieval on the top.

Lorin's dessert...a Pb pie! It was soo good!

We had cake for dinner!! Emily made it.

It is really Meatloaf and Mashed Taters!!

Monday we went hiking. A friend (who wishes to remain anonymous) told us about a cave that you could find arrowheads from the Mapuches! So we hiked up. Left at 10am and got back tot he car at 1pm. It was so much fun!

The road

Peter and Philip

The road

Love this ridge!!

The caves from the road

Me

Philip getting his arrowheads

Dad and Mom

Girls

Girls and Mom

The boys and Dad

The Sky...Beautiful!!

Chive Vinegar

2011-12-04T13:28:00.000-08:00

While the States (and all our friends there) are going into winter, we are in Spring! and we are growing alot of stuff in our yard and invernaculo (greenhouse).
Mom has been making Chive vinegar. It is really good!! We love it on salad. It is very simple. Cut your blossoms. Put them in a jar. You can either put the stems in or cut them off. you get a prettier pink without the stems. If you add the stems, it will have a stronger chive flavor. Top off with vinegar and let sit in a cool, dark place 2 weeks. It will turn a pretty pink color. You can either drain to remove the blossoms, or leave them for a stronger flavor. To keep the color, leave in the dark.
Enjoy on salad or other things you put vinegar on!

1 done 2 not...

starting off

Just put in the vinegar

all ready to enjoy!!

the front one is drained off and the other 3 are ready to be.

Happy Birthday Lorin

2011-11-26T09:38:00.000-08:00

Happy 17th Birthday Lorin!!! She turrned 17 the 19th of Nov. We went on a picnic for lunch and had Pepperoni (Thanks Mrs. Flanagan!!!) pizza pockets for lunch. Yummy.

I made red velvet pancakes for breakfast! They were really good!

We went up to Cerro Azul. Finally made it!! We have tried like 4 times in the last year, and it has always been too wet. Last time we got stuck and had to call Thomas and Violaine to yank us out. This year, we waited till it was all dry and made it to the top!!

El Maitén

Lorin, Maurica, and Emily

The road.

Maurica, Emily and Lorin

Happy 17th Lorin!!

Our picnic area

Tree and Sky. Such a lovely day!

Mom and Dad

All us kids

Maurica, Lorin and Emily

The Cake

Lorin waiting

Trini and Lorin

Greenhouse

2011-11-19T06:08:00.000-08:00

Lorin's birthday cake. yummy!

2011-11-18T12:16:00.000-08:00

Lorin's 17th birthday is tomorrow, and I made her cake today.
First I made a 3 layer chocolate cake. Then I put chocolate frosting and homemade chocolate marshmallows between each layer. I forgot to take pictures of that. The pictures will take you through the rest... Enjoy!

Frost the top and sides

Put mini chocolate chips around the sides.

Chocolate chips on the sides all done. Now for the top....

The homemade chocolate marshmallows I made last night first....

Pieces of Snickers next...

Chocolate covered peanuts....

MnMs MMMMMM Yummy!

The Drizzle it with chocolate.....

The Finished Cake

3 birthdays in one out in the campo

2011-11-08T15:38:00.001-08:00

Last time we were at Luis and Norma's, we were invited back to celebrate Ramiro, Mom and Lorin's birthdays. Ramiro's was the 6th, mom's the 12th and Lorin the 19th. I made 2 cakes to take out and they made the food. They cooked a chivo (Goat) with the hide still on. It is called chivo en cuero Goat in the hide. But Andres teasingly said chivo en un pulover! Goat in a pullover sweatshirt! Jajaja It was good, and the flavor was a bit different that normal asado.
We arrived at 11, and some friends of Luis and Norma's just stopped by. They were in the area, and decided to come visit. They didn't know it was Ramiro's birthday or anything. Andres, Ana, Jorge, Lorena, Felicidad, Alan and Abuelo. They were really fun.
We ate, had cake and icecream, had a lesson in weaving, watched bolos get thrown, gave a lesson in knitting and ran all over the farm. It was a very fun day.

We got back into town about 7:30 and went over to Cynthia's house to say happy birthday to Julio whose birthday was Sunday too.

Babies are being born! There were so many little ones out there.

asado!

Cooking the fuzzy meat!

Yummy!!!

Norma showing us how to eat the goat.

Mom pulling the meat off the hide.

Ramiro eating his chivito en un pulover. Notice the huge knife he is using to cut it.

Ramiro. He turned 22.

Norma teaching us how to weave. About 5 months ago, I taught Lucrecia how to crochet chickens. This gray chicken she made by herself later. I was very impressed.

Lorena trying to help me out now.

Ana saying...Paciencia! Have patience with us! She is a sweet lady.

Luis and Jorge

Now Bill is trying his hand at it.

The Finished project

Loros! The green and blue parrots of the Patagonia. They are so beautiful!

Red Bird

When we got back in town, we stopped by Juilo's to tell him happy birthday. He is also 22 years old. He is Cynthia's brother.

Ever had a Ñandu egg??

2011-10-29T08:57:00.000-07:00

We finally cooked out Ñandu egg!!! We thought our 12'' skillet would do....but....It was a bit to small! It was kinda like cooking regular eggs inside muffin tins! But is was really good! Tasted just like a chicken egg, just ALOT bigger!

A Ñandu egg next to a regluar egg! Wow!

Starting to cut open. The shell is so thick you can't just crack it like a regular egg.

Hmmmmmm

There, cut all the way around

Cracking it......

What an egg!!!

The shell.

Emily checking out the egg.

getting there.

getting ready to flip it.

It was soo big, I had to cut it in 1/2 to flip.

Flipping the other 1/2 using 2 spatulas.

Both flipped now.

Philip enjoying it!

Headed to the mouth

Even the Kitties got some!

A Tour of Sheep Shearing

2011-10-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

Thomas is shearing sheep and invited us to go out and watch. We went out Wed at 5pm. We were there till almost 8pm. It was so amazing! We really enjoyed it all!
They shear 20,000 sheep in about 3 weeks. Mom took pictures the whole way. Enjoy following us on this tour!

Headed into the campo

Horses waiting to move the sheep and then take their masters home.

Baaaaaa

The ones in the back are waiting to be sheared, the ones close are waiting to be checked and painted

They pack them so tight they can't move while getting their teeth checked, shots, and painted

Ci helping them pack in the sheep.

Checking their teeth then painting them depending on the state of the teeth.

Checking the teeth. If they have atleast 1/2 of their teeth They keep them. Sheep have 8 teeth in total and none on the top.

Preparing their parasite shots. They get 3 shots in all.

Painting them. Blue stay, red gets sold later this year.

Blue keep, Red go

These are the hides of sheep that died over the year. They are dried, stored up and then sheared at shearing time.

This machine presses the wool tightly. The plastic is wrapped around and metal wire is attached to keep the wool in.

The Machine that runs the press. Grampa you will like this!

Attaching the metal wires.

The Bales of Wool. They weigh approximately 250 kilos each

Shearing. They used to tie up the sheep, but the men figured out a way to hold so that they can't move.

The machine that runs the clippers. By each wheel is attached the cord that run the clippers.

Separating the wool. It is separated by cleanliness, part of the sheep it came from, the wave, density, length and some other things.

Dumping the scraps to separate

Separating the wool.

The Clippers

Showing off the wool

Each shearer has his own stall. After he shears them, they get put in. At break (every 2 hours) Thomas and another man count how many each man has done. They get paid per sheep.

Ci herding sheep

The unsheared sheep were put out to pasture for the night. I don't remember how many sheep there were, but something like 3,000 or so.

Move on!

Keeping 'em headed the right way

Sending the sheep out with yells and hitting with sticks

Herding the sheared sheep into a bigger pen for the night

What a difference between the sheared and nonsheared sheep!

Poor lamb got stuck outside. We got him and put him back in.

Mom and babies

Herding a different group of sheep

Peter and the Lamb

A Mategringo. These gates are called ''Kill the white man'' because they are a bit complicated

Bill got it! Didn't kill a gringo today!

Headed back to the house

Violaine told us about a field of tulips. A long time ago, someone planted a whole field of tulips. They are no longer taken care of, but every year many grow. We went over to see the field. Mom gave me the camera and I had fun with these flowers.

The Tulip field

Ci headed my way

Grass, Yellow Tulip and Mountains. How pretty!

Love this one!

Love this one too!

Beautiful colored tulip. Notice the storm in the backround

The storm coming in

Some Sorta hawk, they are so fun to look at!

Upward view of Pines and Poplars

A Pehuen Tree

Feliz Día de la Madre

2011-10-17T05:00:00.000-07:00

Only a few days after we sent out our prayer letter asking you to pray that we could renew our friendship with Luis and Norma, came over to visit! Saturday they stopped by and asked a favor. Lucrecia and her husband were in El Hoyo and their truck broke. Luis and Norma went out to get them, planning to get gas here, but there was no gas. They didn't have enough gas to go to El Hoyo and then go back to to their home in Cushámen. So they came here and asked if Dad and mom could go get them. So off they went to get them.
Norma invited us to spend Mother's day with them out in the campo. She had invited her family from Norquinco. We made rainbow cupcakes, garlic bread,and a cheese and chive bread. We left home at 10:30 and got there are 11:30 or so.
We had alot of fun! Norma's family didn't come, so we were the only ones there. We came home at 5pm.

The table was so fun! They set the chivo in the middle on broken down cardboard boxes, set 2 dishes each of mashed potatoes, tomato cucumber salad, and regular salad. 2 forks went into the salads and one spoon in the mashed potatoes. Then you just pick up the utensil, eat and then put it back in and someone else grabs it and eats what they want!! Yummy food! And then bread is just set all around the chivo to pick up.

Norma and Luis brought us a ñandu egg!

I made rainbow cupcakes. Here is the cake batter and the muffin tins. I didn't have red only pink so that is what I used. Pink, yellow, blue, orange, green, purple. I have tried to make purple, mixing blue and red, before and got more gray than purple. This time I tried pink and blue and go the prettiest purple! I know what I am using from now on!

Mom's homemade air fresheners she took as a gift. they are all different flavors. Mom was going to let them choose one, but they liked them so much, mom just left them all.

Denis, Lucrecia's son. He is so sweet and has the chubbiest cheeks!

Asado

They asked us if we wanted to cut the goat or should Ramiro do it. We said ''Ramiro''

Luis says ''Hola!''

''Hi everyone out there!!''

They have goats, sheep, dogs, a horse and a calico cat that roams all over.

Ramiro cutting up the goat. Everyone wanted ribs.

Dig in!

Yummy! Goat ribs are the best!

Ramiro found a ñandu nest full of eggs. He picked up a dozen. Norma told us that several ñandus will share a nest and you can find up to 40 eggs in a nest. A single ñandu will lay around 15 eggs, about one every other day. The female lays them and the males look out for the eggs and the babies when they hatch. Lucrecia uses them to make Flan. She said if you make a hole in both ends of the egg, then blow through one, the white will come out and then you crack the shell and dump the yolk out in a different bowl. What a fun way to separate eggs!

Yellow, Blue and orange. Yummy!

Purple, Green and Red. When Ramiro took one, he saw the colors and asked if they were different flavors. Lucrecia said yes, grape, green apple and strawberry. He stared at her incredulously until we all burst out laughing. Then he realized she was teasing him.

Lucrecia

All the Mothers. Norma, Lucrecia and Mom

5 Ñandu. They are kinda hard to see.

A Flamingo. Sorry, It is a big grainy. We were so far away that we had to zoom on the camera and then also on the computer.

A Ñandu egg next to a regular old normal chicken egg

Pictures

2011-10-14T04:04:00.000-07:00

Here are some various shots of our life! Enjoy!

Mom's Flower

Lorin has been making soap like crazy. She uses alot of molds. They are quite cute!

Can you see the rainbow?? This is out the back of our house.

Our Mountain! It is the view in front of our house.

A Potato dish. It is 1/2 Argentine because it has cremoso in it. A type of cheese not in the states. Atleast, I don't think it is.

Grilling the Steaks. Thanks to Violaine we got T bone steaks!!

Yummy!

It is spring!!! Plants are starting to grow!

A Common Site in our house. Mom's teapot, The Bible and a Yerba Mate!

We buy eggs 15 dozen at a time. This was so fun! We were having pancakes and got 3 double yolkers in a row!!!!

Doing school. 9am-1pm.

Emily was going around taking everyone's picture, so mom made her sit and get a picture taken.

S'mores 101

2011-10-03T03:46:00.000-07:00

We were making s'more because we found marshmallows in Bolson. Emily made the gram crackers. They are really good!! We decided to invite Trini over to try them because she had never had them before. She brought along her friend that was visiting from Buenos Aires. Augustine and Trini loved them! It was so funny! They both kept saying... We are in the movies! We are in the movies! Jajajaja

Argentine marshmallows. They are pretty good.

ok, this looks good!

Lorin preparing hers

yummy huh??

Cooking

cooking them

Trying out

Yummmy yum!

I'd say he likes them!

Sinfónica Patagonia

2011-09-17T11:07:00.000-07:00

Thursday night, we got a text telling us that Jessy and Andy were playing with then orchestra in El Bolsón Friday night! We were soooo excited! It started at 9pm, and we really wanted to go! Dad said yes, so we got ready, ate dinner early (5:30) and were out of the house by 6:30. It is about 45 minutes to Bolsón. We went to Verde Menta, the best health food store around, then went to find the place.
We went in at 8:15 and got to talk to Jessy and Andy. We were some of the first there. It filled up really fast after 8:45. Soon they had to bring out more chairs and 2 more bleachers. By 9:30, people were standing by the door and in the back.

It was so fun! We loved it! The musicians play extremely well.
Thank you Lópezes for telling us!!!!!!!!!!!

The Program

Lorin, Maurica, Andy, Jessy and Emily before the concert.

Andy and Jessy, our favorite musicians!

People are just starting to arrive

They had to bring out more chairs and 2 more bleachers for people to sit on, and there were still alot of standing people. The turn out was huge! Alot of kids and teens.

Most of the group. There are 110 musicians all together

The Whole group. Sorry about the heads being in the way.

Catch up post

2011-09-14T06:03:00.000-07:00

Mom and Dad celebrated their 23rd anniversary Aug. 27th. Dad bought mom a camera! We are all very happy with it! It takes wonderful pictures.

Yummy!!

What a nice pencil holder!

Dad's presents...little notebook with map of our area, pencil holder and a yerba mate straw.

Mom's presents...A New teapot, tea cup and P.B. Delights

Mom's flowers. The red is from Peter and the Orange from Philip

Peter and Philip love to play soldier. Emily took out the camera and took pictures of them.

Starting Guard duty....

Am I done YET??

Jajaja, I'm coming after you!

March?

The Sniper

Spinny had her babies!!! 5 of them. 3 black and white, one all black and one calico! The first 4 were born on Sept 11th and the 5th Sept 12. They are sooo cute!

Before the 5 babies arrived

1st and 3rd babies keeping warm together while waiting for baby 4

All Snuggled up!

Breakfast

Lunch time!

After

Snow!

2011-08-31T04:54:00.000-07:00

It has been snowing off and on for a while. Usually, it doesn't stick, but it did on this day. These pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago.

Gathered Round the Fire

Snow on the car

Our mountains out front

Spinny

Philip

Emily

The Fire

Lorin and Peter enjoying the fire

A Klein sled, Philip standing on the flat shovel and Peter pulling him

Peter piling the fire up high

Out the back of our house

Snowing!

Ci Making Bread

2011-08-20T04:28:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Lorin was making bread and had Ci help. He LOVED it! He loves cooking. Enjoy the pictures!

Are we ready YET???

Mixing up! Notice the Apron to keep his clothes clean.

Concentration

Time To Knead?

Snacking

Kneading

I love this one!

Argentine cooking classes with Lili

2011-08-06T14:37:00.000-07:00

Today Mom, Lorin, Emily and I went to Lili's for cooking classes. Lili is the cook at the Ancianos and she invited us over to make Croquetes. We went over at 2 and got home at 6! It was so fun.
About 4pm, Mara, Lili's daughter, arrived on the bus from Esquel where she is going to college to be a kindergarten teacher. While we were waiting for the croquetes to fry, we drank tea and yerba mate and ate crackers with membrillo (quince) jam. Lili brought out her photo books and we looked at her pictures. She has 3 girls and 1 grandchild.

We told them about loosing our cord to connect the phone (camera) to the compu to get our pictures off. Mara told us that she had gone to Cordoba and got her backpack and everything stolen. In it was her phone. She had the cord to attach to the computer, so she went over and got the cord and told us if it fit we could have it. It fit perfect!! Thank you! So we now have a cord to take the pictures off! I will be doing our back episodes of pictures the next couple of times.

Enjoy the pictures of our first cooking class! Next week we are making noodles.

Cutting and Crying (Mom and Lorin had the onions and the rest of us the garlic and swiss chard)

Yummy....

Cooking the aselga (swiss chard) with onion, garlic and parsley.

Adding the flour, salt and spices.

Lili, Mom and I checking out how they are doing.

Frying the croquetes.

Lili and her daughter Mara. Sorry the picture is a bit blurry.

Visiting over Yerba mate

Our Croquetes

Love you!!! *HUG*

Lili's two funny fat cats again. They are cute!

Mak's 7 Layer Cookies

2011-07-24T04:48:00.000-07:00

Last friday, I was making the weekly goodie and couldn't decided between chocolate chip cookies and 7 layer bars, so I combined them! They turned out REALLY good. So I decided to share the recipe. Sorry, I have no pictures!

Mak's 7 Layer Cookies
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Mix
1 cup butter softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
Cream
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Add, Gradually add stir in flour
2 cups oats
1 cup chocolate chips
Stir in. Spread in thin layer on bottom of 9x13 cake pan. (About 1/4'' thick)
1 1/3 cup flaked coconut
1 cup nuts
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate chips
Sprinkle on cookie dough in order as written.
14 oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk
Pour on top.
Bake 350º for 25 minutes or till brown and the cookie dough is cooked.
Cool a bit, enjoy!

Gloves

2011-07-11T13:08:00.000-07:00

I have been making finger gloves for the last couple of months and they are hits! I have made so many pairs now. At the moment, I am making finger mittens for a 3 year old girl! They are tiny and sooo cute! I would put pictures on, but we can't find the cord that transfers pictures from the phone to the computer, so we can't put them on!
I hope to add more pictures when we find that cord!

Happy Father's Day!!!!

2011-06-19T18:00:00.000-07:00

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!`

Dad and Philip

Dad and Peter

Dad and Emily

Dad and Matthew

Dad and Lorin

Dad and Bill

Dad and Me

Ci's Growing up!!!

2011-06-16T05:16:00.000-07:00

Cirilo (the boy I babysit) is now 16 months old! He can walk alone, jabber words and have fun almost everywhere. Here are pictures of him. Yes, I must admit that we take more pictures of Ci than anybody or anything else! ;)

''Books, My favorite thing!''

''My own coach and coachman!''

''ZZZZZZZZ''

''What's in there?''

''Ohhh, the bigger the book, the better I like it!''

''Patty cake Patty Cake Baker's Man...I love this song!''

Yummy! Chocolate!

''Please put my shoe back on!''

''Higher!''

''I love songbooks''

''HI!''

''Let's read together!''

''Yummy Apple'' chomp chomp

''Please?!''

tickle tickle tickle..... giggle giggle giggle

''Their planning to bury me in sand!!!!!''

''Ohh Fun! Sand!''

Sneeze! ''Must have got sand in my nose!''

Bill's 18th birthday

2011-06-07T03:28:00.000-07:00

Bill in his Gaucho hat

You can't see it well, but the cake is colored from Blue to Green with varying degrees of color.

Here's a closer look at the colors, still not that clear.

Philip waiting for Bill to open his present

An Asado knife with a Ñandu toe on the end.

Lorin

Got Peanut Butter Delights...yum yum.

Gaucho pants!!!!!

All dressed up in his pants, hat with his knife stuck in the back.

2nd report

2011-06-01T13:24:00.000-07:00

Waterbirth

What is waterbirth? Exactly that. A woman gives birth to her child in the water. There are many different places for waterbirth. Some use pools, bathtubs, hot tubs, or jacuzzis, others give birth in the river, pond or ocean. In Guyana South America, tribal women go to a sacred place at the river to give birth. Sometimes they use a birthpool inflated in the middle of a room. Usually these pools have firm sides for the mother to lean on. Not only can you have a water birth at home, hospitals have waterbirth pools as well. Sometimes waterbirth is called ‘aquadural’.
The water doesn’t have to be perfect water. If it is pure enough to drink, it is pure enough to give birth in. The recommendations for the temperature is 93.2º F (34C) - 98.6º F (37C) However, these are only guidelines. Follow the mother’s desire for the right temperature. Usually women like it a bit cool in the first stage as her body will make a lot of heat. When she reaches the second stage, she will most likely want the water heated. Be careful, however, not to get it too hot because it may cause fetal distress. When the baby is inside his mother’s body, he has nowhere to expel his extra heat. The maximum recommended temperature is 99.8º F (37.7C). Some midwives believe that cooler water makes for a more vigorous baby who is quicker to breathe. The temperature of the water also affects the placenta. Too hot of water can cause retention, while too cold may cause the placenta to separate too quickly. About 86º F (30C) is good as it causes the uterus to clamp down quickly which separates the placenta correctly. The water should cover the belly and be up to the armpits for the best effect.
Waterbirth is preferred over dry birth because of many factors. The water will lessen the pain, but will not take it away. One reason for less pain is reduced gravity. The mother is able to float around and can change positions easily. This buoyancy promotes more efficient uterine contractions and better blood circulation. This results in better oxygenation of the uterine muscles which lessens the pain in the mother and brings more oxygen to the baby.
The water is a wonderful relaxant. As the mother relaxes more hormones kick in which starts labor progressing faster, with better rhythm and labor becomes more efficient. The pelvic floor muscles relax as well which means less tearing and no need of an episiotomy. There is a zero episiotomy rate in waterbirth.
There are many added benefits of waterbirth: reduced pain with less women requesting pain medication, lower blood pressure, easier breathing for asthmatics facilitated by more moisture in the air. Waterbirth can significantly shorten labor. The second stage is faster because the water has softened up all the tissues. Large babies are able to be born without a single tear because of the softening. Breech babies are safer born in water. VBAC babies can be born is water as well.
Many people are afraid afraid baby will drown when born in water. There is no reason to fear. The baby is already in water in his mother’s womb. He will just go from water to water. His oxygen is supplied from his mother by the umbilical cord. When the baby is exposed to the air, chemical, hormonal and physical responses initiate the first breath.
Another reason the baby won’t drown is the dive reflex. Barbra Harper, RN, wrote this:‘The larynx is covered all over with chemoreceptors, or taste buds. In fact, the larynx has five times as many taste buds as the whole surface of the tongue. When a solution hits the back of the throat and crosses the larynx, the taste buds interpret what substance it is and the glottis automatically closes; the solution is then swallowed, not inhaled. God built this autonomic reflex into all newborns to help them breastfeed, and it is present until about the age of six to eight months when it mysteriously disappears. The newborn is very intelligent and can detect what substance is in its throat. It can differentiate between amniotic fluid, water, cow’s milk or human milk. The human infant will swallow and breathe differently when feeding on cow’s milk or breastmilk due to the dive reflex. What a great Creator we have!
Babies born in the water usually have a higher APGAR score as well. Babies also are calmer and more relaxed. Very few cry, instead they look around and sometimes make swimming motions.
Many hospitals are seeing the benefits of waterbirth and are getting pools. Over 90 countries now have birth pools in use in their hospitals.

References

naturalchildbirth.org
waterbirthinfo.org
babycentre.co.uk
homebirth.org.uk
waterbirth.org
datamemberclicks.com
Waterbirth basics: From Newborn Breathing to Hospital Protocols’ by Barbra Harper RN. Published in Midwifery Today Summer 2000.

Report #1

2011-05-23T07:52:00.000-07:00

For my midwifery school, I have to write 2 reports. Here is report #1

History of Midwifery

Midwifery is very old. The Bible speaks much of midwives. Judah’s sons were born with a midwife. In Egypt, Pharaoh commanded the midwives to kill all the male children born to the Hebrews. But Shiphrah and Puah feared GOD and refused to obey. When questioned, they told Pharaoh that the Hebrew women were lively and had their babies before the midwife could get there. Phineas’, Eli’s son,(Eli’s son) wife also had women who stood by, probably midwives.
There were midwives in Ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece, Israel, China, Early Chinese and Hindu writings speak of midwives.
In the middle ages, men only came to births if there was a serious problem. Usually the midwives attended to them. Many midwives were tried and killed for being witches. Childbirth was considered a disease of the woman.
In the 11th century, bishops of the Church of England legislated control of midwives. They wanted to prevent witchcraft associated with birth and license in which they were prohibited from coercing fees, giving abortifactants, practicing magic, concealing information about birth events or parentage, or refusing to help poor women.They were told to push mothers for the ‘true’ identity of the baby’s father.
In the late 1500s-early 1600s Peter Chamberlin became an advocate of professionalizing midwifery. He desired state support for educating midwives. He invented the obstetric forceps, but kept them a family secret till they were discovered under the floor in a closet after his grandson’s death.
In 1602 a French midwife, Louise Bourgeois Bosher wrote one of the first midwifery text books. She delivered Louis the XIII and 6 of the children of Henry the IV. Another French midwife, Madame Le Boursier Du Courdray was given permission by Louis the XVI to go throughout the country and teach midwives.
Midwives began to be considered for the poor class Many high class women went to OB doctors. Most of these OB doctors were barbers and butchers who wanted to make extra money on the side. Men were not allowed to look at a birthing woman and had to work by touch while the woman was hidden under blankets.
The Pilgrims in 1620 brought a midwife, Bridget Lee Fuller, with them. She delivered most the Pilgrim babies including those born on the voyage.
Martha Ballard was a midwife for the colonies as was Rebecca Fuller. Rebecca worked in Boston from 1630-1663. She started when she as 60 years old and continued for 40 years. Elizabeth Phillips was another memorable midwife. She worked in Boston from 1719-1759 and delivered over 3,000 babies. Many colonial towns provided the midwife with a house free or at a reduced rate of rent as long as she came whenever called. They were given special privileges.

Non-English colonies often kept midwives on their town payroll. Zieckentroosters (comforters of the sick) who worked in New Amsterdam also received liberal pay and special privileges.During this time, midwives were considered part of the medical profession. Many viewed them as performing a special social and religious function. These women did not have to have a license. They were chosen by family or friends to attend their births.
Midwifery was a woman’s domain, although there were a few men-midwives. When men started to enter this domain, midwives did not welcome them. Most had come off the farm or from their shops to attend a few weeks of school with textbooks and then sent out as doctor to deliver babies. While women had been helping with the sick and attending births since they were children.
In 1762 a midwifery school opened in Philadelphia. By 1840, many colleges added midwifery to their courses. In 1850, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons were the first to award diplomas to midwives. The Nightingale Ward in King’s College opened in 1862 to train nurses in midwifery. The Midwives Institute, later called the Royal College of Midwives, was founded in 1881.
Despite all these schools, midwives were beginning to die out as it became fashionable for women to go the hospital and have their babies. However, this improved nothing and but rather made things worse.Twenty percent of the mothers and babies were dying. Postpartum fever was rampant. Midwives had a much lower mortality rate. In 1855 Oliver Wendell Holmes published a paper saying doctors were the cause of the fever because they were not clean. He was greatly ridiculed, but in 1861, Ignaz Phillip Semmelwise published a study that showed the fever was being carried by the doctors. He set up 2 clinics. One was run totally by doctors who didn’t wash their hands and went from examining infected women or bodies to examine expectant mothers. Many women and babies died. The second clinic was run by midwives. These women washed their hands and instruments and kept everything clean. Very few died. So Hemmelwise made a rule that all the doctors in the first clinic wash their hands. Death rates dropped dramatically.
In 1902 the Midwifery Act was passed. It created a licensing board and standards for professional midwives. Many midwives not only attended births, but also washed the houses before the birth, helped with sick and laid out the dead.
When anesthesia was introduced, many of the clergy disapproved because they said the curse of the women was pain in childbearing. Therefore it was a sin to have anesthesia. Queen Victoria changed that however when she used it. It became quite fashionable.
Many times midwives were chosen over doctors because of the extra care received, refusal of a male attendant, and the fact that midwives were much cheaper. In Detroit, 1917, midwives charged $7-10 per birth which included 5+ daily visits. Doctors cost $25-30 for attending the birth only. By 1930 midwives charged $25-30 and doctors $65 and OB specialists $75 not including hospital fees.
In spite of all this, midwives were becoming ‘lost’ again. In 1900 50% of births were attended by midwives. 1920 midwives were delivering 20-40% but mostly illegally. By 1935 only 10.7% were attended by midwives of which 54% were non-white, (most of those were in the deep south). By 1960 only 4% were born with midwives.
Midwives were the victims of bad press. They were accused of being filthy, harmful, unlearned and superstitious. It is true that some were filthy and superstitious, but there were only a small percentage, and most of those were in the city slums.
Only the blacks still used midwives in 1930, and that was because a doctor would not tend them. These midwives were called Granny Midwives. They were trained by apprenticeship and were also herb doctors, healthcare advisors and helped with the sick and dying.
Besides bad press, doctors also were pushing midwives out. Doctors saw them as a threat to their income. Midwifery schools were closed and hospital births were for all classes. Only rural births and immigrants were attended by midwives.
Mary Brecken Ridge opened a nurse-midwife school in Kentucky in 1936. Her clinic treated the poor in Appalachia. When the clinic opened, mortality rates dropped. Mary was a central figure in creating nurse midwives. In 1950, the health department of Florida recruited and trained midwives for the rural swamp areas
1960 brought about the dislike of harsh hospital treatment which included leaving women alone in labor, no food or water, moved from room to room, being put to sleep and baby delivered by epistomies and forcepts or C-section, and babies being taken away from their mother and not being allowed to bond. Families began to realize that this was not good and brought about a gradual change. Hospitals began allowing the father to be with the mother during labor, but they were still not allowed in the birthing room.
The homebirth movement developed in the late 60s early 70s. Many women birthed at home with only a friend or a few books
By 1970s midwives were becoming more prevalent. Nurse-midwives began to work in the hospitals with doctors closely supervising. Homebirths were attended by self-taught ‘lay’ midwives. Apprenticeships became the only way to learn because there were very few schools or books.
Ina May Gaskin wrote and published several books. The Gaskin Movement was named after her. It is one of the first movements to be named after a midwife. She is a leader in modern midwifery.
Because of parent demands, the hospitals continued to change their protocol. Nurse-midwives became common working under a doctor. Direct-entry midwives attended women at home.

References
The King James Bible
Midwifery Workbook by Daphne Singingtree
studentmidwifery.net
texasmidwife.com
midwifeusa.com

Walk by the river

2011-05-18T13:03:00.000-07:00

Last Sat. Trini invited us girls to go walk at the river. We had a great time out there. Trini let me take pictures with her camera. So nice!
Enjoy the pictures of our lovely river!

If you can't see well enough, this is a mom duck and 2 ducklings.

Bill's Chess Set

2011-05-11T12:23:00.000-07:00

Bill saw somewhere on a chess site about 4 people playing chess. He decided to make his own board. He got a piece of board from the glapón and started at it. The squares are colored with permanent marker for the black and colored pencil for the red. He has already take it to Hugo's and played a game. Hugo, Matthew, Bill and another man that was at Hugo's store. They have alot of fun playing it.

Happy birthday Dad!!

2011-05-04T16:56:00.000-07:00

April 30th was Dad's bday. Lorin volunteered to write about it for me. Enjoy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!
It was Dad´s 48th birthday!! We had a great time. We invited Norma and Luis´s family but they could not come. Blanca Nieve and her family came, Victor, and Hugo. It was so fun! We had Lasagna, Carrot and Tomato salad, some kind of Potato salad, Picked eggplant (remember) jajaj and garlic bread. We had SO much food!!! Maurica made a LOT of Lasagna!!! We ate 2 pans full with another huge pan full!!! We ate so much. Hugo thought that he would explode jajaj he asked for more and more. Jajaj it was really nice to visit with them!
Then for dessert we had Lazy Daisy Oatmeal cake and Chocolate peanut butter delight ice-cream. It was Delicious!!! Maurica was up until 1 am making the small Peanut butter delight. She made 200 small ones and 9 big ones. We talked and talked. Then Hugo had to leave because he has a store and his wife was keeping it for him, so mom made a plate for him to take to her. We teased him about eating it on the way, but he said no, and that he was TOO full!!
Then Victor had to leave and go fishing. Blanca and Cynthia invited Maurica and me, to walk to Buenos Aires Chico. Which is about 1 ½ miles. We walked and chatted. We saw a lot of cows, horses, and friends. When we got there we walked to a bridge and watched the little bit of water go past. Then we walked back.
While we were gone Violine and Thomas came over to say happy birthday to Dad and give him a pair a socks Violaine knitted. Cynthia asked if I could go over to her house to help her with her English, so I was not there. A few minutes later, some kids came to our house and asked for mom. One of the kids was BLONDE!!! We invited them in. The blonde kid is an exchange student from California. His name is Thaddeus. The other boy that was with him wanted to study English. He already knows some, but he wanted to learn more. So now Dad has a new student.
Trini and Patricia came over too and gave dad a sweater and head phones, our cat, Spinel, ate his. Then they all left, and the boys went to get me from Cynthia’s. When we got back, we opened presents for dad. I guess I will tell you all of the presents that we gave him. Mom gave him homemade Alfajores, bombachas del campo, and two music CD of Classical music that he likes a lot. Maurica, gave him a homemade hat and scarf, Bill gave him an Greenhouse that Dad liked. I gave him a Banana Cream pie and an Asado knife, Matthew gave him a cap, Emily gave him Midnight Mint bars, and a homemade rug, Peter gave him a faja, and lastly Philip gave in a goucho hat.
It was SO great to have another birthday with our Daddy!!!! We love him SOO much!!!

Church, Lunch and Crochet

2011-05-01T05:53:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, Luis, Norma and their son Orlando, 21, came to services. Norma and Luis knew were to find almost every place Dad turned to, but Orlando had no idea. So we would stop and my Dad or his Mom would help him find it. They said they enjoyed the service. Afterwards, mom served up Mate and we invited them for lunch. They said yes,and called their 2 daughters and asked if they wanted to come and eat too. The girls said yes, so Luis and Orlando left to go get them. When Norma had come last time, she had seen some of my crocheted stuff and asked if I would teach her how to made the chicken cookie jar. So I said sure, and dug up some yellow yarn and 2 hooks. We got about 5 rows into it before it was time to eat. Lucrecia and Jesica, Norma's two daughters arrived. Lucrecia is due in a week or so. She is going to have a little boy, Joel Augustine. Jesica is going to highschool in Trevelin, which is about 2 hours away. Lucrecia had an infection and had to go to the hospital which is why they were in town. They live about an hour out. Lunch was great. We visited, and laughed. The 3 kids got loosened up and had a great time teasing each other and letting us in on it. The left about 2. Lucrecia was coming back in the tarde to finish her mom's chicken.
Lucrecia arrived at 5pm with her sister in law. Her name is either Lydia or Valerie,(pronounced, val-lydia) but I don't know which. Lucrecia and I started on the chicken. The only stitch I know the spanish name for is cadena, chain. So we tried to figure out the names together, but we couldn't, so we made up our own. single crochet was normal and slip stitch was 'whip whip'. Lydia likes to crochet too, so mom found her pink yarn and a hook. She started going at it, just looking at the chicken I had already done. She goes fast and does very well.
We worked steady with only a break for cookies and water and finished at 9pm. We had a good time.

Sharing Yerba Mate

Norma, Lucrecia, Jesica and Orlando. We had lamb roast and mashed potatoes for lunch.

Jesica, Orlando and Luis

Lucrecia and her sister in law, Lydia

Lucrecia

Our Chickens

Our mountains

2011-04-21T09:56:00.000-07:00

Today it is pouring rain, so I took pictures of our mountains out front whose tops are covered with fog. They are soo pretty. I decided that I would put them on the blog and then got the idea to put on pictures of different seasons.

Answer to What is It?

2011-04-21T09:54:00.000-07:00

ok, It is not rat, not empanadas, not eel, it is.....
Pickled Eggplant!!!! Not so weird huh?
But it does taste as bad as it looks ;)

WHAT IS IT?????

2011-04-12T18:12:00.001-07:00

Once again we have a What is it? question. This, again, is a favorite food. What do you think it is and do you want to try it??????

Update

2011-04-07T18:18:00.000-07:00

Bill went back to the local Toothpuller on wednesday and was told......
To leave the tooth alone and let the gum grow over it. There was nothing more she could do. So....We are looking into different options now :) All the kids have been faithfully brushing their teeth ever since! :)

OUCH!

2011-04-03T09:55:00.000-07:00

Bill has a bad tooth, so when he was in Neuquen, he went to the dentist there to see if anything could be done. He was told it would have to be pulled out.
Sooooo, last Wed, he went over to the local Toothpuller to get his tooth out. Unfortunately, the tooth broke off. She did all she could, but finally told him to come back next week and she would try to get the rest out. Here are the pictures. Poor Bill!

Happy Birthday Ci!!!!

2011-03-26T15:10:00.000-07:00

Cirilo, the little boy I babysit, turned 1 the 21st. We had a birthday party for him here when Thomas and Violaine came to get him. We had chocolate chip cake decorated with rabbits, peach ice cream and gave him presents. Ci loved his book with removable animals best, but the rattly ball was great too. :)He had alot of fun playing with his wrapping paper, toys and tearing into his cake. After a bit of eating, he was too full to finish, but enjoyed tearing it up anyway. He got more cake under him than in him.
Happy Birthday Ci!!!!!

So what is in here?

Here, I will share my favorite toy!

ohhh, what a toy! It rattles too.

Look a Dino!

What did you say Daddy?

I want that rattly thing again, Please pass it back!

Which do I want more? My book or my cake?

Time to Dig In!

Yummy! Oh boy that is good!

Yummy! But it is best to sit on it I think :) When he got full, he decided to play with it instead of eat it.

Ci's favorite stuffed animal is a rabbit, so I made rabbits on his cakes.

Our cake

Ci's own cake

Asado with Luis and Norma

2011-03-19T11:02:00.000-07:00

Abouta week ago, Trini invited me to go with her to a house for an asado. I had to babysit Ci, so Mom went instead. She had a wonderful time and invited Luis and Norma to come anytime they want to.
They came tuesday morning and Norma used our spinning wheel. They invited us out for an asado on Fri. We were to be there at 10am. We left at about 9:15am taking food with us. Bread, Lettuce, Tomato/Carrot salad, and tomatoes. We also took our two favorite desserts. A trifle made with cake, cool whip/cream cheese and 2 different kinds of pudding (this time chocolate and carmel.), and Mint Fluffy dessert made from cool whip, mint oil and oreos. Yumm!
We drove on all gravel roads, (very bumpy!) and through a river, around mountain curve and arrived at 10:30. 5 dogs came out and surrounded the car. We wisely stayed inside till Norma came out. They had the lamb hanging outside next to the door. Norma commented that we were a bit late and Luis had go out to look for us. He soon arrived back riding his horse with one more dog at his heels.
He set about preparing the asado. The rest of the story is outlined by the pictures with comments underneath. Enjoy

Bill and Matthew. One of the 6 dogs is standing behind them.

Philip. Peter is chasing a goat in the background.

Lorin playing with Chiquita.

Emily wandering around the yard.

The bathroom from the outside.

Beautiful country!

Norma is cutting the lambs head off.

Typical Mapuche house. The tortas fritas next to the head of a freshly killed lamb. Don't forget the all important Yerba behind it all.

Can you see the asador and the wood used to make the lamb stand?

What? I am just the wolf guarding the chickens!!!

The saddles. They throw a blanket over it for comfort. Like it Cowboys??

Peter with the horse.

Getting is set up

Bill. You can see the size of the doors. Don't forget the step.

Asado started

The asado house.If you look at the chimney, you can see the bucket he used as an extension.

Dad chatting with Luis. Luis is behind the fence on the right. You can barely see his head.

An old iron. You put hot coals from your wood stove inside, shut and latch the lid and iron! Norma says is it 2x as hot as the flatiron that she uses.

Luis is getting lunch all ready.

YUM!!

Chiquita waiting patiently for her part of the asado

The bathroom. The hole is the toilet. Wanta try?

Peter and Bill at the top of one of the mountains.

Peter and Philip really liked Luis's horse. Peter grabbed her halter and lead her all over the place.

Love mountains!

Open door?

Lovely huh?

After we ate and cleaned up. Oh, wait, let me tell you about cleaning up. They have cold water that runs into the house, but no hot. In their wood stove, they have a reservoir to heat water. you dip the water out with a cup and pour it into a little bucket into the sink. Then you grab you rag, rub it on a bar of soup and wash your dishes. Just try getting all that sheep fat of the plates! It is not that easy! But I had a window to look out of. It was so nice. Instead of houses, I saw chickens, instead of cars, I saw sheep, instead of roads, I saw mounatins, instead of loud music,I heard sheep baaaing, instead of honking horns I heard chickens clucking, or political music playing, I heard wind in the trees. Wonderful!
Ok, back to after we cleaned up. We kids headed out and roamed all over the yard and mountains. It was so nice.
Dad called us back and we headed out to find petrified rocks. We had to go over two hills.

Sitting and chatting with Luis before we head off to get our rocks. While Dad, Mom and Norma went in the car, Luis walked us kids up the hill and pointed way down the hill where the car was and said..there you go. We got our breath back then headed down the mountain and up the others to get our petrified stuff.

Lorin looking for her rocks.

View from the top of the mountain. You can see our car in the right of the picture. Beautiful, desert land.

Want to crawl in that when it rains?

The Land

After quite a while and several hill tops, we decided it was time to head back. We walked back over the hills and to the house, gathered our stuff and left. It was about 6:30.

The gate into Luis and Norma's property.

Today mom took pictures of the rocks we collected.

Mom's 'Ica' stone. I really looks like it has drawings on it. It is beautiful.

Can you see the chick inside the petrified egg?

The big one all the way on the left is an egg that is broken into 3 pieces. There are more to it, but sadly, I didn't find them. Next to them is a petrified clam, and the others are either petrified wood or just rocks that I liked.

All the petrified pieces we found.

Fun twists. They make me think of the Golden Mien Ratio.

Our petrified eggs. They really look like eggs. With different colors for the yolk, white and shell. Two have chicks in them, the others just yolk. If you look close in the middle of the pile, you can see the chicks.

Our pile of Petrified wood

Swimming and rafts

2011-03-14T10:43:00.000-07:00

We like to go out to Thomas and Violaine's place and swim in the river. The boys decided to build a raft. We took out wood in the trailer and twine to tie it together. Check out the pictures and see how it worked...

Getting the boards out of the trailer to tie together to make the raft

Emily!

The girls swimming. Look more like otters.

Let's see.........

Well, sorta floats! Maybe better with only one light person....

Emily likes it best laying down.

Philip is light enough!

Swimming fun.

Ohhh, it fell apart! The sting wasn't that great.

The mountains in front of the river.

Since the other raft didn't work that great, Peter decided to make is own at home. He started off with one layer of wood and built on from there.

Peter and Philip trying it out half way. On land of course :)

It is finished! Sadly, we forgot to take a picture of the finished product. Peter attached another layer of wood on the bottom and filled the space in with empty soda bottles. it worked great!!!

Starting out.

pushing it out to try it.

Riding well.

Peter pushes Philip and Bill along

It works mom!!!! Peter gives a HUGE grin.

whooohooo!! Ride that raft!

don't fall off! Bill is too heavy for it to stay above water, but it does keep them up.

push push push!!

Best way they found. Emily sitting on the back and poling and Peter standing in the front.

Going up to the cross, well, not, so over to Buenos Aires Chico

2011-03-05T06:13:00.000-08:00

Cynthia's aunt, Maria came down for Buenos Aires and wanted to go up to the cross. They invited us to go. We headed out all packed in our car. Dad, Mom and I in the front, Blanca Nieve (Snow White, yes, that is her name. She is Cynthia's Mom) Maria and Cynthia were in the middle, and the rest packed in the back. We got there, piled out and headed up. But we barely started when the ladies decided that they didn't want to go up, it was way too steep. So we took pictures where we were and headed back down to sit and eat the chocolate chip peanut cookies and visit. After a while, we decided to walk down the road, over a bridge and back around to the bench, a big circle. After a while, Dad suggested that we go out to the valley behind Buenos Aires Chico to walk that. Nieve Blanca was thrilled! She has lived here in El Maitén her whole life, and never gone to Bs.As. Chico! They don't have a car. So out we went. We all piled back in, and went over there. We spent quite a while there. We took them home, and stayed to visit and drink Yerba Mate. We got home, ate and went to bed. What a fun day!

Cynthia and Maria

The list of stations on the way up to the cross.

A dead thistle. I thought that picture was neat.

El Maitén

Climbing

Us girls on our hike :)

Nieve Blanca, Maria, Me, Cynthia Lorin and EMily

Dad.

Chatting on the little bridge

Philip trying to catch up

Going to check out an animal that the kids found.

Mountain through the apple tree.

Emily looking down for the animal.

Under the Train car bridge lives a little animal. We are not sure what exactly it is, but we were thinking a muskrat or a mink. We got some pictures, but Maria got the best. The little guy came up to see us when we were sitting and eating. Our camera didn't get turned on fast enough to get one of him up there.

Over he goes.

There he is!!!

See his face?

Doing pull ups off a tree

Off to the side of the town. It faces Buenos Aires Chico

Watch out for Lorin! She is Armed and Dangerous!

Sword fight!

Since we didn't get to hike, we headed out to the valley outside of Buenos Aires Chico.

Ready....Set....SPLASH

All wet now...

Emily and Dad

Mom Nieve Blanca and Maria

Lorin, Maurica and Cynthia

Bill making a bridge

Thicket

Emily

Philip

Maria, Nieve Blanca and Mom

The path

Down the hill....

The river

Some top of trees. They look very pretty.

Lorin across the river

See the cave in the background?

Mom with her flowered hat

Día del Tren

2011-03-01T16:59:00.000-08:00

Every year, Feb 11th - 14th is the Día del Tren. It is the big festival here.
We first visited El Maitén during this holiday last year! It has been a year since we first visited. Wow! We went down on Thursday night, the first night, to watch Huenu and Aileen's folk dances. We got there on time, but of course, everything was late. We wandered around and looked at all the booths with the stuff people were selling. Clothes, cds, music, sunglasses, everything you can think of. We met some wandering venders that we had met in Aluminé during the Pehuen festival!
Finally the folk dances began. The girls had the cutest pink and white dresses and the guys were dressed in white gaucho outfits. They were so cute! the big kids had the fancy steps down the best, but the 2 little ones, a boy and a girl, were SOOO cute! and I think that they did the best all the way through of all of them. They were in each dance. And so adorable!
Enjoy the pictures!

Front of the famous Trochita

A side view of the Trochita

The area

Aileen Huenu's sister

Getting ready to head up....Nerves anyone?

The guys had the fancy footwork, the girls just a bit and fun swirly skirts

Huenu

The boys

the second to the last dance. If you look on the left, you can see the town photographer.

All the kids dancing

Cherry and plum picking

2011-02-19T06:38:00.000-08:00

Susan Weaver, a teacher here and our friend, came over and asked us to go pick guindas at her rental house. We said sure, so over we went. Susan and her husband, Gabriel took our ladder in the back of their truck and off we went. It was not far, just across town. Ci was still with us, so we took him. Since I had him, I could not pick cherries very well, they were all to high off the ground. So, I got what I could. Then Susan backed up her truck under a tree. I climbed on the back and Ci and I picked cherries together. Violaine arrived and took Ci home, and we got down to real picking!We picked a ton of sour cherries. Standing on our ladder, climbing trees, using Gabriel's ladder which leans against the tree, and just stretching to reach the sour cherries. Bill, Lorin and Matthew had a great idea. Bill and Matthew would hold up the ladder and Lorin would climb up and pick cherries. Then she would drop them into the bucket...well try at least. Most of the time she missed, so Emily and I picked them off the ground and put them in the bucket. It worked! Sadly we forgot to take the camera along. Since it is our cell phone, you would think we have it with us always, but no, we forgot it at home, as usual.
Susan said we could go back and pick as many as we wanted for ourselves, so the next night we did. These are the pictures from that trip.

We love all the trees and scenery around here and just want to share it.

This time the ladder is against the tree, Lorin picking all in sight, and moved around the tree. I stuck with the job of holding up the bucket. The kids teased later that we looked like a fountain!

Creativity. Dad is holding up the ladder, Lorin on it pulling the branches to mom who hold them down while Lorin picks the cherries. I am holding up the bucket so she can just drop them in. What a good team!

Can you spot Mono Peter up there?

Matthew Picking way up in the tree

Emily doing her best to get the cherries!

Lovely daisies!

Here is the whole patch of them.

Peter and Philip climbed up on top of the carport to pick the cherries up there.

Philip was enjoying his cherries! He loves to make his face the messiest he can. Cheap indian war paint!

Our YUMMY big red cherries. They are some of the biggest cherries we have seen. We all wanted to eat more than pick.

The black cherries we got.

Pitting Cherries What a job!!!! We then froze them.

Trini and Patricia were down south visit family and their plums were really ripe. Trini asked if we would go over and pick them and keep them. We went in the evening and picked 4 buckets. The next day and the day after that, we pitted and froze them. Today, I want to make a plum pie, we will see! They are very good.

Fully laden Wild Plum trees. The plums are the size of cherries, but taste like plums.

We stand on anything around...buckets, logs, branches, ladders.....

Emily is one of the best. She loves the ladder

Picking!

Here is one box of our plums. We got 5 in all.

YUMM! The boys took the pits and broke them open, and we eat the seeds inside. We really like them!!! And they are good for you too. Well, if they are not sprayed with chemicals. Yum!

Happy 9th birthday Philip!!!

2011-02-12T09:52:00.000-08:00

Philip turned 9 on February 5th. Happy Birthday Philip!

Philip's house

Spinny is a mouser! Her first mouse, and she brought it in the house, still alive! Shriek!!!

Thank you for my fishing pole Trini!!

Fishing for kids! LOL

Violaine gave Philip Gaucho pants

Patricia, Trini and Maurica

Maurica and Cynthia

Happy Birthday dear Philip......

Philip with his gingerbread house and plane cake

Philip's gingerbread house

Guard the house!

Philip and Facundo our neighbour behind us.

Ci's Parents, Thomas and Violaine. Ci LOVES Icecream! It was a differnt flavor than we have ever done...Blueberry and Maple flavoring with White Chocolate chunks! It was really really good!

All the girls!

AAAACHOOOO!!!

''Come on, Come on!''

''I Love Futbol!!!!''

war!!! Each is trying to kill the other's armymen

Ci and Violaine playing ball

chatting
Dad and mom took Peter and Philip to the river after lunch

playing at the river

Birthday prayer

THANK YOU DADDY!!

nice strong Trees to hold up his new hammock!

Philip in his hammock!

COBRA!! Where is Ricky-Ticky-Tavy???

belt

Philip's Shirt from Matias

Argentine kiss!!

Emily's 13th bday

2011-02-07T03:05:00.000-08:00

Jan 21st was Emily's 13th 'Scrabble' birthday. She can finally play scrabble!
Mom, Emily and I played the first game together.
Emily had requested a quiet birthday, so we didn't go any where. Violaine and Patricia stopped by to say happy birthday and give her presents, and Trini stayed for dinner and presents.
It was a nice quiet day and Emily enjoyed it!

HAPPY 13th BIRTHDAY EMILY!!!!!

Emily's present from Philip

Philip was really excited about the wrapping on his present. He wrapped it in 3 different huge boxes/bags, and then you finally found the crib!

Piedra Parada

2011-01-29T11:53:00.000-08:00

A while back, Trini and Patricia took us to Piedra Parada. Lorin, Emily and I rode with Patricia and Trini, The boys with mom and Dad. We thought we would have lunch there, but it took much longer to get there than we realized, so we stopped and had lunch 1/2 way.
We finally arrived. The rock is beautiful! And so big. GOD sure is amazing! What a Creator!
We climbed all around the rock. There are alot of smaller HUGE rocks, caves and crevices. We saw the cutest little animals. They were like a big squirrel with tassels on their ears. Sadly, Trini's camera died! So I couldn't get a pictures of them. I used Trini's camera to take pictures at the rock and our cell phone for the cañon. It is a lovely place!
Behind the rock is a cañon. After playing, we walked through it. The sides of the cañon are very very high, and full of small caves and tunnels. The rocks made fun shapes, and the water had made small erosion places. We teased each other that it was millions of years worth of erosion! Jajaja! It was not very old atall!
We walked for a long time, then headed home. We didn't get home till after dark.
Enjoy the pictures!

Here is the rock that we went to. It is HUGE and beautiful! Made me think of that verse Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.

Oops! Dad and mom got a flat tire!

Having hamburgers and milenasa sandwiches for lunch. We decided to eat about 1/2 way to Piedra Parada

Flamigos!

Piedra Parada!

Emily

Lorin

Matthew

Peter and Philip!

Don't fall in!

Good sized ant hill!

Trini told us that birds live in these rocks in the spring. They make their nests there.

A bunch of Cactus. Very pretty

Piedra Parada Cañon

2011-01-29T09:53:00.000-08:00

Here are part of the pictures, this is just the cañon. Dad is taking us down to the river, so I will finish when I get back.....

Philip walking along....

Thousands of years of erosion.....hardly!

What a cañon!

and it took Millons of years for this river to make it! NOT! :)

Fishing the Argentine boys' way

2011-01-24T09:43:00.000-08:00

Bill and Matthew got their fishing licence some weeks ago. But they don't have a fishing rod, so they made one from old fruit cans! They cleaned them all up, screwed a small square rod of wood in the middle and wrapped the fishing line around the outside. I hope that I explained it ok! Anyway, just look at the pictures! LOL

New Year's Day at the river

2011-01-19T03:16:00.000-08:00

Jan 19th
We went swimming in the river on New Years day. It was nice and hot. We walked down, splashed and played, then walked back and ate Chorizos for dinner.
Enjoy the pictures.

Bill, Lorin, Matthew and Emily crossed the river and jumped off a tree into the water. I tried getting a picture from the other side of the river and with my cell camera zoomed in. I hope you can see it ok.

Waterfight!

Splash!

Wonderful sky...I love clouds!

Peter splashing

Emily and Mom

Dad and Mom

Dad and Mom

Bill and Lorin walking back from jumping

Bill

What a shot! Philip is jumping in the river

Matthew with his goggles and nose closer on

What beautiful mountains! Emily swimming upstream!

Futbol

2011-01-12T03:08:00.000-08:00

Usually we have a ton of kids here to play Volley, Futbol and Pingpong. Yesterday, only Cynthia, Quito and Matias came. Cynthia left while we were playing volley. The boys and Lorin decided to play soccer. I don't really enjoy playing futbol, so I grabbed my camera and took pictures. It was a fun game. Matias and Bill against Lorin, Matthew and Quito. There were many spills, caños (when you kick the ball through someones legs) and fun times. Spinny loves to play futbol too. You might be able to spot her in some pictures as she is running across the field to play :) She does stay out of the way, but loves to 'play' anyway.
It was getting dark, (they started at 9:30 and played till 10) so the pictures are not the best. Enjoy!

Our mountain. Photo taken from under one of our sour cherry trees. I love the Andes!!!

Getting set up

Matias waiting...

Lorin is Goalie, she does good too

get a goal Bill!

Go Liz!

nice shot...Quito is trying to kick it past both his opponents to get it to Matthew or Lorin so they can make a goal.

Go you three!!

Who will get the ball first?? Matthew or Matias?

Bill goes down, Ball goes far, People come running.....foul? was it the ball or Matthew that tripped him.....the ball! :)

Waiting.....

Crash! Can you see Spinny coming out to play?

Get a goal Quito!

Moon, My favorite 3 trees, and the top of our house.

Happy 11th Birthday Peter!

2011-01-04T04:03:00.000-08:00

Peter wanted to go hiking for his birthday. After doing their chores, Everybody but Mom and Me headed off. Mom stayed to clean,and I stayed to finish Peter's Gingerbread house cake. It is a good thing I did, I finished it only long enough to take pictures before we ate it. I even had to eat my pepperoni pizza while I was working! :)
They had alot of fun. Lorin took the camera and took a lot of pictures. Hope you enjoy!

`

Matthew, Emily and Philip

Dad and Peter

Bill

Emily...getting a drink?

Climbing!

Bill looking away from side of town....can you see him int he corner?

Our Town! El Maitén.

up up up and away!

Philip looking at the edge of town-

Looking over our town

Can you find the spider? No, it was not really as big as it looks. Dad said it is about the size of a silver dollar, legs and all. It was black, red and hairy. Dad teased that he wanted to call him Sid, but he said nope...my name is Harry!

Peter's Birthday! Lunch, Cake and Presents

2011-01-04T03:31:00.000-08:00

Peter requested a gingerbread house for his birthday. Actually, we saw a picture of a gingerbread castle and he wanted that! I told him, that I could do the house, but not the castle, so he said ok. This was my first house. He really like it. I also made a normal white cake with chocolate frosting to go with it.

Trini pretending to eat the house!

Peter

Yumm!

Peter eating back of House

Cynthia

Feeding Cirilo Mint chocolate chip Icecream

Matias and his nephew Nico

Violaine and Trini together got Peter all the clothes to be a gaucho!

The two gauchos!!! Peter and Thomas

Peter and Sam, Thomas and Violaine's dog.

Water Fight! We started with water balloons and finally made it to cups. Girls against boys.

Go Philip!

Trini turned traitor! So we are all headed out for attack! What had happened was Lorin and Cynthia were going to hit dad's shoulder with a water balloon and missed and hit Trini. So she went over to the boys side.

Trini is waiting for us...

War of strength!

Cynthia getting Philip good.

Can you see the stream of water

Our mountains

Peter receiving family presents after everyone had left.

Matthew made him a boat

Lorin gave Peter an Asado kit. Very nice!

Peter being T-rex with his new T-rex 3d puzzle.

Peter with new puppy thermometer. He is trying to look like the dog. The thermometer has both Fº and Cº!! Yippee! Maybe now we can learn that pesty Cº :)

Sorry about the quality. It was getting dark and our cell doesn't take very good pictures then.

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Rack of Lamb. We BBQ it out over an open fire.

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE!
¡Feliz Año Nuevo!
Yes, Peter was born on New Year's Eve 11 years ago! :) We had alot of fun with our friends for Peter's birthday. Matias and Nico came back to do the fireworks with us. We set off our own. At 12 we all said Feliz Año! Then Matias and Nico ran back to greet his family when the Argentines said it was new years. We then watched all the other fireworks. They were in a circle around us. It was really fun to watch. They had some really good ones.

Happy new years!

Horses

2010-12-27T02:53:00.000-08:00

A While back, Irene brought 2 horses over for the boys to ride. I had ridden with them a couple weeks before and the kids had the next Saturday, so all that was left was Peter and Philip.
Here are pictures

Note from Jeff

2010-12-18T11:45:00.000-08:00

As more and more people read this blog we have more comments dealing with different church and doctrinal issues. This is a blog written by my children about our life, it is not a ministry blog. Here is my email address,if you would like to discuss issues. Please email to Jeff Klein at mapuchemissions@gmail.com

Various photos of our life

2010-12-18T10:47:00.001-08:00

Here are several pictures of things that happen around our house.

Bill and Ruben. Bill works with Ruben at the mill

Some flowers Peter picked for Mom

Following are some pictures of Cirilo. Most are when I was having fun taking many pictures of him outside. I picked some of the best to put on.
One is Dad playing the 'piano' with him.

I (Maurica) have been working on this table cloth off and on since March. I finally finished!

Matías's class. Victor dropped in for a visit.

Emily playing school teacher with Trini's glasses

Monopoly in the front and Uno in the back

Victor and his son Massio

We were practicing a song...Spinny fell asleep!

Lorin and Emily

Dad and Fransisco

Babies bring laughter wherever they go!

Kids playing pingpong

Machilena, the mechanic from across the street playing Bill.

Trini...Help us find a caption!!! It needs a good one!

Cirilo in Dad's hat

Sleeping Cirilo

Feeding Cirilo, I think it is mush

Philip doggiesitting Laika Matías's dog

Spinel...resting? :)

School. Almost done for the summer!!!

Mom and Violaine made soap all day yesterday. Here is what they ended up with. They cut it into mold this morning, but no pictures yet.

Here is a bottle of Kefir. We drink it all the time. This on is sage flavored. in fact, you can see the sage plant. (No, not sage brush!)

first try at a new meat

2010-12-18T10:41:00.000-08:00

The last time we tried a meat totally new was in Texas when we ate squirrel. We love squirrel now. Then I put pictures on and you had to guess. This time, I will do pictures and add some hints...but you still have to guess!
This new meat is very common to this area. It is not eaten very much in the states, especially not in the west. But it is very common in other countries. It is mentioned in the Bible and was a favorite. Can you guess what it is?

Ancianos

2010-12-09T16:00:00.000-08:00

Nov,30th
We were invited by the Director to go and visit the 'abandon adults' They are older men and women. It is almost like an assisted living home.
The first time we went, there were 2 ladies and 7 men at the ''living room'' that we went to. There is one main building where you have the ''living room'' where they visit, do crafts etc. They make BEAUTIFUL rugs, paper mache, curtains, socks and alot of neat stuff. There is a kitchen there. The people say that the food they serve is really good (groan and sigh). They also have bathrooms and showers. The old folks live in their own little homes, or in a sort of dorm room. They are really nice, really clean and there is no stinky smell like the nursing homes in teh states. Almost all of the people had lived in the campo until they got too old or sick to live out there still. We chatted with the people, listened to them talk, gave them regalitos (small gifts) that we had made. We had made them spanish verses done with fun scrap booking stuff, that they could hang on their walls. The ladies got the verses and I made little flower pins for them as well. they all loved it that we came and visited.
We were able to met more people. A couple had not been in the living when we went.
When we left, the nurse told us to pick out a rug to take. We choose one that is soo pretty. A man made it by making a rope first with yarn, then sewing it into an oval shaped rug. Do you know the small almost knitting circles that you can use to make hats? well, it was the same principle, only very small. 4 nails and a crochet hook. When Philip (who was choosing) picked the rug, the man lite up. He immediately got up and got a bag to carry it in. They are sweet people and we really enjoyed them.

Please pray for us as we go in. Right now, we have no competition. None of the religious groups will go in at all.
The director is really hoping we will stay. she told us that the people need something spiritual in their lives. Please pray!

Dec. 7th
We have been going to visit the ancianos (old folks), for three weeks. We go every Tuesday at 10am. As we were leaving today, the assistant director stopped Dad and asked if he wanted to visit a Mapuche community that you can only reach by horse. THIS is what Dad feels called to! He has been waiting for God to open this door!
A nurse lives full time in the community. A Dr. goes up once every twenty days. It takes a full day by horse to arrive at the community; he will be there 2 days and ride back out. Please pray this door stays open and we will be able to minister to the people.

The first time Dad and one of the boys will be going, there are three horses available. We were not told the day of the visit, pray the man guiding will not let it drop and that God is preparing the hearts there for the gospel!!