It's never easy at first...

For this posting, I’m going to do something different. I’m going to share with you what I found as I hacked into the female handler’s journal on her computer. It wasn’t easy with paws, but I found it. I must admit…she is trying her best…

As Mo’s caretaker, one of my biggest concerns is that he’s content. His dark eyes do not reflect contentment, and I’m trying to figure out what the next step will be. A few things on my mind:

• All three cats were on a hunger strike for about 17 days. As a life-long cat owner, it was nothing that I had experienced before. Even with humans, if you’re hungry enough, you’ll eat it no matter how unusual or disgusting it may be. I mean, look at Bear Grylls! But instead, I get…a stand-off: 
• We finally found some cat food that they tolerate, but it looks like Ed and I are going to have to cook up some food once a week, a combination of meat and grains with some carrots thrown in. It will be cheaper than the packaged cat food that we can buy here. Maybe then Ricky will get enough in his belly and cease his yowling for food at 3:30am.
• The citrus farm fell through. The story behind this is the dollar has tanked. Although they have it listed on their own private blog at a certain price, that price happens to be 2009 dollars (all real estate is sold in US dollars which dates back to the old days when the dollar used to be the only stable currency. How times have changed). It's 2011 now, and that same dollar won't buy as much. They decided to "increase" the price 25% to "better" reflect the 2011 dollar. Well...that bites. Further, the current owners put more emphasis on the cattle and sheep corral than we did. While we think we’ll have some sheep, it is highly doubtful we will have cattle. There are twelve times as many cattle as there are people in Uruguay. And the figure is even higher for sheep. But with sheep, how can you go wrong, though?! I must admit I am slightly biased, as I am half Kiwi.
• We started looking for another place as soon as we knew our value of the citrus farm did not even come close to the current owner’s value of the citrus farm. We looked at many places. Even an old wine bodega which was filled with character and marvelous spaces (to store the wine, and to partake in the drinking of it). 

My daughter had definite misgivings about us purchasing a bodega so that property was put farther down on the list.

• We found an almond farm on 5 hectares (~12 acres). 1000 plants, with 500 having reached maturity last season and the remaining reaching maturity next year. The idea of being an almond farmer (and Ed does make the best biscotti…) has a nice ring to it. In addition to almonds, the owner had a good honey operation going on, with what looked to be 4 colonies on one section of the property. This sustainable circle hooked us. As an added bonus, the house was actually very nice, not needing any immediate repairs or changes. This condition is, quite frankly, unheard of…as we saw houses without fixtures and appliances (even hot water tanks are considered an appliance), and broken windows. Moving into a house that doesn’t need any repairs lightens our load considerably. So why the fuss? Make the offer and start the new chapter.
• The owners have two young elementary-school aged kids. Moving quickly just seems so radical. I didn’t want to put that sort of time pressure on them. We liked the couple immensely and we want to remain on good terms even after we’ve moved in. They are not leaving the area, but rather want to buy a bigger piece of property so they can establish a bigger cash crop of almonds. And he is instrumental in getting all the almond growers (less than 10 in this Departamento- county) organized to combine their crops and sell in a concentrated effort. We most definitely want to be a part of that…so be patient…
• Here in Uruguay, everything is on a sliding time schedule. While I haven’t worn a watch since my battery died in 2005, here “time” is just remarkably different. I will most likely come back to this topic over and over again until I hit that stage when I no longer notice, and then for all my gringo friends and family…I apologize in advance.
• The process of buying a house is also different here. We sat down with the owners over coffee and cookies, and chatted about weather insulation and growing almonds, although my daughter’s focus was on raising bees and discussing colony collapse disorder. We fell in love with the property minutes earlier, but this was the time that we fell in love with the owners. Quite honestly, this makes the world of sense to me. If you get good vibes that the owners really do care, you know that there is good karma, not to mention good upkeep (we certainly hope that the current owners of our Chapel Hill property felt the same in the very few brief moments that the realtors allowed us to communicate with one another). Then a day or two later, we came up with the price that we were willing to offer, and what we wanted conveyed. This was verbally shared with the owners. They took off our “conveyed” list a couple light fixtures and the washing machine…but otherwise accepted. Then the first document of acceptance was written up by an escribano (a person that fulfills all the normal attorney work but isn’t quite an attorney) and required signatures by us (the buyers), the sellers and the escribano. This went through a slight re-write as the escribano (rather, an escribana—ours was a woman) found out that this couple wasn’t married so this delayed it by a day. Once signed, then there is a 20 day period of backing out but with significant fines if either party does back out. In the States, this would be the time that the house is inspected. Not so here. It’s really just time for the purchase contract to be written up. After 20 days, 50% payment is provided. The remaining 50% is due 60 days later when the deal is closed. What this all means is that we are now…77 days shy of moving into a house. Specifically, do we want to be in an apartment without access to grasses and the outdoor litter box for THAT long a time? It'll be nearing spring by the time we do move!
• We spend our evenings and weekends walking around looking for signs “for rent by owner.”Rentals are hard to come by because of that monstrosity of a pulp and paper plant being built up river. The engineers need a place to live, and Colonia has opened their arms to those willing to pay mucho!
• Winter is coming on. The leaves are almost off the trees. The weather is cool, with sporadic winds making it cold. A yurt would be ok…but we failed to bring one in our luggage.
• Our ability to look beyond walking range is hampered by the fact that the car purchase which was supposed to take a few days is now entering its 3^rd week. The car has been selected (purchased from a friend’s friend in Montevideo) but the paperwork from that Departamento has yet to arrive at the escribano’s (I tell you….escribanos control ALL purchases!). So in the meantime, we walk. We’ll probably walk to the bike store today to see what we might be able to find there…but then will that purchase ALSO need to go through an escribano? Where would we store the bikes? We’ve gotten in the habit of walking up all the flights of stairs to the apartment instead of taking one of the two elevators. While a good habit to get into, I’m like seriously dreading when Ed suggests we must do the same carrying bikes. But bikes would allow us to cover more ground.
• Being in the “city” has its benefits. Little family-run grocery stores are dotted around us. We can buy bulk wine (they pour a great Tannat out of a 3L jug into any container that we provide), bulk cheese (the Sunday market two blocks away has an array of fantastic cheeses), the yarn store on the other side of the square, there are 4 butchers within a 6 block radius, the fish wagon comes every Friday morning, and let’s not forget the pastry shop that we found walking back from the escribano’s early last week.
• But being in a 7^th- floor apartment has its downside. Wireless internet is a given in this town (due to the one laptop per child rule), but being on the 7^th floor puts us above reach of the signal. Ed and I share one USB wireless flash drive. No grass and romping space for the cats. This apartment has no washing machine (we’ve been handwashing but did decide to take a few loads to the laundry mat around the corner. They said it amounted to 3 loads and cost $23. Ouch. We’ll be doing more by hand…). I haven’t started back up running because frankly I’m afraid of the first tumble I take. The cobblestone streets drain in the middle if the Portuguese built them in the 1600s or they drain to the sides if the Spaniards build them after the Portuguese were kicked out. The sidewalk tiles are forever popping up from the tree roots. Running is just plain hazardous! And bottom line, we’re so not “city” folks! Even if the "city" has a full time population of about 28,000.

It’s the weekend and time to explore. Maybe we’ll get lucky. Maybe we’ll find a house on the edge of town with a small inner courtyard that we can rent for a couple of months. Please forgive me for venting a bit. Given a bit of griping on my part, are we happy we made this move? Without a doubt…yes!