Idling Motor: Wow

We have arrived!

108 days after arriving in

Uruguay

, we are in a place of our own.

We’re still saying “Wow”.

What’s to love:

- 12 acres of rabbits, capybaras, carpinchos, mice and an incredible assortment of birds to select from.

- The buffet is always open. Female Handler (FH) complains about the killing fields outside the back door, but really I’m just showing off my innate hunting abilities. I’ll slow down eventually because I’ll get bored, but for the time being I’m putting the weight back on that I lost during the 5,300 mile (8,530km) journey south. Here's a picture of me just tuckered out after pulling an all-night'er hunting.

- While we have both a fireplace and a wood stove, it is the wood stove that we have used to date. When it is in fine operating form, it is Wow moment. The fireplace is predominately my indoor perch.

- The languid whispering of the wind between storms.

What’s to deal with:

- The unexpected rain storms. Sure I can run to the barn and wait it out, but I’d much rather get the towel rubdown if I show up at the back door.

- The presence of foxes. I found a decaying carcass of one down the hill that alerted me to the fact that they are around.

- The occasional, monotonous THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP of a powerful bass drum that is like a pile driver to the chest. It’s a wonder that my lungs haven’t collapsed yet. This thumping, it turns out, comes from the Swiss neighbor next door who owns a 36-hectare spread of olives, citrus and kiwi. He owns a grandissimo set of speakers! And it is from these that he blasts looping tracks of unearthly electronic music. Female Handler had the pleasure of introducing herself to him yesterday and walked away with a jar of olives and a bottle of olive oil. He engaged her in a conversation about the joys of farming, but she failed to catch most of what he said owing to the strange, opiate music—anchored by that incessant THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP--coming from directly behind her.

- MH trying to deal with a wood stove that doesn’t always draft well and his propensity to curse and slam iron doors shut with a force that makes me rather want to deal with the fox outside.

But on a good note, I will leave you signs of spring, as it is bursting here at the farm and quite amazing!