One of the most beautiful things of living in Nature and building from what it provides is walking towards the places where material gathering is done. During those walks is when I remember the most why I'm doing this, what it is I want to contribute to, and what I wish to leave in this planet when my mortal frame returns to the soil.
It was a cloudy day, and perhaps not so pretty for everyone, but I enjoyed it a lot. A cloudy day can be a gorgeous thing if you accept it's mellowness as part of the diverse array of emotional states one can experience.
What I like about this place is the vastness of the valley. It does sadden me to see how the forest has been reduced progressively since I was a child, but I do my best no to think much about it. I'm doing as much as I can to be part of it's restoration and that's enough.
The plant in this pic is "Calafate", which gives a fruit similar to a blueberry. Local lore says that once you eat calafate in Patagonia you're bound to return one day 😉
While I'm vegan and would like to avoid all kinds of bloodshed, I do appreciate that animals in this region have plenty of space to roam around
I love horses but once again I feel in turmoil at these sights. All that space so that two horses feed when it could easily have a house, vegetable garden, fruit trees, and native trees. So many people suffering at the hands of the system because they don't have access to land, and other people using huge extensions just to feed a few horses that they go and ride once a week.
Yarrow flowers are nice and dry already. Did you know they are a nice spice for cooking? I really like their smell and flavor.
That's the house were my grandparents forged their homestead. Now my uncle and his family live there but they are really different. They're good people but we don't really synch into the same vibe much. It's not the same without my old folk and I don't really visit the place.
The hill up front is where I'm going. I want to visit a part where I saw lots of stones cut in flat shapes, which is interesting for me to replace bricks in building a stove.
Love old tree stumps, don't you?
While walking I revisited the music of Luca Turilli, a musician I listened a lot to when I was a teenager. His music still produces beautiful emotions in me and it blended well with the atmosphere of the day. Especially the songs "Black Dragon" and "Lord of the Winter Snow".
Arriving at the pine tree plantation. Only good thing to me about this is the abundance of suillus luteus mushrooms you can find.
These are the suillus luteus I mentioned. Also known as pine mushroom.
Oh, and this is nice too. Walking in between the rows of trees has a pretty special feel to it.
Another nice view of the valley and it's vastness.
This is a native tree resisting in between the plantation. It's called "notro" or "ciruelillo" (Embothrium coccineum). It's wood is appreciated due to being easy to work with. It's a pretty fast-growing (10-30 cm. annually) species and has the ability to start a forest from scratch when planted in a proper place. One of its ecosystemic benefits is that it fixes phosphorous into the soil, a mineral that sometimes requires a bit of a hassle to add organically.
Folklore says that "notro" bark is good for toothache, while the flowers are good scar tissue treatment. Leaves are used to alleviate headaches.
Almost there, this walk does demand a lot of physical energy. Sometimes I get so lost in energy work and the astral plane that my body starts to languish. Taking a good hike makes me aware of this.
Here's the treasure.
There are some awesome boulders too I would like to take but I can't carry so much weight all that distance.
One last view of the valley from the top!
This was as much as I felt I could carry. I think I will have to come here like 10 more times to have enough stone. Actually, the stones I have down at the shelter were all carried from here about 4 years ago, when I had my previous attempt at living in Nature.
Ok, that's enough weight. May the gods help me.
There are some really impressive stone formations on this hill. Another day, with more time (probably in summer) I hope to show you some amazing sites here.
I was on my way down and I stumbled upon this perfectly flat rock. I was already with a lot of weight but decided I couldn't leave it behind. As I pulled the bagpack up again I felt it intensely heavy and I almost fell down the hill as I lost my balance haha! But I managed and allowed my ambition to take it downhill anyway.
By this hour I was out of battery so there are no more pics. Hope you enjoyed this little trip, thanks for stopping by!
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It's certainly better to be walking downhill with a bag full of rocks rather than walking uphill...
Not really, the walk uphill was smooth. The weight of the rocks and the metaphoric thoughts of rocks being guilt as described in the bible were a lot worse hahaha
looks like you need a wheel barrow, or cart so you can haul more!...
Actually, I have one but can't use that because I have to jump several fences and enter private property on the journey 😅
I do love your dedication to the way you life and how you source what you need locally too, there is a lot here that others could learn from. Love the intro to all the medicinal plants as well. Sending you love my friend xxx
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