We have finished the “roof” on the house and have ordered the wood for the house. We had originally thought we were going to go with wood but then began thinking about a brick structure but after looking at the options for brick, and having difficulties with help and so forth, we decided to go back with wood. It will be faster, probably a little cheaper and I think it will look better. The wood shop has selected the trees to use and is cutting them to make the floor beams and deck for the second floor as well as the wall materials. We are going to have a “red” hardwood for the floor and outside walls and the inside walls are going to be pine. When I say “red” that means the maderera will select trees based on color and class of tree but not necessarily the same species – this is more economical than specifying a specific species. A maderera is not a saw mill or a carpenteria (carpenter’s shop) – Madera is wood or lumber so a maderera is a wood worker more or less – they take rough cut lumber and make beams and tongue and groove planks called machimbre). The name of the maderera we are using is Fuks & Fuks (pronounced like Fooks), this is the last name of the owners. With drying time included, it will take about 2 months for it all to be ready.
We have most of the material on the farm to install the septic system, and water supply. Lord willing, we are going to try and use the spring about 30 meters away to supply our water by building a small covered pond at the spring and a pump to pump the water up to our storage tank. The pump we have is a ram type pump and does not need electricity but uses the flow of water to pump the water. With about 3 feet of fall between the water source and the pump, the pump can pump a small amount of water about 100 feet high. About 10% of the water is pumped for use and the rest is wasted out the back of the pump. This is something that they have been using down here for a long time. We have a 1000 liter (275 gallon) tank and it will sit on top of a 6 meter tall tower next to the house. So, although the pump is slow, it will pump all the time and once our tank is full, there should not be a problem keeping up with our demand – and no electricity required, just nice clean spring water. We will boil what we drink and the rest will be for cleaning and stuff like that. Boiling water is really a lot simpler when you use a wood burning stove because you have a heat source from cooking that usually lasts for some time afterwards.
We have the tower for the internet on the farm also. It is going to be 35 meters tall (115 feet) and about 200 meters (660 feet) up the hill from the house. We have to have such a tall tower because there is a high hill next to our farm between us and the main tower, which is in a town just to the north called Campo Vierra. They are supposed to erect it early next week. Once that is up and operational, we should be able to be out there on a more full time basis building the house and preparing the fields.
I have taken some pictures for everyone to see some of the things we have been working on. It is turning warmer so a lot of stuff is really starting to grow and get green.
This one is of the limit of my property where I am clearing out for a fence. The tree to the left is a peach tree.
This one is of our homestead area with the tent and the tinglado.
The one below is of a path I am clearing from the house to the top of the hill where the internet tower is going to be.
This one is looking towards the river from our home site. A lot of the trees you see with no leaves are called Kiri and were planted to harvest and use for furniture. When cut, they grow back with another trunk and you can harvest them again 4-5 times. It takes about 8 years for them to grow large enough to be ready to harvest. In the spring, they get leaves on them about 12-18 inches across and heart shaped.
The one below is where I think we are going to start the garden. There is a little brush that we have gathered to burn. 
Here is a closeup of camp. I have dismantled the old car somebody left behind into pieces small enough for me to carry. The tent is real nice since it is totally screened in we can get away from the insects and out of the weather. 
Here is a picture of the internet tower out on the land.
Here is a field I cleared about 3 months ago for the tower (it took me about 2 ½ hours to clear about 75 meters square), all the new growth is winter growth. You can get a general idea of the way things slope here, this is a relatively flat field but as you can see, it still has a bit of slope to it.
You can see the 6-7 ft tall weeds to the left and all the cut vegetation on the ground. With the first cutting I am really only able to cut about 6-10 inches off the ground so you are looking at about 12-18 inches of cut stuff laying on the ground – it takes about 2 weeks to dry out enough to burn. Burning puts a lot of potassium back into the soil as fertilizer. I have done all this clearing with the weed eater in the picture above. This particular area of my farm has very good (deep) soil. I have learned since that the taller blue green bush in the left of this picture is called Canela and develops into a tree that makes “the best” firewood for our stove.
Here is the 
Here is Abigail with a piece of bamboo (tacuada); she made it into some sort of decoration. Here I was trying to clear a path for the electricity from our house to the tower. I came into some pretty rough stuff and decided on another route. It is a funny thing that where I came from, straight lines were pretty easy to come by. Here, faced with the prospect of many scratches and hours of hacking at brush with a machete and an axe, you think, “I could just go over there 10 meters and be good to go”.
We are really anxious to start planting things and from talking to our neighbors and others, the options for planting are almost endless. Often when you ask what grows here you hear, just put a seed in the ground and it will grow.
Let me know if the pictures don’t come through or you have any other problems with the email.
Dane
