Argentina Homestead Update

There is lots going on on the Donaldson Family Homestead these days.


I forgot to mention a couple of posts ago that Dane sold all of our honey harvest on a trip to town one day. Everyone he mentioned that he had honey to, asked him to sell them as much as he could. So the honey went, and people are still asking for more. That was a while ago, and we just got a text message the other day, asking if we had any honey for sale from a business in town.


After Dane's successful sale, he set about buying several more colonies. We now have 13 thriving colonies, which, Lord willing, would be a start to producing a nice middle class income here.


Dane and Elijah have spent considerable time caring for and feeding the new bees. Needless to say, the bees have been busy, and despite the winter temperatures, Dane is expecting to start harvesting honey in September.


Here is a picture of several new bee boxes that Dane has painted for the new colonies.





Here is Elijah with a bee smoker as he and Dane were on their way from one group of hives to another.

After Dane's tractor accident, he had some repairs to make on it. Within a couple of days of getting the tractor going again, it blew a head gasket, so he had to take it apart and replace it. He also had the head machined and a valve job done on it.

Dane finished the second story floor this past week and moved the children's beds upstairs. We now have a lot more room upstairs and down. 880 square feet has never felt so roomy! I would have added pictures of the upstairs, but our computer is acting up and we can't download right now - hopefully we can include some next time.

Dane has also been cleaning up the farm and getting it ready to sell. We believe that we have a buyer, a good friend and brother, so we couldn't be more thankful.

The children and I have taken some time off from our schoolwork in order to get ready for our upcoming move. When we get a few more things packed up, we will hit the books again for a few more weeks and then take a break again in October, when we plan to fly back to the U.S.

To continue, the Lord has blessed us with a regular supply of rain these days, and we have had cooler temperatures too.

Diapers drying over the stove

Little John enjoying the buntings and blankets that Meme made

Elijah had five stitches put into his lip at the hospital in town after his sister accidently catapulted a log into his face. In addition to the lip injury, he had several cuts in his mouth, bruised gums, a scraped cheek, and a black eye. As is his nature though, he was more concerned about his sister feeling badly than he was about his injuries. Praise the Lord, he is healing nicely.

Elisabeth, John, and I are traveling to Buenos Aires tomorrow evening, Lord willing, in order to apply for John's United States and Argentina passports on Monday. Dane will have to go soon after in order to finish the process, but hopefully we will have John's passports in the near future. Like Joseph's, we made his passport photos here at the house. He did very well as I took about 50 some pictures of him. We did get several that would make fine passport photos. The following photo won't work because of the wrinkles in the background, but it was a good picture of our newest little guy, so I thought I would share it. Who do you think he looks like? Maybe it's the hair, but I think he looks a little like his grandfather :).

The children never cease to find interesting things around the farm.

In this picture, Abby caught a bird that had gotten trapped in our shade cloth covered garden.

Abby found this strange flower growing on a vine, and Elijah climbed a tree to pick it for her.

And Elisabeth found this butterfly. It looks very much like a monarch. I guess that would be a question for our neighbors over at the Chacra Mariposa (Butterfly Farm).

Jessica