Before I came to Kila Leufu, I was apprehensive. I thought I had made the wrong choice. I thought that because this farm emphasized cultural tourism, I wouldn´t learn anything about farming. Well I was so very wrong. Yeah, I´ve learned a lot about gardening and a lot about what it mentally takes to live this lifestyle. But most importantly--I have learned A LOT about animals.
First and foremost, animals are A LOT of work. They require a lot of personal attention. Just as a good gardener knows the ins and outs of her plot, a good caretaker knows each and every animal. He knows their personality, their oddities, their rhythm. He can tell when they´re sick, when they´re hungry, when they´re uncomfortable, and when they´re ready to mate. He knows how he can benifit from the animal and he understands that he will gain more by loving and caring for that animal. I know all this because I watch Antonio dedicate each and every waking hour to the care and management of his animals. I see the way he treats them, and I can sense the way he respects and loves them. And from what I can tell, despite all the work, they are worth it.
So much of the food we eat in this house comes from our animals. Every other morning, Antonio goes to milk one of our cows. As I have learned through the questions I ask and through accompanying him, we could have ´trained´the cow to give more milk, but we only take what we need so she only gives every few days. And although I don´t speak cow, I don´t think she really minds being milked. She is there waiting by the gate every time we are ready to milk her, and she patiently stands by as Antonio loosely ties her back legs and begins to confidently take out her milk. His touch is confident and swift. He is firm yet smooth. The motion is rather simple, and I picked up on it very quickly. Apart from the milk, we also collect around six to ten eggs each day. And if we want meat--chicken for soup or lamb for an asado--we just walk to the back yard. Okay, prepping a chicken is not as easy as going to the super market. It takes a little longer, and it is a little smellier. But snapping the neck isn`t that hard and gutting the bird isn`t too bloody. Besides, the taste is unreal (or super real I suppose) and at least I know that this chicken lived a happy free life and was fed delicious healthy food.
Kila Leufu, however, is not totally self sufficient. Cheese takes too much effort and they cannot possibly live without kilos of sugar. So we buy things. Which, naturally, means we need to make money. Animals, because they take so much work, also bring in the biggest profit. We sheer and sell the wool from our sheep and llamas. We also raise pigs and turkeys to sell throughout the year (although we have a lot less turkeys than last year because they are hard to keep and often require personal medical attention). I was lucky enough to be here this year when a huge monetary transaction took place. Three years´ worth of raising and one year´s worth of business negotiations. All to sell 36 cows. And what a final transaction it was! We woke up at 3am to catch a ride with a truck that had left from Temuco at 1am that day. Because Irma and Antonio do not like to go to the city, they hire a middle man (this truck driver who happens to be a distant relative) to come to Pucon, pick up the cows, and bring them to the market in Temuco. Irma and Antonio don`t make as much money as they could, but they would rather avoid the trouble so they think it is worth it. By 8 am all of the cows were on the truck. Just as the last ones were being carefully led in by Antonio, Irma was signing the documents and receiving the money on a makeshift table (in reality a large cement block). Everything was done so precisely, so calmly, and so confidently. If I didn`t know any better, I would have thought we were participating in a major drug trade or weapons exchange, completed deep in the forest under the protection of dawn´s darkness. But then we drove to the local police station to have the municipality sign off on the trade so that the cows would be able to safely cross the state´s borders without suspision of theft. By 11am, our side of the deal was complete and by 1pm the cows were at the market being sold for a price we may never know. And to celebrate, we returned to the farm for our morning mate and to continue to work towards the next business transaction.
But I am a firm believer that one cannot simply work for profit. No matter what your job is, you need to enjoy it. The best part, then, about working with animals, is that you cannot help but enjoy it. They provide constant entertainment as well as loyal moral support. I cannot help but giggle every time I walk into the garden and the pigs in the nearby pasture come bolting towards the fence, oinking continuously in the attempt to sway me to throw them a scrap or two. And who needs TV when I can watch chickens and kittens play with each other for hours, always seeming so confused and curious about the world around them. They´re fascinating. And they´re beautiful. Toki, our dog, loyally follows Antonio around every where he goes. And Estrella, our mama llama, just gave birth two weeks ago to a spritely young baby girl. I got to watch the birth, and I stood by with a rope just in case she needed any help. But the baby was born without problems, and I have been watching her grow ever since. Within an hour she had found her equilibrium and was walking. By that afternoon she was making sounds and following her mom´s vocal commands. And by that night she was sprinting a few yards at a time. Now, she is all over the place, pouncing around like she´s been doing this for years. It´s beautiful.
The point is that with animals, there is never a dull moment. They are a lot of work, but like most things that require a lot of attention, the pay off is fantastic.
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