Look What They Done to My Wall!

Since I am a “farmer “these days what with us planting soy bean and wheat I get the right to moan a lot. Sometimes it’s a moan about not enough rain and then it’s about to much rain on the other hand it’s sometimes about the invasion some wheat eating insects. Yes it’s a tough life being a farmer but no one believes us!!! .  However,  my Bumy  main  grip is with this Kirchener Government who seem intent on grabbing  as much money as they possible can in taxes  from the farmers in the good times and not helping  when we  have bad times. That’s how it is here – we survive - sometimes it hard and sometimes its easy just depends. However, every now and again life surprises us and we forget the moaning and to be truthful never more than here. Now I divide my time between La Margarita and my small apartment in Palermo Soho in BA. A few days ago I arrived in BA and made my way down the street I live in – umm I noticed there was something different about it this time.

Right next to my apartment block is a wall - a huge wall and to be truthful it was pretty bleak wall – it had bits of the usual city graffiti on it making it look pretty unappealing. However, last week all that had changed. The city councilors had given paint and permission to varies top graffiti artist to paint big ugly walls and luckily enough the wall   next to our building was one of the chosen ones.  I love it – it is a delight and I watched the guys and girls doing it – it took all day and most of the night but they did a fine job and to me it’s a joy to see. Now I am no artist and I only know two - one is my famous artist neighbor Max on La Margarita and the other is the unknown Anna. Now I just know that Max would have loved to have done this wall job – he did the famous mural in Lisbon Station but he would have been too expensive and been too busy but equally I know that Anna would have loved to have a crack at it   for free- she would have just loved that chance.  But as I understand it  she has hang up her brushes ( well that’s what I have been told )  but maybe it’s time to get them  out again and look for a wall to paint and give pleasure to the people passing by it  and to realize some of that pent up artist expression inside  – she would make a fantastic  job it – I know she has the talent since one of  her painting hangs in my living room and from the great  comments I get about it  she should pick up the brushes and do it again – hope this blog gives her some inspiration to do just that por favor

This is David Cummings alias The English Gaucho off to do a bit of travelling for a few weeks

Hasta pronto

Farming just got better (well for now that is).

My first farming cheque in Argentina yeaaaaaaa

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Some of you who read my blog will know that a couple of years ago we on La Margarita decided that it was time we got a bit more serious about farming. However, we had just been though a drought the result of which had many farmers screaming at the government for help which never came. Many farmers lost a packed sadly. We suffered as well as we watched the drying up of land and pasture hoping and hoping the rains would come and we would at least have enough pasture to see out the drought. Luckily enough we did and  our cows survived and everyone was happy. I had a long talk with my partner in agriculture who had suffered a bad loss in the drought. We had a serious talk and decided it can’t it get any worse – so we decided to plant soya. The predictions for El Nino were that good rain was forecast and the price of soya was on the move upwards. So with trepidation we drunk a whisky or two and decided to  plant soya even though we have to contend with a  government who insist on  taking 35% of our crop in pre taxes!! – making life tough indeed here to  make money  if you don’t  know your way out  of the maze ( they will be gone this year is the big hope here).

We rented 200 hectors about 1000 acres  and planted soya. We did various rain dances asked for help from above and low and behold it worked   - we had a good crop to sell. Problem was that the price of meat doubled here in one year and we suddenly had to pay double for the land we rented since the rental was based on the price of meat. As some of you know when we harvested last year and sent our crop to market we had a huge profit of 5US$.  Umm a bad start for me in the agriculture business. However Fito one of the owners of the racehorse I own and a countryman said  don’t give  up keep going  and keep planting  - he said plant  wheat and get your  expenses back to pay for the land  and then you will be ready to plant soya again . We followed his advice. Mario and I had a talk and decided that we would plant wheat which would pay for the rental of the land, leaving us clear to plant soya again. We at the same time decided to plant barely since the taxes were lower. Both crops grew well the rains came the price of wheat went up and so did the price of soya and barley. A few months ago we harvested and sent our crops to the silos ready to sell at the right moment.

Last week our rewards came –I got my first cheque from our crops. It was a great feeling since at one time it didn’t look like it would happen. However farming is a long term business and we have only just started. The cheque means I have recouped about 70% of my investment – where is the other 30% - it’s in the ground together with our potential profit. Our next soya crop will decide if we have made any money. We harvest in April it will be a tense time watch this blog – if it works out we will be heading for the beaches of Brazil for a well deserved holiday - if it doesn’t it will a  day  trip to Bangor and  back to the drawing board –  however whatever we will continue . Farmers always moan and most of the time they are right to moan but I am sure they make money in the end – we will see. We are now planning to plant in Uruguay in Nov – a new challenge that I am really looking forward to and you will read about it in this blog

This is David Cummings alias the English Gaucho off to do a rain dance

Hasta la vista

Guitar Hero Gary Moore Dies on Holiday in Spain

This blog is nothing to do with La Margarita it is to do with the death of one of my absolute hero’s guitarist Gary Moore. In case you didn’t know last week he died in Spain of a heart attack at just 58. The Daily Mail ran the headline

“Ex-Thin Lizzy guitarist Gary Moore dead after Eating a Hamburger and Knocking Back Champagne

The headline was terrible - trivializing a great guitar hero and I wanted to take a trip to England and have a rant at this lazy sensationalist journalist. It seemed from this headline and the article that followed that Gary Moore had done nothing since Thin Lizzy and yet he was with them just 4 months – although he did return to do the Black Rose album with them in 1979 . Also it seemed to imply that he was some uncouth slob who happened to play guitar for a long gone group. In fact Gary Moore was a great  great guitar player one of the best and not many were better. He also wrote some great song and had far more success as a solo artist than with Thin Lizzy (good as they were) he went on to  far  better things.   In  the guitar world he will be remembered for a very long time  as a wonderful guitar player  - unlike,  I suspect, that  damm  journalist .

I feel really sad he is now gone and so young and really pissed off at that journalist for making his career seem like nothing so I just wanted to settle the record straight in a small way . Sorry for my rant and LM blog will resume next time but for now please have a look at Gary Moore playing live Still Got the Blues for You and see what a great guitar player he was.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6IO5EN49hY

This is David Cummings alias the English Gaucho of to play some loud Gary Moore music on my trusty guitar in the Yoga room on La Margarita –  cos I still got the blues 

Hasta Pronto

Our guest host on La Margarita talks about her experience here

 Ilona from South Africa   has come to La Margarita to act as our  guest host for a few months to help out and to look after our guests   -   I asked her to write her thoughts about her stay here - here are her words .............................

Dreams and Wishes

I can tell of many experiences in my life of when I have had dreams or wishes come true with very little effort on my part.  And that includes the situation I find myself in right now.

I love being in nature, with animals, with horses.  I love waking up to the sounds of birdlife and animal life, way better than I like waking up to traffic noises.  So it was with great relief that, after a year living in Buenos Aires, I answered the advertisement forwarded to me by a friend of mine, requesting a volunteer to help out on an Estancia in the Pampas of Argentina.  The requirements of this volunteer would be a love of horses, ability to ride, sufficient fluency in English and Spanish, or Castellano as they call it here, to be able to interpret between English speaking guests and Castellano speaking staff, and to be host when the owner, the English Gaucho, is not there.

Well, I obviously fit the bill, as here I am at Estancia La  Margarita, with Fido, the English pointer by my side, humming birds flitting around in the flowers in front of me, enjoying the sounds of the 60 or so different kinds birds in the estancia garden.  I also get to ride out on the pampas with the guests about twice a day, and every outing is a new adventure.  I mostly get to ride a grey mare, Tortilla, who I am developing a special connection with.  We usually go out with Pablo, one of the gauchos working on the farm.  He has a wonderful way with the horses and his smile frequently charms the guests.

Just yesterday the line of birds I normally see over there towards the horizon, came flying low over our heads, so I could finally see what they looked like.  Sometimes they form lines of over a hundred birds.  They are all black with long sleek necks and bodies. 

Last week I was floating in the swimming pool, looking up at the sky of different hues of blue, filled with all kinds of birds doing aerial acrobatics, it was like entering into another dimension.  As is walking outside at night when the sky is clear of earthly clouds, but full of celestial ones.  I happened to be quite alone on the estancia one night, well, not exactly alone, Fido kept me company, and this was a magical place to be.

The people that come here as guests all have a love of nature and silence in common.  They come from all over the world.  Each have their own special stories to share, and a love and respect for what is on offer here.  Some of them get to ride horses for the first time ever, here, and what a place to start, with wide open spaces, .  Well, we also get to see hares, partridges, plovers, kites and eagles, and armadillos that they call molitos.  .  All the visitors to this haven have left a lasting impression on me and I am honoured to have met them. 

The staff here are wonderful and really warm and friendly.  Raquel keeps me well fed on both food and hugs   together with   Daniel and Poppy her helpers .  Lalo manages the grounds, the animals, the baby ostriches, all nine of them, with the help of Pablo.  Everyone who comes here gets influenced by their generosity and caring.

So thank you so much  for this wonderful opportunity to fulfil yet more dreams, to work with horses and meet other people who also love living life.  The world feels a better place.

Ilona

This is the David Cummings alias The English Gaucho grateful I have such wonderful people working for me 
Hasta pronto