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The Thief of Joy by gringohomechile

I kept thinking how nice this particular Fall has been compared to the past few here and I was attributing its nice-ness to the unseasonably warm weather. Today when I brought it up my husband reminded me that it's likely the weather has always been this nice this time of year and that we just didn't enjoy it before. I guess between dealing with car issues and money issues and homesickness we were never calm enough to appreciate the weather (or much else).

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Progress Isn't Cheap by gringohomechile

It's rainy season in Valparaiso again. Torrential downpours for three straight days means no sun. No sun means no solar power for the house for a little while. We're fully stocked with cut wood for the wood stove, soup fixings and enough red wine to keep us warm and happy. Unfortunately though, our work schedule doesn't allow us to be indoors all day as we would like, installed in front of the wood stove and instead must venture out into the rainy, muddy days. An added bonus is the fact that our car is again in the shop being fixed as it turns out the 'great mechanic' we had here in Laguna turned out to be a real jerk and a bad mechanic when our car's engine almost exploded last week. What's new.But it's been much worse. 

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The Beginning by gringohomechile

Our groundbreaking trip was at the end of May 2010. We packed up everything into the Beast and hit Route 68. I remember I had had a little too much wine the night before and was feeling pretty uneasy and actually physically ill as we started up the curvy, fog filled road into Laguna Verde. After arriving in the pueblo of Laguna it took us an extra hour to get to our property because we had forgotten how to get to our new place. The roads were (and still are) basically dirt paths in the woods wide enough for a car and a horse to pass each other, but not wide enough for two cars to pass each other. With the determination of new landowners, we finally found a road we knew and arrived at our destination. 

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