The Outside Life: Patagonian Greenhouses

It has been over a month and a half since I left snowy Colorado for the winds of Patagonia. There is a reason why this place is legendary for adventures seeking to live on the edge, with no major landmasses to interrupt the winds circling the globe, they slam into Patagonia full bore. This is also an isolated place; outside goods and produce do make it here but only once a week, in limited quantity and quality. As a result, homesteading here is more of a necessity than a hobby. Walking through the nearby town of Cochrane one finds chickens roaming the streets, fruit trees everywhere, and small greenhouses/gardens in most backyards. I’ve even seen urban sheep herds.

At the Estancia, I’ve been busy and have finished building two greenhouses and repaired a third. Each has been a different rewarding experience; in many ways, I have learned more from the park rangers than they have from me. At Daniels house I watched as he skillfully cut down Lenga (beech trees), and then milled it into semi dimensional lumber using only a chainsaw. All of the wood, stone, and earth were obtained on site.

Daniel showing off his chainsaw handling skills.

Finished Greenhouse at Daniels

Creativity in use of available resources has been essential to this project. The second greenhouse was built at Eduardo Castro’s house, who manages the herd of cows still on the Estancia. Eduardo had a surplus of old wood posts, which we cut and assembled like a log cabin to build the frame. I struggled to find good quality soil at first, but as I spent more time observing the property found an old chicken coop, horse/cow manure everywhere, and a 5 year old pile of wood shavings that yielded a great amount of rich soil beneath it.

Greenhouse frame at Eduardo Castros house constructed from old fence posts.

Planting the finished greenhouse with Eduardo Castro

My third trip was out to the eastern edge of the park 6 km from the Argentine border. René’s house is at the end of a windswept plain and he already had an existing greenhouse built in a sheltered location. We sacrificed a bit of ideal sunshine for protection from the wind with trees and repaired the greenhouse, adding a few outside raised beds. René takes care of the remaining 1000 sheep, down from 30,000 in the Estancia’s heyday. He also is running the pilot sheep dog program, which uses Great Pyrenees to protect the sheep from the numerous puma, which live in the mountains above them.

Old greenhouse overgrown with weeds

René watering the finished garden with repaired greenhouse. We mulched cut weeds, manure, and sawdust to create worm farm pathways.

Each one of the park rangers lives a simple life, spending time alone with the land. They make the journey into town infrequently, and all seem to love their work. Large-scale development projects such as the massive Hydropower dams proposed on the Rio Baker have no appeal to the rangers as they are out of touch with their lifestyles. They have a wealth of knowledge of their homes, and it has been an honor to spend time with them. It may be a slow life but it is quite Tranquillo.