Help a struggling pioneer farm in Patagonia
Donation protected
Summary:
Hi, I’m Veronika, single mom of ten children. We moved to Chilean Patagonia about 12 years ago, two years ago we found our destination place and started a farm from scratch. So far, we have few dogs, cats, cows, horses, pigs, and a bunch of goats, chickens, and ducks. We live very close to nature and live sustainably from the land, as we get water from the mountain streams, fetch firewood for cooking, and build our own houses with only wood and nails.
Sadly external factors are threatening our existence. Due to unfortunate circumstances I am now a single raising mother. Other reasons being, among other things, mountain lions killing our livestock, damages to the house and stable because of rainstorms, crop failures because of a very cold season and most notable the Pandemic.
We can't and won't kill the mountain lions since they are a very endangered species. To combat this problem, we need many more fences than anticipated.
The pandemic has ran our only sources of income, this being tourism and the sales of our products, dry as well as raised prices for consumer goods and labour in our area exponentially.
Most of the area we can work with is heavily overgrown and need a lot of work and money to rent the machinery to free the space for pastures. As of now we have unforeseen expenses to buy hay so that our animals will have enough food to survive the upcoming winter.
Full Story:
Hello, I'm Veronika, I live with my ten children in the Chilean Patagonia, where we just started from scratch. A year ago we left Coyhaique and moved to Palena.
We have a herd of dairy goats, two dairy cows, horses, a bunch of chickens and ducks, two rabbits, some pigs, five dogs (three mixed breeds and two herd guard dogs for our goats), a sheep and three tomcats.
Due to our very simple way of life and a limited budget, we lead a very sustainable and simple lifestyle, back to basics, in close community with our animals. We grow our own vegetables and fruits in the garden and feed the animals on a few small fields as well as our own grain for our daily bread. We fetch the firewood for heating and stove from the forest. Water comes from the mountain streams, and electricity is supplied by a self-made brand water turbine.
The aim of our small organic farm is to be as self-sufficient as possible, including the food for the animals, which in turn supply the fertilizer for fruits and vegetables. The animals are allowed to live as freely and naturally as possible within the farm fences.
I milk our goats and cows every morning and evening, and they provide us with milk, butter, cheese, yogurt and quark in the summer.
We are planning to be able to live by selling these dairy and other farm products at the market in the future.
Each of our animals, even the chickens, have their own name, which the children choose.
The children help a lot with the daily care of our four and two-legged friends, and thus learn to take on responsibility very early on. They are joyful and enthusiastic with animals.
Our goats roam free in the surrounding mountains and valleys during the day. Now in the summer there are enough leaves, grass and herbs. Our livestock protection dog Heidi protects everybody from poaching dogs or pumas which we live in close proximity with. Even tho the precautions taken with our dogs, we do suffer bigger losses than we could anticipate, most notably stray dogs but the occasional mountain lion attack does happen. This can be prevented from building more fences on our property.
This works well, and we are happy that we are also contributing to protecting the rare mountain lion, which is always hunted by the local residents here, not only when it causes damage to their herds.
We keep the little lambs separate from their mothers for milking as soon as they are old enough, on a pasture here at the house.
We also graze the two dairy cows, since the people here almost exclusively meat-oriented. They get along well in the rough environment outside all year round. The cows are kept in the stable at night and in winter, of course, just like our three horses. They are often used by our children for short trips to the neighbors, and they always help us with work. For example they help us to thresh grain, or in heavy rain, they help us to cross the swollen streams.
The children have two dearly loved sows and a boar, which they themselves provide with cheese whey, field vegetables and some fodder every day. Unfortunately we can't let them run completely free as there are wild boar hunters and hunting dogs.
With enough money for fencing material, we could fence in a large piece of forest for them to run freely with drastically reduced risks of them being hunted. At the moment, however, they are enclosed in a shed.
In autumn we let them into our fields to fertilize the ground.
Our chickens and ducks provide us with fresh eggs every day, sometimes more sometimes less, Our two youngest boys are allowed to collect them every day, and they are happy doing it. We keep the poultry in a large enclosure with a stable and a small pond. From noon, they are allowed to run free throughout the yard.
The rabbits live outside as soon as the weather permits. The children cuddle with them. And like all the other animals on our farm, they also provide valuable fertilizers for the garden and enrich the very poor soil. A real blessing!
The tomcats keep the mice away from us, they mainly live in the barn, hide in the hay, look for cuddly spots, and ask for your fresh milk just in time for milking.
All in all, we have created our own little paradise for our kids and our animals here. We have great enthusiasm and motivation to keep it that way! We feel like we are working 24/7 to achieve our goals, and last but not least, to enable my kids and animals to live a beautiful, happy life.
However, unfortunately, not everything is going as planned, especially due to the pandemic, it seems we cannot keep our animals and continue the farm without the help of others, or implement our plans so that everything runs smoothly. The land, a good 40 ha, that we acquired over a year ago is dense with wild rose hips and overgrown shrubbery. We were able to clean a small part of it, about 2-3 ha, for the stable, a small temporary house, and a small garden.
Unfortunately, we are still without a regular income of our own. We used to gernerate income for the cruise ships that use the Chilean ports in the summer, but have not been able to since the covid pandemic prevents tourism.
For the production of our own sales products, we still lack the necessary space and time. The new house and a farm building are in the works, but due to quarantine and lockdown, there are constant delivery problems with the necessary material and constant rise of the costs for these.
Also, an unplanned four-week trip to Germany for an urgently needed surgery devoured part of the savings.
Moreover, Chile is going through an inflation of over 100% in some items! Survival is a real challenge for us at the moment and we are at a loss as to how to get our animals through the winter. Since we can't make our own hay due to lack of space, let alone grow enough legumes and oats for our dear cattle, we have to buy most of it at high prices. We don't want to part with our cows, goats or horses, which would end up as slaughter animals, especially when we are so close to the completion of our farm and getting everything running the way it should.
We urgently need more free space to take care of our dear four and two-legged friends. We need hay meadows and space for more fields, then of course new fences, possibly an extension to the previous barn in order to be able to offer the animals more covered space.
However, due to our struggling financial situation, we are not able to do those things yet. For this reason, I am now looking for good people who will help our project and especially our animals.
Please support and help them to get through the coming winter and finally secure their self-sufficiency in the long term. A small step is missing to keep us and our animals afloat. Help us secure the home and future of our animals!
Hi, I’m Veronika, single mom of ten children. We moved to Chilean Patagonia about 12 years ago, two years ago we found our destination place and started a farm from scratch. So far, we have few dogs, cats, cows, horses, pigs, and a bunch of goats, chickens, and ducks. We live very close to nature and live sustainably from the land, as we get water from the mountain streams, fetch firewood for cooking, and build our own houses with only wood and nails.
Sadly external factors are threatening our existence. Due to unfortunate circumstances I am now a single raising mother. Other reasons being, among other things, mountain lions killing our livestock, damages to the house and stable because of rainstorms, crop failures because of a very cold season and most notable the Pandemic.
We can't and won't kill the mountain lions since they are a very endangered species. To combat this problem, we need many more fences than anticipated.
The pandemic has ran our only sources of income, this being tourism and the sales of our products, dry as well as raised prices for consumer goods and labour in our area exponentially.
Most of the area we can work with is heavily overgrown and need a lot of work and money to rent the machinery to free the space for pastures. As of now we have unforeseen expenses to buy hay so that our animals will have enough food to survive the upcoming winter.
Full Story:
Hello, I'm Veronika, I live with my ten children in the Chilean Patagonia, where we just started from scratch. A year ago we left Coyhaique and moved to Palena.
We have a herd of dairy goats, two dairy cows, horses, a bunch of chickens and ducks, two rabbits, some pigs, five dogs (three mixed breeds and two herd guard dogs for our goats), a sheep and three tomcats.
Due to our very simple way of life and a limited budget, we lead a very sustainable and simple lifestyle, back to basics, in close community with our animals. We grow our own vegetables and fruits in the garden and feed the animals on a few small fields as well as our own grain for our daily bread. We fetch the firewood for heating and stove from the forest. Water comes from the mountain streams, and electricity is supplied by a self-made brand water turbine.
The aim of our small organic farm is to be as self-sufficient as possible, including the food for the animals, which in turn supply the fertilizer for fruits and vegetables. The animals are allowed to live as freely and naturally as possible within the farm fences.
I milk our goats and cows every morning and evening, and they provide us with milk, butter, cheese, yogurt and quark in the summer.
We are planning to be able to live by selling these dairy and other farm products at the market in the future.
Each of our animals, even the chickens, have their own name, which the children choose.
The children help a lot with the daily care of our four and two-legged friends, and thus learn to take on responsibility very early on. They are joyful and enthusiastic with animals.
Our goats roam free in the surrounding mountains and valleys during the day. Now in the summer there are enough leaves, grass and herbs. Our livestock protection dog Heidi protects everybody from poaching dogs or pumas which we live in close proximity with. Even tho the precautions taken with our dogs, we do suffer bigger losses than we could anticipate, most notably stray dogs but the occasional mountain lion attack does happen. This can be prevented from building more fences on our property.
This works well, and we are happy that we are also contributing to protecting the rare mountain lion, which is always hunted by the local residents here, not only when it causes damage to their herds.
We keep the little lambs separate from their mothers for milking as soon as they are old enough, on a pasture here at the house.
We also graze the two dairy cows, since the people here almost exclusively meat-oriented. They get along well in the rough environment outside all year round. The cows are kept in the stable at night and in winter, of course, just like our three horses. They are often used by our children for short trips to the neighbors, and they always help us with work. For example they help us to thresh grain, or in heavy rain, they help us to cross the swollen streams.
The children have two dearly loved sows and a boar, which they themselves provide with cheese whey, field vegetables and some fodder every day. Unfortunately we can't let them run completely free as there are wild boar hunters and hunting dogs.
With enough money for fencing material, we could fence in a large piece of forest for them to run freely with drastically reduced risks of them being hunted. At the moment, however, they are enclosed in a shed.
In autumn we let them into our fields to fertilize the ground.
Our chickens and ducks provide us with fresh eggs every day, sometimes more sometimes less, Our two youngest boys are allowed to collect them every day, and they are happy doing it. We keep the poultry in a large enclosure with a stable and a small pond. From noon, they are allowed to run free throughout the yard.
The rabbits live outside as soon as the weather permits. The children cuddle with them. And like all the other animals on our farm, they also provide valuable fertilizers for the garden and enrich the very poor soil. A real blessing!
The tomcats keep the mice away from us, they mainly live in the barn, hide in the hay, look for cuddly spots, and ask for your fresh milk just in time for milking.
All in all, we have created our own little paradise for our kids and our animals here. We have great enthusiasm and motivation to keep it that way! We feel like we are working 24/7 to achieve our goals, and last but not least, to enable my kids and animals to live a beautiful, happy life.
However, unfortunately, not everything is going as planned, especially due to the pandemic, it seems we cannot keep our animals and continue the farm without the help of others, or implement our plans so that everything runs smoothly. The land, a good 40 ha, that we acquired over a year ago is dense with wild rose hips and overgrown shrubbery. We were able to clean a small part of it, about 2-3 ha, for the stable, a small temporary house, and a small garden.
Unfortunately, we are still without a regular income of our own. We used to gernerate income for the cruise ships that use the Chilean ports in the summer, but have not been able to since the covid pandemic prevents tourism.
For the production of our own sales products, we still lack the necessary space and time. The new house and a farm building are in the works, but due to quarantine and lockdown, there are constant delivery problems with the necessary material and constant rise of the costs for these.
Also, an unplanned four-week trip to Germany for an urgently needed surgery devoured part of the savings.
Moreover, Chile is going through an inflation of over 100% in some items! Survival is a real challenge for us at the moment and we are at a loss as to how to get our animals through the winter. Since we can't make our own hay due to lack of space, let alone grow enough legumes and oats for our dear cattle, we have to buy most of it at high prices. We don't want to part with our cows, goats or horses, which would end up as slaughter animals, especially when we are so close to the completion of our farm and getting everything running the way it should.
We urgently need more free space to take care of our dear four and two-legged friends. We need hay meadows and space for more fields, then of course new fences, possibly an extension to the previous barn in order to be able to offer the animals more covered space.
However, due to our struggling financial situation, we are not able to do those things yet. For this reason, I am now looking for good people who will help our project and especially our animals.
Please support and help them to get through the coming winter and finally secure their self-sufficiency in the long term. A small step is missing to keep us and our animals afloat. Help us secure the home and future of our animals!
Fundraising team (2)
Veronika Schneider
Organizer
Münsing, Bayern
Hyunsu Lee
Team member