Estancia Los Potreros

That time of year again already, and we are at the annual cattle branding. The usual doses of machismo and rivalry were very much in evidence, along with of course plenty of Fernet Branca . . .

This clever piece of architecture has been built by the monk parakeet. These noisy, birghtly coloured birds are a relatively new arrival to the Sierras, and live in these slightly precarious communal nests.

This odd little fellow is actually a baby vulture. He fell from his nest and was found by one of our dogs, and is now being hand-reared by our housekeeper. The latest, slightly unusual, addition to the family!!

We woke up this morning to a landscape dusted with snow, to cap off one of the more extraordinary weeks up here on the estancia.

The week started with unseasonably warm temperatures, up to about 30C, so we were all pottering around in our T-shirts, whilst our fruit trees sprung into blossom, despite us being barely out of winter. Unfortunately with the hot weather came one of the big threats that happens in our winter months when we have no rain - bushfires.

After the driest winter in the province for 30 years, everything is tinder dry, and at the beginning of the week some fairly serious bushfires took hold, burning over 100,000 acres of the beautiful sierras. This time we were lucky, as the fire swept through north of the farm, but out intrepid gauchos still worked through the night to help our neighbours protect their land and their livelihoods. After passing us by, the fires burnt relentlessly on, the top story on all the news channels in Argentina, heading towards the tourist valley of La Punilla.

A drop in wind, and our unexpected snow, finally put them out, and we all let out a collective sigh of relief! Roll on the first rains of spring . . .meanwhile, Norman has been enjoying the snow!

David (10) and Tamara (7) show how it should be done . . .!

Usually taking place over a weekend in early March, the yerra is the branding of the calves before they are sent off to market. Robert Begg (Kevin and Robin’s father) is a strong believer in keeping rural traditions alive, and so the yerra is completed in the same way that it has been done for centuries in Argentina.

Calves are released in pairs into a corral, where a team of gauchos await, lassoes at the ready. The calves must be lassoed by their front feet and brought down for branding. The yerra is a real community event, with workers from the neighbouring estancias coming to help for the weekend, in return for the promise of the party at the end, where an animal is slaughtered and cooked on a traditional ‘asado’, with plenty of wine to wash it down.

There is always exciting action to be seen, with the natural macho spirit of the gauchos very much to the fore. The honour of putting the brand on the calf lies with the ‘dueño’ or senior member of the family, or in his absence the farm manager.

Always as interesting as the events themselves are the people . . .true country folk for whom participation in the yerra is as much a rite of passage as a job to be done.

Here you can see ‘Norman’, the latest addition to the Begg family, extremely hard at work keeping our guests happy . . .

Now in its third year the stakes are dangerously high. If the Beggs lose, the youngest Styler player gets her trip free the following year. If the Stylers lose, the same daughter has to spend her holiday cleaning Kevin`s boots. This year we had a sparkling clean car and a swimming pool free of bugs as well, and poor Issy missed out on all her siestas.

We awoke to glorious sunshine, and much debate over which horses were to be ridden, how was the ground, was Lou out of the running because of old age, and most importantly what was everyone going to wear . . .there was nearly a massive family feud as young Tom Styler arrived wearing Los Pots colours, and declaring to everyone that would listen that he thought the gauchos were going to win.

Las Chicas certainly looked very scary, dressed all in white with war paint on the faces. Kevin and Lou also looked scary but they were just dressed as themselves. Things were certainly tense as they left for the polo ground, and even Cheeseface was heard to grunt a few times.

With Mrs Styler as the completely unbiased referee, the first chukka was hard fought, with Lou marked out of the game by a particularly tenacious H. Kevin managed to strike a hit between the horses legs and land a goal, so Los Gauchos were 1 - 0 up.

The second chukka showed a tremendous fightback from Las Chicas, with some particularly ferocious tackling by the Styler girls (Lou is still picking the hair from her horses ears out of her teeth), and with Emmas and Annies surefire hitting a swift goal put everyone deservedly level at half time.

Into the third chukka, and as the war paint started to slide down the Chicas faces, so Luis managed to slide between the oppositions horses, and some nifty work by Jose and Kevin took the gauchos to 4-1 up.

The final chukka proved to be the most exciting, with Las Chicas quickly pulling back a goal in the first few seconds, followed by some fast and furious play. Two penalties in the last 2.5 seconds took the teams to the final score . . .Las Chicas 4, Los Gauchos 5.

Girls . . .our boots are ready and waiting . . .