Milking the cows and making cheese in Sardinata


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South America » Colombia » Santander
January 14th 2014
Published: January 19th 2014
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Hello, my folks,



I don't know but given the beauty and the healthy benefits of the countryside, I will pop the question to you, that is whether the trend of leaving the countryside and go and live in the big cities would change. It seems that people in the countryside live happier, there is less stress and worry about safety, the cost of living is cheaper, well, have you noticed what I am up to? that's what I am going to do in this entry, try to convince you to move to the countryside and leave the chaotic state of the big cities. If I get any follower of my trend, please let me know, I might as well do the same. 😊



No sé, pero dada la belleza y los beneficios saludables del campo, les pregunto a ustedes si la tendencia de dejar el campo e ir a vivir a las grandes ciudades cambiaría. Parece que la gente del campo viven más felices, hay menos estrés, menos preocupación por la seguridad, el costo de vida es más barato, bueno, ¿se han fijado? eso es lo que voy a hacer en este blog, tratar de convencerlos que se muden al campo y dejen el estado caótico de las grandes ciudades. Si consigo a alguien que vaya por esta tendencia, háganmelo saber, hasta yo podría hacer lo mismo 😊



That's right, this weekend, we were able to completely relax, we traveled three hours to a farm near Bucarasica and Sardinata. It was a big change as it was cold and I was wanting to relax more, after enjoying the great December vacation. We left in the afternoon and after some 200 curves which made my sister, as usual, we got there, living and enjoying the beauty of the countryside over the weekend. The farm used to be a restaurant called El Condor on the road to Sardinata and now, the owner has made it more into a family house, quite nice.



Así es, este fin de semana, pudimos relajarnos completamente, viajamos tres horas de la casa, hacia una finca, cerca a Bucarasica y Sardinata. Fué riquísimo porque hacía frío y yo iba, luego de disfrutar de las vacaciones geniales de Diciembre con ganas cde relajarme mucho mas. Nos fuímos tarde y después de unas 200 curvas que, como siempre, enfermaron a mi hermana, llegamos a la finca y disfrutamos la belleza del campo. La finca se solía llamar El Còndor en la ruta a Sardinata y ahora, el dueño lo convirtió en una casa de familia, bien chénquele.





But why is the countryside better?




As the old Grupo Clase´s song went: "I´ll leave the city and head to the countryside as I had enough of the lack of safety..." Well, I agree with them, living in the countryside brings quite a lot of enjoyment to our lives as we learn to appreciate more of what nature offers us.



For once, we had less contamination and our lungs were there sort of partying inside our bodies, the breathing of natural air made the trick. Well, not that we were so far away from the main road, in fact, as I said, the farm is located on the road to Sardinata but the small amount of cars passing by was enough for us to feel cut off from civilisation. The desire to do some exercise and admire nature also took us on a 1 hour promenade which I would prefer to the working out in a gym, the contrast of landscapes and the picking up of rasperries, lemons and oranges was awesome. It was so tranquil that I even forgot about the time, seriously, it took me a while to realise that it was not Sunday but Saturday, let alone the hours.




Pero por qué es mejor el campo ?




Como decía la vieja canción del Grupo Cucuteño Clase: "Yo me voy p´al campo, dejo la ciudad porque ya no aguanto y me causa espanto la inseguridad..." Bien, yo estoy de acuerdo con ellos, vivir en el campo nos trae muchos beneficios y uno de ellos, especialmente que aprendemos a mejor disfrutar lo que la naturaleza nos ofrece.



Primero que todo, tuvimos menos contaminación y nuestros pulmones estaban allí de fiesta dentro de nuestro cuerpo, la respiración de aire natural lo consiguió. Bueno, no era tampoco que estuviéramos tan lejos de la carretera, en realidad, como les dije anteriormente, la finca se encuentra en la vía a Sardinata, pero la pequeña cantidad de carros que pasaban fué suficiente para que nosotros nos sintiéramos cortados de la civilización. El deseo de hacer ejercicio y admirar la naturaleza también nos llevó a un paseo de 1 hora, lo cual es mi idea de ejercitar el cuerpo, no sé si más efectivo que el trabajo de unas horas de gimnasio: aquí, el contraste de paisajes y el recoger moritas, limones y naranjas fué increíble. Incluso me olvidé del tiempo, seriamente, me tomó un tiempo darme cuenta de que no era domingo pero el sábado, por no hablar de las horas.



The best bit was eating chemical-free food, the chicken was tastier, and the food, in general, had that special flavour and taste as it is made on firewood, delicious. I want to insist on that lovely promenade, awesome, excelent for my lack of exercise and a very good therapy for hypertension, so much freedom, so green, more interesting than walking in Bodytech: instead of having a TV screen in front of us, we had nature in its best colors on a lovely display. Can you ask for more? NO, you see..




Lo mejor fué degustar comida libre de químicos, el pollo tenía mejor gusto, y la comida, en general, tenía ese olor y gusto especial que le proporciona la leña, delicioso. Insisto en esa caminata fantástica, riquísima, yo tenía harto que no hacía ejercicio y esa fué una buena terapia para la hipertensión, tanta libertad, tanto verde, más interesante que las caminatas en Bodytech porque en vez de tener un televisor en frente, teníamos la naturaleza en sus mejores colores. Qué más se le puede pedir a la vida, si ven? tengo razón.



Although I must confess that it was not a total cutoff from the world, well, to be honest, I took my computer and videobeam with me and we watched a Tom Hanks´s film which was excelent, a good choice, I must say. I also did lots of revisions of some teachers´ APTIS work as they have installed an internet café in Ivan´s house which is run by the government. Living in the countryside and doing some work online? Great!!


Aunque debo confesar que no era un corte total con el mundo, porque si vamos a ser honestos, les confieso entonces que me llevé mi computador y Videobeam conmigo y vimos una pelo de Tom Hanks, que fié excelente, una buena elección, debo decir. También hice un montón de revisiones del trabajo de algunos profesores de APTIS, ya que han instalado un café internet en la casa de Iván, que está dirigido por el gobierno. Vivir en el campo y adelantar trabajo en el internet? Super!!



Milking Cows




There we went to an area of outstanding natural beauty. free from worries and stress. The smell of cows, firewood and nature is undescriptable, Hehehehe, you will see a photo of me milking the cows, that's for real, not a photoshop; as soon as they told me, they were doing it, I was there in the blink of an eye. It was nice to see that all the raising of cattle is done naturally and not like in dairy farms where "artificial" raising means more than just that. Well, there I learned some things that I will be telling you about.



Así nos fuimos a un área de sorprendente belleza natural, libre de preocupaciones y stress. El olor a vacas, a leña y a naturaleza es indescriptible, jajajaja, por ahí verán una foto mía ordeñando, y es real, no un montaje; tan pronto como me dijeron que estaban ordeñando las vacas, para allá corrí yo, en un abrir y cerrar de ojos. Fué agradable ver que todo el proceso de levantamiento de ganado se hace naturalmente y no como en las granjas productoras de leche donde levantamiento "artificial" significa más que eso: bueno, yo aprendí algunas cositas de eso que aquí les comentaré...


More nutritious food at a rural household




Ivan told me some bits about cow and chicken-keeping, which was very interesting and actually made me taste the chemical-free food better: Home raised cows, pasting in open areas as Ivan has total control of what goes on in his farm, oh yes!. I learned for example that a cow mother is not very willing to nurse another veal that is not theirs, and I also had some thoughts on all the artificial conditions they are provided with in factory farms, their veals being taken away after one day of being born, their sadness as they are not able to nourish them and guess who the culprit is? Us, that milk is sold to us, human monsters. The cows and veals actually get depressed, all the sickness they get apart from that separation, awful.





Definitely, if you think about all this, you might feel guilty and consider becoming a vegetarian, out of pity and concern about their chemicals they pass us on, for they need to be given those chemicals to be more productive. Yes, did you know that those cows in dairy farms are even fed with dead chicken, pigs etc so that they produce better milk? Worrisome, right?


Alimentos más nutritivos en una finca






Iván me contó algo sobre la cría de pollos y vacas, lo que fué bastante interesante y me hizo saborear mejor la comida libre de químicos: Ganado criado en casa, pasteando en áreas abiertas ya que Iván tiene control total de lo que pasa en su hacienda. Me enteré, por ejemplo, de que una vaca madre casi que rehusa amamantar a otra ternera, que no es de ella, y también pensé en todas las condiciones artificiales en las que viven estos animales en las granjas industriales. Se les retiran los terneros a sólo un día de haber nacido, imagínense la tristeza de un animal, al perder ese instinto maternal y no poder alimentarlos y adivinen
A big lunch on firewoodA big lunch on firewoodA big lunch on firewood

Almuerzo con sabor a leña, genial
quién es el gran culpable aquí? Nosotros, ya que la leche se les retira para vendérnosla a nosotros, los monstros humanos. Las vacas y los terneros en realidad se deprimen, y vienen seguidamente varias enfermedades, que agregada a esa separación, debe ser tenaz.



Si reflexionamos acerca de todo esto, uno se podría sentir culpable y hasta consideraría el volverse vegetariano, por compasión y preocupación por esos productos químicos que nos pasan, porque ellos deben recibir esos productos químicos para ser más productivos. Si, sabían ustedes que en las granjas productoras de leche, a las vacas les dan y que pollos muertos y cerdos, lo que sea disque para mejorar la cantidad de leche que producen? Preocupante, si o no?



Making cheese



I was taking a nap when doña Yolanda woke me up to tell me Ivan was about to make cheese and he was calling me. It was nice to see the process, in fact, he just put in a sort of paste to curdle the milk, left it for a bit and then started stirring it. Next, he would put in his hand some milk, squeeze it and set the dough aside. That dough was already cheese which he worked again on a wooden plank. Finally, Ivan put it on a mold and there we had our cheese made. Good that the teacher was so patient explaining everything, that's right, Ivan went out of the way to attend to us and that was very nice, he didn't even allow my sister to pay for the cheese we took with us, he is a wonderful man who´s done an awesome job in the house. He has excellent projects for the farm so maybe when I return, I will be invited again, let´s cross fingers!



Haciendo queso casero



Yo estaba tomando una siesta cuando doña Yolanda me despertó para decirme que Ivan estaba a punto de hacer queso y él me estaba llamando. Fué agradable ver el proceso, de hecho, sólo le agregó a la leche una especie de pasta para cuajar la leche, lo dejó por un rato y luego comenzó a batirla para cuajarla. Así se iba haciendo más densa la leche y al ponerse en la mano un poco, la apretó y entonces al abrirla, ya se veían los pedazos de queso formados. Esa masa ya estaba casi lista, la volvía a trabajar en un tablón de madera. Finalmente, Ivan lo puso en un molde y allí tuvimos nuestro queso. Menos mal que el instructor mío tuvo mucha paciencia para explicar todo, asi fué, Iván fué super atento con nosotros, lo cual hizo la estancia mucho más agradable, incluso, no dejó que mi hermana le pagara el queso que nos trajimos. Ha hecho un excelente trabajo en la casa y en la finca. Tiene proyectos excelentes para la finca, entonces cuando regrese, ojalá y me vuelvan a invitar, crucemos los dedos.





But soon it was over!!



On my return, I was quite happy as I knew there was only one day left to wait for the big collaboration of Shakira and Rihanna, which I enjoyed very much.




Pero todo finalizó pronto

Ya, a mi regreso, estaba felíz ya que quedaba sólo un día para esperar la colaboración de Shakira y Rihanna, lo que me pareció super!



Well, for the record, I am weighing now three kilos more from the last entry in December: 91 kilos, wow, now this is not a joke anymore, I have to start losing weight for real. But this year will do as I intend to start my normal routine of exercise and hard work; it seems that in Minnesota, nutritionists have found the way to really lose weight in very short time, well, but I am planning to move to the Colombian countryside, not to America. My formula is doing some workout and taking fewer naps, well, I will keep you posted, my friends.



Bien, que se sepa, estoy pesando 3 kilos más de los que pesaba en diciembre, Dios, 91 kilos, wow, ahora ya no es un chiste, tengo que empezar a perder peso de verdad. Pero este año es el año porque ese es el pensado, empezar mi rutina normal de ejercicio y trabajo fuerte; parece que en Minnesota, los nutricionistas encontraron una forma fácil de perder peso en muy poco tiempo, lo malo es que en mis planes está mudarme al campo Colombiano, no a Minnesota. Lo mío tiene que ser ejercicio y menos siestas, En fin, Los mantendré informados.


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20th January 2014

the good life!
Your weekend away sounds lovely Frank. I think more city people (especially kids) should experience farm stays, so they can have a better appreciation for where their supermarket food comes from :)
20th January 2014

The good life
That's right, a nice idea, I wish I could become a vegetarian myself but it is bloody difficult. A big hug to you two :)
20th January 2014

Farm stays
Another great blog Frank. I'm a city girl but love to visit and can appreciate the countryside. Well done.
20th January 2014

Farm Stays
So am I and for a long time, I hadn't had the chance to escape from it all, glad you can do the same once in a while, it sort of helps you appreciate life even more, Hugs
20th January 2014
Picking up raspberries

A great get-away!
How wonderful to experience country life with hikes, animal visits and cheese-making! I love spending time in the countryside, but haven't spent any time on farms. This place sounded like it had everything--how great!
20th January 2014
Picking up raspberries

A great get-away
That´s how it felt, yeah, nature and internet, nice :)
20th January 2014

I moved to the country after retiring...
but not to a farm. I think people go where the jobs are. If you can work from the country that is the best of all worlds. Have a great life!
20th January 2014

I moved to the countryside after retiring
You, lucky man, I bet you do, excellent!
21st January 2014
Cat´s talk: "Look at me, I am a painting myself"

lovely
so a lovely cat
26th January 2014
Cat´s talk: "Look at me, I am a painting myself"

lovely
Hehe, yes, I was not very fond of cats as I prefer dogs myself, but considering the beauty and elegance of this one, I just started loving them. Big hugs, Frank
22nd January 2014

Me gusta
Es agradable que personas de otros países puedan conocer algunas de las tantas cosas hermosas que tiene mi país,es más los invito a conocerlas.
26th January 2014

Me gusta
Claro que si, y ese es el objetivo de mi blog, mostrar a Colombia y que de una se acabe la mala imagen que tenemos. Espero disfrutes los próximos escritos, abrazos, Frank
22nd January 2014

Living where the living is easy
It sounds very nice where you are staying. I retired in December of 2010 and have been on a quest of a sort for the “perfect” place to live for the past 3 years. But the pull of being near my family was stronger than I had thought it would be and so always after 6 weeks or so I return home. I have been fortunate as I have been debt free for decades and have been downsizing for the past few years till the “10% that matters” will fit in my 30 foot RV and truck. I know what you mean about cheap and stress free living in the country. I home base on my sister’s property in my RV and give her $160 a month to do so. My RV is parked in the Texas countryside about 25 miles west of College Station, Texas. So I have both the luxury of almost total quiet most of the time (except for the coyotes howling on a cold night or the sound of the wild hogs outside once in a while), and the convenience of once a week driving over to College Station to shop at the SuperWalmart. For the first year after I retired I had to beat back job offer after job offer but friends and family finally realized that I intended to live and live well on less than my annuity paid that I receive since I took early retirement. I don’t need the stress of working just for money. And I don’t know too many employees who would allow me constantly to take off on a moment’s notice for a 6 weeks trip merely on a whim. I have found out that my reasoning that I can live well on half as much if I don’t work is correct. Mainly as I can afford to live where the living is good and inexpensive. Actually it has been more like a third as much. Sounds to me that maybe we have both found our Nirvana, using this definition - An ideal condition of rest, harmony, stability, or joy.
26th January 2014

Living where the living is easy
Hey, William, with this comment you have just become my hero, or at least have set an example for the best alternative to enjoy life. You made an excellent point regarding stress-free jobs and I haven´t met many people who actually work for pleasure. Congratulations on those big decisions made, I know it takes time for acquaintances to understand but hey, the pleasure of living like that is worth it. NICE
16th August 2015

Making cheese in Sardinata!
Well, I was curious about the process of making cheese in Sardinatas... I went through the 21 pages and I still do not know how it is made... there were some pictures on the last pages...21 maybe but there was not information... Could you share it? Thanks!
5th September 2015

Making cheese in Sardinata!
Dear Martha, Well, there may be many diferent ways but his was quite simple and fast. He froze the milk and then added some kind of lactic acid bacteria and he obtained what we call cuajada. He then put it on the cooker, adding water and salt and started stirring it and then, he put it in a container, which he left to rest for about an hour and that was it. Thanks for your comment, try it and invite me over ☺

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