Long Story Short

Well, long story short, Christine and I moved into the house with 13 roof rafters sometime in November 2007, once all major construction had ceased, the floors were sealed and most of the walls were covered from the inside. I had been working on the house practically alone since June 2007 when our dear friends Loreto, Jorge, and Horacio had to head back to Santiago, but help always appeared for the more difficult passes: Christine, Marcelo, and Chayito assisting on the most stubborn windows, Erin tackling the sub-floor, Anita and Teri stuffing insulation while Christine and I developed a rhythm for interior paneling (foro), and of course Moises ever teaching and guiding each pass when he could come up. We inagurated the house with a fine half keg of Torobayo and much merriment among friends and family, toasts to all those present and not just before heading North for the winter holidays.

Upon our return, we celebrated the beginning of a new cycle of 12 in the Chinese calendar, welcoming the Year of the Rat with Christine's family present, all of us snuggly in the new house. Recalling our ancestors and all the magicians that have walked before us in this forest throughout history and for all those that will walk these paths after us, we named the land Los Brujos under a strange and beautiful eclipse of the full moon in February 2008.

The last important detail, the house hearth, in this case a black wood-burning stove from Temuco, arrived in March 2008 as Summer headed toward Autumn and the chimney popped out of the roof in April 2008, just in time for the first rains. We have been warm and dry ever since. The finer details of sealing all the windows and making the house a home have been and will continue to be in process, but such is home-ownership I am told.

As for the house's name, we have adopted the symbol of the Mayan integer 13: ruler of the lunar cycles, feminine energy and transformation. Fittingly, the symbol is painted on an abandoned pine disc from the plantation across the street, rescued as the pines came down and our first beams were being erected.

And the transformations continue, as always, Los Brujos ever growing, construction projects in the works, new creatures invited to stay as we strive toward the dream of self-sustainability, creativity, freedom and love.