The Enchanting Challenge Blog

Life at Ulaa

For the past three days, Nick and I have been doing our city-slicker best to help out at the Ulaa farm in any way we can.  These are some of the tasks we have been charged with:

• Picking apples, plums, blackberries, walnuts, tomatoes, and peas
• Brushing down the horse
• Feeding the chickens
• Fishing for our dinner (rainbow trout!)
• Helping to prepare all the meals (which include cobblers made with hand-picked fruit from the garden, baked pumpkin also picked from the garden, and fresh, home-made bread)

Not too bad of a life, eh?  I have been going to bed each night completely tired, feeling like the day was completely lived, and waking up completely ready to begin a new day in this beautiful place.

The History of Ulaa

Martin, the amazing Ulaa-caretaker, arrived on the banks of Lago Puelo Inferior 10 months ago.  It was then that he found Ulaa, beautiful and majestic, but sad and lonely with no one to tend her fields.  So Martin the Mountain Man set to work.

His first order of business was to clean house.  He took action beautifying the log cabins for the tourists and volunteers.  His second order of business was to give the farm some tender loving care.  He and his sidekick, Chardo, planted gardens and nursed the potato and raspberry fields back to life.  Now, not even a year later, the potato beds are thriving; heads of lettuce are popping up out of the ground; tomatoes and basil are growing side-by-side; the trees are dripping with apples, plums, walnuts, and blackberries; onion bulbs are bursting through the soil; pumpkins are plump and ripe; the roosters are cock-a-doodling, and so much more…

The only thing is, Martin needs help!!!

The Future of Ulaa

Ulaa is currently open for travelers and tourists to stay and enjoy a cozy, natural setting and home-cooked meals.  Tourists and travelers can stay in the rustic and gorgeous Ulaa cabins for only $70/night, and enjoy home-cooked food picked from none other than MARTIN, and of course picked fresh from the Ulaa gardens.  It really is an incredible experience for travelers and tourists…

However, with so much growing, and so much potential to grow more, Martin and Chardo don’t have enough hands to cover it all.  They would LOVE if volunteers came to help them out.  We are currently in the process of planning the service sector of Ulaa, but here is the general idea:

The goal is to have 5 service workers here at all times, helping this farm world go round.  The service workers would live on the Ulaa site, eat here with the Ulaa family, and of course contribute to the daily work (such as those not-so-bad tasks I mentioned before, like picking succulent fruit from the vine and fishing in a pure mountain lake).  We are aiming for agritourism, and hopefully volunteers could stay for free, although nothing has been officially decided.  (I will let you know as soon as it is in stone!)  Service workers could stay for as long or as short of a time as they would like.  We at Enchanting Challenge will use organizations like WWOOF to get the word out, but if any blog readers out there feel that this is the opportunity for them, please at sarahannmaxwell@gmail.com.