Life Surrounded by Mountains in Central Chile
Polo ponies. One is shy and the other the opposite. Came to me but would not allow me to touch him.
Happy holidays from Jeremy, Rachel, Jake and Me to you and your family.
Feliz Navidad to you as well! 
Thank you MusicMZ.
The picture above of the dog who is moving is that of my new rescue: Jeremy Lin. Jeremy had been abandoned at the summit of the road that crosses the mountain range that surrounds this area, La Cordillera de la Costa. There were no humans where he was dumped, and he looked very sick to me when I saw him. In fact I thought he would die. He obviously did not die, but he could have. He had distemper, and he survived, but he has central nervous system damage, so he bounces when he walks or sits or rests on my knee. But when he runs he is lightning fast. He is skinny despite the fact that I have done everything imaginable to put some weight on him, and he has long legs, and he is young. It's practically impossible taking a picture of him when we go for a walk, he is so fast. He loves chasing rabbits. And there are lots of them to chase.
I live in a protected ecological reserve, and the rabbits are decimating the vegetation, so the forest rangers have introduced a virus which was successfully introduced in Australia to kill them. The rabbits go blind, their brain is also affected, so they are easy prey for Jeremy who does not bounce when he runs. He kills and eats lots of rabbits, then he throws up in my car and on my carpet. Today I found paws, a vertebral column and lots of fur. He ate everything else, and that is good, because they can't digest the fur, and they can die from it. He is always the first one to greet me when I come home, and yesterday he had a rabbit foot coming out of the side of his mouth. I had to get it out of him with my bare hands, wrap it in plastic, and drive it to the garbage dump. Not an hour had passed when I found another rabbit, so I tied it in plastic and threw it in the garbage. It was too late to drive to the dump.
I moved here because I loved the smell of the trees and flowers in the air. Now I smell dead rabbits.
So glad things are ok with you! Hopefully the recent earthquake did not affect you.
is it the calici virus or the myxomatosis virus?? The calici is the newer release. Myxo originally came from Uruguay. 
Softparade, the earthquake was 720 miles from where I live, so I never felt it. Thank you for your concern. Few individuals live in that area, so there was relatively little damage except for the highway that goes through the area. I am getting used to tremors. My new house is a wood house built on stakes, so when we have a tremor, the house dances, but they tell me that they are safe.
Joanne, it is the myxomatosis virus. I am told by my neighbors who specialize on the subject that the first time that it is released, it killed most of the rabbit population, but a few rabbits who are not affected by it survived. This year the area had heavy rains, the pastures were plentiful, and it is suspected that the plague of rabbits and rats (a type that only eats vegetation called degus) multiplied with the plentiful grass. Since the rains the weather has once again dried, and the rabbits have nothing to eat. They are decimating everything. My cactus are one of their favorite foods, I assume because of the water, and they are going after it even though they are surrounded by netting. Nothing, I am told, keeps a hungry/thirsty rabbit away from a food/water source.
I went to a class on this topic and the goals is to reestablish a balance between all these creatures. I will be glad when the sick rabbits are gone, and Jeremy stops smelling like dead rabbit when he comes in the house. He hates the baths, and I hate giving it to him. Skunk smell is delightful in comparison to this!
May your good fortune be around the corner. Best wishes for the new year.
From my house it looks as if someone had not yet taken down the Christmas lights strung on top of the mountain, but that is not a decoration, it's a forest fire heading in our direction. It started nearly 24 hrs ago, and it has traveled many, many miles from what looked like fog in an otherwise clear, blue sky to a pulsating ogre unsure where he wanted to go next. The planes and the helicopters were above our heads late in the day, and they were doing their best to turn the beast away from residential areas, but late at night it burst to the top of the mountain forming a long, sparkling string of popping lights.
There is only one road out of this reserve, no alarms to warn residents, so I keep my eye on him as I drench the ground which is set up for a barbeque: chairs, grill, wood. If I have to leave I will take my dogs, who must remain in the house in case of a quick evacuation, and my computer.
An earthquake is over quickly, this stress builds like an Alfred Hitchcock thriller. Will the firemen stop the advance? will it come to my home which I finally managed to almost set up? I don't know, and I am not sure that I want to know. No birds are left, and even a mother left her three multicolored eggs unattended yesterday, I discovered as I doused my wood house and wooded garden with water. The silence was eery yesterday; I've grown used to the sounds of wildlife day and night.
To the men and women who live here, this fire is something that they are used to seeing. They continue with their plans, but they share photos of the flames, the smoke and they track the location. I am scared; it shows; and I don't care if it does.
take care. Decide early if you will leave, then go and don't look back until it safe to return.
If you stay, fight with all you have.
We pray with you!! 
I don't know if you wanted or expected an adventure when you decided to move back to Chile. You have certainly found yourself smack dab in the middle of one! Allow yourself time to leave safely if conditions suggest that you must. Pack a go bag now and place it in the trunk of your car, one less time consuming chore to do before fleeing, should that become necessary. Make sure your car has enough fuel to get you to a safe location. Observe your neighbors as well as the skies. They will be your best indication of just how dangerous things have become. If/when they start leaving, you should too without hesitation. Stay safe!
It took five helicopters, 64 firefighters, and many support staff two days, but today they got it under control, and on the way a major highway was closed as well as the national park that we border. It came close, really close. I understand that the slope it was descending was full of boulders, and they seemed to help stop the progress of the fire, but if it had not been stopped, there was two kilometers of dried grass, shrubs and timber to get to the homes. I hear that all the vegetation is gone, and it is completely soaked. They used the reservoir with our drinking water to drench the soil, and I hope that that does not mean that we will have water shortages in the future, because they soaked it.
My friend, the agricultural engineer, Bego, and I took on the task of providing the firefighters with food and water, because they brought none with them. It's been a chore, but it kept my mind off the fire. I also reported to the homeowners working in Santiago pictures and reports of what was happening in the fire real time.
I've had very little sleep.
Hopefully, you can catch up on that sleep now. Glad you stayed safe.
It is a very long fight with frequent flare ups, one just about an hour ago adjacent to the only exit out of the reserve, 100 meters from the road. It is exhausting. Five hectares burned.
A state of emergency has been declared by the federal government, and firefighters are being brought from other nations. The heat is making fires burst frequently and long.
Hope the danger ends soonest. Keep smart and safe. Post when you can so we will know you remain OK.
We had warnings that this would happen. The weather is hot, the vegatation is dry and there is little humidity; in the metric system when the temp is above thirty, the humidity below 30, and the wind above 30 km/hr, 30.30.30, they declare a red alert; and it has been like that since December. A week ago a support that keeps electric wires from touching fell most likely with the wind, two wires touched, and it created sparks; they triggered a fire which was quickly extinguished by firefighters. The next day the big fire came from a town that is 5.5 mi from where I live, excluding the fact that these are mountains and that the fire has to travel up and down slopes. We were fortunate, we had a very good response from the forestry and the emergency response department. A bit further south the devastation is tremendous, and the fires are raging out of control still; the number of hectares burnt are in the thousands. This may well be more evidence for global warming.
The dogs and I are well, tired and living under a huge cloud of smoke, thanks for your concern. Not soon enough the clear, blue skies will return, but for now I leave you with this reassuring photo of one of my neighbors training his horse pulling a buggy yesterday.
President Bachelet declared this fire as the largest in the history of Chile. Fortunately, we have no more threats in my community, but the smoke is probably seen from space. Over 155,000 hectares are in flame or aproximately 383,000 acres are up in flames and many more have been burnt. The armed forces have been called to battle the fire alongside every possible resource available.
You probably heard it first in MOL, no one else cares about what happens outside their back yard.
Actually you might just hear about the fire in Chile in your evening news, because an individual has sent a 747 to throw water into the fire. The Russians are also sending help to fight the fires, but I am not sure in what form that aid is coming.
Copihue said:
President Bachelet declared this fire as the largest in the history of Chile. Fortunately, we have no more threats in my community, but the smoke is probably seen from space. Over 155,000 hectares are in flame or aproximately 383,000 acres are up in flames and many more have been burnt. The armed forces have been called to battle the fire alongside every possible resource available.
You probably heard it first in MOL, no one else cares about what happens outside their back yard.
Yes, unfortunately... I have not seen any info on the US news at all- of course we are sort of dealing with a disaster of sorts ourselves in the US in DC 
I have avoided the TV news since the Republican convention. But the newspapers or NPR haven't mentioned the devastation you narrowly avoided. Thanks for letting us know what's been happening. So glad you and the doggies are safe.
An hour ago the fourth fire started in eight days. This time Conaf is not here to protect us, the fire is large, and I am evacuating.
Two fires in one night, both started by depraved individuals who thought destroying homes, killing animals, destroying trees that can be as 800 years old was a great idea for spending an exciting evening in the middle of summer when the entire country is burning. We weren't on fire, so they started one so that we could be added to the press releases.
People saw them starting the fires. I am home, one fire is under control and the other one is not. Firemen will be here at 9am to extinguish the flames.
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wild bees...pretty special, as long as they're not nesting in the walls
We had a Queen in our picket fence (she'd fly in each Spring, but it was right next to the gate and very scary; the swarm would buzz at head height). Our native bees are tiny and they're not striped like the European honey bee. After a couple of years, the swarm's moved on.
My colleague who raises bees has given me another small jar of his special honey. It's so sweet and so clear...yummy.