unser 1. herbst

die tage werden schon recht kurz, zu kurz fuer all die projekte draussen. Jon is working long after the sun is gone, he does have a very good eyesite, but.... so i try to get him in with some energy-food and a fire in the stove and a hot tea. the temperatures are not too bad for this time, that is what we hoped for- after all we are in ITALIA- no freezing and still nothing scary in the forecast. instead i got some little flowers today and will get them in the ground, and there is still a vage chance of red tomatoes. jede menge dicke gruene haengen on the vines. irgend jemand stiehlt die roten und laesst sie halb abgebissen liegen. i wonder who the little guy is who is eating our red tomatoes.
the hunters are very busy around here. it seems they can hunt everywhere they want. because the road ends here, they just park in the field next door and let there extremely excited dogs out. of course they just run around the house, sniff everywhere and i have my doubts my future chicken, i want to have, will survive that.
there is not very much left to shoot. the most go for the birds. the same ones that migrated from deutschland, -- look at the youtube how they catch them on the migrating routes -not very nice to look at-- where they are protected by law and admired for there insect eating and singing. i read it is better not to put up a feeder, so they do not get used to people, because the next one they see might just shoot them. this is very sad - i loved it soooo much to watch this colorful, elegant and free creatures. all the feeders will stay in the boxes. what a shame........i know the european law forbid the italian to shoot the most of the birds, but i went through the long site of birds what are not under this protection. how do they know what they are shooting at anyhow,- they will know it when it is dead on the ground-- a bit late.......


the colors of the fall are coming in our valley. the most fascinating tree is this persimmon / kaki tree. the fruits are totally different than the wild american ones, very juici and sweet - and NO bugs are bothering them. neighbors told us the trees lose all leaves and the fruits will turn bright orange. the trees look like decorated for the coming christmas. i will take a picture of that. right now they have the most prettiest red leaves and glow in the morning sun.

vorher und nachher

was war ich aufgeregt - der 1. besuch! seit wir hier sind.
the 1st visitors since we moved here. i was so excited.
my brother Dietmar and 2 cousins - 1 with his wife and 3 kids together. they drove the 1500km all the way down here and i wanted to make sure the kids are getting some wildlife and nature pure. but the weather was not cooperative, it rained and rained before they came, the ground was saturated, their little shoes and socks soaked after playing with rakes and brooms at the yoga platform. i had all kind of plans - harvesting grapes in the vineyard of our nice neighbor, searching for walnuts, collecting apples and make muffins with them, fry potatoes on an open fire and of course pizza with faces and, and, and. but they staid most of the time at the convenient AGRITURISMO ELISEI just around the corner with a wonderful pool and a very nice bathrooms, and a big WHIRLPOOL for all of them. i could not compete with that. but i think they had a great time at Elisei's.

another month went by, so fast since my last input here and we did just work and work on and in our house and land. we got the neighbors sheep in some of the land and they did a great job with cleaning out little bushes and weeds growing over. now we could actually walk through the land and see how the terrain is.

the running lawn-mowers - i love them
before ..............after










Jon hat endlich ein reiches betaetigungsfeld fuer die endlos lange leiter gefunden. he is now our official roofer. nachdem ein deutscher freund uns erklaert hat wie man sich auf diesen dachziegeln bewegt ohne zu viele kaputt zu machen, hat sich mein leichtgewicht auch getraut. he knows now how to fix american roofs and italian one's. a whole day he spend up there enjoying the view ( i hope) and changed broken tiles and moved them back where they do good. there is a lot of moos and grass growing up there. but that will be taken care of later. right now it is important that we need no more bowls to catch the drippings in the attic. und dann auf der anderen seite vom haus - die regenrinne.. the rain gutter needed more thought before head. how can he do this by himself, the gutter there is 9 meter long and just one ladder,- not that i would be of any help,- just looking at him so far up makes me dizzy. but the pieces are 4 meter long and they can be connected in place. but before that he had to get the old holders pulled out and fixed the new once in place. he did it. it is all straight, has a small slope and the downspouts have a nice curve. GREAT!















now that the rain is no more running through the balcony door into the kitchen, we are now working on getting warmth in the house for the next winter.
we did order a fireplace insert from the ebay/deutschland and are very happy to have this heat in the kitchen. but this is just a small part of the house, - even we fantasist if it would be possible to just use that room in the winter, a bed and a computer would make it crowded, but always warm :-). we will make a trip to muenchen the next weeks and buy a made in germany oven, mit all den vorzuegen eines modernen spar- und umweltfreundlichen kaminofen. but we need also wood - a lot. in woodward we could cut a dead oak tree on the ground of our dear friend Dave. that kept us cosy the whole iowa winter long. there are some dead trees here in our own woods, but not easy to get them out, the most areas have a big slope. i like to be there with Jon, smell the forest soil and be so close to nature. there are always things to watch and wonder about. a great place to be now in the beauty.