and the summer is over

this beautiful summer is over - we had already the 1st snow showing on the tops of the mountains and the leaves turn slowly to gorgeous colors.


Dietmar came for a visit and we took the chance to see something in our neighborhoods. we had an appointment with the czechian consulate to get an identification approval (he was not able to help us with that), but it was a fantastic day - perfect for a little trip to Ascoli Piceno. the consulate building was in the old part of the city and we got some history explanations from him. roman stones/walls at the bottom - medieval build on that and the top just 200 years old.

here is the entrance door and the hallway behind it

we were also at the "big" castaniata in our hometown gualdo and got fresh, hot marron out of a paper-bag and new wine-for free!

our runner duck parents Nancy&Udo found a new home. i put a little paper at several locations with a photo of the 2 and a very nice young man - who spoke wonderful english - wanted them for having different breeds. he has already the wild mallards, white ducks and geese for company. since the 2 are gone it got so much quieter out here. i could not hear the little noises, birds, insects with the constant quaking of Nancy and the back chatter from the little girls.

Jon is getting really serious about the reconstruction of the little house. after the filling in the old doorway he rebuild the little entrance. he got the ugly cement and bricks off and filled in with stones:



this is what weakens the walls a lot : ants building in and with the clay their nests and make big hollow spaces in-between the rocks.

after this last test Jon decided he can take down the wall and rebuilt it new:



the front part of the roof had to come down and supports up underneath the beams to hold it up strongly. the inside of that wall will be built with normal building bricks and the space between them filled with perlite to get a good insulation. the delivery of the blocks in my flower garden ;-)

this kind of walls was built like this for ancient times are called muro di sacco- yes- a sac-wall!!! 2 sites of stones act like a sac and hold the clay and stones and whatever could be filled in between. here is the stuff out of the sac laying on the ground:

i hope we can keep this little niche



and this is my project, much easier to deal with - on solid ground - Jon has no thoughts to stand on a pipe 3 meters high and lift huge rocks at the same time, he is so flexible.



i fill in all the cracks and gaps with mortar - so this wall will be there also next year and we will be sure no rocks falling on us while doing yoga, other things will still come down, chestnuts ...

and this is a maremanno girl at the sheep barn with her little puppy