the big move

we're snowed in

2012-02-03T09:42:00.000-08:00

it is snowing since 2 days and is not stopping. on wednesday we tested to drive to the paved road. it worked nicely, some sliding. at the sheep barn the road was cleared by the comune. Alfredo thought they would have plowed to us. DooHH, on the way back - hills! Jon had to put the chains on. so that was the test run to get to the dentist the next day. the appointment was a week LATER! me and understanding italiana on the phone (but she had no time to listen to my repeating). so instead of drilling into me we went to the tire guy. a father/son business. the temperature on the fancy pellet stove standing in the middle of that huge warehouse was 7 degrees. it was warm, while turning like a chicken right next to this wonder of heater, made for a small living-room. we bought the tires he found somewhere (he had to drive away to get them) and got them onto the car. with new car-shoes and filled with good pasta from a new restaurant close to casa cuculo we made it home. we were so pleased how the car just pulled us through the snow back into the woods.

i was so happy about the missing out on dental torture that i built a BIG snowlady. the final touch up i saved for the next day.

she changed dramatically with another 20 cm snow on her. the eyes were closed and the pretty hair-due disappeared. the drive to the neighbors to get their house frost save showed: the tire do it - barely. since than we got more snow,

when something like this snow happened in woodward our amazing neighbor from down the road just drove his tractor into the driveway and cleared it all. DAVE !!! where are you???????. but this is too long of a stretch- at least 1 km.the forecast says it will be warmer next week . . .

with too much snow Jon's solo concert at the pub mirage down in the big valley might be canceled. who is shoveling themselves out to see Jon at 22.30? but he is practicing lots in the basement.

the other gig together with Flavia is in the old theater in Sant' Angelo in Pontano. that is on carneval saturday - should be much better weather.

daumen drücken!!!!!!!!!

just 2 more days and the year is over...

2011-12-29T10:51:00.000-08:00

i have to hurry to get my last blog in. weather was very nice to us - so we are working outside as much as possible. today Jon got 2 trees cut out of the chicken/duck run. so Erminia has more fire wood for next year. she lets us have the old pig building for our feathered friends and it works very well for all of us. and i figured that the weeds after a little frost and back to sun come out like from soft butter - i got tap roots 30 cm long out with 1 easy pull - that makes my gardener heart smile:)

we were a part of the presepe vivende like last year. we did not show our silly chicken, this year we were wafer baker.
at least that was the idea. after several trial to make the dough for the hostia, we went sunday 26.12. -also Jon's B-day- with a bag of crispy sweet wafers and the perfect batter to our prepared place. but Jon figured soon that the iron is not getting evenly hot in the open fire pit and actually warped!!!!! oh what a disappointment, hundreds of people were strolling by and we could not show them our new learned baking ability.

the 3 Kings including a real african

a shoemaker in his shop

this guy does make this baskets!

market scenes

at the piazza- this is a very friendly goat

that wall is a new addition, closes up the part of the village

the boat and the fisher

another market scene

the laundry place

at the black smiths

all the fire-stones stones and carts were there for this 4 hour event

it is now back to a parking area

this is my favorite scene: the cheese makers

the horse shoes in the alley have a very unique sound

the setting of the living christmas scenes were fantastic, even more detailed and beautiful arranged than last year. i still don't know facts, numbers - but from my point of view a super success (except our waffle iron).

the little baby got hungry and sick of all the people looking....

on the day before Jon's special birthday celebration he was playing his music the 1st time real official with announcement and poster. we set up the music equipment at 15:00 on sunday and at 4:30 Flavia and Jon started their concerto di natale.

it was very busy at that place. people were coming in their prettiest outfits - who are by the way ALWAYS completely black - and their bambini after a loooong christmas lunch - one lady said they stopped eating at 17:00 after 4 hours!!!!!!i tried to film all with my tiny camera - some moments are well kept.

in this time of preparing for the big concert and than the baking the roof also had to be finished so the precipitation cannot damage our new ceiling. that was a big piece of work- but the weather gods were nice and it all got up. it needs more finishing on the edges, but from a distance it looks like a roof even all the cotto tiles are still on the ground.
photos will come a bit later........ pazienza

autumn

2011-10-17T12:48:00.000-07:00

the 1st snow was on 9th of oktober --- in the mountains --- a bit scary, but the closest high peek is 1500 meter higher than our location and only 18 km away ( as the crow flies).

finally we made a decision what to do with our old car. whatever we choose is stupid - so we did the easiest version. Simona's sister has a agency to get foreign cars through the technical inspection and turn it over into an italian vehicle. it will cost us all together 600 Euro. and there are many different steps involved. of course the car paper are in german and have to be translated into italia. the tax has to be arranged. we got through the inspection - unbelievable simple compared to the german "TüV . they did not even check the underneath of the car. only lights and breaks. :-). than we got new license plates. a paper for the time until we have some official ones. will be in 3 months - i heard.

Dietmar was here for a short week visit and took the old license plates with to germany. but there they will not do anything before they get the old papers back from the italian office. this is all very slow. pazienza.

the weekend of Halloween came and we were thinking to through an old bedsheets over our heads and go to a town where the ghost and pumpkin are all over. but the friends from a neighbor on our road came to invite us to dinner. no pumpkins anywhere. Nello the host 83 years old did not even know what it is all about. great!!!!!!! after all it is the day when the holy and saints (all dead) are celebrated. but no pumpkins.

Jon's test with the new speakers were also at Nello's, just some weeks earlier. the guests did dance!!!!!! it sounded very good and he did very well.

at the end of september a smaller female calico colored cat came up towards the house and meowed so loud that i could not overlook her. she inspected everything very well, liked it and adopted us. she still has no name, but comes with "Mietzi" "Kitty" and "MeowMeow" and spends every possible minute purring on our lab and between our walking feet.

the stairs

2011-09-30T10:27:00.000-07:00

we got through the hot summer with almost no rain - just once: 1,5 cm. so i am watering everyday somewhere. when i do all the places i planted it takes me 2 hours. i could meditate while doing so - still working on that ;-(.

we had some very nice guests and dogs this season and with some we were even house hunting. so much fun to investigate old ruins and the left interior. the best were the little bats living in the places.

seems they do not built big colonies like in the usa. just 3 here 5 there. we have 2 spending the day underneath an overhang on the balcony floor and fly off every day at sunset and get their first catches around the house.

the last guests are coming this weekend at the neighbors and i hope they have a sunny time here. i remember it can be very wet and foggy. the mosquito/sandfly problem - at sleep at least got solved - the new big net covering the bed. i thought maybe we should keep it up - it keeps also the warmth inside. for the cooler time it would be a nice benefit.

the metal staircase is built and up. lots of measuring and adjusting to the surface of the wood beam. my part were the tiles. - they needed to be jack-hammered (the concrete from previous use) and brushed, washed and sorted.we have around 15 different styles/sizes. who knows where they all came from.

before and after washing, but still with concrete edges:

now they have to get glued to the steps and sealed with something - we still work on that.

gelato ;-)

2011-08-22T06:23:00.000-07:00

it is definitely gelato time in italy- almost every bar has homemade ones, or at least the ones in a wrapper. isn't this look appealing? (i don't know about the blue one, have not tried it)

the tomatoes are HUGE
the corn so sweet,
mozzarella and fresh basil from the balcony
Jon's home-baked bread
with olive oil from the neighbor ...
we must be in heaven
...

but than there was this at the restaurant the neighbors daughter runs:

mocetta, arugula with parmigiano and thick sweet balsamico

more prosciutto/salami marchigiana

ricotta with lemon-jam red pepper and walnuts

my plate: fried mozzarella with truffle, olives with fennel/garlic,
baby-mozzarella in green olive-oil, foccacia with rosemary

we made it into the summer and temperature turns us into italians. getting up at sunrise, work in the garden until it gets too warm. after lunch a long siesta and around 17:00 some activities start again. than there could easily be a festa or sagra, where you can join in. that will be a place where someone else is cooking and lots of people sitting at sunset out on a piazza and have a great time. dance, wine, home-cooked specialties. everybody, all ages come together and chat and enjoy the summer in the community.

this is the festa di san severino mit pizza e birra auf dem stadt platz

afterwards a marchigiani band lit up in front of the old buildings

kids danced a quadrille

at the lake in the mountains, 45 minutes away a HUGE firework lit up over the water at 23:00 with hundreds of cars blocking the road and people sitting on the lawn in front of the lake.

the drive home was actually a race on the twisty mountain roads. because they thought nobody is driving towards the lake they all passed in these narrow curves

parties at the neighbors

wonderful all homemade pizza in a pizza-oven in the garden

by a professional chef

another party on the same road - this time spinach fussili with shrimps and porcetta. homemade potato chips (wonderful) and fried zucchini (i tried that recipe at the next party also fried onions - was a hit)

Nello would love to sell his house and 3 ha ground and gave me a tour

the other neighbors dogs had a blast with all the shrimp skins

a family photo with that darling old mother, who could just stand up to a 90 degree angle - but was cooking this delicious meal.Jon thought i should be on this photo :-)

a party for the elderly from gualdo, lots of home baked goods and

even a little bit of music

the major is always part of the commune life and easy to recognize through his heavy smoking

progress at the little house moves v e r y s l o w no way we will get a new roof on before winter comes :-( pazienza and piano-piano ) or 'nur net huudle' ....... but the stairs become more real:

Jon is the best backer ever

he did not want me to move the flower pots. he passed the trailer with the future stair oak-beam by 2 inches away from my new rose-cuts

the 1/2 tree trunk got cut by a handsaw to the perfect angle

still a provisorium- more next blog...

what happened to that JUNE?

2011-07-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

view from ripe di san ginesio towards san ginesio

a whole month is lost, or got worked away. the poppies were fantastico and some special ones are still going:

this one is so beautiful......

i am finally through weeding, thanks to the huge amount of rain we had also huge weeds and not really the time to get to them with all the sprinkling. we had days when we looked out of the window and decided to like that look of the rainforests in costa rica. we saved a long and expensive trip and had the exact same view/sound: low clouds hanging in the trees, very happy birds singing in the warm mist. this little place in le marche has it all!

the garden is now busy to make all the edible wonders: corn tall and sooo sweet the cardoon really tall i guess 3 meter

in front anise hyssop, cardoon right, corn left

and the country side is breathtaking

gualdo on the top right, the valley to the south, (ours is to the north)and the sibillini mountain

san ginesio with grain and sunflower fields
Jon is ready to perform, he has even a manager: Valentina (our beautiful neighbor daughter with a master-degree in tourism), she talks to the right people to get gigs for him. something will happen next month. the speakers are bought, the music is all arranged and Jon is playing and singing everyday.
Valentina is also our italian teacher, we meet 3 times a week for 2 hours and she is getting some of her english back at the same time. she would prefer to stay for 6 months and learn it in an english spoken country with a little job on the side to pay for living. - if anybody knows about an opportunity for her - let me know!!!!!

2 layers of styrofoam on top of the slab, tiles to lift up the grid, red tubing tied to it for the floorheat

we are 1 step further on the little house project: the sandwich floor for the floor-heat is pored. we did it our self and somehow we got it all smooth in 1 day.

the edge is the border for the concret

almost all pored and smoothed

the wonderful summer brings also the heat-loving biters back. i am i a constant battle with one of them. mosquitoes are drawn and killed in a little sapper underneath the computer table. also long pants are helping. but their bites just last 1 hour and done - easy. the invisible sand-flys are the more difficult ones. the bit last for a week and they love to bite 3-4 times at the same area, like around the knee- that tells you they are also under neath the table. they are not interested in the light from the sapper. they just go for skin. i researched for a trap. it would be a CO2 release with a suction. not under 400 $ and not sure if it works. the solution so far: prevention,- socks - a must! toe-bites are really painful and long sleeves, pants. and a TIGHT mosquito net. we had a cotton net around the bed. but places with wider weaving lets them in. in the morning we could count the sucked full, fat ones. they were trapped inside. as soon we tried to get them, they flew up and were invisible. only when they were sitting on the net, the little dot was visible. an amazing little sucker.---- until the new ordered mosquito net is coming we sleep in a tiny tent sitting on the bed, but great: it is tight.

4 sand-flys found inside the mosquito net - these are millimeters!

the meditation takes a large time of our life. Jon's accomplish is fantastic, i am very slow, trying to follow him. i decided i have an attention deficit disorder, what makes kids life so hard in school. (just like mine long time ago). it is so hard to stay focused for just 1 minute. for example i try to think NOTHING while i take a shower. nothing than: shrub the feet... rinse the hair...new soap on the sponge....i am NOT able, the thoughts wander off to all kind of places in this world. how is it possible that i cannot tell my own brain to shut up.?

the sunflowers are definitely prettier sun-catcher - but italy has no nuclear plants and the italians voted against them :-) so this is the future

more sunny thought: sunflowers or girasole (what means turning to the sun). we have an abundance of sunflower fields around us. i had the thought that not many crops make people smile when they pass them, sunflowers do it for me. so many happy faces looking all the same way. and the bees in a buzz heaven.

the 'thing' on the right is a living jukebox, you throw money in and press something and the guy plays the song with his bass

i left the car on purpose - just old meet new - and how does that big audi made it in there?

the concert starts at 9:30 pm and we had a chance to see their soundcheck, Colleen don't you love these chairs?

we went to some wonderful festa/sagras with our dear american friends. we had organic food with biodegradable forges ( the test is still going on in a flowerpot), pizzas by the hundreds,

colmeranos art festa, something else happens around the next corner

dances with life harmonica music,

tortellini at our neighbor town with a loved marchigiana performer

concerts with didgeridoos and huge silk flames.

at the main piazza in colmurano sound check with ...

silk flames flattering in front of ancient old buildings

we love this little town social fests, from babies to old grandpas, all are there and enjoy life, food, art in the summer.

the artist (sculpturer and painter ) chatted with Jon and invited us to the castle he lives in.

Colleen in Le Marche

2011-05-31T10:45:00.000-07:00

we had our 1st visitor from usa. Colleen staid for 4 weeks and she could have spend much more time with us. for several reasons: she saw just a fraction of what was interesting to look at - in an hour drive around us. but more amazing - she was just a part of our little household. we adjusted so well to each other, no fuzz or narrow feelings. what a wonderful guest!!!! (may be i was so thrilled because she LOVES to do dishes, kinda the opposite of my feelings towards handling greasy plates and forges).
we had visits to our italian friends, towns and festas.

walks through our woods and fields, enough rain for the weeds to grow crazy (another thing - she likes to do: WEEDING!) and she built all this pretty stone columns in the yard - i forgot the name : i just call them COLLEENS. she announced me as her Paparazza and i took photos of all the events and visits, put them in an picasa album: 333 photos- just 11,1 photo a day :-) ( if you like to i can link you to the album, Jon is often a part of that, of course i am mostly missing in these shots..... the newest from the strada. the gates are moved half off the road, so everybody - seems nobody cares - passes around without stopping. the stone situation did not change - not enough rain to make anything slip. the renters from our german neighbor's guesthouse are all coming, so far no problems. before our dear guest arrived i got some necessary improvements done, the tiny kitchen is PAINTED!!!!!

and the bathroom has a new sink and stool, and the guestroom got some clean-up. but still no place to put cloths on hangers. we work on that ;-)

la contrada contro

2011-03-23T11:03:00.001-07:00

la strada - this seems to become a long story. the end is unsure and patience is requested.
1st chapter - 11.march - a letter i wrote to a friend:
"""this is so much fun living in italy. you never know what happens the next day. last night we were with our dear neighbors for dinner: at a brand new place - 1 hour drive- where their daughter and her fiance are working as chefs in the kitchen. while we were waiting for the pizza the cellphone of the 17 year old daughter rang. it was the major of our town: gualdo. he told her that we -Jon and i shall come to a meeting today at 9;00 am - about our road. we were at the major's office. a very nice guy - who owns a guesthouse - were functioning as our translator. he told us that the road we pass to our house is now, after that terrible rain and flooding,

too dangerous to drive and some higher officials from the province decided to close it.

we still are aloud to live in our house ! but we are not allowed to use the road any more. we got the option to stay at a house the commune would pay for.... of course that is not an option for us. so we had to sign a paper that we live there without a passable road.

there is another road not in use for many years what could be fixed - but there are 2 different commune involved - that might take some time to get done. solution: we will buy a 4x4 soon!!!!!! and get much more walking - what is good for us."""

we did walk twice and drive now again. the barrier they put up are easy to get moved to drive through and closed after we passed.

a week later our sweet neighbor daughter came - with her car - and told us that the major aspect us an hour later at the courthouse. he did not send a helicopter to get us there. he did not ask how we came. ...
the same situation like before with more people involved: our neighbor Alfredo was there and some more officials - with lots of labels on their work-cloths: some road safety guys. the news this time were that the help the major hoped for from Rome was canceled. the money has to come now from the province to fix the cliff. the time to get this done might take more than a year. the offer to stay in a house paid by the commune got repeated several time.

the search for the 4x4 got highest priority. and i did find exactly the car we need. it is the smallest SUV possible. the 4-wheel kicks in as soon a tire slips - perfect. i found it through the italian kinda Craigslist: subito.it. that was easy compared with the insurance for it.

the car insurance in italy is one of the highest in europ. so i tried to get some of the bonus transferred from germany. after looooong search i got it actually from the neighbors agent. he could get it for me for 680 Euros/year. yeah!!!!!!! just took 2 weeks and 22 signatures

i was already adjusted with the idea not have to do the housekeeping next door, because the closed road. ideas of traveling south came to our minds. but there might be some people who take this than as an adventure vacation?!

more rain - more rocks on the road.

but Luigi and his tractor pushes them out of the way- he did this the last 40 years and there were much worse landslides than this winter.

but we live in the most wonderful places and spring is soooo beautiful, who would be bothered with italian bureaucracy?

second try for spring

2011-02-12T04:19:00.000-08:00

i love spring, for me it could last forever. not possible of course-except you have places around the world and be where the spring is. but for my tiny budget this is the best solution we have already the 2. one right now in the middle of february, the narcissus are getting ready 1 is already open!
mild wind is filled with the perfume of the wild violets growing on south facing edges. elderberries have actually leaves out and the weeping willow has a how of bright green around it.
the bees are here the second time. their 1st flowers were the winterling (german name)

that was their 1st job - already pollinated and seeds are developed. these pretty things are growing in the woods right next to the house.
after that the snow hit again - i realized i do not have any "cold" photos in here. must be my inner 'winter-avoidance' what keeps them to show up. ok here it is:

we worked at the 1st warm weeks - middle of january - even on the our walls

the hunting season is over and everybody is glad :-) they did not bother too much this winter. maybe my newest effort kept them a bit further away.

we put 'no parking' signs up and the electric fence in front of the pasture next door - so they had to find a new location to park the car. i put up little red plastic flags with the distance toward the house. this one in the photo says 60 meter. it is forbidden to hunt inbetween 100 meter of the house.. so they knew that i knew where they are allowed. for next year i thought about a google map i could hang out and as a take with, 100 meter circle around the house:

we had some interesting days when the water supply shut off. we found a big puddle in the field towards the creek and after 2 days with melting snow to have water to flush the toilet, the guys came with big machines and connected a piece of plastic pipe into the very old metal tube.

next weekend again no water, but this time someone was shutting the water supply at he creek off. we did not know and they just came to open the faucet again.... but every-time they have to come, gets us closer to the promised new line from a different direction.

our neighbor had the big days of butchering and making prosciutto and salami. every part of the pig will be used. the sausages will hang from the ceiling and the fireplace behind Jon provides with several days of smoking the right flavor. there are some pieces of meat grilled with some fresh rosemary, but 1st course rigatoni with homegrown black olives and tomato-sauce.

this is the natural colon the sausage is filled in. 20 meter long in one pig. 2 got slaughtered, they were big. 1 got fed for a friend, the family will have just 1 for themselves. there are now 3 smaller ones, who will get fat for next spring.

Jon was actively helping and i was there only to look at sausage making process.

it is little lambs time. they are so sweet, hard to not think about their future.

living nativity scene in our hometown

2011-01-11T08:30:00.000-08:00

it's getting time to put something in here.
christmas was very quiet - just the way we wanted it. we did not see any advertisements heard no jingle-bells, no blown-up snowman, no rushing through the store. we cut a little juniper on the lower field, i decorated it sparsely. some wax-candles made it special AND we had the 2 stoves going for some days and it was very nice in the house.
for christmas we got 2 new improvements: the balcony-door in the kitchen got double-glazed windows and a new electric blancet with wool and! workable without a transformer to get it on 240 volts. what does this all tell: it is cold in our house. that's the reason we restore the little one so we will not be cold any more.
that is what Jon was working on mostly. the wall he took down next to the big house is almost all built back with a brick wall on the inside and connected with rods to get it stronger than it ever was. the window, more for ventilation than to lookout - i can hand Jon peanutbuttersandwiches over, out of the bathroom window :-)- keeps that guy going...

but with the cold weather- under 5C degree 58F mortar is not doing the job - Jon is working on his music, he wants to get ready with a bunch of songs that he could perform soon. the computer part of the whole thing is tremendous. so many thing can and do go wrong. new parts have to be ordered, voltage of old equipment has to be altered, softwares equalized so they like each other. too much for me .... i am working on the visible part of all this. business cards, brochure and website, cd-labels. as soon all is done i will post it here.

on the 2. of January Gualdo had a wonderful event.
our neighbor Valentina decided to give gualdo the presepe vivente back.

Valentina giving last thumb up

it was going here many years ago. but this one could not have gotten much better. except ---the weather--- that was bad, but not changeable. actually when it started at 16:00 Gualdo was in thick fog, what made the streets a bit mystical, strange, like in movies when they wanna show something cold and old they diffuse it through fog. but it changed into rain (later even snow) and that makes people wet, us as the vendors at the market scene and all the visitors. they were very cold. we wore ski outfits underneath the costumes and were warm, we also had the fire just behind us to warm up. but - after just 2 hours they closed it and i did not get to take photos of all of it - dang - or how the neighbor says boohhhh.

Jon is listening what she is saying

the preparation for this was immense. Alfredo helped his daughter for 2 months to get all the cantinas and basements of many houses cleaned and decorated with ancient artifacts. we were helping to get the good old cow and donkey in a truck and into the city. there were sheep, goats,

sheep in bamboo

they had bread with fresh olive oil

we were the farmers having our own 2 chicken

carola :) with her feathered friends

Jon from the back

and roosters, rabbits, doves, ducks, geese. weaver, spinner, baker, cooks,- all ladies, potter, carpenter, blacksmith, alcohol making, winery, tavern, shepard and a temple - all guys. the roman emperor with his harem, 3 kings - 1 was black!, and the nativity scene with a real baby boy. there would have been a camel ,but it cost 500 euros to rent.
but they made through donation 1500 euros, what covers some of the costs.
it was just fantastic!!!! and we were part of this and enjoyed it a lot.

that was too dark for my camera

the loom was in many parts and had to be reassembled

i think she is making bread dough

una cucina

at the market

some kinda spinning thing

they had to sew 150 costumes

the romans taken care of everything

Jon again - no, no the one who is sitting!

the fires were really nice

Jon's birthday lunch : fresh brussel-sprouts 1/2 hour old, squash, potatoes, eggs with arugula all homegrown (and a birthday sausage ;) + wine from our little road.

F L O W E R S !!!! S T I L L in our garden

2010-12-02T09:30:00.000-08:00

these photos were taken the last 2 days of november and some even yesterday. germany is having big snows and minus temperatures - we are so spoiled. so i do NOT complain about cold feet and the heating blanket i have to turn on 1 hour before i go to bed. FLOWERS in december. nothing else to say.
and yes these are tomatoes/+flowers.

and the summer is over

2010-11-08T09:15:00.001-08:00

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

no post in september

2010-10-02T03:04:00.000-07:00

toooo late - did not make it to write in september once, that might tell you :
we are B U S Y around here and even the october is already quite old. but the 1st rain and autumn fog brings me back to the keyboard and resume what happened all this weeks.

there is the finishing of the wall/ceiling we started 1? year ago. time goes fast when you have fun- says Jon. the stove and chimney

got cleaned and we started our loved stove last night and it is sooooooo nice to sit in front of a fire. the best channel ever to watch, highly recommended and N O !!! commercial breaks.

there were wonderful hikes in the marchigiani
country and towns.
this is a hidden gorge with crystal clear water:

the most amazing flowers in my new gardens:
a tithonia torch over 2 meter high:

the fun times at festas in the neighborhood villages, a midnight firework and strolling through very old cellars. Jon is trying a vino cotto from 1956:

many happy guests and dogs from germany in the 2 guesthouses i am involved in.
this is at the next neighbor on their wide open pasture:

veggies in fantastic colors meet jefferson - iowa

and progress on our little house, watched over by the queen:

Ferragosto

2010-08-18T22:48:00.000-07:00

we did not know what Ferragosto is, everybody is talking about it. it is everywhere in italy in august. we figured it out - here some smarter writer with their explanation:

August 15th is Ferragosto in Italy

August 15th. It’s got to be the most dead moment in any Italian city. It’s the national holiday particular to Italy called Ferragosto. Everyone is at the beach, preparing for the night’s feast, fireworks, and camp-out under the stars. For an Italian, it is truly offensive to work on this day. When I was in grad school, my father in law once caught me trying to study on Ferragosto and I got in a lot of trouble for this. It’s not that it’s a religious holiday – it is ALSO the assumption of Mary – but rather it’s an instituted moment of rest that has roots in Ancient Roman culture. It’s the height of summer, the hottest days… Before Italy picked up the pace and joined the world economy, almost all businesses closed in August, probably because before airconditioning it was too hot to concentrate. You will find that many small businesses and stores still do close-, if not for the whole month, at least for the two central weeks that include Ferragosto.

look at these photos in this article:

http://www.romeartlover.it/Ferragosto.html

und die deutsche erklaerung:

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferragosto

wir haben also gar nicht erst versucht irgendwas zu kaufen was nicht essbar ist. alle repararaturen sind auf september verlegt :-)
the august is definitely the hottest time here, african winds are wilting the plants even the soil is moist underneath them - i spend long time to mulch around them. we got from our dear neighbor 2 old hay-bails and Jon drove over the unrolled hay and chopped it with the motozappa to pieces. wonderful stuff for mulch.

this are also the places where chicken prefer to scratch, when they can dig up something. so i put the strew underneath and they get it out again- of course they do not dig the plant out on purpose ;-( . the ducks make holes into the strew cover much less damage. but they DO love to eat my sorrel- almost gone - and they ate the tiny leaves from my rooted bougainvillea. but they are also much fun. we discovered the ducks forget everything when they have a chance to dig in a tomato. everything will be red after that. Jon thinks it's a bit like feeding sharks: red stuff flying around everywhere - the good thing is they do not have teeth and it does not hurt at all when they try to eat my fingers. so this is a very good recycling to give the old tomatoes to the bibies.

Jon had his 1.gig . he played at our contrada festa at the neighbors. it was a big success. the people liked the music, the setting was easy, so they could still chat and some got even to dance to the play. the food was great german potato-salad and american sweet corn and italian wine. Jon said after some german sausages: who would want to spend more time with eating, if he could play music. that's devotion. he got even compliments for his singing. well done. now he is learning italian songs.

in this time are all the festas, sagras und pallios, we went to some of it. the most visitors are italians watching the people playing in costumes, children dressed ancient, horses, flag thrower and of course, may be the most important there: food.

the marchigianer love what they eat. somewhere it even says they eat the most meat in italy?? we had some wonderful fried fish, gnocchi, penne arrabiata, wonderful meat, sausages for Jon. mostly the people of the town come together and prepare the food in some temporary tents and you get it on plastic plates with plastic "silverware". my recycling soul cramps every time - but that's how it is. i have to except or start a no-plastic revolution in the marche. i do not - so i better stop complaining......

these are the gnocchi they make behind that curtain - of course from scratch - everything is from scratch.

the priest has to give his blessings to all the play and the official photographers are in costumes

estate/summer - or we lost our landmark

2010-07-20T05:08:00.000-07:00

the summer made it -- took quite a while. it rained so much, that the combine sunk in the moist soil harvesting the grain. my garden is green and flowering- all over the place and i am busy for weeks and weeks to get the started usa seeds in the pots and than into the ground ( there are still some waiting- and kinda giving up on me). my thought about having an orange garden did not really work out. there is lots of orange, but some just turned into PURPLE flowers, looks like wrong! a 4-0'clock in purple and one even white. but pretty plants - so i keep them - bursting color between all the yellow and orange flower-heads.

this is the view of our garden with our landmark/bombola when we moved in here - july 2 years ago! and now we got our bombola removed. first it seemed all so easy. they called and said they will come and install the new gas-tank.

the 2 trucks arrived - made it all the way to our house, managed to even turn around.

the bombola was flying in the air in a blink,

and than started the measuring: the end of the tank had to be exactly no less than 5 meter - by the centimeter!!! away from our trees. we got instead of a tall but smaller diameter a longer shorter gas tank. that guy did not fit between the 2 trees anymore at the border of the garden.

the hole had to be moved towards the concrete slab where the old bombola was sitting on. actually half the slab had to get dug up. while the little caterpillar was digging deeper and wider we remembered the waterline, and yes, it was right there where the bombola had to go - they do not care about the waterline - they are only responsible for gas! no extra fuzz for that. but it did not get damaged !!!!!

when they sunk in the tank, it was 30 cm sticking out over the slab and when i mentioned that, they said it has to be so high so no water can run into it. the thought about a new tank was: it will not be visible anymore -- doohhh. after they were gone - they left 3 yellow plastic marker and a sign about security stuck in the soil around the tank cover, i had to start thinking how to landscape this earth eruption in the front yard.

i found a solution.

our duckies are grown - 2 months and they are as big as their parents. but they are different behaving than the old ones. they come to me - if i have the right treat for them - and they nibble it out of my fingers. they are no lab-ducks but become calm after a minute and let me pet them a bit. we still have not tried so reduce our duck population. it is getting a bit crowded around them and the sorting for bedtime is time consuming. we have Queeny with the young ones and Udo especially and Nancy have to be alone by themselves. duck temper---- who would have thought that i ever have to deal with that kinda thing.

the veggie-garden is doing very well this year:
tomatoes are coming big time 7 different kinds- including 'big beef' and 'moscavitch?', still waiting for 'razzleberry' what had amazing reviews.
potatoes are getting ready or better : are waiting to get in the root-cellar. we have 3 kinds :red from a trip through the high plateau of the sibillini mountains, yellow from the local farmers coop and a special one from the ex DDR. a potato saved over generations and left for us by a couple staying at the vacation house - a treat!!
sweet corn from usa seeds - tastes just like in iowa sweet and juicy - may be this could be a crop for the market here!?

and plums, plums from the neighbors tree. we are getting them in the freezer - just like last year and i will make plum jam and cake all year round. (we still have some bags from last year :-)

yesterday the ceiling/floor in the little house got pored with the help of the old crew: Luigi - our neighbor, his cousin Juliani and Jon- it took them 5.5 hours and 20 sacs of cement and we can now walk on the upstairs and i will soon make marks for the bed and bathroom.

Jon had to make a trip !by himself! to germany and get the technical license for our car redone. every 2 years it has to be inspected again and you get a sticker on the license plate. i had to let him go by himself because our little duckies and all the plants in the greenhouse and beds need care. so 1 had to stay home and it was me because i cannot drive 13 hours without falling asleep while driving..... life on a little farm means - no more vacations together?......

frittata or duckies

2010-06-15T11:59:00.000-07:00

this is a thought going through my head and when i just write it down here - maybe i find a solution....
we got the runner-ducks for 2 reasons:

1. they love snails and all the other insects and do not scratch the heck out of my garden.
2. the internet says they are very good egg-layers, up to 250 eggs a year.

the 1st point is right, the 2nd kinda, they laid a lot of eggs - for sure not 250 more like the half of it. but the point here is that i ate the eggs last year - they tasted good, just like chicken eggs. but now i took 6 eggs and they turned in this darling creatures. whenever i find an egg from Nancy i think : there is such a cute little thing in there - only 30 days away--- how can i eat this????? i am a vegetarian? i thought? i am for the right of a women to choose to have a baby or not. but i also think there is a new person in every fetus.
kinda difficult thoughts in our natural peaceful life at the end of the gravel road....
'frittata or ducky-babies'?

sechslinge

2010-06-12T13:55:00.000-07:00

we always wanted baby-ducks and Nancy our only female duck able to produce fertile eggs started laying after the winter break. we were thrilled and after the weather got warm enough we left them in the nest. she started to sit - a bit - and got more interested in water games - laid more eggs - sat again and so on... i counted 13 eggs. and still not ready to sit all the time. i decided after Queeny got also in a sitting mood - and stayed - on her unfertilized eggs ( she and Udo do NOT like each other and even if - these are 2 different birds and make some strange babies) to put Nancy's eggs under neath our good white duck Queeny; and she sat and sat 30 days. she got barely anything to eat, just some short times in the water and back on her eggs. i lifted her wing after i heard a tiny noise and yes - there was a baby-duck.

wild activity followed. we did not really knew if there is anything coming out of the eggs and got some duckling feed, a waterer, and prepared a box. and the next one hatched underneath good mother duck and at the end of the 26. of may we had 6 ducklings.

we decided it will be too difficult to let them be with Queeny. she would have had been totally isolated from runners and chicken so --- we took them into the living-room and i became the mother of 6 newborn babies, how sweet they were and still are. but boy they grow fast.

our 1st day outside:

and the 1st bath:

one ducky today 17 days old:

of course in the last 2 month happened a lot, on the little house more things are getting done, soon the upper cement floor can be poured and the gardens are using a lot of time too. but i just had to put these little friends up and share them with you.

the long and starting all over spring

2010-04-06T06:57:00.000-07:00

the last weeks were filled with easter surprises, a lot of spring flowers and snow, snow, snow again. we were in the total easter fewer with seeding - i have all this little packages with unknown flowers waiting to be discovered. and the tomatoes had to be started. it was sunny- i did actually took the shirt off one day. then we had snow:

kinda pretty and excepted. my b-day in the middle of march without snow - was not too warm, but we went to a beach town with palm-trees covered:

only men are playing boccia and they are all older

but accurate

and we had the 1st ice-cream!!!! very good-, pizza and a walk on the sand. it was total no season. and then you can see how a beach looks like when it is not cleaned: lots of natural material but endless plastic parts:

it will look like this after cleaning:

i am watching the plastiki online : http://www.theplastiki.com/
the facts about the plastic waste are scary...

we had also friends coming to explore our little creek and the kids loved to make new paths

through facebook i got to chat with Nicola, a friend who helped us with translating when we got our 1st bee-supplies. he had the time to come and do our old wall behind the living room stove. a virtuosic professional - working with stones all his life and he did a wonderful job, put 2! little niche in for me - i have to put a little vase with flowers in!!

Dietmar came to an eastervisit and we had a great time - lot's on the computer :-) but we also went to sarnano and watched the good-friday-procession:

the sinner (we were told) have to walk at this procession for their penance. they are covered up - so they are not identifiable, barefoot, the men carrying a cross and were also dragging a little chain. it seems all the citizen were also walking with through the cold town.

spring feelings came back after easter - Jon cut the big oak right through the middle for our future beam, we will have in the little house. soooo straight!

last sunday was cold and colder and it snowed again, all the plants back in the house, seed trays rescuded, but Queeny has no problems - finally she is invisible

it already started

2010-03-04T10:40:00.000-08:00

the view to the mountains from the upper field behind the house

the leaves are coming out! the first is the sweeping willow with unfolding the little greens. the plum-trees have flowers all over (they will be killed with the next frost - for sure there is one waiting). pillows of perfuming violets are on the road-banks, the snow bells are still hanging in there and the narcissus have their high performing time right now. once i had the idea to travel to wherever the spring is. an all year round experiencing this wonderful awakening of the nature after a winter sleep must be amazing. but the good thing with our little place on earth is- the spring last for months! there are actually never no flowers and in february starting the early ones.

these are the once i found on the 23.of february

but there could be frost much longer - the neighbor puts his tomatoes out in the garden in may! the rubarb is making this big red bumps and the greens of white lilys are already 30 cm tall.
i cannot wait to get the seeds going. we were a bit too early last year with the annuals. 50 kilo of seeding soil and 100ds of seed packs are ready to go. i know this sounds wild, but i had the chance to order seeds in usa and our dear friends brought them with when they visited in february. they are so much cheaper and so many more varietals. how can i resest to get a little pack of an orange snapdragon for 2 $, that would be what? 1euro here? no way i could..... 62 different seeds. i will be busy this spring :-) here they all are:

but the february was also full of rain and fog and an avalanche on our road, right in-front of us when we were walking towards the sheep to look at the newborn lambs:

we were aware that there are little pebbles falling and looked up and the whole bunch came down with a big dust cloud. quite impressive! no drive for 2 days - no big deal - except it was on the 14.2.2010 no dinner!

we lost one of our 5 chickens, in the bright day light around 3:00. something killed Blondy and started eating her just 10 meter away from the house. Erminia thinks it was a fox, my thoughts are more to a stray cat hanging around here. but whoever - i have to be there all the time when the birds are outside of their 2 meter fenced place, what we covered up now on the top with a mesh. mostly because the chicken could fly outside. 7 birds left.

but now something just toooo funny i laughed and laughed, i do not know about the baseball bat- but everything else happened to me by my cats, too funny. i really love cats, but they can be soooo annoying:

life is good

2010-01-24T10:01:00.000-08:00

(spinach/ricotta/parmigiana made with our new pasta machine a christmas present for us)

there went the christmas, the visit from Dan, the new year and already at the end of january. time is going fast when you have fun.

we picked up Dan from the roma airport - just 300 km away from us - but a different world. the drive went through countless tunnels; one was even 15 km ! long. the traffic towards the airport was ok, but boy, back was a 2 hour stop and go just on the ring around rome. we decided not to drive into the city ( a must for a tourist - we have not yet visited the 2763 old city) and just head back with Dan in our rented car. (30Euros a day) we stopped somewhere on the road to get some fish. arrived home around 24:00. a 17 hour long day.

the weather could have been nicer for Dan's first visit in Europa. but we had some sun, actually we were sitting outside for his first real italian pizza and cappuccino and could show him some very marchigiana impressions.

this area here was once very heavy populated by the romans and you can find even some amphitheaters and walls/ruins. this are perfect backgrounds for the living nativity scene in the middle of roman rural life. they have goats, sheep, soldiers on horses, craftsmen. a busy community and some of the cute soldiers have naked legs under their skirts (around freezing temperatures!).

the second presepio vivente was even bigger, the whole village must have been turned in roman citizen, it starts at 17:00 and ends 3 hours later. the preparation takes 3 months to built all this - we read that on the poster:

he saw also the hunters with their dogs trying to shoot 'something'...hunters drive fiat panda 4x4, a great car to get around on gravel roads, very small, but it is possible to get 6 hunting dogs in the trunk....

another pure italian custom is the Befana. she is an old witch and the one who brings the presents. but on the 6th of january. around christmas you bring/get presents -mostly something to eat in a decorated basket. we had luffas, dried chillies, some straw-flowers and flat bred with herbs, Jon made them with help of our new pasta machine to give away. i got my present at christmas: a 5kg jar of nutella...... will see how long that will last - it has already a big hole in it.

that means don't drink and fly

we brought Dan back to Rome after a wonderful week with him.

pizza arugula hmmmmm

we learned the absolute best time to drive to the capital is at 2:00 in the morning. the long tunnels all for us alone, no slowing down, no get passed in wild maneuvers zooooooom.

we are ready for spring, the first flowers are coming out of the ground, narcissus have big flowerbuds, the snowbell is ringing the spring melody, and the plumtree makes already (too early silly!) flowers. i know it will all be drowned in snow at one time but so far - life is good.

nikolausi.....

2009-12-04T12:23:00.000-08:00

today is the 4th of december and my brothers b-day. he wanted to visit us with his sun Moritz 2 weeks ago and after 200 km he lost the control of his car and rolled off the road. gottseidank only some minor cuts and bruises. life can change in just a short piece of a second. he is well and happy!

i got back from the mammogram i was so scared of the result and in just 2 seconds: "everything is normal" i felt easy and happy again. i promised myself to not get angry and disappointed any more. i wanna keep this feeling of lightness.
i remembered how i felt when i came back from the confession at the church (before i discovered that sex is a wonderful thing) i felt light, easy, like an angel. nothing bad sitting heavy on my shoulders - life was bright and beautiful. let's keep that.

Molly when she stopped being activ.

we lost another duck: Molly. she was always the slowest one, always behind. her posture was somehow not well balances. and than she fell again and again. she had a short but very good life. her friends were with her all the time. so sweet.

but we got chicken. the neighbor stopped and had a box with 3! chicken in it.

this is Äuglein, she closes 1 eye all the time, but she is the nicest one.

we ordered 2 from her, so i thought we might find a use for the 3rd egg. just a few days later the other neighbor came by and had a box for us: 2 chicken, they gave us these for a regalo and this is so nice - we have 5 now, all very friendly, i can touch them, pick each one up and feed them out of the hand. really nice girls "they are all not laying - so far - but if they do i have to come up with some egg-heavy recipes. 1 know already: "brutto ma buono" means: ugly but good. boy and they are G O O D!! 36 Euro a kilo at the bakery......

glorious

cutting wood in the curve of our road

we are getting ready for the winter, at least our wood-supply is getting ready. Jon cut a lot of dead and bad trees at the end of last winter. but we had to cut them in pieces and get them closer to our stove.

we can easily see why yoga is good for making firewood

our fantastic car went to the woods and got filled with fire-wood. the only problem we will have with the car now: there is no 3rd seat for Dan, who is coming to visit over christmas. so we have to rent a car, that will be fun too, driving together in a clean! car through the towns with their hot wine and markets and christmas scenes.
just had! to put these pictures in - another first timer for me strawberries in december and chickorie flowering on the roadside, that is italia!

friday the 13th of november

2009-11-13T10:38:00.000-08:00

today was our 3rd wedding anniversary. we took the day off. locked the ducks in their house and took hit south toward a sunny, natural beach. we found one after some searching. just some dog-owners and joggers shared the whole beach with us. i like it much more without the sunbather.

the sun was coming back in le marche (still no frost!)and did actually get my island poppies growing - i cut the 2nd one for the vase to have it full enjoyable, this is maybe my favorite flower... :-) ok,ok one of all my favorite flowerS.

the zucca harvest is big and beautiful. Jon's way to prepare is baking them in the oven, i just did the soup with (a lot) cream. since we are kinda off dairy products, this is not really an option. when our neighbor told us about the marchigiana way to make rice with squash, i tried it right away and it was delicious; here with some baked fish and the most wonderful Jon-bread.

when we were in germany last year we got 2 wood-burning stoves, the price was right and enough place in the car. Jon figured he can make the stove more efficient and cleaner to use and because he loves to work with metal, he just redid the airflow inside. that took some major metal cuttings and welding.

may be i can use this for a christmas card.....

we were at some castania festivals. i never liked the heissen maronis /roasted chestnuts. they were always mealy/tasteless. but i tried and was very surprised of the nutty and sweet taste. delicious, hot, char-coaled- yes you get black fingers- and just fun to eat while strolling through that little, smoke filled town with free, new, red wine in the other hand.

the progress on our little old house: we got the cement floor in, quiet a while ago, with help of the neighbors. than we were waiting for our neighbor to come with the backhoe to dig up the place in front of the house for the future patio. Jon want to pore the concrete there as soon as possible. we were waiting ..... Jon just started, dug up more and more HUGE rocks, finally the backhoe came and in 3 hours all the work was done. but do we have now a lot of rocks?! they were all put in to stable the ground - we guess. what a lot of work these people did with their bare hands.

so - this was the summer?

2009-10-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

the midst of october, and we are heating, firewood cut last spring is warming the house. there is not enough with the winter already starting. i was still growing seeds and my luffas need more SUN!WARMTH! to get big. here is a europe wide cold weather front. so there is hope that this will end and some sun comes back.
october also brings back the hunter (sadly - also the bird-shooter) and the dogs barking through the forests. we had a huge tomato harvest - all frozen in the new BIG freezer and many peppers. so these vitamins are taken care off. i have a lot of very diverse jams in the cupboard: elderberry with vino cotto; plum with cinnamon; wine with christmas-spices.....
my projects in the big house are slow accomplishing, some very slow... in how many obstacles can you run in to get the doorknobs on the newly painted doors?
*the old ones were not usable - all different sizes
*the new knobs have a square steel rod, too big to get through the hardware in the door
*i needed resizer (yes - available in old hardware-stores, just have to find them) for the old steel-rod to fit the new doorknobs
*i needed a 2-piece replacement - length between rod and key whole is different on each door
*the round cover of the 2-piece are wider and the door (actually 1) cannot be closed
*the hardware in that door has to be moved further into the door ...
this is where i am right now, i started that project in spring, will see when i have it all done.

when my brother announced he would like to come for a visit, i took finally the time to check our abandoned storage/guest room and was very surprised about the pets accumulated between the window and the outside shutter. i would love to have a school class seeing this, it is also to me fascinating:

at the beginning it was a relatively small nest, but i guess this here is a perfect nest situation - they are multiplying and the nest is now tremendous. there was the thought about killing them, but they do not really do harm - so far - and in germany they are protected by law. so i thought why not watch a hornet life cycle. i read a lot about them, but nobody told, that they use the open underneath as a bathroom and they pee/poop a lot! so i have a cat-sandbox underneath and have to change it too.

we were finally at the beach, researched this one online - found it and we were thrilled: very calm just some last sunbather, warm sun and water - we were both in it, Jon even with his snorkel. 1,5 hours away from us!

another place we explored when Dietmar was here, was the devils gorge and a famous hermit living above it. the place was all ours no-one on this 2 hour hike, the trail went through the rough cut between the mountains, the peaks sticking in the clouds, through this most beautiful beech-forest with a carpet of cyclamen on the ground.

but the most remarkable place is where Padre Pedro is working on his life fullfilling project: he is building a church, by hand, one stone after the other cut, shaped and placed. pure meditation. he calls himself God's contractor.

he is one of the most happiest person i have seen. Jon said he will see the work on our place different after watching him, living by himself in the mountains, built his vegetable gardens in the steep sites with natural stone walls (piled all by himself) to hold the soil. he started this project 1971! he is far in his 80's and still going every possible minute.

vino cotto: cooked wine. a marchigianic specialty. we were witnessing and even helping in the process. after the grape harvest, the juice, just dripping out of crashed grapes comes in this copper pot and get heated up with an oak wood fire. through reducing the amount and keeping it from over-boiling - constant watching and pouring new cold juice on top, it will after 6-8 hours be concentrated enough. it comes in a barrel and ripens to a sweet and strong cherry like wine.

our Princess is gone

2009-08-30T09:23:00.000-07:00

the last input in this blog was about our 2 white ducks. this one is about the duck we lost. the little one: Princess is lost to nature. i wanted her to be happy and her favorite thing was to wander around and find fresh grasshoppers and flies. she did go the wooded trail toward the river (where she was not suppose to go) and something got her. Jon did find her and buried her. i know it would have been a perfect roasted duck, but that is one reason why i am a vegetarian.
she was the closest to me of all the ducks. she let me pick her up and ate out of my hand. she was very relaxed and not afraid about anything, that's why she is gone, i guess.
the new duck situation is now: they are fenced in around their little house and if i let them out i am around them. the other white duck was lonely and got upset with the other once. so i made an extra cage for her to be at night.

their newest home improvement is a duck swimming pool, (just another old thing what found a good use: an old bathtub). i dug a hole got the tub in, put natural flagstone around and an old board to get in and out.

i got myself in place to see/take pics how they will be in a pool the 1. time in their lives. there are still no pictures. and the tub is in the ground since 10 days. what's wrong? they do not go in the water, at least not by themselves. the runners think probably i wanna drown them when i finally got one of them in the fresh water, totally scared. the queeny got

a special treatment. every morning i picked her up, brought her to the tub and hold her like a child when you teach it to swim. she is patience with me, but as soon i let her really go she splashes her wings 10 times and out! ...

but Molley is sitting on 2 eggs. we candled them... and it looks there is something growing. another 10 days and we might have 2 tiny little duckies. i will make sure that they are not afraid about me - thought i will take them in a box and be the duck-mommy, will see.

the next post will be about our new/old house renovation.

tomatoes-pomodori-tomaten, squash-zucca-kürbis

2009-07-23T05:31:00.000-07:00

all our working and preparing is rewarded: the tomatoes are ripe and in abundance. Jon tried several kind and we are testing them everyday. tomatoes on bread, in soup and sauce, fried and boiled and many already in the freezer. we could not find any ziploc-bags. and got some ordered in germany - actually 3000, they come in 1000, and we had to order for 100 euro and than we thought some smaller ones would be nice too. seems we might have enough for this life for freezing tomatoes.

than there was the time of plums. our direct neighbor came and got as much they could use off the trees and we could have the rest of them - that was a LOT. these took the last ziplocs we had left from usa. and i made several plum cake or original name: zwetschgendatschi. seems a perfect recipe, everybody liked it.

it is also the time of harvesting the grain and we saw how they do it on this steep land. knowing how the harvest looks alike in iowa - this is really a different way of working. the complete machine levels out to the ground in every direction, and this is very steep terrain.

our first squashes are getting ready and that means we have to get them before they turn in baseball bats, (zucchini) somehow they like to be that way and hide, until they are huge.

we are now over a year in italy and lived through all the different seasons and states of nature. but it is so different than last july when we arrived. the soil is still moist and Jon even thinks to till one more time. our Alfredo said it was extremely rainy this winter, spring, the grain suffered a lot through the humidity. the birds like it, a couple started a new nest just 3 days ago, so they think they will have enough food for their babies. hope that comes true.
we found some little eggs under stones in the soil and put them in bucket to see what is coming out and we saw the birth of a tiny little lizard. they are soooo cute. no picture so far...here it is:

this is a later editing: i forgot completely to talk about the 2 white ducks. when we showed our runner ducks (in italian: "pinguini") to our dear farmer neighbors, they were astonished about them and that they will not fly away. ( they do not fly away, but for sure they walk away, especially if it rained. than they can find water and do not have to come home to get a drink. several times i saw just the tiny head of our male duck "Udo" lurking far away, out of the tall grass, close to the woods and the potential preditors. long talk--- Vera said she has a present for us - 2 ducks - i said i do not really want any more ducks, i was already very busy with my shy little friends. but she said, she is tired of pulling the duck-feathers, chicken feathers are so much easier. i looked in their little box, and in their friendly little faces with their interested blue eyes and just had to save them from the frying pan. these 2 ducks are the opposite of the runners: relaxed, interested in what this humans do (Tolle says ducks ---he might not know about my 3 pinguinies--- and cats - are the perfect zen-masters) they do not freak out when we have to grab them. i think they actually like it - not that they purr :-) - but they wanna be around us. and because their favorite place is on 2 rocks with a great overlook of the(ir) territory, i called them the queen and the princess.

our duckies are still very good egg layer, average 3 eggs a day. the white ones ( Princess - the sweetest and Queen) laying bigger and whiter ones than Nancy and Molly. but our Udo (drake) is a real pain to the white ducks, he always chaises them around and with their short feet, he always gets them and pokes the little girls. the funny thing is their reaction after his attack. they are really upset, stretch their necks and it looks like they are shouting, but no noises are coming out of their wide open peaks. they call this ducks here: mute.

the other animals we are working with, are the dogs at the neighbors vacation rental. mostly they are very nice dogs (and owners). some are too lively (dogs) to have them with lots of people and crowds. so this is the perfect situation for them. off the beaten path and lots of space and freedom. in most bigger cities in deutschland there is a leech-law and have big dogs just run and play is not that common any more. we like our house keeper job. we come in contact with people we never would otherwise. so many different ways of seeing/dealing with the same given environment. very interesting for us and our learning about love and acceptance. we could not ask for a better situation. we are very happy with our life in italia and this wonderful friends we meet here.

the summer is here

2009-05-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

this was a month of planting, seeding, transplanting, soil preparation and the BIG part: the water system for the veggie-field. we got the whole place surrounded by an electric fence - for/against wild boar and porcupine. Jon just worked and worked. he even got an old bale of hay pushed in our brave car and mulched around the plants. my job is more the beautifying of the place - outside - the inside is getting sloppier, more every day of sunshine. we were soo hungry for this italian spring days, when just everything in this little world feels right/light. i got all the seedlings who decided to give it a try, in the ground and if this silly white ducks stop eating them, we will have a lot of little poppy heads winking in the sun.
we harvested our fava beans, had a wonderful meal with them al fresco and ate the peas fresh out of the shell. they were already wilting, we had temperatures in the 90F/30C. the greens in front of the house are doing very well: arugula and head-salad, spinach, garlic and cress and yesterday we had a sorrel/sauerampfer soup/suppe with potatoes. i never thought i will ever cook so much:-)
the first guests at the neighbor house came and left after 10 gorgeous days back to cold and rainy hamburg. very nice people, i was happy to be their housekeeper and the dogs were as nice too. we had them over when i made "hollerkücherl", baked elderberry flowers and we had a lot of fun.
but the very best day with this fantastic weather was in the mountains. we could not beleave that we are here since last july and made it the first time in the sibillians, it is just 40 minutes away. this was just breathtaking beautiful:orchids mixed with daffodils and flowers i do not know, perfectly colored blossom sprinkled meadows to the horizont and now this: WE WERE ALL BY OUR SELF! how is this possible? in usa would be thousands of people, huge parking lots with over sized vehicles/drivers, a stand with soda machines and signs with cautions. this is how the world looked like and still does in this corner, we are so happy we found this.

new family, nuova familia, neue familie

2009-04-20T00:25:00.000-07:00

seit 4 wochen haben wir 3 laufenten. lange, lange haben wir gesucht. and found the ducks at a farm fair close to perugia. 1 male and 2 girls. they were sooooo frightened when we got them. all stiff and straight up like a stick. the italians call them pinguini. but our neighbors have not really seen any of this strange looking creatures. the duckies know now their place and explore every day new territory around the house. we had to get a fence to keep them from going on the road, what would not be a problem, until a dog comes by......
i expected to get some easter-eggs from them. and the ratings for their egg-production is (depending who you ask) from 30 to 300 eggs a year. we want the eggs and their immense hunger for snails and bugs. i got worried about our fresh eggs, but today it happened: in the morning when i let them out i found 2 eggs laying in the straw, no real nest, just laying there. another first time for me: picking up fresh laid eggs from my own happy little feathered friends. how wonderful.
but the B I G family we got last weekend. they say 5000, who knows, no way to count them, they go normally by weight.....
we drove to st maddalena and got our 1. familia di api. in a travel box and we will move them (unbelievable - after it stops RAINING) to their new orange painted box. Jon had a hard time to explain the way he wanted to keep the bees, a more logic and easier way for the bees and for us. but the italians have just one system and stick with that.

there is one more winged friend we have. a little blue-headed-chickadee. i saw him the first time flying in front of the living-room window and thought he is looking for little flies. but no, he is just coming back and again, again and pick on the window. i realized he is picking at that proud male in the reflection. that was too cute. but we do have a really nice place for a little bird to see himself/the other guy: 2 mirrors on the car!
good we love birds more than cars. he is also using it for a bathroom ....

magnitude 6.3

2009-04-06T05:26:00.000-07:00

um genau 3:32:42 italienische zeit habe ich noch ein erstes mal erlebt: erdbeben in italien.
at exactly 3:32:42 italian time i had another first time: earthquake in italy.
i did feel the earth shaking before: on hawaii where we got married, comically i sat on the stool when this huge noise rumbled in that little shed we rented for our honeymoon. i thought a stupid pickup could not make the curve and hit for our little place. no - earthquake! but this was all, when i got my pants on and run to the door all was over.
but last night the bed was rattling and rattling, i figured this was not still my dream, this is real, i screamed "earthquake!" to my Jon, deep in sleep, the rattle continued, a bid glass scattering noise made it even more real, i run, down the stairs, out of the door ...... the shepard dogs were barking excited. that's all - no Jon following me. did i overreact, be too worried? a bit i guess, but there were 2 more shaking's and i was out of the bed, and my sanity gone.

the cracks in the house opened up again and paint/mortar/dust everywhere. pictures tipped and a stack of bricks outside felled over. the most damage is to my secure feelings, i suppose. the last one this strength happened 1997. there are many losses, i am scared to look in the news......

1 year ago

2009-03-21T11:24:00.000-07:00

it is 1 year ago that we came to sign the contract and we managed to come so i can be in our new house for my birthday. so this was my 2nd time to celebrate. i remembered when we were here march 2008, i was so sad that i had to leave for the usa and had this H U G E burden in front of us: finishing the house in iowa, selling it, get our stuff sold and than pack the container, boy i am glad i do not have to do that again. i am kinda saddled in, adjusted to the unfinished cracked walls, chipping paint, dust where ever you look on the cracked floor tiles.
but there are much more important things: digging in the soil, watching the first bugs crawling in the sun, rescuing little snakes - disturbed in the field, planting 1000's of seeds and look at them twice a day. learning from the internet how to do the bees the best way - for them - so they can be happy. finding crop what is good for the soil and has flowers for the bees. there is so much to learn. and of course learning about ourself and find better ways to communicate and to be happy with ourselves. we are meditating much more and i am getting more relaxed with it. it feels so good sitting together in stillness and be aware about the moment and nothing else.

so here are 2 pictures with exact 1 year in between. both times with little green vegetation appearing; less trees on the newer/right one.
Jon's firewood is now at a different place, instead of the fire wood on the left one, there is a bed with fava-beans coming up. but both have SNOW on it!!! it is official spring: 21. of march, in italia! i did believe people that that was an unusual snow last year, but again, at the same day! i am still learning to accept the unchangeable, weather for sure is one of them.
the most important things the last 4 weeks were the greenhouse and the plowing. and seeding. the greenhouse is big enough for all the seeds i ever collected and thought i should at some point plant them. i did. and Jon got more tomatoes planted we will ever get eaten. but it is so much fun. at that time the sun was out, the greenhouse warmed up to 29 c degrees and the vents were still in the making. i had to take my woolen sweaters, pants, socks off and still too warm: my 1st day in bikini!!! how wonderful, another dream fulfilled.

and we did plant our potatoes, the soil was toooo wet, the last snow melted (view from the kitchen-window towards the field) but more rain in the forecast. that made us getting them in.
the sheep were watching us, they are now next door on the field and grazing happily the juice herba. Luigi had to get a mother sheep and the lamb out of the flog and i had the chance to hold that soft furred little thing: HOW DARLING! it just becomes totally calm and everything relaxed and lays the head on my arm. i do know now it did not fall in love with me, it just did what lambs do when they are caught. now i do understand the religious term: lamb of god or: completely give in.
finally we do have our 3 new little friends: coming soon, with pictures....

easter is coming and my summer job starts.

S P R I N G - P R I M A V E R A

2009-02-28T10:55:00.000-08:00

it is the last day of february and - we heard it from some italian bee-keeper - the last day of inverno/winter. it was a gorgeous day today, just right to make a 1-hour trip further into the mountains to meet Alvaro from the Cooperativa Monte Azzurri. we learned that the bee-hives are quite different than Jon knows them. but nevertheless we ordered 2 "familia" and the hives, all with the help of the cousin who was happy to help us out with his english knowledge.

- i know we are too lazy with our italian lessons -.

so, in 1 month we will have our own bees. here in le marche is also the bee deaths syndrome, we just hope our environment is healthy enough for this busy workers.
we drove like always the road passing "san angelo in pontano" and there is the most beautiful view down towards our valley. the mountains are still white sugared and the fields are turning quietsch-green. our house is always easy to find, because of our glowing white gas tank, tiny in the picture. (click on the picture and it will enlarge) but visible. look down at 2/5th from the right upper edge. where this little flat, dark caped mountan is. look down from there for almost the half of the picture, there is our house.

i started to find evidence for spring and there are little flowers poking through to the sun, the chickadees sing their special spring songs and we saw many old guys in the trees pruning the heck out of the branches. (they do have a strange way of pruning/butchering) they cut off almost everything growing and leave 20cm stalks, also cut, they do this with street trees, fruit and whatever. i will check what happens to this amputated branches. i still go with my learned german pruning. will see. the trees we pruned so far were soooo overgrown that we will not have much of anything the first 2 years.
we had a nice walk yesterday down to the creek, with the help of a tree trunk to the other side and than through the wilderness, on trails more for the wild boars than people. but we got up on the other side of the valley (the house is in the upper/middle of the picture) and found our waterline!
or the one that was in use? or will be? coming from gualdo and there is also path - Basilio drove it regularly with his motor scooter - from our house down to the creek and up the hill. there are 300 meter difference in elevation to climb up. a total mystery how he did that. but he was telling he was the only one that time who had such a wonderful motorized vehicle and helped the neighbors with getting stuff from town.

PAZIENZA!

2009-02-06T09:48:00.000-08:00

nach, es scheint mir, fast monaten, hatten wir 2 tage keinen regen. 2 days of sun, or better - NO rain - made Jon very nervous, especially the delivery of the "trinciaerba e sarmenti" "Gras + Rankenschneidemaschine" the delivery guy told him not to use it before 3 full days of sun..... but 6 hours with warm radiant sun on the soil and Jon got on the tractor and in the field north of the house. this land will be our veggie garden, the potatoes are already bought, the asparagus is waiting in the dark and huge bundles of onions are ready to get planted. but .... the soil has to be turned over to get the weeds down under, for that it has to be plowed. and this kinda soil is right now perfect to make roof-tiles off, or probably nice shaped vases or huge clumps when you go through with a plow. pazienza, geduld, patience. it must be similar to the soil in iowa, the wrong time in the field and you make rocks. Karen Strohbeen said once: work in the soil when you see the farmers do. may be that is the right advice.
now you look at the tractor picture and ask yourself, this machine is red, not green, what happened? we gave it back, the wonderful roll over thing would not go through the garage door and the tracks of the red one are 8 cm smaller - helps to keep the posts on the garage too. i was hoping this one would cost us less. but the price we got on it before, was without the IVA, the other one was included. that is how you confuse and frustrate customers. and than there is the thing with the 2 different payments, someone has to explane that to me.......
there is another story with the IVA, we thought our membership at the "coltivatori diretti" make us able to have this busyness-tax-number, but pazienza! another copy of the same paper might do it in another 2 weeks.
we just got our wonderful health-insurance card withdrawn, because we still do not have the IVA.
PAZIENZA!

we got the tractor

2009-01-23T11:41:00.000-08:00

today is/was a very special day. the tractor arrived! how long were we looking for the right one, took us a while,actually Jon started looking in march last year, many tractors got rejected- even for very good prices - but this one has a joystick! i have not tried it - yet, but that was one of the main reasons we choose this one. the 2 tracks can be moved with !1! handle. all the other crawlers need 2 hands (right/left side) and a third hand for the clutch. our neighbor has a very strong arm, because he pulls the 2 handles at once while he moves this clutch-stick with the left hand. i hope i will get used to all this. after all this is another life-time-dream -- to drive a tractor up and down the fields.

we started the day with a long quiet walk off our strada bianca and found some hidden waterfalls and gorgeous views to the mountains. as soon we were home and Jon started the sourdough, the wonderful couple from the close-to-us-house came to prune a big maulberry tree. before we realized it, the 75 year old Giovanni was up in the tree with a chainsaw and cut the leg-thick branches off. the rubber boots he wore he kicked off for better traction in the tree. and Erminia was pulling this heavy branches aside, with getting hit here and there. Jon could not get fast enough in his overall and shoes to help them.
Luigi our helpful neighbor from the other end of the road came over with his tractor to give us a hand/scooper to help move a stack of wood at the bottom of the trail. that was a big thing to get taken care off. right after that our new/old trattori arrived and we got a picture taken.
after a very fast cooked italian pasta dish, enjoyed together with our adopted italian parents, we got the branches sorted and cut in pizza-oven sized pieces, Jon got somehow the bread raised and baked and it tastes fantastic. a long wonderful day.

A Very Happy 2009! to everybody!und jeden

2009-01-13T09:31:00.000-08:00

just 1 year ago - we had no idea how and actually where we will celebrate christmas and the beginning of the new year.

we got snow on the christmas day, (so pretty on the kakitree), a lot, or better, too much for our little car to drive around much, so our invitations to real italian celebrations were a bit cut short. but we had a wonderful dinner time at our new german friends in penna san giovanni on christmas evening, including singing at the beautiful and all natural decorated tree (everything out of their garden) and on Jon's b-day we were at our dear neighbors and made some original iowan *popcorn*. the most difficult part was to get the transformer hooked up. at the change of the years we could have gone to the exciting party on the streets in sarnano, but we were to lazy and just had a great time at our friends with grilled fish in the open fireplace and boardgames and italia-tv (showing a huge entertaining party with pouring rain in rimini, just north of le marche). and we wre so glad sitting in front of the hige fire and slurping homemade wine and nibbeling all the good foods away.
and at the day of the 3 kings we were at a live christmas scene in falerone, just 20 minutes drive from here. the village has some very big and well kept roman structures and the whole village is dressed as romans and visitors can follow the 2 km long parcours and watch them doing their daily work as blacksmith, carpenters, shepherds....and than the last shed, in a roman wall, at the end of the trail, a stall with the most beautiful cow and the calmest donkey i have ever seen. Maria even had a real baby on her arm. all the romans gathered around there and celebrated the day.........

i have to say it is a bit disturbend when you see an old guy in the shed where the pottery is done picking up his cellphone and gives instructions of whateverkind. on the other hand it did look just like 2000 years ago (you have to make sure you focus on the right spots). a "time machine" -we just celebrated in icy iowa and now we are back in time.....
i researched on the this cattle breed marchigiana and figured out that this is a speacial breed from le marche. it comes from the chianinas and that porcelan white breed is in this part of italy since 3000 years, helping the farmers..

we started to plan for spring, we are shopping for a greenhouse and seeds for the warmer season to get started. i found some little spring flowers right next to the house in the woods. and the very next is the so longed for TRACTOR - soon.

have the most wonderful year to come - now!

the Count and a Castle

2008-12-22T13:35:00.000-08:00

that is quiet a headline, but we did meet a real italian CONTE, he has not a castel, but the most wonderful expressive gesture i have seen so far here in italy. the way these italians talk with their hands, arms, yes feet too, makes my understanding much easier. the Count is not only a gifted stonemason, a fast rider on his 1/2 arabian horse (and car!!! too scared to drive with him, just watching..) he is also a ballerina and danced in the pizzeria boogie-woogie for me.
Jon and the Conte made a deal between guys, he shoes his horse and Mario helps with our fireplace. that's how i like it , as little money involved the better it is.

and than we had a castle day, we went in the morning to visit this old stone building and discovered that our dear friend Renzo is not only involved in the excavation of this forgotten place, he also owns it. not that you can live there, but the castle is beautiful located with a view almost to the sea, surrounded with oak trees and lots of history! just another valley away from us (this is where we live - still a miracle to me).
in the afternoon professors from rome were talking in an old church about the progress and the findings in and about this old walls, built in the 11th-12th century. not that we understood anything,- no really hand talk involved in that kind of speak. but afterward i understood much better:
antipasti with olives, prociutto, salami,
fresh made rigatoni filled with ricotta and shaved tartuffo,
tagliolini with tomato gusto,
5 different meats (i passed - even it looked really good) with the best fried potatoes ever.
green salat and a kinda fruitcake.
espresso, house-wine, of course an anis-schnaps at the end, bread, aqua minerale 20euro each. salute!

oliva

2008-11-24T09:28:00.000-08:00

aus mit sonne, es war ein herrlicher herbst, die schoensten farben und die luft so mellow. but that is history. we had the first NEVE / snow / schnee. the temperatur is around the freezing point and we are cold..... we were in deutschland for 5 days and got the car loaded up to the limit with 2 wood burning stoves/kaminofen/stufa di legno , shelves, a lot of german food and (i know it is crazy) at least 20 plants. some of my favorites of all time: small bamboo, wisteria, dutchman's pipe, climbing hydrangea!!! and fruit plants all on total sale 1 euro a piece. we could just not let that go. some organic fertilizer and a lot of seeds/bulbs. there is some time involved to get all this guys taken care off. we just need some sun to get me motivated..
it is already 1 month gone since my last input here.
there was the festa della mele rosa. an old apple from le marche what gets through "slow food" and the people here a promotion and of course roasted castania with free fresh wine - a feast -

and than Jon got his first italian machine : a tiller! and we could even till a spot at the neighbors and plant fava beans; in the first week of NOVEMBER, that is tradition here so we went with that.
i have to tell about our new friend Renzo from sarnano. we had some very nice meals with him (he is a local - even he spend a long time in canada and so we can easy talk with him) and he introduced us to some very nice people. - time is just flying when we visit with him. we had a meal with - was ist 8? courses of of bacalau/codfish in our neighbor village with a english/srilanca couple and a guy from new york and a local architect. we had a wonderful time eating through all this food.

we got our first 2 olive trees for our 2-year anniverseri. 2 kinds of eating olives with big fruits, might take a while before we can let others have some of these... but we got some experience with harvesting olives, it seems it is the best way to tenderly koam through the thin branches - just like my mother did to me as a child with my long hair - hold with 1 hand tight and pull through with the other. works very good. the olives just roll down on the net in a big pile and later they will get squeezed and turn in wonderful olive oil. we got 20 liter of the most greenest oil i have ever seen, with the help from our closest neighbor right out of the mill where he worked 30 years . in the past the marchen olive oil -is said- is the best from italy.

unser 1. herbst

2008-10-23T06:51:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-10T09:39:00.000-07:00

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.

tooooo much stuff

2008-09-06T06:45:00.000-07:00

the container arrived.

i did not know why i was so excited and full of erwartungen, i knew what was in the container, i knew the way we packed everything, you too if you followed this, and still it was like christmas. - this feeling is completely replaced with a huge amount of stuff, everywhere, and no place to put it.

shortly the arrival: the container came to gualdo, we had to lead it down to the beginning of the road (even with the most detailed maps). 4 friendly neighbors were waiting with 2 tractors, 2 trailers and a forca. after 10 hours -yes 10- we were done for that day. the container was unloaded after 5 hours and they had to stop unloading the trailer at the house and feed the life stock. very similar to the situation in iowa.
except NO RAIN!!!!! and the best NO MOLD!!!! everything was bone dry, every living substance cooked and pulverized. so that is a good thing having a container sitting in the full summer blast of south italia for several weeks.

the more difficult part is that i forgot that we had sooooo much stuff. and no outlet like goodwill, garage sales, not even a fleamarket or a church benefit place. we are glad we found - finally- a kinda dump place to get rid of the stuff in the house. you would think that could be a thing we could start: a place where you can bring and find things.

we just heard today we can easily get the farmer status, that would be great, lower taxes, cheap health insurance and the possibility to sell whatever we produce on our land.
that is another thing we are slowly realizing : this soil here. they farm this land now for several thousant years, my guess, and get crop out of it, but it is very different from anything i have seen. they plow it after the harvest (hay, sunflower, wheat) so deep that you cannot even walk over it. the soil becomes hard as stones or bricks. no black top soil nor compost, just packed clay. Jon was cutting the lumps with a heavy duty spate to little chunks and got some tomatoes, leeks and lettuce going. but that took him a while.

just the day of the arrival the water pressure went down to nothing, now imagine: the tractors driving for and back the 2.8 km on the dusty road and the the dust stirred up and laying on everything, sweat and exhaustion and no shower? we survived that too. sponge bath......

the water company came the next day and started to dug up the backyard - i am so glad i did not landscape anything there, we have it now newly shaped. they had to dig up more places and many more days and the neigbor further up the road had his basement flooded and the next one 500 lieter brown water in the storage tank. by the way, today i saw a little creek coming out of the road. new water hose break,- seams to be the neverending story.

we are seeing this so helpful neighbors (we are really blessed to find the same kind of people in our new neigbhorhood, just like we had in woodward) now all the time. at contro parties we come together and chat with our 5 words italian about everything. the italians are very good to explain with their hands and we have a great time. when we invited them, we had to have a pizza party. Jon tested the old pizza oven and was happy with it, after almost all the preparations done and awaiting our new friends, Jon came from behind the oven and said the roof cached fire. i was running for the water hose and all what came out was a tiny pencil thin dripping on my shoes. now that is scary, ok this are not wood houses like in the states, but everything is hold up by wood. Alfredo arrived shortly after and said: no problem, nothing serious in hand/face language and we had our pizzas and wine and chats. the next morning we saw there are still some beams smoking. we took all the tiles down and took care the last pieces of charcoal.

but Jon has his brushcutter and his bmw, what turned on right away and he let it taste the italian gravel road dust, just to the house.....and now the air at the cellar,- heavy with wine and mortar

life is exciting at the end of the strada bianca.

1 month

2008-08-15T04:50:00.000-07:00

we are here now for 1 month. time goes very fast when you enjoy it. the place here did not change dramaticly, but we are moving old stuff and dust out the house everyday and there is still a lot left. but the most time we spend was so far : cleaning the garden up and getting the papers going so we can get our container through costums. that is the main thing we have to work on. several visits to the comune in gualdo and 4 days in a row to macerata ( 41km single way). so far we got my residence here accomplished. Jon tried to get his done with no real success. he got all the papers together, but he cannot get an appointment for the fingerprints. there are oodles of people at the immigration with small kids in a room with no air movement (windows were looked). they all spoke more italian than we do, but no english. so we stand in a line just to hear somehow that we have to come next day. we did and after standing in line a policeman came and screamed something, what translated meant : today closed - no sign - nothing. i guess this is the ferragosto holiday. when everything is closed and all the people are somewhere else.
we needed a translation of the health insurance papers (we luckily did the last minute online in germany) and just that did cost us 2 drives to macerata 40euro and extra 4 bollos a 14.62 euros and - 1 policeman who speaks english (wife from NY) and 2 nice ladies willing to help us fasts and unbureaucratic. it took that lady 1/2 hour just to get all the stamps and signs on the photocopies.

but we have it!!!!!

now the moving company: they try to get out of our "door to door" contract and want us to figure out how to unload our stuff from that huge container and reload on a smaller truck what can make the curves to our house. this has to be solved next week. the container is postponed to arrival in livorno on the 16. of august--- did i say everybody is on vacation this week????

now to the smaller thing in our lives: i am thinking when ever i get across of one of these how some of my friends would react to these guys: scorpions - the only thing i have problems with where 2 i found in the bathroom: this one in the tub (easy to take a pic) but the other one was hanging over the toilet. and all the other once are not visible on that floor - - they say always wear shoes in the house.....

and than there was a visitor in the middle of the night, i woke up from this strange noise - too sleepy to realize that fluttering noise, than i saw the fast dark shadow - a bat flew in the bedroom and took care of the moscitos, what an excitement, we see them now every night and watch for them, flying over our heads into the kitchen door and out the window, that is really nice!

than of course were all the trips to the stores and figuring out what how works for what money. we have now a new fridge see picture) and a washer and stove. the stove was quiet a difficult buy. we figured with the 3000 watt power coming in the house , we should not have an electric oven using 2500 watt- that might get us some blown fuse head age. so we decided on an all gas stove, - did you know there is no real temperature control, means no thermometer? how in the world can i make my banana bread right- i have already scraped twice the bananabreadcoal off. Jon did adjust the flame size, i hope i can now bake without burning everything.
he is doing much better with his bread baking, even with no control over anything (no scale so far) and different flour types, temperatures, he bakes many times and we are eating wonderful bread every day.

we are meeting more and more interesting people, yesterday we were in sarnano to the market and got some very good information from Melcom's friends how to enroll here in the health insurance and some phone numbers from people who might be helpful with our container. tomorrow we are invited to other expats from the US who just came over, and have some interesting things to tell. and we have been at the local pizza on the piazza festival and talked to the locals at our table - so many friendly italian's around us. and we see our friend the policeman from gualdo all the time - he is our biggest help here with informations and translating for our papers.
more about this soon, i hope....

Geschafft - we made it.....

2008-07-28T04:28:00.000-07:00

what a long time is past since my last writing in here, with the most exciting and also frightening experiences. the move: the truck came 4 hours too late and the strong young helpers were already at a game and we relied on our wonderful neighbors Dave, Steve, and Al and the new owner of our little house: Tim, and they worked so hard up to the bitter end 11pm ...... i do not know how to thank them enough...

i make it short: the truck arrived, we got the first pallets with Dave's help and his loader in the truck; everything was out on the lawn, waiting to get in the big box; it started raining - i fed the strong helper with some pizza, we were glad for the break, the hot humidity was sooo high, sweat !!!!; it did not stop raining, the guys went back loading, it was poring down, cats and dogs raining on us, lightning, thunder right on top of us, it started hailing - 1 euro coin size. and it did not end, the system was just stuck over woodward, it did not move away, just circled around - for the whole time packing; everything got soaked, the plastic tarps filled up with 4 inch of rain- oder 120 liter auf 1 qm - . the truck driver told us that he had the worst move ever - 30 years ago - he adjusted that statement after our container was full. full yes, but not everything in it. the postes made it in the truck but not the shelves. a lot of them.......and, and

but this is history!!!!

we are now in gualdo, we have an internet connection- since yesterday- a good fast one, Jon found a way to connect the receiver on a piece of scaffolding, and the little box looks now over the trees towards the tower of our little hometown, where the antenna is installed. with some luck we will even have a phone through this :-).

we stayed with family before we arrived here on the 17th of july. first a trip to Jon's dad in minnesota, what a nice dad i married into! than a too short visit with LauraJean, Jon's older sister- she just have to come visit here so we have more time for each other. the last night in usa we stayed at Jeff's house, our friend who lives also in europa(england). there must be something in common to this people moving away from usa.....
the flight and arriving in frankfurt and a smiling brother picks us up from the airport. our bags to the gram filled to the limit barely fit in the car and we made it to his home. this is now our mutual home we are registered in markt erlbach as residents and after some search we found a little cargo car- 2 seats and a big space for our future business in italy- whatever that might be - . after settling the purchase i recognized the black dirt all over inside the car. there is also a label on the engine hood - we do know now what is means: it is the official sign for a chimney cleaner- we bought the work-car of the luck symbol schornsteinfeger!!!! now if that is not a good omen.

Che Emozione!

2008-06-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

what an exciting time--- we are in the mids of packing, selling, wrapping, sorting, e-baying, garage-selling and the days have not enough hours. we have a ticket to europe, actually to frankfurt, so we can buy a car with my german insurance and points... will see how that will be solved.
i will get some pictures for this event here soon, just another box....
ok here is the pick-up that got sold in 4 hours. i can only say "craigslist", very good for cars, boats and $20 washing machines, but not for real art and high end music equipment. but we are almost without a vehicle. my little loved blue honda is going to a nice young man who wears his cap backsidefront and who let us have it for 1 more week.- after the BIG MOVE of the stuff into the 40 feet container and sending it on the way to the ship -- we will than get a rental car and drive up to minnesota visiting Jon's dad and sister. than for sure we need some relaxing time. just look at this turtle that layed her eggs right on the edge of our gravel-road, she was very concentrated with her duty and did not get upset with us watching her, that is the state of mind i would like to reach.

but ... we still try to get up at sunrise and stop working at sunset, or as long as we can see something... eating a bit and fall in bed. and that is what i do now.

S O L D ! !

2008-06-04T10:48:00.000-07:00

how wonderful,- we found the right people for our sweet little house. a young couple who were searching for a place with enough ground to grow their organic veggies and been sheltered by big trees, close to woods and nature. they just got married and wanna start their live together connected with the environment. i am so glad my loved big trees are not a nuisance to the new owner and have to be cut down, like the one huge maple i nursed at my 1st place in usa. the buyer cut it down and moved away after 2 years. now we will have even more big trees in italy. and i am in the total packing war. boxes, labels, bubble-wrap everywhere and still no end in sight. i am soooo slow. but it looks like we will leave this place at the end of june. travel through the country say goodbye to all and huiiiiiiiii....

but before that- i still have to get rid of some loved pieces: i do not want to wrap that pretty devil again to take it with me. i have him now for 20 years or more and he got me through all the angel photography and all the too holy times. but i can separate now from him and he got really appreciated in price he sells now for $2000. of course i will sell him for much less....

close relationship

2008-05-17T13:41:00.000-07:00

we had wonderful painting weather, the house is completely painted, new edges and window frames - now all white and it makes the house so much prettier. we just need now the right buyer, someone just like us... somebody asked if it would suitable for 2 kids. i guess that is a question of time. the family who lived here before the old lady who sold the house to us had 13 children. i guess it was ok for them, they all turned out decent people. so who knows what is suitable for people. an interesting article in the nytimes talked about a couple who vowed never be more than 15 feet apart- that is mmh - i have to check...4.57 meter... that is a close relationship.. i love to be close to my partner, but right now he is gone putting the "for sale signs" up. 3.4 miles away. i miss him.

so if anyone wanna come and have ice-tea; open-house 1-4 sat and sun.

see you then.

house for sale!

2008-05-09T19:34:00.000-07:00

die zeit rast, where does the time go. we are sooooo busy with finishing this house in iowa. tomorrow we will get the sign out: "for sale by owner".

seems i got the slides show up!
we were just painting painting... in the morning checking if the temperature is over 10 C and if the rain does not come for at least 4 more hours. rain does wash paint off. in the morning after a night rain the brown covered green gutters appeared again.
more later....

Eckhart Tolle !!!!!

2008-04-17T18:46:00.000-07:00

awakening to your life's purpose...

this is our new way of thinking, learning, understanding. we got the books and are reading this so wise, easy instructions. we did not know when we started this, that the whole world is already doing the same: OPRAH has Eckhart on a special show every monday and is talking about his book: a new earth. i am not a tv watcher, we do not even have one, so things like this have to be discovered - and we did......, click on his name Eckhart Tolle and this is the link to the oprah side.

we did get a realtor to look at the house and we decided to try sell it ourself. the money we put in to make it so pretty will just go to him.....
we will have a site to see pictures and the description of this place. i counted the wildlife and trees we have around here and found out we have at least 39 different birds around here. (the neighbors chicken not counted) - we will try to find someone who is a nature lover just like we are.

before & after

2008-04-09T12:21:00.000-07:00

wir fangen an zu packen, i am not very good with that, i cannot let things go very well. i still remember when i through my skies in the big garbage container in muenchen, and they stuck out and the neighbor just broke them in half. but i was moving to iowa and iowa is FLAT...there are no mountains - that is what Bruce said and he is a native. i did not need the skier, even there was a little hill with a lift and floodlight at disco-night. i was jealous because i could not go(if i wanted). what is it with just being able to do something, even i would not really want to slope down there. what is it with things i carry with me through 3 moves and i never unwrapped it and used it? we are listening to a wise man on the computer and his thoughts about life/love and the now. i am not in the presence when i am looking at an old magazine / picture etc i am in the past - thinking about the time than, with the pain and joy whatever i connect with this *thing*. to be N O W in this single moment not in what was will be - that is a very easy smart concept to be happy. listen to Eckart Tolle what might change your life, worth the 10 minutes! i will go with this, get myself back from sad thoughts about the losses i felt here in usa and the worries about my future in italia. ich finde vielleicht auch eine deutsche version, der mann ist wirklich sehr gut.

back in snowy iowa

2008-03-28T10:51:00.000-07:00

we are back- wir sind wieder in iowa - and snow greeted us when we woke up. that's not a nice welcome after this fantastic start of spring in gualdo. there was snow too - after all it was easter. but just 1 day, so we learned how that feels like. after signing and carrying huge checks around and shake hands we are now the owner of a house in italy. (at the end of the road peeking through the trees) i cannot believe this really. since i lived in muenchen and had all this trips to all kind of beautiful places in italy, i was dreaming of living there. now it fullfilled. we have a place in the most pleasing landscape, just 1 hour from the sea and 1 hour from snowy mountains. but the very best is - we even have some olive trees. we did not know this. they were totally overgrown with vines and thorns and on my birthday i pruned my first olive. the most wonderful present. i love trees and we have a LOT of them - actually the whole 12 acres are somehow woody, in some places is nothing else growing because it is so steep, but with big oaks - and probably the truffels right underneath.
our time in the house was actually a camping vacation. not the kinda temperatur for this, we had 13 degrees C in the kitchen in the morning. the electric water heater flipped the fuse before there was any warmth. so sponge bath - camping. and the water pressure for the radiator was not high enough to get the heater going - camping. i like camping - for a while. but this tells you how much we have to do there. and the previous owner who lived there all his live, seems to be in great shape, so it cannot be too bad, but we did not try the bed-warmer. (i guess you fill the pot with glowing coals, put it in this thing - there are some burned spots , and push it underneath the covers). we had very warm sleeping bags, i said we were camping?
we figured out the little kitchen cooking stove and had some very cozy warm times in the kitchen, with italian wine, cheese, olives and fresh crisp fennel, peppers and more. i feel so blessed to share all this with this wonderful partner and friend Jon. we are so happy to have this opportunity to start a new live in le marche.
you can see they like tiles in italy i did not count how many sizes and colors there were. but we all know since "under the tuscan sun" that is the womens job to get them chipped off. btw we did try the fireplace you can see in the back, the smoke in the room was thick like fog. we will get an insert in it and feed it with all the wood we can have for free. isn't that the most prettiest landscape?

Ahornboden - Maple Floor

2008-02-23T17:57:00.000-08:00

our floor project is almost done.....

my sweet husband / Mann / marito ist fast fertig mit dem fussboden verlegen, was fuer eine arbeit; back braking job, but not for my Jon, every 20 cm of the board got a nail hammered in. i did not count how many these were but it took us 3 days or around 18 hours together, just to get the the maple floor down. all the preparation to make the floor sound and straight was much more. he was cutting the sub floor by minus degrees outside - oder bei -18 grad celsius. i just hope that the Gualdo house is not that hard to fix up.

when we were tearing the third layer off, i saved all this newspaper they laid underneath: the date is from 13. july 1952. the advertisement also shows how the thinking in people changes. i was sitting and reading all this wild stories about the socialism is taken over and that the taxes should only be use for defense, the government right now is for sure cutting a lot of social programs and spend a LOT on defense the freedom in irak.

SPRING in GUALDO!

2008-02-07T18:03:00.000-08:00

yes, we are spending 2 weeks around easter and my birthday in ITALIA. we have to, for the signing and getting my papers started, may be find an accountant with some german or english knowledge to get things cleared about our farmer status. it seems it will be not that easy to accomplish this. and i have a chance to take several thousand pictures of the house and the surroundings. i am so excited. we will come through munchen, nein, nein, keine zeit fuer den biergarten, and with alitalia down to ancona. renting a tiny car and stay somewhere for a night, signing next day the contract at the notario and than ---- camping in our own house. there is actually a bed in the attic.
i talked with my dear friend Mark and we figured he did something similar when he was in his twenties. restoring a house somewhere in the country and start a simple live with a garden and own grown vegetables.
Jon says that wishes come true, you just have to beleave in it and than let it happen. so here we go, we let the italian dream become reality.

the 1. picnic in 2008

2008-01-28T18:51:00.000-08:00

it is amazing how humans are getting used to the surroundings. the first colder day in oktober made me shiver so much , yesterday i was sitting outside on the bench with my dear Jon and we had a picnic with a 100% vegetarian german leek/pepper quiche and tea, the sun was out and made it up to 4 degree C. and i was so thrilled about spring to come- especially after this week of very icy temperatures down to -30C. our little stove was glowing and kept us and the house warm. the snow is now melting and i watch the temperature in gualdo - it is never down to real cold, just around freezing and over 10 in the day.

there is another article in the nyt about the waist of energy through meat consumption. this is getting really scary. it says there that just in iowa hog factories and farms produce more than 50 million tons of excrement annually.) and the news about poisoned rivers and groundwater are regular in the media. they do not have to pay for soiling the environment.
another quote:"A study last year estimated that 2.2 pounds of beef is responsible for the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the average European car every 155 miles, and burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days."

nothing new on the moving front - except - our realtor had wrong informations about the contract signing on his website, it said we do not have to come to italia to sign, now this is a min. 2000$ spend or not on an extra flight before easter. we try not to go - even we would LOVE to be there in early spring.......naja werden sehen.

strange noises - komische geraeusche

2008-01-18T15:36:00.000-08:00

there is a difference between the noises in a house in germany and here in iowa. in deutschland hoert man die nachbarn, was ganz schoen nervig sein kann, aber man ist auch nicht allein. here in iowa in the country you hear only your own noises, or the ones in your house. and even in germany it is kinda nice hearing this little noises from the hallway, or from the water pipes running through the apartment building. the noises here you learn very soon to differentiate. you do not hear the loud compressure from the too big refrigerators, you get used to the fan and the fizzling air when the heater starts blowing. but that little clicking noise in the middle of the night when the mouse trap was successful - again - that is one what wakes me up. especially if there are more after the first hard click. than Jon has to get the mighty hunter out and has to make sure we do not have an ongoing mouse torture. there were noises like when the raccoon tripped over the flowerpots. or when the wood chunk in the stove rumbles through the hot burning. but the noise we had last week was the worst, it took slowly place in my consciousness, i spitzt the ears - yes it IS from downstairs and it sounds WET! splashing dripping water was my interpretation. i run down the stairs - yes there is no question WATER running noises out of the bathroom, i just screamed WATER, WATER and my mighty plumber run downstairs jumped in pants flew in the basement and shut the line. the floor covered with water, but the good thing was it was all running down in the air-duct and - yes - flooded the basement - but better than our beautiful maple floor in the living room. so there is always something with an old house. the good thing is: no mice in stonewalls, sneaking out at night and step in traps. - this is our hope....
and we got the originals allll signed-- on every page and on the end 2x and 5 copies and both of us! the place shown on the website has now a big verkauft on top of the page, jippidippi doooohhhh!!!!

Jon's Freedom

2008-01-14T18:56:00.000-08:00

friday was Jon's last day in the cubicle. he kept his promise - he worked 2 years in des moines - driving everyday the 25 miles for and back - sat in this so unnatural environment between all this people just happy to be there in such a secure job, with a affordable health insurance, with a cafeteria where everybody could get a non vegetarian meal for some $. where the young mothers brought their tiny babies in the morning in the company's day care and picked them up in the evening. where the huge parking lot is filled with cars what use the highest amount of gas to the mile, where our little honda was all the time lost because of the huge vehicles were covering it up. the little dusty honda will not be seen anymore in this place. Jon is now working at home, on our old home, our little house in prairie. so we can sell it to someone, how want to live away from malls and traffic jams, where the most cutest little opossums come visiting and 10 bright red cardinals
flocking in. this is a good place - but - even if we get a black president!!! it is still not like italy!!! today it got so cold that an olive tree would have died - so -----

i am very busy with my new business: selling on ebay. i got my pettiest piece out to the post office today: it was hard to separate with it, it is so much america and what it symbols for me. but wrong voltage! i have to get rid of much more......but the next thing is - to get a container. this will be a lot of research. but with Jon around me it will be much easier.

Caucuses ........ OBAMA!!!!

2008-01-04T07:28:00.000-08:00

Jon and i were at the caucuses here in iowa, an interesting, strange way of voting. of course I did not vote, as a german - i felt more like an international watcher. i was surprised how many democrats in woodward are. we were over 180 people in this crowded school lunch room. it feels so good to be between people who have a similar idea about live. i cannot handle people driven by extremest (evangelicals) ideas. now - there is a chance for the usa to become a place for all the citizen, a black president - what a fantastic possibility. let us hope for this!!!!!!!!!

the last day

2007-12-31T10:53:00.000-08:00

the last day in 2007.

what a year... we are able to rethink the last year, make something special when the clock comes to the 24:00. but animals do not. i read the article today in the times from Verlyn Klinkenborg about this special time we celebrate. than i reread his "2 pigs from oktober 25. he says it all in there about butchering a pig:

"Knowing that you’re doing something for the last time is a uniquely human fear. I thought that would be the hardest thing about having pigs. In fact, it’s not so hard, though it does remind me that humans have trouble thinking carefully about who knows what. One day soon I’ll step into the pen and give the pigs a thorough scratching, behind the ears, between the eyes, down the spine. Their tails will straighten with pleasure. It will be the last time. I will know it, and they simply won’t."

they don't know and that is good, it is good to live in ACCEPTANCE, that is the word and the meaning i have to get in my head. i have to be open for this new year to come, to let it be a good, happy one, because we have a wonderful love for each other and we have an exciting time to come.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008 TO EVERYBODY,
LET'S CELEBRATE LOVE AND PEACE!!!

unterschrieben!!

2007-12-23T16:54:00.000-08:00

we were at a party with friends and we had to tell about our adventure we are now heading to. they were all thrilled with the idea to start a new life in italy. but these people were not the common iowan's, they were all democrats, what helps a lot to keep a conversation going and they were all somehow connected to europa. it is nice to talk to people who think usa is not the most wonderful place on earth, and i told about this blog, and how silly i feel to write with my bad english, but they thought it is cute to read my accent. i hope the reader here have a similar feeling to all the mistakes i am making, SORRY about this !!

ich koennte auch in deutsch weiter schreiben, aber dann verstehen mich noch weniger....
we do have the contratto preliminare now printed out and send them back- via e-mail, and get than later the originals in the snail-mail. the beginning of a long interesting bureaucratic way we just stepped on.

we did buy a christmas tree the 3. last of the good smelling balsam fur. my friend Hein has a christmas tree farm, and there a christmas tree will never get shaped- it has to grow to the right form, so they are mostly very wide at the bottom and have all the buds on the end of the branches. these here look like plastic, and every branch is chipped off. will see how we celebrate next weihnachten.

the contract for our new italia rustico

2007-12-18T11:43:00.001-08:00

hello alle zusammen, hi all together,
we are getting ready to sign the contract. there are still some little things to be cleared. but it looks like this will be the REAL thing. what a wild time. there is than SSOO much to do. we will have to figure out how to get a 40feet trailer for all this stuff to move. the best would be if that thing would stand here for a month to get it all filled nicely. we should buy one and than we have also the time to unload . the one company gave you 2 hours to load the container, every hour than is $75 . i can hire 3 people for that money to help loading.
i just started to sell all the electric stuff on e-bay. it is amazing how much people pay for that special piece. $77 for a 50 year old PINK mixer, plus the shipping they have to pay for --$100.  and no more snowshoes!! a relict from Jon's alaskan times.
but we lose a lot on stuff not that popular. who wants a band saw taller than i am - and heavier!
there is the thought about a generator and let it run than. more BUYING? noooooo.
our thought is simlifying our life in italy, no more things we do not need. oh yes!!!this is the right poster:

it does take the stress out of the season of love - it is not about spending as much money as possible, it is to show love.  i have to say that here in america the materialism is worse than in deutschland. shopping is the way of entertaining, for some people the only one - of course - except tv. i wonder how i got things done with watching tv for 4 hours every day. i am soooo glad we did not get one after our move to the iowa country side. yes that is the other BIG thing waiting for us, we have to finish this little house, so we get a reasonable price for it and after changing the money into euro  have some left.

here is a picture of our pretty cold
iowa country site: