back in snowy iowa

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?

SPRING in GUALDO!

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.

strange noises - komische geraeusche

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

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.

the last day

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!!!

the contract for our new italia rustico

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: