we got the tractor

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

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

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

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

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


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

vorher und nachher

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

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

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










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















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

tooooo much stuff

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.