1 year ago

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

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!

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

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.