la contrada contro

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

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

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

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

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