Yes, Tuscany... I am loving the Tuscany hills where we are currently nestled. The farm we moved to from Orte is much larger (a 100 acres approx. compared to about 5) and much more serious as this is their only livelyhood.
The family of four we are living with raise pigs for meat (they have a herd of 60 + pigs running loose in the woods around and on their property), sheep (that do the same as the pigs) chicken galore (much to our dismay, but we'll explain in a bit), two lambs that are bottle fed (one named Dolly which will go out to the herd, and one EmJ has cristened 'Dinner' as that is what it is for. She was going to call it 'Lamb Chop' but decided that was a leetle too much! ò.ò), a great big black dog, a few cats, dozens of pidgeons and a peacock and a penhen (I THINK that's all the animals...).
Oh - plus a couple of WWOOFers besides us. The house they have is gorgeous, and they actually have two on the property - one is for the Bed and Breakfast guests that they have as well. So the farm is situated 2kms from a little town called Vaglia (Pronounced Vahlia) and there really aren't any close neighbours but that's pretty cool.
This weekend we are planning to visit Florence (or Firenze as it is known by in Italy) as it is less than thirty minutes by train, plus we won't get to see it on our tour, so we are really looking forwards to that. I can't wait to see Micheangelo's David!
So back to the animals - why do the hens dismay us? I'll let you in on a little secret. Where there are hens, there are, (kill them all!!) also roosters. Which is all fine and good, except when they start crowing (which is very loud by the way - over 20 decibels) right outside our bedroom window at freakin' (£%$&ò"ç£Q - says I) 2:00 AM in the freakin'
morning!!!
To be sure, they stop again pretty soon, but only to start up at 4:00AM and continue at two minute intervels until we get up. Let's just say that the first morning this happened, I was NOT HAPPY!!!!!! The only way I think that I can handle it is to plug in my iPod, because then the interuptions kind of mingle with the already there sounds, but much pleasenter, music. I swear, if I had my way - all of the roosters except may be one or two that get locked up half a km AWAY from the house would be skewered, roasted, beheaded, plucked, boiled and otherwise completely ERADICATED. Hate them all....
Other than that minor (or major) hiccup, so far everything here has been great. We are soooooooo glad we moved - even though we got slightly lost getting here, the effort was so worth it. It's warm inside, and sometimes out - yes, we actually get heating, unlike at Elizabeth's, the food is still great (although we kind of HAD to eat Pork Patté - ick... in order to be polite) and the hosts are so gracious and kind.
EmJ, another WWOOFer and I have been working mostly in the garden, weeding, turning the soil to fertalize it. We also planted garlic and onions this afternoon, but unfortunatly planted the onions too close
together! The host said that it was okay, and he'd leave it like that, but we have all decided that we want to ask to re-plant it away, because otherwise he won't get a good crop.
The daily routines have much been the same as at the last farm - breakfast at 8:00am, a late two course lunch at 2:00pmish, tea time (afternoon tea) at 5-6:00pmish and dinner (two course) at 8-9:00pm. Of course, work in between, but we stop at tea time.
Besides all that, I don't think there's much else to write about - EmJ and I have really been enjoying the peacefulness out here - there's no yelling, and everything takes a slow but purposeful pace.
It's really
gorgous - I think I could live here for a while longer that's for
sure!
Most of the cultural differences seem to revolve around food, but I'm trying out so many new things, it's just fantastico! In conclusion: Italy is awesome - and I think that the cultural way of seeing it definately lets you in on some speacial things - mostly good local cusiune! But that alone is definately worth it. I shall finish my eternal post - I'm off to have more great pasta,
Ciao! b.
