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Published: December 4th 2009
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Ciao a Tutti,
The beginning of our second week was an awesome experience. We were to take care of the animals day and night and were left several jobs to take care around the farm as Antonio was away to Germany. These jobs included hauling and spreading a large heap of gravel over the muddy spots of the driveway, clearing an area around a shed of vigorous spiny vegetation and out of control grapevines taking over, and cleaning out a large trailer containing leftovers from a haul of corrosive buffalo dung with a hose that barely put out a trickle of water. We got into our routine quite well, waking up at 7am to feed the animals, breakfast, working different tasks around the farm, lunch, and taking the goats to the pasture to eat fallen acorns from the oak trees. This last task turned out to be one of our favorite.
Every day with help from the farm dogs, Rocky and Zara, we would herd the goats out to the large field where there were about half a dozen mature oak trees with loads of fallen acorns. Armed with large sticks and two herding dogs it seemed
to be an easy task, but overexcited Rocky would sometimes make it more difficult than it needed to be. Even when the goats were behaving and eating their acorns Rocky insisted on herding them or getting in the middle of the group and frightening the young ones. Some of the older goats were obviously not fearful of Rocky what so ever, standing right up to him when he approached. Rocky on the other hand apparently was put in line by a goat or two and shyed away when they approaching him with horns ready to butt. On the way out to the field the goats enthusiastically ran with all their might to the nearest oak tree, on the way back with full bellies they could barely muster a trot even with Rocky nipping at their heels, it was quite a funny scene. Two of the goats needed treatments for abscesses which we had to catch up once or twice a day to clean or apply ointment to. We affectionately referred to one as Goiter, with a large abscess on her throat region and Dangles who had an abscess in one of his funny dangling things from his chin. Throughout the
week we developed names for several others including Bones who had bone-like designs on her from legs and Big Balls a young, well endowed male that couldn’t seem to catch a break and always seemed to get himself into trouble.
The buffalo as well had some interesting personalities. We witnessed some life lessons being taught to a young male buffalo from his father all about the birds and the bees. Unfortunately Grandma seemed to be the test dummy and didn’t really appreciate it too much.
Antonio arrived back with two new friends from Germany, here to help out with several projects on the farm. Barbara and Eberhard are a very friendly and fun couple, who like the others took a liking to the two Americans who were similar in age to their own children. Our first day of work together was quite an intense one. Our job was to remove an old fence that separated the goats from the buffalo and put a new one in. Well, as simple as that sounds, it was no easy task. The old rusted barb-wired fence was lined with all types of vegetation all of which had some types of
thorns and was extremely thick and difficult to remove by hand. This project carried through the next several days while we all got cut and scraped and many stubborn slivers all over our hands and forearms. Antonio being the extremely hard working farmer that he is took on this project with tireless gusto and showed us all up with the number of cuts on his arms as he plowed through the thickest part armed with a chainsaw, weed-wacker and tractor. Pretty intense work, but with all the teamwork we were able to finally get the barbwire fence removed and a good portion of the thorny vegetation removed.
For a nice treat Antonio took the four of us to a favorite spot of his, a natural hot spring. Exhausted after a long day of work and tired of the cold weather, nothing sounded better to us than a nice hot bath. This hot bath was very different than the one we had experienced in Freiburg, Germany. This one was a completely natural thermal bath and that pooled next to an extremely cold river. The water coming out smelled very strongly of sulfur and was boiling hot. As the water
cascaded down a small rocky cliff it formed several pools, some large enough to fully sit inside some just large enough for a foot soak. The pools that you could sit in were so hot they could only be tolerated for a few minutes at a time. At the bottom of the small cliff was a larger pool that was slightly cooler but still hot enough to relax in. We moved all over in pitch black along the rocky area trying out different pools until we found our favorite spot at the bottom of the cascades sitting in the slightly cooler pool and hot water flowing over us from above, it was marvelous. The sulfur smell was somewhat overwhelming at first, but we quickly got used to it and found out that it is really good for the hair and the skin. The freezing cold river was a good way to get the body nice and “refreshed”. James was able to fully immerse several times, I on the other hand could only handle a couple face and hair rinses, it was numbingly cold! After about an hour and a half we packed up and left. What an experience!
Another great highlight of the week was a visit by Antonio’s good friends Santo, Teresa, and Leto Santo is the previous owner of the farm and an amazing accordion player. Santo played many traditional Italian favorites and also had an amazing singing voice while Eberhard played along brilliantly with his guitar. Barbara had warned me ahead of time that there would be lots of dancing going on, but I had really no idea what to expect. Eighty two year old Leto was a dancing machine, I mean literally! He did not sit one song out the entire two hours of music playing. Back and forth between Barbara and I, we danced the waltz, the polka, even the tango. Not knowing the dance was no excuse for Leto, he would lead and you would follow. Barbara was such a trooper, as I had to turn down several dances once my feet started to hurt. James and I danced several times and James and Teresa also danced a time or two. After a little while Costel took over the accordion and played several fast tempo Romanian songs, a little more difficult to dance to but just as fun. It was such an
amazing experience. Sadly, it was time for our guests to leave; we made new friends that evening and experienced some real Italian culture, what a night to remember!
It was time once again for Antonio to go back to Germany with Barbara and Eberhard. We were given jobs to do while they were gone, taking care of animals being the most important; we were even given the job to milk the goats every other night, which we caught on quite well. Antonio was not able to make it back before we were to take off the following Friday, so we had to say our goodbyes. Antonio is such an incredible person and taught us so much throughout the week, we were so grateful for everything, it was very sad to see him go. Thanks again Antonio, you are one of a kind and we will remember our time with you always!
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Linda
non-member comment
Good to have you back
It's so good again to have news of you and your new experiences. We have missed you! We saw our first very few flakes of snow yesterday. The weatherman are promising a white Christmas, I hope thy're right this time! James, I hope you had a birthday you'll never forget..... much love to you both, Mom