October 29, 2009

Bob’s Sabbatical

October 29, 2009

 

            For a
day that we didn’t plan to travel too far or do very much, this turned out to
be a very interesting one indeed!

            First, they have begun harvesting
olives.  That is what the “elevator”  is for (similar to the one I carried hay and
straw bales off of in Pennsylvania, lo those many years ago!).  This is a co-op farm, and each farmer has
their own section in the “barn” where they store the olives, l etting the water
dry out of them for a few days before they take them to the mill.  In order for the oil to be “certified,” they
are required to take them to a specific mill in their district.

            Next, we
found out that there is a chapel on the property.  The Roman Catholic Church will not let them
use it for weddings, but there are other services here occasionally.  Susan finds some stairs in the sacristy and
sends me up.  There are two HUGE hornet’s
nests, and I decide not to explore further.

            On our
way down the lane, they are fertilizing and/or seeding.  This is one hunk of a John-Deere
tractor!  I guess they need something
like this to do the hills, etc.

            We drive
on to Monteriggiani, a walled town with 14 towers, which was built in the early
13^th Century to protect Siena from Florentine attacks.  The whole town is two blocks long and two blocks
wide.  The Church, Santa Maria Assunta
[Assunta=”Susan” in Italian](WRONG info, see 10/30 post!!)was built at the same time as the town, and is the
second one in the town.  The first, built
earlier, is now gone.

            When we
return to Montestigliano, they are still “picking” olives.  Actually, what they do is spread nets on the
ground, and use a pneumatic “shaker,” which runs off a compressor powered by
the PTO of a tractor, to shake the branches and knock off the olives onto the
nets on the ground.  In some areas, there
are machines that shake the whole tree, but around here, they fear that that
method damages the trees.

            The old
man in the little hat was born in the house across the road from our cottage.  His son and daughter-in-law are working with
him.  In the early pictures, he is using
the “shaker.”  I am sure that he spent a
lot of time on a ladder when he was younger, literally “picking” the olives.  The old ladders they used actually flex (hold
the sides and wiggle up and down).  This is
important, because the ground is so uneven, that a solid ladder would be less
steady!  There is a sermon in that, I’m
sure – something about our being too rigid, perhaps?

            We are
having dinner tonight here, with a group from Seattle and one other couple.  Promise is of a nice dining room, fireplace,
and good food.  We never got the cooking
class, but maybe we’ll taste what we missed!

            I’m going to publish this before
dinner, will put review and pictures up tomorrow.

Peace,

  Bob