sup

The video below now actually works, oh and btw, we're back in the states.



There will probably be one more update before we sign off.

????

almost done!

WOW Our time at this farm has flown by. This farm is definitely a way of life. Waking up, feeding animals, spending time with animals, helping in the kitchen.... by the time we are finished with a days work we fall asleep until the next day... CRAZY!!!!

Anyways, we have one day of work left. On Wednesday we are going to spend the day packing and cleaning and hopefully visiting the nearby town of Montepulciano, and on Thursday we travel to Rome by train. Friday we leave from the Rome airport and arrive in DC at 8:00pm!!!!! WOW!!!

We are happy to report that we have found an apartment to live in when we come back, and also both have jobs to start. Hooray for the internet!!!

TRENDSPOTTING: poofy black coats!!!!

Apparently, "poofy black coats" are the biggest trend in Italy this winter. We think this trend is absolutely ridiculous. The coats are everywhere. The worst thing about the trend? EVERYONE is following it. No individuality!!! They copy what they see in storefront windows and that is that. It has gotten to the point where we see groups of people wearing the exact same thing. We decided that the only reasonable response was to go on a poofy-black-coat-hunt. Here are the results, ENJOY!!!!

a couple out for a stroll

Just gone out for some shopping...NEED MORE POOFY COATS!


A group of youngsters, being "hip". haha.


A storefront window, training the minds of young children to be more fashionable

Mother and son!!! Out for some shopping!!!

That dude is so cool. So freakin hip. Little does he know that some old dude on the right has totally stolen his jacket idea today.

Look! poofy people can be used as bodyguards too.


So Fabulous


Observe the belt on the outside of the coat of the individual on the left


Poofy coat Mafia

Most Italian trends make it to the states 6-12 months after they arrive in Italy. So if you want to be an absolute moron, go out and buy a poofy black coat now!

Paradise found (part 2)

We are safely on our last farm, and we are so happy to report that we freakin LOVE it here!!!!

Our hosts are amazing, genuine people. They are from Switzerland, and were one of the first farms in Italy to begin hosting WWOOFers. They are Ulisse, a tall manly man farmer who was a punk rocker before he started milking sheep and goats, and Sandra, a gorgeous hospitable woman who runs the other half of the business. The farm is also an agriturismo place which hosts campers. There are sheep, goats, some peacocks, two horses, some pigs, cats, and two incredible dogs named Ben and Mira (who helps us herd sheep). The farm is situated on the top of one of the many rolling hills in Tuscany. They have a gigantic kitchen and a homey "main room" with a fireplace and big wooden tables, a hand pump espresso machine, and a continual supply of fresh baked bread and their neighbors farm apples.

For new years a bunch of RV campers arrived to camp and feast for about a week. This meant that Tyler and I actually were able to wait tables, which made us insanely happy, in a nerdy way only understood by others in the hospitality industry :) haha.

We have fallen into a hardworking daily schedule. We wake up each morning at 7am to a beautiful tuscan sunrise and immediately (without breakfast) report ot the stables. Ulisse is just finishing up at this time from his morning milking (WOW). We then clean the troughs and separate the big lambs into another pen. I dont know if any of you have ever tried to catch a lamb before but MAN those babies run. And when you catch them they KICK and baaaa in a way that just breaks your heart. It is definitely a new experience for us. After this we feed the sheep and lambs a mixture of barley and beans which Tyler and Heather both agree smells really really good. (I know I know... its because we are weirdo vegetarians) ;) When the barley mix is finished we then use a PITCHFORK to feed hay to the baaaaaing sheep. HAAHAHA.

After this we get to eat breakfast, which feels SO well deserved.

For the rest of the day we rotate between letting out the sheep, herding the around, and putting them into another pen adn feeding them more hay. These babys eat a LOT of freakin hay.

After lunch we get to deal with the GOATS. We are goatherders!!!! We let them out into the woods, and watch them for TWO HOURS. They are much more stubborn than the sheep, and have a completely different personality. Our "favorite" goat is a female goat named Battista, who thinks it is a sheep (long story). It is also named a boys name, so it is just all sorts of confused. To add to this mess, Battista is always LAST. We routinely have to fetch her out of thorn bushes when she wanders far away from the rest of the herd. OOOHHH Battista. You better shape up, or Ulisse will freakin slaughter you.

After we are done with the goats we basically herd some more sheep, feed them more hay (I know, RIGHT?!) and then go collapse in our room. A hard days work.

We are getting SO MUCH EXERCISE!!!!! Long story short, we LOVE IT.

PHOTOS:

A peacock. Normal, everyday farm stuff you know :)

A pen of sheep, with a chicken hanging out. Every day we find eggs in the hay... its like an egg hunt, but REAL!!!


More sheep; another chicken

Heather with hay


Tyler, showing off with a BIGGER fork of hay than Heather


Heather and the newborn lamb... born only 3 days ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Tyler with Ben the dog


Ben and Mira, the sheep herding wonderdog!


A piece of landscape before a little afternoon rain.


aaaaaand...the GOATS!!!!!


CIAO FOR NIAO.

Catching up... (part 1)

Here is a quick photo post of stuff we did before coming to our newest farm. We JUST figured out how to get WIFI here, so that's why we haven't updated in so long :) I know our last post was a little bit of a rant so here are some photos to make up for the lack thereof. Our last days before coming to this farm:

Heather standing on a shelf we all built in the wine cellar

Tyler and Maayan, our awesome WWOOFer friend from Israel!!

We spent our holiday with Pino at the beautiful Cascina dei Frutase, which is a small agriturismo place near the Alps. We ate a 3.5 hour long Christmas meal... WHEW!!! We also went hiking around the area (though not actually in the alps...haha).

After the three of us left Canale and went to Torino, one of the first things we did was check out the famous Cinema Mueseum.

We had a lot of fun running around the displays, watching movie clips, doing our best to interpret the italian displays about lenses and vision and sound effects and movie making techniques, etc.

Tyler enjoyed the shopping in Torino!!!


Occultists enjoy!!!! Satanists believe That the gates of hell are actually located in Piazza Statuo, the piazza outside of this church. Look at the top of this dome. Do you see satan??


From the inside you can see him better. SCARY!!!!!

After Torino we parted ways with Maayan and went on our way to Florence. We wanted to see the David, and thought it would be our only chance. We began to walk around, only to find out that the gallery is CLOSED ON MONDAY!!!!! Soon after it began to rain. BOO!!! Oh well, Florence was still beautiful, despite the rain!!!


The Duomo in Florence



A rainy day!!!


Another gorgeous church square. Moments after this photo the sky opened up in a torrential downpour. We took shelter, and soon after boarded our train for Montepulciano. Now we are here and it is wonderful!!!!! To be continued.....

SLEDDING ADVENTURE/ runaway WWOOFers!

Items needed: One SUV, One sled, a piece of rope, a video camera.


Joining us in this video is our dear friend and fellow WWOOFer, Maayan, whom we just met about a week ago.

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THE MOST IMPORTANT NEWS TODAY: things turned sour at our farm when we discovered that our host was a misogynistic, FASCIST, homophobic, vegetarian hater ASSHOLE!!!!!! Let me see if I can tell the story correctly.

We started out on okay terms with our host, but things started to get kind of creepy when, after a week of vegetarian meals (US cooking mind you, and him NOT PROTESTING) Pino decided to make a "joke" about himself going through "meat withdrawl" like a druggie. He then goes on to say that if he doesn't eat meat soon then he will have to start eating Heather's butt. He then goes on to pinch Heather's butt. NOT. COOL.

That night he decided to eat meat, rubbing it in our faces and Heather, thinking he is joking around (he is really being quite dramatic) makes a face and laughs right back at him. He then goes on to show us PICTURES of his slaughtered pigs that he used to make sausages out of, even though we protested to viewing the photographs. What are we supposed to do??? SMILE? no. We are freakin VEGETARIANS, you don't expect us to be happy and smile when you force us to look at photos of dead bloody animal carcass, especially when we tell you we would rather not look thank you very much.

The next day he gets into a gigantic argument with us about vegetarianism that actually drives Heather to tears, because the "faces" she made the previous day "offended" him. (MIND YOU these faces were in REACTION to nasty things he put in front of Heathers face, and she was really just trying to turn a tense situation into a joke). He tells us that it is impossible for us to come to another culture and not experience the food, and basically gets upset with us for not eating meat in Italy. HELLO!!! Tyler has been veg for 3 years, and Heather for 7. We are not just going to UP AND EAT MEAT because we are in freakin Italy. That's like us traveling to India and suddenly converting to Hinduism for the duration of our stay. WTF ??? You dont suggest something like that of someone. He then goes on to work on the farm leaving us in the apartment, alone.

The next day, our fellow WWOOFer Maayan arrived, who is also vegetarian. That night yet ANOTHER argument occurs in which he tells us that he can understand fascism more than he can understand vegetarianism. He gets into a ridiculous conversation with Tyler, while Maayan and Heather politely leave the table to do the dishes.

The next day he tells us that women are the cause of 95% of ALL problems in Italy. Period. WHAT. THE. HELL??!!!!

This is only scratching the surface. We were trying to be nice, smooth over the situation, and be good guests in his house because thats what we are supposed to do. We were guests in his house and did not want to contribute to friction.

The day after Christmas was really the straw that broke the camels back. We had the day off, and were thinking of going hiking with Pino, but were not sure. We decided to see how we felt in the morning. That morning, we all three felt tired and decided to spend the day tidying up around the house, Maayan wanted to get on the internet and arrange her next WWOOF farm, and we wanted to sleep in and do some laundry. The day was not a work day.

WELL. Pino slammed the door to our bedroom at 6 in the morning in response to our decision (which it was clear that we were FREE to make), stomping around the apartment yelling that we should have told him yesterday. Completely unnecessary.

When we woke up a few hours later we found that he had locked his internet chord in a room and taken the key. this is something that we had access to in the past when we had free time and he wasn't using it. what the hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Immediately we begin packing, found a bus, and left town as soon as we could. WE RAN AWAY FROM HOME!!! It felt so great to get on a bus to Torino and watch Canale fade into the distance after the excruciating Pino experience. It also felt good to know that we can take this experience and make it our own: just because a host situation is bad does not mean that we have to stay.

We did learn a lot from the winery, and we did have some really great experiences. Believe me, we would not have left if we could have handled everything. He was simply too difficult to live with, and we will be filing a formal complaint with WWOOF about our experience there.

We spent the day in Torino yesterday, and also part of today. We were able to arrange our next farm stays earlier than planned, so we parted ways with Maayan and made our way to Florence. I am now updating from our beautiful little hostel in Florence. Tomorrow we will arrive on our new farm, Podere il Casale.

Photos from our last days in Canale and Torino, info on how we spent our Christmas, and photos from Florence are coming soon! Right now we are going to sleep to ward off a nasty cold that we both seem to have caught. yuck.

xoxo