Start of a long overdue weekend

We always look forward to the weekend, despite the fact that our lives are very different from how they were in the UK - largely because Helen can turn the computer off for a couple of days and we can spend time doing things together, even if it is strimming or moving gravel.

This weekend has been a long time coming, after we both worked through last weekend, chopping up wood, clearing terraces and digging drainage channels. Not that this weekend will be without jobs to do - tomorrow we need to do a big supermarket shop and spend the afternoon cooking up batches and batches of soup and ragu - freezer-friendly food that will make our next two weeks with the HelpX couple from New Zealand easier to manage, as well as turning the apartment around ready for paying guests who arrive on Sunday for a couple of nights. Tomorrow will be a busy day, for sure.

Back to today though: Noah arrived at 8am for breakfast, as planned, but as he came in, he sheepishly asked if we could aim for the train an hour later than planned, as he hadn't yet managed to pack. After we got in last night, at just gone 10pm, he had gone straight to bed! I can't say that I blame him, and I remember being 19 (vaguely), when sleep was an important thing in my life - besides which, he's worked so hard for us since being here, I would have happily given him a lift whenever he liked.

After breakfast, Noah went and packed, and when he was ready, he said his goodbyes to Helen and the two of us hopped in the bus, leaving Helen to start work. When we got to the station I got him to buy his ticket from the machine first, to make sure he had it, and then we went into the café opposite the station for a coffee (two, actually). I asked him what he'd like and he replied 'a normal coffee'. I duly ordered us two coffees, and when they arrived he realised his mistake (he hasn't yet fully got to grips with the Italian coffee scene) and said 'ah, these aren't going to last the 20 minutes until my train!'. Thirty seconds later, the coffees were gone, so I ordered us a cappuccino ginseng each. I had told him I would introduce him to the phenomenon while he was here, and now was my last chance. He took one sip and smiled, saying 'I like the strong coffee, but it's nice to have something less bitter and so sweet.' I think he's found his new 'go-to' coffee while here in Italy.

After paying the bill, we collected Noah's rucksack from the car, shook hands, said our goodbyes and off he walked onto the station platform. All of a sudden, in this context, he looked his age - a young 19. While working at our house, he's always seemed much much older than his years, but now, walking out into the big wide world, he looked so green and youthful - he's not green, as I've already said, he has a very mature head on his shoulders, but watching him walking off brought out a strange feeling in me, something almost paternal! I couldn't quite believe it, a sign of getting old?! Whatever it was, I felt responsible and worried about him heading out alone into the big wide world. I'm sure he will be fine though, and we both hope that he has a fantastic time for the rest of his trip in Europe.

Once he had gone, I headed home for a day's office work. My first task once I got home, though, was to leave Noah a glowing review on HelpX to aid him with future placements on his trip around the country.

After that, the day was uneventful, with the exception of the microwave we had inherited with the house deciding it had done enough and was not going to do any more cooking - stopping dead having barely even warmed the potatoes we were trying to cook for our lunch. (We had to revert to plan B - cheese sandwiches at our desks.)

Helen and I sat in the same office all day, ploughing through work and barely speaking. Helen's work is quite brain-intensive, and I had three months worth of receipts to check through and other admin to do. So if I'm afraid that if you were looking to settle into a lengthy blog post, this one is about to come to something of an abrupt end, as the rest of the day passed in the office until Helen grabbed the lettuce from the fridge and went out to put the geese to bed.

When she got back, we both took a short trip to Frateschi's so that I could pay Paolo for the trousers and cable ties I bought the other day. It was quiet in there and the cleaner was mopping the floors, so we apologised as we tiptoed across the newly mopped floor and found Paolo - who had forgotten that I owed him anything and asked what I wanted! We soon sorted that out, and while the payment was processing I managed to ask if he had some old pallets that I could buy from him to use to make wood storage walls. He said he did, and wanted to drag us immediately across the road to the yard to look, but it was dark and I wasn't interested in taking any from him right now (we had a weekend to start, after all), so I said I'd be back next week to have a look.

That done, we headed home to light a fire and enjoy a beer on the sofa before diving into yet another mountain of washing up before making dinner and having a relaxing Friday evening - at last!

Chianti and panini - a Thursday night feast!

Today felt thoroughly like a Friday - not only because it was Noah's last day with us (which made it feel like the end of the week), but also because it's been a mammoth week for Helen and me, having worked through the weekend.

The forecast was for more wet weather today, but the exercise/wood chopping area (version 3.0) had survived the weather thrown at it overnight, and there was a bit of space under the wood storage area to work too, so we planned to get some more wood cutting and splitting done today.

As Helen went to the office, Noah set up the chop saw under cover of the wood storage tarpaulin to start working through all the small pieces we'd run into yesterday, and I headed off in the car for a quick trip to the bins and to buy bread for lunch.

The Pescia river was a torrent down in the village - I'm not sure I've seen it as violent before, so there must have been a lot of rain further up the valley over the last few days. We get the impression that we got off rather lightly over the last couple of days - although it has been WET here, it doesn't compare to the pictures we've seen on the internet of the floods in (relatively) nearby Carrara (where hundreds of people were displaced from their homes, and thousands are still without electricity), the bad weather in Rome (where they even closed schools and monuments), and the state of 'red alert' issued in eight Italian regions. 

When I got home, Noah was working his way through chopping up the pile of small bits of wood, so I spent an hour splitting logs in the exercise area with the axe (a thoroughly enjoyable pastime) until it was time for coffee.

After coffee and some of Helen's cookies, I changed into my super-padded, super-heating chainsaw safety trousers and we put away the chop saw and replaced it with the saw horse and chainsaw. Noah took over the splitting of logs, having moved the log-splitting station to under the cover of the pine trees near me so as to minimise the amount of moving around we had to do of uncut/split logs. The rain was only light all day long, so the firs provided ample cover. With the exception of a break for lunch (home made carrot soup today - and the first time since Noah's arrival that we've had to eat lunch indoors), the rest of the day was spent with me cutting logs with the chainsaw while Noah split them.

At around 3.30pm, Helen appeared in a change of clothes and a waterproof jacket ready to do some manual work. Noah clocked off for the last time and relinquished the wheelbarrow to Helen so that she could continue with gravel moving.

So, as the rain drizzled, Helen went off and wheeled gravel up and down the driveway while I split the remaining logs. By the time Helen had finished, the light was fading and all of the wood was done. We now have a rather splendid pile of the stuff, which we're rather proud of.

Winter fuel!

However, I don't think we have enough for winter here (believe it or not), so when our next pair of helpers arrive next week, we'll be planning to start the process all over again and collect more wood to add to the pile. We will need more storage room soon, especially as once we have this year's wood sorted we will need to cut and collect the same amount for next year so that it can start the seasoning process... oh and the the year after that!! A mammoth task, I'm sure you'll agree, but once we have the wood in storage for two years ahead, each autumn we will only have to cut one year's worth of wood to replace what we burn that winter, so it'll be a much more manageable task. Can you imagine the effort required to do this without petrol fuelled saws?!

After we'd put the geese to bed, we went indoors to shower before heading out into town with Noah. As it was his last night with us, we thought we'd take him into Pescia for a drink as not only has so much of his time here been spent up on the hill that he's hardly had a chance to feel like he's even been in Italy, but we also wanted to say a small thank you for all his hard work.

We decided a trip to our local enoteca (wine bar) was in order, so we sat at a nice cosy table in the back room. The waiter smiled and recognised us, and we ordered three glasses of Chianti while schooling Noah on exactly what that was, and where it came from. This, combined with some old photos on the wall of wine bottles (fiascos, to be exact) led us to discuss the root and meaning of the word 'fiasco', which we now know (thanks to the waiter, who resorted to telling us in near perfect English) has the same meaning (of disaster/failure) in both languages, as well as being a chianti bottle.

After the enoteca, we decided we should go and find Mimmo at the train station in his porchetta/panini wagon. Helen and Noah each had a roast pork panino, and I had the spicy sausage... again! We shared a beer while I chatted with Mimmo as best I could - only soliciting one look of confusion from him during our 20 minute stay! I couldn't leave with out a second sandwich (this time roast pork), and after paying the bill Mimmo offered us coffees, so we left feeling thoroughly sated (some more so than others!).

It was only a short trip into town, but a very enjoyable one. It's easy to forget just how young Noah is - he's mature way beyond his years, can talk happily on a wide range of topics, and he has been really good company all fortnight long.

When we got home, he declined a night cap and went straight to bed with a plan of an 8am breakfast so that he could catch the 9.15 train to Lucca - after his brief visit to the city this week, he's decided to stay there for a couple nights and has booked a hostel within the city walls.

Helen and I had a small night cap while watching half an hour of TV before retiring to bed ourselves - thankfully tomorrow really is Friday!

Remember, remember... plenty of flashes and bangs, but lightning, not fireworks

The rain promised by the forecasts finally arrived around 4am this morning: a few claps of thunder heralded a deluge that lasted a couple of hours or so, and with it came some fairly brisk winds. It was the kind of weather that really makes you want to hunker down under the duvet and sleep, but instead, at 6.45am, Helen went out to open up the goose house and exercise.

I finally dragged myself out of bed at 8am, and went downstairs to find Helen at her computer and displaying the sort of face that was meant to prepare me for some bad news. I guessed straight away that the tarpaulin Noah and I had erected yesterday hadn't survived the morning's weather - it turned out that one corner had ripped and was flapping around quite violently, so Helen hadn't exercised at all and instead went to start work until I got up.

After we had all had breakfast, Noah and I went out to survey the damage and try to make repairs. We soon realised that the steel posts we had hammered into the terrace were now closer to each other - the weather had been so rough that it had loosened the posts in the earth, allowing the tarpaulin to flap and billow around until it ripped.

While Noah rigged rope along the sides for extra strength, I removed the end fence posts only to realise that our assessment hadn't been quite right - the posts hadn't wobbled loose, they had actually bent!

Can only imagine the volume of water on the tarpaulin to have caused this!

So this time, I hammered in a couple of wooden posts that we had left over from the goose fencing and re- tied the rope between them, then we made two dozen new holes in the tarpaulin with a device I remembered I had brought here from Abingdon - I couldn't tell you why I had it, but it's like a pair of pliers that puts eyelets into things. I also had a bag of small eyelets - ideally they would have been of a larger diameter, but the smaller cable ties fitted through them, so we made the new eyelets and tied the lower end to the re-rigged rope between the new wooden fence posts. We ran out of cable ties before the job was done, so while Noah made some room under the wood storage area for me to cut some wood, I went to Frateschi's again for some more cable ties and a pair of chainsaw trousers.

My new chainsaw trousers - with trim to match the chainsaw!

When I returned, my station was set up ready to go and Noah had the chopping block, splitting axe and chop saw ready in the gym (version 3.0) area, ready to cut and split the logs I was cutting up. While I had been gone, the rough weather had returned, with heavy rain, thunder and lightning. I soon found out that Helen had dashed out in the middle of the heavy downpour (between thunder claps) to see if Noah was alright and to tell him to come inside. Ever the hard worker, Noah had decided he was fine to carry on - that was until there was a flash and bang so close that it sent him running into the house for shelter and a cup of coffee to sit it out!

By the time I had got back, the thunder had rumbled away, and the rain had eased, so we spent the rest of the morning with me cutting logs to length with the chainsaw, and Noah splitting them.

Ready for the Stihl's first real outing

A very productive couple of hours later, it was time for lunch. Much to everyone's surprise, we were able to eat lunch on the patio - the rain had eased off a little while earlier, and it was certainly mild enough to be eating al fresco. The clouds did threaten to force our lunch indoors at one point, but the rain never quite got going again.

After lunch, Noah went back to log splitting while I cleaned the goose house out and refreshed the sawdust before going back to cutting wood. I checked the water barrel that collects water from the goose house roof while I was at it - it was full to brimming point. We'd clearly had a lot of rain this morning.

Just a couple of hours of rain this morning had filled the barrel!

By now, the weather was quite humid, which made cutting wood sweaty work, especially in my brand new trousers which are an inch thick with cut-proof padding down the front of the legs! Noah and I beavered away until around 3.45pm, when Helen appeared in outdoor work attire and stood Noah down. I finished cutting the logs I had lined up then went to help Helen with moving the gravel that had been delivered (at the gates) down the drive to fill in the ruts on the driveway.

We had only got the second barrow full when the heavens opened again and threw a heavy downpour our way, so we ran for cover at the house in the 'gym' area. While sheltering, we noticed that a large pool of rainwater had collected on the tarpaulin - and then the penny dropped: last night's tarpaulin damage must have been because so much water had collected on it, bending the metal fence posts and eventually ripping the tarp. Stanley knife in hand, I made a couple of small incisions in the bowing spot, creating a nice 'water feature'. We put a large bucket underneath it to collect the water, which kept flowing despite the fact that the rain had eased off. Helen and I decided that, as we were already quite wet, we might as well carry on and do some more gravel moving.

Half an hour later, it started raining again - but by this point we were so wet that we decided to carry on regardless. It wasn't especially cold after all, so we worked on until the light faded and our clothes were wet through.

2 cubic metres of gravel ready for duty!

A wet and blurry wife ferrying gravel.

One advantage to working in the rain was that it gave us an insight into how the new drainage channels were working, which was useful. It seems as if they are doing a good job (from what we can tell), and there was a steady flow of water pouring from them. Of course, the true test will be to see how the drive fairs with the new gravel down and a good heavy downpour, but initial signs are very pleasing and the drains certainly seem to be helping. It does look like another couple of drains might be of use - the drive is so long that the distance between the channels might mean that not enough water is stopped from gaining momentum so that it washes gravel away, but the jury is out and for now, and we are pleased with the three we have.

When we got back to the 'gym' area, soaked to the skin, we were amazed to see that the large bucket we had put beneath the tarpaulin to collect the water had filled to the top just in the hour it had been there. I couldn't ell you how many litres it holds, but it's the size of one of those large Gorilla flexi buckets we have in the UK, which I think are around 40 litres. When it rains here, it's definitely committed to the job!

So, while Helen put the geese to bed single-handedly again (they were a little reluctant because of the new sawdust, but got there eventually - it seems that, with a careful trail of lettuce, it's possible for one person to get the geese into the house these days, long may that continue!), I collected some wood for the fire.

Once we'd put our wet boots in the drying room, peeled off our sodden clothes and changed into some dry ones, I lit a fire while Helen started on yet another batch of soup for the next few workers'' lunches. We only have one more day with Noah though, as he leaves on Friday having been here for 12 days. We'll be quite sad to see him leave - he's fitted in so well here, is very pleasant company and has been a real asset in helping us get ready for winter. We're definitely glad we decided to take the plunge and register with HelpX - if all future helpers (including the couple we have arriving next week) are anything like Noah, we'll be pushing on with our list of jobs in double quick time!

Migliori Martedi

After yesterday's exertions, I agreed with Noah to have an extra hour in bed today, so we didn't see him for breakfast until 9am. I could have happily slept for another hour but managed to drag myself out of bed just after 8am. Noah had decided to work today rather than take another day off, as the forecast for the day - and the rest of the week - looked wet, and he didn't feel like trudging around a city in the pouring rain.

Bearing in mind that Noah was giving up his day off (and that I was still tired from yesterday's efforts), I decided to make the day a little less 'worky' and had decided that a shopping trip was in order first thing. I compiled a list over breakfast:

Bags of gravel
A jerry can
A pair of chainsaw safety trousers
Some kindling
A tarpaulin
Some metal fence posts

So, after breakfast, we measured up the exercise area/work area for a new roof (tarpaulin) - the last canvas affair had ripped in the wind a few weeks ago - and then made to set off. First things first though: car keys. I soon realised they weren't in their usual place, but knew I that I had been the last person to have them. I dug into the dark recesses of my tired mind to try to recall where I had put them, but the grey matter was not yet fully functioning. The only place I could think of was in the pocket of my work trousers - except I couldn't find those either. Then it dawned on me: I had decided last night that they were due for a wash. I'll skip the next bit, where I looked in the washing basket, as I think you know where this is going - they were, indeed, merrily spinning around in the washing machine at 40C, and the wash cycle had about another hour and a half to go.

There was nothing else for it but to put a pot of coffee on and sit on the patio to wait.

About 20 minutes later, Helen announced she'd 'broken' the washing machine by trying to pause the cycle and open the door. Just as I arrived to investigate, though, she was opening the door, retrieving the keys (which had just appeared at the window of the washing machine) and successfully restarting the wash cycle - brilliant! AND the remote central locking still worked (somehow!)!

Disaster averted, Noah and I drove down the hill. Our first stop was Frateschi's builder's merchant to try and buy some gravel to refill the ruts in the driveway - now that the drainage is installed, the gravel should no longer be washed away in heavy rain, or at least that's the theory.

There was no Paolo in the yard when we arrived, but a new (to me) face, Massimo. I thought I'd start the ball rolling by telling him my Italian was not good, as I was on unfamiliar territory trying to order gravel for delivery. His response was 'mamma mia!', and he told me his English was non-existent (or words to that effect). I asked for some gravel, and he took us straight outside to inspect the options they had on offer. I chose the largest stuff and we went back inside to find out the price. Massimo could only give me a price for the gravel, not the delivery - for that, I would need to speak to the boss, Paolo, who would be back in five minutes. I explained to Massimo where we lived, which prompted him to ask 'the house of Vicky?' (in Italian, of course). I realised that Vicky was the daughter of Keith (from whom we bought the house) - she and her boyfriend had initially come over and lived here with Keith and Geri before moving back to the UK after a couple of years. Indeed, several of the bills that we've been paying have still been in her name.

As soon as Massimo realised that we had bought the house from Keith and Geri, he moved onto talk about the weather (it seems it's not just and English pursuit), and seemed to be telling me to expect snow this winter, maybe even for Christmas!

After the small talk was over, Noah and I left and headed to the other side of Pescia, to Davide's hardware store on the road to Lucca. I decided I would try and buy as much here as I could, as I like Davide, and he's certainly a lot friendlier and more helpful than the grumpy old bloke in the other hardware store. Alas, all he could provide me with was the jerry can - but while I was asking for chainsaw trousers, a woman who was waiting in the queue started talking to Davide, and then he in turn to her, both very quickly. I wasn't quite sure if the conversation was for my benefit as I couldn't follow what they were saying, but when it ended and she looked at me for a response, I had to confess that I couldn't understand. She asked me where I lived, and when I told her, and she said I should try Frateschi's for the trousers. That hadn't even occurred to me, so I thanked them both and left. 

Next stop, grumpy hardware store. The only thing I wanted from here was kindling, but grumpy man had none. He showed me the firelighters instead, so I bought a pile of those anyway (if we don't use them for the fire, they'll keep for the BBQ next year).

Next stop was the 'agraria castellare' on the southern end of Pescia. This place is fast becoming a favourite - they don't stock everything I could need (they're not a hardware store), but if it's anything related to farming or gardening, they seem to have it and for very good prices. However, all I could find here was the metal fence posts, no chainsaw trousers or kindling. It was bit of a long shot, but I thought I'd try anyway. That meant that the only place left was OBI yet again - but at least I knew they had tarpaulins and bags of kindling.

It was now 11:20am, and the window for going to see Paolo in Frateschi's (which closes at noon) was rapidly closing, so it was a quick dash in and out of OBI. Two tarps and four bags of kindling later, we were heading back to the car while I explained to Noah how the trolley-for-a-euro system worked. He'd never seen the likes of it before, and was surprised to see that I got my euro back after plugging the trolley back into the line at the end. He said he'd never heard of such a system before, but that in the US, Walmart have introduced trolleys with GPS that stop the wheels turning once they are taken outside of the car park - a clever system indeed, but one that seemed to result in piles of them being left where they were emptied and not returned. It reminded me of the story of NASA inventing a pen that would work in space, while the Russians just took pencils with them - I'm not sure that's a completely true story, but it's a good analogy nonetheless.

By this time, it was quarter to noon, so we hot-footed it in the direction of Pietrabuona. We arrived at Frateschi's at two minutes past noon, to see that a queue was delaying their closing time - so we went in to join the queue and wait out turn. Paolo had clearly been briefed by Massimo, so it was a quick process to order and pay for two cubic metres of gravel (out of interest, this is the only thing I've bought so far by volume, rather than by weight). It took more time to explain to the driver who would be delivering the stuff that I wanted it dumping just behind the gates at the top of the drive and not near the house, as the drive slopes down and if it was at the house, I'd have to barrow it all back uphill. I got the job done though, and was told it would be delivered this evening.

When we got home, Noah and I set to work putting up the tarpaulin that would make gym version 2.0 a reality. We also wanted to make it high enough to be able to swing an axe under (not quite the same thing as wide enough to swing a cat) so that we could continue with chopping and splitting wood in the wet weather. After drilling a few more holes in the render and driving some of the new fence posts into the ground opposite, we had a new gym/wood chopping/bicycle repair/workshop/all-weather picnic area. And rather grand it is too, I just hope it lasts longer than version 1.0.

Should be enough room to swing an axe!

After lunch under a slightly threatening-looking sky, but in warm temperatures, I suggested to Noah that, as it still hadn't rained at all, and it looked likely to stay dry for the immediate future, he should consider a lift to Lucca straight after lunch - especially as he shouldn't, technically, have been working at all today. After much deliberation, he decided to accept the offer, and after Helen and I had filled in a doggy adoption form (to find out whether 'Jeremy', the pointer cross, could become a reality), I dropped Noah into Lucca with a rough plan to collect him from Pescia train station later in the evening after he had called to let us know what time he'd be arriving. The plan was rough as we needed to accommodate Antonio coming to see me at the house to look at the chainsaw at around 6.30pm, and Helen being out (with the car) in Pescia with Sue for another Italian lesson between 5pm and 6.30pm.

On the way home from dropping Noah off in Lucca, I decided to stop off and see Enrico as I was passing his garage. The brakes on the car had all of a sudden started to grind horribly, so I knew it needed sorting sooner rather than later to minimise expense. I pulled in at the garage to find him and his colleague busy fixing cars.

Enrico recognised me after a second, and I explained that the brakes needed changing. Instead of going into a discussion about when to bring the car back in (as I was expecting to happen), he insisted he have a look immediately - a good thing, I thought, as he could assess what he needed to order and when I brought it back, it would be a simple job of replacing whatever it needed. He took both front wheels off and then the pads and threw them somewhere after showing me there was almost no pad left at all and that it was pretty much metal on metal. That certainly explained the noise! He measured the discs and told me that they were probably OK, but that they were right at their limit and asked me what I wanted to do. I asked for a price for both bits and, after jumping on the phone, he told me that another €130 would cover two pairs of new discs - so I opted to get the job done properly.

What I now expected was for him to consult his diary to find a suitable time to book the car in to do the work - but instead, he sent his friend somewhere with the old discs. I asked when he wanted to change the discs and brakes and he said 'subito' - straight away! Apparently he had sent his mate up the road on foot to collect the new parts! It seemed that our tactic of buying a ubiquitous Fiat Doblo was paying dividends. However, I soon realised that this pay-off could come at a cost, and not just a financial one: it was now about 4:20pm, and Helen needed the car to go out for her Italian lesson at 5pm, and at the moment, the parts were in the box, Enrico and I were drinking coffee, and it was at least a ten-minute drive home!

Enrico goes to work.

Helen needed the car in about 20 minutes at this point...

I called Helen to warn her that things could be going pear shaped, she in turn called Sue to make a back-up plan, but as it happened, even after Enrico had fitted the spares and insisted on taking the car out for a test drive, and then I had paid for the work, I was still on the road at a couple of minutes past five - not ideal, but not a disaster either. I arrived at the house at 5:18pm to find Helen at the end of the drive waiting for a Le Mans style change-over of driver, so I waved her off onto her first solo drive in the dark into town and I went to the house to find the cats, the geese having already been put to bed single handedly by my wife (with a little help from some lettuce).

Antonio arrived shortly afterwards and looked at the chainsaw. After a hard revving it for a little while, the oil started to flow. It seems that, had I carried on cutting a little while longer, I wouldn't have needed to call him at all - but as it turned out, he needed me to sign the guarantee anyway, so I didn't feel too bad about calling him out. We chatted for a few minutes and I used English where I could, to help him, as promised, then he left me with my ready-to-use chainsaw.

When I got back into the house after waving Antonio off, the phone rang. It was Noah, who was calling, as planned, from Lucca train station to say that his train would get into Pescia at 18:50 - in theory, too late for him to walk up and meet Helen after her lesson (which was due to finish at 18:30), so I suggested that he should wait in the bar opposite the station until I could there to collect him. I kicked myself for not having handed the  mobile phone to Helen when she set off into town, as I had no way of letting her know that Noah would be at the station - which meant that she would have to drive all the way back home, only for me to drive all the way back into town to pick up Noah,

Come 7.40pm, there was no sign of Helen, and I was starting to worry about Noah sitting all on his own at the station wondering where his lift had got to! Minutes later, however, Helen walked through the door - I made to dash to go and take the keys from her to drive into town to pick up Noah, but she cut me off, telling me that Noah was just installing himself back in the apartment downstairs! I was confused, but she explained that, once their Italian lesson had finished (which had overrun, again), Sue suggested that they drop by the station (since they were so close to it) on the off-chance that Noah might be waiting there - and, as they drew up, they had spotted a lone figure sitting on the pavement waiting patiently! Noah must have been a little confused, because they turned up in Sue's green Fiat Panda (and he'd never met Sue before either), but he seemed grateful to have been picked up! Sue drove both Helen and Noah back to her house, where they transferred to our car and Helen drove Noah home. All safe and sound!

After all that, the three of us settled down to some home-cooked Tuscan ragu from the freezer and a glass of wine. Tomorrow really is meant to be wet (the forecast is '100% chance' of rain), so we will be putting the all-new undercover gym/wood cutting area to the test!

Is it the weekend yet?

The last seven days of hard graft took their toll this morning, and I was not in the mood for a day's strimming at Lanciole again - but needs must, so I left Helen at home as she finished her morning's exercise and headed up the valley with all my usual tools plus a waterproof coat, as rain was due at some point today.

The morning disappeared to the sound of the four-stroke engine strapped to my back along with a curious goo splattering me from time to time. My forearms were spattered, and even my face caught the odd bit through the very fine mesh of my face guard. It was odd stuff - different colours and very sticky. It took me until lunchtime to realise that it was slug innards! Yuck. It was damp underfoot today, despite no rain actually falling, and the damp had clearly brought out all the slimy creatures - it's safe to say that I had at least halved their numbers by the time I finished...

When I called home to check in with Helen at lunch time, she was still busy working, but today she was doing so in a warmer-than-usual office, courtesy of the fire I lit in the mini log burner in there before I left today (it still didn't stop her making a hot water bottle though!).

After a quick lunch break, I went back to strimming. I desperately wanted to throw the towel in and was almost praying that rain would stop play, but it never came. Mid-afternoon, I switched tasks in an attempt to help me limp through the final furlong, but it was still a struggle and I was very glad to hear the church bells of Lanciole and Crespole across the way chiming time to go home. I loaded the tools and a pile more wood into the bus and rolled back down the valley home.

As I drove down the driveway, I met Noah walking in the same direction - when I had spoken to Helen at about 12:30pm, she said that he still hadn't surfaced. He knew that he had been planning on staying up until the wee small hours to watch the Denver Broncos play the New England Patriots, and it was his day off after all, so who are we to judge (and we we're both 19 once... I think!)?

When he did surface, after coming up to the house to make himself a packed lunch, he went for a walk up to Vellano, and then from there down to Calamari and back to ours. He was out walking for about four hours so certainly made up for his lie-in. He said that three people had stopped to offer him a lift, not realising he was out for a walk by choice and not just trying to get somewhere! He said that his patchy Italian failed him and he had to resort to gesticulating to explain he was OK!

As Noah headed back to the apartment and I started unloading the car, I heard Helen up on the terraces behind me finishing work for the day - after finishing her office work, she spent an hour and a half back on the hidden terraces again. She came down and helped me unload the car, then I went indoors to call Antonio about the problem with the chainsaw. He's going to call in at ours tomorrow after work, so I'd better make sure I have small coffees at the ready!

Helen and I then went to feed the geese and put them to bed - they really are getting quite vocal these days, especially when it comes to lettuce time! I's really quite funny seeing the gander going nuts.

Then it was time to call the cats in and catch up on our respective days while translating an email we had received in response to one of our enquiries yesterday about a puppy. 'Jeremy', the extremely cute pointer puppy who had apparently been found wandering the countryside all alone, was being advertised by a rescue centre in Bologna via the Italian eBay site. He looked like he was just crying out for some owners, and while we have some reservations about re-homing an abandoned dog, it's how we've always added new pets to the family in the past, and it's how we like to do it. We've emailed some questions back this evening, so will wait to see what comes of it.

Squash and feta risotto tonight, and an early night, I think. Tomorrow is Noah's second day off , so I'm looking forward to a day catching up with admin and doing slightly less physical work.

The end of a great run

If we are to believe the forecasters (and the clouds starting to appear in the sky), today has marked the end of a long run of gorgeous weather. All week (and weekend) long, we've been working hard with the help of Noah, our 'HelpXer' - and what a difference an extra pair of hands has made! We can barely believe he's only 19 - his experience on a couple of family farms has stood him in good stead at the start of his Help X experience, and with only a brief explanation as to what's required, he's been able to complete a number of different tasks extremely competently. Today, after a morning's strimming (or weed-whacking, as they call it in the States), Noah and I were planning to turn our attention to wood cutting and splitting.

Helen, on the other hand, had her favourite petrol-fuelled tool (the hedge trimmers) back in her hands and was set to make further inroads into the brambles on the 'hidden' terraces (a little way up the drive) in the hope that we would be able to open up an area that would be large enough, but sufficiently well hidden by tree cover to conceal a temporary goose enclosure. I could hear that she had been very industrious all morning (after having baked chocolate and ginger biscuits and made a start on preparing a rice salad for lunch, that is), and she headed back for more after lunch.

After lunch, I took Noah into the goose enclosure to help shepherd them onto a different terrace. They refuse point blank to use the ramps that I put in to aid their moving between the terraces, and as such they have largely stuck to the same terrace - and pecked it bare. We've noticed that there has been a sudden increase in the amount of feed they have been taking from the feed dispenser during the day, and we think it's because there is simply nothing left to eat on the terrace that they insist on staying on. Noah and I managed eventually to herd them down to the terrace below their house - although they wouldn't use the ramp to make their transition any easier. The minute they landed on the 'new' terrace, they started eating the grass like it was going out of fashion. Result! (Later on in the afternoon, though, we noticed they had flapped their way back up to their preferred - bare - terrace. Stupid birds!)

Thinking about using the ramp.

Nope, second thoughts.

Florence can't understand why they are so stupid.

Shepherding done, I took Noah to the other end of the drive to collect a large piece of tree trunk I'd spotted while collecting wood with Mike a couple of weeks ago. The trunk - which I had earmarked as a chopping block for wood splitting - was down on the lower donkey track that heads downwards from the end of the driveway nearest the road.

We took the wheelbarrow with us and left it on the drive, before venturing down the somewhat overgrown track to the pile of wood that included what was going to be our first ever chopping block.

It took both of us to carry it, and we had to make two stops along the way back up the track to catch our breath and adjust our grip on the huge chunk of wood until finally we got it to the top and dropped it into the barrow for the downhill trip back to the house.

Having had some prior experience, Noah started on the wood splitting while I tentatively made a start with the new (and so far unused) chainsaw, using it to cut the larger logs in the pile into smaller pieces ready for splitting.

He's done this before!

Saw horse ready. Chain saw ready.

It works (if only temporarily).

After having cut a couple of logs, I noticed that the chain on the saw wasn't oiling itself - so that put a premature end to that activity, and I will have to get in touch with Antonio tomorrow to find out why. It was thus a frustrating start, but we know we have the back-up and a warranty, so there's no need to worry - I just hope it's a quick fix so that I can get back to cutting this week.

Noah and I then took it in turns splitting wood - why has nobody ever told me how much fun this is?!! It's a very satisfying and addictive activity, and I was disappointed when the pile for splitting ran out - I could have happily gone on until the light faded. 

Firewood!

At 3.30pm, I stood Noah down for the day with a cold beer and got the chop saw out to cut up some of the smaller bits of wood until Helen appeared at about 4.15pm, having run out of fuel and having decided that that marked a good point to down tools for the day. I cleared my tools up and we went to have a look at the clearing she'd made.

Helen has definitely found her stride in this activity - I was amazed at how much she had cleared today. I only knew she was here all day by the sound of the hedge trimmers whirring away - she had smashed her way through piles of bramble and had cleared a sizeable area that will make a great spot for the geese and it's so high up and at such an angle that we think a new house up here wouldn't be visible from the drive - so after today, it seems we have a rough plan and a definite new site for the geese, which is great news!

'Goose Island 2.0'?

Feeling buoyed and a little weary from the day's work, we took a trip to the bins, driving across our new and soon-to-be-used drainage channels (rain is due tomorrow afternoon and set to continue for the rest of the week) for the first time. When we returned, we put the geese to bed, sent a couple of email enquiries about puppies and got the cats in before starting dinner, cleaning out the fire and lighting a new one with some of the fruits of today's labours.

So, as the weekend draws to a close and we take stock of the progress we've made over the course of just one week, it's easy to imagine how we could become addicted to this HelpXer arrangement! While it naturally took a little while for us all to get comfortable around each other, Noah has been an absolute pleasure to have around and we're sure we have been very lucky with our first HelpX experience. We still have Noah here until Friday, but his 'weekend' starts tomorrow, so we'll only have a couple of working days with him before he leaves. After that, it'll be a quick turnaround of the apartment for some guests for a couple of nights, and then another turnaround for our second foray into HelpX-ing - this time with a New Zealand couple who are coming for a fortnight. Looking at how much we've achieved with just one extra pair of hands in a week, we can barely imagine how much progress we might make with two extra pairs of hands!

All Saints

I got up at just after 6.30am this morning as usual to go and let the geese out. I wasn't sure how much use my left hand was going to be today after last night's tendonitis/strain injury, but despite feeling stiff and still a little sore, it felt a lot better, giving me hopes of being able to get out on the terraces and do some work later on. Therefore, instead of setting up for my usual exercise session, I decided I ought to get some preparation done for some cooking. During the week, we had made our way through all of the batches of soup I'd prepared last weekend, so it was time to re-stock. So that's why I found myself doing the washing up at 6.45am, before embarking on a mammoth leek-and-potato-soup cook up. I was glad I had made an early start, as the soup was only just nearing simmering point at 9am when Noah arrived for his slightly later than usual (it being the weekend) breakfast.

Once breakfast was out the way, and the soup taken off the hob, Stuart set Noah back on kindling collecting/piling and bill-hooking duties while he and I went out to run a couple of errands.

It was nice to be out - I realised I hadn't really seen much of the outside world (beyond our boundaries, that is) for well over a week. Our shopping list for the morning consisted of: some bags of gravel for the driveway, some flea-and-tick treatment for the cats, some safety boots/footwear for me, and a saw horse. We were going to head to Davide's ferramenta first of all, as he sells safety wear. As we drove into town though, it struck us that it was very quiet for a Saturday. Stuart even double checked with me that it was indeed Saturday, and as we drove past the entrance to the main square we realised that the usual Saturday market wasn't on. We also noticed that a few of the shops along the way were closed and started to suspect that something was afoot.

On arriving at Davide's, we found his shop also all closed up. Hmm. We wondered if we were attempting the impossible and going shopping on a public holiday!

The agraria on the roundabout on the Lucca road was open though, so we popped in there to try and find flea/tick treatment for the cats. Over the last few months they have both been plagued with ticks - Lucca more so than Florence, but they have both suffered. With the regularity at which the nasty little blood suckers appear, we wondered if Lucca just sticks his head into tick-infested holes in the ground. This morning we were galvanised into taking serious action when Lucca came in from outside and jumped up onto the bed for a bit of fuss and a brush. While brushing him, Stuart noticed a couple of black specks on the bed linen - which were moving. On closer inspection, they proved to be ticks. He found a total of four, all of which were marching swiftly towards their furry host, but had yet to take hold. Ticks are horrible little parasitic creatures and can carry disease, and after a quick Internet search we realised that you can get a combined flea and tick treatment - which is what we went out in search of. Sure enough, the agraria - which is one of the most crazily laid out Aladdin's caves of a shop I've ever seen (although I've a feeling that Aladdin's mother would be shouting at him to tidy his cave if she saw it in that state) - had packets of Frontline combi, so we bought enough to last 3 months and went on our way.

As we drove out of town, there was an enormous queue of traffic waiting in the opposite direction - something was definitely happening today, this wasn't normal Saturday traffic!

Of course, the large, out-of-town DIY superstore Obi was open. We didn't manage to find any bags of gravel, and their range of safety shoes was deemed too limited to pursue, but we did manage to pick up a saw horse (so that Stuart and Noah can get stuck into the chopping and splitting of firewood next week) and some signage for our gates ('beware of the dog' - regardless of whether/when we add a canine to our livestock inventory, it can't hurt for people to think we have one - and 'private property', to try to discourage people from thinking it's fine to wander down our drive).

After Obi we headed back towards Pescia and decided to treat ourselves to a coffee in town - the last week has been a bit full-on with working, cooking, cleaning and more working, so it seemed a nice idea to sit down together for a coffee.

The main square was packed with cars and most of the shops were closed - we also noticed that some of the people out and about were dressed perhaps a little more smartly than we would normally expect. Our new favourite coffee shop was closed, so we went into our second favourite, Bar Poulter. Bar Poulter was also heaving - the outdoor seating area was full, with Italians all sitting, lapping up the warm sunshine (we've never seen it full, even in the height of summer), and even inside it was buzzing. We managed to find a free table though, and sat down to a couple of cappucino ginsengs - ah, lovely!

Coffee break over, it was time to head home to make sure Noah was still getting on alright. Noah was still working away with the wood, not even having stopped for a coffee break, so we told him to down tools for a coffee straight away. We told him our suspicions of it being a public holiday, and he remembered having seen signs in the hostel in Rome about 1st November, and soon we all came to the realisation that today, 1st November, is All Saints day - which is a public holiday in Italy. Mystery solved!

Stuart went out to join Noah for a while, while I put washing out, made up a meal plan for next week's meals, wrote out a shopping list, finished the soup preparations (putting two batches in the freezer), and got lunch ready.

We sat down to eat our leek and potato soup, bread, cheese and salami in the searing heat of the sun. Today seemed to be at least a couple of degrees warmer than yesterday, and we noted that we would have considered the weather to be that of a really decent summer's day back in the UK - yet, unbelievably, it's November. Quite incredible.

A different view of our house against the blue sky. You can really see the recently cleared terraces now - it's exciting to see the change.

Once lunch was dispatched, it was time for me to get my work clothes on. Stuart had kindly offered to do the supermarket run and let me get my work boots on, so he headed for Lidl and Esselunga (hoping that they would not be working to bank-holiday hours), while I re-filled the geese's water bowl (which they'd somehow managed to kick over - probably by trying to sit in it) and pool, then headed with the hedge trimmers, bow saw and clippers to the area that we are tentatively investigating as a 'Goose Island 2.0'. Noah, meanwhile, set himself up with the handheld strimmer and started to give the terraces a good cut - hopefully the last they will need before the spring.

I spent a couple of hours clearing the designated 'Goose Island 2.0' area, which is hidden in the trees where we hope we will be able to hide the goose house, away from the prying eyes of officials from Florence. I managed to clear a good area, but the jury is still out on whether or not it will be fit for purpose. We aren't sure how much leaf cover will be lost as the winter draws on, and how much that will affect the visibility of the goose house from the drive. However, clearing these extra sections of terrace will be useful irrespective of whether it's used as the all-new Goose Island.

'Secret' clearing.

Stuart eventually made it back from his supermarket marathon and, still not wanting to drive the car over the drainage channels, he unloaded the car from halfway up the drive with the help of the wheelbarrow. (Necessity is the mother of invention!)

A new kind of supermarket trolley.

Stuart stood Noah down from work at a little after 4pm, came to inspect my handiwork, then helped me collect up my tools and the pair of us went for a walk up the donkey track that Mum and I had explored the other week. This was the first time Stuart had been up the donkey track, and I wanted to see if, between us, we could get our bearings a little better. We climbed to the top, clambered our way through acacias and brambles and tried desperately to get a handle on exactly whereabouts we were standing - as we were entirely surrounded by trees it was impossible to get any point of reference to work out where the house was, how far up we were and so on. We noted a tall pine tree that we didn't think we recognised, before clambering our way back down the path. Once at the bottom - standing in the car park area - we spotted the pine tree. It's miles (not literally, of course) away from where we thought the top of our terraces was! We need to double check things against the land registry map, but if we are correct in believing that it is still our land and our terraces way up there, that will mean that we have barely uncovered half of the terraces so far, maybe even fewer. Yikes.

By the time we'd returned from our mini-expedition, the light was starting to fade so it was time to put the geese to bed, call the cats indoors, unpack the shopping, do yet more washing up, start preparing dinner (as a special weekend treat we're offering Noah home-made pizza tonight), light a fire and write the blog.

I used to look forward to a Sunday morning lie-in, but geese don't have the same foibles, so it will be an early start as usual (such are the commitments of having livestock) - and Noah and Stuart have finally run the stock of ginger biscuits dry, so it will probably be an early morning bake-off tomorrow!