More Alpine Blogging

Yesterday it rained. Last night it rained. This morning it rained. This afternoon it rained. Tonight it's raining and tomorrow it's going to rain some more. If you really want to challenge your patience try milking 6 cows in a flooded field while soaking wet. Then move two of those miserable cows to another location and get squished between the stomach of said cow and the side of someone's car. Then come back and ask the other woofer, who incidentally is incapable of milking a cow, if the pigs are fed and have her tell you that she has not left the house all day. Then go to feed the pigs and find out that they have broken the electric fence and pushed their extremely heavy trough all the way down a steep hill.

But then you can end the day with a fire and some homemade spetzle. And of course some German beer because you can't drink the water because the rain has washed all of the mud down from the mountain and into the source.

Really though, life here could not be better.

Alps in France

I am in the Alps in France in the fall. I have thought every single day since I have gotten here that this cannot be my life.

The bad: I smell like old milk, all the time, I'm always tired, I rarely shower, my feet are always cold, everyone speaks French to me all the time, I have man hands, I think I have a cavity, I really wish I could talk to Kari and Nina, I have to wake up early and there is never a single day off.

The good: I can milk a cow, I eat only organically, the sun, the rain, the fall colors, the mountains, hiking, chopping wood, the fresh air, the good water, everyone speaks French to me all the time, and pretty much just life in general.

That's all I have time for right now. I have to go build a pasture for some cows. Who knows if I will leave this place. Perhaps I will stay here until Thanksgiving when I return home.

Monaco

So this morning I was looking at a postcard from Monaco and I thought to myself, "I wonder what's in Monaco." then I realized that it was about 20 minutes away. Here are some things I learned in Monaco today.

1. Everyone has a Porsche or a Ferrari or a Land Rover. I get the first two. Not sure what's up with all the Land Rovers.

2. They have public restrooms all over. Free ones. If you have travelled in Europe, you know what I mean. If you have not travelled to Europe, be prepared.

3. The whole city/country/principality smells wonderful. I'm fairly certain this comes as a direct result of the plethora of public restrooms.

4. They have tours in any language you could possibly want. Yes, to answer your question, I did see a tour in Croatian.

5. They have guards at their palace just like in London, sort of. It's actually just one guy with a gun marching back and forth in front of the door. It's ok though. There's another door 10 meters to left of that one for the tourists to go in.

6. Clownfish lay between 4 and 5 hundred eggs at a time. Yes, I spent only about 4 hours in Monaco. Yes, I went to the museum of oceanography. Yes, it was very cool. Yes, I took more pictures here than I have anywhere else. And yes, I realize that I am a huge nerd who loves science.

Tomorrow morning I go to the Alps to work on a cow farm for a while making cheese.

More soon.

Bastia-Nice

Bastia: Bastia was not that special except for the ferry. If you have never seen a giant ferry load or unload, do it. Maybe I'm just easily amazed but cars on a boat is just crazy to me. And not just a few cars but a traffic jam's worth. And then after the cars they throw in a few eighteen wheel semi trucks. I understand the principles of buoyancy but that boat really should not float.

Nice: I got to Toulon after a night on the ferry. I was there for all of 40 minutes at 8 a.m. but I was not impressed. Took a train to Nice.

Monaco

map from: http://www.rivieraexperience.com/about_villefranche.html

Corsica 2

Corsica

Paris

October 1

I left Christine's house this morning for the city of Bastia. I believe that I left the olive trees and almond trees in good order. Before the harvest seasons all of the trees must be "prepared." This means that all of the dead branches need to be cut, all of the prickly plants that live under them taken out and the grass cut with a pair of clippers (call me crazy but there has to be an easier way to cut grass than a small pair of clippers-weed whacker maybe? oh well). Then we put down a cheesecloth sheet to catch the olives and almonds that fall. The work was really fun towards the end of the week when I got to start using the chainsaw to cut dead branches and unwanted trees. If I could have a job in which I used a chainsaw everyday I think I would be happy.

Anyways, I am now in a cyber cafe in Bastia. In about 6.5 hours I am going to take a huge ferry to Toulon and then Nice from there. I will arrive at the next farm (making cheese in the Alps) on Monday after 2 days of relaxation in Nice.

I am going to try and post some pics right now but I am not sure it will work.

Au revoir!