Last week of relaxation

 This week,as the days cool down,we’ve been lucky to have nothing but time on our hands. The “to do” lists are finished, the grocery list is made and the time line for execution is ready. In three days time guests/workers from all over the coast ( and a few Arizonans) will start arriving for the magic of Olive Harvest. My mind goes to the stories I heard as a child of barn raising events. This must be the closest modern day people can come to the experience. Not many of us really need a barn put up today and truthfully I imagine it would be hard for most of us to come up with enough friends to help us all on the same day. Our friends Jody and Val are blessed with just that….friends who look forward yearly to the olive harvest. The date is transferred every year onto the new calendar and vacations and free time are earmarked for the event! In todays world the idea of working hard for no pay other than friendship and dinner isn’t exactly on top of most peoples list! For Al and I,the joy we get from that one weekend stays we us for the entire year! We are so very lucky to get this experience.

Today I thought I’d share a few pictures of our home away from home. 

The outdoor shower and tub. Nothing like hearing birds and squirrels chattering while you shower! 

The back of our caboose. Look closely and you can see the “tagging” from its previous life

Our front porch.notice the dog bed conveniently placed. We’ve been adopted by Chaka the oldest farm dog. She walks us to our home each night and often spends her evening watching over us. The least we could do is get her bed here and give her lots of pets every morning when she walks us to the main house for coffee

A peak inside… this is actually about the same square footage as our cruise ship room will be so it’s like a practice run! We’ve found it to be just the right size for us.

We don’t spend much of our day inside. Here’s  a quick peek around the places we can be found on any given day

Driving over the bridge can be scary but we are getting used to just closing our eyes and heading straight

The view of the barn from the caboose. There’s a creek somewhere in the picture but with a drought not much water is be flowing,in fact none. Perhaps we’ll get a nice rain the few days before we leave! 

Crossing the bridge brings us to the lion in all his glory. He was saved from demolition due to progress and Jody and Val thought he deserved a better life. Come to find out, one of their friends came by to visit and realized her father was the artist who created the sculpture! So restoration work will begin at some point to bring him back to a fitting life! Next to him is our faithful friend, Chaka. She was lounging while she waited to accompany me back to the house to work. 

 A charming view of the chicken coop, workshop and yard. We spend many hours and minutes here! It’s hard to be stressed when this is my daily life.

Isn’t this pictures of paradise!  The pool was hand made by the owners and when I’ve swam in it during a summer visit it was like heaven to float in! 

This is a sneak peak at the reason for our visit- the olive grove! 

Rows of trees

The trees are full this year. This is a bottom branch…looking upwards every branch looks like this. Good thing we have strong young pickers this year who will be able to climb ladders.

Look close… can you see the dark olives? Did you know the oil is made from all shades of color..from black to green and every color in between. 

All of this is what brings us together next week. 

For now, I’m continuing my relaxation skills and saving my energy for what is to come…a brilliant opportunity to experience community and friendship while working to help our friends. This is what real life is about. And I thank the universe for providing me the opportunity through such a small green hard ball called an olive! 

NorCal part 2 Wine tasting and Art

 Of course whenever we visit Lakeport and Northern California we schedule in a few visits to our favorite wineries. This weeks choices found us in Geyserville, a very small town hidden along Highway 101 north of Santa Rosa undoubtedly in the heart of well known wineries. The two we visit are small storefront tasting room that have some of the most delightful wines in the area. Peche Mele and Mercury are not your average big store wineries but what they lack in glitz they make up for in fabulous taste and great staff. We are always greeted soundly as one of the family. Our group of six rag tag Lake county hooligans are always given the celebrity treatment. https://www.pechmerlewinery.com/  https://www.mercurywine.com/

As always, if you are open to experience and adventure these trips can offer surprises. Outside the wineries we met a farmer unloading the most beautiful buckets of Cosmos flowers. When talking to him about the flowers,he mentioned that he collected them from his property near the freeway. It suddenly dawned on us as to the location and we had a delightful conversation! For anyone familiar with 101 you will recall the unusual triangle of land along the East side of the road that often has unusual sculptures in it. It in a rural setting,actually in the middle of nowhere. Over the 10 years we’ve been driving that way, we’ve seen many unusual works of art, one or two pieces, and on our way this year we noticed new hedges of flowers and trees along with several new artworks. This week fate answered our questions as to why and who! The farmer we engaged in conversation with owns the land and has allowed the Geyserville Sculpture Walk group to use it as an outdoor gallery. How wonderful to meet him and learn the story. Naturally our drive home included a stop to get a close up view. Here’s a few pictures to share of local artists who are exhibiting their work.

I’m not the best photographer but I’m so happy to have these reminders of how art can and should be for the community. 

As for the rest of the week, we continue to plan our calendars in readiness for the upcoming olive harvest, enjoy dinners together, feeding chickens, and sampling  more of the wine treasures we brought home. The weather has finally started cooling enough that long pants and light sweaters are becoming the uniform of the day while we wait for the olives to start getting a little color. This week I visit with my sewing friends and can’t wait to see and hear of their sewing projects from the past year. 

I am reminded daily how the one of the best things in life are friends who are family.

NorCal part one

Autumn wouldn’t be the same without a visit to NorCal, specifically Lake County. This year our time will be just for playing..wine tasting, friend visiting and the highlight event; olive harvest. 

 Our home away from home.  

Cat house, Chicken coop and fish pond

View from our caboose 

The days have been warm with temps in the 80s and nights cool at 40s . A Perfect Lake County fall.

Our days are slow paced and filled with activities ( although I’m not really sure what we really get done,) Albert is starting his “manly man apprenticeship with our friend Mike. Since he no longer needs to be so careful with his hands, he is busy learning all those handy man tasks he missed earlier in life. Plus he has grown an interest in the chickens. He daily gathers eggs when needed and has a conversation with Gypsy the rooster. The farm dogs Roxie, Chaka, and Venus wake us in the morning and make sure they are in line for lots of pets during the day. The plans are underway for various celebrations including a wild night at the best Sushi restaurant in NorCal for my birthday. If I have to get older I can’t imagine celebrating with anyone other than these guys! 

 This week also included one day helping Dale and Mike with their harvest. It was fun to just sit and trim for a few hours instead of the day after day push to get the plants finished before olive harvest. 

Since most of our meals are communal ( reminding me of my hippie commune days) we decided it was time to introduce Bloomer dumplings to the group. We tried to describe them before hand but nothing can compare to the actual dumpling. Using a recipe from my Bloomer Wisconsin friend ,Phyllis ,we served pork steaks, dumplings and sauerkraut. They were surprised at how dense they were but everyone decided they were worth eating!  This morning when we fried up the leftovers with eggs they marveled at what a great thing these dumplings are! 

Tonight’s dinner will be home made egg rolls…we have to eat well to be able to vacation well🤣