Rain, Rain

Oh man, hang on guys, this one is probably going to be insanely long, there is a lot to write about for a week of no blogging!!

I can not believe that in four days I will have been in Italy for one month...that is absolutely insane. And as Claire comes back soon, I have really been striving to take this time of solitude up with God. Well, lets just say along with spiritual growth, of course I have had many "life lessons". Last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we had a couple come on two half day and one full day rides. I think that was probably when it hit me that I am the boss here, I am the one expected to have the answers and I have to rely on my own common sense. Ha! Me? Common sense? Oh, it has been buried for a while, but having those guests has helped me start cleaning that closet. See, first day they were coming I had to match horses with riders...and can I just say that when people are never honest about their skills, and you barely know the horses yourself matching can be a very difficult task. In three days I also had to deal with horses going lame, sore backs, and various other day to day ailments of horses. On the trail rides Kathy and Peter had loads of questions...can I just say answering "I don't know" to basic questions thirty times in a row is really quite humiliating. I think Kathy knew more than I did about horses and that was humbling especially when she kept asking about my degree. Good question...what HAVE I learned in college? If I could change one thing it would be to have learned more practical stuff.

On that first ride I also learned some very basic knowledge. You know how people talk about rubbing salt in wounds as painful? Well, in my great revelation of having blisters cut open rubbing against sweaty horse necks, I realized with the rather painful stinging, that even horse sweat...composed of salt...can be just as painful as rubbing salt in the wounds. Ridiculous realization, right? I have to amuse myself somehow... Also, I know one particular individual...*Eric* eh hem...who will appreciate this next observation. I have recently recieved a rock in the mail from a Volcano in New Mexico...sorry if those facts are wrong friend...but we went on this ride with an old wall and road from the midevil period...WAY COOL! I started thinking that Eric (geologist, rockaholic, etc) would really enjoy this. And then I thought, well why is a midevil wall of rock so cool when ALL rocks are older than dinosaurs, or something of the sort. That means even at your local park you are seeing something as cool and as old as Roman ruins in Tuscany!!! Or not...

Okay, so the whole day ride we stopped for lunch at a government farm (did you know that the government is in charge of the Italy horse breed breeding here?). Oh the food in Italy is glorious I tell you! This was my first Italian home cooked lunch and well, lets just say I ate way too much. We had a table set up with wine, flowers and all...even a grapevine overhead! They served pasta with olive oil, tomato, onion, garlic and basil (all fresh from the garden, except the noodles). I thought that was it, but oh no...then they served a salad of simply olive oil, salt and pepper (SO GOOD, even for a non salad eater!), then we had quiche with zucchini from the garden, and then we had desert. Most of you know I hate peaches, I think they are slimy and disgusting. I was sad when I learned this desert was made of peaches. It was a crustana with a peach marmalade drizzled on top. I tried it. I ate THREE! (There were leftovers...who am I do deny deliciousness...it was going to be thrown away! A CRIME!)

That night I was invited to dinner at Ferraria again...we ate in the courtyard, basically the same feeling as the last time, but different views. Well, Kathy and Peter had taken a cooking class and so we ate their creation. They even let me help make spaghetti! Let us just say it was...interesting. Kathy took a video of me...I will hopefully post it soon. But Stefano, the teaching chef threw in fresh veggies and let me tell you, there is NOTHING like fresh pasta. The veggies included carrots, zucchini, I think olives and something else. Then we had chicken and green beans. I will tell you what...oh my gosh...they flavored them with olive oil, salt, and pepper, wrapped about 6 with prosciutto, sprinkled them with parmesean cheese and baked them. They were AMAZING! I could have eaten only those for dinner. Then we had dessert...the most bizarre dessert in the world. At first I didn't even know if I liked it! It was a lime and mint mousse. Weird right? Oh no, SO good. They call it Bavarese. Oh man...watch out world.

Fast forward to Friday. My cooking. Not quite as elegant as the already prepared food I have been blessed to experience. Let me explain. You know that last grocery trip from the movies, with food spilling all over the road? Well, in my fluster when I got home I COMPLETELY failed to realize that the gnocchi I bought had to be regrigerated, and was only good for three days. Technically, I should have thrown it away, it smelled like rotting potatoes. Well, when you are running low on food and hungry...you don't waste even smelly gnocchi. Potatoes can not make you sick, right? Right. I redeemed them with uh, a LOT of sauce, extra time boiling and some salt. I guess in Italy even the packaged food is fresh as it said on the bag EAT IN THREE DAYS! It sat on the shelf for at least a week not refrigerated. Saturday night I ate the other bag. And tried to cook chicken legs on a frying pan. Hey, Claire did it, so can I, right? heh. The stupid chicken leg kept bleeding! GROSS! Then the skin started turning black no matter how much butter-oil I put in the pan. Just when I thought it was done...more blood. Seriously not pretty. Finally I gave up and just ate them, with my moldy gnocchi. I had to laugh at myself...only one way to learn your way around the kitchen, right?

Ah, Saturday...Feravanti came to help me with the horses. We finished cleaning the disgusting back room. The leather that had been hanging on the walls for who knows how long was GROSS to touch...full of cobwebs. He kept asking for grasso (grease). We did not have any, so he mixed milk, yes cows milk and water and we washed the leather in that. I never would have thought to wash tack with milk. You? I guess there is a first for everything. When it dried, it was not perfect, but much much better. Leather comes from cows, milk comes from cows...I guess it makes sense on a strange level.

OKay, now I have to tell you guys...every single morning and evening when I feed I am usually thinking of what I will write here, or praying, or thinking of a boy I like, or what am I going to do with my life, or something of the sorts. I also have started naming hay bales. I have a very strong love hate relationship with round hay bales, and if you have never pitch forked one before...consider yourself missing out on a humorous life experience. In my head there are three types of these bales. The angel hair pasta bales, the fettucini bales, and the random bales...usually one or the other above mixed with leaves, twigs, and/or mold. Angel hair bales (in reference to the pasta) is a fine hay, easy to pitchfork in large amounts and are my friends. Fettucini bales and I argue every morning...they refuse to give me hay. Yes I have yelled at them and kicked them...they are stubborn! I think watching me try to pitchfork hay could be national entertainment. I simply do not have a lot of upper arm strength to take away the hay that the bales hold onto with lockjaw! I really can not put it into words.

The last few days we have had a lot of rain. Pitchforking hay in the rain is really a pain in the rear end, something I will not miss I must say. The rain makes the pitchfork wet. The fences have electric wiring. Hay does not trap electric conductivity...I think I have more electric stimulation these last few days then I care to count on my hands and toes. See, fences don't know the difference between a horse trying to escape and you accidentally brushing the metal against it to feed...they send a shock either way.

Lessons of the week:
Horse salt hurts like normal salt in wounds
Dry chicken is better than half cooked chicken
To get good flavored chicken you should season it before cooking
Riding gloves double great as potholders...sort of
Olive oil, parm. cheese, and wine are crucial to a life in Italy
Hay does not trap electric currents

Well, a humor note. Vittorio doesn't believe in God as I do, but he knows of my strong belief. This week I was a horrible, horrible person. I COMPLETELY forgot to water the ponies down the road. As a joke, partly serious, he got me a rosary, with all the mysteries in Italian (really, kind of cool) and told me I had to pray it five times for forgiveness. I find this humorous becuase I had just been praying for forgiveness since I can not go to confession. The humor of God... As yesterday was Sunday, I got to go to Mass. It was a Mass to also celebrate Father's 60th priesthood anniversary. They even had a choir! I must say, I love the sound of foreign language singing in Church. The sound reminded me of visiting the Fraternas in Peru and their beautiful singing. I wish I had had the words so I could have tried to join in. It was an evening Mass and Primo gave me a ride..who speaks no English.

As I am lazy and don't want to walk, my ride up the hill is here, will have to finish later...LOVE YOU ALL!

Tracie