àèìòù

so. updates.

ive went to 2 farmers markets this weekend, both being wonderful!!

one in collevaldelsa and the other in greve in chianti. the first being wonderful. they had a meat stand and she just had a whole pig leg that she would slice off pieces from for prosciutto! the second one in chianti was much bigger and had lots of art stands. around 1 it was a siesta and all the farmers left and we had a big communal lunch for about an hour and everyone contributed food and wine.

the last couple of days have been kind of a flop though, as we now have 2 wwoofers, so 3 total, and theres really not enough work for everyone. im emailing other farms to see if i can go to them, and one of the new wwoofers here might go with. shes going to a tofu farm next and they need help desperately. i dk, im just feeling really restless and unuseful here. today, i spent my day doing 3 hours of cleaning the house and then an hour pitting fruit for marmalade.

i emailed my dean of admissions about taking an impromptu gap year and just staying here and wwoofing further, but im going back and forth about wanting to do it. i dont think i can go back home soon because its just so…flat there. i feel like i need to stay here longer and be by myself longer instead of going back and being in one place for another year taking intro classes and writing papers and just…bah.

on the plus side, i think i met my roommate, or so she thinks were roomies because we have the same phone number. she looks really nice and is from maine and is a quaker.

so, lets talk about milking sheep and my feelings about that.

so, we have around 350 sheep and they are milked morning and night. the place they are milked in can milk 47 sheep at a time, so we have around 5 rounds of sheep. each sheep is locked into a feeding thing where they eat their dinner-breakfast and once they are locked in, it moves them backward toward the milking device. this consists of moving suction cup things which we attach to their utters and a little metal thing which goes under the utter to hold it up. its very efficient and it helps the sheep, but i cant help feel like im raping them somehow. its like…open your legs and if you dont, i will pry them open and attach a suction cup and take your milk anyways.

oh well, its actually not as awful as it sounds, but it makes me a little uncomfortable. also, sheep are honestly the stupidest animals ever. its can be amusing sometimes, but when they keep going the wrong way or try to fit 2 into a 1 sheep feeding spot, you literally need to grab their leg or tail and drag them out or else they wont move or will start crawling under the other sheep. also, if one of them escapes from the pastures where they live 23 hours a day, all of them will follow and then you just have a bunch of sheep wandering around your farm.

ive taken up eating a spoon of nutella and having an occasional cigarette (no, not being a chain smoker, maybe like 1.5 a day) when im stressed or bored, which now is often. it helps to have another wwoofer to talk to though.

im going to florence with melanie, the wwoofer, on sunday and were staying over till monday and then im going to meet maria and emma. after that im either coming back here or hopefully going to a new farm until the 15th. also

i need to

-cancel my monastary reservations in rome

-make reservations in florence

okay, much love,

abby

p.s. its hella hot here and i have this really weird tan where my feet are like stark white, below the knee is tan, above the knee is white and my hands are white from wearing gloves in the garden. ive also given up shaving and am becoming a true european…hair-wise that is.

too much info? too bad!

love once again,

abby

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