Piemonte... BHAAAA

The regal Fabrosane sheep of La Fattoria L'Aurora. Their BHAA is absurd and sounds like Jamie trying to imitate a sheep. I keep expecting to see him jump out of the bushes when I hear it.

One day we traded rams with another farm to minimize incest. This guy weighed a ton. Probably less, actually. Either way it took four of us to lift him into the truck. We covered him with a tarp so rubberneckers and carabinieri wouldn't see what we were up to. Matteo (the patron and boss) is securing he tarp while his wife Caterina tries not to step on the ram's head. An Austrian WWOOFer (Verena? I never did learn her name...) holds Raia, the 3 year old (actual) boss of house and farm.

Here in Piemonte our most important (and coincidentally, most fun) job is to entertain the child. In this photo Armwrecker is demonstrating the proper way to charge a photographer.

One day we had to move some horses across the valley to their open pasture. Caterina led the adult horse while Raphael (a WWOOFer from Quebec) and I had to 'encourage' the three foals to follow. This photo pretty well sums up our lack of experience in this matter.

As if wrestling and chasing horses down one hill, across a river and up into another town wasn't enough, Raphael and I decided to take our backpacks up into the mountains and see what we could see. It was pretty foggy but we still had some incredible views of the Alps in the distance. We slept in a smoky refuge at 1700 m altitude, ate horse sausages and vegetables (we left our pan at the farm) and enjoyed the only two days of decent weather that we have had in weeks.

There's Raphael surveying the next trek: over those mountains to Genova and the ocean! (When it gets warmer.)

They start them young in Piemonte. Here is Raia learning to interact with horses. The foal is meanwhile learning how to interact with toddlers. Both did a great job and are congratulating eachother with a kiss.

Probably my favorite picture ever of Armwrecker: helping Raia stretch her back while Till, the German former Elf (of the same Elves with whom we stayed in Tuscany) surveys the land. Till is a great guy who lives in a teepee near or in the horse stable. Caterina and Matteo feed him and give him cigarrettes. In exchange he looks after the horses. He's got a pretty good thing going for someone who can't use a telephone and has no teeth.


...some drawings that I've done here. The bug was a commision and hopefully I will sell the other one soon. I am also making plans for a large mural to go outside the house. One of the largest paint distributors in Europe (Sikkens) has agreed to provide paint for free. In exchange they will use the mural as advertising when it is finished. Hopefully this will turn out to be a good career move. So there you go, uncles, I am on my way to a real job! (Never.)

alla prossima, ciao!