WWOOFer Wagon

The WWOOFer Wagon is finished at Louise's house! Its a bit cozy, some might say small, but I find it suits my needs perfectly. Note the breakfast porch. Kudos to Jamie and Armwrecker for their initial help and enthusiasm. You guys will have to come back someday to sleep in it.

The white shutters just below the roof can slide out when the weather permits (i.e. all spring and summer). I want to get some aquatic plants growing in that glass jug next to the porch. The roof is thatched cane over plastic with a wood and PVC ridge.

Interior view at night. The drawing is of my friend Andrea, another American WWOOFer from Dino's last fall. Please note the golden ceiling. That is mosquito netting laying on my sleeping bag in the foreground and above Andrea's double-head is a shelf for my clothes.

And just down the hill from my breakfast porch is my own personal bath house. Bath roof. Bath tub. My dear friend Tom Dawson came and visited from Paris and constructed a great waterfall that feeds the bathtub. He also helped me lay the stone steps which you can see in the background. I hope that vines will take to the cane pergola. Next project upon returning to Louise's: solar hot water heater to turn this bathtub into a HOTtub!

Meanwhile I'm here in Piemonte waiting for paint to arrive so I can start painting this mural...

ciao for now

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!

One of Armwrecker's (Anneke, for those not in the know) videossss

Videos took a while to load but Anneke really wanted to share this one with the world.

Drawing for a band

I sketched a group of musicians that came to play at Dino's. They loved the drawings and my paintings that are on permanent display in Dino's little concert hall and have asked me to draw an album cover or flyers for them. Here are the drawings I did on their Myspace page.

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=416728168&albumID=683187&imageID=12798102

ciao ciao

Finally some photos!!!

Dino, king of meats. During our goat sausage and salami making day.

This is a quick photo to prove that I am still making work. I think this woodcarving will be a part of the WWOOFer Wagon (see below) when it is finished.

Here's a photo from Carnevale in Foiano. This was one of four huge floats complete with chicken entourage.

Jamie. And a cemetary. This somehow completely explains our Calabrian experience. Also the next one. Below are Jamie and Armwrecker jammin' with Avramo, our favorite gypsy godfather.

We spent our nights at the Elfi village reading by candlelight when we couldn't handle the insane children any more. We still had an insane Jamie however. (bottom left)

Here's some American gremlin working on the WWOOFer Wagon at Louise's. Roof is finished and soon I will return to put up the walls, windows, door and porch. Then I will live in it.

One day Louise and I went looking for a bike. She spotted this one in the iron scrapyard and I cleaned it up. It works great except that it is only a single speed and the brakes are of questionable quality.

Here's Armwrecker playing with the polar bear dogs at our newfound farm/home in Piemonte. Here they breed old speciess of sheep and horses and in the summer hold workshops for children. They have asked us to paint a mural on the wall in this photo. More on that to come.

Here is my friend Roberto performing in a nearby theater. Yes, that is whipped cream.

The sculpture is finished! It also has another face on the back. The head and hands were carved from seasoned olive wood and the rest is patched together from rotted olive trees and salvaged metal. His name is Culsans (an Etruscan guardian deity) and he is watching the sunset over Lousie's house.

night

O, Calabria!

So I'm not very good at keeping my word. Photos have not appeared on this blog for quite some time and I am afraid that it will be a bit longer until they do. The internet here is so slow that it is hardly worth the hours of waiting that it takes to upload even a few small pics. To make up for that lack I will regale you all with a few highlights of what I've been doing.

Calabria was... interesting. I had a great time staying with Jamie and Armwrecker. We were basically on our own, since the farmer where we were staying took off for a conference as soon as I arrived. Food was a bit scarce but we were able to sustain our WWOOFer camel bellies with some wild salad foraging, lots of beans and chickpeas (we constantly had beans soaking in our tiny kitchen, and bread bought from an unlicensed widower who sells it out of her basement.

Calabrian culture was very different from the Tuscan one that I am used to. Tourism is not as large an industry down there so us three Americans were something to be stared at. Especially when we rolled around on 3 shabby bikes that Jamie slapped together from scrap, wearing our dirty farm clothes and boots with eukalelees, cameras and sketchbooks slung over our shoulders. We weeded oregano fields, cared for the animals, pruned vineyards, threw oranges at the marauding cats, and made music in the nights. We were often conscripted by a Bulgarian gypsy named Avramo (the apparent Godfather of his extensive family) to help him move furniture around. He would show up at the farm in his ratty old car or worse van, blasting warbling gypsy music and slowly snapping his fingers overhead. If it was past noon he was likely drunk. He had no license or insurance and who knows who owned the car. We would help him move stuff around or slap together cheap furniture (always a hilarious enterprise). He would 'repay' us by showing up at night with 5 liters of wine and speak in his broken Italian which I translated (freely) to Jamie and Armwrecker. We would sing and play American folk music and he would sing along and dance until he was nearly too drunk to stand and then he would (somehow) get into his ratty car and drive home. We were always worried about him but there was nothing we could do to stop him. Mostly because he was a champion boxer who fought in the US, Bulgaria, Russia, etc. Oh, by the way, he was completely full of shit.

Our other companion was a good ole local farmer named Antonello. He always wore a bright blue jumpshit with huge rubber boots and a fannypack across his chest. He had long greasy black hair, a strong chin and a belly. He spoke no English (like everyone we met) and he loved to insult us. He and Armwrecker became great friends- or maybe great enemies. Luckily our patron farmer had instructed Jamie and Armwrecker in a few choice curse words of Italian so they were able to hold their own even before I showed up.

Other Calabrian highlights include swimming in the chilly spring sea in the nearby town of Tropea, watching our farmer's old mother stack her chicken on top of her goose to amuse us, making pizza in the outdoor stove which was built only to heat water for bathing, pushing cars and caravans around with a gaggle of local bumpkins and gypsies, participating in these and other hairbrained jobs at the urging of Avramo, playing hackeysack in the streets amid the heckling of local teenagers, trying to teach a German 3 year some english that wasn't 'Fuckyouuuuuu!', and enjoying incredibly seaside cuisine whenever we were invited to meals at the farmer's house.

When I next get a few minutes I will tell you all about my days with the Elves, those wonderful aging hippies who live in the mountains nearby. As soon as I finish my sculpture here at Louise's (I'm carving the head today) I will be returning to the Elves for the warm weather and smiling faces. Until then, I love you all! Take care!

Ciao, Chris

Before I migrate south...

A quick update: Right now I am still in Cortona, having spent the last few months at Dino's and Louise's wonderful farms. I have learned a lot about horses, helped make goat sausages and salami, seen lots of live Italian music, learned traditional Tuscan dance, spent Christmas in the mountains, and made great new friends!
I've managed to sell a few paintings and I've been carving spoons out of olive wood. I actually have more money than when I arrived in Europe! Incredible!
Tomorrow morning I will take an 8 hour train ride to the toe of Italy's boot, in Calabria. There I wil find the dear Alfredians Jamie and Armwrecker. Apparently internet has yet to reach the deep dark south of this fine country (at least where I'll be staying) so I will be out of touch for about a month or so. The plan is to head back to Tuscany with Jamie and Armwrecker in tow to give them a taste of life in the land of the Etruscans.
Will post again -with photos- upon my return. Until then, take care everyone!
Much love,
Chris