Sooooo Sardinia

Ok ok ok okzzzz......

I'm not too proud to say that it is entirely my fault for not keeping this up. Goodness gracious its been an incredible few months, and I cannonwaitto share the details of our time here, the people the countries he food, the trees the flowers the rivers and seas....I'm overwhelmed with gods goodness. Even though its been a while since I e updated this and we have been in many places in between where we are now, I am compelled to share wih you where we find ourselves at he moment. Right now ry and I are staying in Sardinia, near a town Muravera. We are with an outstanding family on there farm. The property we are on is no ordinary property....it is the farm of one of the biggest and by far the greatest distributors of Mirto. The company is Bresca Dorada, and we are now livin at their farm!!!!!! It is an organic large scale producer of liqueurs, jams, salts, and many varieties of sardinias Mirto. They distribute to different countries in the eu and are coming to Santa Monica next year. Right now as I'm typing this Ryan is makin wine with Paolo in their Cantina, I'm still shaking off the flour from makin pumpkin racioli his morning and the air smells sweet if her s because oh yeah, they specialize in the distillation of essential herbs and they make oils....hey, they make oils!!!!!!!!!! Already they have given us homemade malleleuca oil because I had a cut on my nose and they didn't waste time showing me their cache of oils. We have been clearing out there feilds of invasive trees, really strenuous good work, and in the afternoons we are able to ride our bikes or run the few miles to the sea where we swim and wash out cuts in the salty sea. 

    They are good people....with an amazing story. We are here and cannot understand how and why. We are the only couple that they have said yes to come to their property since they had a bad experience with some swedes and asked them to leave. For years they have said no to every single request that pours in every day....and we were welcomed. Hahahaha!!!!!!! Jesus!? Oh yeah. Later on this week we will distill herbs, make olive oil and travel to the middle of Sardinia to visit a shepherd and learn about his cheese. Guys....god saved some of the best for last and we cannot help but freak out a little that gods creation has been revealed to us in a new light. It is so complete, he gave us everything we would need within lacking. This family stewards the land and has learned from it, they are pupils of the soil and I am enammered. We are learning and we are falling in love with the completeness of gods provision.! Plants are our friends. 

And so is wine.

Anyway here are some photos and we will be home in a month!!!! Less than....

We love you all, we are soaking up what we long to pour out later.

Ciao pui tarde 

View from our house

How to build a clay oven

Hey everyone! We are in east Germany now on a goat farm. This morning Megan and I milked goats and then drank their raw milk (still warm!). Quite the experience, we can't wait to have one of our own someday. 

We left our previous farm last week, but we thought we would put up some photos on building a clay oven. So without further adieu: 

Dig a hole

Lay some brick 80 cm down as a foundation

 Dig out a middle foundation and lay brick

Build it tall and level

Make a surface for the oven

Mount your metal frame into some clay on the base

Put bricks around the base then cover your frame with paper and cardboard and then clay

Make an opening for your pizza and put a chimney in. Also, under the last layer of clay use a burlap sack to keep the clay from cracking 

Build a sketchy roof to keep it dry

Voila! A pizza oven!

Farming in Germany

Howdy fellow Americans. We are now farming near hamburg on a beautiful little property. I don't call it a farm because it is most definitely not a farm. It is the weekend home and summer holiday home of a community of friends that live in hamburg. They do have a pretty large garden though, and loads of fun projects for us to work on. So far we rebuilt an old table, laid the brick foundation for a clay pizza oven, picked a ton of berries, and dug a gigantic hole for their luxurious bathroom located in the middle of a hay field. Later this week we will be making a solar powered fruit dehydrator, so we will have some fun projects to share when we get home. We have very much enjoyed the German food, beer, and hospitality that have been shown to us so far. We came w the intention of learning a bit of German, but once again, everyone we encounter speaks English! Below are some pics 

Our house is 250 years old

We built this table and received an erdinger in return!

Digging holes

All the berries you could ever want

The garden

Italian holiday

Hey everyone! Sorry it's been so long since our last post. We had a great time on the farm in Genova, but were ready for a holiday after a month of work w no electricity or potable water. Luckily for us, mama and papa ashlock arrived in Italy on June 30. We have been traveling around Italy w them for the past week and a half, living like European royalty(thanks dad). We saw all the sites in Rome, ran into some friends from portland, ate at least 5 lbs of cheese a day, and even took an 18 mile bike trip around the outskirts of the city! Then we headed to moneglia on the coast near the cinque terre. There we just enjoyed the beauty of  the small towns and swam in the perfectly warm Mediterranean. We just arrived in Florence to see some more sites, then will have to say farewell to the elder ashlocks and head to Germany to our second farm. Below are some pics!

Coliseum 

Constantine's arch

The first of many gelato trips

Inside St. Peter's 

Cinque terre

Restaurant in rio maggiore. Look familiar Lisa??

Bella Pegli, our new home

Mein kampf....... con la carriola (wheelbarrow)

So.....enter

La carriola...or the wheelbarrow.

The rocks.

More rocks.

Oh wait....more rocks.

An ocean of rocks.

Plants don't grow in rocks. At least the kind you want to eat.

Enter Megan and Ryan. And.

La Carriola.

La carriola is hangin on by an Italian antique thread.

It is more like a rust factory.

Or a tetanus playground.

Rocks are shoveled by Megan and Ryan and enter la carriola.

They travel down hill.

Up hill.

Then get thrown over the ledge to the river.

This goes on.

For days.

Ryan almost dies and gets pulled over the edge with a wheelbarrow full of rocks to his slow painful death, covered in rocks.

We don't use la carriola

Anymore.

El fin.

- M

Pictures from the farm!

Our small cottage we live in for the next 3 weeks. No hot water or electricity!

The beautiful home of our hosts 

The garden we spend our days in

Megan and her new best friend

Cherry trees are the best

The river that's runs next to the farm

Cool facts about malta

Alright, we have learned quite a bit since being here and thought we would share some cool facts. 

This is called mosta dome, a huge church built in the 1800s. During world war 2, malta was still a british colony, thus was at war with the axis forces. One day during afternoon mass, axis bombers flew over malta and dropped a few bombs. One was dropped on top of mosta dome and broke through the roof into afternoon mass. The bomb didn't go off, and the locals now refer to the incident as the miracle of the mosta dome. Rumor has it that when thebomb was opened up, they found it filled with sand and a note from nazi occupied Czech, who allegedly sabotaged its production. Crazy stuff right? 

This is at St. John's co cathedral in Valletta. The church was built in the 1500s. I attempted to take a panoramic shot of the ceiling, it was so incredible! It was painted over a five year span with oil paint, and covers the life of st John. It takes up the entire ceiling of the church. 

This is Megan and I on our apartments roof overlooking St. Paul's bay. This is the spot where people believe paul was shipwrecked and swam to shore. When he arrived on land he was bit by a poisonous snake, leading the Maltese to believe he was a cursed man and must have been a criminal. Paul however showed no ill effects which led the Maltese to believe he was a special man. He taught them about Christ and healed their sick and converted many to Christianity. Today 98% of malta considers themselves Roman Catholics. 

This is Megan trying kinnie, a popular  Maltese soft drink. Didn't like it so much... Till next time!

Malter

Hey everybody! We have been soaking up Malta for the past week now, some highlights: 

Bus rides: everything in Malta is within 20 km or so, which should take about 10-15 min right? Nope. Our first day we were introduced to the Maltese bus system, taking an hour and a half to get to our apt 15 km away. But we are learning to love it here and the buses get us everywhere for an insanely low price. 

Valletta grand harbor: do yourself a favor and search that on google images. So beautiful. Also the city of Valletta is really fun with a ton of cool history. St Johns co cathedral is the most ornate church I have been in, we will post a photo or two later. 

Mdina: malta's former capital city is completely walled in with only two gates to enter it exit from. There used to be a moat surrounding the city. Its the real deal. We went to a cafe there and from the terrace enjoyed some chocolate cake and coffee and enjoyed the views of the eastern half of the island. What an incredible view! Later that day we checked out st Paul's catacombs, which Megan wasn't digging all that much (to her credit it was a bit scary). Later, we walked around the town of Rabat where apparently Paul gave a great sermon that converted a good chunk of the maltese population to Christianity. 

Beaches: we have been to two sandy beaches so far(most of Malta is rocky); mellieha bay and golden bay. The water is still a bit cold from winter but the beaches are beautiful and will be spending most of our time on the water this next week. 

Hope all is well stateside, we will update again soon!

Some snappy shots

View from the Dingli cliffs

St. John's Co Cathedral 

Grand Harbor in Valletta, worlds deepest natural harbor 

View from the city wall of Mdina overlooking the eastern part of the island, with Valletta to the right 

Malta

Y King Nuggets??

Well Hay!!!!!! So we've had some time to really soak up Madrid, so we thought we'd go and have a day trip to Toledo. Toledo is awesome.....incredibly beautiful and outrageously up hill, somehow in both directions. There we walked o the top of toledos library, which looks more like a castle, and is one of toledos 2 giant structures. We walked across the bridge that Don Quixote took his journey on and ate weird little ravioli next to a tunnel dating back to the 15th century, take that olive garden!  

                              Then we ate at Burger King. 

We went to the Prado, Ryan got bored, we left. So we went to Mercado de San Miguel and ate until the clanging  of change ceased from Ryan's pockets. But!!!!! Let me talk about food real quick. Ok, I've eaten some good cheese in my time, I'm not about to exaggerate and ruin my street cheese cred, but HOLY crap did we eat the best mozzarella in the world. It was so fresh it was basically a cream. It rated like ice cream and was served in a heap on a simple piece of bread and drizzles with a peachy honey preserve and then your lady Jamon was placed on top.epic.

            The last night of Spain we watched soccer, and I actually didn't wanna die. We cheered, they won and now were in Malta on a new chunk of land ready to be SHLOCKED. 

   Until next time 

                   -M 

Photosss

Madrid

Megan's favorite food

Toledo

View in malta