fine, sorry i bored you all with my "self-pity". there's nothing to say about that anymore anyway, so ill talk about all of the hard work i am doing. today i am absolutely exhausted. every muscle in my body is hurting and my brain feels slow and my hands are so sore from milking that i cant make a fist. my arms and upper back muscles are popping, and i can even flex! in a couple more weeks they will me nice and toned (though angela threatens that i will have "man hands"). the schedule here is hard because i have to be up at 7 to milk and take the animals to pasture, and then do it again late at night. we dont eat until 10 or so, and after that and clean up, i dont get to sleep until 1am. sort of running on empty here. angela has taken over the kitchen side of the chores, and she and mario make all sort of things for lunch and dinner. i help whenim there. he makes pasta all the time, and bread, and last night we did pizzas in a wood-fire grill. there are vegetables to harvest and kittens to feed and cheese to make.
as for my duties with the animals, its a messy job, and i can smell goat on me all the time. i like the goats, though; they're smart and kind of cute, especially when they run. i know them all by now and talk to them like they understand me, and they seem to sometimes. we stand in briar patches and eat blackberries together. as for the sheep...they are complete assholes to be honest. dumb, and as of now in the last stage of heat so its making them crazy. they wont obey and run away and we have to constantly wrestle them into the feeding troughs. isa, the woman whom i work with, is this tiny lady, in her mid 60s i suppose. shes basically made of rock and can pick up two sheeps at once, even though they are bigger than her. shes very patient with me, and i think im getting the hang of everything. yes, they have tails that wag. they are smelly and big and their faces look like brains. but...the milk is supurb. we made fresh ricotta yesterday for the lunch, and ive never tasted anything like it.
ill blog more later, its time to make ravioli. plus, ive already milked and been to pasture, but have not yet drank a cup of coffee.
oh! and angela and i have dates! two very nice boys came to dinner last night and angela basically hugged them around the ankles and begged for them to take us out one night. i just giggled. they said theres a brewery on another mountain, and we could go this week. the cute one also said i speak wonderful italian. la la la. hmph.