big dreamz, big, huge.

The Creek is Rising!!! Eeek! 🌊🌊 (Taken with Instagram)

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 20:12:12 -0400

The Creek is Rising!!! Eeek! 🌊🌊 (Taken with Instagram)

US OPEN !!! (Taken with Instagram)

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 11:13:55 -0400

US OPEN !!! (Taken with Instagram)

Taken with Instagram

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 09:17:01 -0400

Taken with Instagram

Family Time Smiles (Taken with Instagram)

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 23:20:21 -0400

Family Time Smiles (Taken with Instagram)

Taken with Instagram

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 21:23:52 -0400

Taken with Instagram

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 17:59:28 -0400

Taken with Instagram

Fall is coming… (Taken with Instagram)

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 17:57:01 -0400

Fall is coming… (Taken with Instagram)

Lady got a haircut (Taken with Instagram)

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 20:56:52 -0400

Lady got a haircut (Taken with Instagram)

is it hot in here

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 20:38:03 -0400

the worst part about having a fever is that you are told to drink plenty of water. so you do. you drink PLENTY of water. after drinking so much water you have to pee plenty of times. after you pee plenty of times you think you are dehydrating, even though that is what you are trying to prevent. so you drink plenty more water. and you pee plenty more times. and so on and so on.

i have a fever.

Everyone’s a pyro at heart. (Taken with Instagram)

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 23:35:36 -0400

Everyone’s a pyro at heart. (Taken with Instagram)

When Life Gives You Half of a Bag of Wine...

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 17:13:00 -0400

make sangria!

people leave things behind in motels. mostly just uneaten food and bodily fluids. but sometimes you get lucky and someone leaves behind the bag out of the box of wine. red wine. refrigerated.

it’s the little things…

today has been a rainy day in phoenicia. rainy but busy.

i am slowly moving into the main house on the property here. i currently sleep here. i have a brand new bed. i am still unpacking.

last night i baked for the first time in my new kitchen. it was great. the kitchen is huge. i made sure to clean up well, as mice are a problem here. i thought for sure they wouldn’t be a problem in the main house(mostly because i REALLY didn’t want them to be a problem). but this morning: mouse poop on the counter. i immediately start googling ways to get rid of them. peppermint oil, traps, a cat, owls. OWLS! i’m getting an owl.

well, not really. gib is just going got build an owl house that the owls will want to live in, and then those owls are going to constantly snack on those sneaky little jerk mice. problem solved. i hope.

5:12-it’s sangria time!

Lady’s Olympic Portrait. GO TEAM USA!!! (Taken with...

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 21:35:34 -0400

Lady’s Olympic Portrait. GO TEAM USA!!! (Taken with Instagram)

Office morning: Beethoven and Chai. (Taken with Instagram)

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 08:46:24 -0400

Office morning: Beethoven and Chai. (Taken with Instagram)

Dogz (Taken with Instagram)

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 20:24:40 -0400

Dogz (Taken with Instagram)

song of the summer can’t stop

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 14:46:28 -0400

song of the summer

can’t stop

Sleeping in My Swimsuit,

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 14:45:00 -0400

never showering because my hair looks better with pool water and LA Looks. its summer. the crowd at the hotel this weekend is a great fit. young, excited, fun.

i offered someone a beer at 10:30am. it was an accident. when they thought about it for a while and then declined i wondered why. then i looked at the clock. whatever, they are on vacation. i would have said yes.

last night was our first bonfire. went over pretty well. the rocks that we use for seats soak up all of the days sun and stay warm into the night. all we need now are some marshmallows.

on the weekends when my sister and bianca are here i get to sneak away for lunch and a beer at the local watering hole. there is a festival going on and the town is buzzing. full blown summer in phoenicia.

i’m crafting room keys in the office today…

First Graham and Co fire!!! (Taken with Instagram)

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 22:16:51 -0400

First Graham and Co fire!!! (Taken with Instagram)

back by popular demand

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 11:16:00 -0400

this morning i woke up early as i do these days. decided to put on my suit, grab my yoga mat and hit the decks. its been a while since i’ve done yoga and i needed it. the sun was beating on my back, i was looking into the mountains, breathing the clean air. after yoga i took a quick dip in the pool. it feels a lot like italy did, like a dream (sometimes a nightmare). but it isn’t a dream or a vacation. this is my life now and i feel lucky.

for those of you that don’t know i moved to a small town in upstate ny called phoenicia. i’m not kidding when i say small town. population:300

i am running a motel that my sister and her girlfriend created and her father made into real life. i have been doing everything from renovations, building beds, chopping wood to taking reservations. we are fully booked this weekend and plan on having our first bonfire and volleyball game.

there are bear sightings at least once a night if not by me then by gib(bianca’s father) or a neighbor. pretty unbelievable. they are not afraid of humans.

anyway, i decided to get the blog back in motion. people are requesting it, and i have the time and inspiration to be creative and write.

so…here’s to summer in the mountains!

COME VISIT

http://thegrahamandco.com/

now this is what we wanted...

Tue, 10 May 2011 06:18:00 -0400

after more than 24 excruciatingly annoying hours of waiting and traveling we finally arrived at our second farm. it is called pulicaro and is situated on the top of the mountains in the region of lazio, italy. the surroundings are amazing.
things are much different here than the other farm, in so many ways it is unbelievable. our hosts, chaira and marco are so generous and kind. as is pasquale, the cousin who also works on the farm everyday. dinners are amazing and everything is homemade. my favorite part of every meal is the olive oil that is made here from the olives grown here. unfortunately we won’t be here for olive season which is in november-december.
but there is plenty to do here and never a dull moment. our beds are clean and warm and our room is amazing. it is actually in a guest house where they rent out rooms to vacationers.
it is the complete opposite of our first farm. thank goodness.
although it is so nice to be living in a place that is luxurious and beautiful, the best part, and what we were looking for out of this whole trip is the experience. the exchange, the work, the food, the relationships and conversations.
chiara and marco are curious people who want to know everything they can about us. nothing feels rehearsed. it is all natural and genuine curiosity. we talk about politics, family, traditions, food and films… they are also very willing and excited to talk to us and answer questions about the farm and how they met and how they planned this amazing place that we get to be a part of. all meals are eating together here:

our days here begin with feeding the animals, and there is no shortage of animals here. first things first are the rabbits, which are sold for food, therefore not named. they are beautiful! and many of them have babies which are the cutest things. there are a lot of baby animals here right now. i am in heaven.
next are the young/baby chicks/ducks/turkeys. they have many varieties of all of these and the chicks are kept in separate cages until they are big enough to be put with the whole clan.
after that we enter the chicken/duck/turkey world. they aren’t sure how many there are but they guess around 200-300. as soon as they see someone with a wheel-barrel they come running. and they will follow you the whole time, even if it is only hay.
there are also 3 goats. just for fun.
all of this feeding takes a really long time as there are many containers to fill and doors to open.
among all of the birds are 3 special italian sheep dogs (which also protect chickens, etc.). they are giant white dogs. beautiful animals. their purpose is to protect the birds from wild animals. there are actually 5 all together, but they are separated for some reason.
papaya is the young beagle who hangs with the other 2 dogs
and lady (!) is the old mama beagle who gets to sleep inside because she is old and because she picks fights with the other much bigger dogs.
the second day we were here we had a hatching of around 30 baby chicks/turkey. and yesterday we had the hatching of the first pheasant!

all of these animals need fed and watered.
the second night we were all surprised to find out that two baby goats had been born! no one really knew she was pregnant. but, they are the cutest things! they just stand there and wag their little tails!
i should mention that there are 2 animals here who create a lot of chaos. at least for emma and me. there is a rooster-nagasaki and a turkey-yet to be named.
the rooster isn’t too much trouble yet but the turkey…he is a real jerk. he comes at your feet and doesn’t quit. emma actually fell down out of sheer fear of this turkey. i got cornered for what felt like 10 minutes until pasquale came to my rescue. we are slowly learning how to deal with him.

my favorite job so far is collecting the eggs. it is like a real easter egg hunt and it is so much fun. they get so many eggs each day!
one day we got to spend the whole day preparing meals for the guests that are staying in the guesthouse. there was a party at lunch time and a dinner at night, which we got to attend. marco made the meals. the dinner was prepared in the only oven at the farm, which is outside of the guesthouse. it is a huge brick wood/coal burning oven.

we spent sunday in the garden sunbathing and reading. it was so relaxing. the weather here has been perfect. i feel like the sun never stops shining.

yesterday was quite a windy day and we had some pretty tragic events happen in the morning. while i was feeding the only 2 male rabbits, the wind caught the top and tipped the whole cage over. one rabbit was almost smashed and the other almost ran off. i screamed for help and emma and francesco(a helper at the farm) came running to help. the same thing happened with a cage full of baby turkeys. one unfortunaley died. on top of all of this the mean turkey was trying to attack us the entire time. it was quite a morning. but after a nice lunch and a nap we were back to normal.

emma and i are so happy. i am in heaven.
things couldn’t be better at this moment and we are taking it for all it is worth.
we are learning a lot about culture here and it has so far been a great experience. including the not so great parts we encountered previous to pulicaro. we are glad that we stuck it out through all of the annoying problems and now that we have the pleasure of working for chiara and marco at pulicaro.

plenty of catching up to do

Sun, 01 May 2011 14:24:20 -0400

the journey never stops.
emma and i are currently in agropoli. a beautiful, quaint, peaceful town on the tyrrhenian sea. we are living it up in a three star hotel that feels like luxury. it has a balcony facing the sea. we are literally steps away.
doesn’t sound like farming, does it? well. its not. we had a slight change of plans after our first farm didn’t go so well. despite being the most beautiful place i have ever been, we sadly had to leave after feeling like our hard work was not being evenly compensated by enough food/accommodations.
these are the mountains at san felice(our first farm attempt):

pretty hard to say goodbye to that scenery.

we could have stuck it out, maybe we should have. but we were starting to feel bad vibes from these people who have lived in the mountains their whole lives and know nothing but farming. to me, the language barrier was too much. they didn’t speak any english. too many things were lost in translation and the situation was not what we wanted. so, despite everything and a lot of thinking and rethinking, we left.

we didn’t want to be spending money so soon on our journey. to be honest, it feels like we have been here for weeks. but, here we are in agropoli. i spent the day sitting on the tiny balcony basking in the sun, listening to the waves mixed with the city sounds.
i started reading a book but i was too distracted by beauty to continue. i could stare at these mountains and the sea all day. so, i did.
needless to say we are very happy with our decision to leave. sometimes you just have to trust your gut. we have to make the most of everything and since we can’t get to the next farm until thursday, we have no choice but to spend money right now. we wanted to see certain parts of southern italy, so we are going to do just that. just not in the way we thought we would. but things never happen the way that you think they will.

i mean, i can’t complain…

also- i started to think in italian! thank goodness for those italian cds!

CIAO!