4CarpenterHouse

     We have been busy picking olives to make olive oil.  A group of us got together and picked 267 kilograms of olive.  This year the olives trees had lots of olives compared to last year. Hugh, a friend from the thrift store raking olives off the branches.  He was the ring leader in this operation.  Everyday we walked by these trees, he would say " we better get these before the Italians get them"  J.P. working his height and extra long olive rake. Laurel taking the glamour shot while working. Net below the tree, this really helps.  Every olive that you knock off lands here and then you can just gather them up in the net into a bin or bucket. Working on getting any large branches or leaves out before going in the bin. Kestrel heading up the ladder.  These girls when motivated can really work. More olives. Jan's car loaded and heading to the olive mill to make oil. That's our olives from two...

    We just got finished with  two days of heavy rain and strong winds.  The Housing base Marinai and NAS2 were built in a area that are prone to flooding.  Starting around 8:30 pm on Halloween night we got hit by heavy rains and winds so strong they riped clay tiles off roofs and uproot trees.  It continued to rain for the next two days, creating the conditions to cause local flooding.      A bit of history of this area.  In December 2005 Marinai got flooding with up to 4 feet of water through the 560 houses on base.  The Navy had a protective concrete and earth berm constructed to help prevent that type of flooding from happening again.  Well the berm got tested on Sunday night and all day Monday.  This flooding was not as bad as 2005, but without the berm they estimated that  up to a foot of water inside some of the houses.      All the bases were closed and you could only leave Mari...

   We got a chance to travel to Naples and Ischia last month.  It was both work and pleasure,  Deanna was a guest speaker at a friends retirement ceremony and the family went along to visit and tour the area.  Laurel and the local ticket counter cat.  It was very friendly and allowing Laurel to interrupt it's nap. Heading into Ercolano, a well preserved Roman town that was covered in hot mud in the 79AD eruption of Vesuvius. Walking down the streets of town. Remaining artwork on the walls of buildings. Communal kitchen,  archaeologist are still trying to find the stainless steel appliances. Deanna catching some sun, right before a thunderstorm soaked everything for twenty minutes. Kestrel taking pictures, she was doing a great job before she walked off and left her camera behind. Kestrel and Laurel allowing to be photographed together. Laurel standing tall again, hard to believe she is seven. Thanks to Ru...