Bacco, tests and trials of fatherhood

11 ott.
Bacco is settling right in at Nascondiglio. It is nice to finally have a living entity named Bacco so our agriturismo really is Bacco's hideout, now. He is still not aware that his bathroom is outside, but I caught him in the act this morning and maybe a sharp "NO" will be remembered at least for today.
We had some delightful guests from america the last 3 nights. Dolores was visiting Offida to trace her great grandfather's roots and we had some help from Liliana in the mayor's office who found a 2nd cousin who is 76 years old and her 3 daughters who would be 3rd cousins and 3 of their babies, etc. They all had a nice reunion at Nascondiglio and it was really a special occasion!
Last night, we had dinner for our 2 guests and a previous guest who is rebuilding a house down the road, and tried some really good wines they had brought including a 98 Brunello. In recompense, I opened a 75 Barolo which was from Dolores' and my year of high school graduation. It had some life left yet, but I am happy to say we have more left in us! There were notes of liquorice and prunes and at the least, it was quite interesting. The only glitch in the meal was the beef from Poland and i am sure there are some wonderful cows in Poland, but maybe not this one. I made the antipasti, offering both an unpasteurized Cheddar and Stilton, our now famous 4 year aged prosciutto, and i thawed some of our last crop of tomatoes to make a bruschetta. Next came my soup of lentels from castelucchio (Slow Food Presidi product) with a pureed bean base, some meat bits and white truffle oil, a primo with pasta and zucchini and red bell peppers, my orange and lemon sorbet, the meat course and the dessert was a towering cake with a special icing between 4 layers.
John, who is Dolores' husband helped me pick olives yesterday afternoon while the Mrs. took a nap and we cleaned out another 4 trees. It turns out we had more olive trees than we thought, so the olives from the "second harvest", I am putting sotto sale or under salt to make olives we can eat. Another N. di Bacco experiment. We picked by hand, but I included a foto of our neighbor Tiziano who uses an air compressor powered "comb" to shake the olives loose which then are collected in a net on the ground. That would be a luxury for us as we only have 104 trees, but it was fun to try it out.
It is sprinkling today as it did yesterday, so it is a bit cold and gray. This must be the rainy season, which means my clothes dryer is out of order, but tomorrow we should get some sun and then drying will recommence. The dog is asleep on the biggest bed in Italy, lucky guy, but at night he sleeps in a kennel. I just needed a nap today as he requires 2 vigilant eyes 24/7 and I was worn out!
ciao dds