Dear Old Dudes, Thanks.

Today we left Todi and took 3 trains up north to Venice where we will be until the 18th. Before I write about Venice, I am just going to recap the last few days on the farm.

We finished the fence in the olive grove! That was the big project that we, and another HelpXer Anthony, took on during our two week stay. The olive grove was abandoned some time ago, and the terracing is still apparent, but is in some disrepair. Anyway, the fence was finished, although I was mostly pruning olive trees and building garden boxes while the boys were making the fence. We transported the sheep up there... Now the story of the sheep.

Ev and Claudia inherited a semi-wild sheep about 6-7 weeks ago.The sheep was from a neighbor who doesn't maintain the fence and a whole bunch of sheep escaped. Wolf, one of the two very nice German Shepards, decided to go after the loose sheep one day, and got this one and ripped off her wool. She looked pretty silly. So we took her up to the olive grove on Friday. Saturday, the other helper, Anthony took a walk up to the grove and saw that there was something wrong with the sheep. It was laying on its side, not moving when he approached. This sheep is, well, very sheepish, so it was extremely unusual when she didn't move. We all went up there, and realized that she was giving birth to a lamb. Unfortunately, the little lamb didn't make it. It was most likely a still born. A lot of sheep apparently miscarry, and they think this sheep is pretty young, so it's not that unusual... maybe. Remember we were staying with people who where starting a vineyard, they too knew nothing about sheep. It was sad that the lamb didn't make it. It would have been cool to see. By the way, if you don't like the smell of sheep, you won't like the smell of sheep giving birth. Yikes, it gets sheepy.

We had a great last few days with Ev and Claudia and probably would have stayed longer if we didn't have reservations.

Venice is so far really nice. We have a shower with water pressure! It's the small things...

I almost forgot the title of this post. It just so happens that we might have the hardest hotel to find in Venice. It took us two hours to walk from the train station. It should have been about 25 minutes. It was a combo of google maps not giving us the right location, and not being able to find this crazy hotel... Anyway, twice on the street we were consulting our maps when two old dudes asked if we needed help. Their English was great, and they knew instantly the hotel we were talking about. Maybe they were once tour guides? Who knows. They pointed us in the right direction and probably would have taken us to the hotel if we asked. It was very nice of them! The second guy told us it was hard to find. It was nice to get that help, so Thanks to the Old Dudes in Venice!

I will post pictures later. The internets aren't cooperating right now.