Tuesday, August 6, 2013

We use the farms animals

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Welcome to my blog, Genzano it story
and out post, We use the farms animals
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We use the farms’ animals
As soon as we mention the word farm, we cannot help thinking about the farms’ animals and the ways that the farmers use their farms animals, this has been going on for thousands of years, and very likely it is going to go on till the world ends; here we may have to point out that not everybody agrees with the ways the farmers uses their animals, however the animals have always been used and we will continue to use them in the future. Now let us see how the animals live according to Mother Nature, and how we the people use them to our own advantage.  
It would be important to note that the order in Mother Nature setting of how things happen is almost faultless, most of the farm animals give birth to their offspring when there is plenty of food to go around, and when mild and fine weather is usually expected, it is for this reason that in springtime most of the animals offspring are born, starting from the sheep, and also the cows that usually calf once every year and they make plenty of milk especially when there is plenty of green food to eat, also other animals have their offspring, the sheep have their lamb, the mares have their foals, and other animals have also their young’s whatever it is according to their specie. We suppose they are born in spring so that they can grow big and strong during the spring and summer, so that when the cold weather comes back they would be able to cope with it easily, this is really how Mother Nature wants it to be. But we the people sometimes do things that go against Mother Nature, as we want to control everything around us. Sometimes we do cruel things also, and one of those things that come to my mind is that we take away the veal from mother cow, we sell the veal to the butcher who will kill the veal and sell the meat to the people to eat it, for doing this not only we get some money from the butcher, but then we can happily milk the cow, so the poor cow cops it both ways. You see we take plenty of milk from the cows after selling their veal, and what we do with most of the milk? We sell it if there is a market for it or we make cheese; at least this is what we did when I was young and I was working in the farms. So in my next hub we will be talking about, how we made cheese when I was young.
This cheese making in the farms when I was young, is not going to be spectacular at all, so do not expect a great deal from it, our writing about it is more to do with showing you how things were done in those times and how they were done even before those times, One can still learn something from this cheese making, but above all one can learn a little bit of the history of mankind from those parts that I am coming from, perhaps we could compare this to the ways we are using these days.
See you in our next post Cheese making.    

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   Genzano it story
We use the farms animals
IS GOING TO BE CONTINUED; 
Next time with, cheese making in the farms
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Sunday, July 21, 2013

Springtime in the farms

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In spring all trees start to flower and it is wonderful to see Mother Nature work at its best.





In the fields there are flowers everywhere in springtime.







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SPRINGTIME IN THE FARMS       
Dear readers, after the boring winter as I have written in my last post, a winter day in the farm, the only time that one can say that living in the farms could be better that living in town was and is at spring time, because those natural things that make life interesting in the farms happen, you see one can observe Mother Nature wonders as they occur at very close range; and springtime is the time when most of those wonders occur one after another. Therefore, life in the farm becomes more interesting and wonderful after a cold and boring winter when finally spring comes. Early in spring when the weather is fine it is nice and warm to stay outside doing odd jobs, like preparing the soil in the kitchen garden and planting some seeds that will soon grow, you see in the temperate zone as the temperature rises the plants start growing very quickly, this fact of life even by itself seems to bring some joy after the cold winter, as one observes what is happening in spring time.
For a start we would be thinking finally wonderful spring is here
During early spring it would be wonderful, if one could be able to forget all worries in the world, and look at the work of Mother Nature at its best. You see, today you look at one tree and you wonder whether it is alive or dead, because its twigs seem really lifeless; but in a few days, when you look at that same tree again you can see a few flowers and some small leaves on its twigs, and in a few more days the whole tree will be in flower, and also its leaves will be growing on its twigs very rapidly, all the trees start flowering and growing quickly at springtime after winter, all grass and seedlings grow faster and everything is greener and full of life, also the birds that throughout the winter seemed timid and sad, now start to sing and they sound very happy. In the country there is a change in the air in springtime and everything and everybody feels happy in spring, there are lots of sunny and mild days in spring, so the sunshine and the mild days tell you that the dreadful winter is past, so better times are ahead for the farm people and for the farm animals as well.
So let me describe the changes that spring brings in the country of the town that I came from: After looking after and hand feeding all farm animals during the winter, which was a very boring job, now spring is welcome. I am saying this because, in springtime the way of looking after the farm’s animals changes a lot, because in spring most of the farm’s animals will be feeding on grass, and most of them will be grazing in the paddock during daytime, and there are a lot of other interesting happenings. During the winter and perhaps most of the year, the large animals have been hand fed in the stable with straws, oats and hay, but now gradually they will be let loose to graze in the paddocks. So as soon as the grass in the paddock grows enough early in spring, the cows are let loose in the paddock for a few hour each day to begin with, and then as the grass starts growing faster they will graze in the paddocks all day long. The next on line to graze in the paddocks are the pregnant mares, followed by the rest of the animals: So that in mid spring all animals that are grass eater will be feeding only on grass; that is during the day in the paddocks and at night with fresh harvested grass, which has been purposely grown and cut from the farmers. As you can see the farmers are still busy to look after the farm animals, but now it is not as hard as in winter times and the weather is usually fine, and every day that go past it becomes warmer, so a more relaxed way of life can be enjoyed and there are also other happy happenings, you see, spring is the season of hope and in spring we start to harvest many things, there are plenty of vegetables in spring as everything grows pretty fast, also in the fields things grow fast, there are plenty of fresh peas, green beans, broad beans just to name a few, the farmers go around with great hope in their hearts, they hope to harvest plenty of everything, when they are ready to be harvested. But at the same time the farmers always look at the sky, as they fear bad weather that can ruin their crops. This can really be a real problem when stormy weather approaches, as all the work they have done during the year can be ruined or destroyed in a few minutes. So hope and heartbreak are there ever present, it is not an easy life being a farmer. This was also one of the reasons that I left farming and migrated to Australia when I was still young, hoping for a better and easier life in Australia. But now let us talk about the farm animals, as they are a very important part of farming and also how we the farmers use the farm animals in many ways; but I think that I have said enough in this post, so see you in our next post, Cheese making the old ways.  
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Genzano it story
Spring times in the farms
IS GOING TO BE CONTINUED; 
Next time with, Cheese making the old ways
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Tuesday, July 9, 2013

A winter day in the farms

WELCOME TO FRANK MENCHISE BLOG OF GENZANO DI LUCANIA, YOU ARE INVITED TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. ENJOY YOUR TIME WITH US AND IF YOU WANT WRITE A COMMENT
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Welcome to my blog, Genzano it story
And this post, a winter day in the farms
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Farms are usually very lonely places in the middle of nowhere specially in winter times








The country in winter is almost bear of all vegetation it is a lonely place. So one is waiting for spring times to come, because everything becomes better during spring.


                         A WINTER DAY IN THE FARMS
In order to compare these days to the old days, it is necessary to tell you a story, now the story that I am telling you is the story of my own life when I was young, you see life was very different in those times, but we accepted life as it was and did not complain, because that was the ways of life in the farms of those days, so what did we do during a winter day in the farm.
In the morning we would get up early usually just before dawn, and at once we would start doing our chores, we would start by feeding the horses and other farms animals, and we would also be grooming those animals, and at the same time we had to clean the stables as well, virtually we would collect all the manure that the horses and the other stable animals had made during the night before, we would load it on a strange devise like a field stretcher made of timber and wire, and then two of us would lift it and carry it to the manure heap, which was outside about 20 meters or so away from the building, at the same time we would still be grooming the horses with a hand brush, and at the same time we would continue to feed the horses and other farm animals, such as cows, pigs, chickens, and other animals with fresh serving of straw, oats, hay, grain, and whatever else was needed according to the animals needs, and sometimes according to the tusks that those animals were supposed to do during the day, because if the horses were going to do some work, we would give them more oats than normally did.
Once we had finished grooming the horses and cleaning all manure from the stable, the chicken coop, the pig stay, sweep the floors and everywhere else; then one of us would go to the well with a couple of buckets or other containers, so that we could bring some clean fresh water for the small animals to drink, and also for ourselves to drink and to wash our hands and face, and everyday even if it was very cold we used to wash our hands and face outside the building: Here I can assure you that this was the main hygiene that could be had in the farm each day, and this was the only time and place where we used to clean ourselves; at any other time when we got our hands dirty, we had to find a way how to clean ourselves with anything available around us.
By the time we had done all these chores, it would be time for the horse and the cows to be taken to the well to water them, (the horses and other large animals were watered only twice a day in winter time) and of course we had to stand on the well head in order to draw water with a bucket attached to a rope, we had to let the bucket down the well, and then with a flick of the rope we would make the bucket turn upside-down to fill itself, and then we would pull the bucket up the well and empty it into the trough; we had to draw as many buckets of water as they were needed until all the animals would not drink anymore; and now that I think about it, it really was a hard and dangerous job for a youth of my age.
After we had done all those chores as I have said above, it would have been time to eat something, so we would sit down on some sort of wooden stools to have breakfast. Breakfast was usually brought in from town, from one of us or one of our neighbours, there was always somebody on horseback that would go to town the evening before, and then would bring prepared food in the morning. Breakfast would usually consist of a few fried dry capsicums and a few olives, and at the best one or two small pieces of sausage, or something similar which my mother would have fried in the early hours of that morning, and then placed it in a saucepan with a few drops of fried oil at the bottom, we set around a larger wooden stool which acted like a table, and with a slice of bread in one hand and a fork or knife in the other hand, we would try to eat our small share of breakfast from the saucepan with as much bread as possible, as there was plenty of bread of very good nutritional quality, but not much of everything else. At lunge time we would have something similar to eat, but in the evening we had a large meal which we had to cook ourselves, sometimes we would cook homemade pasta, but usually we made a quick meal called ‘panecotto’ which was just cooked bread; to you this may seem strange that we cooked bread a second time for our main meal, but then over there it was the simplest meal to cook and very filling, therefore after a cold and long day of activities this very simple meal was very welcome, and it was also very easy to prepare: To prepare ‘panecotto’ all that was needed was a lively fire to boil some water, then we would throw in this boiling water as many slice of durum wheat bread as required, and in a minute or so we would drain the water out of the saucepan, we also would fry a small amount of oil in a frypan with garlic and pepper or tomatoes and pour it on the cooked bread, and that was all that was required, at this stage the ‘panecotto’ would be ready to be eaten.
Anyhow let me go back to breakfast, after breakfast weather permitting we would have to do some minor jobs, like hoeing in the kitchen garden, which was about half an acre of land, or working in the vineyard, or going out to cut and collect fire wood for ourselves, and also for our families in town, as they depended on us for their wood supply, in order to cook our meals and keep themselves warm, as at that time there wasn’t anything else to burn in order to keep warm.
During the day we would still feed the animals every now and then, and bring in the stable new straw and hay for the following night.
This is how life in the farms was in winter times, when the days were short and the weather was cold and wet.
But when the days became longer and the weather was fine, there was work to be done in the fields even if it was winter. We would have to get up earlier then, in order to feed the horses and get them ready for the tasks that they had to do: it could be just that we had to plough a field or something similar, but in order to do that we had to harness the horses and attach them with their harnesses to the appropriate devices; all this had to be done early enough in the morning even if it was very cold, so that some work could be done during the short winter days in the fields.
Apart what I have already said above, there were also other chores which had to be done in the farm in wintertime, like pruning and hoeing the vineyard, planting trees, pruning fruit and olives trees, cutting and collecting wood, and many other small jobs, so everyday there was always plenty to do.                  
But even though in wintertime we were busy in the farm, wintertime was very dreadful and sad especially for young people, because we were more isolated that at any other time of the year, and therefore it was very boring and it was very easy for one to become dull, therefore if we young people became dull it was due to this harsh environment, at other times of the year it would always be a bit better as there was more contact with the town’s community, and also because there were some important happenings to talk about, even if it would be in a restricted way, so we were happy to see springtime coming.

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 Genzano it story
A winter day in the farms
IS GOING TO BE CONTINUED; 
Next time with, a spring day in the farms
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Friday, June 7, 2013

Story of my life

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Welcome to my blog, Genzano it story
and this post, Story of my life












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Dear readers, now that we have told you how I felt during my entire life, because of the pains that were in my heart in our last posts that I called, Crying out loud, now let me tell you more about my farm life, and then, let me tell you what I have done during my whole life starting from my first job in the farm with the intention of telling you the whole story of my life. You see I feel that I am one of the few people left in the world that is willing to tell you this story of my life, because I would like to tell you this story about how the world was young and what we did then, so that a record can be kept even if it is going to be just a simple record of my life.
What I want to point out here is that everything is changing so fast these days that people don’t take the time to record those changes, for this reason lots of ways of life in the past will be lost as nobody has written about them, but I believe that it is good to know, perhaps just to compare the ways of life of those days and today. Speaking for myself I can compare the ways of life that I have lived myself, to the ways of life that my forbears were telling me and then to the ways of life that we are living today.
Therefore, if I continue to write about my farm life including some of the old practice that the old people used then, even if some of them may seem strange to you, it is a record of how people used to live then in their simple farm lives, so I hope you are willing to follow me in my life journey? 
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 MY FIRST JOB IN THE FARM
Dear readers, the first thing that I want to say, do not feel sorry for me for having lived a hard life in the farms, because even today there are people in the poor countries that would be worse than we were then, you see, even today there are people that go hungry and thirsty, so think about them and if any of you/us are in a position that can help, then try to help them; you see to feel sorry for me today is useless because nothing can be done as it is in the past, but anyhow let me tell you the story of  the first job in the farm.
When I went to work in our small family farm as a youth, I had just turned eleven and the first job that I did was looking after a small flock of sheep, which included also a ram and a couple of goats; I had to do that job because the lad that my family had hired to look after the sheep left us suddenly, so I had to replace him for a few months until we were able to sell the small flock of sheep, as it was becoming too hard to keep. It was a very boring job to take the sheep out in the fields to graze twice a day, I had to mind them that they would not graze in fields that didn’t belong to us, or fields which there was a crop still growing, I had to take them out early in the morning and then in the afternoon for a few hours each time, because this is how the sheep are grazed over there in summer times. Then when the town’s Fair was held we were able to sell the small herd of sheep, but I had to continue to stay in the farm helping with the other farm animals.
So that one can have an idea of what sort of life I had to live in the farm when I was young, I will start by trying to describe to you how a day in the farm was spend doing those chores; And I am going to start with those days when there was not much to do.
So let me tell you first of all, about a day in wintertime when all the main works of sowing had been done, and we were so to speak resting and waiting for better weather and longer days. Those were the days which we were just looking after the farms animals, and did some odd jobs around the farm.  This I am going to tell you in my next post. See you there.

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Story of my life; 
IS TO BE CONTINED; 
Next time with a new post, A winter day in the farm
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Thursday, May 9, 2013

We have a story to tell

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We have a story to tell
Welcome to my blog, Genzano it story
And this post , we have a story to tell
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Grandma here is reading a story, but she could easily tell her own life stories, because every one of us has a story to tell. 

We have a story to tell

We believe that every man or woman has a story to tell, no matter how important it is, even if it is not important at all. As you can see in our last post, we sometimes behave in strange ways; my own judgement here is that, perhaps it may be worth behaving in such a deceitful way, because in order to live as well as one can, one must be in control of oneself, and also be able to tell the people your own story.
Having said that and knowing that perhaps there are people that could be interested to hear my life story, I am looking around me to see who is still listening to me, and I see that you are all nice people here with me. So, I hope that within yourselves you are happy with your own way of life that you are living now, and the way that you are living your life overall. I hope that the way that you are living your life is good for you for your own sake, because sometimes life can be very boring up to the point where it may become painful; this is when things don’t go the right way, which is the way that one wants them to go. And here I have to admit that I happen to be in such painful position myself very often: And when this happens to me I am going through one of those grey days, and my life is boring and seems to be at a standstill. So, I feel so frustrated about my life that I have to ask myself. O my God! Why life has got to be so hard and boring for me these days? What have I done to deserve this? Why don’t I have the chance like everybody else to enjoy life as it should be enjoyed? And many other hard questions come to mind.
Therefore, I feel that life has not given me what by rights I should have deserved from it, and for this reason I can’t help thinking about life itself, and the ways that I am spending my life these days, together with the way that I have spend the earlier part of my life, so, I keep asking myself whether life has really treated me the right way. Or should I have really deserved a better life?
Then I think: I suppose that lots of other people of my age are going over their own lives just like me, and they may well be asking themselves; what is life all about? And whether life has treated them fair enough for that matter, so, they are looking back at that part of life that they have already lived, and wonder about whether life has been good for them or not, and they might have the impression that: That part of life that they have already lived now seems only a dream, a dream that has lasted for so many years, but now all those years have gone forever and they never will come back, so now for them, all that is left of their lives is a story to tell, if they can find the time to tell their story, and if they find somebody that will listen to their story.
So, every man and woman has a story to tell; no matter how unimportant it may seem, and how stupid and ridiculous it may sound, when they tell it to you. But, because it is their life story it is very important to them, and they can’t change it because it is their true life story. But if one listens to their true life story even if it is not much of a story, in the end it may bring up some good common sense to some of us, and one can always learn something useful from their true story, if one takes the time and listens to their true life story, even if their story is not much of a story.
This is all for this post and next time I am going to tell you more about my life, see you then
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 Genzano it story
We have a story to tell 
IS GOING TO BE CONTINUED; 
Next time with stories about my life
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Friday, March 22, 2013

How we behave

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Welcome to my blog, Genzano it story
and this post, How we behave














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How we behave
 We (the people) are a strange lot sometimes, as you have seen in our last post we have written an introduction, but during this introduction we were lying to ourselves, because we wanted to keep our heads high and did not want to admit our problems to the world.
Now, this part of the story that I am presently writing, almost I did not want to write it here, because I have already lamented it somewhere else, but I feel forced to write it anyhow, just because it fits my story that I am writing now, after all this post is called hello my world, so let me cry my heart out and say what I have to say.  And this is how I see the way that we behave.
Speaking for myself, the reality of life is that I find life for me has lots of ups and downs, and even if I don’t admit them to you, I feel them within myself. So, when you happen to ask me, ‘How are you?’ I may happen to be very much down, but, I will still answer you: I am very well, thank you! So, my dear readers, listeners or friends, there are no doubts about our behaviour that it is sometimes strange, and so, we have to admit that:
We behave sometimes as if everything is indeed unreal, when we do say things that we do not mean or feel. And even when our own heart is hurt and cries in pains, we do turn to the world and pretending smile again, because we don’t want the world to see our pains. But all the efforts that we have made have been in vain. Because our heart still hurts and we still feel that pain.
I am sure that some of you will agree with me about what I have just written, because you may have been in a painful situation yourself sometimes, and therefore you know and understand what I mean. But at the same time one may also ask here: What’s the use to pretend such a thing? When it is only pretense. Even if, it has been able to make one feel better for a few moments, and one has been able to overcome the inner pains and has smiled just for a second. But, is all this pretence worthwhile to live one’s life in such a way deceiving oneself?
But then it might indeed be worthwhile, just because we have been able to control ourselves and for a few moments we have felt well in the middle of all those afflictions that may bug us.  
As you can see, we sometimes behave in strange ways; my own judgement here is that, perhaps it may be worth behaving in such a deceitful way, not because we have been able to lie to ourselves, but because we have been able to control our own pains. And to live as well as one can; one must be in control of oneself.
Now let me add this, perhaps we need to behave as above, you see, in business people need to be polite and being polite sometimes we need to lie. I hope you see what I mean?
Anyhow there are times when whatever we do may not seem right, so it is up to ourselves to decide what is better for us, for instance at this very moment I have decided to stop writing this post, but I will continue to write next post called; a story to tell.  
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Genzano it story
How we behave
IS GOING TO BE CONTINUED; 
Next time with, a story to tell
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