How do I feel about organizing?
This weekend, instead of tackling my linen closet, or maybe the mess of all messes in my office, I went on a little olive picking and olive oil making vacation with Ian. We decided to be photo-journalists on the trip, but pictures can't really capture the feeling you get when you are up high on a ladder, swaying with the tree and hearing the soothing plink plunk of olives dropping into your picking basket. At one point, I was on the tippety toppest rung of the ladder ("get on that top rung of the ladder; it looks dangerous and it feels dangerous cause it IS dangerous"), straining on the tip of my toes to reach a perfectly plump and laden down frond...and I realized that there was nothing else holding me up but this lovely olive tree. And it really felt so nice.
What I learned on this trip:
1) Without a navigational tool I am a complete and utter direction loser.
2) With a navigational tool I STILL am a complete and utter direction loser.
3) Country roads all start to look the same when you're lost.
4) Junk food tastes so good.
5) Olive picking is hard work and yield is small. 50 pounds of olives will give you about 3/4 of a gallon of olive oil.
6) When you fall out of a tree, make sure you've got your arm tucked tight around a sturdy limb.
7) There's nothing like one-on-one time with your kid.
Picking, Sorting, Grinding
Mixing, Stacking
Pressing, Separating
Olive to Oil
11 comments:
What a great activity! One of these times when we're down we'll have to try this! Yield may be small but I bet the tast is fantastically fresh!
Super funny! Love the pictures. Where's the one of you hanging on the limb without the ladder?
Jen, yep the taste can't be beat. We feel very proud of our olive oil and would love to share some with you when you visit :-) Amber, I wish a limb hanging photo had been snapped, I felt so graceful swooping down on the limb...Ian says it wasn't full of grace! By the way, tell Andrew that I've been scouting out some olive trees here!
That looks like so much fun!! Did you go to the ranch?
Where did you go? That sounds like fun!
Great pictures! That looks so fun! Near-death dangerous ladder experiences have a nice way of bringing people together...;)
And don't feel bad about your organizing blues. You've stuck with this much longer than I have...I did think about organizing my purse on Feb. 1st, but that was about it. ;) You've probably done even more than you realize!
So much fun, glad you two had a good time! And as for the organizing - that was my task LAST month and I STILL haven't finished it yet... I've turned it into a Quarterly Project instead of a monthly one. Cheating, I know!
That looks super fun!
Juli & Elizabeth - we picked in Lafayette, near Walnut Creek and the press was in Woodland.
Marcella - I think I can know classify my blues as more than just organizational blues, possible could be labeled as "Project Blues"! Oh no!
Cadi - Should I start badgering you? :-)
Jill - It was fun. And now I've been veering off the roads looking for laden down olive trees around here.
Project Blues? Oh no is right! Maybe you need a project month off? I was just thinking you hadn't posted in a bit and I was missing you! Well I am just about to tackle my biggest goal of the month my pantry! So we'll see how I feel about it tommorow! :) Luv ya
Jessica, don't forget to take pics of your pantry to enter into our giveaway!!!
Post a Comment