By Donna:
“While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” Genesis 8:2
November was the month of the olive harvest! We are beginners and learn so much every year. The first thing we learned is that the year after the olive trees are pruned they give little or no fruit. By the second year the trees will be producing a small quantity of olives and by the third year there is an abundant harvest. If a homestead has many olive trees the pruning is done on a rotation basis so that every year there will be some trees producing olives. In our case, we pruned half of our trees last year, henceforth half of our trees gave no fruit. Another thing we learned is that often trees produce in cycles. For example, one year a great harvest, next year a rest cycle, following year a return to a good harvest, etc. In our case, it seems like the trees were in a rest cycle this year as the production of fruit was greatly reduced as compared to last year. This seems to have been a general phenomenon in our area. In summary, we are thankful for the olives that the trees gave us this year and the oil they produced. We were blessed to have Jason come over with all his youth and energy. He harvested the olives from Gabriel and Selen’s trees, producing their first batch of high quality extra virgin olive oil! Emanuel and Mandy’s trees also provided the olives for their first batch of high quality extra virgin olive oil! Praise God!
One important detail was that we found a new lagar. It has just opened, the facilities and is well organized. The visit is made by appointment and therefore the waiting time was reasonable. We were very pleased with their service. The lagar is a crucial factor in the production process and we are thankful for this new contact.
The work on the cabin has progressed steadily and is almost ready for habitation. There is electricity, heating, lights and soon there will be beds, a desk etc. It has been a project and we thank God that we had the strength and tenacity to get it done, rain or shine! We welcome anyone to come and visit and spend a few nights: winter, spring, summer or fall! All you gotta do is call!
Down in Lisbon, Cristy and Nuno and Grandma prepared a lovely Thanksgiving Day dinner for family and friends. It was a labor of love, Cristiana as the main chef and coordinator. All were blessed by the delicious meal, and hearts were thankful for the abundant blessings that the Lord bestows upon us because of His grace!
From another latitude, we heard Gabriel, Selen, Emanuel and Mandy had an exciting hike in (Sai Kung) It was a long trek, and they were surprised by the number of fellow hikers they met along the route:) The pics are amazing! It is great to have such a scenic hiking trail relatively close to home and strong legs to walk for so many hours. Kudos to you all!
Enjoy this month’s assorted photos!
