All picked

After a full day on Saturday, we had completed 26 trees. That's very quick and gives an indication of how bad the harvest is this year.

Saturday evening Lainie phoned our friends who had volunteered to help us on Sunday to check they would still come. "We've found it very difficult this year, only managed to pick 2 trees yesterday and 2 more today!". I think they almost believed her as they arrived just after 8am on Sunday morning to help us finish.

With their help, we had everything finished by just after midday. Jim wanted some tape and filler for a job he’s doing in his house, so we went to the village to get them from Dimitris. Dimitris not only is a builders merchant, but also runs one of the local olive presses, the one we have used for the last 3 years. When we had seen Dimitris earlier in the week he had told us the press would be running by the weekend. So, while we were there I checked if the press would be open on Monday. “No, not until Wednesday or Thursday.” When Jim and I looked inside the press building we could see why, a piece of the plant was dismantled and lying on the floor. Wednesday or Thursday could easily turn into next weekend!

Luckily last night while we were out for a meal we saw another man who runs one of the olive presses just outside the village who we had used the first year we were here. He said he would not be open on Monday, but should be running on Tuesday. So, hopefully our problem may be solved.