New member of the farm - Michele
Michele has been a huge help in getting our farm into shape!
Our agriturismo isn’t just a B&B farmhouse, we also have vineyards and a huge garden to take care of. There was a lot to clear up, clean out and maintain, whilst we were hopping on planes in and outside of Italy. We had left our neighbour in charge of taking care of the farm for the past two years but the situation became difficult to manage with us being overseas. Our farm was always second and didn’t get the care and attention it needed, so we decided to take the management of it back in house.
We were first introduced to Michele, the cousin of our neighbour. We’d known him for 2 years and saw him quite regularly at dinners and on the weekends. We saw what a hard worker he was, as well as his passion for farming. He started very young driving tractors (14 years old!) in Sicily, he explained that he likes working in farms because he loves staying in the middle of nature and seeing the satisfaction of his work blossom. This is the kind of person we wanted to be working with, so we asked Michele if he’d like to start working with us and he agreed with a grin from ear to ear as he knew there was a lot of work to be done and we’d be using great equipment.
Within a month we got Michele on board, he helped us choose some fundamental machines that he’d be using on the farm such as a tractor, an excavator and grass cutters to help us recover our farm. He was so motivated to recover the farm that he started early mornings and always finished late, he came on Saturdays and Sunday’s too! We’d tell him to have a break or take a day off and he would just laugh because for him all of this work was enjoyable and still is.
When Michele arrived our farm was at a state of almost abandonment. We had planted new vines in May, which were now completed covered but very tall weeds. There had been no rain in May - July, so our new plants were really suffering. This meant, we worked together with Michele from 6am to 8pm, to water the plants every morning and night before sunrise and after sunset. We did this every day for a month, until the rains started to arrive in early August!
We really understood Michele’s passion when he invited us to his house for dinner one day.
As Angus is a gamer too, Michele showed us his PlayStation 5. We thought Michele would show us Call of Duty, Assassins Creed or GTA, as his favourite game, but we were wrong.. he pulled out a tractor simulator game! So Michele works 12 hours a day driving tractors, then goes home to drive tractors on the PS5! Now that is passion!!
After improving the garden and the new vineyards, Michele has not only been maintaining that work but has also been helping us to renovate the farmhouse building. He’s been working alongside Abdul to clear out the old floors, lay new concrete floors and prepare the building to be ready for furnishing. We’ve really got a move on with the building working all together and after waiting for builders for many months, we finally were able to move forward.
Michele has become more than a worker, Michele is one of our closest friends, his dog Willy and our dog Tux are best of friends and we couldn't be happier with our choice of asking him to work with us. ‘I feel so welcomed by Angus and Scott, as if I’m at home and appreciate how respectful they are. I’m also happy that I have improved my English with Angus and Scott’ (words from the one and only Michele).’
If he’s not in the farm, he is in front of the mirror, checking out his muscle development from all the farm work! Who needs gym with such a big farm!
We are very grateful to have an amazing man like Michele on board with our project and hope to continue working together long term.
