HelpXing in Spain's Wild West

My last foray into self-harvesting: a fresh-plucked almond in Jerusalem last spring.

Mmmm...furry. And tart. Very, very tart.

Next week will be a little quiet around this blog.

It's a school holiday here in Spain, so The Mister and I don't have to work all next week.  We took advantage of the free time and are heading off to the rural Spanish province of Extremadura (sometimes referred to as Spain's Wild West) to stay with a family and help them out with their olive harvest.

We found the opportunity through a website called Help Exchange (HelpX), which hooks up travelers with people who own agricultural property (vineyards, farms, fruit orchards, and so on) to facilitate exchanges with travelers who are willing to get their hands a little dirty. We get an inexpensive trip to the countryside and free room and board, and they get company and helping hands.  Seems like a good exchange to me! We are headed to stay with a British couple who has a vineyard and a few hundred olive trees that are ready for harvest. It's our first time HelpXing (oh yes, it's a verb too), so we're pretty excited to see how it all turns out.

While my internet access will be sporadic at best and I may or may not get to post at all next week, rest assured I'll be photography and journaling the whole thing so I can share it in all its glory when I return. Agricultural humor, here I come!