CHIVALRY IS DEAD

NOV. 30TH FRI.

For all you women out there who struggled with a heavy box or grocery bag while a man stood by letting you struggle, this is the meaning of "chivalry is dead".  Once upon a time men wouldn't let a woman struggle with a heavy item or would step up their pace to open a door for a lady.  Some men still do this but it is non-existant here at the olive farm.
So here we have 3 people working at collecting the olives.  2 are men and me.  The first person pulls up the nets and organizes the olives into one pile at a particular place in the net.  The next person skims the surface of the pile to remove some of the leaves and sticks.  A machine actually removes all of these at the factory.  And then scoops olives into buckets or lifts the net when there is no more than a bucket-full to pour into it.  Then carries 2 buckets at a time to the 'cassette' at the van to be loaded to bring to the factory.  The third person looks to determine if there are still enough olives in the tree to warrant replacing the net for another round of collecting.  Then puts in down, secured with rocks or rolls it up to be brought to an area for proper folding.  Guess which person I am.  I am the one who does the hardest bull work at getting the olives in the buckets and then carries them to the van. This hurts a lot!
These buckets are heavy and sometimes the distance to carry them is quite long.
A cassette is a plastic box about twice the size of a milk crate.  I also have to carry these cassettes filled with firewood up a flight of stairs to my apartment so I can have a fire in the fireplace.  It's been getting cold at night.  There is no other heat.
Just when I thought I could not carry any more weight at one time, I get to fill these buckets with rocks and carry them to the wall for next years' net placement.  Probably 50-60lbs. each.  And carrying these rock filled buckets through a soft (mud-like) terrain adds to the difficulty.
Looking forward to the end of this olive harvest.