Most of the trees in the garden are fruit trees and that’s great. There will be fruits for each season. Cherries and sour cherries in the early season. Pears throughout the late summer and apples and walnuts by the end. The problem is that they grew too close to each other. No one took care of what was growing wear in the last decade so, for example, there are plenty of young apple trees shaded by giant cherry trees. There is not enough space for all of them to yield good fruit.

Matei decided to do two things during my visit on Rășinari hill: cut all the trees that were overcrowding and teach me how to use a chainsaw. Whenever I got my turn, I had a lot of fun bringing trees to the ground and sectioning them into pieces. I also got the chain stuck several times and got tired several other times when Matei would take charge of the work again. We usually

In the end, we did a good job. The garden doesn’t look anymore like a jungle, but more like an orchard - it’s supposed to have that fingerprint of a hard working man.

A few days ago, we were visiting another village called Bociu, another beautiful village. On the way there we made a stop by the road because I saw some very interesting rocks not far away. I wanted to see if there is anything good for rock climbing. That’s when I found out that Matei is very interested in flowers. Why? Well, he’s planning to seed as many species as possible on his property. He wants to achieve the highest biodiversity possible on his land. It makes sense if he wants to keep bees and a cow. An amazing idea! He was analyzing species and picking them up to keep the seeds.

Matei took me for a walk in the neighborhood. In Răchițele (pronounced something like rɜː-kiː-tse-le) and especially on Rășinari hill there aren’t too many occupied households. At some road intersections you will find two or three families that continue to live there, maybe helping each other out in tough times, or having a common business whether it is tourism or forestry related. A road to access the village center is keeping these communities alive.

Otherwise the scattered farms on either side of the hill are deserted and getting to them is not that easy either. Where the roads used to be, simple one lane dirt roads for a cart to handle, now small trees have started to grow. The age of the tree shows for how long no one has been living there. It’s a bit sad, but when young souls such as Matei decide to come in the village and invest in conserving the simple life with modern tools, it sprinkles hope on this hill.