Sibenik, December 3 and Krka National Park

Sibenik is not a great town in which to live because all of the factories have been closed since Yugoslavia has disintegrated. There is no job market and the only market available is tourism. Under Yugoslavia they had a TLM factory that produced aluminum and exported it worldwide. It had employed most of the town. Now all of those people are without jobs. After the civil war of 1991, Croatia, Bosnia and it's mountains have been destroyed by the Serbs.
Krkrtina River flows from the mountains to the Adriatic Sea. It is rich with mammals and birds. Krka National Park was founded in 1985. It has a tiny village that is open for business in the summer only. On an island in the river is a San Franciscan Monastery from the 1660s and a 14th century Orthodox church. They are also closed for the winter. It is 53 outside and cloudy. They have had so much rain that much of this park is flooded and we cannot do the hike that was planned. Because of the heavy rains, the falls were awesome!!! It is very rocky and because the water is flowing so rapidly there is a lot of mist. All of the walks were made of flagstones and the walls were of stacked stones. The water is a turquoise green and is surrounded by cedars, evergreens, poplars, oaks, bamboo, junipers. This area is called the Dalmatia Hinderlands. The dry stone walls mark the boundries between properties and also are used to stop the soil from washing or blowing away. The people are mountain people who have to work hard to survive. Mount Dinara is the highest peak at 6000 feet.
A hundred years ago the houses were built of stone with stone floors. They used wooden bowls and buckets of juniper to freshen the house inside. There was no milk to drink so they all drank wine. The houses took a long time to build and they were built in parts, adding on when they need more room. The roofs were assembled in pieces, but they never leaked. There were several layers of rock and a plant called "housekeeper" grew on top. This helped to seal out some of the cold also. This herb had another use: for sore throats and sick stomachs. The women traditionally didn't drink. They couldn't grow very much on this unforgiving soil, but they did raise a small amount of grain(polenta) and tomatoes. Since food was scarce, they didn't talk while they ate. The faster they could eat, the better they would feel.
The first room in a house was the bedroom with 2 single beds. The mother slept with the children so the Father could have a good nights rest to be able to work hard the next day. When the children were fast asleep, the wife would hop into his bed for some hanky-panky. Therefore this was called a working room which didn't show the results for 9 months. The second room contained the loom which was the wife's job to keep her family clothed and enough cloth woven to exchange for food they couldn't grow. When a young girl married, she brought a loom with her to the marriage. The husband had to build the house. The third room was the kitchen where a fire was burning all year. It was called a black kitchen because all of the limestone rocks were darkened from the fires.The eggs were placed up high in a basket so the children couldn't break them. They had a mouse trap made of a huge block of wood on pegs with a wooden spring. The block of wood was so heavy it could probably mash the bones in your hand. In the fire they pushed away the ashes and placed the dough for bread, meat and veggies right on the stones. Then covered it with a big bowl and covered it with ashes so it could bake for 3 to 4 hours. They only ate meat on Sundays and Thursdays because Sunday was the Holy day and Thursday was mid week. The rest of the week they just ate soup, polenta and veggies.
The man worked very hard all day outside because that was his job. When he came in he had a special chair right up against the fire. The wife's job was everything inside; so when he came in she needed to get him a glass of wine and take off his shoes for him. When the first son was old enough he was able to get the wine. The stools they made to sit on only had 3 legs because they were more stable on uneven stones with just 3 legs. Smoke rises up so the stools had short legs therefore, their faces weren't in the smoke. The fourth room was the smoke room for the meat. Hams were hung here for 18 months to cure. A household needed 2 to 3 proschuittos for a year to be able to eat and trade. They placed the 2 back legs in salt, then ashes to cure. The pigs ate corn and acorns. The wine cellar was always under the smoke room and the hams were placed in the wine cellar in the summer so they would remain cool. The hams hung upstairs from November to April. The smoke room was the only room with a wooden floor.
The stones for the roof weighed about 60 tons of flat rock laid in layers. There were always tiny holes for a draft for the smoke house, but they didn't leak because the rocks overlapped each other. But, they needed the winds to be able to get into the smoke house to help cure the hams. These stones were supported by oak beams in the ceiling. When a son married he brought his wife to his family's house and they added a bedroom for just them. The Grandmother passed her loom to her Granddaughter. There were several generations living in one house.
To identify single available women when they met in the villages, the single girls carried small bags made with few colors. The married woman had a large colorful bag. The men wore orange and black hats with a solid black interior. If they were available, they wore the solid black side out. If married, they wore the colored side out. A man looking for a healthy wife looked for a woman who could jump and could jump for a long time and had pink cheeks and some fat on her. She needed to be able to jump into his bed and if she could jump for a long time then her lungs were good. She was then healthy enough for childbearing. The marriages were arranged by the families. They were always looking for girls who could bring a loom along because that would eventually bring in trade for her woven cloths and make their own clothes. Sunday after church all the families danced together. If a man squeezed your hand, it meant he was interested in you. If the girl squeezed back, it meant she was interested too. Then they planned to meet after and discuss the families.
These families raised pigs, chickens, cows, goats and sheep. They traded olive oil with the coast for cork from the fishermen to be able to seal their wine. The wine was in oak casts. They made their dessert wine from white grapes that were allowed to dehydrate with their skins
on to turn slightly reddish. It was drunk in small amounts all year. They drank white wine from Easter until November. Red wine had more
body and warmed the body so they drank it from November until Easter.
We had small glasses of their wines. The first drink was a grappa schnapps made with juniper herbs. The second glass was a white local wine that they drank from Easter to November. The third wine was a red local wine they drank from November until Easter. The last was a red dessert wine made from white grapes that are dried and turn reddish. It was very sweet.