Visiting a herdsman.
On one of my many tours to the mountains on the middle of Samos, I met a herdsman rather close to Kokkari. We talked a little (my greek is close to nothing). I showed him a picture of the first herdsman i met on Samos (Manolis Tsambos) and he knew him... We had a little talk about Manolis and I learned, that it does not matter where people are living, but the main thing is where they are born and had their childhood. I thought that Manolis was from Hora (he lives there..) but I was told, that Manolis "sleeps in Hora, but he was from Vourliotes". The herdsman invited me home for a cup of coffee, and told his dogs to take care of the goats.
We went to his house and sitting on their veranda (outdoor kitchen) we got coffee and had a nice talk while I enjoied the beautiful view over their garden, the forrest, Kokkari, the sea and Vathi in the background.
While we were sitting there another herdsman arrived with a goat with a broken leg, and then I got the possibility to watch a 'home-slaughtering'.
I will let the pictures talk for themselves, but I have to mention, that it was very interesting to see how they loosened the goat's skin - they used a pump !! A metalpipe was stuck under the skin on one of the goats legs and connected to an hand-airpump, and after a short time the goat looked like a balloon!! By knocking very hard on the skin it was loosened.