Bristling with digging implements we bounced along a rough farm track through washed out gullies and over stony ridges to the chosen site then left the vehicles and followed our guide another 600m on foot. Karen had been clever enough to bring a labourer as well as digging tools so she was less burdened than the rest of us. We had the choice of lots of olives, all sizes and shapes but the hillside is a little steeper than when I was there last
It is most frustrating to see the shovel slide away down the hill as soon as you let it go. Having to fetch them back repeatedly got a little tiring too 
I'm not sure that photo above does justice to the slope The soil is pretty hard at this time of year and this particular hillside seems to be made up mostly of rocks so the crowbars turned out to be the weapons of choice this time.
It was interesting that all of us targeted smaller trees this time, possibly due to a lack of youthful enthusiasm in this year's team. Even Alpine was collecting tiny trees (said he couldn't even lift the chainsaw due to gammy shoulder this morning)
I arrived home around 1pm and dumped all my trees into tubs of water while I did a final trim before potting them up Here are a couple of before and after shots so you can see how I treat these collected olives after initial collection. This is a tiny, skinny one but I thought the trunk had enough character to try making a shohin sized tree. Note the huge long root but there is a convenient ring of roots around the trunk in one spot Then reduce the to a little more before potting up in a 15cm plastic pot. This is one of the few that had more than a little movement in the trunks The tall, straight trunk is not bonsai in my opinion so it is now shortened - possible jin? Final tally: 5x 30cm pots, 10x 20cm pots and one in a 15cm. Not all of them will be spectacular keepers. Some will end up with other club members if and when they settle into life in pots.
