I have been in Austria 6 weeks now. How quickly my adventure is winding down! Thankfully I still have 2 weeks to enjoy! :)

Triticale field at sunset.

This week on the Holzinger farm I tried to learn more about their operation. I even got the chance to actually help milk the cows, which growing up on a farm with beef cattle is something I've never really had the opportunity to do before. Approximately one year ago the Holzingers installed computerized programming system to help them monitor their milking operation. Each cow has an electronic collar around their neck. These collars can be recognized by scanners that identify the cow and important production information specific to that individual. The milking parlor fits six cows at a time and each stall is set up with an electronic scanner to record how much milk each cow is producing. This is all documented on a computer program so they can track information for the entire herd. In addition to milk production the program also helps document important dates, like calving, breeding, vaccinations, hoof care, etc. The Holzingers also made some physical changes to their operation by adding on to the barn creating a “running stall” for the cows that are milking. They also now utilize artificial insemination to breed the cows. Altogether, the cows produce about 400 liters of milk per day, or about 146,000 liters per year. The Holzingers receive 45 Euro cents per liter, which includes a 4 Euro cent premium due to the fact that they only feed hay to their cattle rather than silage. Not surprisingly it’s called” Heumilch,” which translates directly to hay milk.

Electronic collar to help document information.

Host brother Stefan explaining the dairy's computer program.

Recent addition to the dairy barn.

Milking cows!!!

Other farm work this week included hauling home some hay and fertilizing a different hay meadow with manure from the dairy. It is quite popular here to just haul the cut hay loose, rather than bale it like you typically would in Kansas (although you will see hay bales sometimes). Daniela explained that they can pick up the dry hay with the same wagon as the fresh grass they cut to feed the cows, so it makes more sense to utilize the same machinery rather than buying a baler. Also, given that Austria is generally cooler and wetter than Kansas it is sometimes necessary to haul hay home before it is completely dry. In that circumstance they have a blower system that can dry the loose hay, so they don’t have to wait for the hay to be completely dry in the fields like you would if you were baling it.

Spreading manure with host dad Manfred.

Helping rake up bits of hay in the field.

Using hay crane to store hay in the loft after unloading.

Apart from the farm work this week we also spent some more time at the lakes on hot afternoons. It actually has been quite warm here this week, so the cool water has felt nice. On Wednesday Daniela, my host parents, and I took a guided boat ride around Attersee, which is the largest lake in the nearby area. Thursday we walked a trail that had educational stations to teach about the Celtic people who used to live in that area. By coincidence we met one of the trail’s guides who was getting the campfire ready for a group of kids and invited us to help make the fire and bake bread dough on a stick before the kids arrived. I liked to call it “Celtic Fire Bread,” although I think the actual name translated to “stick bread.” Friday evening we had the chance to watch my host brother Stefan train with his group of volunteer firefighters. In Austria there are firefighter competitions, which are very popular. They basically race to see which firefighter team can assemble their equipment the fastest, without any mistakes and perhaps perform a small task. They are quite a big deal around here, but I told them I had never heard of anything like that in the U.S. Saturday we went and visited one of Daniela’s co-workers. He raises/buys/sells snakes, and owns other exotic animals. I was not expecting to see a snake farm while in Austria, but why not? My favorite animal was the miniature kangaroo he had acquired earlier this year. The ironic part is there is a saying that is popular: “No Kangaroos in Austria.” This is because foreigners often get Austria and Australia confused. Now I can say there ARE kangaroos in Austria and I have pictures to prove it! :) Wanted to get a picture of me with the kangaroo, but he wouldn't let me get close enough to pet him.

Popular destination :)

Voyage on the Attersee!

Roasting "Celtic Fire Bread!"

Parseltongue, anyone? (Sorry for HP fans only...haha)

Yes, that is a baby boa constrictor I'm so uncomfortably holding :)

KANGAROO IN AUSTRIA!!!!

However, I think my favorite activity this week was conquering a mountain in the Alps! Okay, so it was a little one, but how many people can say they've spent a day hiking through the Alps? One of Daniela’s friends, Sylvia, took us to Ahornstein (I hope I am spelling that correctly) on Monday. Sylvia is actually getting her masters in Agriculture Economics and Animal Sciences, which happen to be the areas I am majoring and minoring in at K-State. We traveled to a part of the mountains in Salzburg where agri-tourism is a very important part of the economy. Last summer Sylvia worked at an alm on the mountain, which is a small farm that serves as restaurant available to hikers in the summer months. They produce almost everything they serve, or buy it locally. It is hard work, but you can find alms dotted all over in this range of the mountains. I really loved the physical work of hiking up the mountain, but I my legs are not in good enough shape to do it on a regular basis! The peace and quiet was comforting and the view was absolutely outstanding. Worth every sweat drop!

Sylvia & Daniela leading the way.

Can't do it justice, but the view was astounding!

Made it to the top!

Wahoo! The way back is downhill!

This week I made my American meal. But more interestingly, I got to try quite a few very traditional types of Austrian food. We ate different types of knödel at the Holzingers' and Daniela's friend Andrea invited us over for Kaiserschmarrn.

Host family & grandparents for American dinner.

A type of knodel eaten with onion soup.

Knodel with a ham filling.

Kaiserschmarrn (pancake-like bits) and pears.

 Also had the chance to attend another Landjugend festival this weekend, which was quite fun and a nice way to say goodbye to the people I met in Pöndorf.  Thank you to the Holzinger family for hosting me!

Andrea, her niece, me, and Daniela before the festival.

Host/exchange sibling picture!

I even got my own Pondorf Landjugend shirt!!!! Thanks guys!!!

Holzinger Family (L to R): host brother Stefan, host mom Christine,
host sister Daniela, host dad Manfred, and me

Sunday afternoon I traveled to the city of Klagenfurt where I will be staying with my last host family in Austria, so stay tuned to meet the Smole family! Praying everyone at home is doing well! Also best of luck to all the Jackson County 4-Hers during the fair this week! Wish I didn't have to miss it!

Yet again, I am a bit behind on my updating you all about my experience! I really think I need more hours in the day to get everything done! :)

Last Sunday I made the 2 hour train ride from the König family to the Holzinger family in the village of Pöndorf. My host sister Daniela was at the station to pick me up. She actually participated in the same exchange program and spent 6 weeks in Kansas last summer!

The Holzinger family lives very near the federal state of Salzburg. As many Americans might know, Salzburg is where they did filming for “The Sound of Music,” but the movie is not very popular in Austria; some people here have never even heard of it. The scenery is magnificent, of course.

Moonrise in the mountains.

My host family owns a dairy farm, which is quite common for this area. They milk about 30 cows twice a day, once at 5:00am and again around 4:30pm. It’s basically an all day process because they also feed them around midday. I believe it’s similar in the U.S., if you own a dairy you are devoted to the farm. The Holzingers own Fleckvieh cattle, which I thought was a breed I was unfamiliar with. After a little research I learned the English translation for the breed was Simmental! The Austrian Fleckvieh breed is a more traditional form of Simmentals so they look a little different from the Simmental cattle I am accustomed to in the States. Fleckvieh is a very common breed here in Austria and works quite well for the farmers here. The Fleckvieh are a dual purpose breed, meaning they can be utilized for milk and meat. Since most of the farms here are relatively small it benefits the farmers to be able to produce beef and milk from the same herd. I do not have much experience with dairy farming, so I’m trying to be helpful without messing things up! :) The cows stay in the barn, but it’s interesting because they are still fed fresh grass from April/May to September/October. Twice a day my host dad will go out with a mower on the tractor and the cut grass is picked up by the wagon he pulls behind. Then the fresh grass is unloaded in the barn and fed to the cows, along with some supplemental grain and mineral. I am unaware if this is a method utilized in the U.S. or not, but it is very common in this region. The young heifers that are not being milked are only fed grain and hay. There are also babies to take care of, so the chores are extensive. In fact, my first afternoon at the Holzinger farm a baby calf was born about 30 minutes after I arrived.

Feeding the Fleckviehs.

The new baby!

Cutting fresh grass for the cattle.

Trying to be helpful :)

The milk from the Holzinger farm gets delivered to a local facility that produces cheese and the owner was gracious enough to give us a small tour. The facility is called Vöckla Käserei and produces about 2.5 million kilograms of cheese every year. They produce Emmentaler and Bergkäse, which we got to sample. Both were good, but I preferred the Bergkäse. They ship internationally and the U.S. is currently a large customer. The cheese takes about 2-3 months to cure before it is ready to be packaged and sold.

The cheese curds are beginning to form.

They had 3 curing vaults this size & the blocks weigh between 50-75 kilos!

Getting ready to package the mature cheese.

We had some time this week to do a few off-farm activities as well. Monday morning we picked wild blueberries, or Schwarzbeeren as they are called here in Austria. The berries were little, but they tasted so good and my host mom Christine made homemade jam with them! Thursday we went to the city of Salzburg and visited the Mirabel Gardens, Mozart’s birthplace, and the local castle. Friday we spent the day in Linz and met up with another IFYE family. Klaire is from Montana and is staying with another family in Upper Austria. I hadn’t seen Klaire since orientation in Illinois, so it was nice to get a chance to catch up. This area is well known for its beautiful lakes. We visited 3 of them last week and they are so large and clear and cool. Very popular places for a summer afternoon of swimming! :) I have to agree that spending an afternoon at the lake getting a little sun is pretty enjoyable.

"We want you to pick some berries." "Berries? But I picked berries yesterday." "Oh, we need more. Lots, lots more!"

Mirabel Gardens

Couldn't take pictures in Mozart's birthplace, but this is his statue.

Chillin' at the local fortress with Daniela.

Couples would put "love locks" with their names on the bridge in Salzburg for good luck :)

It's not everyday a Kansas girl runs into a Montana girl in Austria :)

At Attersee.

At Mohnsee.

It is very fortunate timing that I was here in Pöndorf this past weekend. This year marks the 130 year anniversary of a local organization that is basically equivalent to a veterans’ club. Friday was just a chance for everyone to gather in the large tent for food, drinks, and fellowship. Saturday and Sunday both involved a small parade, marching bands, a short church service, and more food, drinks, and fellowship in the tent. Daniela and I both walked in the parade. This was a traditional sort of festival so most people were dressed in tracht, a type of traditional Austrian clothing. I was even able to find my own dirndl, traditional dress, to wear for the weekend. I got to experience a lot of Austrian customs and traditions this weekend, so it was a really fun and busy weekend!

Getting ready for the parade!

This was the boy who walked with us & held the sign for the club. He was too cute!

Ready, set, march!

Well, I’ll leave it here for now. Hopefully I can get caught up with this week’s blog and get it posted on time! Praying that everyone at home is safe and well!

It’s hard to believe I've been in Austria for one month now! It marks the half-way point of my exchange. Austria is truly a beautiful country and I recommend everyone to visit sometime.

It's hard to tell, but this field was FULL of red poppies and purple flowers.

Rainy day from a hilltop

YAY Austria!

This week I got the chance to learn a little bit more about Austrian agriculture. Monday we were able to visit 3 farmers in the area. Our first stop was a layer operation. I really don’t have much experience with poultry (except for gathering eggs at Grandma Patterson’s when I was like 5 years old), so I learned quite a bit. The Griessler family farm owned about 6000 laying hens, from 17 weeks to 30 months old. The hens start laying about at about 22 weeks, so he would purchase hens at 17 weeks so they could adjust to the environment in the facility before they began laying eggs. Each hen lays basically 1 egg per day, so he must hand sort around 6000 eggs every day! I think that’s a lot of eggs for 1 person to handle! The eggs traveled from the hen houses to the sorting area by conveyor belt and were stamped with his specific producer number before being sorted and crated. He provided eggs to local restaurants, groceries, and individuals. He had about 300 customers around the Wachau area that he delivered to, which consisted of approximately one-third of his production. Some larger customers like restaurants required deliveries of up to 1000 eggs every week, while smaller individual customers only needed eggs deliveries twice per month. The Konig family was also one of his customers. The other two-thirds of his egg production went to larger contractors. Later in the afternoon we visited the Stiefsohn family farm who own approximately 700 Merino sheep. They lambed all year long and would bring the ewe and lamb pairs in from the pasture to the barn for a few weeks after they lambed. We did not travel out to the pasture, so we only saw a portion of the flock. They kept some of the lamb crop for breeding stock and took the others to market when they reached about 45 kilograms, or about 90lbs. It generally takes them 4-5 months to raise a lamb to market size. They also shear the sheep twice a year and sell the wool, but they are more concerned with producing meat rather than focusing on the wool market. On our way home we made a quick stop by a beef producer, the Habermann family farm. He had a small breeding herd of Charolais cattle and he also bought other young calves (around 300 lbs) and fed them to market size. This farmer did have a specific breeding season and calved in the fall. He was the first farmer I’d met here who utilized the practice of a specific breeding/calving season.

In the barn with the younger hens...so these are the spring chickens? :)

Conveyor that moves the eggs from the barn to the sorting machine

He has to crate about 6000 eggs 

The ewes & lambs that were recently moved from pasture to barn

"Poor little lamb. He must be exhausted." 

There was also time this week to go visit a few more attractions in the area. Sunday we visited an old Gypsum mine that had been used to produce plane parts in 1944-1945 during World War II. It was also were they had done some filming for the Walt Disney movie “The Three Musketeers” in 1993. There was an underground lake we were able to take a boat ride on and the water was crystal clear. I wanted drink it, but that probably would have been a very bad idea. :) Sadly, it was difficult to get good pictures since it was so dimly lit. Tuesday we visited another castle, but the best part was they had a falconry show. For about an hour we got to watch hawks, eagles, owls, and vultures do flight routines with the trainers. It was really neat to watch! Thursday we visited a small educational center that explained the process of harvesting fruits and producing various fruit products, primarily the pear cider that is quite popular in this area. The facility probably designed with children in mind, judging by the games and activities used to explain the process, but we still had a really good time. Thomas and I found our inner-child and spent some time playing on the playground outside. :)

Sometimes the birds would fly only inches over our heads!

The bald eagle was my favorite!

Playing like big kids :)

Well, I can check "play in ball pit" off my bucket list!

Me & dizzy don't do well together, but I didn't fall down when I got off!

Monday we celebrated my exchange sister Ksenia’s 18^th birthday! Her dad was even able to stop by for lunch because he was driving through on his way from Russia to France. Then we had a BBQ with some of the neighbor kids in the evening. We also spent some time at the lake one “hot” afternoon. (“Hot” here is like in the 80s. I tried to explain that’s completely comfortable compared to the 101 degrees and 80% humidity that Kansas experienced on the same day.) It might not have been Kansas hot, but the water actually was pretty warm, and afterward we ate ice cream, so it was an enjoyable afternoon. :) Saturday we drove to a course where we could ride mountain trikes down the side of the mountain foothills. Because of the slope pedals were unnecessary, but the brakes were absolute necessity! Because the ride down the hill was easy we decided our legs needed some work, so we rented a paddle boat to take around on one of the mountain lakes. It was beautiful (the water was so clear and cold), but I realized my thighs may not be in as good of shape as they should be. I also prepared my “American meal” this week and everyone seemed to enjoy it, or at least politely pretended…hahaha :)

Yumm...birthday cake!

Almost seems American-y, doesn't it?

At least the water was warm!

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I don't think I'll ever get tired of this meal! Hope no one else does either!

A pretty pie, if I do say so myself :)

Hope they're hungry!!!

Course required heavy brake usage

WE SURVIVED!

I promise, I took my turn peddling too...

The view was beautiful

All 5 kids (L to R): me, Johannes, Ksenia, Gudrun, Thomas

I've really enjoyed my stay here with the Konig family!!! Two weeks flies by too quickly. Wish I had more time to spend with my host families! The Konig’s really made me feel at home and welcomed me into their family. Thank you Konig Family for EVERYTHING! You are welcome in my home anytime, so I hope someday to return the favor! :)

All 7 of us! (L to R): Andrea, Thomas, Me, Leopold, Gudrun, Ksenia, & Johannes

I travel to my next host family on Sunday afternoon, so stay tuned to meet the Holzinger’s! Hope everyone at home is staying safe and enjoying the summer!