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!