My apologies for being so late posting this blog! I’m like the rabbit out of “Alice In Wonderland.” The Konig family has kept me busy the last week, so I am behind on my writing. J I will keep it to summarizing the first week though so I can have plenty to write about for my second week here.

Sunday, June 30^th, I made the journey without a hitch. My host dad Leopold and my host brother Thomas picked me up from the train station in Loosdorf and we made the 5 minute drive to their house in the small village of Inning. The Konig’s live near the Wachau, an area along the Danube popular for wine, fruits, and small farmer restaurants called “huerigers” where you can order the farmer’s wine and a cold meal for supper (comparable to what I would consider deli meat). The landscape in the Wachau is beautiful, so I was excited to be in near traveling distance.

View of the Danube from a church tower

In the Wachau

Roast beef at a hueriger

Monday was a day for a little farm work! The Konig’s are crop farmers, raising wheat, corn, and sugar beets. In addition to this they also own a corn silage energy plant. They use a fermenting process with corn silage to produce CH4, or natural gas. This natural gas is then used to create electricity that goes out onto the grid. That is an over-simplified explanation, but I don't have the knowledge to go into further detail. Monday we had to go order some parts for a broken tractor and pick up seed so Thomas could do a little planting in a small field. It was nice to do a few things that felt like home. For instance, a hitch on one of the tractors required some persuasion to operate properly. It was comforting to see other farmers, even in a different country, must drag out a multitude of tools only to revert to a large hammer and mallet. J

Checking the sugar beets

Getting the planter ready

Thomas planting a small field of peas

There's quite a few wind towers here, kind of like central KS!

This week also included some tourist activities. First we visited a nearby castle. It’s so funny to me to think that’s completely normal here to live near a castle. I also became a “world traveler” and traveled to another country. We visited Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. I was strange to me to drive less than 2 hours and be in a completely different country. I can drive 6 hours from home and still be in Kansas (at Lyndee’s house J). I also really enjoyed the chance to ride a riverboat on the Danube through the Wachau. The landscape really is stunning, but I’m not a good enough photographer to really capture the beauty and do it justice. We also were able to visit some of the well-known churches and monasteries in the area. The cathedrals here are so historic and richly decorated, it just blows my mind.

In Bratislava, Slovakia

On the riverboat

Ksenia, Gudrun, Thomas, & me

The monastery in Melk

You wouldn't believe the amount of gold in this cathedral!

Stift Gottweig

Absolutely beautiful!

The stift from the hueriger were we ate supper

The Konig’s are currently a little bit “in between” farm work, as wheat harvest won’t start for a couple weeks. However, Leopold and Thomas have been so kind to take me around to a variety of local farmers to learn about how their operations work. I've really enjoyed meeting the farm families and learning from them, and it’s interesting to compare and contrast to practices in the U.S. We visited a dairy farm owned by the Loschenbrand family. They milk about 40 cows twice a day, producing approximately 900 kilograms of milk per day, about 300,000 kilograms per year. Each cow produces, on average, 10,000 kilograms per year. Later in the week we visited the Gleis family swine operation that worked as a farrow-to-finish facility. (It only took a few minutes of confusion between me and Leopold to clarify the difference between the words “piglets” and “pickles.” I eventually figured out that we were not in fact going to see a cucumber farmer. J) He raises about 120-130 Landrace/Yorkshire sows and uses artificial insemination to breed them to a meat boar. Throughout the year each sow produces, on average, 25 piglets which would then move through the entire facility. Farms here in Austria tend to be slightly smaller, but even by American standards I thought this was a pretty significant number of hogs (over 3000) for a farmer to raise by himself. Thomas also took me to one of his friend’s house where they raise a small herd of Scottish Highlanders.  It’s fun to see breeds that are not as popular in the U.S. The babies were adorable! For the most part I believe farmers operate in similar fashions in Austria and the United States. Differences include: size as Austrian farms are generally somewhat smaller than those in America; pasture utilization as there is less land available it is less common for grazing to be the cattle’s only form of nutrients; and castration within cattle herds as they generally leave bulls intact. (This is slightly confusing because the word for bull in Austria is “stier” which sounds very much like the English word “steer” and means the opposite. Oh well, I’m learning!)

Baby at the dairy. So cute!

Milk cooler storage

Scottish Highlanders

It's so fluffy!!!!

Sow barn

These were the young gilts

I just wanted to hold one, but they'll squeal so loud!

I have really enjoyed family life here with the Konig’s! I got a pleasant surprise my second day here – I have an exchange sister from Russia! Ksenia stayed with the Konig family for 6 months last year and it just so happened that she is visiting again the same 2 weeks I am here! So Leopold and Andrea went from having 3 children to 5 children in just 2 days! J So now the whole family consists of my host parents, Leopold and Andrea, my host siblings Johannes (22), Thomas (20), and Gudrun (16), and my exchange sister Ksenia (18). The house is busy, but it keeps things interesting. It’s so fun to try and have a family conversation because we are working with 2 or sometimes 3 different languages. Everyone speaks English (thank goodness) to an extent, but German is often used, so we end up with what we’ve come to call “Genglish.” Or if Ksenia reverts back to Russian at certain times we have “Genglishsian.” It’s never too much of a challenge (thank you Google translator) and everyone usually ends up laughing!

Host mom & dad - Leopold & Andrea

SO glad ice cream is readily available in Austria :)

Nearby lake where we go swimming

Learning to play Skip-Bo

My Russian sister, Ksenia :)

Swimming in the "farmer pool" the boys made (yes it's a wagon filled with water)

I’ll leave it here so I can keep the blog summaries separated by weeks. Since I’m so late posting this one I need to start writing the next one so I can get it published on time in a couple of days! I’m having a blast here and learning so much! Stay tuned to hear about more adventures. Praying everyone at home is doing well!