More vet visits!

Here is a picture of Brunnenburg on a lovely Thursday afternoon. There was a wonderful medieval concert at the Schloss Tirol that evening. The geese were out serenading and nibbling the grass.

This is me, Saturday morning before Marion came to get me for our second day of vet visits!Before Marion picked me up I snapped a quick picture of Nik in his full body-suit and mask that he wears while spraying the grapes. Here, he is pictured mixing chemicals to protect against mildew and downy mildew.Marion (pictured below) and I rode up to the Alm (alpine pasture) in a cable car used only by farmers and vets. Other than hiking, this is the only way to get to these farms up on the Alm. We rode up with groceries for the week!On our way up we had wonderful views and cool breezes. This is an Alm Hut, or a vacation hut up on the Alm. Marion said that 30 years ago everyone from Dorf Tirol would bring their families up to the Alm to spend time there. It was a fun community for learning and playing. She says now its not as popular and usually farmers are the people that still live there.This is the first farm we "landed at" to change cars.Here is their herd of Grauvieh and Fleckvieh (pronounced "grau-fee" and "fleck-fee). The Grauvieh is literally translated as "gray cow." They are a breed of cow indigenous to the area. They navigate the steep slopes very well. Other breeds are prone to falling and becoming stuck in places and sometimes need to be airlifted by helicopters! I had not been so close to the Grauvieh before and was unable to appreciate how beautiful they are! They are also a very small and calm cow. Here are some more close-ups... All the cows have big bells on their collars, so one can find them up in the Alm. It sounds like music when riding by on the cable car!
Our second cable car trip brought us to the high lakes that are filled by glacial water. Rivers flow down into Dorf Tirol where one can go swimming!Here is the herd of goats at this farm.
and close up...
We came all this way to artificially inseminate one Grauvieh. We stayed at the top and Marion and I were given a fresh glass of milk each. The times when I may sit with Marion on the Alm, drinking fresh milk, are my favorite experiences so far in Italy. It makes me feel very connected with the work I am doing at Brunnenburg, and what I can do helping Marion. It also reminds me of home, in Vermont and New Hampshire, and all of the possibilities to explore in local food production. If drinking fresh milk makes me feel this good, perhaps it can make others feel the same way.
Here, I thank a Grauvieh for the milk. In this sequence of pictures I see if she will accept a good scratch and massage. I am going to hike back up here next weekend so I may see this farm again. Its such a fun place to be!

Here is a row of beautiful Holsteins. We visited this farm for a cow with mastitis. We also visited another farm to see a Fleckvieh heifer that was having a bad recovery from birth. We saw a pair of Fleckvieh twins while we were there! The Fleckvieh is a brown and white cow used for milk and meat that produces a good quantity while staying healthy living in a barn.
Here is a picture of a little rabbit that I helped neuter today! Between spaying the cat on Wednesday and neutering a rabbit today I am all set to start my vet practice! Just kidding, but what an interesting way to be involved. I love working with cows for a few stops and then having a mix of small animals as well. If you would like to see pictures from the surgery, email me or I'll show you when I get back.

Riding around with Marion is such a wonderful experience! She shows me wonderful places around the valley and in the Alm and gives me great exploring ideas. I also get to meet some cool farmers. I'm interested in harvesting hay by hand since I have seen so many doing it. I'm going to practice with a scythe while I am here and visit some good 'ol Vermonters that harvest by hand (that means a trip to GMC! Look out Kenneth, here I come!).

What a fun day!

"Vet-iculture"

New Magic!
This is a picture of the newest addition at Brunnenburg. She is a "volnessar-ackel shaf." We are currently trying to find a good name for her. This is her first day outside with the herd and she is already climbing like a pro!
Here is another example of my amazing "de-bushing" work. This whole edge was covered with bushes and I brought back the rock wall!
Viticulture
I am learning new things in the vineyard! Now I am taking away the vegetation from around the base of the vine where Nik has mowed. I go through and prune at the same time. This is important for the health and vitality of the vine, to help it to grow in a way for simple harvesting as well as getting the vine the most sunlight for the highest quality grapes. Below is a before ...

and after picture.Look at those beautiful, clean rows!

Garden

Here is a lovely look at the tomatoes! They were a jungle and I trimmed them back and tied them up to stakes. Brigitte and I worked for a few hours on them - there will be lots of tomatoes later this season! We are already eating lots of fresh salad from the garden! Vet Visits

Today I got to ride around with Marion on some vet visits. Marion used to live at Brunnenburg while she was studying. Her and I had a great time visiting different places to do some general veterinary work. Here, in the Alps, vets have a few more jobs than in Vermont. The vet does a lot more general care and will also do all the artificial insemination. Here is our first stop:

We stopped at a farm where there were several heifers that needed to go up to the Alm (alpine pasture). They were being dried off and given antibiotics. Marian let me do one cow and she did the others. These are the special "gray cows" that live mainly in the Tirol valleys. They are very good at navigating the steep slopes and produce a lot of milk for the farmers. I was very excited to see some!

Here is another farm we visited, higher up. This time we just dropped off antibiotics for the farmer to administer himself. The Tirol farmers are on a schedule to get their cows up to the Alm for the summer months, not milking them at that point. They will then bring the cows down in October to begin milking through June.Along a pass to an Alm close to Austria, we were stopped while a helicopter did work on the rock ledges. They were lowering down chain-link material to hold back falling rocks.Here is a farm with gray cows that we visited. And higher still... At this place we artificially inseminated a cow and sat down for a fresh glass of goats milk! The farmer who served us said he milked 70 goats by hand! Marion said that most of the goats in this area are used for meat. There are over 5,000 goats slaughtered (at about 2 months of age) each spring for the meat market. She needs to do blood testing on lots of goats each year! On the way back we found Haflingers!! With "gray cows"!!
Look at how beautiful she is!
Here is a pasture where many animals were being delivered today!
Today I also had the privilege of aiding in a surgery! We spayed a female cat and took her kittens to the animal shelter. We also gave a Tirolean sheep puppy a microchip and vaccinations and put a cat to sleep. What an amazing experience and an amazing day!

Hike to the Muthofe

Today I got in five hours of good hiking! I hiked up to the Muthofe. It was a great hike because it was difficult enough that it left all of the German tourists back on paved roads and I had a lovely morning. Here are some of the pictures I took:

Apparently Sizzo gave me good directions because I found the trail:Up the trail you can see some amazing geological phenomena... and amazing trees with faces in them....
Here is what I saw when I got to the top.
Farmers harvesting hay by hand where machines would not go. This was really cool! I stopped and watched for a few minutes. Then realized that right behind me, more farmers were turning hay by hand on another slope. Also, at the top, there were pera-gliders!
Brunnenburg is in this picture, can you find it?

Here are some hikers enjoying the view.

Here is the lovely sunset a few nights ago.

I need to apologize for the spelling mistakes. The spell check on this website, though an American website, spell checks in Italian from the computer I am using, therefore making it almost impossible to spell check. I will fix it when I return to NH!