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!
