Unfolding As I Go - Carole's travel blog

The time is already coming to an end. We still had one day of raking hay. Again it was really beautiful, appeasing and strengthening. And also everyday there was milking of the goats. A perfect chance to practice. On the last day I managed to milk 3 goats by myself. Some of them are so sweet, they come rub their head against you. Other goats just think you are a pile of hay and come nibble your clothes (yes my clothes did smell like hay). Some goats like to be pet and scratched. Hard to believe but one important part of the work here is to socialize with goats, especially the younger ones, so that they become more used to humans and then easier to herd and milk in the future. One job that wasn't so easy but very important also is making new fences and removing the old fences once the goats have moved out. Goats have to be moved every 3-4 days after which they have eaten up all the grass and leaves and even barks of the trees. These movable fences are quite easy to handle but sti...

It is mid-September, the days are getting shorter, it is getting colder and the grass is mostly eaten up: the goats can feel it, it is time to go back home. The 2 shepherds Marcus and Steffi have decided with all other farmers which day is best and everything is prepared. The farmers will hike up to pick up their goats and take them home. It is a big day, after 100 days up in the Alp, surrounded only by mountains and goats, the time has come for Marcus and Steffi to pack up and leave the hut, close it down for the long winter. It will be fully covered in snow for several months. On this special day, we are welcomed with a delicious breakfast. They have added color and decorations on the goats. The biggest male now has silver and blue horns. How much did I actually see of the Alpabzug of our goats? Not that much after all: the goats were too fast. Nicole and Michael were both leading and closing the herd with the help of Sam their super sweet and overexcited Border Collie dog. But ...

With all the work and much needed rest, I still found the time one morning before haying to paint a little. Found this super cute tutorial for cactus and practiced feathers again.

On the way up to the meadows for haying, we pass every time by a field with 4 cute donkeys. Apparently this place is their 'summer vacation' location, the rest of the year they live down in the valley. The neighbor who takes care of them in the summer was supposed to bring them down to our village for the owners to come pick them up, but needed help to handle all the donkeys - can we help? Yes sure! So our day started with a hike with donkeys Three of them attached for each of us to hold and the 4th little donkey, still a baby, was just following his mom, but also sometimes jumping around and running, so cute! Again a new experience, not so easy to hold a donkey straight on the path, especially when he is really interested in all the delicious grass growing all around. And also: they are fast! It only took us about 30 minutes to walk down with them to the barn, but already I got attached to them and wished they could have stayed with us longer! 4 cute donkeys on their sum...

Being on a goat farm all sounds like lots of fun and cute, but the reality is slightly different: summer is the time to make hay. And hay is what gets the goats all through the coming winter. No playing around, it is hard work and hay-making time. Michael has several meadows up above the village, so we hop in the jeep and drive up the steep gravel-rocky-windy road for about 20 minutes and arrive at one field that Michael had mowed that morning. Now the sun is out (11-11:30am) so we can start the second step after mowing: spreading the cut grass. Normally a machine can do it, but on these very steep hills with rocks here and there, the machine can't reach everywhere. So we each take a fork and start spreading: you can (sort of) see the rows of the cut grass and the goal is to pick up the grass (that is still packed and wet) and kind of shake it and spread around. Why? So it can be aired out and dry better in the sun in the next couple days before it can be collected. Hay needs to...

While I got 3 milliliters of milk after trying for 10 minutes, here is Steffi, one of the 2 shepherds on the Alp, milking a goat in about 30 seconds -  impressive!

After the evening milking, the 90 goats up on the Alp go for an another walk before night time. Here they are following the shepherd Marcus. Turn on the sound and full screen mode for these 8 seconds!

After a weekend back in Basel of unpacking and repacking, taking care of items on my check-list and also seeing a couple friends and enjoying the nice weather, here I am, back on the 'road' by train and bus, direction Graubünden in the Swiss Alps. The ride is spectacular, already starting from Walensee between Zurich and Chur, looking out on the left side window: the deep blue lake and huge rocky mountains approaching Walenstadt. Starting from Chur it just gets better and better and the final bus rides approaching Andeer and Ausserferrera are spectacular, going quite steeply up a narrow stretch along a turquoise river and rock formations and high cliffs.  Getting off at the bus stop in the little village of Ausserferrera, Michael, the farm owner with whom I exchanged a few short messages on Workaway and Whatsapp, walks up and shows me to my new home for the next 2 weeks, with him and Nicole and another volunteer from Australia, Lauren. At first glance the village seems t...

Time went by so fast, and Friday September 6th was already my last day on the ArsNaturalis farm in Wisen. The day started out cold and rainy - but we had sunflowers to pick. This was actually done quite quickly, just a couple rows, and then we were inside next to the herb drying chambers, nice and warm, picking out the petals from the rest of the flower. The petals, like cornflowers, will be mostly used for tea blends, giving them a nice yellow color. It was a good end of my stay and a fun time with the other volunteers Jan, Julia and Marta :-) Before leaving, I was invited to stop by the vegetable garden and take anything I wanted back home, loved it! Thanks to Jan one of the other more experienced volunteers who knew where everything was, I went to pick lettuce, zucchini and their flowers (delicious in an omelet), cucumber, fennel, red beets, kohlrabi, celery, and of course fresh herbs: mint, coriander, basil and my favorite for fresh tea: lemon verbena. Ended up...

Did you ever see cows running and jumping around like little happy baby goats? I just did and loved it! Why do they do this?! They are so happy, they know what is coming: fresh pasture to graze! Delicious new grass! After a few days in a pasture, they have grazed on all the good grass and want to extend their area. If you dont move them, apparently they will move themselves through the fences! In this case we even went through a small steep downhill path through the forest. But they know the way and were running for it! See them running in this 5-seconds video: Final destination for the next few days: happy cows arrived on fresh green pasture :-)

The reason why I wanted to work on a farm with dairy cows was to see it from up close and then be able to decide if I want to keep eating dairy of not. I know factory farming is unethical and against animal welfare and already do not support it, but what about small farms? I love cheese and butter so much! So I needed to go on a farm, see it, experience it and work with the animals to be able to make up my mind, fully aware of what goes on 'behind the scenes' of a small organic dairy farm. Haven sprain my ankle I had to cancel the dairy farm where I would have been working full time with cows. But I did find Martin's farm with medicinal plants and herbs harvesting, but also some cows. Perfect because there is almost no work (for the volunteers) with the cows but I can still learn about it. Martin keeps 17 cows of a dairy farmer. They are here on his land to graze and grow and then, those who are old enough, to 'get pregnant'. He keeps them until they are ready ...