The Cows Are Loose!!

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They let the cows out for the first time this season and even took the new bull for his first walk outside. He is just 6 months old so has only known winter and has been in the stable the whole time. Peter had a job keeping him under control with a rope bridle as he already weighs more than 300kg and he liked the sunshine and freedom! Em stood up on the woodpile with Myriam to keep out of the way of all the cows. Especially the big 3 year old bull who weighs over 1000kg!

On the car front, Renault have decided they need to take ours to a Renault dealer to fix it and will give us a hire car until it is ready – about a week or two. As we can’t get the hire car until tomorrow, Peter & Myriam kindly allowed us to stay an extra night so they took us down the road to the other side of Schlaiten (the local village) and we went for a bit of a walk through the fields along the river and in the forest. The fields around here are communal grazing so the 14 local farmers all bring their cows together and as a group they hire a shepherd (cowherd?) to look after everyone’s cows for the summer. During the two months of warm weather, the farmers grow and harvest enough grass to fill the giant barns and this store gets them through the winter.

We all walked up into the forest and they showed us a beautiful waterfall running beside the track and a little timber bridge over the stream below. For anyone coming to the Lienz area outside of snow season, don’t bother with the tourist office. They told us that if you don’t ski, there is not much around until midsummer when you can hike over the mountains. As if we would be doing that with a three year old anyway! This whole area is truly beautiful and you just need to get out and enjoy it. Drive through the tiny villages like Schlaiten and follow that interesting looking track through the forest.

We joined the family for lunch, fresh pizza straight from the old style wood burning oven. Mel whipped up a quiche too so we didn’t show up empty handed. After chatting half the afternoon away, they had guests for afternoon tea, a couple from Paris with their 2 year old son and a couple from northern Germany who stayed overnight. We were invited to meet them and had coffee and some of the local cakes. They were very tasty but quite different from Australian cakes of the same names. Em played a bit with the little boy who is learning to speak both French and German. It is a really lovely way of life involving family and community with everyone talking at the same time – often in three different languages!

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