First Week of Farm Life

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On the first of this month I came to a small organic farm called Al Ma'awa, located in a small village called Eitental, near to the town Melk, in Lower Austria. The farm is a family-run affair with the aim of leaving the household as self-sufficient as possible. Other than the couple who own and run the farm (Leila and Hartwig), their two children (Hannah and Yannic) and Hartwig's mother, the farm is also currently home to four other helpers: one Austrian, one Luxembourger and two Americans. In addition to the human inhabitants there are also two dogs (one of which is an absolutely adorable but enormous komondor), a lot of chickens (one of which lives in the house and thinks it's a human), several cats (including four kittens), three goats, one sheep, two pigs, four geese, a half-dozen ducks, one rabbit and one guinea pig.
Every morning the helpers rise at about 8.00 to feed and water all the animals, water the plants in the greenhouse, and then pick berries (mostly raspberries and blackcurrants) before breakfast. The work that we do in the afternoon is very varied and depends upon the weather and what needs to be done. A lot of the time there is weeding to do, plus day-to-day tasks such as cooking, laundry, collecting eggs and collecting herbs and vegetables. The main project that I'm working on at the moment is building a set of stone steps into the cellar, a task that I've largely been left to carry out on my own. I've now finally cemented all the stones into place, and I think I just need to smooth the edges and add tiles to make it look nice. Another job that I did was fitting a new set of shelves in the workshop (once I worked out how to use the drill!).
Aside from work, I've also done some interesting things. The other day I went for a really nice walk in the woods that surround the farm, and I hope to explore them more over the next two weeks. The past couple of days we've had glorious weather, so yesterday several of us went to a beach on the Danube and went for a swim, which was really pleasant. Most interesting of all was on Friday evening when we all drove to an African music festival called Kasumama, located in the countryside near to the Czech border. It was interesting and slightly perplexing that an African festival would be held here, as Austria does not have a large African community, and most of it is centred on Vienna. This was reflected in the fact that almost all the attendees were white, while the vast majority of performers were black. Nonetheless it was really fun and interesting: I had a Moroccan kebab, a Sudanese meat sandwich and a Ghanaian beer, and saw two acts, the second of which was a reggae band who played a lot of Bob Marley covers, so I was happy!
I'm planning to stay here until the 25th, when I'll head to Prague for three nights before flying to Amsterdam on the 28th.

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