OLMA exhibition- St. Gallen

During October 11th-21st is the big OLMA exhibition in St. Gallen...showing much of Swiss agriculture and products. I was at OLMA on landjugend day and got a look at the following things:

The cow-bell "drumline"

The arena

Celebrating landjugend day

Half of the crowd

One of the games: to drive only on the back wheels

Another: to hold someone up on a cobweb of strings

Tossing bread, catching it, buttering it, then eating

Eating the bread

My favorite pictures on display

Children and their calves

Eating the famous OLMA bratwursts.

Swiss vegetables

Swiss Brown Cow

Many free food samples, including this mozarella cheese

Swiss Brown bull. He's huge!!

View OLMA's homepage here

The Hubers (September 24th-October 21st)

My first Swiss host family was the Huber-Bucher family (Dad, Mom, and 3 kids close to my age), located in the village of Mattwil in the canton of Thurgau.  Also located close to Lake Constance (aka Bodensee), this lake touches Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Canton Thurgau is often referred to as "Apple India" by the other cantons as it is a region with many apple orchards. My hosts run a Swiss Brown dairy operation, with around 80 cows. They do this in cooperation with another part-time farmer. He takes care of the cows that aren't milking, and the Hubers house the milk cows. They have one employee that milks the cows twice a day, using the milking parlor that milks six at a time. In addition to the dairy, they also have around 3 dozen organic apple trees which produce apples for apple juice and cider. I contributed around the farm by milking cows, picking apples, working in the garden, doing household chores, and collecting fire wood. My host mom's garden is pretty awesome! She grows much of the produce the family consumes. The garden has: raspberries, sunflowers, pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers just to name a few. I even picked flower petals once to be used for tea!! 
There are mountains visible from the house, though from a distance. I can see the Santis mountain peak, one I went to the top of during my time with the family. The Hubers encouraged a lot of travel and sight seeing, so during my stay I saw quite a bit of northern Switzerland. I spent time in Basel, Luzern, Bern (the capital), Lausanne, Zurich and  St. Gallen, and even ventured into other countries like Liechtenstein, Germany and France. Switzerland is a quarter of the size of Kansas, so travel to other cities and countries only takes an hour or two.  

The family (host sister not pictured)

Matti in Mattwil. Literally!

View from the front yard :) The tall peak is Santis

My home-away-from-home for 4 weeks!

The barn and dairy

The Huber home is right on the edge of town

Santis mountain after the first snow

Home sweet home

The apple orchard

Milking parlor

Swiss Brown Calf

Konstanz, Germany : The statue Imperia overlooking the harbor

Lausanne & Lake Geneva

Lake Geneva

The country of Liechtenstein (population 35,000)

Meersburg, Germany & Lake Constance

View from Santis on a cloudy day

The capital building in Bern by night

The river in Bern that flows into the Rhein

Alphorn musicians on the mountain Pilatus near Luzern

Pilatus overlooking Luzern

War memorial in Luzern

The famous covered bridge in Luzern

Celebrating National 4-H Week: My Journey Through 4-H

This  past week (October 7-13th) was National 4-H week! Seven days set aside for us to celebrate everything that is 4-H, and all that it has done for those of us who call ourselves 4-Hers.

I was a 4-H member for 10 years before college, from age 7-17. During that time I was in a wide array of projects, including: sheep, swine, rabbits, horticulture, crochet, sewing, cooking, photography and leadership. I also participated in livestock and Family & Consumer Science (FACS) judging. Summers were spent attending Rock Springs 4-H Camp, both as a camper and then as a counselor for three years. Osage County also has three county fairs, making summertime very busy for 4-Hers. But 4-H isn't just about the county fairs. Active 4-Hers will spend time giving back to the community, through projects like canned food drives, cleaning up city parks, and volunteering at nursing homes.
The past three years I have stayed involved in 4-H as a member of Alpha of Clovia (Check out Clovia's website here!), the 4-H Scholarship house for women at Kansas State University. (We also have a sister Clovia at the University of Minnesota ). My time as a member of Clovia allowed me to put the previous 10 years to the test. Using my head, heart, hands, and health to contribute to the organization that made my time at K-State unique and memorable. It not only provided a vast social network of close friends, but a fun, educational structure that was my home away from home.

Bailey Myers (Clovia Vice-President), Alma Deutch (Clovia HouseMother), Myself (Clovia President). [2011-2012]

Celebrating Halloween at Clovia as Fruit of the Loom (2010)

Now, 4-H has granted me the amazing opportunity of travelling the world as an IFYE!  I am very grateful for the many opportunities 4-H has provided me with... I am certain my life would be very different without it.

My writing on the John Lennon Peace Wall in Prague, Czech Republic
(Peace, Love, 4-H)

John Lennon Peace Wall