haying 101

location: wien
time: nine minutes to 10p

i have once again returned to my beloved city, and although i am glad to be back, it is always hard to leave maria alm and the people i love there behind.

the last few days in alm were crazy. the temperature sky rocketed (mid 90s F) and there was hay to be made, which involves major physical labor even if there are tractors to do a large chunk of the work. micha joined me for my last few days which was lovely and gave her a chance to re-meet the cousins now that we are all over the age of 10 :)

haying took about three days (at least i was only involved for three days) and consisted of raking, raking, and more raking under the glowing sun. i only sustained a tiny sunburn but we were all exhausted from the heat by the end of the day and i was quite soar the last few days!

on our last day in maria alm micha and i were mucking stalls when we realized that one of the horses had caught herself by the halter outside the stall door and was panicking. this horse already had a wound on her back leg and was pulling wildly to try to free herself. luckily our cousin and her boyfriend had just come out of the barn and micha, hanna and i were able to free the horse, however in the process my arms got a bit crushed between the horse in the door. in the moment we freed her she threw herself onto her side and fell against my arms which were inside the stall because i had been holding her head trying to calm her... all in all nothing was broken on either of us but i have a new battle wound!!

lookin' good!

i spent the rest of the morning recovering a bit and packing and then headed to the train station. we were back in wien by night and went out for a late dinner (and ice cream!!) with my godmother, renate, at the stephansplatz.

today we slept late, did laundry, went to a play with renate and her brother and his wife and then met willie (reate's husband) for a wonderful greek dinner (we are REALLY spoiled here!!!)

there is so much more to tell about my time in maria alm and i hope to share that all with you, but i must be off to bed! tomorrow promises to be a full day in wien and then we are off to paudorf to visit friedl, peter, sarah, and neszta!!

until next time,

a