I cook, I shovel poop, I sled

That's are about how my days go, not really in that order.

Since Wednesday, the first thing in the morning is to help in the cow stable. This includes, but isn't limited to, scraping poop, shoveling poop, forking hay, letting the cows smell me, throw chalk where it's wet, and drink warm milk almost straight out of the udder. I finally learned why they have cows and it's NOT a dairy farm: they sell them for meat. Same with the sheep they have.

Part of the stall work is to go to the chicken coop, refill their water and feed, open their door to let them out and pull the eggs.

After that, between 8:30 and 9, Dirk and I eat breakfast...with the bread that I made a day or two ago. Then today, we went and cleaned out the stalls that the sheep are in.

Mind you, all this work is made just a bit harder because since I've been here it's snowed each day. There are 20-40 more centimeters on its way over the weekend, too.

The snow makes for great sledding, which is exactly what I've done each day after waking up from my mid-day nap at 2. I go sledding with Salome, the three year old. I think she enjoys getting pulled up (by me) rather than going down the hill.

After that, I help out again in the stall and that usually finishes my day. In the times I'm not doing anything, I could be splitting wood, building a fire, cooking lunch, baking bread or kuchen, playing with Salome, or doing other odd jobs.

I'm their first American trainee, all the others have been from Canada. They complemented me on how I don't 'sound American' which I think means I don't have a country drawl.

Immediately after supper earlier tonight, Dirk and the four kids and I went to a road near here. All along it are signs that say "ACHTUNG SCHLITTER", which means "warning sledders". It's a 3 km sled run and it is AWESOME. There are hairpin turns and long straightaways. Some parts of it go through a forest. It probably takes about 10-15 minutes to go down. We went down twice.

Tomorrow there's a chance I may get coaxed into skiing, but only if I'm taught properly.

I would post some pictures, but I don't have any. The skies have been a bit cloudy with all the snow so I haven't been able to snap a shot of the jagged Alps out my window.

Until next time,
Jon