On Sunday, eight of us went to the North Sea via train. The ride up was beautiful as was the day in its entirety. We walked along the mud flats for quite some distance, a kilometer or two. They seemed to be never ending. These mud flats are vast are areas of mud...with a bit of water, a few inches deep, covering the mud and sand. It was incredible. As you can see in the picture there are yellow dots scattered on the beach. Those are Strandkorbs, or beach baskets, where people can sit, sheltered from the wind, and even lock their stuff up inside when they leave for an hour or so. 
Our group simply carried our belongings and sat on the sand. Student's budget. After the trek back to the beach, we went to lunch and to an indoor swimming pool with a wave pool and a slide. Oh, the pool was a salt water pool too. Wicked cool. To finish the day, at the Nord See, we had ice cream. Which is actually a daily happening in most German towns/families. Ice cream when we are out and cake when we are at home.
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Today we went into the Green Classroom, which is pretty much a farm with a classroom, and learned about the general milk production of Germany. While it is certainly more sound than America's milk production, I still find large farms to be careless and so forth. However, this farm had incredily interesting equipment and seemed to be aware of their animals needs. 
For example, each cow wears a collar that has number 'charms' as well as a charm with a computer chip in it (the larger green piece). The computer chip contains all of the information concerning that specific cow (or heiffer, actually). The most important task that this chip carries out is the measurement of the cow's grain. Other than being fed a standard portion of food--hay silage, straw (strange to be in food, I thought), minerals, corn silage, and dry hay--each cow gets a specific amount of dairy grain a day. This is where the extra cool equipment comes in. The cow walks into the feeding stantion when she so chooses, the computer reads her chip number, and then dispenses the amount of food that she is supposed to have. 
Now, here is the cool part, the cow taps a bar inside of the trough and the machine dispenses about a third of her amounted grain. If she decides to roam the barn (free stall kind of deal), the computer will read the next cow's chip when she enters. But, if that first cow decides to stay, she can tap the bar again to recieve another third of her alloted ration. The machine will stop dispensing grain once a cow's third portion is recorded to have been dispensed. Cool, eh?
For example, each cow wears a collar that has number 'charms' as well as a charm with a computer chip in it (the larger green piece). The computer chip contains all of the information concerning that specific cow (or heiffer, actually). The most important task that this chip carries out is the measurement of the cow's grain. Other than being fed a standard portion of food--hay silage, straw (strange to be in food, I thought), minerals, corn silage, and dry hay--each cow gets a specific amount of dairy grain a day. This is where the extra cool equipment comes in. The cow walks into the feeding stantion when she so chooses, the computer reads her chip number, and then dispenses the amount of food that she is supposed to have. 
Now, here is the cool part, the cow taps a bar inside of the trough and the machine dispenses about a third of her amounted grain. If she decides to roam the barn (free stall kind of deal), the computer will read the next cow's chip when she enters. But, if that first cow decides to stay, she can tap the bar again to recieve another third of her alloted ration. The machine will stop dispensing grain once a cow's third portion is recorded to have been dispensed. Cool, eh?That's not the only cool thing this farm has. They also had a cow back scratching devise. No joke. There was a machine hanging on a post in the barn that looked like a miniature car wash set up, without the water and soap. A cow would walk up to this set of green and white brushes and tap on the side brush with her head or back to start the motor. Then the brushes would start moving. The top brush when in a circular motion, while the side brushes went up and down or side to side. The motor would run for about a minute and then stop until the brush was tapped again. 
Bizzare, and yet very clever to keep the cows occupied and content.
Bizzare, and yet very clever to keep the cows occupied and content. This might drive some of you nuts, but I can't upload a video on this computer. And that is all I have of the brush machine, so I am uploading a picutre of a cute Holstein calf for you to look at in the mean time.
At the end of the tour, we all got a box of Milch/milk and a cup of yogurt. People in Germany eat or drink dairy products warm. Milk isn't kept in the fridge. Neither is butter (my American family does this too-just with some butter) or yogurt.
So, finally a picture of Dan and me at the classroom. He had his 18th Birthday yesterday. Congrats, Danny!Hope all is well in America. I hear the flooding is doing awful things for farmers. :( Mother Nature should really poor down on the Bush estate.
...who said that? not me.
And happy summer solstice, a few days late.
My love and peace,
B
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