Hof Freitag farm house
Visiting family and cows at Hof Freitag
Hof Freitag is the farm belonging to my mom's cousin (her mom's sister's son). Her cousin Christoph is married to Irmgard, who greeted all of us with huge, welcoming hugs. They have 4 kids the same ages as me and my 3 brothers, and today we would see them all (plus spouses and children). They speak varying degrees of English, more than enough to have plentiful conversation, but I particularly loved when they passionately break out in flowing German sentences, comfortably assuming I could follow along!
Before we arrived, Kate was struggling to wrap her head around how the farm might not have wi-fi. (And Chris was concerned about losing his streaks.) Kate tried to reason, "But don't they have a girl my age living there?" As it turned out, yes they do have a girl Kate's age (Gesa) and yes they do have wi-fi, except in the house where we were staying.
Karsten and his family run the dairy
Sunrise - walking to the barn to milk the cows
Our day started early when Jeremy, Christopher, Kate and I jumped out of bed at 5:30am to be a part of the 6:00am milking. My cousin (once removed), Karsten - my age and the youngest of the 4 kids - runs the dairy business and lives in the old farm house with his family. Over the course of an hour, he gave us a very interesting tour of the milking process. If you've never given thought to the concept of how a dairy runs, here it is: a heffer (female bovine) becomes a "cow" when it gives birth. The calf is taken away from the mother, who can now produce milk. If the calf is a female, she is kept for milk production; males (bulls) are raised til they are sold off for beef at the age of two (for 1400 euro each). The cows and bulls cannot be penned together. Bulls are mean, can only be penned in small numbers, and should not be approached alone. The farmer works 70 relentless hours a week - milking, feeding, cleaning, growing and harvesting crops, etc.
Hof Freitag Statistics:
146 year-old farm house
620 acres
150 cows (Germans are particular and do not tolerate mass-produced milk)
Milk twice daily 6am and 5pm
During the tour, Jeremy fired Chris as a translator because he doesn't know how to translate farm words and couldn't help him ask if they harvest the semen - apparently Frau didn't teach that word. (Plus they speak a different dialect called Plattdeutsch, or low German.) Jeremy's knowledge from his Dairy Science class at Cal Poly actually proved a resourceful compliment to the tour.
Waiting to be milked
The cows are so cute and curious - the look at you and come over when they see you
In the milking room
Squeezing milk out of the cow
2-day old Juliene has a twin sister!
Red is a recessive color. They love this unusually sweet, red bull!
My mom was very happy being surrounded by so many relatives. She said, "I wonder what my father would think if he knew my children and grandchildren were here."
We couldn't keep up with all the delicious food and meals, which is how we spent most of our visit. Irmgard kept repeating, "You make me happy when you eat," and Christoph kept putting more food and beer in front of us - including breaking out shots of Jagermeister and grain alcohol. At one point I stared in disbelief at Chris for having another fresh beer. Resigned, he claimed, "He saw mine was almost gone and gave me another one!" We were all trying to perfect the practice of eating enough to not be rude yet not eating it all or you'd be served more. It became quite the joke amongst us. Greg said you have to have a beer at all times and, "I've been holding this one for 2 hours!"
Spending time with family in another country fills your soul
We couldn't keep up with all the delicious food and meals, which is how we spent most of our visit. Irmgard kept repeating, "You make me happy when you eat," and Christoph kept putting more food and beer in front of us - including breaking out shots of Jagermeister and grain alcohol. At one point I stared in disbelief at Chris for having another fresh beer. Resigned, he claimed, "He saw mine was almost gone and gave me another one!" We were all trying to perfect the practice of eating enough to not be rude yet not eating it all or you'd be served more. It became quite the joke amongst us. Greg said you have to have a beer at all times and, "I've been holding this one for 2 hours!"
During our tour of the campground on their property, the weather quickly started to turn. The storm was furious and brief, with hail (in nearby areas) the size of walnuts, and strong gusts of wind causing a tree on the farm to fall. "It is only like that once a year," we were told.
Touring the campground with Irmgard
The dark clouds were swirling over our heads
After a fantastic, exhausting day with all of our German relatives, as we crawled into bed Greg stated, "I couldn't survive living here ... I don't know how they drink so much!"
