2023-07-01 11:22:44
The view from the Meienberg. A place to recharge your batteries.
Bettina KienerA rainbow over the Chumi
Bettina Kiener
Bettina Kiener (31) is a farmer, agronomist FH and editor at “Schweizer Bauer”. She spends the summer on Alp Meienberg in Zweisimmen BE, helping in the stables, making cheese and doing everything else that needs to be done. Like last year, she reports regarding every two weeks what she is experiencing.
On many of the alps where cheese is produced, pigs are kept for processing the scots. Here on the Meienberg we fatten six pigs with the whey. At the end of the alpine season they are slaughtered.
Pigs used to be free
Every morning and every evening we let the animals out for a while: Then they dig in the ground and run around. So that our pigs don’t disappear over the mountains, we have fenced in their pasture. That was not always so. In the past, the alpine farmers mostly let the pigs roam free up here.
Recently we had a visit from the neighboring alp in the evening. It was an entertaining hour as the alpine shepherds told anecdotes from their lives in the mountains. A dairyman reported that a couple of pigs once roamed around his hut all night. The animals made such a racket that he didn’t sleep a wink, he said.
Missing Pigs
So early in the morning, with great difficulty, he drove the pigs up the road and over the pasture grate to the neighboring alp, assuming that they belonged there. But far from it. A short time later, the neighbor from the lower alp came panting and asked if anyone had seen his pigs.
Another shepherd told how a pig once got lost during the cattle drive and how a farmer only unloaded four instead of five pigs from the trailer when he arrived at the valley farm. Luckily, another mountaineer found and caught the missing pig.
Getting on Bettina’s nerves: the cyclists.
brisch27 Two categories
Our pigs are well behaved. They neither run nor hide. So no reason to get angry. The situation is different with the cyclists who pedal up or down the winding road to the Meienberg every day. Unfortunately, this is often done without considering the grazing goats and cattle. And when the bikers don’t even have enough patience to wait until we have herded the calves from the barn across the road to the pasture, that annoys me. Very much so.
Bettina spends the summer on the alp.
Renate von Känel
The cyclists who pass by us can be roughly divided into two different categories. On the one hand, there are the racing cyclists who hardly notice their surroundings because of all the pedaling and only occasionally glance at their sports watch to check how many calories they have already burned. On the other hand, there are those with e-bikes. Before the e-bike boom, most of them rarely if ever got on a two-wheeler and these pedal knights usually seem overwhelmed rather than happy with their heavy bikes.
When it rains and the fog comes.
Bettina Kiener But no appreciation
A few meters below our alpine hut there is a pasture gate. In order to pass this, the cyclists have to brake, get off, open the gate, drive through and then close the gate once more. Likewise the drivers. On Saturday followingnoon I played the alphorn outside. That sounds quaint, I know. But since I’ve played before, I figured this summer would be a good time to start playing once more.
So when I blew the horn with full lungs, a passing cyclist waved at me. I was happy regarding the appreciation of my alphorn playing – because there is still considerable potential for improvement. However, my exhilaration only lasted a second before I realized that the racing cyclist had only signaled the person behind him to brake. So that they don’t thunder into the pasture gate.
The goats come back to the barn in the evening.
Bettina Kiener
Therefore, dear cyclists: When you pedal your bike across the Alps, look at the beautiful flowers and animals, enjoy the silence or the ringing of bells, or make a short stop to buy a piece of cheese.
By the way, I like to ride my bike myself. In the absence of my sporting ambitions, however, very leisurely. And with lots of breaks.
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#drives #alpine #woman #crazy