Hah so much for blogging every 3 days. Now I've forgotten what happened.. But now it comes back:)

Wednesday:
I went into the forest again with Opa, but only for about 3 hours because Martin needed me to help when the chicken delivery truck arrived ostensibly at 2:30. So I stripped a few more logs and then walked back. Since there was still 25 minutes or so til the chicken guy was meant to come, I went for a 20 minute run (but got slightly lost, so it turned into a 28 minute run:P). I dashed upstairs to get changed, but he wasn't there, so I had a chance to eat a bit of lunch...which stretched on for about 90 minutes and involved me finishing off a loaf of bread and most of the margarine:P I cleaned up the table and vacuumed for a bit..still not there. We called his number to no avail, and Martin decided he wasn't coming and went for a drive to see if the engine was running smoothly...which was exactly the time the guy showed up, 2 hours late:P I explained that Martin had gone for a drive, and we waited a bit, and then when Martin came back, the guy had the nerve to say that Martin was late hahaha (and was then promptly told that it was in fact he who didn't show up at the right time). Confrontation over, we bundled the chickens into their new home, 4 at a time. These ones were a lot more docile, perhaps because they'd already spent a few hours confined to crates.

That night, I went with Martin to his tai chi class. I went allright in the first part, where you just had to copy what the instructor was doing and saying (and he constantly condescended to me by repeating it in english - it wasn't that I couldn't understand the german, I'm just unco grr:P!). But then in the second part, I was completely lost because they just went through the whole routine without stopping and explaining entirely from memory. In spite of that, I still found it a nice, very relaxing experience. It was interesting to watch the poses and see how obviously they were derived from martial arts. At one stage, the instructor showed us this move, which you could practically use in a fight, to demonstrate how the chi was moving down into the lower body or something like that.

As soon as the routine was finished, we dashed out of the room and into the car and headed for this farmer's conference a few towns away. An associate of Martin's was screening a film entitled 'Du arme Sau' (You poor pig) protesting the recent development in the US, where Monsanto patented the porcine genetic sequence (and is now attempting to extend that patent to all countries around the world). It painted a pretty bleak (and at times, one sided) view of GM, with which I didn't necessarily agree (although I do find Monsanto despicable). Afterwards a representative from the farmer's union in Tubingen talked for quite a long time (and very eloquently although quite a bit was lost to me because everyone present was speaking in strong swäbisch) about GM, urging the people present to do something about it. It's a very current debate in Germany, where the Chancellor is calling for the ban on GM food to be lifted, despite 80% of the consumers and producers being against such a move.


Personally, I see GM as a tool, albeit a very dangerous one. It could do a lot of good (case in point: golden rice to combat widespread Vit. A deficiency in Africa), but it could also put the entire food supply chain in the hands of one corporation (which is Monsanto's goal - they don't want market share, they want the market). I really don't think we can afford not to use it though. Martin is firmly against it, he believes that organic farming without GM plus a reduced meat intake is a complete solution to the problem of feeding a growing population. I really don't think organic farming as it currently stands will ever be able to feed the world. The fact is, the yields are generally quite a bit lower than conventional farming, and although this is achieved without damaging the environment to the same extent, we still need those large yields. GM could be a way to achieve the yields of conventional farming without using as much fertiliser and pesticides. The problem is, that GM can't be performed on a small scale. It needs the resources of a massive organisation like Monsanto just to develop new breeds of crops. What we need is a lot more government sponsored impartial research into GM to develop new crops and test whether the proteins contained within the new plants could be dangerous to organisms that ingest them (apparently there's a suspicion that GM corn can lead to infertility in swine). This is an area that really interests me, and I think I'll probably centre my studies around it.

Thursday:
Can't really remember what I did on Thursday, I think I was just out with the horses collecting apples and possibly cooking in between. Nothing especially exciting happened.

Friday:
I was out with the horses until 12ish, then went back to the house and cooked pizza (=yum, but only Friedreke and I were around to eat it straight out of the oven, and I rationed myself to 2 pieces because I was going for a run soon afterwards). After another two hours of picking apples, I went running with the horses:D Siegfried, Marie and one of their riding students showed me round some of the walking/horse tracks (turns out Alt Bulach isn't that bereft of running routes after all, you just have to know where to find them). I didn't bother trying to keep up with them even when the horses were only trotting (which is about tempo run pace for me lol) let alone galloping , but I still managed to beat them to the end of the trail hehehe. The horses had to walk on the relatively thin, grassy trails, so I built up a lead that they couldn't take back even though they were galloping for the last 5 minutes:P

Saturday:
I got up early and went for a (very slow) 2 hour run. It was absolutely freezing! It took all my willpower to get started, and I didn't feel properly warmed up for about half an hour lol. All the fields were covered in frost (which looked tantalisingly like snow from a distance), which made for a nice scenery:) I had to run on asphault for most of the time (which is all I've been running on for the last week actually to save my ankle) because it was still too dark to run on the trails (I tried for a few minutes and turned my ankle at least 3 times in that short period lol). I got home, feeling pretty good and looked at the thermometer: -5°! I'm hoping all the clouds were hanging over Baiersbronn that night!

Had a quick breakfast, then went out with the scraper and picked apples for the rest of the day. When I got back, Franz had arrived after hitch hiking for about 6 hours from Freiburg (probably like 2 hours by car/train lol). He was over because Martin's mother's birthday is today (Sunday). He seems like a nice guy. From the sounds of it, he's working a lot harder at uni (studying info tech) than I ever had to. I experimented with dinner and made kitchdiri with quinoa instead of rice (because they only had brown rice and quinoa had a shorter cooking time:P). It was pretty good, but needed a stronger stock. Went to bed bone tired at 10:30 after watching the second half of a german film, whose name I didn't catch.

Today, aka Sunday:
I woke up early of my own accord (purposely switched off the alarm so I'd get a decent sleep in lol) and went for a quick run. The wind was freezing, it was a huge relief to run along the forest path, where I was shielded from the worst it could do. Everyone else was going to a chinese restaurant to celebrate Martin's mother's birthday (I was invited but decided I'd rather not go, since I wouldn't be able to eat anything, and instead arranged to go cycling with Opa), so while they got ready, I relaxed:P Then Opa came in to tell me he wanted to leave at 11:30 instead of 1:30, so I had to get my skates on too lol.

I borrowed Marie's bike and after agreeing that we'd go pretty slowly (suited me, I was feeling pretty sore after the run), Opa shot downhill at about 30kph. We cycled along this lovely bike path along a river, stopping to look at a water purification plant. After a while, we got to Wildberg, and Opa showed me the 'Hexenturm' (Witches Tower). Apparently, during the german inquisition, alleged witches were imprisoned here before being hanged or burnt. And guess where it was located..right next to the local primary school hahaha. Next we walked our bikes up to the remains of the Wildberg castle. It was built in 1200, burnt down in 1453, was rebuilt and then destroyed by allied bombers in 1945. Apparently at the end of the war, french troops were meeting heavy resistance in the Wildberg valley and were being pushed back, so bombers were called in and most of the town was destroyed. Sad that cultural icons like this had to be lost.

Then we headed out of Wildberg and followed a scenic route home. Along the way, Opa stopped to show me this stone device, where in the old days, farmers carrying loads of fodder on their heads would stop for a breather and rest their burden on the stone table hehe. Then he showed me their three private forests (where you have pretty much free reign to fell trees and do whatever you want). The first one I found very interesting, but the next two were really just repetitions of a theme, and tired (can feel a cold coming on) and cold, I really just wanted to go home. The last 3km home were not very comfortable. The strong wind chilled me to the bone (really should've worn tracksuit pants over my skins lol) and threatened to push us off the road lol.

So now I'm home alone, waiting for the others to get back. Time to go feed the ducks and see if I can get them to go into their house for once (otherwise they could get eaten by foxes:S, but they just don't want to go in while I'm there).

Ciao