Nur wenig haben wir bisher über unseren Melkprozess berichtert, doch der gestrige Erfolg stellt einen Meilenstein da.
Unsere täglich gewonnene Milchmenge übersteigt erstmals 10l pro Tag.
Der äußerst sensible Melkvorgang den ein Karpatenbüffel benötigt, hat uns schon so manche Schweißperle gekostet.
Uns fehlt eine echte Käseküche, deshalb stellen wir Jogurt, Sauermilch und Rohmilch her und tauschen diese weiterhin gegen Produkte aus der lokalen Bevölkerung.
Raja, unsere Karpatenbüffelkuh mit den kurzen Beinen, kümmert sich zusammen mit der Herde um Fred und ihr Kalb Hyronimus, beide sind kräftig genug, um nun jeden Tag mit den 18 Tieren auf die Felder zu ziehen.
Pawel bleibt vorerst bei seiner Mutter Hörnchen und der Pflegemutter Bura, welche tagsüber im 2 ha Elektrozaun stehen. Diese beiden werden mit Pavels Hilfe, 2mal täglich gereinigt, massiert, gefüttert und gemolken.
Bura braucht Pavels stimmulierende Wirkung nicht mehr, doch wenn es kein extra Hafer im Futter gibt, gibt sie uns auch keine Milch.
Es ist schwer zu vermitteln, wieviel Geduld zu so einem kleinen Teilerfolg gehört. Unsere Rumänischen Kollegen, die ebenfalls Bergbüffel melken, melken mit Maschinen und geben den Tieren muskelentspannende Medikamente für den Melkprozess.

Tuesday a great and not so expected event happened in the already crowded farm!
Shortly after coming back with only 3 horses instead of four, the horse team went to look for Tarpa. She was quickly found in a goat stable close to the house, but surprised everyone by not being alone there! She had given birth to an already standing on it´s legs foal and looked really proud. She was given corn and water which she took with great pleasure. The family was then taken to the baby buffalo stable to rest and get some fresh hay.
The new mother is now separated from the rest of the group to ensure that her baby is strong enough when he goes wandering with his new family.



After some days of deliberation, we decided to name him after the greek wine god, Dionysos. This name was chosen because the period in which the baby was born is very productive for our plump winemakers. Indeed, the farm is surrounded by dozens of plumtree and after collecting the fruit we decided to make wine and marmelade. The precious liquid has to maturate for some days still but we´ll make sure to share with you the results on this page! Only poor Dionysos won´t have the chance to try it!

Saldobosch is now the new place to be!

This sunday Paul, Chris, David, Aline (the woofing team), Olga and Michel
welcomed a group of 9 very motivated volunteers. Coming from all over Europe and ready to rock the farm, the group started working as soon as they got off the bus. Russians, ukrainians, germans, italians and frenchs people will now
help us for 2 weeks.

Amongst the tasks they´ll have to fullfill figures taking care of buffalos on Samuels days off, making a new fence for milked buffalos, build a new horse stable.
The volunteers were brought to the project by the ukrainian NGO "Union Forum" which works as a plateforme to gather volunteers in Europe.
The outcome of these 2 weeks should be good for both farm and volunteers: new knowledges, different visions and many experiences.

It is now 20 people that are working hard to make the farm a better place for both humans and animals

Today we were happy to receive tourists from the ukrainian-swiss programm "Bergwald projekt" who came all the way down from the Pololina´s mountain to see our work.
10 people altogether got to know and to see what is happening on the farm: from the huzul horse breeding programm to the buffalos ark and rescue station to the project of making the farm suitable for holiday staying.


They first met with Kashtan, Tarpa, Vjera and Grouvni, the horses of the farm, and were explained the huzul and tarpan project. Then the group was taken to the fields where the buffalos were waiting for their arrival.
At the beginning, both humans and buffalos were a little bit shy but our special ice-breaker Tschiburaschka made everyone come together. Here the visitors got to ride buffalos, to scratch and pet the younger ones for the elder don´t allow so much "friendlyness" and prefer to chew grass or take a bath.







Back at the farm, a nice lunch made of vurda, buffalo cheese and milk and fresh cut vegetables (and of course some samahon, the local "schnaps") was waiting for the group. The meal was interrupted by a strange little pig called Frau Volle who tried to steal food. Of course she was forgiven thanks to her funny features and attitude.
Both visitors and hosts were pretty happy about the excursion and ideas were exchanged: touristic excursions on the farm will probably be organised from now on. Let´s hope the buffalos will allow that!