After a long flight the American group finally arrives in Fryslân the Netherlands. The first visit they make is to the family 'De boer', dairy farm. They will be introduced to the our way of farming.
Due to our climate the grass grows everywhere.
A pile of wrapped round bales. We wrap the bales to protect them from the weather and to ensure the feed quality.
A close up of an old rake this type was called ‘sprintmaster’. It was a very popular type of rake before p.t.o driven rakes.
The dairy of family ‘de boer’ is located in a nice ‘flat’ scenery and is a good example of a dutch family farm.
A nice boat which becomes handy in a wetland area.
Enjoying the landscape. Sitting on the sea dike which protects the dutch from the ever rising sea. You can see a nice freshly plowed field of clay soil.
This is the accommodation Sailingschool Pean. The place where the diners where organized. An ideal location for events like these, the flag in middle is the Frisian flag.
It is hard to resist cute dogs like the ones on the farm of Lysbeth and Dennis.
Spring is the season in which new live begins. All these sheeps are pregnant or already have lambs. Sheep have the important task to mow the grass on the sea dikes. Their low weight and good protection for the cold winds make them ideal for this task. Cows and machinery are to heavy for this task.
Young stock on the dairy ‘de Boer’. They are located in the old barns behind the house. These barns are typical for the area, most of them are renovated and used for storage of equipment, fodder and young stock. They are to labour intensive and to small for dairy cows.
Putting new reed on a roof is a lot of work, a major disadvantage of this great isolating roofing material.
Brushes for the horses.
A picture of our visit to the riding school De Welle. Here we are introduced to the horses.
Both – Lysbeth and Cara are well skilled horse riders and since they are from different nationalities they can learn a lot from each other.
Getting some farming explanations with camera recording.
The sailing school where the students stayed.
Cows on the farm of family ‘de deelen’. A whole new barn was raised. You can see the new developments, like this feed pusher for example.
A group picture with all students from both United States and the Netherlands.
On the farm of family ‘de deelen’ they produce cheese. Their high quality cheeses are well known in our region and even exported abroad.
The making of ‘riperkrite tsiis’, their specialty
The cheeses are usually stored up to 2 years to get the right flavor. The amount of cheeses of a certain flavor depends on customer demand.
Shelves filled with cheeses. As you can see they even have cheese with piri piri flavor.
One of the many lakes in the province.
Milking horses. We had this rare opportunity to take a look at a horse farm. These farms, where horses are milked are really uncommon.
The milk is being used for medical purposes, since horse milk has special characteristics.
Private bridge to cross one of the many ditches all around the field.
The ideal location to take a rest with a typical view. This is the restaurant from the ‘woudegemaal’ in ‘de Lemmer’.
A visit to Ameland. This island is located in the most northern part of the country and has some areas with beautiful nature.
Due to the strong winds the football often went into the water. But that isn’t a problem when you are on bare feet.
Interview on the beach. Herke is a dutch student, he tells Kailey about the island.
The sailing boats of the sailing school.
The ball went into the water... At least there was a boat to save it.
The streets of Franeker.
The ‘woudegemaal’. This old pumping station was build to protect our land from flooding. They have some of the best maintained working steam engines.
There are eight pumping units with a total capacity of 4000m3 water each minute. Which makes this the biggest working steam powered pumping unit in the world.
A dutch windmill, a building we are known for.
Storage shed on the dairy Farm of family ‘de Boer’.