3QD Holiday

3QD columnists are taking a break this week. We'll be back next week. I myself have been making hay at the Seiser Alm in the Südtirol at an altitude of eight thousand feet to help a farmer friend out. (And to tell the full truth, also to escape the Pope who is also taking a break in my small town of Brixen, where he is staying for two weeks, creating all kinds of chaos.) The surroundings are gorgeous to the point of being a bit surreal.

The grass on the alm is cut by a big mower and then allowed to dry into hay for a few days, which is then raked by people into rows (there is a machine for that also, but it was broken and the hay needed to be collected), which are picked up by a contraption towed by a tractor:

This contraption presses the hay into something like 800 lb bales, wraps them in a plastic net, and lays them like eggs onto the alm:

 

The local workers:

And the imported brown worker:

Have a great week!