Hay, hay, hay, everywhere. In my hair, in the air, but hey who cares? For we were at the the Alberschwende Heuen Fair. What is that you might ask? I too had been curious as to what this event was and we were finally able to catch this unusual happening. So on a recent Saturday morning Franz and I headed out to the quaint village of Alberschwende in the Bregenzerwald to watch the International Hand Mowing Competition. In the local mountains where modern mowing machinery cannot reach due to the steep slopes farmers resort to scything the grass the ole’ fashioned way. And this competition grew out of this age old tradition. The scythers had a “hayday” brandishing their shining saber like blades at lightening speeds with unparalleled technique. This gathering even brought out the the young country folk from the ages 5 to 75 to join in the suspenseful scything. The winning time was a whopping one minute twelve seconds to cut 538 square feet! Hip hip hooray to the “heumeisters”!
