If I have to do ONE MORE conversion in my head...I think it will explode!

Honestly, though!  I cannot keep doing temperature, distance, volume, and monetary conversions in my head...too much...why can't everyone just play nice and be on the metric system (or everyone else switch to our lovely American ways... Fahrenheit, miles, pints, acres, inches, etc.!)?!?!  I would love to see the look on my face when I'm trying to convert things...oh well, at least my brain is still being challenged to work over here : )

Well, sorry it's been a week, but I've been pretty busy traveling and learning, and not thinking about blogging : (

Sljeme
Let's see here, early last week, I went up to Sljeme (mountain ridge near Zagreb) and visited the Research Station there.  They mostly do research on grazing and pastures there on about 50 hectares (125 acres) and it's part of the University of Zagreb.  They also have a herd of Charolais cattle and sheep that are fed pretty well up there.  I did see one cannulated cow (I forgot to ask if there are more).  Cannulas are basically a portal into a cow's rumen that is surgically fitted to the cow...they allow us to do research studies on nutrition and digestion in ruminants.  I'm not gonna lie, it was a little frustrating that day, because there was only one person who spoke English...and I wasn't around him for most of the day...which made for an interesting day!  BUT, I will say, the workers were very excited to show me around and have them help check waterers and cows in the various pastures!

Research Plots at Sljeme and a small herd of Charolais cattle (gotta love me some cows!)

Field Research on Campus

The next day, two graduate students gave me a tour of some of the research plots on campus and the mechanization used there.  First stop: baling hay...now, you know I've seen this a MILLION times, but they do it a little different over here!  They only dry the hay for a short time, bale it with a regular baler with lots of netting, then they use a bale wrapper, which rotates the bale and tightly wraps it in plastic...this allows all of the chemical reactions, and fermenting to begin to be silage bales...like I said, it's a little different!  They take all of the bales and other feedstuffs to Sljeme to feed the herds there.  Their equipment that they are currently using is all less than 12 years old.

Some other crops and trials they are working on include: spring and winter wheat, barley (2- & 6-row), rye, peas, corn, flax, rape, beets, beans, and some others.  A lot of the trials we looked at had to do with fertilizer applications, density, and varieties.  The most interesting one I saw was winter wheat being grown with peas...nitrogen is taken care of! Of course, I'm not sure how easy it is to harvest though.

Split
Thursday through Saturday, I was in or around Split...on the southern part of the coast of Croatia (the Dalmatian Coast).  Zoran had some obligations with teaching and testing some students at the agriculture high school there, so Nina and I tagged along to enjoy ourselves!  It was a good 4.5 hour drive there, and the landscapes varied greatly...mountains, valleys, plains, different mountains, river valleys, and of course, the coast!  All of these were filled with both large and small villages, hundreds-of-years old fortresses and castles, and beautiful vegetation.


I honestly didn't do a lot, except relax while I was in Split!  Friday morning, we were tourists around the city, visiting the open markets, a very old church, a 200+ year old theater, the parliament building, and of course: Diocletian's Palace, built around 300 A.D. (one of the popular sites around Split).  Friday afternoon, Nina and I enjoyed the sunshine on the beach right behind our apartments. : D

Saturday morning, we traveled to Obrovac-Sinjski (about 41km from Split...or about 25 miles...) to a friend of Zoran's family home.  We had coffee, meat, cheese, AND  a sip or two brandy (at 10:30 in the morning!) of course as a welcoming drink. After some good food and conversation, we all got ourselves ready to go down to the River Cetina...Zoran went fishing, and all of the girls went for a "nature" walk along the river.  The river was gorgeous...CLEAR...and very tempting to go for a nice float! (Can't wait to get back to Montana in time for FLOATING SEASON to start!!!  REDNECK YACHT CLUB!!!)  There were a lot of small plots of land near the river dedicated to growing potatoes, squash, wheat, and a few other small crops and gardens.  The ladies picked as many lemon blooms as they could so that Nina could make her lemon syrup when we got back to Zagreb.  After our river walk, we went back to the house, where we had "cake" (dough cooked in oil), and BBQ for lunch...sausages and chicken grilled along with some good veggies.  Afterward, they stuffed us with coffee and some sort of lemony cake with creamy frosting layers (mmmmmm)!

After we left, we hit the road for another fishing destination, Knin...but with it being so late, AND the World Championship Trout fishing going on, and needing to get home, we did not fish.  We got back to Zagreb pretty late, and it was pretty rainy out, so we all headed for bed to get some much-needed rest!  Sunday we really had no plans (except my plan to get this thing posted!!!)...so Nina and I went to the park to check out the FlorArt Exhibition there...really incredible Flower Art Exhibits!!!!  

Hope you all enjoyed my update for the week...I'll be in Zagreb for a few days this week, then Slavonski Brod for 5-6 days...I hope I have time for a quicker blog this time!

Laters!