Switzerland USA Blog

Harvesting before the rain comes

2011-08-03T00:50:00.000-07:00

Summer is over

2010-08-31T05:20:00.001-07:00

So fast went summer over

Oberbottigen in the summer

2010-07-01T00:22:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from the haymaking last sunday. The weather ist beautiful and we enjoy the summer.

Growing, but not for every price!

2010-06-10T02:09:00.001-07:00

As faster it grows and bigger it gets, then it is dangerous to stay on the ground and be kind and fair with everybody.

Always on the "go" and for what?

So stay still, think about your friends, call them and take you time.

If you are here for them, my be they also want to be around for you, when you need them.

Our house in Oberbottigen, Bern

2010-06-07T21:35:00.000-07:00

It's not very hot, but nice and warm outside. We got some rain, but we are happy not to have to much rain. Everything is green and growing well.

Early in the morning, picture of the day

2009-11-03T10:47:00.000-08:00

I had to hurry up, to get this picture, it started to rain later on. The colors of the forest are now very pretty.

Picture of the night

2009-10-31T23:30:00.000-07:00

We went with friends to a folk music night and had a good time till late that night. We just could go, because we had reverations. Otherwise the room was booked out.

Schweizerische Volksmusik ist in! Especially the "Schwyzerörgeli" is just something!

Picture of the day

2009-10-29T14:03:00.000-07:00

Nice evening in town, not to far away from our home. The stores in Bern are opened till 9pm and people like to go shopping and have a good time in town after work.

Picture of the day

2009-10-22T00:08:00.000-07:00

A cattle in the fall.

Good Crops in Switzerland 2009

2009-08-05T00:27:00.001-07:00

Even with the unsteady weather was the crop very good and we are satisfied.

Surfing on rivers

2009-07-23T22:14:00.000-07:00

River surfing is a quite dangerous and you have always to have somebody watching you, in case you need help.

Our Cows don't have a skateboard

2009-07-23T02:42:00.000-07:00

Our cows are enjoying life, but they enjoy it without a skateboard.
As long as we don't use one, we don't think about giving one to the cows, haha

Cows & Politics Explained

A CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT: You have two cows. You keep one and give one to your neighbor.

A SOCIALIST: You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.

AN AMERICAN REPUBLICAN: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. So what?

AN AMERICAN DEMOCRAT: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. You feel guilty for being successful. You vote people into office who tax your cows, forcing you to sell one to raise money to pay the tax. The people you voted for then take the tax money and buy a cow and give it to your neighbor. You feel righteous.

A COMMUNIST: You have two cows. The government seizes both and provides you with milk.

A FASCIST: You have two cows. The government seizes both and sells you the milk. You join the underground and start a campaign of sabotage.

DEMOCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. The government taxes you to the point you have to sell both to support a man in a foreign country who has only one cow, which was a gift from your government.

CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.

BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. The government takes them both, shoots one, milks the other, pays you for the milk, then pours the milk down the drain.

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when the cow drops dead.

A FRENCH CORPORATION: You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION: You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. You then create clever cow cartoon images called Cowkimon and market them World-Wide.

A GERMAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You reengineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

A BRITISH CORPORATION: You have two cows. They are mad. They die. Pass the shepherd's pie, please.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows, but you don't know where they are. You break for lunch.

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You count them and learn you have five cows. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 12 cows. You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

A SWISS CORPORATION: You have 5000 cows, none of which belong to you. You charge others for storing them.

A BRAZILIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You enter into a partnership with an American corporation. Soon you have 1000 cows and the American corporation declares bankruptcy.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You worship both of them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION: You have two cows. You have 300 people milking them. You claim full employment, high bovine productivity, and arrest the newsman who reported on them.

AN ISRAELI CORPORATION: There are these two Jewish cows, right? They open a milk factory, an ice cream store, and then sell the movie rights. They send their calves to Harvard to become doctors. So, who needs people?

AN ARKANSAS CORPORATION: You have two cows. That one on the left is kinda cute.

Sun or rain, Bern is always ok!

2009-07-23T02:32:00.000-07:00

Our summer is mixed with sun and rain, no problem to visit Bern, this town is for every one and for every season.

Walking in May

2009-05-11T00:15:00.000-07:00

Who comes there?

May is the time to go walking

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T00:54:00.000-07:00

Bahnhofstrasse Zürich

2009-04-08T11:25:00.001-07:00

Bern to Zürich by train

2009-04-08T02:42:00.000-07:00

Meeting in Zürich by train

2009-04-08T02:25:00.000-07:00

Wunderfull day to go to Zürich, I start from the Westside, which is just 2 miles from my home.
Bern to Zurich takes just 56 Minutes with the train and it is exciting to be on wheels.
First I want to read in a book, but there are around me at list 4 people on the cell phone and honestly I cannot concentrate on my book, but never mind, there stories are even more fascinating.

Springflowers all over the place

2009-03-17T15:40:00.000-07:00

Switzerland eases banking secrecy

2009-03-15T04:03:00.000-07:00

Switzerland, the world's largest offshore financial centre, has agreed to accept concessions on bank secrecy.
The announcement comes after Switzerland had risked being added to a global blacklist of uncooperative tax havens.

Spring is coming, but crisis is still not behind us

2009-03-13T02:35:00.000-07:00

Insteed of Spring comes more Snow

2009-03-06T23:43:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday was like spring, but then it started to rain till everything was green, and then again came a lot of snow.

It looks very nice today and even in politics it looks nice and we hope the goverment of Switzerland has good discussions with United States.

There is nothing like traveling and visiting

2009-03-01T01:42:00.000-08:00

When we left Switzerland for Dubai 10 days ago, we couldn't find one egg of chocolate to bring to our daughter Andrea and her new family.
We stayed with them for five days and had a extremely good time.
Now we are back to old life again and yesterday when I went shopping, the grocery store was full with Easter chocolates, eggs and Easter bunnies, even if Easter is still 43 days away.
Yesterday it also got warmer around here, it was about 15° C , snow is melting, snowdrop are starting to bloom and even bees start to fly out. They don't lose any time!

It is still freezing and more snow will come

2009-02-16T22:01:00.000-08:00

Snow again, good enough for a snowman

2009-02-08T08:17:00.000-08:00

After a rainy saturday follows a snowy sunday.

health insurance and unemployment

2009-02-07T00:04:00.000-08:00

Switzerland has about 7'800'000 persons and every one has to have a health insurance and this insurance gets more costly every year and if somebody has not enough income, then he gets state assistance.
Today are about 87 health insurance companies.
In January lost 10'000 (0.3%) people their job, that means the rate of unemployment is now by 3.3%, and lots of companies are on short hours.

Wood is heating twice, when you carry it and when you burn it

2009-01-06T23:31:00.000-08:00

It is a very cold winter and Hans is bringing everyday firewood to Bern.
We are glad to have Robert from Slowakei to helps him to prepare the wood.
Russia apparently completely stopped its gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine .
Causes of the conflict was the failure of negotiations for the new supply agreement between Russia and Ukraine.

After holidays everybody goes back to work

2009-01-04T01:49:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow starts the work everywhere and today will the streets be full with traffic.
So we will stay home and just go out for a walk.
I went yesterday to the shopping center www.westside.ch and it was really crowded.
This evening will also come Robert back from Slowakei to Switzerland.
He started to work here at the 1. of October and he stayed at home with his family since December 18. He has a wife and two daughters.
He will come by train and we will pick him up in Bern.

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T03:50:00.000-08:00

With Sylvester came also a lot of snow. My parents wanted to come and visit me, but the roads were to bad, so they stayed home and today I will go and see them.

We wish you all a happy New Year !

Sledging is so fun to do

2008-12-28T22:15:00.000-08:00

We are always glad for a white Christmas and just near our house is a way, in the wintertime closed for the traffic,only open to go sledging.
This is really fun, not only for the kids!

Not every tree can hold on to the heavy snow

2008-12-19T09:50:00.000-08:00

We go every Friday morning walking for one hour through the forest. We are sometimes 6 persons and one dog and sometimes just two persons, like today.
That much snow is so beautiful, but it is quite warm and the snow starts to melt.
We also have to be very careful, because the forest is large and it doesn't look like usual.

Snow and Christmastrees

2008-12-09T22:21:00.001-08:00

First view in the morning, over the street to the barn, where Hans goes to milk our cows.

Snow again, but we are ready

2008-11-24T04:48:00.000-08:00

Indian Summer keeps the snow away

2008-11-06T06:05:00.000-08:00

The snow didn't stay to long, it wasn't to good for plants and trees.

The boys enjoy the nature and they like to run around and have fun.

They enjoy nice weather and so it is even better to go to school with the bycicles without snowfall.

Gratulation to the new President Barack Obama

2008-11-05T00:24:00.000-08:00

First havy snow in Switzerland

2008-10-30T03:18:00.001-07:00

We had never so fast that much snow in Switzerland since 1939.
I went downtown yesterday and when I came home it was white everywhere.

Sunday trip to the mountains

2008-10-28T23:09:00.000-07:00

We went with friends last "Sunday to the Simmenfälle in Lenk".

We had fog in Oberbottigen and we were glad to go up to see the sunshine and it really was pretty up here. We walked over 1 hour, but when we got up to where usually is a restaurant. It was already closed for wintertime and so we went back down to Lenk to eat out in a restaurant.

We expect snow this week, the rain started yesterday and it turns cold. Gabi from upstaires and I made yesterday some grape juice and it come out real good.

Today afternoon I will go and visit my parents, they always enjoy to have company.

Pictures from corn harvesting to feed the cows

2008-10-19T01:43:00.000-07:00

Corn was very well this year and we got more, than we expected.
Here you can see some pictures:
www.le-go.ch/maisernte08/index.htm
Our family is doing well and Andrea will come from Dubai to Switzerland in December to visit us and stay one week.

Indian Summer - Pictures from Oberbottigen

2008-10-13T00:40:00.000-07:00

Everybody was traveling or walking around yesterday on Sunday!
Hans went with our employee Robert from Slowakia with the motorcycle to the Jura in France , they went with friends, they were about 7 people with 5 motorcycles.

I myself went to church, then to the westside and later in the afternoon to my father in law, which is in the nursing home.

Today starts school for the children, they don't have to go very far, so they go with the bicycles.
Here are some pictures from Oberbottigen :
www.oberbottigen.ch/herbst08/index.htm

Fall colors are starting to get pretty

2008-10-09T02:34:00.000-07:00

This picture is taken yesterday next to Gümligen.
We also have corn and the harvest is very good this year.
We use it to feed our cows.

The global world is a village

2008-10-06T22:00:00.000-07:00

Now almost the whole world is having a problem with his paper money and we just hope for a good solution.
We have a lot of work around the farm, but we have now a new employee from Slowakia.
He also eats with us, so I have to cook one potato more.
Tomorrow is opening the "Westside Center" two miles from here.
Yesterday and went to visit my parents. I go to them mostly ones a week.

Nice Indian summer in Switzerland

2008-09-27T09:09:00.001-07:00

We have a nice indian summer and it is warm outside. The children around here are having school vacation and a lots of families are away for one or two weeks.
So we are alone in our house and besides our 3 cats we have 4 other cats to feed.
We are in a time of massive change, but things still go very well.
We got this year more money for the milk, but now the farmers went ahead and produced more milk, then the swiss people can use and for overseas is our milk to expensive.
So this might bring down the price again, but we will see.
We wish you all good ideas to shape the future.

Westside just around the corner

2008-09-17T08:46:00.000-07:00

Whenever I go to Bern or go to visit my parents, it takes me 2 Miles to get to the highway and here is going to be a new shoppping mall, also with cinemas, restaurants, lots of shopping goods, swimmingpools and nearby is a mursing home.
The only thing it takes is a big wallet.
The older people can rent small apartments, one ore 2 rooms and get care, if they get sick.

Von westside0908

The opening will be October, 8. 2008 and they are still finishing everything and givint the last
touches.
I had the chance to go for a tour last week and the paint still ist wet!

Summertime is over, its cooler in Switzerland

2008-09-15T22:20:00.001-07:00

From one day to the other the temperature dropped down to 10° C.

Even the Swiss banks felt the black Monday from die USA yesterday.
They say it is like a thundercalp and it will take several days to get back to normal and the worldwide net of the finanzsystem has to be rebuild.
Of course we know that banks help each other in emergencies, but we know, that everything will cool down and we will get more unemployed people next year.

It rains and we go to Bern without an umbrella

2008-09-06T08:40:00.000-07:00

It takes me half an hour to go to the station in Bern and as you can see, there is no problem with rain.
Gasoline and heating oil will remain the same at this time, but we got a letter from the electric power company, where they write us, that next year, the price from the electricity will go up by 10 to 20 percent.

Grand spectacle closes Beijing Olympics

2008-08-24T21:52:00.000-07:00

First comes Paralympic Games for disabled atheletes and wheelchair sportsmen and sportswomen, and then it gets back to normal that means to get back taking up production in factories and using more oil in China. Oil is low at 115 Dollar and as long as more country like people in India, Africa, South America and China wants to drive a car, the oil will rise up again and it is time to get away from the oil.
It was a wonderful sunday and we went to visit Hans's father and went with him on a walk.

They are all cousins

2008-08-22T09:13:00.000-07:00

Cormick, Carina, Leonie and Ronja are cousins.
Leonie has a black mother and Cormick is a boy, which will hopefuly be used as a father for many more cattles.

Pictures from United States

2008-08-06T12:22:00.001-07:00

I put the picture from our traveling to the United States on my website www.kopfkissen.ch

90th birthday of Erich, born August 4. 1918

2008-08-03T21:50:00.000-07:00

My father Erich Bucher was born 90 years ago in Aarau, Switzerland to Elise and Gottlieb Bucher- Gerber.
His mother Elise was born in Schangnau, Switzerland and she had a older brother Gottfried Gerber, who emigrated to the United States, when he was a jung man.
My father still remembers to go with his mother and his only brother Eugen to visit the homeplace of the Gerber's in Schangnau.

1. August, National Holiday Switzerland

2008-07-31T22:34:00.000-07:00

Our Nationalday is like Sunday. It is the day to go for brunch and then at night to go someplace to see the fireworks everywhere.

A bit of rain in the evening after a pretty hot day

2008-07-30T12:10:00.000-07:00

Time is ripe for combine

2008-07-28T03:54:00.000-07:00

Our third Partner Hanspeter Thomet is combining and he also likes to take
pictures from the tractors, the fields and so on.

Swiss weather online

2008-07-26T00:52:00.000-07:00

The beautiful weather of recent days, made the grain ready to harvest and the combine are in use almost days and nights.
We are always 6 hours ahead of you, when it ist 10.00 am in the morning in Switzerland, then you are still sleeping and it is 4.00 am.
When we go to bed 11.00 pm at night, then you will be eating supper at 5.00 pm and still have the evening in front of you.

Here you can see our weather radar:

The world is a globale village

2008-07-24T01:43:00.000-07:00

When the prices get high then we start to spend less money on less things we don't really need.
And the results are seen all over the world.
Till now almost everybody has work here and it is hard to get people for a job on a farm. Normal work is 42 hours a week and on farms it is 52 1/2 hours a week.

The gazoline is still about Fr. 2.-- a Liter and the diesel is about Fr. 2.20.

Switzerland took 2006 the oil to 48.8 % from Libya, 30.6 % from Nigeria and 11.9 % from Kasachstan.
Libya is punishing Switzerland because they arrested Gaddafis son in Geneva.
Now we hope Switzerland and Libya can discuss this matter in Tripolis and will settle down the differences.

View from the south

2008-07-22T00:08:00.000-07:00

We got a cool, fresh summer, cloudy and not to much sunshine and some rain every other day.
Its cool in the morning and I hope for some warmer weather in the next few days.
But it is well for farming and plants are growing fast.

2008-07-16T08:40:00.000-07:00

My sister Therese and I went with my parents Ruth and Erich on the lake Thun.
Monday was our mothers 82. birthday and she just loves to be on the lake.

Rain over the weekend

2008-07-13T00:49:00.000-07:00

Some Farmers startet to get the barley, but after a few days came some rain again and it got cooler.
This is the view from my kitchen, to the right you can see down to the railroad station.
It takes by feet 10 minutes to get to the station and about 30 minutes to be downtown in Bern.
We got several new calves last week and they are doing fine.
Every 2 days comes the truck to get the milk.
To that time we give away 640 Gallon every two days.

Finally is the summer back

2008-07-09T22:30:00.000-07:00

News around the world easy to translate

2008-07-08T21:49:00.000-07:00

I found this news in german and put it with the translation tool to english:

Already 25 Groundings because of expensive oil
The rising price of fuel this year has put some 25 airlines worldwide, forced to close as many as never before.

It is cool outside and I hope summer will come back for this weekend.

5 weeks school vacation

2008-07-04T22:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday started the school vacation.

The family upstairs went on vacation for two weeks to France and our partner family went on vacation for Italy.

So Hans has more work with the farming and I have three more cats to feed.

We had just enough rain last week, so everything can grow just fine in the garden and on the field.

Otherwise the weather is just fine.

We still are looking for a guy, which would like to work on our farm, but employees are to that time not interested to work on a farm, because earnings is to small on a farm and 52.5 hours a week is to much, when you can get a job somewhere else for more money in just 45 hours or less a week.

There is still enough work around and we are yet not hit by unemployment.

Lazy Sunday afternoon

2008-06-30T07:44:00.000-07:00

A bottle of water, a book and nothing to do, just enjoy home. Here with Thomas (8 year) and Patrick (12year). They live upstairs.

The weather is just nice for slackline

2008-06-26T04:04:00.000-07:00

view from our home

2008-06-23T22:13:00.000-07:00

It is early in the morning and we had just beautiful and warm weather till today. Hans is in the barn melking cows, Martin just left for work and Hanspeter is doing his businesswork. It is before breakfast and something is in the air: Is it going to rain today? I got a new dishwasher yesterday and so I got more time for anything else, there is always enough to chose from.....

Everybody is working or staying outside

2008-06-20T23:30:00.000-07:00

The farmers are pressing hay, and all the others stay just outside, working in the garden, going for a walk or just enjoying the nice temperature.
Even TV are outside to watch the European Football Champinships.
Tonight is Holland - Russia.

Finally: The summer is back in Bern

2008-06-18T22:19:00.000-07:00

I found this in the newspaper from today and I put it with a tool to into english:

Finally: The summer is back in Bern

After the barely endless rain of recent days, yesterday in the capital for the first time again the summer reported.
The unexpected sunshine and high temperatures attracted to the Berne outside and provided a good mood.
The best thing now is to stay the summer:
"Until the weekend, temperatures rise to 25 degrees," says Philippe Gyarmati of Meteo test.

And I found also this:

Energy consumption around the world is growing

The global energy consumption, despite higher fuel continued to rise. Last year total consumption grew by 2.4 percent, as shown by statistics presented to the oil group BP shows.

This increase was slightly weaker than 2.7 percent in the penultimate year. The growth was, however, for the fifth time in a row over the ten-year average.

In the European Union, the consumption contrary to the global trend by 2.2 percent. Germany even recorded a minus of 5.6 percent to 311 million tonnes of oil equivalent. On the other hand, used the U.S. as the world's largest consumer last year, 1.7 percent more energy, China 7.7 percent even more.

The global oil production is last year since 2002 for the first time dropped - namely by 0.2 percent. The proven oil reserves but were unchanged at 1.24 trillion barrel This rich, the current production level for more than 41 years to maintain, says the study.

Gas consumption rose according to the statistics 3.1 percent. The U.S. used because of a cold winter clearly more gas in the EU, it was because of a mild winter less.

Coal accounted for the fourth consecutive year, the strongest growth rate of all energy sources, with an increase of 4.5 percent. On the other hand, the consumption of nuclear energy by two percent.

Is sommer coming?

2008-06-17T22:22:00.000-07:00

It is nice and warm outside and we hope it will stay warm for quite a while.
The farmer have less salads and strawberries and to bring hay in was almost impossible.

I went out yesterday and took some pictures from the cows.
They just went to the barn for milking.
You can see the diashow on the right side.

We are so glad we came to visit the USA and met you all.
Now the flight tickets are going up, because of the record prices for oil.
And I guess it will take a short time, till we have to pay more for everything else around us.

I visited my parents yesterday and showed them all my pictures on my laptop.

Everyday life is back after all

2008-06-15T11:39:00.000-07:00

Outside, it is cool and we all need to wear a warm sweater.
The men's choir from Oberbottigen gave a brunch and Hans and I had to help. There were some 150 people and we had fun.
We were very tired last night, because of the jetlag and Hans went up early in the morning to milk the cows.

Back in Switzerland

2008-06-13T09:33:00.000-07:00

Hans and I got back 8 o'clock this morning from the USA, we had a safely flight and got easy back through the border from Zurich Switzerland. Hanspeter was waiting outside at the airport.
The weather is cloudy and a little bit cooler than in Detroit.
Everything is well at home.
And the gasoline is also more expensive, than it was two weeks ago.
A gallon of gasoline costs now 7.2 U.S. dollars, and with our car we drive about 38 Miles with a gallon.
Our business Partner and his wife come this evening to visit us and we will tell them about our traveling and they will tell us about around here.