A Family Walk through cornfields and meadows with a visit to a cattle farm

This time I am going to tell you about the walk I took in the company of my aunt and uncle, my cousin and my mother in mid-August, after having enjoyed a barbecue at the house that my mother and her siblings have in common after the death of my grandmother a few years ago.

After eating the barbecue that I had cooked and once we had collected and washed the dishes, in order to reduce the food a little, we decided to go for a walk to a dairy farm that is a kilometre away from the family home. To get to this farm, there is a very narrow public road on the side of which there are extensive fields of corn belonging to the dairy farm and also other grass pastures belonging to other dairy farmers in the area.

As you can imagine, seeing everything around you in green and a blue sky with very few clouds and a temperature of 23 °C is an ideal situation to go for a walk, breathe the fresh air of the village and contemplate the tranquillity of nature, interrupted only by the singing of the birds.

Halfway down the road that leads to the farm, is the house of one of our neighbors, this house is one of the most beautiful in the area, as it retains after a restoration of an aerial barn typical of Asturias (Spain) called cabazo, formerly these aerial barns were very popular in rural areas, because it was the ideal place to store cereals and other products of the garden so that they were far from the reach of rodents.

Right next to the road and in front of the house of the neighbors, there is an old water spring that comes channeled from the mountains surrounding the village of Miudes. I remember when I was a child that every time I went for a walk with my grandmother we stopped to drink water from this spring. In the old days, it was much better cared for than it is today and there was even a glass cup always there in case a walker or neighbor felt like drinking fresh water from the spring. Nowadays, however, there is no such glass, so one must use one's own hands as a container to drink water from the spring.

Next to the fountain, on the right side of the fountain, there is still an old water trough for the livestock in the area. More than 40 years ago, the way to water the cows, sheep or goats that the families had was to fetch water in 100 liter drums helped by the horse carts or move with the livestock to the trough that was built by the 10 families that existed at that time in this rural area of Asturias.

Continuing the way to the farm, about 200 meters from the fountain, one can see a small chapel called by the neighbors Fresnedo Chapel. At present, there is no saint inside and no religious ceremonies are held there. According to the information that my grandmother told me many years ago, next to the chapel there was a large house belonging to some wealthy nobles. But after their death, that big house and the chapel, which was for private use, were abandoned and nowadays only the chapel, with the help of the neighbors, is the building that is still standing.

Next to the Fresnedo chapel, there is a small road from which you can see part of the large Folgueirosa cattle ranch. This livestock farm, which is owned by two brothers and employs 5 other people, currently has more than 500 head of cattle.

When we arrived at the farm, the younger brother, Adrian, a good friend of mine, was unloading a truckload of wheat straw.

After a few minutes talking with Adrian, we walked around the outside of the farm where we could see the different milk cows they have, the places where the cows relax with a kind of automatic scrapers and we also saw the milking parlor which is fully computerized to avoid milking cows that are on some kind of medication.

After this visit, the next step we took inside the farm was to go and see the calves, which are in a kind of cradles, so that it is not necessary that they have to be chained and gives them some freedom and in turn protection for possible predators, as they could be attacked by wolves.

Finally, when we left the farm, one of Adrian's horses that was loose we found him next to the chapel grazing the grass around him.

After the visit to the farm, we returned to the family home by the same road we had taken to go to the Folgueirosa cattle ranch. During the walk back to the air barn house my attention was caught by a small garden they have at the entrance of their house, where they had some flowering hydrangeas and other flowers that gave a nice color.

Near the end of my walk, as I was looking toward the family home, I saw a curious cloud on top of the lamp post next to the house. This combination of the cloud and the pole looked as if there was a chimney.

I hope you enjoyed this walk among corn fields, meadows, cows and calves. In short, a walk in the middle of nature in a small village in Asturias (Spain).

Own photograph taken with my Iphone SE.

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Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version).