Saschiz, like Viscri and all the other villages in Târnava Mare, has remained relatively unchanged since the Saxons first settled: it consists of two parallel rows of pastel-hued houses, built in a line on either side of a stream. Villages were originally organized into different neighborhoods, or Nachbarschaften. supportive communities that worked together to carry out common tasks, a practice that continues today. Livestock owners, for example, are still required to spend a certain amount of time (depending on how many cattle or sheep they have) clearing pastures and meadows of brush. It was a horse and buggy ride to the clear pastures between Viscri and Criț. Liviu Damian, the man chosen to take care of the village flock at this time, spent the whole summer in the stable here, with his only company a few local shepherds and the wild sheep dogs that (mostly) keep away the wolves and the bears of the area. His temporary home was a hut with a bare floor, where he cooks, eats, sleeps and – in the next room – makes cheese using a variety of wooden troughs and trays. There were about 180 sheep under his watch, which his shepherds milked by hand every night. Most households have between 10 and 20 sheep and all receive a few kilos of cheese from Damian each week.
