A Tough Week

One sunny frosty morning and the boys are outside for a
change

It is weird how this week seems to have been both a long hard slog and yet flown by. It's hard to believe that in a few hours I will be going to collect Ian from the airport. As I mentioned in my last blog i was waiting for someone to come and help us to cull our sheep. The sheep were content enough waiting as they had hay to eat. That is until it was time to get hold of one of them. Apparently she was a little stronger than my friend anticipated and so escaped. In trying to sort that one out, another escaped. I managed to catch the last one and kept her pinned up against the fence of the pen whilst the others were enticed back in. They were a bit wary, until my friend had the brainwave to feed the penned in sheep with some grain and the others decided they wanted what she had, so in they trouped. Don't worry, I didn't unduly stress the one that was pinned up against the fence - I'm only little and she was a big sheep. Not sure what I would have done if she had actually struggled at all, she just stood their quietly.

It's been a mixed bag as far as the weather is concerned with
snow coming and going all week. Sometimes I have had to
break ice and sometimes the roofs are dripping in the moist
air filling the water troughs

One of the new girls sitting outside on a snowy day. I guess
she must be feeling warmer as it is no longer -12C like some
days last week, more like between 0 and -2C

Culling sheep is not a noisy affair and it was done as quietly and respectfully as possible. We started about six and were finished at nine, with the carcasses left to hang from the beams in our barn. I rolled into our apartment at about 10pm that night after defrosting the car before I could set off- so a long day. I spent the next two days sorting out the meat, ready for the freezer, so yet more long days. The meat needed cutting up, wrapping, labelling and sorting out into fatty bits and small pieces of meat for pies and stews. Some was minced and frozen in packs and some was turned into burgers. It was hard physical work and so I was absolutely whacked by the end of it all. Meat in our household is precious - we know where it has come from, what it has eaten and how much effort has gone into preparation of it, so we do our best not to waste any of it.

One of the days we had ice rain
that covered everything in a thick
layer of ice

It was beautiful if difficult day.
These plants look like glass

The trees were struggling though under the weight of ice.
Fortunately nothing really major but I did have to stop on the
road at one point and remove a small branch that had come
down

Finally after three long days I got an early night. While Ian has been away I have been going to bed earlier and reading a book with a cup of cocoa or a cup of tea. I find it a nice way to unwind at the end the day and get off to sleep, so it was good to get a chance to do that again. My current evening read is Wendell Berry's "The Unsettling of America". Back in the mid 90s he was arguing that we need to think carefully about the soil and how much it means to us and our sustainability, and how we should be caring for it. I wonder if he has the feeling of "I told you so!" because it is definitely a very current topic in agricultural sustainability. So much soil has been lost to the air or through water erosion. Not just centimetres but in some cases metres of topsoil has disappeared, either ending up in rivers and estuaries or polluting the air. The very stuff we depend on for our vegetables and grains - gone!

Brencis and Turbjørn outside. They look so alike and yet they
are nephew and uncle really. 

More melting snow on a misty day. This is the worst of
weathers to be driving in on the dirt roads. Even travelling
slowly in a 4x4 I was slipping, I resorted to the diff lock

Wendell Berry also talks about how much we have lost the connection with the land, from agribusiness to urban dwellers alike. On the one hand it is amazing to read and think that someone agrees with what I have been saying just lately and on the other hand I feel sad that someone has said it all before and not just recently but decades ago. The warning signs were there and we didn't heed them. Now we are heading for calamity unless we change course quickly. We have to reduce our consumption, we have to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels that not only affects our climate in terms of temperature but it pollutes our air, our waterways and our bodies. He likens it to us stealing from our future generations. In reality it is not 'just our future generations, it is our current younger generations who will be left with the mess we are making. Not a pleasant thought!

Is there some for me? Afternoon treats of carrots, squash and
alfafa pellets. I had to lead Chanel to a tray, she kept
wandering around. The others just got on and found a tray

  

Jakobs is getting the hang of this feed time now. I started him
on the grain at nights when he started pinching some from his
mum's tray. He now eats the squash and alfalfa pellets. He
doesn't seem so sure of the carrots though. His mum helps
him out - or steals from him, whichever way you look at it.

Well as I get ready for Ian coming back the apartment is beginning to resemble a home again and not a place just for passing through. The washing up is finally all done, scones made - Ian needs his energy, our evening meal ready for tomorrow to save time and the wood brought up from the cellar ready for the next few days. Maybe tomorrow I can relax a bit in the evening. Maybe!

Poor Jakobs just looks bemused by it all. He keeps investigating
the trays but doesn't actually eat anything. At night he goes
for the hay in the feeders whilst the adults are all occupied

Mum can I have some milk now? I think the answer was "No!"

One of Vanessa's crew aka new girls eating the snow. They do
like the Christmas trees to eat too

Beauty in winter

The pond is finally beginning to fill, but you
can see the pipe along the upper most rim
of brown. That's how full it should be at this
time of the year.