27 nov 2013

We are growing at an incredible pace – there’s five of ‘us’ now, since we picked-up Frieda and Gretchen yesterday.

They were both born in early 2013, but hopefully already holding precious little lambs in their woolly bellies – due March 2014.

What an adventure: smuggling two sheep in the VW Caddy of Hannes’ mother We also learned how to trim hooves and how to put a sheep in a vehicle… just grab it by its thick wool coat and lift it up, looks heavier than it is, really…

So what about these new friends of ours? Frieda is in love with humans and follows us around like a dog (she was lovingly brought-up as a lamb by Michi and Andi, so that explains), and Gretchen… well let’s say that she still needs to get used to us. That makes them pretty easy to manage, when I walk around their little pasture, Frieda follows me and Gretchen follows Frieda.

In order to be ready to welcome this tiny herd, we had to organise hay (how to transport and store 600kg’s of hay, you may ask) and a temporary barn. Turns out it wasn’t that easy to find an existing barn that could host our couple of sheep and goats for the winter… Luckily some lovely neighbours offered to keep the sheep in their backyard as labour extensive lawnmowers until we build a proper little barn in our garden, so Hannes spent a day making the available shelter winter proof.

And finally, we planted a tree in front of the house. A Rowan tree (sorbier/Vogelbeerbaum) to be precise, best known for the red berries it carries in winter and that many birds adore.

Next time I hope I can write that our kitchen is ready… but who knows how Hannes plans to test me next!