January « 2008 « The mountain dweller

Archive for January, 2008

Going haywire

Posted in Farming, tagged Farming, lambing, lambs, sheep on 30 January, 2008 | 8 Comments »

The sheep barn is not for the shrinking violet, and if you can’t face the attention and scrutiny from over five hundred pairs of eyes when you walk in, then you’re better off staying outside. In fact, unless you have severe hearing difficulties, or want them, then you’d be better off staying outside. Because the ewes’ competitive “I can [...]

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Lambing for Beginners Part III

Posted in Farming, tagged lambing, lambs, sheep on 27 January, 2008 | 10 Comments »

With the number of lambs fast approaching the 250 mark, the sheep barn is starting to bulge as much as an expectant ewe. What started off as a couple of pens in the corner has grown into a lamb empire that encompasses the entire bergerie. Faced with a sudden shortage of portable pens, my [...]

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Lambing for beginners Part II

Posted in Farming, tagged Farming, lambs, sheep on 23 January, 2008 | 10 Comments »

The sheep have taken over our lives. Each trip out of the house is for supplies for lambing, each conversation is about ewes, each washing machine load contains something smelling of the bergerie. The sheep have kidnapped my husband and are holding him to ransom up in the sheep barn, only letting him out [...]

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The day they killed the pig

Posted in Food, Village Life, Wild Things, tagged Alps, pigs, Wild boar on 18 January, 2008 | 6 Comments »

Something crunched underfoot as I crossed the courtyard and I was pleased that it was dark and that I couldn’t see the offending object. They had killed the pig here a few hours earlier and I was under no illusion as to what I had probably just stepped on. I live on one of the [...]

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