A Bunch Of Sheep, A Sheepdog & Alternate Way Of Life.

On the trail of a herd of sheep.

Walking into Deutsch-Schützen yesterday afternoon, I saw something strange on the top of the hill in front of me. A flash of red and little bodies shimmying about. It looked like a lot of sheep or a lot of dogs. Without my glasses, the stuff in the distance is often a bit of a mystery to me. When I looked again, who ever it was had disappeared over the hill. But when I stumbled across these little parcels of smelly pebbles in the road, I knew that I had seen sheep.

Gosh, who would have known that a bunch of sheep are such fast movers. I usually walk so fast that they call me the " Fast Walker " in our village but I battled to catch a glimpse of these sheep. It was rather fortunate that they put in a rest stop and I got a chance to catch up with them.

It turns out that I know the shepherdess and we had a nice time chatting and counting sheep! It was fantastic watching these little sheep grazing and jostling for position. Julia, the shepherdess, told me that they were taking the herd back home. These sheep are organically reared ones and get taken around our area to graze. Julia and her husband have a about 5 different flocks which they walk to the various meadows. This particular lot had had their fill of an overgrown hill in the vineyards. To steep for a tractor to navigate and thus they were called in. Fabulous.

Aren't they gorgeous? I hope I don't smell like a sheep, because they didn't bother about me and even walked extremely close to me...! A lot of

" Mmmmahhh's "

could be heard.

Isn't the white buck cute? Julia had told me that the herd was only made up of male sheep. They are sheep breeders and therefore there is no casual mating... no Hanky Panky unless it is supervised!

The sheep and I....what a great way of life. That must be one of the nicest jobs to have. Being outside in nature, being with animals and getting paid for it.

If you look closely, you can spot the sheepdog under that stand. The whole time I was there, Julia every now and then would issue commands to the dog, and it would run circles around the herd. Of course they are a cheeky lot and the dog had to do some herding twice.

Mingling with animals is so good for the soul. The simple life is a great life.

Biggi