A Sheep In Need.

A good deed done.

A little voice told me to take this route today and about half way through, I knew why. It was still early on with not many souls astir apart from a flock of sheep grazing routinely on a temporary field. About thirty of them and as per usual I had conversations with them as I walked past. Granted a bit one sided but it is the thought that counts.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a lone sheep moving back and forth along the edge of a thorn bush. Oh dear, it was stuck and being pinned more and more by a hideous tentacles of a thorny bush. I stopped to calm it down with my voice as there was a electrified fence all around the field. It was starting to get more and more entangled while panicking more and more. One of its friends sauntered up to it and licked its face in an effort to calm it down. The rest of the herd stood at a safe distance, watching.

As luck would have it, a lady in the house next to the field was dashing about her yard. I called to her and she came over and I could explain the situation. She straightaway switched off the electricity and both of us hooved it over the fence to go and rescue our sheep. The thorns were huge and everywhere. She went back to get gloves and shears while I stayed with my sheep.

Talking to it made it calm down slightly and when I could see a gap, I stroked her little nose. It was appreciated. The rest of the flock had formed a semi circle close to us and were watching with bated breath. When the lady returned she expertly cut loose the strangling thorn reeds and within a minute the sheep had bucked its way to freedom and had run to its friends.

They instantly formed a protective circle around it while we went back over the fence and re-electrified it. All in all it took about ten minutes to save this sheep's life ( ironically I kept on thinking of its fate further down the line ) and I have to say, both of us were chuffed to bits to have done this rescue. Our smiles couldn't have been wider or happier. Animals are amazing, clever and also capable of feeling fear, desperation or joy.

I carried on walking but when I looked back over my shoulder, the whole troupe of sheep had lined up along the edge of the field to watch me walk along.
I accredited this to mean that they all wanted to say ' Thank you ' and have felt amazing the whole day. Helping animals is just this B's knees...

Biggi

New Neighbours Up The Road.

A rolling flock of grass grazers.

Climbing over a trench got me close enough to take a few photos and this inquisitive gal took the time to get up and come closer.

Two sleepy woolly white gals taking life one blade of grass at a time.

A tough and hardy ruler of the harem looking ever so smashing this morning.

" Yes, yes, that's my man over there..."

One can almost hear her thinking..."Look what he did to me. " Not long before a little lamb is born.

Their eyes are so docile and gentle making it a pleasure to stand across from them. This flock moves about from one juicy meadow to the next. Much better than a lawnmower, much more peaceful and dare I say prettier.

Biggi

Our Addiction To Short Cuts Isn't Always That Healthy.

Nothing wrong with plain old elbow grease...

Growing and making wine is a labour intensive business and often some aspects of it are attended to with a chemical or two. Weeds and bugs being the main one.

Mostly, the weeds growing between the individual wines are taken care of with a spray of something, which quite frankly, I don't even want to think about. " Everyone is doing it. That's just the way it's done ." Does it save money and time? Yes, of course, but they have made wine before the invention of chemicals, not such big quantities but perhaps good quality nonetheless.

There is a new breed of vintners who are going back to grass roots or rather growing vines the natural way. Weeds and grass growing in between the vines, get removed manually with a weed eater ( eh, it sounds poisonous but is an apparatus wielded by a person ) or eaten by a flock of sheep.

Which leads me to today's topic...sheep or rather a flock of them circulating the various vineyards owned by a local wine maker. I have told you about them before, but yesterday the cuteness factor was doubled. The herd's ram must have had a whole lot of fun, as there were a few youngsters frolicking about.

It was so divine seeing these sheep grazing in a vineyard and it made me think about a documentary I saw on TV. Someone had opened a Cow Cafe ( no, not that cow's Cafe! ) and yes, it is a coffee shop on a farm, overlooking the cow stable. The owner said that quite often kids visiting from the city would be overjoyed at stroking a real cow. Sadly, some of them had never seen one or yet alone known that cows made milk!

Could there be an opportunity to open a " Farm Cafe " in our area? Just imagine the sheer joy on the faces of young kids, when they are allowed to cuddle a little lamb, perhaps be chased by an audibly upset goose, milk a cow, muck out a horse stable and feed a pig...rural bliss is making a comeback.

How cute is this speckled sheep?

Siblings perhaps? They were about to butt heads, but their mum intervened.

In plain sight, yet most merely drive by without noticing them.

Life is simple...

Biggi

Gosh, April Is Almost Over And May Is Here!

Nature accompanies the changing seasons with aplomb.

A mauve cloak in its proper setting...the greens lend it more hue.

The barn doors seem to form the best background for most of nature's stars. A simple twig of a branch, yet rather amazingly nice...

This street sign in the middle of our vineyards always makes me smile...and of course look over my shoulder for a moose sighting!

The hidden sheep...those little dears that went for a walk the other day...

" I hope she didn't see me! "

" Is she still looking at us? "

Another road through the forest and to think that only a month or so ago, there were no leaves to be seen. In fact one could see a deer a mile away!

All roads lead to us! When Bob and I walked home another route altogether, I took this photo to perhaps send to a friend who is a mountain bike enthusiast...maybe he will see it here.

To end off, a typical Kellerstöckl seen in our area. Vineyards all around and a gentle curve in the road...the road of life!

Biggi

Bob Mows The Lawns And Has The Most Amazing Fun.

Living in the country always guarantees lovely surprises.

I knew I should have gone with Bob yesterday, when he set off to mow a few lawns. That inner voice told me that excitement was ahead ( not only Bob in shorts ) but alas I refused to listen and rather heeded the siren call of a housewife and cleaned the bathroom! Never again, I tell you...

Bob came home after lunch and told me what I had missed. He had been mowing the grass along one of the Kellerstöckl and when he looked up to wipe his brow, he thought he was hallucinating. There, cool as cucumbers were two sheep meandering down the tarred road. Side by side and almost like normal tourists.

As luck would have it, my Mum was in the vineyards and Bob got her attention to show her these delightful newcomers. My Mum, quick as anything put two and two together and phoned a neighbouring sheep farmer. It turned out that these sheep had been sold to one of our villagers and of course Mum knew him too.

After a few comical minutes phoning about, the new owner showed up to lead home the stray sheep. Imagine the excitement of cars careering down our roads, in search of a few errant sheep. Oh darn, I wish I could have been part and helped lead one of the sheep back.

But these new shepherds still have a bit to learn about the ingenuity of sheep! Bob, had gone to a different Kellerstöckl to mow that lawn, and was privy to the next installment of this sheep saga. Oh yes, one sheep had done a runner and had energized almost everyone to scramble all over the forest, looking for it.

Once all the hide & seekers have been found, a new paddock will see them grazing and looking mighty pretty. These sheep, as far as I can gather are the new producers of goat cheese for one of the local eateries.

Quizzy as I am, I will make sure my walk this morning leads me passed the sheep-paddock! When I did the to-be-expected cooing yesterday:

" Oh how cute, I want sheep for our yard too! "

the master of the house informed me that our fences would be a walk in the park for ingenious sheep.

Farm animals must be the coolest thing ever and in our future I see a few horses, cows, sheep and perhaps a pig or two. Oh yes Bob, our hitherto tranquil mornings will then be taken up by mucking out stables and feeding the crew.

Life in our village is tops!

Biggi

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