We stayed one night on a third-generation working sheep farm outside Egilsstaðir on the Gilsá River (“oh yes, there’s fish, but you’d have to make six phone calls to the angling club and pay lots of money” 😠) run by a very friendly older couple. The woman greeted us at the door, took us down to the barn to feed orphaned lambs, and shared her family’s history of clearing the land of rocks, planting grass, baling hay, raising and gathering the sheep each season, and their efforts to reforest some of the property. Very informative and good to be back in contact with the land instead of rolling past it.
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| The winter barn where they keep their 200 sheep from about November-April |
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| Most sheep have two lambs, but this year 16 ewes had triplets (!) so they separate the ones that are being neglected and bottle feed them. One ewe had four lambs but is apparently coping just fine… |
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| Hay is completely wrapped against the weather and each bale is about 850# |
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| The right tool! |
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| Our SouTex cattle would simply think they’d died and gone to Heaven! |
Every farmer ear tags their sheep before releasing them in the Spring. The sheep wander into the hills, along the streams or roads throughout the summer. Then, in the fall they do the big round up and sort, using dogs, horses, and trailers. Kinda like Texas cattle round ups. Except they have about a millennia of experience on us…and no longhorns!
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| Not so much of a working dog that he doesn’t appreciate a good head scratching! |
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