I wake up shortly before eight and roll out of bed. I get dressed and step out of the door into the thick fog that rose overnight from the moor. After a breakfast of tea and muesli (yes, I am a granola eating hippie, why do you ask?) I make my way around the house to the shed where a large bag full of grain and various other seeds is kept. I throw a couple scoops in the general vicinity of the chicken coop, then fill a couple green buckets. I walk back around the house to Heidi’s reliable German three speed bike.

It’s especially foggy today, so I make sure to switch the generator on, and with a bucket hooked over each handle I pedal down the road. The dog, Sunny, is very excited, she wants to go for a run with me! However, I’m the new kid here, so she doesn’t listen to me very well, and tends to run across the road whenever she sees something interesting. I like Sunny, and would rather she not become jam, so I firmly admonish her to “Bleib!”, and I ride on alone.

At the first field, the sheep see me right away, and come running while I switch off the electric fence. These sheep are experienced in the ways of humans - they aren’t afraid of me at all, and they know what the green bucket means. They follow me closely, and I make sure I hold the bucket well above hungry noses as I walk to the plastic and wood tubs scattered around the field. I have to make sure I dump food in quickly, or the sheep stick their heads in while I’m still pouring and get nicely covered in food. I manage to fill all the tubs with minimal grain hairdos, so I switch the fence back on and proceed on to the next field.

There are sheep in four fields, three of which I cycle to, and one of which is right next to the house. Today all the sheep have plenty of green grass and clover left to eat, so we don’t need to move them. Moving them isn’t that difficult: we set up new fences, and then convince the sheep that they’d really rather be where there’s lots of fresh grass to eat. Usually that’s pretty easy, as long as you don’t move too quickly and scare them.

After I’m finished feeding the sheep, Timo (a WWOOFER from Berlin) and I work on making new permanent fencing. Once this is set up, Stephan won’t need to set up new fences and take down the old every time he wants to move the sheep - he’ll just have to open and close a couple doors. Each segment of fence takes a couple hours to complete. The ends are attached to solid posts with wire that’s threaded through a ratcheting mechanism to keep it tight, and then the fencing is nailed to recycled plastic posts placed every few metres along the edge of the field. It’s hard work, but hammering is satisfying, as long as it’s not one of those days I keep hitting my thumb instead of the staple…

Around noon we take a break from making the fence. We head inside for a hearty lunch of tea and bread with delicious local organic cheese and some very local mutton sausage. Over lunch, we discuss the day’s work, and I practise my listening skills while Timo and Stephan talk to each other in rapid German. I’m getting better! I definitely understand more than I did a couple weeks ago.

Today we finish the segment of fence shortly after 14:00. A couple days ago, we had to move the sheep, so we didn’t finish ’til 16:30, but that’s as late as the day’s work goes. In my down time, I sit in the house for a bit and talk to Heidi about the English test she’s giving tomorrow and eat some cake. Then I head back to the new house and read German comics, or knit and write in my journal.

At 20:00 we all get together in the old house to eat the wonderful supper that Heidi has prepared. Today, it’s falling-off-the-bone roasted mutton with tomato sauce and beans. Over supper we watch the news and discuss the day’s events - more practise at listening to fast German. After supper, I stick around to watch an episode of Stargate before heading to bed. Before falling asleep, I listen to the latest Quirky Nomads and finish off my mittens. I fall asleep halfway through the third Final Fantasy track and sleep soundly in the country silence.

Posted in Learning, just one more eurotrip blog |

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