My love for the sheep

Summer coats...

The Urbonas

This summer has been long and days have gone quickly. Today began autumn, it seems with a heavy storm from the sea. One thing that occupied me during this summer except building and being a mamma manager was art. I took part in a contemporary art project here in the archipelago by assisting Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas, Lithauen/Boston, in their Uto-Pia. It was about sheep, archipelago, connections. Last Sunday was a thrilling symposium in an old bunker, in at least 3-stores in a mountain here in Korppoo, where I was asked to tell my feelings about this art project, living in the archipelago and especially about sheep.

When moving here we had seen our small farm as a possibility to become partly self-sufficient, live near the land, the sea and each other, and perhaps even earn a slice of our incomes. Also the feeling of a living farm and a living village by having animals felt natural. Our first one was Agnes, a stubborn, lovely goat-girl. Our girls sleps with her the first nights in their sleeping-bags to keep her company - she was lonely. So we had to find her friends, 3 sheep of Finnish breed. 

We didn't know much about keeping sheep or goats but learnt by doing with a hand-book in one hand, and I started studing agriculture at school. These animals couldn't be eaten up: they were named after my husband's great-aunts... So having Aunt-Salli and Aunt-Alli in our freezer, no! They are pets, companions and landscape-workers.

Our Valmet, Tuisku the horse, our muminboat and the aunties

We have now learnt how to make bunches of birch dried for the winter. We make presents of their soft lovely wool, and they make me glad running to me - or my bags of dried bread - when calling them with their thick coats swinging from side to side. And we wrestle! I didn't know that the nails had to be cut. So it is almost like a rodea trying to catch my big fat ladies, rolling them on their side with kitchen scissors on one hand. When my little boy hugs the mother sheep she leans on him almost closing her eyes and shaking her tail like a dog; she would then meet even the jeaulous goat with the horns...

In this art project I had the opportunity to meet local sheep amateurs and professionals, and the artists with their world-embracing ideas and cameras were forgotten when everyone wanted to learn how to make cheese of sheep milk. We cooked the milk, took temperature, shaveled, sliced, packed and asked endless questions from our guru, Cecilia Persson from Skimra Gård, Åland. She was smiling, calm and amazing with her exact knowledge - and also an example of a woman who had started her own business, gathered information and sheep all over Europe.

Cecilia 

It was interesting to connect people over the Atlantic Ocean and the Archipelago of Finland. I enjoyed that I was able to tell about my passion for the wild vegetables and herbs that were then used in the cheese that we made.

My herbs from Pellas

Being the one that was asked to assist and help made me also feel myself for the first time an islander. The islanders, I have noticed during our two years, are helpful, warm multi-doers, perhaps a bit strange, but very straight and un-complicated people and I am for sure a wanna-be islander! Even if none of us would become a cheese-maker I am sure we all got a lot of possitive energy meeting each other - and strength to believe in what we are trying to achieve.

More about the Uto-Pia: http://www.vilma.cc/uto-pia/

and especially: http://www.vilma.cc/uto-pia/?category_name=guided-tour-performance