McPellas Girls

In the old days cows and sheep kept the islands open but now it has to be planned. We wanted to see that the little island of Svedjeholm that belongs to our farm would look like it used to, 50 years ago.

Entisaikaan karja kuljetettiin kesäisin lähisaariin, ja naisväki sousi niitä sitten lypsämään. Saarten ilme oli avoin ja avara, mutta kasvoi umpeen, kun karjanpito loppui. Pellaksen pieni Svedjeholm oli sellainen saari, jonne kesähommiin hankimme seitsemän uutta uuhta, lammasneitoa. 

So we bought seven new sheep but before they could arrive we had to fix the fence. Here the land is still rising after the Ice Age and that's way our island has grown together with the neighbouring island.

Sitä ennen piti laidun aidata, sillä maankohoamisen vuoksi oli meidänkin Svidi kasvanut kiinni viereiseen saareen. Työtä riitti moneksi päiväksi, ja mukava naapurintäti lupasi pitää silmällä uusia kesäasukkaita ja hälyyttää hätiin, jos aita ei pidä. Uimaan ehdiittin kuitenkin aina, ja ruokaa laittaa, että työ maistui.

It was a lot of work and many island days before we could start planning the arrival of the summer workers.

Kesäkuun alussa haimme uuden katraan, joka saapui Korpoströmin satamaan Nauvosta ja pääsi nyt kesän viettoon autiolle saarelle mukanaan suolakivi ja sääsuoja.

Our new workers came from the island of Nauvo and are of the Finnish landrace. One of the dark brown ones took the leading possition, was alert and clever. We named her Michelle.

Porukasta erottui heti fiksu ja toimelias uuhi, jonka nimesimme Michelleksi kuuluisan esikuvan mukaan.

Of course we had to stay overnight, too and visiting the island to count the sheep gave us a good reason for a swim & picnic at least twice a week.

Ensimmäinen yö uudessa kesätyössä, pitihän meidän jääda seuraksi, ja sitten saimme hyvän syyn uintiretkeen pari kertaa viikossa koko kesän. Lampaat piti laskea, ja samalla ihastella työn jälkeä.

Nyt alkaa saari olla parturoitu ja aika palata kylälaitumelle, kotiin. Se onkin sitten ihan oma juttunsa se!

Time to start planning the moving to the village, they've done a good job and there isn't much left to eat. But that will be a whole new story!

Sheep and Aunts

   Tätejä ja lampaita

Isotädit Alli ja Salli Turusta saapuivat joka kesä kuin pääskyset kylän höyrylaivalaituriin, ja heidän pienessä mökissään meren rannalla sai teetä niin paljon kuin yhdestä liptonista irtosi. Neideistä muistuttaa kalasumppu kalliomännyn juurella ja meidän lampaamme. Alli on se järkevä ja rauhallinen äitityyppi ja Salli vähän säikky ja hysteriaan taipuvainen - aivan kuin esikuvansa.

 

 

Great-aunts Alli and Salli from Turku arrived with the old Östern to the steamship pier of Rumar Village like swallows after the winter. They were built a tiny cottage by the beach where you could get as much tea as you liked from a tea-bag. Already a third generation after them enjoys summers at the cottage and we remember the ladies when  we see their old fish well under the pine. And of our sheep. Alli is the sensible one, a calm mother-type and Salli is a bit shy and hysterical - as their paragons.

Salli

Alli at the hair-dresser's last spring

Lampaat muuttivat vanhaan talliin suomenvuohi Agneksen kaveriksi, mutta Agnes on pomo, jonka kanssa ei kaveerata. Totteleminen riittää. Suuren yhteisen karsinan korkeutta piti kasvattaa Agneksen ketteryyden vuoksi. Muuten talli kelpasi lampolaksi. Syksyksi seinät suditaan kalkkivellillä  - vanha konsti, joka myös puhdistaa. Kullankeltainen puolimetrinen olkipatja muheutuu, maatuu ja lämmittää. Kuiviketta lisätään niin, että itsekin kelpaisi kelliä kostumatta. Puhdasta vettä ja suolakivi heinän kyytipojaksi. Lampaat ja vuohet ovat sillä tavalla helppoja, mutta se, mikä on pahasta, ovat veto ja kosteus.

 

Our sheep moved in to keep company to the Finnish goat  Agnes but Agnes is a born leader, she doesn't need company, she wants a flock to rule. The old stable became their home and it didn't need much renovation. Every summer the walls are painted with a lime paint which makes the stable white and also disinfects. Half a metre straw mattress and new straws every week to keep the surfice dry, clean water and a salt stone with hay - and we have happy sheep! There are two things to avoid in a sheep barn, humidity and draught.

Agnes, the film star 2012 at Archipelago High Way...  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMzkrRqiF3I&list=PL0680D11B3FE7BDBC

Saariston lampoloissa huipentuu tulevina viikkoina odotus. Valvotaan öitä karitsoja vartoen. Niistä meillä vasta haaveillaan, sillä ensin tarvitaan jälkikasvulle tilaa. Lammaskerho, johon meidät harrastelijatkin on otettu avosylin, retkeili taannoin tutustumassa rakentamistapoihin. Näimme erilaisia ratkaisuja ja kuulimme jopa kasvihuonelampaista. Suurin haaste kaikissa oli, miten pitää ilma raittiina ilman vetoisuutta. Terve järki, olemassaolevien rakennusten hyödyntäminen uusrakentamisen rinnalla sekä mielikuvitus olivat parhaat työkalut. Luonnollinen ilmanvaihto kävi ratkaisuksi luovasti soveltaen lampoloissakin. Alkoi kutkuttaa, mitähän meidän vanhasta navetasta syntyisi.

At the sheep barns of our archipelago the coming weeks are exciting. The new baby lambs are born soon. We are still just dreaming of them because we would need a new barn with more space before we could get some company for our spinsters. Even if we are amateurs with our little flock we were warmly wellcomed to the local Sheep Club and took part in a trip to visit the other farmers. We were shown different kind of solutions and heard even of sheep living in an old green house. It was interesting and inspiring and great to see the spirit and support to each other in the Club. KnowSheep project has given en extra energy for the local farmers and besides trips organized courses in all the possible themes useful for sheep owners. 

 

A family sheep farm in Nauvo

 

A bit bigger farm of Westankärr Gård http://www.westankarr.fi/

Kun aamulla avaan lampolan oven, ja lauma seuraa Agnesta ulos kerpulle, on se molemminpuolista mielenvirkistystä. Katraani märehtii ja havainnoi sulavia hankia, minä saan lanoliinit talvikuiviin sormenpäihini rapsutellessani näitä vihreän hoivan personal trainereitani. Oppisi siellä lammaskerhossa muutakin, kuten miten kehrätty lanka värjäytyy ja maito juoksettuu juustoksi. Makkarakurssin yli kuitenkin hypättiin, kun tuli niitä isotätejä muistettua. Ehkä uuden unelmalampolan asukeista tuleekin sitten Pihvi ja Paisti niin kuin hurtein lapsista jo alunperin koitti ehdottaa.

Every morning summer or winter my flock is let to come and go as they please in and out of the stable. We often stand nowadays and watch the snow melt, my fury friends enjoy their dried leaves, I get lanolin to my dry finger-tips. It is the best green care to me. It would be possible to learn also to make sausages at the Club, but it is unthinkable of our aunties. Perhaps the future inhabitants of the dream barn should be named Steak and Stew as one of the children tried to suggest in the first place...

http://www.skargardensfarklubb.fi/en/
http://www.knowsheep.eu/index.php?page_id=1

Every now and then...

Every now and then we cross the bridge over to Wattkast island and village north of the main island.

During summer we fetch tomatoes and vegetables from the local green houses and in the autumn delicious apples.

This it is the fairway north of Korppoo island.

At winter-time you can see a grey heron by the salmon nets. 

The bridge is not very old, built in 2004, and before that you had to wait for the small ferry to get over.

The sign says it all...

To keep the many deer off the apple yards there must be a fence around the fields. The apple trees in their winter sleep are cut with a hard hand to concentrate on growing a good harvest - beautiful in their winter sleep.

In Wattkast there is also our favourite farm Nystu Kött where we get all the meat that we then enjoy in our table. Big cattle and Finnish sheep are grazing at the near-by meadows, the rushes and taken to the smaller islands for the summer pastures. They are keeping the old landscape open and enjoy the freedom of free graze. And the meat is fabulous, more like game in its taste.

In the middle of the village there is the may-pole and the stables where you can get riding lessons or follow the trail out in the forest. 

We often combine all this on our trip to Wattkast - it is 20 km from our place when our village Rumar is south of Korppoo and Wattkast north.

This beautiful young horse was curious about the visitors and enjoying the sunny hours out with its mother. There are little less than 30 inhabitants at the island but many summer-visitors and cabin owners - and people like us just coming to get some local groceries.

This is a link to an old tv film from the 70's about Wattkast - it was an own municipality then - that can at least be seen here in Finland, but I am not sure how it opens abroad:

http://svenska.yle.fi/arkivet/artikkelit/wattkast_i_augusti_75302.html#media=75306

We are ready, mr Frost!

Tonight it will be frost and almost full moon, so it is time to start with hay and cosy nights at the sheep barn. The sheep and Agnes can during days freely graze at the field and try to find the last green.

I have sheared Alli and Salli - still Suklaa left - and got lots of nice soft wool for fulling something for x-mas present. It is always a bit slow project because I have only my kitchen scissors...

Beside our tractor Valmet there is Tuisku, a Norvegian fjord horse

Laara the Dog was helping me to keep Agnes away from the hay barn where I keep my dried branches - she loves them and would eat my whole winter storage!

The sheep barn got a new layer of dried peat underneath and a thick madress of straws above of it. Agnes approved her new bedroom...

Silent November evening

We have been enjoying many warm, windless days now and decided to burn the branches the sheep had already eaten. It was a beautiful calm evening and the fog started to first appear near our home-forest and then to creep nearer across the fields. 

The sheep were curious but Agnes the Goat was careful and stayed beside Isak. 

It has been so warm that the sheep and Agnes have been able to find grass from the field but soon it is time to start with the dried hay after the first frosty nights. They have waken up early - so when I get up and start to light the oven at the kitchen I can see them wandering in the field, though Agnes has also eaten all my herbs and the green leaves of vegetables.

Although the sheep have high respect on Agnes there is one thing that mother sheep Alli is ready to defend and that is Isak. 

The sun was setting and the old granary had fallen asleep. We have no lamps outside yet except old oil-lamps and lanterns - we light them every evening not to get lost on our way home, to dry-toilet or to the old sauna. And then everyone has his own headlamp...