A successful start to lambing yesterday. I fed the sheep with hay and was about to refill their water buckets. As the weather is still fairly mild I can still get water from the beck which meanders behind one of the sheep sheds.

 My mind wasn't on lambing, it was on the balance act with two buckets of water which had to be manoeuvredalong the side of the beck on the slippery uneven slope. If I spill water it is just twice as slippery next time! 
 But there was a sheep bleating in the shed. Now at this time of year all the sheep should have had their noses deeply tucked into the fine hay I had just fed to them. A sheep in the shed meant lambing season had begun.
And sure enough, a fine little boy who had allready found the lamb bar.
 

 Time goes so quickly. Often I have been on the verge of writing something in this blog but shyed away, till not knowing how to start.
I am normally not keen on New Year Resolutions but this time I have made one. I am going to be more diligent and get this blog moving.
   This winter has started differently. Until now there has been no winter. A few snowflakes now and then. Temperatures aroung freezing point. But this evening the snow has come. I have flocks of sheep in three different locations in the village. Here are the ones that greet me every morning when I go out of the house. These are Spelsau-the rugged Norwegian breed. A little, even a lot of snow, doesn't bother them. Just as long as I keep the hay coming.

My farm, Långbacken comprises of about 20 acres of pasture and brush and 45 acres of high bogs and woodland

The woodland is mostly birch, pine and fir.   Normally I am busy in cutting down birch trees in the autumn and the spring so as the logs can season redy to keep me warm during the following winter.This year I have managed to prepare enough firewood this autumn.

  The autumn has been good to us. No uexpected surprises. We have had sun every day for a monthe and very little night frost. It means that preparing for winter has been a pleasant experience for once.
 There is , however, plenty to do.
 The fences that have kept the nipper outers in, have to be rolled up and taken in. The snow is often higher than the fence posts here (about three feet) and it would be dangerous for snow scooters if I left the wire out. Most of my pastures are fenced in with temporary wire. As I have mentioned, I am regrazing land that has been abandoned for half a century so I need to move my stock often to be sure they have sufficient nourishment. Sometimes I think I walk more than they do!
 The spools I use have about 400 metres of plastic "string" with 9 copper and stainless steel threads woven inso I can send an electric charge through.

400 x 5 strands, no, do I count 6 on the right hand side of the picture?
 
I do not want to work it out! 

 
We have gravel roads in Söderhögen and Nederhögen.

When the snow starts falling it keeps falling.  On each side of the road there is a very deep gutter to take the surplus water from the melting snow in the spring.
 Because of this everyone in the villages put up branches along the road side so that vehicles know where the road is in a heavy snow shower. This is one of the farms that is only occupied during the summer months so the owner was out in september with his sticks.

Well, Hello everyone. 

   I am finding it difficult to start this blog- I mean, where does one start?
Does anyone read a blog?
And what do they (if they do) want to read about?
 
  For several years I have been reluctant to write a blog, mainly because I don't like the word "blog". It sits in my stomach like the roley-poley pudding and cold clumpy custard we sometimes were served at the school canteen.
But, I have taken the plunge and opened my farm to the public through my website so now I will try to learn to swim in the Blog world.

 The only thing I know a lot about is what I do every day so I presume that is a shark free area to begin.

 For the last 4 years I have been living in this remote village in central Sweden.
My days turn around the daily management of my 70 acre farm and the forests around it.

We have had a long, warm, gentle autumn this year and I have been making the most of it. As we are only two farmers with animals in the village, I have hundreds of acres of grass at my disposal, far too much for my sheep and horses to eat. When the grass is not eaten shrubs begin to grow. 95% of the fields were abandoned when I moved here. Longbacken itself had not been grazed for 50 years, but luckily the pastures had been rented out for hay making. On other farms shrubs have engulfed the grassland, in the worst areas trees are growing on land which was once  used for vegetables and grain.
 
  A hundred or more sheep eat a lot of grass and on fields that have not been grazed, this grass is very sparse and of poor quality. Imagine, if you have a pot plant which is rangly and just growing upwards as one long shoot. To make it bush out and become more vigorous you nip out the center.

My sheep are nipper outers! They nip down the grass, add manure in the form of their dropping and thereby inprove the pasture. They are ,in fact nipper outers in more than one way. They are very inclined to nip out of the fence I have put them in if they think the grass is greener on the other side.