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.
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.
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