Nadine Almer
- Mar 14, 2021
- 3 min read

Day 63-68: Walking, Working & Well-Being

8.3.-13.3.2021

Oh, how time flies. One week gone just like that and I do not even know how to recollect all that has happened this las week. I will pick the most significant things and hopefully do justice to this week's happenings:

I had several lovely walks in this week- first Freyja was accompanying Marjorie and me, the other day Wisp went with us. Every second of these walks was pure joy. Obviously Freyja has been with Marjorie and I before, yet each time I get to know her better and do my best to give her a fun time. Her specialty is water, every kind from the ocean waves to the tiniest pond or the biggest loch. Sarah thinks she might have been placed in the wrong body and initially was meant to be an otter. Her most loved exercise is splashing around in water, diving for stones thrown from the shore by her devoted humans, without limits to her energy she could go on for hours. Wisp, one of the shepherd dogs, was with us for the first time this week too. He and Marjorie had to set their boundaries at first because Wisp is so eager to work, he basically would love to guide everything that is moving, including Marjorie. But after a view snarls and show of teeth, I think he understood that Marjorie won't have it. She went along and did her thing while he stayed by my side, sometimes seemingly distressed that she was daring to just leave the herd, or daring to come back as she pleases. I am in love with getting to know them and really just watching their way of being in this world.

In regard to the polycrub we added several new additions to the seedlings family, including beans (which also includes constructing a DIY bean twines using metal fencing), peas, carrots, kale, pan choi, rosemary and parsnips.

Also Sarah and I perfected the DIY working table and created a shadow board for the needed tools, fixed the gutter which was damaged because of the intense winds and added new floating shelves to be able to have more seedlings bedded inside. A lot of time went into preparing the beds which, full to the brim with top soil, needed to be carefully raked. We are not yet completed but very happy with the progress so far.

Another first for me this week was the moving of the cows to another are. Because the sheep are due to give birth soon, they need every calorie and nourishment they can get. But far too often the cows make their way up to them and eat all of their leftovers which meant they needed to be transferred in order to keep them from getting the feed that belonged to the sheep.

It is kind of challenging because you have to make sure they do not wander off somewhere, all the while keeping them together and preventing each one of them to turn around, because the whole herd would turn around too. This means that you have to sometimes run with a bucket of treats to lure them to you but always stay ahead, only not too far ahead otherwise they would forget about you and your bucket of feed to go find something more interesting, or delicious. But once they have all of their hay and feed and you are able to watch them explore their new environment, it was all worth it.

And also news from the animal front: Our chickens have blessed us with their first two eggs! It has been a long time since we were hoping to have some and now, only two weeks after the arrival of the new hens, the first two eggs were there, right inside our self made nesting box! A pure delight!

An early weekend started for me on Friday after lunch, which only meant one thing: Nature, walks, more nature and more walks. And thanks to the generosity of Sarah and Andrew, I could borrow their electric car and explore. With some wind and clouds passing by here and there, giving space for the sun to shine through now and again, I could not have asked for any more perfection than that. These are some examples of the gloriousness, magnificence, abundance of beauty I was lucky enough to encounter: