In summer the sheep are released for free range grazing in the mountains and highlands, of course all the sheep get mixed up and at fall they are rounded up and herded into a central corral where all the farmers come and select their sheep and place in pens to then take to the barns for winter, this is called Réttir.
Ross and Olga arrive in Iceland on Thur 16th Sept just in time for them to help Olga's uncle in the second Réttir for the season. Ross really enjoyed it the last time and is very much looking forward to picking up where he left off, he seemed to have a natural ability which impressed the uncle who was surprised that Ross did not come from a farming background. My daughter-inlaw Olga has a good description and explanation of the 2008 event here and I am sure more photos will pop up on her blog after they have joined in all the fun again this year.
This video demonstrates the herding of the sheep into the central corral.
This one shows a farmer in the central corral selecting his sheep and dragging to his pen.
Hey Vicki, the main event was last Saturday and so we headed up to help sort sheep. ended with one of the sheep sorting me out. I sustained an injury to my right knee - tendons are probably stretched so will go back to the doc again next week. This means though that I miss out on going on horseback next weekend with Olga and Ross - bummer.... Still that means I will take more photos and perhaps get around to writing my blog....
ReplyDeleteJust watched the second video....did you see Olga at the end - to the right of the screen. the video was taken by some friends of Benni and Betta (my uncle Andres' daughter) that went with them on the first roundup last year... Benni was the one taking the sheep and the people standing around the gate were my uncles and aunt... Iceland... so related.
ReplyDeleteThanks I didn't realise Olga was in this one....just went back and had a look and I think half of Ross's head slides passed the camera at 0.09.
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