Sheep Herding

Betty is a single mother who lives and works on her family's farm that's in a remote valley in the Westfjords of Iceland. She lives there year-round, with only seasonal access to the town because the road to her farm is not maintained by Iceland. Each year she invites anyone willing to help to her farm for the fall herding of the sheep. This year, I was able to participate three times. The first weekend, when most of the herding was done, was a very unique experience. I got to spend Friday night on the farm, building fences, and getting the farm ready for herding the next day. That night, I saw the northern lights for the first time! I was jumping around in my PJs and bare feet at 1:00 in the morning on Betty's front lawn with one of my fellow students from the US. The next day, we woke up bright and early to greet the other herders and get started. Basically, as you can see from the pictures, Betty lives in a giant valley facing the wide open ocean. The valley is probably 4 miles long and we had to hike, run, and herd sheep all the way up one side and down the other. I was SOO sore the next day. All in all it was a great experience and I got to meet a lot of Icelandic people as well as some pretty cool sheep. Hope you enjoy the beautiful pictures!

The beach at Betty´s Farm

Icelandic chickens!! This one is for you Dad...

My roommate Etienne and I in the car with Betty´s sheep dog. Her name is Dríva which is Icelandic for the mist from the snow...

This is Betty with one of her baby sheep that she bottle feeds:

This is a view of the valley that we hiked up and down to gather all her sheep:

All the sheep in the barn at the end of the day. There were about 150 of them!