Tuesday, September 13, 2011

I Heard Sheep (based on a true story).

Once upon a time there was a very patient Norwegian girl and a very curious American girl.
The Norwegian girl's family owned a flock of sheep and each summer they let them roam in a huge area in the woods near their house. When fall came, they had to go and collect all the sheep and bring them home again for the winter.
Now, it was early September and the autumn winds were beginning to blow down the valley. Fall was here and slowly some sheep were starting to show up at the gate on their own, however not all of them. At different times, family members or neighbors would take a hike through the woods and listen for the clank-clunk of the sheep bells through the trees. When they heard it, the would follow the sound and then chase the sheep back home to the farm.
Now, the American girl had never done anything like this before and she was very interested in going sheep-hunting. The one major problem was that she was not familiar with the woods surrounding the house, so it would be very easy for her to get lost. The patient (and kind I should add) Norwegian girl had grown up searching for her family's sheep, so she was very accustomed to wandering in the forest. Together they were the perfect team!
When they set off on their adventure, it was raining a little bit, but they didn't mind because they were protected by the trees. Almost immediately they came upon nine sheep in the woods, but they were accompanied by the farmer himself, and one of his trusty sheep dogs. Since they were almost home, he offered the dog to his daughter, but she said she should be OK because she had the American girl to help her. The American girl promised to try her best to be as helpful as the dog was.
The Norwegian girl decided it would be fun if the American girl led their search, she agreed. So they wandered, and wandered...
And wandered...
They pushed their way through bushes and tree branches. The Norwegian girl was much better at maneuvering through the maze of sicks and across the uneven landscape than the American girl was. Eventually their wandering brought them to a place in the woods that seemed like a better area for moose than sheep.
So they moved on.
After a long time of walking, they started thinking more and more often that they heard bells, but it was in their head.
They came to a very steep drop off. It looked out over some trees and up to the hill near the farm.
"Were those bells? No maybe not.. Wait, I heard it again! We found sheep!!"
It was sheep number 19 and her two lambs (the correct number, annotated by the color of the tag on her bell). How exciting!
The two girls strategically moved around the sheep in order to chase them down the hill to the road at the bottom. As soon as the sheep came to the road, they started running up the hill on the other side. The Norwegian girl chased after them to try to get them back down to the road where the American girl was waiting to make sure they didn't go up the other side again.
As the American girl was waiting on the road, watching the four others weave through the trees up on the hill she heard something. She looked and all of a sudden two more sheep came charging around the corner and stopped dead in their tracks. They looked at her, she looked at them. She stepped towards them; they stared. She knew they were going away from the farm so she needed to turn them around.
She took another step.
They bolted up the hill to join the three other sheep. A neighbor man was with those two, so he followed them up the hill. Eventually all five sheep were down on the road and headed in the right direction, trailed closely by the three humans.
Finally the trio got them to the gate. However, getting them through the gate proved harder than expected. After chasing them for a few minutes, finally the Norwegian girl managed to convince them to go through the gate. 
Success!!
Five more sheep were happily and safely home for the winter.
The end.
Fantastisk!

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Siblings Already

Siblings Already
These are pictures that I found of my host brother on facebook compared to pictures of myself (from facebook). It looks like we're going to get along pretty well :D