Iceland in Pictures

Watch out for the sheep when you drive around Iceland. In Iceland all of the sheep roam free in the summer. In late spring, soon after the lambs are born, the farmers take the sheep up into the mountains and set them free. Throughout the whole summer the sheep take care of themselves. As autumn comes all the farmers in a given area go together on horseback up into the mountains and round up the sheep. They are then sorted at an event called “réttir”. If you are a farmer, then this event is the highlight of the year, as it involves copious amounts of alcohol.

But really do be careful on the roads. The sheep often hang around on the roads licking salt of the road. If you see a mother sheep on one side and her lambs on the other, then it is guaranteed that they are going to run to their mother with no regard of the consequences.

(Source: mentalmaelstrom, via definitely-high-flying-deactiva)

Blue Sheep in Iceland

Drivers in Iceland have often been startled by sheep running across the road. Sheep run free in Iceland during the summer months often causing some havoc on the roads. However drivers have been slightly more startled by blue sheep in Steingrímsfjörður recently. Are these elf sheep or political sheep?

Sheep are the main product of most Icelandic farms and lamb meat the traditional Icelandic dinner. Farmers have come up with all sorts of tricks in their sheep farming. One problem that sometimes occurs is that the mother sheep denies her lamb, especially if she had two. Somehow feeling that two is one too many she’ll deny one of them milk.

Guðbrandur Sverrisson farmer at Bassastaðir has come up with a solution. Sheep know their lambs from the smell only and are color blind. Somehow he discovered that if he spray paints the whole lamb, he is able to mask its scent. The sheep no longer knows which lamb is which and lets them both drink. He says the paint does no harm and washes off in the first few months out in the mountains.

Of course his neighbors are accusing him of supporting the blue flagged Sjálfstæðisflokkur (Independence Party) political party. To counter this he’s painting some lambs green, the color of Framsóknarflokkurinn (Farmers Party).

The Ram Gang

Photo by Tómas Freyr