When distant bells aren't distant anymore.

Yesterday, while I was busy in the house (for those of you who like detail - I was cleaning the cooker! I may live in Spain, but I still have the boring things to do!) when there was a sudden commotion from the dogs. Not just my dogs, but the Meerkats and Big Dog too. I ran out of the house to see my 2 off down into the Rambla.


Then I realised that the normal, distant clunk of the goat bells wasn't so distant today. Down on the edge of our land, in the bottom of the Rambla is a section of Almond trees where a lot of grass has grown since the snows have gone, and today Maria had brought her herd to feed on it.

I've met Maria a couple of times, but this was the first time she'd been onto our land. Before, I'd seen her on the hills and heard the clunk of the bells but now, they were close enough for
Brandy & Brinkley to take an interest.

Fortunately, the dogs never go too far, even when curious, and I was able to get them back home before they got anywhere near the herd as I wasn't sure how Maria's dogs would react to ours getting too close. Although B&B could see the herd from the top of the hill, once down in the Rambla, there are too many trees, hills and twists and turns for them to see where they were going and they soon lose interest when they can't see what they were chasing after anymore.

I decided to walk down and have a chat with Maria, as she would be there a while whilst the sheep & goats fed. The black one's are the goats.

As I got closer the 2 goat dogs approached me, barking. They are very protective of the sheep and this was why I was worried about ours getting too close. I called to Maria, who was sat round the back of a large tree, and she called the dogs back. After that, the dogs paid me little attention.

Having chatted about the weather, which is good at the moment, and a few other pleasantries, I asked Maria what she does with the herd. She told me that every 5 months she sells a couple of the sheep for meat, someone from the local slaughterhouse comes for them.

The goats are for milk which is then made into goat's cheese - queso de cabra.

She told me she didn't realise they were on our land but I said it wasn't a problem as long as she stayed on the far end where it was unlikely our dogs would go, unless I was with them. After all, if the sheep don't eat the grass I'll have to do something about it - and that means work for me. No, let the sheep have it.

Hopefully, she felt welcome enough to bring the sheep again, when the grass has had time to grow some more.