A day in the life of a shepherd, urban

Nicholas De Rosa

Nicholas De Rosa

Tuesday, 1 August 2017 11:52

UPDATE
Tuesday, 1 August 2017 11:37

Look at this article

The idea of the return to the earth is quite trendy among young city-dwellers like me, I said to myself that the best way to get closer to nature by making the least possible effort would be to spend time with the sheep-mowers of the park, Lafond.

Friday morning, I arrived without waiting in front of the sheepfold temporary of Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie in jeans and a t-shirt, my uniform, as usual. It was 25 degrees.

I thought I’d just take a first contact with the shepherds before you have to beg the City to accompany them in their daily lives, but the instigator of this project of the eco-grazing, Marie-Ève Julien-Denis, has graciously agreed to take me under his wing for the day. This is surely my legendary charm that has convinced

Nicholas De Rosa

The shepherdess, Marie-Ève Julien-Denis and his colleague, Mathyas Lefebure

“The role of a shepherd, it’s really just to ensure that all the sheep are well. This is not complicated, you’ll see”, me-t-it is assured from the outset. My pastoral life was about to begin and I was very excited.

More popular than Formula E

At 9: 50 am, twenty people, young or old, expect the sheep to the sheep-fold, ten minutes before the doors open. Kid in Montreal seems a lot more popular than thought.

After you have moved the barriers, which will form the temporary enclosure of the day, Marie-Eve is approaching the small crowd that has formed in the park. “WHO WANTS TO SEE SHEEP?”, she says in a rain of cries of approval. I feel like in a daycare.

She opens the door and the ten animals are moving quickly towards the pen, without a problem. The day begins for real.

Nicholas De Rosa

I thee a shepherd

At 10.20 am, it is time for me to accomplish the first true task of my shift. Marie-Eve asked me to bring water to the sheep busy grazing on the lawn of the parc Lafond. When I looked, I see in their bucket of water a few balls that seem to be manure.

“Yeah. It is a little weird, but this is normal,” says Marie-Ève. The fact that sheep have the ability to drink water to flavour fertilizer is the first thing I learned that day.

I then brought a large block of salt to my new four-footed friends. It would seem that it is used for water retention. I was wondering if they would eat something else from the day, but I then recalled that they had a buffet of grass at their disposal and that they were herbivores.

Nicholas De Rosa

I want to be a sheep. It has the air relax a bit.

Cigarette #1

It is the time of smoking the first tope of the day. Like me, Marie-Eve smokes John Player King Size. We can therefore say that it is the cigarette an official of the shepherds.

It is at this point that I am trying to have more information on my tasks. It’s not that I don’t like it, but I’m just surprised by the fact that my shift boils down to watching people and sheep of doing nothing. I am a blue collar rural.

“It is not bad that, but it must be there if ever anything happens to the sheep, to answer questions of visitors and, most importantly, manage the public,” she said between two puffs.

Apparently, several young visitors have fun get to eat the beasts from below of the barriers that form the enclosure. This can lead to leaks of sheep, so it is necessary to remind them to stop what they are doing all day long.

I was a little disappointed because I wanted to manage animals and not children, but life goes on.

Child care facilities

If you think that I full of adventures to tell you, you’re wrong. I spent most of my time to smoke, say to the cursed kids day camps and daycare to stop feeding the sheep below the pens (I love them anyway) and answer questions from the public on the project.

Nicholas De Rosa

“Is it that she is pregnant?”

“No, she gave birth a month ago and half of the little white, in fact.”

“They must be hot.”

“The wool conducts heat, so it helps to stay cool. This is not the same thing as wearing a coat.”

“The turf city is it bad for them?”

“No, Montreal has even prohibited pesticides there are about five years old. It is even more secure than some places in the countryside.”

I became a real expert on sheep urban over of the day. When I wasn’t trying to be an educator, it was a real pleasure to watch the little creatures at work, take the sun and talk about everything and nothing with Marie-Eve.

Of the action

Always with Marie-Eve, I got the manure and made the water of the sheep to 13h. Although the smell was not among the most enjoyable, I enjoyed working with this poo poo in the form of cranberry with my gloved hands.

Nicholas De Rosa

I said goodbye to the armchair in the afternoon, when his colleague Mathyas Lefebure came to take over. He told me how he has dropped to settle in France and become a shepherd in the thirties.

From time-to-time, the sheep have escaped from the paddock in the afternoon, mainly because of the children. The first time, I panicked, but Mathyas explained to me that he only had to work around them and attract them to the fence with “of the drug lasts” (barley).

Eventually, I concluded with the shepherd volunteer who is arriving at the same time that Mathyas (sorry, I forgot your name, but you were cool) that let people feed the animals as well as they thought good gave us the job, so we let them do it.

At the end of the day, we did a second round of pick-up of droppings, which was just as fun as the first (hello doctor? I’m doing well?). We left the sheep to wander in the wild for a few minutes, the children told them bye-bye, then they were drawn into the fold using the drug lasts.

Nicholas De Rosa

Back to the earth

It would be too long to summarize all the conversations existential that I had with Marie-Eve and Mathyas, but what I can say is that I spent a Friday fort memorable.

The idea to make like Mathias and find myself alone on a mountain with a hundred and fifty times more sheep that the park I even crossed the mind. Farewell, the hassles of everyday life! This would be so beautiful.

Oh, and I’ve taken a severe sunburn, but I was not too bothered.