pastores . shepherds
A few years ago, we welcomed a flock of six Shetland sheep to our small farm. Our woolly friends have made their way into our hearts. We enjoy sheep behavior and personality and the benefits of having our own source of wool and pasture management. Additionally, our family has developed new traditions and rhythms around caring for our flock… shearing, lambing, moving to summer pastures, trimming hooves. One of our favorite moments is moving the sheep out to the fields in the spring. We open the gate and our kids lead the way, running down the drive, along the dirt road, through a path in the woods which opens to the pasture. The kids can’t stop giggling as they try to keep ahead and the sheep are more than eager to follow them to greener pastures.
Prior to becoming a pastora, I had never really talked about sheep in Spanish in any depth so it has been a fun challenge to learn how to describe the daily sheep ‘goings on’ as well as our various fiber arts endeavors. There is a Spanish language version of Storey’s Guide to Raising Sheep which has been helpful. A resource to use with children is the picture book, Pelle’s New Suit, by Elsa Beskow. The book offers a picture of the traditional process of ‘sheep to garment’ through the experience of a young boy, Pelle (Pedro) and his lamb. After the sheep joined us, I translated our English language version into Spanish to introduce the children to new vocabulary within an authentic story context.
Below are some of the fiber-related terms used in the book (that also mentions several other farm-life moments such as raking hay, pulling weeds, feeding the pigs, etc.):
el cordero - lamb
la lana – wool
las tijeras - shears
esquilar – to shear
cardar – to card
hilar – to spin
la rueca – spinning wheel
teñir la lana – to dye the wool
el tinte - dye
tejer el hilo – to weave the yarn
