August 4

​Since our midsummer party there is a change in our daily rhythms. What is entering into our routine is the beginning of the preparation for the return journey from the high pastures.

The big change is that a start is made on the culling of the herds – the decisions that have to be made about how much of the herd is to be overwintered and which animals are judged too weak or old to be worth maintaining.
 
My friend tells me that most of the culling is done after the herds are brought down from the pastures. But a start is made on the weakest and oldest animals. The reason is that up here the meat and sausages can be preserved for the winter by air drying.

I join in gathering reeds from the lake and gullies on which the meat will be laid out for drying.
 
When it comes to the air-drying of the meat and the making of sausages I am hopeless. Even though I grew up near here, I have become totally used to seeing meat in supermarket packages completely detached from any relationship with a living animal. Up here I suddenly see the slaughtering of animals up close.

​I wash their intestines in the lake for the sausage casings. My own attempts at stuffing them for sausages only produces laughter. I am told that it is time for me to take Great Grandmother for her daily walk.