Salt for Goats

For the second year running, in an attempt to reduce the amount of helicopter traffic, our local community organized 'La Foulée du Sel'.  Along with about 50 other 'sherpas', Rémi and I helped carry up 400 kg of salt up to the alpage and summer grazing grounds for goats and sheep.
We were joined in our efforts by Papy Bob (my father in law), Tatalow (Natalie my S.I.L) and a little later on, Léo - my nephew.  He turned up just at the right time, when Rémi, after a one hour sprint up hill (he though it was a race!) was starting to 'whine'.

the children each got 1 kg of salt to carry, the adults a little more...

the only way is up! and up... 950 vertical meters

then up some more!

Léo & Rémi

Papy Bob, who, after carrying his bag of salt all the way up, forgot to drop it off and carried it all the way back down again! by the way I forgot to mention that he is 79 yrs, and fit as a fiddle - two fiddles even!!

The alpage is a new building as the original was beyond repair, but the cheese cave, where all the dairy products are stored, until being brought down to Chamonix, dates back to 1811.

Alpage du Pendant

electricity free fridge

The major problem they have here is water!  up until recently water was drawn from the glacier melt via a system of cleverly hidden pipes.  Unfortunately the glacier is shrinking, to the extent that it is impossible to make laying more pipes a viable option.  They have a rain water storage tank but this year are having difficulty filling it.  Every year approximately the same volume of water falls on the alps but not always at the same period, thus for the moment the alpage has no reserve of water for the coming summer months.  So we may soon find ourselves as water carriers, maybe all that salt wasn't such a good idea after all!

Long long ago before wax paper, the shepherds used these leaves to wrap the cheese.  I bet the health and sanitary people would break out in hives if they did that kind of thing these days!

they also make good hats!

Finally we met up with the 'working gals' who had come over from another mountain, where they had spend the spring.

And well, how cute is this sheep dog!

puppy love!