Shieling Farmers

Today, the Gumuns family runs Karl-Tövåsen’s shieling. The family took over the operation in 2006.

Tin first came to the farm in the summer of 1992 to help Gunnar and Ingrid Sandh with the farming. Tin came back many summers after that. When Ingrid and Gunnar Sandh handed over responsibility for the shieling to the Gumuns family, they had worked there for 35 years. The shieling has no electricity, so there is a diesel-powered electricity plant for the milking machines. However, there is running water, which comes from a spring 200 metres above the shieling. The difference in altitude is so big that it creates pressure, which results in running water. It is a safe water source that has never run dry, which is fortunate, as many litres of water are used on the farm.

On the way to the shieling, there are signs warning of cows on the road. Expect to meet some of the farm animals wandering along the road. Cows, horses and sheep are free to roam the forest during the day in search of food, and they very much feel the road is theirs. Other animals, pigs, calves, and chickens are confined in pastures around the farm. But at night, all animals are locked in barns and stables. This is to protect them from predators such as bears and wolves, which can harm them or scare them away from the farm. Bears have been living near the shieling for ages, but the threat from the wolf is more recent, and seeing their tracks can be a bit scary. The neighbouring farm, Gälsgården, has lost several of its sheep to wolves in the last three years. That is a cause for concern.