Today we got it right and my mum and me met 3 of the Icelandic Yuletide Lads. The others were for sure doing some nonsense elsewhere. Probably fishing for dried fish or trying to get their brother Stúfur into his annual bath.
There's always a lot of fun, song and happiness around these guys and so, after introducing themselves to my mum, they invited her to join in, sing and dance with them and the other people there.
We both enjoyed our visit and of course took some pics as a memory.
In the evening we were invited over to Hulda's place to have Skata (fermented stingray), which is traditionally eaten the day before Christmas. Actually tastes better than it smells.

 

 

 

My mum is going to stay with us over Christmas and a good part of January. As she likes the Icelandic Yuletide Lads quite a lot, we decided to visit them today at their home at Lake Mývatn. Unfortunately we didn't get the time right and they were already busy doing some mischief when we arrived. So we maybe try again tomorrow. Instead we had a look at the geothermal area at Hverarönd, which was really impressiv in such cold weather.
Afterwards we showed my mum how traditional Icelandic Leafbread is made and after a short instruction, we all had fun cutting patterns and frying the bread.

 

 

 

 

Our horses are still on holiday and we used the good weather to check them out. The youngsters are in our fence close to Húsavík, the others at Ísólfsstaðir. They are all looking very well and definitely have enough to feed on. Couldn't see that List has lost any weight... 

 

 

 

Schlumbergeria hybrids, better known as Christmas or Holiday cacti have always been in my family, my grandma had at least 2 huge ones, my grandad had a few and I had a big one and some smaller in Austria. Of course I had to get one when I moved to Iceland and luckily Ingólfur's parents had one and I got a cutting, which already started to flower before I had even put it in a pot. Well, since then I got a few more and of course different colours. There's red, pink, whitish-pink, white and 2 shades of yellow and a few fellows still denying to flower, so I have no clue which colour they are. But those flowering at the moment had a small photoshooting today.
I definitely recommend you to get one of those easy to care for fellows, such a beauty when in flower and the plant itself is decorative, too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Dragontree had, again, reached the ceiling and it was time to do something about it before moving it to a new pot. So we fetched the big clippers and in no time, the tree was felled, cut in pieces (2 went into a vase to try and let them take root) and the wound sealed. Now we have to wait and see what nature is going to do about this and hope for one or better two new stems from the old one. Keep your fingers crossed!
In the next days the tree will be repotted and get a narrower and deeper pot on wheels. Will be easier for us to move it around.

 

 

 

Now all our horses are on holiday, none of them inside or in training. Fönix and Svípur got their freedom back today after their basic training. Fönix did very well, so much fun to work with him. Alltogether he was with a rider about 5 times, which we thought enough for him as he did everything we asked him for. Fönix shows both clearbeat tölt and trott with a rider, which is much more than we dared to hope straight away. He gives his rider a very good feeling, not scared of things or sounds, always with at least one ear at his rider listening what to do next. Hope he'll stay that way.
Svípur isn't as far as Fönix, but was already mounted and did that very well. He's a bit more sensitive and reminds me a lot of Sigtýr.
Well, these two joined Gísli's mares Hrauna and Herðubreið and our youngsters in the field and will have a long holiday now.
Of course we checked on our other horses and visited those at Ísólfsstaðir. They are having a great time there as the last storm, when it started snowing like crazy here, blew away nearly all snow you saw on the last pics from there. So they are in horsey paradise with tons to eat and none of them has missed a single gram of fat I'd say (at least not my horses...). 
Last but not least we moved the big watertrough at the big field so we'd be able to close the gate to the upper fence when neccessary. Not much snow there either, so these horses are not being fed additionally at the moment as there's still a lot of grass there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today was the annual christmasmarket the local sportsclub organises and we had, like the last years, ordered a place to sell handwork for Ingólfur's dad and ourselves. So the last days we were busy with preparing and finishing the things we wanted to take with us. Of course our foodexperiments with the filet of mouton and the sausages were part of it. Ingólfur prepared a lot of different types of confect and baked so called Sörur, which are a very popular kind of filled christmas cookies with chocolate.
There was a lot of beautiful handicrafts like carved and painted wooden birds, knitted jumpers and gloves, beautiful handmade christmascards and a lot more. People came, had a look and stopped to chat, asking about the things we were offering and of course tasting the sausages and filet. Most liked what they tried and quite a few bought pralines, Sörur or meat. In the end Ingólfur had to go and fetch the rest, which we hadn't even packed properly yet. When the market was over, there were 7 of 42 pairs of sausages and 2 small pieces of filet left. Well, I'd say things did really go well today!
And I got myself a beautifuly carved male rock ptarmigan, which will be part of our christmasdecoration.

As winter started with a few days of storm it was time to check on our youngsters in Hagi and think about getting them home. We had a look at them yesterday and some of the fences were already completely covered by snow and it was time to go and fetch them. Unfortunately our trailer was stuck in a snowpile and Bensi's tractor not working as it should. So we made another try today and things worked out very well.
It was easy to catch Snerpa and Rögnir, looked like they were ready to leave and go back home. When we released them to the fence next to the road they had fun showing off and I was lucky enough to get some pics.
Then it was time to get List and Kóngur. These on the other hand weren't as ready to go and I had to walk through deep snow to go and get them in the field. At least they were loading easily. Kóngur was left in the field beside the road with his sister and cousin whilst List went to the field by the sea, where she joined Prímus, Fjördís and her best friend Ögn. These 4 horses have to take care of their food themselves, which means they have to dig a bit to get down to the grass. The youngsters already got a big bale of hay. 
Good to have the bunch back home!

 

 

 

Last Thursday I planned to learn a tiny little bit about how to make cheese. Unfortunately the weather was the way not all participants could come so the lessons were moved to today. Still the weather was not at its best, but our teacher has to leave from here today, so we were only a few and hope to have another opportunity for those who missed the clinic today.
The plan was to make ricotta and mozzarella cheese and we started off with the easier of the two, which is ricotta. In fact you get all you need for it at your local store! 
Preparing mozzarella was a bit trickier and it didn't work out for all of us, but it was good to see how it was made and now we just have to practise.
Think the most important thing we learned today was to be patient and don't stirr too much!

 

 

 

 

 

You maybe remember that I told you about a project we were working on with filet of mutton. We cured and vacuumpacked the meat 10 days ago and left it to rest in our fridge. Today we prepared it for smoking, which means rinsing the brine off and packing it into linnen before leaving it to rest and dry before being put in the smoke chamber.
Sunday evening we prepared a second treat to be smoked at the same time as the filet. 10kg of minced meat and spices were converted into sausages with 2 different flavours, garlic and pepper. After filling the sausage casings the sausages had to rest for 2-3 days and were packed into linnen today, too.
Now both the filets and sausages are taking a rest before being smoked for 2 days and we are really looking forward to seing the results of this project. The filet of mutton has to dry a bit more before we are going to try it, but the sausages should be ready straight away after smoking.

 

 

 

 

As you know I really like to be creative and work with my hands. Being a horseperson I've always been interested in working with horsehair and had started to do so a few years ago. With training you of course get better and faster, so I used a few eveninghours and braided 5 bracelets. 
Today I finished putting finding on them and now they are ready to go to new owners. The newest bracelets are in darker tones, as we have mostly dark horses and I have to get my hands on a few lighter shades ones to get different light tones. Well, hope I get the permission of  friends to harvest a bit of hair from their horses.
Each bracelet is made from 300+ horsehairs, which are divided in 4, 6 or 8 strands, still have to try 10 and more. First step after harvesting is sorting and getting rid off the hair, which is too short. Then I clean the hair and after drying it is ready for use. Now I have to count hair for each strand and roll each and every strand, so it will be easier to braid with them. After plaiding I have to cut the extend, choose the findings (I use 6mm findings) and glue the ends into the findings. 
Hope you like my handcrafts.

 

4 strands, roundbraided

 

6 strands, halfroundbraided

 

8 strands, squarebraided

 

 

...enough time for all the things you'd like to do and of course time to relax. Well, that was the plan, but as usual, our weekend was as busy as our week was. Anyway, the weather at least today was far too good to stay inside and do nothing.
Friday started with a very nice staffmeeting before going to the stable. Afterwards we went to meet a friend, who had invited us for a chat and a beertasting... Great evening, which ended with a refreshing walk home through town. 
Saturday was used to take care of a few things at home, defrost some 16kg of filet of mutton, which will be put to use later, go to the stable, care for the horses and go back home rather early due to increasing snowfall and the fact that we were invited for dinner. We had a very nice evening, which we enjoyed a lot. Good talks and delicious food.
Today started with finally delivering a bracelet, which was ordered as a memory charm quite some time ago. Then the horses needed some attention and we went to Ísólfsstaðir to meet Laufey and Óli there as they were transferring their horses to the big pasture. Our horses were far away from the gate and weren't getting ready to move at all. So we had a look into the sheepstable, talked to Joel and his wife, clapped a few sheep and admired his rams. Afterwards we took a walk to our horses and made them walk with us up to the gate and meet the newcomers. There was no action at all, it was like they already knew each other very well. Hope it will stay that way. 
Back home we grabbed the meat and after putting the horses outside and transferring Prímus to the big meadow at the seaside, we checked out the horses at Hagi and then went to Hólmavað, where we prepared the meat for smoking. Today we salted and vacuumpacked it and after 10 days in the fridge it will be smoked by Bensi. The aim is to make a kind of dry-cured lightly smoked filet, which fits perfectly as a snack or cold cuts. All in all we are preparing 32 filets and hope to get a result as good as last year. We'll keep you up to date on our project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 years ago I started to work a bit with leather. First "working headstalls" (headstalls with attached nosebands), then different headstalls, nosebands, repairing things for friends and a lot more. I must confess, eventhough I thought I did a quite well job in the start, there was way to go and a lot more to learn. With time I bought more of the tools I needed and practised quite a bit. Unfortunately there is very limited time to work with leather, but I do enjoy doing so. The last days I had a bit of free time and used it to make a few browbands, which you can put on any bridle as they are attached with Chicago screws and you just need a screwdriver to attach or remove them. The browbands will be for sale on the local Christmasmarket and I'm gonna try to make 2 sets of browband with fitting noseband if anybody would like to have matching equipment. 

 

 

 

 

After training Svipur and Fönix today the bunch was supposed to go to a new field in the beautiful weather. Prímus was the only one who already had been there, so he knew about the creek and what to do, when facing it. So after rushing down the slope he negotiated the corner and took the shortest way to the best place to jump the rivelet. The two others followed, but didn't dare to jump straight away. They rushed back to the gate, turned back there, rushed back, had a closer look, decided it was too dangerous and stopped a bit to think about what to do. In the meantime Prímus showed off along the waterfront, trotting and galloping like he was laughing at the two others. In the end Svipur jumped and Fönix followed. I don't have to mention that the jumping abilities run in Fönix' family and he has a similar stile to his brother Sigtýr which already makes me think about our future jumps over rivelets and similar things... My back already starts acheing...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got our first taste of winter today. It snowed during night and covered the landscape with a white, soft duvet. The horses definitely liked it and rolled over quite a lot before going to search for grass under the snow. They weren't really eager to run and show off for me, but I at least got some pics.
Hope it won't get really bad with lots of snow too soon. 
Today and tomorrow people in town are allowed to walk/drive through the tunnel, which leads to the silicone plant at Bakki. Of course we used the opportunity as it will be the only one in the near future.