We had a few days off from school, one or another thing to do in the South and not been there for quite a time, so we drove there last Friday. As it was impossible to get a place to stay Friday til Sunday for a reasonable price we stayed with Ingólfur's nephew and his family. Hjördís accompanied us.
We used Saturday to meet friends of ours, which we haven't meet for quite some time, eventhough we managed to talk a bit during Landsmót at Hólar. They showed us around their stable and invited us for coffee and more afterwards. Hjördís immediately made friends with the Rough Collie they were babysitting and a very nice 5 year old mare, which was happy to have somebody scratching her head.
Sunday we were tourists, taking a drive east and visiting Geysir. Eventhough the weather was not as its best, there were quite a lot of people around, clapping when Strokkur erupted and taking a walk in the area. When coming home, we fetched ourselves pizza and moved into the appartment we rented from Sunday til Tuesday. A very nice place, with enough room. Hjördís went so to stay with her mum and grandparents.
Monday morning was used to do the necessary shopping, whilst we used the evening to watch an Icelandic movie at the movie theatre and going out for dinner. Things we don't do that often.
The plan was to leave early on Tuesday, which we partly managed to, leaving Reykjavík around 11. The weather wasn't that good on the way home, but no problem when driving reasonably. Took a short stop at Íbishóll looking at the youngsters in training there, chatting a bit with Magnús and prebooking a place with his stallion Snillingur for next summer. Another short stop at Akureyri and then we hurried home. Nice to have a bit of change to the daily routine.

Whilst Marietta dwelled in Switzerland we travelled east to visit Pétur and fetch my new saddle, as I couldn't resist when Benni was offering a tryout saddle for a very reasonable price. So now I'm the proud owner of a nearly new Benni's Harmony Portos Ísland.
When horsepeople meet, they of course talk a lot about horses, have a look at horses and talk a bit more about horses and other horsepeople. This was no different. Of course we helped moving old Hrannar, his wife Sunna and her daughter Blábrá, fetching 3 geldings at a different fence and driving them home, checking the rest of the bunch, cooking, eating and drinking. We even lost the dogs and found them again.
Last but not least Pétur learned how to prepare waffers. 
Alltogether it was a wonderful weekend and good to take a bit of a break from everyday life.

After a good day at the stable training the youngster I used the good weather to have another try at my new spot for photographing the Northernlights.
There was a lot of activity when I left home, so I expected to get some good shots. In fact the lightshow rather took a break when I arrived to just explode when I already had enough and was on my way home... Well, that's the way it is sometimes, no guarantee you get a good shot. Still I like the few I got.
Hope you do, too.
 

Nature in our area has so many things to offer and I think it truly is necessary to teach our kids about it, show them around, allow them to experience and learn to apprechiate what we have. 
We were invited to accompany a small group of boys from our area being cave explorers for one day. There are many lava caves around, most of them difficult to find and the exact place only known by members of the local rescue teams (they use to train there) and a few others. In some caves are lava dripstones, which by any means are not to be broken or taken.
The group was quite excited and had great fun exploring the dark veins under the surface. When they plunged down, you never knew where they would surface again. There was always at least 1 grownup staying at the original entrance to make sure we'd find it again if something should happen. Hjördís came along, too and I think she liked it (except for walking so much).
After a good break, grilled sausages and marshmallows we went for a walk uphill to show the group a sandrock, where countless people engraved their names. We use to go there from time to time, fresh up our names and add the year. Ingólfur has been really interested in this area and knows a lot about it, so he kept telling the boys facts and stories, which ended in one of them asking him if he was a scientist. Think he was rather proud of that.

It was finally time to move the ridinghorses to their autumnpasture at Ísólfsstaðir and so we used the wonderful weather today to drive them there. First to go were Magnús' Þokki and Ösp, followed by Embla and Ögn, then List and Magnús and finally Skuggi and Sigtýr.
The horses definitely recognised the area and were soon wandering off looking for the best place to graze. They'll soon be joined by Fribbi's horses, which were already in a field closeby. As usual the farmer and his wife will have an eye on them and we can be sure, they are in best hands there, just being horses and having a holiday from us.

Instead of going to any horse roundup we decided to tidy our stable a bit before going to meet Sigga and her horses at Laxamýri. And luckily it was as I got a phonecall that our friend Pétur would arrive in the afternoon with a mare that was supposed to go south the next day. 
So after taking the shoes off the riding horses in Laxamyri and delicious coffee and waffers we headed back to Húsavík just before Pétur and his friend Einar arrived. Pétur released his mare into the field, where she got a nice welcome from the horses already there and after watching them a bit we headed for another cup of coffee to Gisli's place, where we ended the afternoon with a very nice chat. So nice to get a surprise guest, eventhough he couldn't stay.

It was time to concrete the other half of our shed, where we want to build a restroom and a small room to sit down, warm up and have some coffee. Today the truck mixer finally had a chance to pop by and  all the available helpers came to get things working smoothly. This time it was a bit more work as we had to ferry the concrete in the wheelbarrow. Now we just have to wait until we can start building the walls.

Our ridinghorses are already having their well deserved autumnholiday, but we haven't moved them to Ísólfsstaðir yet. First they were allowed to finish the pasture at home and were changed to a new field today. As usual a new field has to be explored and that gave me the opportunity to take a few very nice pics.

The forecast was perfect and there had been amazing northern lights yesterday, especially in the south of Iceland. So I decided to take a drive and try a new location. Well, the location was very nice and I definitely have to go back there and take more pics, but I was far too early on the road and missed all the beautiful lights... Better luck next time!

Like the years before we were invited to join the horsebreeders at Miðsitja for the annual horseroundup. 
Fridayevening we meet at the ridinghall at Sauðárkrókur and watched a very amusing horseshow, very well organized and entertaining. Magnús got 3 topriders to show 3 very promising mares from his breeding and they did very well despite being in not too much training at the moment. 
Saturdaymorning we left early to take a ride into Kolbeinsdalur to meet the herd of foals, mares and youngsters, which was driven to Laufkálarétt. As usual we had very good horses and could enjoy a ride in good company. After coming down to the valley and taking care of our horses, we went to have a look at the sorting and all the people around. Always nice to meet friends and acquaintances there.
Thanks for having us and hopefully meeting all of you again next year!

of a very nice friend and off we went to meet her and after having coffee, checked out Vordís and the youngsters.
As usual Fönix was the first one to arrive and greet us, closely followed by Kóngur and Snerpa. Rögnir was nosy, too, and greeted all of us, trying to get as many scratches as he could possibly get. The others were more interested in the bag of bread Ingólfur was carrying. All of them are in very good shape, Snerpa has definitely inherited her mum's genes in getting fat and looks like a fat punk right now as her mane still hasn't decided to which side it should go and therefore stands right up into the air.
After seeing our friend off, we went to check on Þyrnirós, Fjördís and her son. They are in very good shape, too, the little one following his aunt around, just using his mum for getting drinks inbetween.
So everything the way it should be before winter.

was what we heard when arriving at Hólmavað today. It was time to separate the lambs from the ewes, which always results in quite some noise as they are looking and calling for each other. Upon arrival Snilld was already in the paddock, hopping up on the fence when spotting me and of course begging for treats. Luckily she had both her daughters with her, so I got 100% of my "herd" back from the highlands. 
Inside people were busy with reading eartags and checking, who had already arrived back home and who is still missing. The ewes, rams and muttons went outside again, the lambs remained in the stable. After sorting, a few ewes, which are going to stay with the lambs, were allowed inside again, the others were driven to the fields north of the farm. They were rather eager to leave and just rushed to their place. The lambs on the other hand were supposed to go south of the road, which means they had to be driven over a field and then under the bridge to get to their new pasture. The ewes knew where they were going and rushed under the bridge, but the lambs were a bit more stubborn, not knowing where to go and a bit shy setting hoof on the new place. But in the end everybody was where he/she was supposed to be. Next step will be driving them home again to weigh and judge them to decide, which ones will be future breeding animals and which ones are going to the slaughterhouse. Not an easy decision, but a necessary.
I'm very happy about the looks of my lambs, rather long legs, pretty faces and good wool.

Yesterday the herders came from the highlands with around 5.000 sheep after a very wet Thursday (the stuff was still soaking wet when I fetched it on Friday evening), a dry and beautiful Friday and a sloppy day's ride with the sheep not ready to take any break, just heading home. Fortunately we could stop them at Þverá and give the herders and horses a bit rest. Hjördís came with me and together with Kristján she did a very good job keeping the sheep away from the road. It would have been great to get helpers like last year, when Bjarni and his guests joined the herders and us there. As soon as possible I grabbed 2 horses and drove them home to Hólmavað where they got a dry place in the sheepstable to warm up and get dry again. They were quite happy to get inside and get some hay. We just managed in time to come back and watch the herd arriving at the gate and starting the way uphill to cross the last pass before heading to Hraunsrétt. The plan was to drive both men and horses home from there as everybody was drenched and definitely needed a good break before the sorting today. 
After a good rest we got ourselves ready to ride to Hraunsrétt in the morning, five riders in wonderful weather. The sorting startet at 10 o'clock after Gunnar was finished reciting the rules. As usual it was rather busy in the collecting ring, so many people trying to recognise the different earmarks and grab the right sheep and lambs. After 2 rounds of sorting there was a break to rest people and sheep and afterwards there were another 2 rounds. Snilld of course just came in with the last group but then started begging for treats immediately. Think she emptied all of Hjördís' pockets...
Then it was time to drive the herd home. It was not that willing to start going as there was a delicious meadow just on the way and most sheep stopped there to grab a snack. Hrund did a very good job there trying to get them going again, whilst I was trying to keep the leadersheep calm. I really like Bensi's leadersheep Kvíka and Axa and the young Þyrla. They are listening to you and are not so much thinking about overtaking and just running home. With good helpers we got the sheep home just before a busy busdriver thought there was no reason to wait any longer in line and decided to overtake all the cars waiting for us to finish and leave the road. It was just a lot of luck there was no accident as he didn't slow down despite people, horses and dogs still being on the road. What an .....! Of course we called straight away at the company he's working for and complained about this stupid and dangerous behaviour. Don't think his schedule was that tight. Would be interesting what the passengers thought about all this. 
Anyway: good that nothing happened and everybody arrived safe and sound at home. Now we'll soon have to take the lambs from the ewes, check all numbers and find out, who's still missing and might come home from another area or during the second roundup.
I put an album online, hope you can get a bit an impression of what was going on.

I'm pretty sure, you know about my favourite hobbies, which are horses and photography. But there is a very well kept secret hobby, which I unfortunately have rather little time to spend on. Ingólfur is at the moment at the sheep roundup and the weather was the way I rather stayed insinde, so why not pursue my hobby. 
A few years ago I grabbed the opportunity to visit a spinning workshop nearby. It was a lot of fun and we learned how to treat wool in different ways, filting, spinning, colouring with natural colours... I was lucky enough to get an old icelandic spinning wheel , which was said to be not so easy to use. But in fact it's not that difficult when you already learned a bit on an easier wheel. 
So yesterday it was time to grab the wheel and let it turn and turn and turn. Soooo calming! 

As every year at this time of September it was time to go up to the highlands and collect the sheep. And as usual Ingólfur, Bjössi, Baldur, Guðni and Oddný Lára rode up there. They were joined by a few other farmers and the group was quite big. Think there was some "söngvatn" (songwater) in some of the bottles in the saddlebags.
Ingólfur took Ösp, List and Katla with him, the plan was to change Ösp for Ögn on Friday, so each horse would have to work 1 day. Katla was supposed to be the third horse for Bensi, who took also old Amor and Skuggi to the mountains. 
The weatherforecast is not too good and I don't envy the herders going up there. Let's hope the best for the Sheeproundup.