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14.10.2012 11:58

A very good Saturday

Yesterdaymorning we decided to go to both horse round-ups in Eyjafjörður. The first one, Þverárétt, started at 10 o'clock so we had to get up early, call Bjössi and Maggi to ask if they'd like to join us, pick them up, feed our horses in Saltvík and drive to Eyjafjörður.
We had wonderful weather, sunshine, no wind and up to 12 degrees. When we arrived in Þverárétt, the sorting already had started, but not too long ago. We found ourselves a good place to watch and started discussing the different horses and horsecolours. There were quite a few different colours, from the basic ones to basic and spotted, duncolours, cremecolours (Palomino, Buckskin and Smokey Black), Splashed White horses and at least two Cremellos/Perlinos. So something for every taste. 
After a very quick lunch we headed to Melgerðismélarrétt, which started at 1 o'clock. There were not as many horses and maybe less colours, but I liked the horses a bit better. Ingólfur was getting a bit cold, so he decided to join the action a bit and offered Jonas, the farmer at Litli-Garður, his help. I managed to take a few pics when he was catching one of the foals that didn't want to follow it's mum into the right area. 
On our way back we first stopped at Haga to have a look at our foals and then in Viðiholt to check out Prins, Bjössi's son of our Farsæll. 
We were so lucky to get an invitation for dinner and headed to Berglind and Vignir's place after a very quick shower. The food was delicious and afterwards we tried the Icelandic snaps Birkir, which is made out of birch. Birkir has a sister called Björk, which is a liqueur made out of birch. We really can recommend both of them!
Then it was time to take a walk to Gamli Baukur to take part in the pub quiz. On the way we watched the most beautiful Northern Lights, so whoever wants to see really powerful, moving and colourchangeing Northern Lights should come to Iceland this winter! 
We had a good time at the quiz and managed to end in 3rd place, with 38,5 points out of 43. The winner had 41, but I'm not sure if he didn't use a smartphone...
All in all we had a wonderful Saturday! Gonna put in some pics.












06.10.2012 23:23

Baptism

Ingólfur's little nephew was baptised today and in the morning we were busy baking the cake. I like to think about a special decoration for each and every cake and this time we decided to have a soccer-theme as the father of the boy is a soccerplayer. The name of the child is always a big secret here, so we had to take care nobody would see the cake before the ceremony. 
The ceremony itself was very nice and the priest found the fitting words. Some kids were a bit more patient than others, some needed a bit more attention than others and some sang louder than others.
After having soup and bread, the cake was served and people really liked it. Me too, it was very juicy ;)
Later we went to Saltvík to finish the wateringsystem and prepare the stable for the horses coming tomorrow. 
Last but not least I took some pics of my crazy rose, which is having 52 flowers on just 1 stem. No idea why it is doing that, but I really like it ;)










05.10.2012 23:05

Time is flying...

...where did September disappear to??? Now it's already October, the horses are getting their wintercoat, the sheep (at least most of them) are home, the birds are starting their journey south.
We have been very busy the last weeks, little time to write her. Last week we had a short stop in Austria, attending the funeral of my late granddad, helping my parents a bit with sorting things and last but not least celebrating a lot of birthdays. First my brother's, then Kristina's, then my cousin's and finally the 90th birthday of my grandma. Ingólfur and I made a cake for her and she was really happy and moved about this. It was so great to see how happy she was about it, That was the best present for us ;)
The weather back here has been rather bad, except for today when we had a perfect autumnday, mild, no wind, sunshine. The lamb I was missing returned too, but both lambs are far too small and too light :( Now we have to feed them well and hope the best. But I think they are in very good hands with Bensi and Ella.
Today we had a look at our foals and they are already wearing their thick wintercoat, especially Þyrnirós seems to take care not to get cold during winter. I'd say she's rather fat, but that's better than her being too thin before winter. Þeysir is doing well, too, growing and improving in looks. Think he'll be a really nice fivegaiter when he's grown up, showing all gaits running free already.
So what's the plan for the next days?
Tomorrow we have to bake and deliver a baptismcake and attend the ceremony, too. Looking forward to make the cake ;)
Sunday we'll take a few youngsters inside, including Sigtýr, who's supposed to get a week of basic training, getting him more used to being around humans. He'll go to Helluland again after that, having a wonderful winterholiday with his friends Dimmir & Co.

Ah, before I forget: we had amazing Northernlights tonight! Stopped a few times on the way back from Hólmavað to have a better look at the dancing lightshow, going from green to white and pink and back.







16.09.2012 22:05

Hraunsrétt 2012

Saturday early in the morning a group of farmers and helpers started to drive the collected sheep (around 3.000) down to the valley. They were accompanied by snowscooters, quads, cars and a tractor with a trailer to take tired sheep. Everything went well and they were really early down at Þverá, where they take a 2 hours break before continuing the journey down to Aðaldalur.
We took Amor and Ögn with us as Hrund and I were planning to help herding the sheep the last part. The horses were doing fine, neither being scared of the snowscooters nor of the quads or other vehicles. Hrund was a bit stressed and after having to jump off horseback because our horses got stuck, she decided to rather put Ögn back into the trailer. I continued on Amor and was once more amazed by this powerful worker. He's already 20 years old, but still the best co-worker you can wish for. Always willing to please and always doing his best. Being the only rider we were sent uphill to stop sheep being on the way up and press them back down again. He did really well, but we got stuck a few times in big snow piles. I was leading him quite a part of the way, where it was difficult for him having me on back. After arriving down at Presthvammur, I put him in the trailer and we went back to Hólmavað. The last part of the way went very well, the sheep happy to go to the field and get something to eat.
Today we took a quick ride to Hraunsrétt, List being very willing in the start, the other horses having fun going fast too. When we arrived, they already had started the sorting. Hjördís came with us to help and I think she had quite a lot of fun, walking through the arena, looking for sheep with 45Þ5 on their eartags. I was really surprised when my sheep Mysa came, I didn't count on that. But the surprise was even bigger, when Hjördís and Ingólfur came with my spotted lamb! The last news I had from my lambs was, that they were at Tjörnes... So no idea, which lambs are there with my marking, but at least my spotted one is now back home in Hólmavað.
All in all it was a rather short day in Hraunsrétt, just so much less sheep than there should be. We were the first ones to drive our herd back home, Amor in front as usual. It was strange not to have old Móra in front, but I think Axa will get a good leader for her flock. At least she knows her name and where home is. 
Back home it was delicious Hangikjöt and everything that is supposed to be with it.
Later we calculated how many sheep are missing and it's around 150 of about 520, which means around 30% of Bensi's herd is still missing. Let's hope that they'll come home too!







15.09.2012 07:18

Short update

Another day of searching and herding the sheep. 
People were busy looking for more sheep under the snow, up on the hills and mountains and then driving the found sheep to a central collecting area. I have no idea, how many sheep there are, but today those sheep already found will be driven down to the valley. The first groups are now already on their feet and on the way up to the collecting field to start the long journey down. There will be a bulldozer in front of the herd to make a way through the snow all the way down to Geitafell. 
As usual we will take a break there and fresh people will drive the herd from there down to Presthvammur. 
Tomorrow will be Hraunsrétt, but I think it won`t be like usual.
Thanks for sending good and warm thoughts to us in the North!








13.09.2012 13:17

Sheeproundup

...at least it should be. Ingólfur, Bensi and Ditta should be on horseback now, having a good time collecting the sheep in wonderful weather in Þeistareykirarea like the years before.
In fact they, Ella and a huge number of rescue force are up in the mountains trying to safe as many sheep as possible after the forceful snowstorm from Sunday to Tuesdaymorning.
Þeistareykir is covered in snow and ice, people are on snowscooters, huge cars and a lot of other vehicles roaming the area and trying to find sheep under the snowcover. Some of them are in more than 2m depth and can only be found by using the same technique used to find people under avalanches.
There are around 5000 sheep in the area, they found around 1500 yesterday and the search is continuing today and probably the next days. Til now there were just a few sheep found dead, the biggest amount still alive under the snow and waiting to be rescued.
Please send us good thoughts and cross your fingers that people manage to find as many as possible in time!
I attach an article with a video from yesterday.
Video


06.09.2012 22:30

Autumnwork

Well, September it is and time to think about the coming winter and the things to do before it is too cold for them. 
We were busy the last days with improving the doors in the stable (not finished yet), putting new lights on, getting our hay home (still some missing), helping packing more hay, moving horses and so on.
Interesting and necessary, think we are quite well prepared for the winter to come, specially with the hay for the outsidehorses, which we put they way, we can move the bales without a tractor.
Today we had to move Embla as she was starting to get a bit too independent and leaving the herd and the fence. She now is staying with her younger brother (Þokki), sister (Þyrnirós), their mum's and Aldís and Þeysir. Þokki was really happy about getting his big sis to play with and was just following her everywhere. Think he's gonna be her shadow for the next time. The older mares were not that friendly showing Embla her place, but didn't harm her.
Embla is rather big for her age and definitely had a very good summer, she's quite fat...




25.08.2012 09:00

Rain, finally

It has been awfully dry this summer here in the North, no rain since I came back from Austria and very little before that. So we were really happy when it started raining this week. Not much, just a bit here and there, especially during the nights and enough to make the grass greener again. Today it was rain and sun, sun and rain, just nice to be outside ;)
We took a drive to have a look at the foals and their mothers and they seemed to enjoy the weather too. Þyrnirós, Þokki and Þeysir were asleep when we arrived, Þeysir not even realizing the other two standing up and walking towards us. He was quite surprised to be all alone when he finally woke up and had to call for his friends and mum.
The horses were playful, running and showing off, then grazing again, eating bread Ingólfur was offering them, running off again. So I had enough to do with my camera. 
Afterwards we stopped at Helluland and went with Kiddi to see the 4 year old and part of the 5 year old horses in their huge pasture. We were lucky and they were close by, all of them friendly and interested, some nosier than others. Some of them had used the good shelter to scratch themselves and so part of their mane was missing, but nothing that won't grow again. I quite liked what I saw and was very happy about the friendly and open character of these youngsters.
Our youngsters, that stay with another part of Kiddi's herd, live in paradise and look like that... 
Afterwards there was a bit of work waiting for us as Bensi came with old hay that we are going to use to cover "naked" spotts in our fence. We unrolled 2 of 10 hayrolls, which was quite dusty work. But we think it's necessary to do that and take care of the land.
Bensi cleaned up the horse manure around the big shelter in the winterfield, he's gonna use it as fertilizer for his land. Nice and clean there again!








19.08.2012 16:42

Birthdaytrip

It looks like Ingólfur's and Bjössi's birthdaytrip to Þeistareykir is going to be an annual habit. The two of them booked the hut a few weeks ago and yesterday we took a drive up to the highlands. Bensi and his family joined us too. Our car was stuffed with food, drinks and other necessities, barely room for anything else. Hjördís of course joined us too.
When we arrived in the early afternoon, Bjössi and Rakel already awaited us with fresh coffee. A bit later, Bensi, Ella and their kids arrived too, so we could start the party straight away with coffee and cake. An instant later, we got ourselves ready to visit a few caves, Bjössi, Berta and Vignir had discovered a few weeks ago. It was a strange feeling to go underground, not knowing what was awaiting us, just with a few pocketlights (not all of them working). In fact it is an amazing undergroundworld under the lavafield. There are lavadropstones, in some places so many, you have to take care not to step on them, ferns, big and small rocks, mysterious holes, low ceilings, places you have to crawl through to discover the next, huge part of the cave and so on. The kids really enjoyed to explore everything, looking for new caves and so on. I tried to take pics, which went sometimes quite well, sometimes not that well, but you can have a look at them in the album.
The cavesexpedition made us very hungry, so we went back to the hut to prepare the grill for dinner. We picked some mushrooms on the way, on which we put bluecheese after cleaning them and grilled them alongside the meat and potatoes. A delicious sauce (which we nearly forgot at home), zucchini with garlic and homegrown salad made the meal complete.
After dinner, we had some Austrian schnaps as a desert (just the grown ups) and had one or two toast for Ingólfur and Bjössi. We chatted quite a while outside the hut and went later inside to play cards, which was rather funny as we were teaching our friends our favourite card game.
Today we slept rather long (in fact I was awake quite early, but didn't dare to go out of bed, not to wake the others), had a delicious breakfast and got ourselves ready for a walk up Bæjarfjallmountain. As some of us didn't sleep that well, not everybody was ready to come with us. So in the end it was Ingólfur, Ella, Vignir, Hjördís, Berta, Kristján, Pollý the dog and me that went for a walk. It was rather steep uphill, but on top it's a plateau and there is a huge sandstonerock, where people use to engrave their names and the year of their visit. As most of us had already been there, we just refreshed our names and engraved the year. Kristján on the other hand, was there for the first time and, after trying himself and finding out it was too hard for him, asked his mum to engrave his name. But he was at least ready to pose for a pic.
Soon we started our walk back down, slowed down by delicious crow- and blueberries, which had to be picked and eaten. Back at the hut, we gathered our stuff together, squeezed it into the car, cleaned the hut and said goodbye to everyone. The drive back to Húsavík was rather dusty as it hasn't rained here for a very long time. 
All in all it was a very, very good trip with wonderful friends. Takk fyrir okkur!






15.08.2012 09:07

Holiday

We got a really nice invitation to a summerhouse in the East of Iceland and decided to take a holiday during our holiday. The plan was to go east on Monday, go for a good hikingtour on Tuesday and take a relaxed journey back on Wednesday. But first of all, we had to find the place to stay! Ditta gave us a short description, but no name of the place. It was supposed to be just a bit out of Hallormsstaður. Well, there were a few possibilities... When we finally thought that we went too far, we called and got the information that we were just at the right place! It's called Sólheimar and a former farmhouse surrounded by forrest. We had quick dinner and lit the oven afterwards to have coffee and cookies in the livingroom. After deciding about the plan for the next day and watching the weathernews anxiously, we soon went to bed.
Unfortunately the weathernews were right and it was foggy with a bit of rain inbetween. So a rather bad idea to go hiking into Stórurð. Instead we continued our drive to Borgarfjörður eystri and to the little harbour right outside the village, where around 15.000 pairs of puffins nest every year. As we were a bit late in puffinseason, there were just a few left, the mainflock already on sea. Nevertheless we managed to see some and of course the uncountable number of nestingholes. It must me amazing to see the whole place just crowded with puffins.
On the way back we stopped in the small church to have a look at the altarpicture painted by Jóhannes S. Kjarval, one of the most renown Icelandic painters. He owned a small summerhouse in the East, called Kjarvalshvammur. Of course we stopped there too ;)
From the village we took a drive up the valley, passing the farm Grund II, where the colourful mare Milljón frá Grund II was born in the year 1987. After the short sightseeingdrive we started our journey back to Egilsstaðir. Before we went over the pass we stopped at a canyon we had spotted on our way to Borgarfjörður eystri. It's called Innra-Hvannagil and easy to walk up there. You'll be rewarded by a spectacular view and very interesting patterns in the stone. We definitely did not regret the stop there!
Next stop was, as I already said before, Kjarvalshvammur. In fact it's just a tiny hut with a bed inside. The place for Kjarvals boat "Gullmávur" was even bigger than his own hut... But he definitely picked a marvelous place to stay!
Then there was another stop, we were just too curious about the little "shop" on the way. A guy in Egilsstaðir put up a little hut and inside is a vending machine, where you can buy coke, sweets and even dogtreats. Unfortunately it didn't work for us, but we had a lot of fun trying.
Of course we couldn't just drive by Finnsstaðaholt so we made a surprisevisit at Pétur's and Marietta's place. After coffee, some schnaps and a good talk we departed, looking forward to meeting soon again. 
We were rather lazy to cook after such a long day and had a quick dinner in Egilsstaðir. The evening we spent in front of the oven, talking about the day.
Ditta went south on Wednesday and we took the drive back north. But we didn't go the straight way. First we drove all the way up to Kárahnjúkardam and Hálslón. On the way we met reindeerhunters that just managed to get one. The herd of around 200 deer was still close and I managed to get a few pics of them. 
It was very impressive to see the artificial waterfall "Hverfandi" ("The Disappearing"), which is the overflow of the reservoir. Amazing power!
From there we took a very small gravelroad on the mountainridge between Jökuldalur and Hrafnkelsdalur. It was very deserted, not even sheep up there. On the way down to Hrafnkelsdalur we saw a sick lamb, wrote down it's number and drove to Aðalbólfarm to let know about it.
From there we went on road F907 to Sænautasel, where you can get coffee, tee or cacao with lummur (kind of small, thick pancakes) in the old sheepstable. We decided to take a break and had delicious cacao, while learning about the history of the place and clapping the cat.
Then we went over Geitasandur to Möðrudalur, a very beautiful place and a pitty I never went there before. Soon we were back on Road 1 and on the way home. It was a wonderful trip and there'll many unforgettable memories!






13.08.2012 08:28

Þyrnirós

As I said before we went to get Vordís and Þyrnirós from Skagafjörður. It was a bit tricky to get her into the trailer as she didn't just follow her mum, but we managed to grab her and put her in. The night they spent in Kiddi's stable, next to the calves, which were quite nosy.
Today it was time to put them with the other mares and foals. Þyrnirós went into the trailer like she had never done anything else, just being a good girl following her mum. When we arrived in Haga, it was time to take some pics and then release them. Vordís just rushed like a lightning followed by a dark shadow with white socks. They soon met the others and it was clear who is the boss... Hope the foals are having a good time together, growing and developing.





12.08.2012 07:46

Einarsstaðamót

The annual competition of the ridingclub Þjálfi was this weekend and Ingólfur decided to take part with Negla. There were around 200 competers all in all, some taking part with 4 or more horses.
Ingólfur and Negla took part in Gæðingakeppni B-Flokkur (Icelandic Fourgait) and Tölt. I decided not to take part on horseback but to help around and was therefore assistant of one of the judges. As this judge has just the test for Gæðingakeppni but not for Sportstests like Tölt, I had a break then and could take pictures. It was very interesting for me to see and listen what he was saying, get a bit different point of view. Think it's a bit difficult to see everything that is happening in the track, especially in the finals when there are up to 8 horses in at the same time.

Things went quite well for Ingólfur and Negla, they got 8,34 in B-Flokkur, which was 0,01 too little to go to the B-finals. Pitty that didn't work!
Tölt went well too, but we were quite surprised to get the marks as they were very low for what he showed. Specially one judge was very much lower than the others. At the same time there was an other participant that was on gallop for more than just a few meters, but all 3 judges didn't see it and so he got very high marks and went straigth to the A-finals. Maybe judges should draw a better line between the Icelandic Gæðingakeppni, where it is enough to get a whole longside in each gait to get full marks and the Sportscompetition, where the whole thing (short sides of the track too!) has to be good to get good marks. Think this was maybe a bit the problem.

Negla went home on Saturday, she's supposed to take part in Firmakeppni with Kiddi after 2 weeks. Hope this will go as well as last year.

Sunday Ingólfur was a viewer and I was still assistant to the judge. The day started with the B-finals in A-Flokkur, B-Flokkur and Tölt. Then there was a very long lunchbreak (too long for my taste) and so were the finals in Kids, Youth (there we had to stop a horse running crazy) and Young Rider class followed by Senior class. Last but not least A-finals in A, B and Tölt.

When this was over, we grabbed Kiddi's car and horsetrailer and started our trip tp Skagafjörður to fetch Myrká, Lukka and last but not least Vordís and Þyrnirós. Myrká and Lukka were in Dyrfinnustaðir where they had been with Hágangur frá Narfastöðum. Both mares are in foal, which is big luck for Kiddi, both of them being really good breedingmares, but had difficulties the last year to get pregnant. Vordís was first with Þórálfur frá Prestbæ, but was empty when sonared, so we decided to put her with his big brother Þeyr frá Prestbæ, which seems to have worked. When we got to Saurbæ to get her, it was just her, Þeyr and Þyrnirós on a very big field. Of course she had to show herself a bit, not being fond of being caught. Þeyr was much more interested in the breadbag I carried than in Vordís running around. Finally we got her and Ingólfur held the stallion while I walked mother and daughter out off the field. I was surprised how polite and gentle Þeyr was, not making any trouble when we had enough to do to catch Vordís. Looks like he has a character of gold.
As we arrived very late in Helluland, we just kept the mares in the stable over night.
It was a busy weekend, but I think worth it!



08.08.2012 07:17

Back on duty

After having a great holiday visiting my friend Gabi and then my family I'm back on duty here in Iceland.
I enjoyed it very much to go to a falconryshow in Germany, taking a huge amount of pics. They had about 16 birds with them and even 3 Gyrfalcons, which live in Iceland too. It was amazing to watch these beautiful birds flying free and showing their hunting skills. The Gyrfalcon was the most impressive though (not just because it lives in Iceland too) as it reached amazing speed, going very close over our heads to get the lure.
My days in Austria I mostly spent with my family, helping in my granddad's garden, playing with my nephew and niece, looking for mushrooms in the forest and so on. Time was, as usual, flying and early Mondaymorning I started my journey back.
I got a 5* - 3 courses dinner back home. Tasty hotsmoked salmon, fried prawns and vegetable as a starter, delicious steak with potatoes, vegetables and fried thyme as a main course and greek joghurt with blueberries and Nóa Kropp as a dessert. Delicious!
My garden was well taken care of (roses flowering, salad growing like hell, ...), the horses too and Þeysir is getting a bit too cheeky (have to work on that).









17.07.2012 11:17

Busy, busy

That's what we are! But it's good to have something nice and interesting to do and to help friends.
Last week I helped taking the sheepdung apart which Bensi is gonna use to smoke Hangikjöt, salmon and trout in year 2014 (he likes to let it dry for 2 years before using it) and Ingólfur learned how to wrap the big hayrolls with plastic. After a bit difficult beginning it went very well and I think he had fun with his nephew Kristján, who helped him a lot.
Next week, Ingólfur will be a cow farmer in Helluland, as Kiddi and his family are going to Norway. Hope everything will go fine there. I'll be visiting family and friends and be back 6th of August.

What else has been going on? 
We castrated Farsæll after Landsmót as he wouldn't be used much as a breeding horse here (too many very good and highjudged stallions around). Now he's getting used to being a gelding and we hope to be able to put him with the others soon (when he has recovered from his operation). 
His foals are looking very good! Just had a look at Mánahringur (Bensi's foal) and like him very much.
Sigtýr on the other hand is having his first summerlove. Perla is with him and we hope to get a nice foal next year. 
Vordís was unfortunately not in foal with Þórálfur but as he had to go we couldn't leave her there with him any longer. Now she is with his big brother Þeyr and we hope she'll be sonared with foal next. Þyrnirós is for sure keeping her mum busy there ;)
Aldís and Þeysir are keeping Þokkadís and Þokki company, enjoying themselves very much in the huge field. Both foals are very nosy and we have to take care not to spoil them.
Amór is back on duty, Ingólfur shoed him yesterday and I of course took the first ride. It was fast but a very good feeling being back on back on Amór. List got new shoes too.
Now there are 10 horses on shoes that want to be moved. Maybe we should start to let them run after us...






08.07.2012 22:19

Summertime...

... time for longer rides. Friday afternoon we called our friend Bjössi and decided to take a good ride to his summerhouse in Reykjahverfi. We went around 10 o'clock in the evening from Saltvík and enjoyed the good riding tracks in our area. Alltogether we were 6 and 11 horses as we took all our riding/traininghorses with us. It was at parts quite a fast ride, the horses full of energy and happy to go for a longer tour than just the regular shorter rides. We arrived very late at Bjössi's place and took a good and relaxing bath in his swimmingpool. 
Yesterday afternoon we went for a shorter ride on wonderful soft and slightly overgrown tracks, watching a lot of different birds and their young ones. Some geese were trying to distract our attention on their young ones and flew a very big circle to lure us away. We played along and followed them a bit. When we came back from the ride, Ingólfur helped Bjösse mawing the lawn (with a bit bigger tools) and Rakel and me (after repairing the garden fountain) found a nice place for their future fireplace. Of course we had to try it out and lighted a fire after dinner. More guests arrived, Marshmallows were grilled and we talked till early in the morning.
Today we got very nice riding guests and went together with Bjössi, Svanhildur, Tómmi and the girls for another good ride. The horses were very good, it was fun to ride with good friends and nice to get new people on horseback!






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