Won't be the last time we'll have to do that after the big storm on December 10th 2019. This time it's the fence close to our stable as we will be putting horses there soon. Fortunately there weren't any broken fenceposts, just broken insulators, so rather easy to fix. On the way back Ingólfur just vanished suddenly. He "found" the creek through our pasture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The guy is getting better everyday and already waiting for me to bring some new stuff. Tried if he'd like apples and he really does. Now I can create more varied foodstrings for him.
Fönix on the other hand takes revenge on big, black plastic bags...
By the way: we finally got upper cupboards in the small room/kitchen in the stable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...spooky, aren't they? Fönix thinks different about that as you can see in the video. Like his way to approach new things.

 

Here are a few videos about me trying to keep Hugleikur busy a bit. In fact he's that good at getting the stuff off the string that it takes longer for me to make things ready than for him to get them down and eat them... Well, worth the effort!

 

19th of March

21st of March

22nd of March

Got a call from out vet today that we'd have to fetch Hugleikur as the fence is burried under snow and no way to get a big roundbale to the young stallions nor make sure they'll stay where they are supposed to be.
So the little guy has to come home and stay inside until there's a fence available for him again. Hope it won't be too long. Boring to be a stallion alone inside and not able to spend all the day outside with friends. Not the best choice but better than causing an accident because of him running on the road. 
Afterwards Vignir asked us to help move horses from another field to the farm he rents. The plan was to catch one of them and let him run alongside the car, the rest of the herd following. Well, the herd wasn't at the same page about all this and just overtook and ran on the road. Just before the brigde the horses decided to make a detour, which gave Vignir the chance to get in front again. In the end all went well and the horses were happy to join their friends in the new field.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Until now Covid hasn't touched us that much, we had a few strikter rules at school about washing hands and cleaning, but nothing too serious/difficult.
From today we have very strikt rules, pupils in groups not more than 20 including all teachers/other staff around this group. Luckily our schoolbuilding offers a lot of different entrances and space plus the local highschool changed completely to distance learning and the 8th and 9th grade moved up there. Me and Ingólfur one with each group of 8th graders. We'll see how this is gonna work out as the pupils aren't supposed to meet after school, which will be hard on them not meeting their friends in the other group.
Day 1 went well, but many more days to go until at least Easter...

The weather was great today! Sunshine and no wind. Perfect conditions for a ride...
...or cleaning the snow off the stable roof. Well, the latter was more important, so Ingólfur and Jón Óli did that than rather going for a ride.
Would be worse if the roof would crash, wouldn't it?

 

 

We had a snowstorm! Again, already stopped counting....
First we checked on our horses at Ísólfsstaðir in the morning. They were happy to see us, but more or less encrusted in ice on places I've never seen before. But they are in a secure place and have enough to feed on. So no need to worry about them at the moment. 
Next step was getting into our stable, stopped counting that, too. There was a solid snowwall infront of the door and the windows so it was pitchblack inside (ok, we have a nightlight for the horses, so there was a tiny little bit of light). Ingólfur started to dig out the windows whilst I went on feeding the horses.
And last but not least we had to go and feed Hugleikur and his friend at Vignir's fence. There was no chance getting a big round bale in the fence, so we went with small bales for the moment. But as the fences are more or less beneath the snow we'll probably have to fetch Hugleikur and have him back home at the stables for some time. Not our favourite thing to do, but neccessary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were so lucky to get a visito from Austria even though Corona has been striking and things quite uncertain. 
Tanja has been staying with us for a few days, helping out in the stables and enjoying (hopefully) being around us and our horses. One of her wishes was to finally meet Hugleikur in person. Think the two of them connected straight away and he liked being around Tanja and getting treats (who wouldn't?).
The last days the weather hasn't been too friendly, but we at least managed to go for a ride, allthough it was rather stormy when coming back.
Well, would be fun to get Tanja back soon and then in better conditions!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are definitely worth a visit! We arrived back home yesterday after having spent the weekend there. It has been on our to-do-list for quite some time to go and visit these islands especially after getting to know wonderful people from there and stopping for a short time when coming back with the ferry in August 2017.
So when there was an advertisement for a long weekend there with a direct flight from Akureyri we couldn't resist and booked. 
We clearly do not regret this decision, such a beautiful place to go! Our basecamp was at Torshavn, the capital, where we stayed at Hotel Hafnia. Thursday we spent walking around town and experiencing a lot of different weather at a very short time. We were surprised to see sheep all over the place in small fences in middle of town. Was a bit surrealistic, but nice. Little did we know that was just the first batch of sheep we'd run across during our stay as they are literally everywhere.
Fridaymorning was a visit to Okkarabrewery scheduled. I wasn't all in as first we were told it would be a visit at Föroya Bjór Brewery, which is to older one. But I have to admit it was fun and interesting to take a tour at Okkara. We got to see how everything works and were told about the ideas behind different kinds of beer and of course we were able to taste their selection. Ingólfur got the brilliant idea of buying some specialities there, now I just have to take care not to drink them straight away.
In the afternoon we got our rental car and took a drive up north, over Brúgvin um Streymin, the bridge connecting two islands (Streymoy and Eysturoy) in the Faroe Islands and at last through the underseatunnel over to Borðoy, where Klaksvík (and the other brewery) is located. Sounds like a long distance, but in fact it was shorter than from Húsavík to Dalvík... 
On our way back to the capital we decided to take 2 detours and had a look at Fuglafjorður, where we met some sheep very interested in us, and then went via the scenic route (they are marked with a flower on the roadsign) to Hellur and Oyndarfjorður. On our drive back to the main road we met a vehicle spraying salty water on the road. Just when it had passed all the sheep roaming free next to the road jumped over the crash barrier and started licking the road. It was hard to get them moving to pass them. 
Saturday we visited Kirkjubour, the southernmost village at Streymoy and an important settlement in the Middle Ages. There's and old farmhouse (Kirkjuboargarður) from the 11th century, Olavskirkjan from the 12th century and the ruins of Magnus Cathedral form around 1300. So lots to see, but it would have been better to have nicer weather when strolling around instead of trying to see as much as possible in stormy and wet conditions. Maybe later! From there we went to Velbastaður, encountering a sheep seemingly dead and stuck in a roundbale next to the road. Well, it was very much alive and not so happy about being disturbed in it's feast.
In the afternoon we met Jóna and Regin, horsepeople and friends, who showed us around in the stable area and invited us for coffee and treats. We had planned to visit Jóna's place, which is located close to the airport at Vágar island. But instead of asking her where to go we followed Google Maps. Not so good idea as there are 2 roads actually going to the tunnel over to Vágar. We took the scenic route, which would have been nice in sunshine in summertime, but not in snow and fog. I was lucky enough to have a good driver and was quick to promise not to suggest any "flowerroad" for the rest of our stay. Well, we made it over to Vágar and it's a beautiful place where Jóna lives with her family. Nice to see her sheep and rams and meet 2 original Faroese Horses. This breed is nearly extinct, but there's a breeding program and Jóna's mare will have a foal in spring. Looking forward to see pics!
After returning the car we went out for dinner and a stroll through the oldest part of Tórshavn, which is called Reyn and located on Tinganes peninsula. There you can find a lot of traditional wooden buildings and the old houses of parliament. It's wonderful to see how much effort people are putting into keeping the houses in the traditional way.
After a late breakfast and check out from our hotelroom we took a good photowalk through town and were lucky enough to run into local men on their way to rowingpractise. The coxswain of the boat invited us over to have a closer look and very willingly answered our questions. Kept watching them a bit before walking on and getting back to the very inviting coffeeshop we had spotted earlier. Back at the hotel we waited in the cosy lounge for our airport transfer, which was later than expected as the busdriver had forgotten about the group of Icelanders wanting to go back to their own island. Well, we made it in time and with all the luggage. 
Back at Akureyri our friend Tanja was already waiting for us at the airport as she's going to stay with us for the next week. Looking forward to that!

 

 

 

 

 

...we have to close the new field. Told you about the horses at Ísólfsstaðir getting a huge new field 2 weeks ago. Well, today we had to fetch them from there, bring them back to the meadow and feed them there as the weatherforecast wasn't good at all and one or another of the group had checked the fence and destroyed at some parts. 
So I went to fix the fence and fetch the herd with me down to the other field whilst Ingólfur and Óli started to move the haybales in the right place. I had no halter, but Ösp and Embla are used to be lead just on their "beard" and when there is the possibility to get some treats, they usually follow without anything. Wasn't sure about the rest of the herd, but when one gets moving the others usually follow. When arriving at the gate the horses already had noticed the hay and just rushed over to the other field. They got some vitamin and mineral lick, too, which they liked a lot. Everybody with brown lips after a few minutes.
Back home we had to dig up the watersupply for our outsidehorses and used the opportunity to finally set up the saltstoneholder which had been around in our stable for about 2 years... Pandóra of course had to have a close look and it was quite comical to watch her checking the new thing in the windshelter. 

 

 

into how we feed our horses in the field without a tractor. We usually have to feed these horses a big round bale once a week, depending on the weather and the hay we are feeding. The biggest challenge at the moment is actually to get to the gate of our fence as the snow is rather deep and it's not helping that the snow plow piles it up at our driveway. Well, we managed and dragged the round bale with our car to the right place for feeding. You can see Pandóra is rather nosy about all these things...

 

Fönix likes to get his minerals and oats, but in his opinion the roomservice is rather bad. No chance to get a refill and he even has to take care of getting the empty dishes out of his room...

 

... not Ingólfur, but he got 3rd in the indoor töltcompetition the local riding clubs held yesterday. He and Magnús did very well and it was fun to see how many actually took part. And we had a beertölt for the first time. 
Today we made the horses at Ísólfsstaðir very happy when we brought some bread along. Our friend Kiddi came along and together we had a look at Hugleikur, too.
We haven't been riding very much lately as the conditions outside aren't good and you can't even ride down to the riding hall most of the days as they riding track impassable. It's maybe cleaned in the morning, but a couple of hours later there's again a huge amount of snow on it. Not so much fun, but nothing you can do anything about. We'll just have to wait until the weather gets better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just got a call that Snilld is not going to have any lambs this year. There was a kind of liquid in her womb and it looks like I'll have to let her go in autumn. Sad, but at least she´ll have a good summer in the mountains without being responsible for her kids.