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Færslur: 2012 Desember

31.12.2012 15:35

Christmasholiday

We spent our vacation with my family in Austria. After a good trip via Salzburg we had a very good time in Vienna. As we had promised Hjördís to go to the Christmasmarkets and allow her to make a candle, we spent most of Sunday, 23rd of December, walking over different markets in heavy rain. Hjördís made a beautiful candle, which she proudly wrapped in a lot of paper to make sure it would survive the trip home. On 24th we got a few last minute presents and spent the evening at my brother's place. Under the Christmastree there waited a huge pile of presents to be opened. The kids of course loved doing that and it was so nice to watch them and be happy for them. 25th was another familymeeting. We went out to have delicious lunch together, but in the end my brother was so unlucky that Philip punched his eye accidentally and he had to go to hospital to let it check. In the meantime we went to my grandma's place and enjoyed some sparkling wine and good talks. After lunch on 26th we went to one more Christmasmarket, that was still open. We were accompanied by Kristina, Philip and Anna. First we took a walk through the Emperor's park in Schönbrunn, had a look at beautiful ducks and then strolled over the market. Soooo many things to see and discover. Think the toys were Hjördís' favourites as you were allowed to try them out. Afterwards we took the underground to the centre of Vienna and had a very good walk over Kärtnerstraße, Stephansplatz, Graben and Kohlmarkt. We enjoyed the wonderful lights and the good weather. 27th we spent mostly in shops and on 28th my family decided to celebrate my upcoming birthday. 29th it was time to say Goodbye, which was hard as usual, but it is good to look forward to meeting again ;)
We thought our trip would be all the way to Húsavík that day, but we were definitely wrong... First difficulties arose at the airport in Salzburg, when we went through the security control. I forgot to remove my keys from my pocket and of course the machine detected them. So I was the "criminal" in the family, at least I thought so. But then Hjördís' handluggage was sent front and back through the scanner, and the guards not so sure what to think about the stuff in there. We removed her NintendoDS, but that was not the problem. There was something looking like a blade, which made the guards uneasy. After having a better look, we realized, it was the candle!!! So after produceing a very long queue we finally got through. The flight was nice, nothing special happening, enough time to read.
But when we arrived to Keflavík, it was soon clear, that we wouldn't take the drive back to Húsavík that day. So we organised a place to stay overnight and decided to leave early the other morning. Early it was, around 7 o'clock, when we started the drive. The first part was ok, sometimes a bit windy, but nothing to be seriously worried about. Right after Blönduos the view changed to nearly 0, strong windes and a lot of snowdrifting. We had to stop as the Rescueteam was moving a car from the road, somebody else had just left there. After that we "crawled" forward, going really slow as visibility was very poor. What a change when we drove down to Skagafjörður! Very good weather, free roads and we were getting the news, that the road we'd have to drive was cleaned the very moment. So our hopes stood high to finish the trip that day. Around 12.30 we arrived at Akureyri and were told that Víkurskarð was closed, but it was not sure if they would clean it that day. We had just missed a group going over after a cleaning vehicle and after listening to the workers, we didn't dare to try and get stuck. 2 hours later we decided to have a look and were very disappointed that we had listened to these guys as it wouldn't have been a problem then, but now there was of course already too much snow again. After several phonecalls and waiting for about 2 hours at the bottom of the road, we got to know for sure, that nobody would clean the road that day. You can probably imagine, how disappointed we were. So close, but still so far from our goal. At least we were lucky and could stay overnight with Sævar and Regina. We had a nice evening, chatting, eating, drinking.
Today we started early again, arrived at Víkurskarð at 8.30 and were told, that we could pass behind the snowplough as it would go all the way to Kross, which is halfway to Húsavík. This was great news and we were so much looking forward to having a fast trip, to come home finally. Well, we were mistaken again. The plough turned around when we came down the pass and we were left alone, trying to make our way. The visibility was rather poor and the snow started to make big piles on the road. First everything went well, but then we got stuck close to a bridge and Ingólfur was busy digging the car out off the pile. Luckily the lorry collecting milk from the farmers was on it's way to Akureyri and dragged us through this pile. Our drive continued, but when we came to the next big pile, we just decided to wait for the next plough to come and not risk to get stuck again. After around 1 hour another car arrived, the driver on his way to Egilsstaðir. I didn't envy him trying to get there. 30 minutes later, the plough arrived and cleared the way to Kross. From there we thought it would be short, the road hopefully just cleaned and easy to drive. Well, it went quite ok (if you like hopping over snowpiles...) to short after the car museum, where we saw a pile we were sure we wouldn't manage to get through. So we turned and were thinking about using the other possible way via Góðafoss. We met a car on our road, stopped and talked to the driver, who wanted to go to Húsavík with his family, too. All of us tried to get more information about roadcleaning and if the other road would be free. We were just told, that we were more or less stuck, no more roadcleaning today and we should just call the Rescueteam to get us home. In fact we already had been in contact with Bensi, who is member of the Rescueteam in Aðaldalur, and he was ready to help us. We decided to drive as far as we could and then wait for help. Not long after stopping and starting to wait suddenly a snowplough and a queue of cars appeared and we finally had the chance to finish our trip. You can't imagine, how happy we were after nearly 3 days on the way from Vienna to Húsavík. What was worst in our opinion is the fact, that Vegagerðin, who is taking care of cleaning the roads, is not working very organised. Yesterday they cleaned all around Húsavík and to Kross, but the team in Akureyri did not clean the roads to there. Today it seemed to be the other way round and nobody could give us any information about if and when they would clean the roads.
I attach a few pics, so you can maybe imagine, what kind of trip it was.  












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21.12.2012 09:17

Merry Christmas!


We wish all of our friends and their families a very Merry Christmas and all the best for 2013.
This blogg is going to take a small vacation as we'll be on holiday and are not sure if we have any possibility to write here. Maybe you are lucky emoticon.

Otherwise we'll be back online soon and are in fact (at least me) very much looking forward to taking the riding horses inside and start their training. Will be good for Farsæll do work again and List needs a diet, I'm afraid.
See you soon and enjoy Christmas!
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17.12.2012 23:57

Horseholiday...

...is not what you probably think. Yes, we are taking a holiday from our riding/traininghorses, but no, we are not just lazy, doing nothing except drinking hot chocolate and eating cookies. In fact we are rather busy catching horses that walked over fences, chasing horses away from our hay, driving around checking out hay, cleaning our stable, painting and finishing one wall before we take the horses in again.
Sunday we took a good drive to check out our horses in Helluland. Of course I took my camera to get one or another nice pic. The herd in Þegjandadalur was showing a rather strange behaviour, which we are not used to from Kiddi's horses. We left the car at the cartrack and took a walk towards them. When we were close, they suddenly rushed past us and to the far northern edge of the fence. We suspect one of the neighbours, which is not fond of having horses at this area, to chase them from time to time on his snowscooter. Well, in the end we managed to get close and when they realised we meant no harm, they came towards us, checking out if we had something to eat. Freyja was rather nosy, even allowed us to pet her. Nökkvi decided to follow me around, trying to get more treats from my pocket. I like the way he is developing very much. He's getting taller, his neck is very well raised and he's got a lot of mane. Looking forward to see him run on good ground and take some pics.
Afterwards we had a look at Sigtýr, who's with 6 other guys in a big fence where they have enough space to run and play. We took some dry bread with us, but the guys were not so sure if it was possible to eat that stuff. Sigtýr is fine, with his thick winterfur, his mane regrowing and him growing in all directions. I was happy to see that he hasn't forgotten us and came right away when he saw us (and heard the breadbag). I put some pics in a new album.










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09.12.2012 21:01

Our foals...

... are growing like crazy. They are enjoying their life outside with their mothers and other horses near Húsavík. Today we used the nice weather and took some pics of them. Þyrirós is clearly the biggest of them and the boss. She starts to be very curious about us, Ingólfur even managed to give her some bread today. Þeysir and Þokki, Maggi's foal, stick together like glued and are often up to no good. Þeysir showed us today all his gaits and it's very nice to see how easy it is for him to switch between trott, soft tölt and flying pace. Þyrnirós had to show off a bit and was flying around on elastic trott with big steps. Just have a look at the pics in the album.



Þyrnirós, our wannabe-arab



Þeysir on the run
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08.12.2012 00:22

Icelandic Santas

As many of you probably know, the Icelanders don't have just one Santa but 13, brothers and children of the trolls Grýla and Leppalúði. Their pet is Jólakötturinn, the Christmascat, which eats people that don't get any clothes for Christmas. So watch out!
During December these brothers open their home and people can visit them in the fascinating scenery of Dimmuborgir in Mývatnarea. Once a year they take their bath, which is usually in early December, so they are nice, dry and clean before they start visiting the Icelandic children. Well, infact not all of them will be nice and clean as Stúfur, the smallest one, is so afraid of water, he doesn't dare to come close and therefore is already quite dirty. Others have to be tricked to bath by telling them that they are all going for a fishing trip and then just pushing them into the water.
It was bathingday today so we made a nice excursion with Hjördís, Kristján and Hrund. First we went to Dimmuborgir to meet the Santas at their home. We met Stekkjastaur with his stiff legs, Giljagaur and one of their brothers. The kids got candles, which they should take care of very well, so Kertjasníkir, the Santa coming on 24th, doesn't steal them. It was so nice to see how the Santas tried to interact with the kids, with more or less success. In the end they even got involved in a snowballfight with our bunch of kids and had a lot of fun. Stekkjastaur saw that Hjördís was a bit shy, grabbed her and took her to his stonethrone, where they had a very nice chat. Rather funny for us to watch it. 
Afterwards we went to Vogafjós, the cow-shed café, at lake Mývatn. We were the only guests and got delicious food there. If you are in the area, try it! We recommend the raw smoked lamb and the dish with various specialities.
Last but not least we went to Jarðböðin, where the Christmasbath took place. In no time Ingólfur and the kids were in the pool, closely followed by 10 of 13 Santas. Looks like 3 escaped from bathing again...
They brought a lot of strange things along, Kjetkrókur (Meathook) trying to teach his hook to swim, others washing themselves and others with huge brushes and in the end singing Christmassongs with the kids and grown-ups.
It was a very, very nice afternoon, we had a lot of fun and I hope you enjoy the pics I took!






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03.12.2012 22:07

Time's flying...

... already December, where did November vanish to?
Hm, think we just had so much to do! The horsetraining went very well, Sigga's Hringur was the first one to get our OK to go home, he learned to be longed, walk with his trainer by his side and bear a rider on his back. When he had achieved all this, it was time for him to get a good break and think about all he has learned.
The others stayed a bit longer, we are planning to send them home on Wednesday. Our own horses will get a break too and enjoy their Christmasholiday with the others in the herd. Svartur, Sleipnir, Drotting and the black mare have learned to be longed, got a basic training on the bit, know how to go forward, stop and turn, go faster and slower. That's quite enough for them at the moment and I think they're going to enjoy their break, too. I especially like Drottning, she looks very promising, having all the points to get a good riding- and breedinghorse. Hope she's gonna get as good as her brother Kyndill was!
Kátína was doing very well. She seems to be a very secure and trustworthy horse, not impressed by other youngsters behaving stupid while we are working together. She's equally tölting and trotting with the rider and I'm looking forward to train her more later this winter. Think I'll have to work a bit on her upperline, build up a bit more muscels there, but we are on a good way.
Flugar and Blöndal, the horses that came from the East, are doing well, Bjössi riding his Blöndal already free inside, Flugar behaving a bit like a huge dog, following me everywhere. 
Well, think a break will all of us do some good, so we'll be fresh again, when we take the ridinghorses inside around New Year. 
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