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Færslur: 2013 Ágúst

31.08.2013 19:16

Hraunsrétt 2013

At least one week earlier than usually the sheeproundup and sorting took part this weekend. We decided to spare the horses today after a difficult roundup and drive the herd back home walking and by car.

10 o'clock sharp the first group was driven into the big area for sorting. This time, there were rather few helpers for Hólmavað, but Ingólfur and Bensi already had calculated, that each and every of them was supposed to find 53 sheep. No idea, if everybody fullfilled that emoticon

The kids were really busy dragging sheep and lambs when they found one with the right number. I tried to find as many young rams as possible, as they are easier to hold with their big horns. When I spotted my grey ewe, I was rather happy to see her. Unfortunately, I couldn't find her sister Snilld. Maybe she is still in the highlands or somebody else didn't have a good look at the number and took her into his herd. We will hopefully get her back sooner or later.
During the break, we had a lot to do with keeping the sheep from our picknick. They really liked to taste all we had with us, even chocolate milk. My plasticbag with horsetreats disappeared misteriously and was found a bit later with a huge hole, but no horsetreats. Seems like sheep like that, too.

We were the first group to drive the herd back home and started just when the sorting was finished. The start went well, but then there was a farmer, who collected the sheep from a different area, with his big traktor and trailer, who was so unpatient to leave, that he didn't have regard for our group and just drove through the herd, driving the sheep here and there. It was really difficult, to get them back into the herd and on the right way again. This farmer himself is owner of a huge flock of sheep and he should know... Think it wasn't just me being really angry about this.

After running and shouting and more running, we brought the whole herd home to the big pasture, where the sheep wait for the sorting tomorrow.

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29.08.2013 18:21

Back to work

We started working last Monday and it was good to go back to some routine.

Last weekend there was Firmakeppni at Einarsstaðir and Ingólfur was asked to judge. It was nice to watch and I'll put in the pics later. Hrund, Ingólfur's nice, took part with her mare Vaka. They did well, but have to im prove a bit. But that's just something to work on and we were both really happy that she wanted to take part.

Later that day I went mushroompicking in the forrest and came home with around 5kg, which I already dried.

You probably remember our posts from last autumn, about the horrible weather and all the snow early in September. Now it looked like this was going to happen again and the farmers decided to go earlier to collect their sheep. We went on horseback to Þeistareykir on Tuesdayafternoon in wonderful weather, nearly too hot. We went 6 together with 16 horses and when the last ones arrived at the hut, it was already very dark and late in the evening. At least I saw wonderful strong northernlights on my way back to Húsavík. Yesterday the collecting didn't go as well as they wanted. The sheep were not happy about being driven and tried very often to turn around and run back to their favourite places. It was a very long day for everybody. Seems like it's going better today. Tomorrow they will drive the big herd down to the valley and we hope there will be still rather good weather, so we can join on horseback. Just keep your fingers crossed for us!

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17.08.2013 11:12

Horses, horses, horses

One of the first things to do after coming home, was checking out all our horses emoticon

Vordís was confirmed pregnant with Snillingur frá Íbishóli, a young, very promising bucksin stallion, and is back in Haga with Perla, Embla, Þýrnirós and Þokki. They are all well, enjoying the lucious grass and the beautiful area. Sigtýr and his 2 mares are well, too, relaxing a lot and eating even more. At least we could motivate them a bit to run for some pics. We still have to check both mares for pregnancy.

The riding horses are fine, Amor's back is healed and List's leg, too, as she prooved yesterday, when she was hopping around like crazy. Of course we had a good ride my first evening back, me on Amor and Ingólfur on Farsæll, who he has been training during my absence. I was really surprised and happy how much progress in tölt these two have achieved. Thanks so much!

On Thursdayevening we kept on training these 2 horses for the sheeproundup in September, this time improving our skills in finding, herding and driving sheep. There were around 36 sheep from a nearby farm in Saltvíkland and they are definitely not supposed to be there. We gathered them together with Bjössi and drove them all the way back to their homemeadows. Hope they won't come back as they have been feeding on our meadow, which we wanted to hay...

Yesterday we went to Helluland and Ingólfur and Kiddi tried some of the young mares, which went very well and I got some nice pics of Embla, Sól, Sóla and Vá. We ended the day at Hólmavað with a delicious barbecue.

I attach a pic of Sigtýr and Aldís.

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14.08.2013 08:46

Summerholiday

As usual I used part of my summerholiday to visit my family and friends in Austria and Germany. First stop this year was Gabi's place, where I got to know her new, very sweet dog. After shopping a lot on Friday we went to dogschool on Saturday. This time it was bathing/swimmingtime and I really enjoyed watching the dogs and owners trying this new task. I think it was very good for all of us to cool down a bit as it had been rather hot. Of course we visited Gabi's horse and had a short talk with Ulli, the stable owner, who was really interested in breedinglines and young, promising stallions in Iceland. Sunday afternoon there was a thunderstorm with hail and some of the "corns" the size of tennisballs. Soooo much damage done! Cars, roofs, windows, windowshutters, walls, solar collectors, just name it!

Monday evening I continued my journey to Austria, where it still was very hot. After meeting Gerti, her husband and Sophie (one of the twins) on Rathausplatz and spending a wonderful evening, I went to our summerhouse with my parents. It was partly too hot to do anything, temperatures around 35°C, which is very much for that area of Austria. Nevertheless we managed to do something, even cut the five-leaved ivy, which was already overgrowing the bedroom window.

Then it was my nephew's and niece's birthdayparty, both of them really enjoying being in the middle of all the attention. They got a lot of presents and of course we were invited to play with them.

The next days just passed so quickly, Austria reaching its alltime heatrecord with 40,5°C. Of course I visited my grandma and cut down her rubber fig together with my parents. Now it can grow again, crazy tree! It was very nice to meet my aunt after quite some years of not seeing her and I think we all enjoyed it a lot.

Well, I used the opportunity to try my new camera at the zoo and went for a very very nice visit there with my brother and his family. It had cooled down a bit then and the animals started to move again.

I got a typical Austrian meal every day at lunchtime and I think, my dad enjoyed a lot, that my mum cooked all our favourites like: Grammelknödel (filled dumplings), lentils with bacon and dumplings, meatballs with mashed potatoes and a lot more.

As usual time just passed far too fast...