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.

The lights were again strong and I was trying a new place with a nice foreground (at least I think so). As my remote control decided to work, I took about 250 pics and put around 200 together into a very short timelaps video. Hope you like it!

As every year Grani, our local riding club, invited it's members for a summer season finish ride. This year, we met at the older stable village and went for a scenic ride to Botnsvatn and from there all the way to our riding hall, where we did some games and finished the day with a great barbecue.
The weather was perfect, really warm and sunny and we were about 30 riders taking part and a got bunch of them were kids, which was just great as it is always nice to have these young and unspoiled riders around. 
As it was that warm, we used the chance and walked our horses into the lake. List really loves water and waded until I was wet up to half of my lower leg. Didn't matter as it was so warm. We splashed on quite some other riders, when we rushed out of the water. List definitely had a lot of fun.

The season already started on 13th of August, but tonight I went for the first time hunting Northernlights. I decided to get a nice foreground and try to take pics at Æðarfossar, closeby Húsavík. The forecast was very good and I'm happy about the Aurora alert website, which gives quite precise forecasts, when you actually should be ready for a good shot.
And what a show I got! So many lights, dancing, different colours and all over the sky. I tried my fisheye lens, too and got some nice shots with it. Looking forward to a great season!