Like the years before, we were asked to help herding the sheep in the homeland of Klambrasel. This time I couldn't join on horseback, but Jón Borgar went to assist Bjössi and Ingólfur. Upon arriving quite a funny view awaited us as all the chicken had gathered together under the pick up of Gunnar. They definitely disliked the drizzle whilst the ducks were happily running around looking for food.
Then it was time to start. The guys went on back and up the hill and I was in the car watching the herders and sheep in the hillside as I had a better overview from there. That way I was able to tell them about sheep going the wrong direction and so on. Hope I was useful there. 

I've been lucky about Icelanders not so keen on collecting mushrooms and about finding my favourite kind at some places closeby. Today I went to check if I could find some and was successful, got nearly 1kg. And I found some aðalber (a kind of bilberry), which were not soooo common this year due to late frost in spring.
Back home I prepared some of the mushrooms for freezing and hope I got it right and they'll be nice when I'm going to use them later.

We got visitors from Austria this week. I knew Monika from my time at Forsthof, but except for occasional "Likes" and comments on Facebook we hadn't had much contact. So I was rather surprised when I got a message earlier this year asking if I could recommend places to stay and places to visit during their planned travel to Iceland. In the end they booked a stay at Hólmavað Guesthouse and we planned to meet when they would be travelling here.
Unfortunately the weather wasn't in our favour, but we were still able to do a lot of things and had a very interesting tour to Þeistareykir and the caves up there. Think everybody enjoyed that.

That's what happened when Jón went for a holiday in Spain and left us in charge of his garden. We arrived with saws, pruners and a trailer to cut overexessive branches of a few trees to make it easier for the other plants in the garden to get some light. Good for us Jón didn't see all the branches we cut, but the result is great!

It was time to get the big hay bales for winter and Atli & Atli at Laxamýri came to deliver 2 wagons full of them today. We decided to have them at a different place this year, trying to make it easier to fetch them when there's snow and maybe far enough away from the rubishpile and the ravens. When driving down we got aware of a family of rock ptarmigan lingering in the grass, not at all afraid of us in the car. Well, good thing to have enough feed for our horses when needed.

Our friends Siffi and Jón Óli and their families invited us and fellow riders for a ride at their beautiful place Arnarnes in Kelduhverfi. Hjördís and Ingólfur took Embla and Magnús along, whilst I took my camera and a smoked leg of lamb which had hung and riped in our cellar for about 18 month and was ready to be eaten. We got that leg in december 2017 for helping our friend Halldór. It was from a rather fat lamb, a heavy piece of meat and perfect for that kind of experiment. We more or less "forgot" about it being there, just checked regularly if it would become moldy, which never happened. Of course we tried it before taking it along and it was delicious!
Whilst the riders went for a tour in the beautiful area with excellent paths, I helped in the kitchen and was especially good at trying out the newly fried kleinur (Icelandic twisted doughnuts). After the ride we had grilled legs of lamb, salad and potatoes, just the right thing! Even though it was a bit foggy and chilly we had a great time in the barn and it was surprisingly difficult to persuade Hjördís to going home as she had a great time with the other teenagers.

... our stable. We had finished mucking the boxes and now it was time to use the high-pressure water blaster to wash away the winter's dirt and grease. I started brushing the walls with water and soap and Ingólfur rinsed with the pressure washer. Now everything is clean and shiny and just has to dry before we can make the boxes ready again. Nice to have it clean.

We got to know that a farmer close by had decided to use the great weather and make small hay bales like he already did 2 years ago. Then we were really happy with his product and decided to try and get a load for our horses. The meadow wasn't fertilized this year and the hay was a mixture of new and old grass so not very nutrient, but that was exactly what we were looking for. The hay should be "light", not too many calories and the perfect startingfeed for our horses when we take them into the stable later in winter. So we went with our trailer and the aim to fit as many bales as we possibly could into it. We ended up with 52 crispy dry bales ready for our horses. And the best thing: they fitted exactly into our stallions' box, where they'll stay until needed.