It’s only been two days since I wrote last but it seems like so much has happened. On Thursday Halldóra came over with the kids again for a visit. After lunch I helped with finishing wrapping the hay, which is all done now before the rain they are expecting this weekend. Now the big job is to load the barrels of hay onto a truck and bring them up to the top of a hill for storage. I believe that they said there are around 338 barrels from this harvest and there should be one or two more growths this summer so they should be good for winter. After wrapping the hay Ólöf and I went to the shop to grab a couple of things and then visited her brother and Halldóra again. It seems like we visit family/family visits us all the time, and coffee is always ready to go. Its quite nice… except I don’t drink the coffee but the visits always seem welcomed. When I was wrapping the hay I was thinking about why I drank the cup that Ólöf gave me on the first day and I guess its because my brother and I were raised so that when we are visiting people if something is given to you, eat or drink it. Which is why I suppose I have such a hard time saying no to free drinks from friends/strangers. Its just good manners right? (Also, my dad always told me the best kind of drink is a free drink… so… yeah.)
Anyways… after the visit we came back to milk the cows which I have been getting much more involved in, I don’t milk in the morning but in the evening I’ve been helping clean the cows, hook up the machines and clean the room. After we had dinner we went on a little road trip and drove by a volcano which they offered to walk up. The last time it erupted was about 3000 years ago and was part of a fissure line of volcanoes. One the way back to the farm we stopped to check out a little waterfall which was absolutely beautiful.
Yesterday morning Ólöf asked me if I wanted to help take the baby cows out for the first time which was quite the task. She gave them some medicine first to help with the intestines and then Valti came to help out as the cows were not cooperating very well. We then tried to get them into another part of the barn before having them head outside for the first time. Boy oh boy. They were pretty interesting to watch trying to move down the hallway and into the pen. Trying to get them all there took a bit of time as they all just wanted to do their own thing, it was pretty funny.
In the afternoon Jón Þór stopped by and we took a trip to the mountains/glaciers with one of his twin boys Aron, Halldóra’s son Skirnir and his grandfather Herman (I think that’s the right name), and went for a hike. We had to cross over the river which was pretty cold and explored the land quite a bit with the boys. When we started to get going with the hike the boys were already pretty tired so at one point Jón Þór and I continued up to the top of Hádegisfell Syðra while the boys and Herman made their way back to the car. The whole trip up was incredibly beautiful. The land was absolutely untouched, no marked paths, no sign that anyone else had ever climbed up before. When we got to the top we sat in silence for a bit just absorbing the surroundings, the peacefulness. It was gorgeous. We had some pretty amazing views of the glaciers like Langjökull. On the way down we decided not to walk but to slide down the snow instead, and boy was that a great idea. So much fun, it was incredible.
We headed back to the house for some dinner and birthday cake as it was Jón Þór’s birthday. Almost all the family was here including the oldest son Guðmundur who they call Gummi (maybe not spelled that way) and his little son. At one point in the night Valti, Jón Þór and Gummi all started singing for Gummi’s son, it was such a cute moment. They are all pretty talented musically, Valti is part of a choir and plays a couple instruments, and the boys all seem to know how to sing and play something as well.
Helgi showed me this video of Gummi and his band the other day… and now that we are facebook friends it is so easy to creep his profile to find it.
Pretty good, eh?
Oh, I also found out yesterday that Guðmundur, the grandfather here who just turned 91 (doesn’t speak English so all is translated to me) had been saying that it was perfect that I was coming so that I could marry his youngest grandson, Helgi – something along the lines of ‘she is coming to you, you don’t have to go looking – that’s the way to do it’. They are starting to translate more of these comments to me, maybe now that Helgi is gone? The other day after horseback riding he asked me if I wanted to buy a horse and then said something like oh no you can just marry him instead and then they are yours. Last night he was talking to the family about how I am going to be sold/bought into the family and become a farmers wife. I feel like he is only somewhat joking… Oh dear haha
Anyways, today’s been pretty laid back so far, I finished knitting another hat. Yay for that!
Off to lunch!
LOL I can just hear Gamli say these things and I a sure you that he thinks it´s a great idea 🙂