Laufskálarétt the dance and all the rest

This first picture is "borrowed" from feykir.is The guy riding the horse is Bjarni M. A bloke that I shared office space with and who works for the soil conservation service here in Iceland. Well, this last weekend was Laufskálarétt, the biggest horse roundup in Iceland (in my mind there are more folk than horses) nevertheless, it is a big weekend as lots and lots of people flock north to attend the round up and the entertainment that surrounds this weekend. As you can see the weather was BAD...

We here in the town, know better, so for us it was roasted back of lamb (rack but still attached to the other rack... hence a back) ´twas rather good, even if I say so myself. Our biggest hangup though was finding the appropriate back up music to our game of Trivial Pursuit - this is what one does before heading off to the biggest dance in the country. Our game of triv was Icelands version from 1986... Given that I was the only adult around at this time (ie of a mature age in 1986), I was the "winner"

You can tell from the smug look on my face....

These sweeties were well... the losers... no not really Bryndís the younger was almost there with me and Maggi, just didn't quite have it though.... But they don´t look too unhappy about it do they?

Anywho, after our major triv session we took a taxi to the equestrian centre, proceeded to dance and allow the effects of the red wine we had previously drunk do its thing. There are various accounts and memories of what occurred - but Laufskálarétt is like Vegas - you know the drill. Needless to say a fairly fun night was had by all. A complete Sunday was needed for me to feel like a part of the human race again, but as is every year - I never regret it.. It is a bizarre night but always a good night.

In other news. I was just looking up to see the tv and saw the advert for Kraftur a docco by a guy that I work with about another guy that I once worked with and his horse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOFwXOsImOE is the link to the trailer for the film. The docu maker got me to go over the english subtitles and I cried whilst reading them... needless to say I did not go to the premier - too hard for a sook like me. So I am waiting for the dvd.

hope the link works - if not you need to join the facebook link to Kraftur.

Just to give you a brief outline of the story. Tóti - is a great rider here in Iceland - a teacher at Hólar and a really all round nice guy. He met a horse - Kraftur frá Bringu, that he trained and got to such a high level that all that was left was to take him to the Internationals for the Icelandic horse, but taking a horse outside of Iceland means that he can never come back. No horses are imported to Iceland - both to keep the breed "clean" and also to prevent any diseases from coming here . So for him to take his horse to the championship meant that he had to leave him behind. The only talk in the trailer is him saying "and the question is - was it really worth it?" Needless to say - they won - they really won, came away with all the major trophies - but even so - was it worth it - to leave the horse, the friend behind. Like I say - I get teary thinking about it. Ah, such is life. We all need to sometimes give things up - no matter how hard it seems - maybe it is all for the best.

Another pretty day today - but really bloody cold. 'twas kinda fun though walking through the snow to get to bed early on Sunday morning - wish I had had my camera with....

What to do with the sheep when they come off the mountain - weigh them!!!!

My job today was to control the weighing machine (yeh tough huh). They pushed the sheep through into the weight, they tell me the number of the sheep, I push a button and write down the weight of said sheep. The lamb rams over 40kg were sent to the "death row" part of the sheep shed, whilst the females and skinnier rams were sent out to do some more eating.

My uncles Andres and Þóri, the farmers at Tunga whose sheep we were weighing.

How can you think that these poor little darlings will taste good on a dinner table - trust me they do. But they are sweet aren´t they?

We weighed 725 lambs today in around 6 hours. I think my uncle was pleased, he said I could come back for the next weighing. I really can´t describe how nice it feels for me to be of use to them. The life of a farmer is not an easy one, particularly a sheep farmer, the price they get for the "raw material" is ofcourse nothing compared to what we pay in the supermarket. The cost of production is high, getting higher each year due to the cost of fertiliser and oil, the processing cost is also high because most of the labour in the slaughter house is imported - most of the workers here come from New Zealand (yes all the way from NZ), Poland and Sweden. Icelanders consider the work "beneath" them. Here at the slaughterhouse the Icelandic workers are mainly farmers, like my uncle, who works in the "reception". By the way Maja, I met Eymundur today - he has happy memories of working with you!!! He said "Það var alltaf gaman að vinna með Mæju - fín stelpa"

Well, time to rest my weary bones, I still find it hard to use my leg muscles to stand up, I also discovered a lovely bruise on the back of my leg that I got when one of the horse that I was leading down a hill accidently hit it... well I believe it was an accident!

PS guess what I had for dinner - yep a lamb roast - tonight was my uncle Bjössi's turn to host the family feast - his wife Rúna turned 80 last week so it was a sort of birthday celebration. Again, a great night with a wonderful family.... Have I said how much I love my life here in Iceland????

pps talking of which - families that is - yesterday was my sister Unnurs birthday - whom I blogged about a few weeks back. Her daughter Olga has written a beautiful post about her which sums up how we all feel about her. Read it and weep - I did

Second Roundup

Just some proof, this is as we were riding back to the farm. We started out sometime after 6am this morning and came back to the farm at around 3pm. I still can´t find my camera so no shots this year from the valley that we clear, one day I intend to walk back up into the valley just so that I can appreciate it properly. Usually during round up you are too busy trying to concentrate on staying in the saddle, finding and chasing sheep and generally keeping the adrenalin level up so that you just don´t sit down on the nearest hillock and cry from tiredness.

Guðný took this photo and a heap of others that I am going to put on my flickr. I think that my family in Aus will enjoy trying to spot which folks they know. A lot of these photos are from last weeks sheep sorting session

In other news the jogging group is having its annual get together, this means all the skeletons in town get totally wacked, unfortunately I am in no state to stay up and watch the revelry. In Icelandic the group is called "skok hópurinn" skok = jog hópurinn = group.... The oldies in town call it the fock hóp - you get my jist. (and by oldies I mean 70+). Probably after tonight there will be a number of marriages/relationships being "swapped".

Tomorrow I am going back to the farm to help my uncle and my cousin weigh the lambs that are going to be sent to slaughter. It's the circle of life I guess, and I do love my lamb roast.

Sheep!!!!!

Guðný took this photo of me at the rétt last Saturday and although it is already on fb I thought I would share it with those that don´t go there. Especially for my brother J and sister U... 'cos if they make the picture bigger they will see the blokes in the background, my uncles Þóri and Stebbi, cousin Ásgeir and his son Vikingur.... as well as of course in the foreground all those lovely sheep...

No Camera, no pictures, no fun.....

Yep, the camera has gone awol, have no idea where I left it. So - the run down on the last two weeks.

My most wonderful friends - Bernd, Amanda, Narelle, Matthias (B & A´s son), Amandas folks and her great aunt were all here for a fabulous six days in the north. It was all pretty low key on my part - I did very little whilst they did major major work for mum in the garden, cooked an amazing chinese dinner (that ended up being dinner for two nights). We did manage to squeeze in a little site seeing and berry picking - which is the to do thing here at this time of year.

After they left for the South and the requisite visit to Gullfoss, Geysir and Thingvellir, along with Rvk and the Blue Lagoon. The other autumn activities went into full swing. That is the sheep round up and sorting... just see my blogs for early september in the last few years and you will know what I am talking about.

So, this year instead of collecting the sheep I just went with Guðný to sort sheep in the coral. Twas brilliant fun (as always) and as always came home with an appropriate number of bruises on my upper thighs. You see the thing is with the sheep of my uncle - they are all horned, handy handle thingies. You swing over so they are between your legs face forward, ie horn in thigh, and gently move them to the section of the roundup where uncles sheep are collected together. I also managed to be "bucked" by a lamb (female at that - can´t even say it was a potential huge ram) - lost a bit of cred, but hey I didn´t let go.

Saturday night was scrabble night with Guðný, which ended up being a very late Tarot reading session. The cards had no major news for me.... ah well, just as well I don´t believe in that crap.

Sunday turned out to be a glorious day, mum and I even had a bit of a sun bake in the back yard. Iceland style - bra and jeans.... not a pretty sight... still twas the weather for that (and the fence high enough to protect the young and easily traumatised). It was also the day that we probably used the grill for the last time this year.

Next weekend Andres has said that I can be a part of the second round up - this time we collect the straggler sheep and the horses that have been up in the mountain pastures. It´s a really pleasant ride and hopefully the stragglers won´t be too unwilling to join their mates in the farm paddocks.

This time of year also means slaughter season (this lasts for around 2 months). Which also means that the population of the town has been increased by 15 new zealanders around 20 poles and a few swedes thrown in for good measure.

Too tired too windblown to say anymore...

Sun is back!!!!

Especially posted for those on their way from Australia and the UK.... the sun is shining and it isn´t as horribly cold as it was yesterday.... The forecast is looking good.

I really hope I haven't jinxed this..............................