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Sunday, September 18, 2011

Göngur - roundup - from the word ganga = labba = walk.... but it means so much more



borrowed from ordabok.is

Ganga

1.  labba   walk; tread; stroll; hike; pad; gang; foot it;
2.  ganga upp   work; work out; do (það gengur ekki: that won't do);
3.  um smitsjúkdóma   go around (er flensa að ganga?: is there a flu going around?);
4.  um árangur   do (hvernig gekk þeim?: how did they do?); go (framleiðslan gengur vel: production is going fine); get along; fare;
5.  vera í gangi   operate; run;
6.  um klukku   advance;
fara gangandi um: hike;
veikindi   ganga að: ail, be wrong with;
ganga af göflunum: go crazy, rampage;
ganga aftur til liðs við: rejoin;
ganga á: deplete, draw on, encroach on (eða upon);
ganga á bak orða sinna: renege;
ganga á milli: intercede, interpose between;
ganga á mis: fault;
ganga á rétt einhvers: infringe on somebody (eða upon somebody);
ganga á víxl: crisscross;
ganga álútur: slouch;
ganga berserksgang: go berserk;
ganga ekki á einhverju: keep off something;
ganga fram af: appall, knock out, scandalise, shock;
ganga fram úr: jut;
ganga framhjá: pass over;
ganga frá: dispatch, do for, do up, exhaust, finalise, finalize, put away, put down, round off, (meiða) (UK) do over;
ljúka   ganga frá: close (ganga frá sölu: close a sale);
ganga frá einhverjum: break somebody down;
ganga fylktu liði: parade;
miða   ganga fyrir sig: come along (verkið gengur vel fyrir sig: the work is coming along fine);
virka   ganga fyrir sig: work;
vera knúinn   ganga fyrir einhverju: run off something, run on something, be driven by something (ganga fyrir rafhlöðu: be driven by a battery);
ganga gegn: defy;
ganga gæsagang: goosestep;
ganga hart eftir: stick out for;
ganga í: enter for, join;
ganga í (eða á) milli: intervene;
ganga í bylgjum: fluctuate, undulate;
ganga í garð: set in, (UK) come in;
ganga í her: enlist, join up;
ganga í hópgöngu: process;
ganga í hraðmarsi: double-time;
ganga í hröðum takti: double-quick;
ganga í hægðum sínum: saunter;
ganga í kringum: circumambulate;
ganga í röð: file;
ganga inn: stave in;
ganga klunnalega: clump;
ganga mann fram af manni: pass down, come down to;
ganga með: come along (hvernig gengur með það: how is it coming along);
ganga með skellum: chug;
ganga niður úr: scuff;
ganga nær: walk up;
ganga nærri: impoverish;
ganga of langt: get carried away, step out of line, overshoot;
ganga saman: telescope;
ganga sér til skemmtunar: promenade;
ganga svo langt: get to the point;
ganga til: pass to;
ganga til liðs við: team up with;
ganga tryggilega frá: secure;
ganga um: ambulate, perambulate;
ganga um gólf: pace, pace up and down;
standast   ganga upp: make sense, add up, compute;
blessast   ganga upp: work out;
labba upp   ganga upp: mount, walk up;
ganga úr: secede;
ganga úr sér: stale;
ganga úr skugga um: ascertain, make sure, ensure, establish;
ganga út frá: presume, postulate, presuppose;
ganga vel: be successful;
ganga við hliðina á: flank;
ganga yfir: blow over, pass off;
ganga yfir á rauðu ljósi: jaywalk;
ganga þvert á: cut across;
gengin í: past (tuttugu mínútur gengin í fimm: twenty minutes past four);
knýja   láta eitthvað ganga fyrir einhverju: run something off something, run something on something;
láta eitthvað yfir sig ganga: suffer through something;
láta ganga upp: realize;
maður á göngu: stroller;
úr sér genginn: antiquated, threadbare, timeworn, worm-eaten;
þar sem gengur á ýmsu: rocky
7.  walk; walking; perambulation; march;
8.  íþróttir   race walking;
9.  fiskifr.   run;
hefja göngu sína: be launched;
þátttakandi í göngu: marcher



So I joined in with the second göngur this year.  The first as I had previously posted were extremely tough with snow on the ground making it very difficult going for all those involved.  


Ross my nephew in law came with us - there were 5 of us in our team, Andrés, his wife's brother in law Agnar and a girl that worked for him from Germany - Jolanta.   


The weather was absolutely amazing.  I didn't take my camera so there will be no photos.... sorry for that.  


So a blow by blow by description:


We headed to Tunga at 6:30 am and went and saddled the horses and took off for our meeting point some 6kms away at around 7:05.  We were first to arrive there.  The scheduled meeting time was 8am.  I didn't see what the time was when we left for our designated roundup area....we head up over the hill and over to the next valley.  This where we start to split up - to "hold the line" so one person is at the top of the range of hills, another a little further down the slope, then another.... etc with Andres at the bottom of the valley following the river.  We then head south collecting along the way any sheep that were left over from the roundup the previous weekend.  


For me this was a pleasant riding trip - I was right in the middle of the group and had no sheep anywhere near me, hence no problems, I had a great horse - a 22 year old mare called Ara.  Who knew the mountain and valley better than me.... she knew where the muddy, sinky areas were, where it was best to cross streams and crevaces.... such a joy to be on a horse that knew what it was doing.  She did give me a bit of a problem when I was trying to remount - ie I fell off..... and then when she was getting enthusiastic about getting towards the end, she had a bit of a miss step and I fell over the top of her head... but all was well and I think she was ok with me.  


For the first time ever we made it to Kálfadalur early enough to take a break and have a coffee, problem was we were a bit too relaxed, some of the sheep that we herded turned back... got a call from Andres to get off my butt and go get them - We went off started to chase them, it wasn't pretty, Ross, however was a hero and helped Andres get them over the river onto the road, Yolanta and I tried to get the other two going in the right direction - she had to do the running I held the horses and tried to drag them along behind me.  For the first time ever I was on the northern side of the river on the home run..... which meant that we had to cross the river - the river has two very steep slopes on either side... going down was a bit of a hairy experience - but by this stage Ara had started to trust my judgement as I hers - Yolanta followed on her horse and we made it up to the other side and back to the rétt by 4pm.... thats 10 hours in the saddle folks..... pretty amazing.  


It was a great day - it was so good to feel physically exhausted.  


The best of it all was Olga made pizza for dinner with the home made salami that Ross and his dad and aunt made last week... Yummmmmm


Again, good times all round.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

An animal's eyes have the power to speak a great language. ~Martin Buber

This post is all about sheep, yep the four legged variety - not the human form that follows and absorbs all that is fed to them. Last weekend was the first of the sheep round ups for the season.  

 There were many tired horses and tired men coming down off the mountain - in fact I wasn´t there to meet them - I left the coral at 5:30pm and the main flock and men on horseback arrived at 6:30pm.... very tired, very sore and probably very pissed off.  
 You see there was snow in them there mountains.... half the herding was done in a metre of snow - not good - for men, horses and sheep - but it made the sheep that much cleaner and prettier.
 See all squished together waiting to be collected by their owners and herded off home.
 To be weighed for slaughter..... That was today's agenda - I am so good at slacking off at work.  Today I went to my uncle Andre's place to help with the weighing of the lambs and sorting the lot that will go to the abattoir tomorrow.  They were so cute.  Clean, and almost happy with their lot.
 
 This one I liked a lot... I just love the colour such a golden tawny brown.
 This is the weighing device.  My office desk is on the left of the photo... It went really well today - we sorted and weighed 295 sheep.  This process will be repeated around the 20th.  I may be heading for the mountain on Saturday to collect the sheep that were left behind after the last roundup.  Am sort of looking forward to it  - then I remind myself of my age and the amount of time I have spent in the saddle in the last twelve months... not many minutes there...
Ah, if I didn't love the taste of lamb so much I might even consider becoming a vegetarian - then I remind myself of the other fact - farmers have to live too.  Also, these lambs have had a damn fine existence thus far.  

Wednesday, September 07, 2011

I don't believe an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers. It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people have to work at. ~Maya Angelou

It's been a while, so much happening!  We went for a drive to Áskaffi to get a bit of a summer feeling.  This will be the first year that I haven't at least spent one day there in the role of waitress.  Definitely missed it!  Will make sure that this does not happen next year!

 The food, as usual was excellent, some smoked salmon on soð brauð (fried bread), sooo good.
 Hot chocolate, pancake and randalína... The best!
 Herdís got to know her little frændi.  Icelandic is so much easier than English, frændi basically means relation... we don´t go into the cousins grandchild as an explanation - a relation is a relation - no matter how far removed.
 My big but the youngest of the brothers Hilmar came to visit - he's the one on the right.  My big brother Helgi is on the left.  They are almost like peas in a pod - so similar in so many ways and what is more wonderful - they are the bestest of friends, even though they were apart for over 30 years before seeing each other again.  Having him here has been excellent... Such a good man, I am very blessed with all my siblings - they are all really really good people...   
 Politics has begun with a frenzy... including a meeting of the councils in the north west.  A part of the two day meeting thingy was a trip to Hvammstangi to see the seal centre.  Where we were given fine wine and good food and could see what our neighbours were doing in terms of tourism and giving visitors both Icelandic and those foreign to our shores an understanding of the role of the seal in Icelandic life on the coast.
 That evening included a meal, where basically folk let their hair down.  I had a good night - lots of dancing, some fine red wine and yeh, basically not thinking too much about the political side of life..... 
 After the conference it was back home to S´Krók where more political shenanigans were happening, my party was having it's annual feast.  One of the entertainers of the night was the former minister for Agriculture.... a bizarre but extremely amusing man and a fine speaker.  the guy on the left is the "earl" of Drangey... He went to the same country home schools as ma.  They are all getting so old.
 Himmi got a cold whilst here, which he kindly shared with me.  His cure was to eat shark with a shot of vodka.  I haven´t tried that yet and think I will probably give it a miss - I admire him for his willingness to try anything....
 As you can imagine mum was pretty pleased with having her son here.  She loves all her sons - but I think we can all agree that Himmi has a special place in her heart, and well deserved too.  Am taking mum to Akureyri tomorrow where she will undergo surgery on her arm that she broke,  apparently one of the nerves/tendons/muscles to her thumb got split and retracted up her arm - so she can´t move her thumb as she should.  There is a specialist there at the moment that had a cancellation so she got in immediately... Which is good... the bad bit is that it started to snow today and I am still on summer tyres...  Still the forecast is for milder weather tomorrow, still frost on the mountain pass but no new snow.
 I can't finish this post without a picture of Henry - the main man... 
Then I thought - poor Nina, now that Henry is here she is being totally ignored, so here she is looking forlorne... she basically just wants food.... but she is sooo cute!


Oh and if you go to flickr you can see some videos from last weekends trip through tunnels to the east of us.  Had a lovely weekend in the fog and rain and visiting Ólafsfjörður.