Wool and baby goats

Halfway already? These four weeks have gone too fast. I have plenty to talk about, so lets get to it.

Second week

I got familiar with the machines at work, so I got to start with new ones. The spinning machine makes one strand of yarn, second machine connects two strands (not sure what the name of that one is), and the steaming machine finishes the yarn. The very last machine, makes the yarn into either skein, or hank. You have to look these up, since I don’t have photos of them. But here are photos of the machines.

I was also able to start hand spinning my very own yarn, with a spinning wheel. The first yarn I made, looks terrible (it will get better, though).

The lambing season was going strong, and so many new babies were born. Few died, and one unfortunate one, was rejected by its mother. This one was sent to one of the neighbour, to bottle feed. The lamb got two orphan siblings to keep her company.

Next day, I helped Hulda with a presentation at hotel Rangá. I didn’t bring any good clothes with me, so I felt a little out of place there. The hotel was so fancy. I had no idea, what people were saying, but I got to explore around the hotel, which was quite small. Hulda was able to sell some yarn, and clumsy me crowned the night by falling on the stairs…

The day after was Ascension day. We had to brush the goats, to get some soft cashmere wool. The goats did not enjoy this, but their babies did. I fell in love again. Believe me, baby goat cuddles are the best. Also the babies are getting used to me, which means more cuddles. Later that day, I visited hot springs in Hverir. These hot springs are too hot to swim in, but it was amazing to see the steam pushing through the ground. There is a spot in the road to Reykjavik, where the steam is coming from under the asphalt. There might be a hot spring opening up there. I was hoping to see a geothermal park in the village, but it was closed, unfortunately.

On Saturday, was my roadtrip of the week. I wanted to swim somewhere, and there was one place I was planning to visit before even reaching Iceland. The Hrunalaug hot spring. This place used to be free, but now it has a fee of about 10 euros. (quite a lot for a 90 min swim). I still went, because it was stuck to my mind. The place was beautiful, and quiet. There were 3 small pools. Oldest one was built in the 18th century. I got very lucky to spend 45 min alone there. Water was warm of course.

After this, I drove to see the Geysir. It was not as great as you would think. Place was obviously crowded with tourists, so I didn’t really get much out of it. I drove a bit further, and decided to hike the Brúará trail, which took me about 2 hours. There were 3 beautiful waterfalls there, and they flowed fast. The last destination was to see the Kerid crater, in Klausturholar. The crater was deep, filled with blue water, but again, not something mindblowing.

After the trip, I felt like I was rushing to see everything. I decided to take things more slow. I can’t possibly see all of Iceland, so I need to stop, and think what I really want to experience.

Last day of the week, was the highlight of my stay. (At least for now). This might be hard to understand. I wanted so badly to see caves from ancient times. I was pondering, if I should pay to see the caves of Hella. After discussing this with Huldas husband, Tyrfingur, he told me about his neighbour with similar caves. We all drove together to see them.

The owner of the farm, told us stories of the caves, and how they were used in the old times. We visited three caves, but it was too dark to take any photos inside them. In one of the caves, a previous resident, found human bones. This was in the 19th century. He placed the bones under his bed, and waited for night. He wanted to see if anybody came to his dreams, to tell their story. Nobody did, so he decided to bury the bones into the walls of the cave.

Third week

This week started with some yarn colouring. At first, we used powder dye, but later, we’ll get to plant dyeing. We put the yarn in a pot, added some vinegar. Let the water boil, and added the dye. The yard simmered for an hour. (the water is not supposed to boil). After gently stirring, and turning the yard a few times, we let it in peace. When the water got cold, we took out the yarn, and rinsed it well. We then put the yarn to dry. At this point, you could stretch the yarn, to even it out. The leftover dye can be used again, to get a lighter colour.

After practising hand spinning, I was ready to start my own yarn. The wool went through the first three machines, to get soft, and ready for spinning. This yarn turned out much better. It’s very thick, and has a lot of twist, but still a lot better.

On Wednesday, Tyrfingurs mother took me out to sightseeing. We visited the farm, where she was raised. This farm is right next to the glacier, Eyjafjallajökull. Under this glacier, is a volcano, that erupted in 2010. The current owners of the farm, keep a small museum of the eruptions in Iceland. Photos of 2010 show how the entire farm was covered in ash. Over 100000 flights were cancelled in a week. It was really interesting to see. I also got some ash in a bottle to take home with me. Before leaving, they wanted to show me their unique power generator. It was a small house, that gets power from the waterfall. There is also hot water coming from the ground. We visited a small coffee shop on the road. This building is on a windy place, so it has metal chains keeping the roof in place.

We had a reservation to hotel Rangá. Tyrfingurs mother owns part of the hotel, so she wanted to take me there to eat, which was very nice of her. We had some time before reservation, so we drove to see the black beach. There are several black beaches in Iceland, but for some unknown reason, this one was the most popular. It was nice to see, but the rocks on the ground made it not nice to walk on. We made it to the hotel. The dinner was very fine dining, I ate some smoked salmon with peanuts. It was quite good.

After returning, we had to help one of the calf, to learn how to drink milk. He was confused, but got there in the end. The cows are usually calm, but with calves, they can be angry. The mother had to be locked up, so she couldn’t move.

On the 17th, Hulda and Turfingur, left for a funeral in the North. They were there for two days. It was just me, and another trainee at the farm. (There were neighbours helping of course). I spun a lot of yarn. I was also in charge of herding the ducks in and out of the barn. This was sometimes hard, because the ducks wander off. They are determined. Hulda is planning to give the ducks a pond, hoping that would make them stay in one place.

Everything went pretty good. We had one escaped calf, that we had to chase down. Twice. The baby goats also escaped once. But nothing dramatic. I spent a lots time with the goats. We went to Selfoss to grab pizza. Mine had bananas in it, that was an interesting experience. We drove back small roads, but found nothing there.

Fourth week

This Monday, we went to get some skins, that Hulda sent to a tannery in Sweden. She plans to use some of them on her kitchen chairs, and sell the rest. There were 30 skins in total. The skins were from last years butchered sheep, and goats. If these skins were mine, i would have hard time cutting them. They are so special.

We also got new residents to the farm. Eight small pigs. The road to the pig farm was long, and curvy. I met an awesome herding dog there. I’m very sad that I forgot to take pictures of him. He kept bringing me a rocks to throw. He placed them very carefully in front of me, making sure the stay in place. Playing was far more fun than scratches.

The pigs were nervous going to a new place. One of them kept bullying the others, but stopped after the first two days. Now they are happy to be outside, digging up worms. The pigs will actively dig the ground open, and then they will be moved to a new location. Then it will be easy to plant something to a place that the pigs have prepared.

Now we are plant dyeing. Lupus, is the only plant that we can use this time of year. We took some flowers, and leaves, and dug up some roots. We started by soaking the yarn in some mordant (aluminum sulfate) to prepare it. Then we cut up the roots, and put them to soak in salmiakspiritus (which is apparently household ammonia). They will be soaking for a week.

We then boiled the flowers, and leaves for an hour. After this, added the yarn, let it simmer for an hour, and let the water to cool down. Then put the yarn to dry. After it dried, it had to be washed, and dried again. This way the colour stays. We got some bright yellow yarn.

It was time to move some chickens. The are still growing feathers, but were now big enough to be moved outside. Chicken are raised only for meat, hens are for eggs. We had four of us moving the chicken with cardboard boxes. They cannot fly, so it was easy to catch them. It takes a while for all of the animals get used to the weather outside, but after a the first night, they are better. Demma was very exited to play with the chicken, but no luck.

Yesterday, There was a big graduation party here, so I made another road trip. I didn’t have a destination, but towards another cave museum. The cave people. Unfortunately, it was not open. I could see some water damage from the window. This was a cave, that one family lived in, in the 19th century. It was renovated to a museum.

I saw a glimpse of a waterfall, so I decided to walk there. It took me an hour to get close, but with the water flowing fast, it seemed too dangerous to get any closer. I just sat there exhausted on the moss. The scenery was gorgeous, photos can’t show it properly. It was so high up, that nothing really grew there. I drove around a beautiful lake, and walked the dead man walk, where they executed people, in the old times. Once again, I forgot to take pictures.

This ends todays post. I have been talking a little about sustainability in agriculture. Here in Uppspuni, it is taken seriously. This includes taking care of soil quality. I was able to see, how organisms work in the soil, with a microscope. There are only organic fertilizers in work here. This attracts many creatures, which makes pest management important. This is taken care of, with the help of the moving hen house. Wool is put around the trees to help them grow. Coal is added to the food of some of the animals, to help digestion. One day, I was watching how Tyrfingur was testing how to make coal out of bones. This coal is more dense, and burns slower. We will try to use this coal in forging metal. Hulda showed me her new garden plot. Tree trunks were put under the soil. These will rot slowly, keeping the ground warm and fertile. I’m glad i got to come to a place like this, where they’re constantly trying new, better ways to develop the farm in an eco-friendly way.