(Post 2 of 3) Raising sheep is Lauga’s hobby, and she is darned good at it. This is her room, within the sheep barn, where she spends the nights during lambing season. All of these framed certificates are prizes she has won. Lambing can be very quick, “Sometimes is starts and finishes within one hour,”…
Shorts
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(Post 3 of 3) Before we leave Hraun-Háls, we visit in the kitchen over cake, whipped cream and fresh milk. Eyberg drinks almost nothing but milk – about 4 litres per day – and the sample he shares with us is rich and delicious (4.4% fat). We look at the trophies they have won for…
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At Work: Hraun-Háls, Snæsfellsnes Peninsula
(Post 1 of 5) We arrive to Hraun-Háls dairy farm in time for the evening chores. Eyberg and his wife Lauga are the farmers here. “I was one year old when I moved here in 1964,” says Eyberg. Lauga is the sister-in-law of our last host, which is how we ended up here. The farm…
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(Post 2 of 5) These are Icelandic cows, and each one in this barn has its own name. This is just one clue to the care they receive here, another is the yield. The average milk production for an Icelandic dairy cow is 5400 litres/year; these ladies give 7700 litres/year. “They have hay and very…
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(Post 3 of 5) “These cows are my friends,” says Eyberg, but that’s not quite what he means. He searches for the words in English and pulls his hands to his chest. “They are my good friends,” he continues, “my good friends.” There’s one cow that’s nervous about being milked. She recently had her first…
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(Post 4 of 5) Lauga hooks the milking machine overhead and gets to work. While she milks and feeds the cows, she is also checking on the new calves and the pregnant mothers. She shows me where to place my hand, near the base of the cow’s tail, in order to assess when labour will…
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(Post 5 of 5) You can’t mistake love when you see it. Guðlaug Sigurðardöttir and Jóhannes Eyberg Ragnarsson, Hraun-Háls, West Iceland. Thank you. Photo Eric Guth.
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West Iceland en route, Snæsfellsnes Peninsula
#meetthenorth in Iceland is a road trip. With Eric at the wheel, we pull over very often to take photographs. (Okay, he takes the photographs, and I walk around in the wind.) We are halfway to our next stop. We’ve traversed this peninsula and get our first glimpse of the north side. Green! Photo by…
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Stóri Kambur Farm, Snæsfellsnes Peninsula, Iceland
(Post 1 of 4) “When we walked into this house and looked at the view, we had already decided.” That was ten years ago when Eyguló and her husband moved to Stóri Kambur farm. Eyguló is a cousin to Olga, who sent us here from the sheep round up a couple of days ago. This…
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(Post 2 of 4) The wind is strong here, but so is the community. It has been a good place to raise four children, despite the isolation (you need a car for everything). And: “It’s nice to be close by where we were born and bred.” I feel very relaxed in this house, and our…
