Blissed and Blessed

 Finding words seems a more challenging task, as the feeling of being here becomes more and more unique. It is a mixture of such diverse inputs, happenings, sights, feelings, sensations and thoughts, that typing one letter after the other seems empty of meaning, compared with what I wish I could express here.

The end of the Autumn reached an hectic point, in which everything felt like falling apart. This year, Ártún has more young cows than usual, because they were not able to sell some of them in the Spring/Summer. Some of these young cows got "calveful" (the term we use for pregnant cows), to be precise, 13 of them. During two weeks in the middle of October, there were 13 labours, one of them of unborn twins, all the other calves are alive and healthy. This means that during this time we had to be always attentive to understand if there were signs of some cow being in labour, then, help them delivering the calve by pulling him out. Each time a new calve was born, I was feeding him/her with a bottle for at least 3 days. At some point, they were 7 or 8 drinking from the bottle, in the morning and in the evening. All of them really "frek" (meaning "eager"), which resulted in being constantly assaulted by these small but somehow strong creatures that were claiming their milk (trying to get milk from everything that their mouth reached, so I was often harassed), all at the same time, with me being able to feed only one at a time... Then, in turns, when it was time to stop with the bottle, I had to find out how to teach them how to drink from the bucket. Some learned really easily, while with others it was a struggle that sometimes could look like a fight between me, the calve, the bucket with milk and whatever was around us.
Then, with all these young cows calving, there were many more cows to milk, and no space for all of them. The cow-house has place for 24 milking cows, and these are as many as we milk normally. The calves do not drink from their mother directly (they would never be able to drink by themselves from the bucket if they start and continue for a while to drink from a cow). So, when a cow has calved we need to start milking her immediately, because she needs to have the milk coming out of her. Needless to say that a new calve represents more milk, and that is what is done at Ártún with the cows, collecting milk to sell, to sustain financially the farm.
With so many young cows with calves and milk, they have put away more cows, to the slaughter. As I wrote, there is space for 24 milking cows, and with so many more cows with milk, they had to chose who stays and who goes, so that they can have conditions for all the animals living in the cow-house. Unfortunately, once again the power of decision was used upon animals to solve a human problem. I have described some of my feelings concerning this subject on a previous post ("The inevitable 1 month post") , and I would not like to over-mention the topic.

The Winter routine brings us to the sheep-house, after the regular morning work in the cow-house. We brought them down from the mountain where they spent day and night and now they stay outside during the warmer days and sleep in the house in the night. So, we feed them with hay and give them water, now that the snow makes it more difficult for them to feed outside. Soon, the sheep will stay all the time in the sheep-house, waiting for the Winter to be over.

In the end of October I travelled south. In good company, mountain Esja was the set for a short climb, from where we could see Reykjavik from afar. Such a small capital city, and still, hosting 2/3 of Icelandic population... It was a cloudy and cold afternoon and it started getting dark quite early, so it was time to get warm with a soup in town.
In a rented car, we hit the road leading to Glymur, the highest waterfall in the island. The landscape is very beautiful on the way there, along Hvalfjörður. The weather was nice, which was contributing for this to be one of the most special days in Iceland so far. With "bites and boots" in our backpacks (food for the way, warm clothes and good shoes in case the climb would get more challenging), we spent some time looking for the way up, going around river Botnsa, listening to the waterfall but still without angle to get a sight, as it stands in a narrow cliff. There were a few other people there, which gave us the chance to ask for the way and then let our imagination fly, trying to guess where they were from and how were they there. Once we got on the right track, we found all sorts of different terrain, wet, forestry, icy, rocky... until we reached the top.
From there, the view was splendorous... The fjörð, the mountains, the open sky, the river and the waterfall...
Most mountains in Iceland are flat on the top, which is unforeseeable when looking at them from the bottom. This creates a magical atmosphere, a new land on the peaks of the world.
These were very special holidays, but I will stick to the description of these two adventures.




Tourism is a national concern in this country. Last summer season there were 600 000 tourists visiting Iceland (considering that it counts with 320 000 inhabitants, we can try to take some conclusions about the impact that this can have). It is estimated that in 2 years the number of tourists will rise to 1 million. It is a hot topic in the Parliament and amongst Icelanders. The issue is: even if they stop in this very moment with the great marketing that they have been creating around what this land can offer regarding tourism, its effects will still last for long. I wonder how this will evolve...

The weather... a subject that can never be left out of a conversation in or about Iceland.
I find it interesting that, in my experience, there is almost a circular manifestation of atmospheric conditions: snow (sometimes with storm/wind), clouds, sun.
The first days of November brought a four days snow storm like there have been a few in the last decades in the island. The wind reached 40m/s and walking to the cow-house and sheep-house was by itself an adventure. We had to listen to the sound of the wind in the mountain, when it was strong, we had to wait a while until we could feel it down here, and when that gust was gone, we ran (as far as it was possible). With meters of snow on the ground and sometimes ice, the wind plays with our balance and proves its power. This snow storm was one of the strongest things Nature has ever shown me, it brought me thrill and excitement! It felt as if I was in some kind of quest, living an adventure out of a book. Meanwhile, the moments spent indoors felt so cosy and warm. When the storm was over, it took some time to get used to the silence... Something was missing, the wind was no longer playing its symphony.

Did you know that there are 12 different names for the wind in Icelandic? These words are known and used commonly and they go according to the strength of the wind (meters per second).






With all these differences in the weather, compared to the Mediterranean, my body is happy to be able to ingest so many tasty things, such as the home-made cookies and cakes that always fill the table during kaffi time. I have also started taking a table spoon of Lysi - Codfish Liver Oil (isso mesmo, óleo de fígado de Bacalhau) in the morning, an ancient recipe to face a long Winter with little Sun. It is full of vitamin D and other nutrients that my organism is glad to welcome. The first spoon was awful, after that it's just like water.
Other curiosities about gastronomy in Iceland: horses are not only considered good for horseback riding and beautiful to see in the landscape, their meat is also very appreciated; Pilsur are the Icelandic version of Hot Dogs, the sausage has no pork meat (a kind of meat that can rarely be found here and is not even appreciated locally), it's essentially lamb sausage  in bread, together with fried onion and the typical sauces that go on a Hot Dog; Lúxus-síld maríneruð í bitum is Herring marinade in a jar, preserved with onion and with a very yummy taste, we eat it just like that in bread.

Music makes the world go round... Since I started bringing the headphones to the cow-house, there is a different rhythm to the afternoon work. I hope the cows have fun when I can't keep myself from singing or even dancing around. It's a fact that they have started licking me more, while I scrub the floor in front of them, more often their tongues are trying to reach for me, and I can't resist it, so we share some tenderness.

The other day, when the milk car came (it's more like a a milk truck but I use the terminology of Ártún) it took 1066 litres of milk from the tank! I believe this is a record since I am here. This is the milk of 3 days, from 23 cows (one of them is calving in December so we are not milking her any more until the calve is born).

And to close this post, that by now is way longer than your patience, I have to mention that I had a wonderful talk on the phone with Alice Vilaça, journalist and producer of Portugueses no Mundo, broadcast by Antena1 radio station. I don't know about the final result of the recorded conversation, but the time spent talking not only about the experience here but also about the broadcast, emigration, different realities, people and the world was really worthwhile. Obrigada Alice!