Day 28: Expect sheep.... everywhere!

Before heading to Snæfellsjökull National Park, I had to do the morning chores, which includes feeding the orphans. We have a visitor in the orphan group, it is a little moorit lamb that has an abscess on her hind fetlock (equivalent to our ankle). Snædis has been tending to her out in the field for the past week because we have not been able to capture her mother and get her to the barn. Her mother has been enjoying out attempts to catch her and at the sight of Helgi she would jump and get all excited for the run she is about to have. The little lamb progressed to where she was no longer standing and crawling around the field, so Snædis made the executive decision to just bring her inside and leave mom outside. It was not hard for the lamb to acclimate and she already enjoys human attention, so it worked well for her. The younger two orphans have been forcing themselves on the older ones and they have begrudgingly started to allow it. The lost orphan has stopped trying to nurse off of the others but continues to be the outsider. 

The little spotted mouflon has made his way into the orphan clique and is seen within the group... sometimes, other times he has disappeared into their bellies and fluff.

Here he is before he disappears into the fluff

An update on the little lamb that I brought in, along with his mother and sibling (not without a chase). We have given him a big shot of vitamins (including Selenium) and I supplement his nursing with a bottle and he is doing much better. He still needs to build up his hind legs muscles (they had atrophied from him not having the energy to get up), but that will come with more time.

Our little Stevonnie has moved into the middle barn, which is a bit more open so she makes it a point to visit each group in their pens in the morning by running up and down the feeder.

"Good morning, just checking on the neighbors."

I finished up with the morning feeding, packed my bags and started the drive to Snæfellsjökull National Park. The main attraction is Snæfellsjökull, which is the center mountain that has the large glacier on top of it (the translation of Snæfellsjökull, is "the glacier". My goal was to get up there and touch that glacier. 

The glacier is seen during the drive.

Before I actually got to the park, I had to stop and get some food. Because it was a holiday here the grocery stores were closed so I had to stock up at a gas station. I stopped in a little town outside of the park that was on the ocean. I noticed a land mass off the coast, that land mass was Greenland! 

I edited the photo a bit so that you can see the outline of Greenland just below the cloud line.

Once stocked with plenty of water and snacks, I headed to get a trail map and head to my first trail. This park is absolutely stunning, looking up at the mountains, waterfalls, and lava fields make all of your problems seem insignificant. It is no wonder this place was the inspiration for the book "Journey to the Center of the Earth", and called one of the most magical and a powerful energy source for many people.

 I definitely felt that energy as I started my first hike. One of the things noticed on the trail map was a lot of trails are not marked, and some trails were described as "indistinct". It is a good thing this place has no trees so I am able to orient myself as I walk on what I think is a trail. There were many passing rain clouds, so it was a day of fleeting sun and random rain showers, but that did not stop me. My first hike was to a volcano across lava fields. These lava fields were covered in a thick carpet of moss, making them difficult to move through. What made me nervous was that the lava field was not solid ground. The lava rocks are very porous and there are many holes and spaces where the rock underneath was swept away. 

The stacked lava field

The lava field I had to get through to reach my destination

Motivated!

I was about an hour in and noticed just how disorienting these fields can be. The trail was barely there and as you look for the path, everything just blends in. I could at least see my destination and look back and see the parking lot sign where I left the Lancer, so I forged my own path. It makes the carins that were put in place for Iceland's first travelers make so much sense.

Do you see the trail? (and this was a particularly defined part of the trail)

I finally made it to the base of the volcano and started my ascent, about half way up I noticed a clump of wool dangling from a shrub. Some sheep also wanted to hike up a volcano just like me apparently. After some rather scary walking around the lip of the volcano, I reached the peak! 

Yes, you walk along that ridge

The center of the volcano from the peak. What was weird (and maybe this is my basic knowledge of geology) but there was a round rock in the dead center of the crater. 

I wonder if there is a prize inside?

I made a circle around the top and circle around the base of Búðaklettur crater before heading back to have a late lunch on the beach. The beach is still part of the lava field and the rocks and rock formations are black. This beach is called Rávik beach.

Helgi's "Going out" boots are holding up nicely

Lunch with a view

I was prepared to take on Snæfellsjökull. The trailhead was a bit far so the majestic Lancer and I headed to the mountain. Again, we were bombarded with threatening signs.

 I assured Lancer we would only be going to the trailhead and parking there.

The beginning of the road looked innocent, so we started our drive.

Innocent looking road

As we turned a corner on the road, it became steep, very steep. It was so steep the Lancer's wheels started to spin on the loose gravel and I could feel the car's descent. One of the many scary parts of this road, is there are no guardrails, so if a car starts to slip off the edge, too bad. It got its traction and somehow we kept moving forward. This steep incline was paired with an equally as steep decline. It felt like a roller coaster as the front of the Lancer tipped forward so I could see the road going straight down. As I white knuckled the steering wheel, all I could think was "brakes don't fail me now!". It only took one more sharp incline and their was the trailhead. I was already profusely sweating from the short drive there, so I was warmed up and ready to go. Because I had arrived late to the park, I chose a trail that would take me straight to the glacier. I could not climb up the glacier because that requires a very well trained guide given the chances of a crevasse. My goal was to get to the edge of the glacier. Throughout this whole day, I have not passed another hiker until about halfway up the trail I was passed by a group that looked like they stepped out of a North Face catalog, decked head to toe with hiking gear. I, on the other hand, have jeans on, boots that are a bit too big and at that point a rain jacket tied around my waist and a 2L water bottle in my arms. It made me feel a bit inferior but more motivated to meet them at the top. After a grueling hike, I had made it! 

Right next to the glacier

Touching a glacier!

After a long break on the top to take in the view, I made my way back down the mountain to Lancer. I checked my phone to see how how many miles I had hiked and the two trails together were about 14 miles! (Of course, there was a lot of hiking trying to rejoin the trail, or make my own trail). I still had some energy left to go to see Rauðfeldar Canyon. (This place seriously is an energy source!).

 As I was walking up to the canyon I noticed something in my periphery. 

What I noticed is on the upper left hand side (Do you see it?)

Let's zoom in

See them now? Those are sheep! 

I am so amazed at the athleticism of these animals. They were up there being shaded by the ledge of rock. This was a steep incline, those breaks in the grass are rock slides it is that steep. I showed Snædis and she shrugged because this is normal Icelandic sheep behavior, to see just how far they can go. After having a good laugh about the rock slide climbing sheep, I made my way into the canyon. This thing is so tall I could not get it in one picture. A really nice Swedish woman saw me struggling to get a photo of myself in the canyon and offered to take a photo. She looked very professional leaning, squatting, even putting one leg on the wall while she took photos. I thanked her immensely and when I looked at the photos later, she took 25 pictures of me with a weird out of focus glow on my body. I look like a ghost haunting the canyon. Nevertheless I have a picture, now double the height of the photo below and you have the height of the canyon. In order to go farther in you have to do a bit of rock climbing to avoid the running water. I was able to get a few meters into the canyon before I reached my maximum at rock climbing and made my way back to Lancer.

As I made my way out of the park, I was blocked by more sheep.

My instinct was to return them to their flock, who were dozing on the side of a mountain. I got both of them back and drove away thinking I did a good thing. As I look back in my rear view mirror, I see they went back into the road. 

I was tempted to drive another loop around the park to just look at it one more time but my body was starting to feel the total 17 miles of hiking and it was getting really late.

I was really sad to leave the park having more trails and mountains I wanted to see. This park is huge and I think it would take multiple summers to see what this park has to offer. 

I arrived home to take a much needed shower, some advil, and get some sleep.

Day 27: A rainbow and dead man's path

I was given most of the day off today to be a tourist, but first I had to do the morning chores. Helgi continues to bring orphans home from other farms (I think he may have a problem) and this beautiful little spotted mouflon lamb fell into my lap. It is only 2 days old and was a triplet. Helgi said the other two siblings were a lot larger pushing this little guy out of the way so he couldn't nurse. He has been moved up to first on the list to be adopted out so he will be the only one adopted out because we only have two more pregnant ewes left! Yes, you read that right, the final two and one is expected to have a single lamb making her a perfect candidate for our little orphan. It was a good thing I was leaving the barn because I would not have stopped holding this little one, he is just so sweet and tiny and rests his head on your shoulder.

New orphan from different farm

The lost lamb from yesterday found his mom with the help of Snædis, but it had been too long and the mother did not want him back. He is also not making many friends in the orphan pen because he continues to try to nurse from the other orphans. It is an invasion of their privacy and they never turn their backs on him because he does not hesitate to get underneath them. Hopefully he will start to figure out that not everything that moves is his mother. Once done, I packed up for my trip to Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park, Geysir, and Gullfoss. My sneakers were still soaked from helping Snædis fix fencing yesterday, and I am taking a break from the clogs (for obvious reasons) so Helgi graciously loaned me his "going out" boots, which were a little big but were perfect for a day of hiking. 

"Going Out" Boots

I was also equipped with Snædis's Lancer. It is just about the age to qualify as a legal adult in the US, has over 220,000 miles on it, has some large dents from accidents in the past and the brakes make a loud honking when breaking in reverse. It is a unique car and it was equipped with 2 spare tires instead of the normal 1.... just in case.  

In other circumstances this car is fantastic, the only issue is, the way to get to my destination was on roads that had signs like these:

Snædis scoffed at the sign and asserted they need to put her Lancer on the sign as an acceptable car because it is that good, maybe even better than SUVs. As I made my way past the fields of sheep, the view started to get very gray and flat. I am not sure why this stretch of land looks like this. It had some moss but other than that is was a lot of rocks. I asked Snædis and Helgi this evening why this looked the way it does and they were not quite sure, it was possibly older lava fields.

I passed over a bridge which brought me back to the green fields and flowing water, and a waterfall! During the drive, I lost count of the waterfalls I saw, they are everywhere! They are smaller than big tourist attractions like Gullfoss but I think just as beautiful. 

Another common thing to see in the landscape were cairns (see picture below), they are manmade stone piles that date back centuries (9th and 10th century) and were trail markers for those on foot trying to make it safely across the country. It helped especially in bad weather when the fog or snow was too thick to see your way so you would stop at a cairn. I tried to line up the picture so you can see on in the forefront and then there was on (on the left) in the background.

My first stop was Þingvellir National Park. This park was created to protect the country's first place of parliament. It was established in 930 and used into the 18th century. The most interesting part is they placed it in the center of a fault between two tectonic plates. So, you are in between two very large walls of rock. This rift in the plates just never seemed to end, even when the path ended, the rift continued. One of the things the park had many signs and educational material on was the executions done by parilment. There was a different execution for different crimes. I walked the "Dead man's path" that leads to Gallow's Rock where these men would see their end. There is also a beautiful waterfall, and marshland where you guessed it, men and women would see their end. 

 Photographic evidence I am still okay (this is for you mom)

Of course, they did other things then executions at their parliament building, they did things like open markets and having discussions but the park really lacked information on that stuff. In the marshes, they did not have swans but geese and these geese had little goslings. They made it very difficult for any tourist to walk on the path because the geese would bring the whole family on the path and then get upset if people approached them. One momma goose didn't see us as much of a threat so she walked her family away from the tourists (to everyone's relief). 

There is also a serious problem with people throwing money into any body of water that they see. I agree that Iceland is magical and it is like stepping into another world but Iceland is trying to maintain that "wild look". They have a multitude of signs lining any form of water telling tourist not to throw money in and yet they continue to do it.

If you look close to the bottom of the above picture you will see a rock in the water coated with coins. 

I hiked all of the paths until I got to a dead end (pictured above). It was possible for you to walk on top of the rocks (picture below) but if you have any fear of heights this is not for you. There are large spaces in between rocks that appear to be bottomless pits. As I tried to step over the bottomless pit, the rock supporting me moved and I saw my future and it was ending up being the Icelandic equivalent of the 127 hours guy (man that fell in a rock formation like this and was trapped forcing himself to chop off his own limb), so once I regained clarity, and I swiftly left the path. 

One of the other things I love about this place is every visitor center has a place to get a good cup of coffee (or kaffi). I stopped to get a map and a cup of caffeinated wonderment and headed on my way to the Geysir and Gullfoss. The next stop was Geysir, here is a geothermal field of hot springs and geysers. These geysers were the first ones to be documented and known to Europeans, which is why our English word is derived from the Icelandic one ( Geysir --> Geyser).  The water is very sulfury, so it smells strongly of rotten eggs but I have gotten used to the smell because that is what the hot water in the house smells like (because everything is geothermal water). There are many signs telling people the water is really hot, but that didn't stop one tourist from dipping his fingers into the hot spring. I presumed he was American given 100°F is warm but 100°C is boiling water. What throws you off is there are grasses and flowers growing alongside these hot springs, right on the water's edge (I thought this was very cool). The Great Geysir itself has not erupted since the 1930s, so it does not get much attention anymore, the geyser that everyone was circled around was Strokkur, a smaller geyser but erupts frequently. I did not have the patience to wait, while holding my phone up to capture the exact time of the eruption, so here is a calm picture instead. All of the geysers are puffing out plumes of steam, great for the skin... but the rotten egg smell does not leave you. 

Follow the signs! 

Really tough grass and flowers

Strokkur (the Churn)

This is a really popular attraction and has all the accommodations you could need, including coffee, so I got myself a refill and made my way to Gullfoss. 

Gullfoss is a multi-tiered, gigantic waterfall. By this time it had started to rain, and my Ewe-Maine sweatshirt was not as warm and waterproof as it needed to be, so I braved the cold and rain to see this waterfall. It was totally worth it. The waterfall was magnificent! I went to pull my phone out and it was not cooperating and turning on, so I could not take any pictures. I stood awkwardly with my back to the rain trying to get the phone to work without success. It took a lot of restraint not to throw the phone into Gulfoss and get it over with. So, I recommend taking a look at pictures of Gullfoss at another source. It is a sight to see. I stood for probably longer then I should have to take the sight in. I was sufficiently drenched and cold and made my way back to the majestic Lancer to head back to the farm. 

Without fail, I arrived home again to a rainbow near the house. Snædis repeated that Hestur was just really happy I was back. I am not sure if rainbows are common occurrences here, but this is starting to get a little freaky. 

Today, I will be headed to Snæfellsjökull National Park, the first park established in Iceland, and home to a volcano and glacier. One of my goals was to touch a glacier, so I hope I can accomplish that today! 

Now off to take care of morning chores and pack. 

Day 26: Clogs are not meant for running

Well, I thought all was quiet last night as I headed to the barn to feed the orphans before bed. I was walking along the path that runs through a field and noticed a lamb by itself. Usually, when they catch sight of a person coming towards them they seek out mom but this little guy didn't seem to acknowledge I was walking towards it. He struggled to get up so I picked him up and tucked him in my jacket while we searched for mom and the presumed sibling. Mom didn't immediately step forward so I went to ask Helgi for advice at the house. He recommended it would be best to find mom, instead of adding to my growing orphan family, so I walked around with the lamb. He eventually started to make some noise to which mom responded. I tried, very slowly, to lure her over to the barn with her lamb still in my arms. It did not work, so I put the lamb in the barn with the orphans (for safety) and made my best attempt to herd mom and her other lamb into the barn. The last time Snædis and I did this the ewe was very compliant and we had no issues and everything was calm. This ewe was not so calm. Helgi came outside to watch and eventually help me herd her in, we both got her at the opening of the gate, she looked at the open gate and started to sprint the other way. In my clogs, I tried to cut her and the lamb off without success. Helgi ran to get the ATV because the ewe and lamb decided to continue sprinting down the field towards the deep ditches and main road. I was instructed to tail her, so I ran after her through the mud and standing water (remember I am still in clogs, not so smart on my part). Because I was never going to catch up to these two, Helgi thought to run them into a ditch where we could tackle them. We successfully got them into the ditch but the lamb is apparently a high jump champion and launched out of the ditch to hide out with another ewe. Helgi grabbed the mom but was not able to get a good hold and she wrestled herself free. Once again, I was running and tailed the lamb while Helgi drove after the ewe. We managed to get the lamb first, so I was now running with a quite large, ~3-week old lamb on my shoulders, in clogs, after the mom. Eventually, she was cornered between two steep ditches and being tired she surrendered. Helgi had to get the trailer to truck the ewe and lamb back to the barn we had gotten so far away, so finally ditching the clogs, I climbed barefoot down into the slippery banked ditch and back up the other side with the lamb on my shoulders to go and hold mom at the edge of the field. All three of us caught our breath as Helgi came back with the trailer to reunite mom with her sick lamb in the barn. This was not the ideal situation in catching a ewe and her lamb, it makes it dangerous for all of their health given the stress and strain, as well as, the rest of the flock who was in a complete disarray as I ran through them. Once in the barn, I set up a comfortable pen for the family and took a better look at the sick lamb. 

(From left to right) High jump champ lamb, wrestle champ mom, and very sweet lamb that just needed some TLC.

I woke up this morning to more rain (I am starting to feel like a broken record!), everything was calm in the barn and morning feedings went well. As I made my way through the middle barn I heard little Myla (the puppy) make a horrible screeching bark. On occasion, the younger ewes will feel particularly bold and threaten and chase the dogs knowing they will not fight back. I feared she was being attacked! I ran outside to see she slipped her leash off the post it was attached to and was being very brave keeping ewes away from the barn. I don't think the sheep were that threatened, maybe entertained by the puppy? Either way, I called her back and she was beaming with pride! She overcame her fear and kept ewes on the other side of the fence. Go Myla!

The very proud puppy returning 

Many of the ewes in the fields around the house and barn are getting a little antsy, so Snædis opened the gate that goes to the mountains behind the house. These are the "small mountains" and at the end of June they will be rounded up, lambs are weighed and then they are sent to the real mountains. Having flashbacks of my sheep chase yesterday, I was nervous we would have to do more running, but the first group was ready to go and easily went out into their new space. This area also has much more shelter from the rain. We left to go block some holes in the fencing and returned to see another group was milling around the gate to the mountains, so we released a second group. 

Gate to the "small mountains"

Very happy ewes ready to explore

While we were out in the fields, Snædis noticed a very small lamb trailing a ewe and her lambs. It was very apparent the small lamb was not hers, so we made a plan to try to catch the lamb. As we tried to angle the ewe towards the barn, the small lamb started following a different ewe. This ewe is the one that is desperate to get back into the barn for grain, so I brought out the signature yellow grain bucket and easily lured her all the way to the door of the barn. She eventually snapped out of the grain spell and realized it was a trap, she darted off with her lambs and Snædis was able to snatch the small lamb. We found out that this lamb belonged in a different field.... how it made it to the opposite field and was stealing milk from different ewes, we will never know. For now, he will join our orphan family. The tight-knit orphan family was not so keen on letting him join the group. I did not know lambs could be cliquey. My adorable chubby little lambs are quickly turning into snobs! I was ashamed as a lamb mother. Hopefully, this lamb is not here permanently, and we will search for his actual mom tomorrow, and if that doesn't work, we will try to adopt him out. 

The small lamb that was brought in the barn compared to previously shy, now spoiled orphan

Apparently, the lambs have heard about my tendency for spoiling lambs and tried to make their way into the house. It took every ounce of my energy to stop myself from bringing the little wet babies in.

I thought I would end the post with this really cool looking lamb. It is a white lamb with a lot of phaeomelanin, which gives it the reddish color. I am used to our resident carrot tops, Hawaii and Hawaii's Girl, I did not know sheep could be this red!

Until tomorrow!

Day 25: Hrútar

Today was a relatively slow day, there is no more power washing, it continues to rain so we can not do fence work and none of the pregnant ewes feel like lambing. I just don't know what to do with myself! After the morning feeding, I did a lot of sweeping, general cleaning around the barn trying to fill my time. I also spent some time with the orphans. No longer motherless lamb, Stevonnie seems to have settled into the lamb life and has accepted her mother. 

Stevonnie and mom being cute

The three remaining orphans have been very good about following me, so we went for a little field trip around the barn where they could jump and get some enrichment. When the rain passes they will be put outside in a smaller area with grass, next to the barn. They will be with some of the special case ewes and their lambs that need monitoring. But until then they will stay in their own pen inside getting lots of attention.

Our three remaining orphans

One of the things I noticed about the orphan's horns is how they are developing. All three are horned and there is one ewe lamb and two ram lambs, having only worked with polled sheep it has been interesting watching the horns grow. On the ewe lamb (pictured below), she did not have pronounced horn buds when she was born and if you look closely at the top of her horn you can see wool. This is the "cap" that was covering the horn buds when she was born. I am sure as she gets older the wool on the tips of her horns will be worn off or fall off. 

As for our outgoing ram lamb, you can see there is a difference in the top of the horn and the developing horn (pictured below). The tips are pinched off from the rest of the horn, these are the horn buds that he was born with. When they are born their horn buds and hooves are covered in a waxy, chalky substance that protects the mom as the lamb passes through the birth canal. This substance comes off almost immediately after to expose the darker, much sharper horn buds and hooves. The horns grow from the base and like mentioned in an earlier post can be trimmed down to right before the blood supply, like hooves, fingernails, etc.

Myla (the puppy) also got to spend some time with the orphans. She was adopted in the hopes to herd the sheep, but Myla is very scared of the sheep. It is difficult to herd sheep when you are too afraid to look in their general direction. Snædis sat in the pen with Myla and the orphans, the orphans were hesitant at first but recognizing Snædis as one of the people that scratch them and feeds them they powered through their fear to be near her. Myla, on the other hand, tried to escape and when an orphan would look at her she would turn around. She did, however, find their grain and ate some of that. She is a work in progress! 

Helgi and Snædis were able to set up a nice little surveillance camera on the remaining pregnant ewes from an old iPhone, stick, and tape. Snædis checked the ewes periodically through the night without having to get out of bed. So far, the app is working well, I will be checking the camera tonight periodically so hopefully, it continues to work. 

Sweet camera set-up

Last of the pregnant ewes

With all of the down time I had, I found some reading material in the breakroom. It was the AI (Artifical Insemination) catalog for last season. Hrútar is Icelandic for rams, so Hrútaskrá roughly translates to Ram Catalog.

There are two AI stations in Iceland where they supply straws of semen. Hestur has had a number of rams used by the AI stations which is quite an honor and comes with a nice paycheck. They only use individual rams so long until they are retired because they want to keep the genetic pool diverse regardless of how excellent the ram is. The way the catalog is set up is it is split into the two stations and which rams they have to offer are split into: with horns, polled, leader rams, rams for wool, and four-horned rams. Here the sheep are mostly for meat, they do sell the wool but it is not a quality most farmers breed for. In the catalog, there is only one ram that is used for wool. Snædis told me there are very few farms (maybe only two now?) that concentrate on quality wool in Iceland. To try to breed that into a new flock would take many generations before you see a change in the fleece. 

At Hestur they are conducting research on developing the best quality meat animal. Studies going on are an offspring study, a study on growth associated with certain grass mixtures and fertilizer mixtures and trying to improve the fat content of the lambs. When they took over Snædis and Helgi were not impressed by the very lean animals and have been doing specific breeding to fatten the lambs up.

 Each ram in the catalog has a nice picture, a profile, and a family tree. The ram is rated on fitness, musculature, leanness, fertility, milkiness (milk production in mom, grandma, etc.), and just overall quality of the ram. If the ram is being used for a second, or third year they have information on their registered offspring. In their profile, they talk about wool coloring, appearance (they described one ram as having a pretty face), and temperament (VERY important). Snædis said one ram was taken from Hestur a few years back (before they took over) and it had a nasty attitude. He was very hard to handle, would not hesitate to attack anyone and not cooperative. She said that they have some of his offspring because this ram had excellent qualities but his temperament reflected in the ewes and they also had nasty attitudes and impossible to handle but produced excellent lambs. The leader rams are judged by their ability to protect and lead their flock, as well as, help herd them back to their barn in the fall. As for the four-horned ram... I don't know why you would want something like that (please google for a picture), the way the horns are shaped on the ram in the catalog it doesn't look like it can even graze without two of the horns going into the ground. I was told it was very rare and some farmers are trying to maintain the four-horn gene, so I guess some people like it. The general rule is to use AI on 15%-20% of your ewes but at Hestur because of the offspring studies, they only bred 90 (out of ~800) ewes with AI last fall. It comes with a lot of work, going out to do heat checks into the night. Helgi said that hormone treatments tend to lower the percentage of ewes that take to the AI, so they continue to do it the old fashioned way by just checking with a teaser ram periodically. The remainder of the ewes spent some time with a chosen ram that resides at the farm, like the handsome Batman (video of him in a previous post). 

With that, it is time to head down and give the orphans their last bottle of the night.

Until tomorrow!