Winter seems to have arrived early!

The shift from summer to winter has been pretty dramatic here,  we have had a bit of a storm in Iceland...it seemed to affect the whole country somewhat but mainly the areas in the north, some places have had 15-20cm of snow which is a new record for this time of year.  The wind was violent and caused a power blackout in the north, apparently the worst damage to power lines in 17 years.

Photo source

We here in Sauðárkrókur were with out power for about 4 hours but some areas have gone without  for a couple of days.

The wind was so strong that in one place (Skaftafell) it blew the asphalt from the road...I had never even imagined such a thing could happen but Icelanders just nod knowingly...they have heard it all before!

Photo source

This is the time of the year when the Réttir is on (sheep roundup), it usually runs over a couple weekends, the storm happened between the two, so things were not looking good for the sheep that were not brought down from the mountain during the first weekend. It was thought that up to 13,000 sheep were yet to be brought down.  Volunteer rescue teams have been out trying to find and recover as many sheep as possible some buried in several metres of snow.

 

Fortunately most seemed to have survived the ordeal and have been successfully rescued.

The weather is once again calm and yesterday there was some blue skies with snow on the mountains surrounding the town.

 I love my morning walks on days like this...the air is still but crisp and cool.

Réttir 2011

Ross went on göngur and spent all day yesterday on the back of a horse, riding into the mountains to round up sheep.  He is very sore, tired but exhilarated.  It is Réttir...the time of the year when all the farmers go out and round up the sheep that have spent the summer free ranging in the mountains.  It doesn't really matter whose sheep you round up, they are all bought back to a large circular pen where they will be sorted.

It is a huge traditional social event where all friends and families, the old and the young come out to help sort the sheep or just to soak up the atmosphere as did Olga's 90 year old great aunt.   It runs roughly over 2 weekends, the main round up is in the first weekend and then the second is to gather all the sheep you missed in the first round...apparently those are the most difficult ones...the sheep who defy their name...do not want to follow the leader and just do their own thing.

Last week Olga, Irma and myself took a look at the sorting process.  Once the sheep are in the huge circular pen, they are sorted into wedged shape pens that are around the edge...Olga has a great diagram on her blog from a couple of years ago here.  Each farmer has their own wedge pen and they identify their sheep by tags, ear markings or like Olga's uncle just by their faces...they are then dragged, pushed, shoved into their respective pens...gently of course.

Usually you just look for your own sheep but some of the kids tend to just grab any sheep and then struggle around with it looking for the right pen...it's no fun unless you are hanging onto a sheep.

 Here is a little video I took when we were in the circular pen with the sheep

We all managed to make it into the local news site Feykir, with pics of us at the Réttir you can see it here, Irma and I are in image 41 Sigga and Johanna are in image 45 and Olga is number 47.

Monday Ice: Baa!

There are plenty of sheep in Iceland and the modern day sheep is a direct descendant of the sheep brought in by the viking settlers during the 9th and 10th century.  It is illegal to import sheep from anywhere else today so the breed is kept pure.

In summer the sheep are released for free range grazing in the mountains and highlands, of course all the sheep get mixed up and at fall they are rounded up and herded into a central corral where all the farmers come and select their sheep and place in pens to then take to the barns for winter, this is called Réttir.

Ross and Olga arrive in Iceland on Thur 16th Sept just in time for them to help Olga's uncle in the second Réttir for the season.  Ross really enjoyed it the last time and is very much looking forward to picking up where he left off, he seemed to have a natural ability which impressed the uncle who was surprised that Ross did not come from a farming background. My daughter-inlaw Olga has a good description and explanation of the 2008 event here and I am sure more photos will pop up on her blog after they have joined in all the fun again this year.

This video demonstrates the herding of the sheep into  the central corral.

 

 This one shows a farmer in the central corral selecting his sheep and dragging to his pen.