Freestyle Homemaking: Iceland Day 6 & 7: Visiting an Icelandic Farm, Thingvellir, Geysir, Gullfoss, Kerid Crater

I was so excited to find this farm near our guesthouse that gives tours! It is a beautiful property. I kept my guide busy talking with my list of questions. Yes, I had a list! I kept seeing things from the road and wondered why the farmers were doing ____ (fill in the blank). The farm we visited is called Bjarteyjarsandur. They have been farming for five generations. They keep Icelandic goats for no particular purpose other than to do their part to keep them from going extinct.

I visited their Icelandic chickens. Some friends of ours have a flock of Icelandic chickens here in Maryland. They look about the same.

Like Icelandic sheep and goats, the chickens are a unique breed, kept isolated for hundreds of years.

They have a large field of kale for the goats and sheep to get extra nutrients. They hay the grass fields 2-3 times a year. They need one round bale per sheep for the winter. Haying is tough for them because it is hard to get it done while the weather is dry. It seems to rain a little almost every day.

This is where the sheep come in for the winter and for lambing season. They have drinking nozzles that they can lick. The floors are metal screens so that the manure goes down below.

They have some feeder pigs, but she did not know the breed. They were quite friendly.

We fed them some snacks , but I was hesitant to feed too close to them. I'd like to keep all my fingers.

They had just had their "rettir" and most of the sheep were down from the mountains in fenced pastures. When we told her that we had seen a few sheep when we hiked Glymur (close by) she said, "oh no!" They will have a second round-up to gather in the last of the sheep. She said that rettir is a huge fun family get together, but also a ton of work and she had very sore muscles afterwords.

Icelandic sheep can look very different from one another and still be Icelandic. They are black or white, with horns or without. She said that they try to select white sheep with horns and those with outer wool that is not too shaggy, just fluffy like a teddy bear. But even after generations of careful breeding they still have a variety of sheep. The lambs are born in the spring and stay inside for a few weeks. Then they are tagged, earmarked, and allowed to roam free with their mamas. At the end of the summer the lambs will have tripled their weight or more. Then they are rounded up and most of the lambs go to slaughter. The farmer only keeps a few with the best traits to replace older ewes. They shear the sheep twice a year, but don't get very much money for the wool. Most of their income comes from selling the lambs for meat.

Thingvellir National Park:

The weather was misty and damp during our visit to the famous site of the Alpingi, one of the oldest parliaments in the world. Here are a few lines from wikipedia about it:

The Alþingi (assembly) at Þingvellir was Iceland's supreme legislative and judicial authority from its establishment in 930 until 1271. The Lögberg or Law Rock was the focal point of the Alþingi and a natural platform for holding speeches. The Lawspeaker, elected for three years at a time, presided over the assembly and recited the law of the land. Before the law was written down, he was expected to recite it from memory on the Lögberg over the course of three summers along with the complete assembly procedures every summer. Inauguration and dissolution of the assembly took place at the Lögberg, where rulings made by the Law Council were announced, the calendar was confirmed, legal actions were brought and other announcements made which concerned the entire nation. Anyone attending the assembly was entitled to present his case on important issues from the Lögberg.

Here we are at the platform and law rock where the Lawspeaker would recite from memory 1/3 of the country's laws every summer during the Alpingi assembly.

According to my viking history book they used to handle disputes between different regions with one-on-one duels. Often the duel would take place on a little island in the middle of the river at Thingvellir during the Alpingi.

This particular little river island may not have been here 1000 years ago though. The guide books say that the river and the ground here shifts a lot. Thingvellir National park straddles the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. Their are a lot of earthquakes there and the rift is still widening at a rate of 2.5 cm per year. Iceland is still growing! Thingvellir is the only place where the mid-atlantic ridge is visible above sea level.

Next, we went to see Geysir. It is actually a series of geysers and hot pots. Great geysir does not erupt anymore. They say that it is clogged?!

There are signs all over saying not to touch the steaming water with your hands.

The geyser called Strokkur still erupts every few minutes:

It can go as high as 30 meters.

Gullfoss:
This waterfall is so incredibly huge that pictures cannot do it justice. Look at the people walking along the trail in this picture for a sense of perspective.