The hay is in the barn

This is a story of important science.
I have been walking around with a great fear lately.
Cause you don`t need much scientific knowledge to understand that rain is no good for grass that is supposed to dry.
And the last weeks it has been raining. A lot.

We are a relatively young (...well...) couple, new established hobby farmers, with two jobs and lot`s of other things to do. And we know an old, married couple who know everything there is about hay. The old, traditional way to dry it. They know it all.
and have helped us, showed us and given us advice. About a lot of things at the farm.
-Just give it two days with dry weather, then get it quickly inside, they adviced us.

Yesterday it was the second day without rain.
-Get it inside. Now, they insisted.
-Tomorrow it`s probably rain again.

So, after work we stressed ahead with the tractor.
We could smell and feel that some of it was wet and rotten.
I`ve got a hayfever. So soon I felt I had a kilo of hay inside my head.
But some was dry and nice. Especially the one the old couple helped us to put up on a stack. They were raking it in a way that made it very airy.

It went back and forth with the tractor.
At 2 o`clock in the night, we had finished.
Everything put inside the barn. Put up as airy as possible. Scattered with salt to keep it in good condition the whole winther.
We were so tired. Just a few hours until work again.

The next morning we looked outside.
It was raining. A lot.
So the lesson is: Just follow the advice of the old people.

The psychology of cloudberries

I went up the mountain one early Saturday morning.
Climbed up through bushes and rocks.
And was suddenly up on the flat mountain plateu.
So relieving to breath the mountain air and to watch the open scenery.
I started to search the berries. Found someone here. Someone there.
And suddenly...this huge amount.

Many of them was still immature. But things happen with me when this occur. The heart beats faster. the picking gets faster.
And when I look at the horizon, I see something disturbing. Two humans. Far away. And they are picking berries.
-Damn, damn, I was thinking.
-Don`t come here!

They didn`t come, but disappeared in the horizon.
So I finished and went back to the fjord again.

Going down, i met an old couple. They seemed so harmonic, walking at the mountain.
-Are you the one we saw at the cloudberryfield, they asked.
Yes, I answered. And got embarrassed since I almost had thoughts of murder up at the mountain.
They were so nice. Said it was still a lot of berries to find. And soon the hunt for mountain birds would start.
-You can come by our cottage and get a bird, they said.
I said thankyou, and went down the last bit of the journey.

Weather changes

What a day! Very warm. No wind. Temperatures like the south of Europe. The small birds in the threes. Hiding away from a fish eagle. There`s a lot of these eagles these days. We can see one or more every day.
Also, there are a couple of hares jumping around each evening.
Not so frighten.

Until a certain limit.
I picked a bucket of strawberries from my garden. And worked in the heat.
Talking about the weather; It`s constantly changing. Last night it was lightning and thunder. And heavy rain. One morning a thick fog around us. One day grey and eastern wind. Until it gets quiet and shimmering silver and blue.
Noe dull days around here.

Grass collection

Some are collecting stamps and coins. We are collecting grass these days. To have food for the animals during the winther. Some is stored in a modern way. Stored inside some big plastic balls. At another field, we have dried the hay on a rack.
This is the old, traditional way.
An old couple helped us. And all along, when people came by, they ran up to help. Some came and told stories about the old time.
So. This work made a lot of memories among people.

Beautiful evening, hard morning

It was such a wonderful evening. Sun and rain. No wind at all. And a shimmering rainbow.
Then. Early in the morning. It wasn`t nice. To stand at the airport, watching an important part of the life at an end.
But I cannot avoid it. It happens to us all, one day. And I should applaud the braveness.
Not far away there is more struggling. In the battle of what is up and what is down. Nothing else to do, but to keep it up.