ok, summer has past and by the lack of any new chapters to my blog you can imagine we've been very busy...
Today I am not allowed to work, says jasper, so after secretely doing the laundry, doing groceries and brushing our completely gone-wild dogs I realize this might be the moment to catch up with some story telling..

We've had guests continuously over the summer (still have)which has been wonderfull. Family, friends and more friends and more family. it has been great having them around, showing them myrdal gard and the beauty of the island.
They all helped out on the farm. Some in the cheesery, others helped painting and the kids were good company for Emma and Sam who could finally play in 'dutch' again.

 

 
 

During the summer, jasper and I went to some festivalmarkets to sell cheese.
The saleswagon was repaired right on time and we drove off into the norwegian country. How beautifull around every corner! The markets were a bit dissappointing  as far as sales, but i guess you have to try before you know. Luckily our regular customers came with large orders even during the summermonths so we did earn money.
In the mean time we have found a rhythm as far as cheeseproduction is concerned in which Jasper makes cheese two days and then gets two days to do different work. My work is coating, cutting selling the cheeses which varies but gives a continuous flow of work with some peaks. We now process about 4800.  liters of milk per week which results in about 450 kilos of cheese.
We are slowly filling our stockroom but could actually do with some more production because we have some more potential big clients coming through..
So the cheesery is working and running :-)

The farm has shown us what greens grow and we 've seen beautifull flowers, berries of all kinds and off course grass. First time cutting the grass, tossing it around to dry etc...the balls of hay now lay on the field. Jasper has managed to fix the big tractor so we can do a lot of the grasswork ourselfs. Not that we have goats yet, but we can use it next spring when the young goats will arrive.

Learning norwegian has off course come to a complete stop with so many dutch visitors, but the kids have started school again so they should be moving forward quickly. We will start classes again in a couple of weeks. The norwegian I have been confronted with is the enormous amount of regulations, obligatory documentations, necessary communications with clients, advisors, collegues etc..Thank god almost of them speak a little english as well. Reading  is actually getting better by the day.. I've started reading a norwegian thriller and I believe somebody got killed with an axe?! 'll let you know who did it if i find out:-)

We've made some beautifull  hikes around the area and it always results in an amazing view. turns out there is a beautifull laguna beach on the island where you can swim in the fjord...sorry for those guests who were here before we found out. Emma has already had her first campingtrip with school again, because the weather was nice and they had four new pupils in the class, school decided they could do with a camping trip. So easygoing and easily organized!

Emma has found a friend in an icelandic girl who moved to tysnes and needs to learn the language too. They study together which makes life a bit easier for both..
Sam is having a bit of a struggle getting back to school and learning norwegian, but I still have to figure out whether its the schoolthing (off course he's had quite a nice summer on tractors and quads and kajaks etc) or the languagething. he has no lack of friends..

For the kids we have planned a little trip to holland in oktober. We will go in pairs, because we cant leave the farm behind with the animals and the sales going steady. Jasper and Emma will go first and  me and Sam will follow.."Frikandel speciaal" he we come!     (sam's  biggest craving)
Off course visits to Sterre, Fleurine, Jorrit and Sil and many other friends who have not been able to come yet are completely filling our agenda.

So here you og... a little update of our adventure. Still going strong, feeling happy, no regrets....living life to the fullest; learning, laughing, playing, working and off course, thinking of all of you!

net effe anders

hei hei,

Some things are just a bit different and make you raise your eyebrows alittle. Though nothing so disturbing that it makes us doubt our dicission to move.
For example, they eat four meals a day! Breakfast at 7, lunch at 10.45, a warm meal between 16:00 and 17:00 and then later another thing, like bread or something.
Offcourse everybody needs to do their own thing, but I dont eat lunch at 10.45, that's when we have coffee! and at 16:00 we are working really hard. And at 18.00we would have had dinner if we didn't have to go to sports and norwegian classes or our very kind neighbour shows up to help with the grass seeding!! anyway, we try to go with the flow, but end up eating only two meals and quick in-between bites and running around like we don't have a clue...
Another interesting discovery, now that summertime has started and the supermarket decided to open on sundays...they don't sell beer on sundays, on electionday, and in the afternoon after four o'clock. They cover it up with a blanket.   Off course wine is not sold in the supermarket at all. You need to go to a proper liquorstore to do so. And you dont walk out with your cardboardbox of wine uncovered for everybodyto see, no! The cheapest wine costs about 12 euros p litre, and a can of beer costs 2,5 euro a piece. Nevertheless the norwegian buy and drink a lot.
We will be attending a festival market in two weeks and are warned not to be surprised to see a lot of alcohol abuse...the real stuf with helicopters and ambulances?!

so far for the norwegian culture.
Today the company computer crashed, which gives us a lot extra work retrieving old files and customer data....bummer..
Yesterday we heard a tractor on the field next to our house and our neighbour: PerHarald, was removing big rocks from the field which he had noticed and thought we would like to ge rid off. We like our neighbours!
We have started to scare away the deer because they are eating the young grass which we want to harvest laterin the season. But they have become kind of cheeky, because they are not impressed when muffin, our dog, starts barking at them. The trod off in a slow pace whilst looking at eachother and thinking, we'll come back when they sleep...
The dogs haveto get used to the horses too. They bark at us, warning us for a large unidentified walking animal (uwa) next to us, get really nervous and try to attack from behind. The horses are not impressed. It takes time I guess.
No pictures this time, because i wrote this on my ipad and i cant figure out how to get to the pics.

Vi snakker snart!

Update necessary!

With the end of the month coming in closer I realize there is a lot to write about.
I'd better sit down and write or else I will forget all the things that have happened.

To start with mai 17th, norwegian national day. It happened to be the day for Jasper's sister Marcelle and Otto to arrive. This was used as a good excuse for Jasper and Sam to avoid the ceremonial activities belonging to 17th of may.

Emma and I went to the local gatherings like a big get-together in the 'Tysnes halle' where we admired 80 % of the people wearing a national costume, including emma's classmates.  We listened to the national anthom and then drove back to our village to a memorial service for norwegian soldiers, listened to the national anthom again and then walked 3 miles behind a drumband to the local youthclubhouse for some more musical presentations and a norwegian speech (we laughed at the jokes, even though we didn't understand). Concluding that it was valuable time to show our willingness to intergrate into norwegian society we skipped the cake eating in the end and went (walked) home. Time to party with Marcelle and Otto.

Marcelle chose the first days of spring with temperature high above 20 degrees. Good timing!
Besides doing the regular cheesework like making cheese and cutting and packing we got to spend some time at the lake and in the garden. Sam enjoyed the company of his nephew..finally a dutch speaking friend to play with!

     

 

 

 

In the meantime Emma went away to the mainland to play a handball tournament with her team.
They played very well but, in the end, lost with the toss of a coin because they ran out of time.

When Marcelle and Otto left we picked up Marlies at the airport. Although Marcelle helped out with the cheesemaking , Marlies must still be feeling sore feet and tired hands and red ears from learning cheese-norwegian because she happened to come in a seriously busy week. Big orders to be packed and delivered, so we drove up to Bergen. Next day off to Bergen again for a market day.
 Emma also helped out and really enjoyed herself. We sold bigtime! Thanks girls! 




Next day more cheese packing and deliveries and a little boattour on the fjord with Ab his boat.
Next day in the afternoon finally Emma's dream come true: we picked up a horse from a farm two hours away. The girl he belongs to has not got the time to take care of him anymore, so we get to get the horse "on food" is what they call it here. It means you take care of and can use the horse but the ownership belongs to someone else. The advantage is a free horse, disadvantage, they might want the horse back at any given time. But we've got a horse, his name is Ask and while picking him up we found out his friend Musket also needed a new place to stay. Next day another long drive resulted in a second horse. Both fjord horses, very friendly and calm, used to farm noises, kids and dogs. And we can all ride

 

 

                             

Emma is smiling bigtime, all the time.

Yesterday I went to see a performance of the William Tell Story by Emma's class. All parents and families were invited to a beautifull little island where they'd build a stage in the forest and performed in English. Afterwards we had a bbq and got to meet some more islandpeople. Valuable moments.
Unfortunately Sam couldn't come 'cause he was playing a footballmatch (won5-1)  and Jasper was still making cheese......
So,...... we run as fast as we can to keep up with life; things we need to do, things we want to do things that should have been done already etc etc. Exhausted every night but still very happy and doing what we wanted to do.
Next two weeks? No visists, grass seeding, big presentation for new customer (60 supermarkets), and repairing the saleswagon because the new axel will finally arrive!

Ha det bra!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

busy busy

ok ok , two weeks gone by without time to write...
I wake up each morning promising myself I will find the time and energy to write this blog, but in the evening I crash and fall asleep.
No worries though, I'm fine just tired after a long interesting day.

Today is wednesday and the kids are, once again, free. Off course there are lots of free days from school in the month of may but they also have every other wednesday off. Most kids would love it, but for Emma and Sam school means making friends and learning norwegian so they have changed their attitudes towards school a little and now feel sorry when the weekend starts and the ¨free¨ wednesday shows up again..:)
Nevertheless they, off course, have a great time on the farm. they help making cheeses, feed the chickens, roam around the forest and climb mountains.


Last saturday we did our first marketday in Bergen.  We have a great sellingunit/trailer but it broke down before we came and we are waiting for a new axen from germany...But there is a farmersmarket in Bergen every other saturday which creates good profits so we did not want to let it go by again without Myrdal Gard. There are a lot of tourists but also regular customers bying our cheeses there. So Jasper, me and Ab went there last saturday with some tables and vacumed cheeses and DID our first market.


We met some of our college farmers with other products like meat, bread, fish, juice and different kinds of cheeses. All very passionate people selling the products they make on their farms. Good vibes. The market day was also the first official ¨have to try and speak norwegian¨ day, so I did...
Listening to Ab for a while you get the feeling for the things you need to say: old cheese, young cheese, different herbs, prices, would you like a bag? etc. And off course Bergen is an international town with lots of tourists so you need to switch to french, german, english and spanish in a second :)
My brains were smoking! Smiling helps and most norwegians speak perfect english, and will help you get the pronunciation right when you take a minute to say the price in their language..
Unfortunately we got introduced to the typical Bergen weather so it rained most of the day, but nevertheless we sold plenty cheese. Jasper covered for our neighbour (cheese-selling) farmer for a while as well, when he had to get his car..
Home on the farm, Jasper is still producing lots and lots of cheese, five days a week. We had a little cheeseproblem due to bad milk. It is called smørsure/boterzuur/ buttersour?in-english?
Anyway it makes the cheeses bloat up and gives it a sour taste:
  We had to throw away the whole batch but don't have to pay for the milk. The problem lies with the farmer who delivered the milk. But the workinghours are lost, so hopefully it won't happen again.

Last week my mother and Hilbert came to visit and check out our new surroundings. I believe they really liked it. Although it's still quite cold (13C) the weather is nice whith the occasional rainshower.
It was a short visit and they will return in the fall. They brought a suitcase full of products from holland which are either much cheaper in holland or not available in Norway like ¨¨hagelslag¨, white clogs for the cheesery, chocolate and off course taxfree wine!

Coming up: mai 17th (national day) visits from Marcelle, Otto and Marlies, another newspaper interview, a footbal match for Sam and a Handbalweekend away from the farm for Emma, and the temperature promises to go up to 20 degrees C!!!!

Front page news

The news.

A journalist from the local newspaper on Tysnes came by to make pictures and ask some questions. He said he would write a little article about us and our arrival on Tysnes.
Walking into the supermarket on thursday, to pick up the news paper, I did't expect this:

Translating the big lines: Move from lower altitude to higher altitude & From that they leave behind to Tysnes. The journalist wrote a nice story about our motivation, plans and hopes. So now everybody knows our story and we get recognized in shops and streets. Welcome to a small island community!

Just like normal people :-), the kids go to school and play sports. Sam has joined the football team and Emma has started to play handball. They really like their sports and see many of their classmates again this way.

Jasper and I have gone to norwegian classes this week. We joined an advanced class with bulgarian, vietnamese, greek, and philippine ladies. It sounds quite ambitious to get into this class, but the dutch language has so much in common with norwegian that we can move on quickly through the chapters.
We get by allright in reading norwegian, and understanding (when people speak slowly) is reasonable when we know the topic. The speaking part is the challenge we encounter. Yesterday I asked my first supermarket question in norwegian and the lady understood!!! Emma was amazed.

A bit complicated is the fact that Norwey has two kinds of norwegian: nynorsk and bokmål.
On Tysnes they speak nynorsk and Emma and Sam learn nynorsk. We, however, get taught bokmål.
I don't know why, but I've been assured the norwegians understand both. Lets hope they understand my ny(nke)norsk as well.

On saturday we went to Bergen to check out the Bondensmarket and meet up with Mieke, our friend from Terschelling who just did the hurtigruten-route. It was a beautiful day and the market was full of people. The bondensmarket is a foodmarket with local producers in all kinds of food. It's on every other week and we are supposed to be their as well, but our cheesewagon is broken so we had to skip this one. Too bad, because there is a lot of money being spent there. But next market we will be there!

 

Driving back from Bergen takes about 40 minutes to the ferry. You can see Tysnes on the other side when the weather is clear. The ferryride takes about 25 minutes.

 

In the meantime Holland got a new king and "kingsday" went by in Norway as a normal day. Apparently we get to experience the norwegian national day on the 17th of may. From what I've heard it's pretty formal with lots of ceremonial stuff and traditional clothing etc.  No secondhandsales on the streets, concerts or "oranjebitter"... we'll see...

 

vi snakker litt norsk

Another week gone by.

The waterpipes are running again and springtime is making a violent entry, but the grass is growing green and trees show signs of leaves. We've been spotting lots of deer around the house. They must be hungry and looking for bite of spring-grass.
The lake has lost its icy white lid and now reflects the surrounding mountains like a spotless mirror.
Morningwalks make beautiful pictures:
         

We've been working hard in the cheesery, packaging, sending, selling, producing...
Jasper is making the cheese and i've been focussing on the rest. It's too much too learn all at the same time, but later on we will teach eachother and be able to do both. In the mean time Jasper is getting used to his white clothing and walk out after dinner to "pump milk" like he's done it all his life.

(I'll have to stop for now, but will continue my update soon!)


First week round.

One week gone by and it feels like a month!
We have emptied the container, we have furnished the house with the help of Jasper's parents and got started.
With big orders of cheese waiting to be produced and packed and delivered Jasper moved into the cheesery for three days and made 240 kilo's of goatcheese. Ab, the previous owner of the cheesery is still here to help us with all this. Me and Jasper's mom cut,vacumed and packed about 150 kilo's of cheese to be delivered. Off course the result of all the hard work was the printing out of our first invoice within 7 days of arrival in Norway..
In the meantime  Emma and Sam discovered the farm, the lands, the lake and the mountains. We all walk around in awe of the scenery and the setting we now call home. It looks like a dream or a moviesetting (our own private shire).
The last snow has rained away except for the top of Tysnesåta. The rivers and waterfalls are noisy and overloaded. Weather changes quickly on Tysnes, from calm and sunny to wild and stormy.



The grass, which was yellow, now gets a light shade of green and the trees start changing too.
Unfortunately the watersupply to the house got frozen in the week before our arrival, because Ab was gone to Uganda for ten days and the waterpipes, not being used, froze. They are 1,5 metres deep in the ground so it will take some serious rain and rising temperatures to get them running again. But no worries, we get water through a d-tour from the barn, so we're fine
Emma and Sam started school after the weekend we arrived. We left Emma behind on her own, the first day, knowing she speaks a little english and I went to school with Sam on his first day.
The kids and the teachers were very kind and they had a warm welcome in their new class. Although Sam could not communicate in language he managed to get a friend on his first day in school (through a soccorgame) and he told me i didn't have to come along the next day....brave two kids!
They really enjoyed their schooldays and for the first time EVER they were sorry the weekend showed up so quickly.
In the meantime Jasper and I are getting organized; opening bankaccounts, starting administration, going to the sherrif's to get id registration, getting to know our neighbours and customers and getting to know the farm, its barns, its machines..or should i say our farm, our barns, our machines...it still feels unreal (but good).
On friday Sam celebrated his 9th birthday. He got thrown into the air 9 times in school which he thought was a great norwegian tradition.

Coming up this week? Cleaning and opening the farmstore for the season, a newspaperarticle on our arrival on Tysnes on thursday, starting Norwegian classes togehter with the spanish guy and the thai lady on the island, 100 kilo's of cowmilk cheese to be made and much much more....

 

arrival in norway!

So we have landed. We officially live in Norway.

After two days of carrying, tugging, lifting, running, pushing, organizing and all the other things that come with moving my arms are sore but I need to write some stuff down in order not to forget.

Me, Emma, and Jasper's mom came by airplane and there's nothing exciting to tell except that Emma really enjoyed flying. She'd flown before but doesn't remember.

Jasper, his dad, and Sam travelled by car with our two dogs, Muffin and Bootsy. They drove through Denmark and then took the ferry to Bergen. They arrived on Tysnes together with the container and three custom dudes who wanted to check evereything inside. This is where the adventurre really started... The road up to Myrdal was partly still covered by ice and the containertruckdriver refused to go up. So they had to find a place in the village to park the container. We made our first neighbour friends this way. Not having seen a bit of Myrdal Gard Jasper had to empty the container to show them that Dutch people don't always smuggle drugs. At this point the local newspaperman came by to take pictures and wanted to make an appointment for an interview the next day.

 

He'll Have to wait a little longer. Customs was, however, satisfied when the time came to catch the last ferry home, which left Jasper down the mountain with a Ford Transit which couldn't make it up to Myrdal either. Luckily Ab ( the previous farmer on Myrdal) arrived and walked up with Jasper to get our Norwegian Pickup and the towed the car up. ARRIVAL at last !

Myrdal has lost the blanket of snow we saw in februari but , like in Holland, the grass is brown and nature is in desperate need of some rain and sun to defrost everything. But the weather is beautiful and the farm looks golden in the sun. There's been no wind and all is quiet. All you can hear are some spring birds. We've already seen some dear in the twilights of evening. These three sunny days have de-iced the roads and on Tysnesåta, the mountain which rises up 500 meters from our farmland, the snow is melting rapidly. It looks like life could be good up in Myrdal... 

Next week we start making cheese, packing cheese, going to school and (very important) celebrate sam's first Norwegian birthday!

One more night!

Vanaf vandaag schrijf ik de blog verder in het engels. Zo kunnen onze buitenlandse vrienden onze avonturen ook volgen en voor de meeste mensen in nederland zal het geen probleem zijn.

As of today I will be writing in English to enable friends abroad to follow our blog as well.

For those of you who don´t know what this blog is about, we are moving to Norway. We will be living on Tysnes, an island near...Hele bericht lezen »

Vanaf vandaag schrijf ik de blog verder in het engels. Zo kunnen onze buitenlandse vrienden onze avonturen ook volgen en voor de meeste mensen in nederland zal het geen probleem zijn.

As of today I will be writing in English to enable friends abroad to follow our blog as well.

For those of you who don´t know what this blog is about, we are moving to Norway. We will be living on Tysnes, an island near Bergen on a goat-cheesefarm called Myrdal Gard.

Our last sunday in our house in Kimswerd. The house is ready, all we need to pack is some clothing and the computer.  Its amazing how we keep checking off the list of things-to-do but it never seems to end. However, the things-to-do get smaller and sillier, because our brains won't keep the information in and we need to write everything down.
Tomorrow the kids will say goodbye to their friends at school. Although they've only gone to this school for two years they have made some good friends and had a good time. I expect it won't be easy. Many have expressed the desire to come and visit and we hope they will. Emma realizes she will probably not see many of them ever again, ( I can see some uwc-emotional times coming up)
They start going to school in Norway on the fifth day after our arrival. Unfortunately they are not going to the same school because of the age difference, but we're confident that they will soon make new friends and get used to their new schools. Both of them will be going to school by schoolbus and won't have to leave the island (for education) untill the age of 15.

After a long cold winter we can finally feel that spring is in the air. The climate and weather has been quite similar in Norway. We have only seen the farm and the land in the midst of winter under a blanket of snow, which was beautifull, but we look forward to spring and summertime and nature to become green again.

Jasper will be driving to Norway with his father, Sam and the dogs, on tuesday. Me, Emma and Jasper's  mom will fly there on thursday. Its strange to say goodbye to eachother and meet up in our new house in a new country. But I´m sure lots of things will be strange this coming year and I look forward to a new start, a new house, a new job, a new country....
My next message will be from Norway! Ha det bra!

de laatste weekjes

Nog twee weken en dan is het zo ver. Dan vertrekken we naar Noorwegen.
Het is ongelooflijk wat er allemaal geregeld moet worden bij het afsluiten hier en het beginnen daar.
Als dan de griep er nog even twee weken inhakt wordt het natuurlijk niet echt rustiger.
Maar, inmiddels is de zeecontainer afgehaald en zijn onze spullen onderweg naar Noorwegen.
We wonen in een huis dat aanvoelt als een vakantiehuis met 6 vorken, 6 kopjes, lege kasten, geen wasmachine en geen stofzuiger.
Het huis staat te koop.

En ondertussen verhuurd buurvrouw Eline van de herberg het nog als appartementje voor een week of weekend. Alle inkomsten welkom natuurlijk. Maar laten we hopen dat het dit jaar verkocht kan worden.
Verder de komende week afscheidsfeestjes van de kinderen, laatste keren van een heleboel dingen en het continue nalopen van lijstjes in je hoofd. Voor het rijden met de kaaskar in Noorwegen moest op de valreep ook nog even het be-rijbewijs gehaald worden en oh ja! We moeten ook nog noors leren....

Voorbereidingen in volle gang.

We zijn druk bezig om alles te regelen.
Vertrekdatum is vastgesteld op 10 april, dus dat is nog 6 weken om alles te regelen.
Jasper is inmiddels weer een week in noorwegen geweest om daar zaken op orde te krijgen.
Pachtcontracten, boekhouders, burgemeester, schoolmeester, auto regelen, bankzaken...dat soort dingen.
De noren zijn erg behulpzaam en alles gaat voorlopig soepel.

In Kimswerd is het inpakken echt begonnen. Wat gaat er mee, wat gaat er weg, wat gaat er nog snel op marktplaats en wat blijft er staan. Zo lang ons huis niet verkocht is gaat Eline ,van Herberg Greate Pier, naast ons, het huis af en toe verhuren voor een week of weekend. Voor ons een beetje inkomsten en voor het huis een beetje bewoning, schoonmaak en aandacht. Volgende week gaat het in de verkoop en we hopen natuurlijk dat we het snel kunnen verkopen..
Gisteren is de zeecontainer waarmee we onze inboedel gaan verhuizen aangekomen. Die moet natuurlijk al een week eerder vertrekken want die is langer onderweg.
Ondertussen ben ik druk met het opzeggen van allerlei abonnementen en lidmaatschappen, uitschrijving bij dokter tandarts, gemeente, belasting...noem maar op

Op naar Noorwegen!

Hallo Lezers,

Een aantal van jullie is reeds op de hoogte van onze nieuwe plannen, Wij gaan op korte termijn met het hele gezin verhuizen naar Noorwegen. Wij gaan wonen op het eiland Tysnes onder de stad Bergen.
We nemen daar een geitenboerderij/kaasmakerij over. Hoewel dit voor sommigen als een complete verrassing komt is het voor ons een droom die in vervulling gaat en waar wij al langere tijd mee bezig zijn.
Wij hebben heel veel zin in dit grote avontuur. Via dit Blog houden we jullie op de hoogte van alle ontwikkelingen. Allereerst een korte omschrijving van de boerderij die Myrdal Gard heet:

Myrdal Gard is een mooie moderne boerderij, geitenhouderij en kaasmakerij op het eiland Tysnes, anderhalf uur ten zuiden van Bergen.

De boerderij is prachtig gelegen in eigen dal, en bestaat uit 150 hectare waarvan 40 hectare grasland, een meer en de rest bos is.

De boerderij ligt in het noorden van het eiland Tysnes, op 250m boven

zee-niveau.

 

Als je zelf wilt googlen kun je kijken op: Tysnes en Myrdal Gard of je wacht op meer berichten via dit blog.

Groetjes Nynke, Jasper, Emma en Sam