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!