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!)