{"id":20905,"date":"2019-10-25T09:17:58","date_gmt":"2019-10-25T07:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peregrinusmundi.com\/?p=20905"},"modified":"2021-01-21T18:06:55","modified_gmt":"2021-01-21T17:06:55","slug":"encounters-amongst-the-milking-cows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peregrinusmundi.com\/en\/encounters-amongst-the-milking-cows\/","title":{"rendered":"Encounters amongst the milking cows"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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This morning, Cinderrella is not happy. She stomped, trampled and dropped the milking device I just put on her with difficulty. Sanni comes to my rescue. In a few quick and precise gestures, she calms the animal and puts the milker back in place. The milk flows quickly through the pipes accompanied by an automatic suction sound. And I go to the next cow.<\/p>

Every morning and evening since a week, I participate in the milking process of about fifty cows on a small private dairy farm. For two weeks I decided to do an “helpX<\/a><\/strong>“, a voluntary exchange, to see another side of Iceland. Interact with locals and experience life in Iceland. Not just travel. The deal: work for free for 5-6 hours in exchange for a place to sleep and meals.<\/p>

Located a few kilometers from B\u00fa\u00f0ardalur, on the west coast of Iceland, the farm is situated in the quiet little valley of Haukadalur, where runs a river rich in salmon. An old traditional thatched shack faces the farm on the other side of the valley. This is where Erik the Red, Norwegian explorer and first European to discover Greenland put his luggage in Iceland. Called Eir\u00edkssta\u00f0ir, the building was the birthplace of Leif Erikson, son of Erik the Red and first European to discover, before Columbus, the American continent. The place is today a museum. A large lake occupies the entrance to the valley and then disappears to make way for pasture. A dozen small farms dot the premises and some sheep still enjoy their freedom before the arrival of winter. Do the current locals still have in their veins the same desire for exploration that drove the Erik father and son to travel the world?<\/p>

A small plantation of alaskan poplars yellowed gently around the farm. The grass is yellow-orange and the wild blueberry plants bright red. It is full autumn. I contemplate the hospitable landscape valley. Compared to many other places in Iceland, Haukadalur seems to be a small peaceful paradise where the rhythm of life through the passage of the seasons and the breeding of animals flows quietly.<\/p>

Sanni has been here for nine winters. She is Finnish, passionate about breeding and milking and shares her life between Iceland and Finland. She has been employed almost permanently on the farm for nine years and she is the one who deals mainly with animals. She named all the cows, bulls and calves, about seventy heads and devote her life to maintain the production and welfare of the animals. It is a huge job for one person. The farmer, the owner, is a 60-year-old Icelandic man, recently divorced, with a strange and rough character. He is not in great shape mentally and physically and his divorce seems to have greatly affected him, although he refuses to admit it. He can not communicate otherwise than under an accusative tone and spends his time dispensing nonsensical lessons. A strange atmosphere hangs in the house where I live with the farmer, Sanni and Anneli, another volunteer from Estonia, which is not exactly what I had hoped for my last weeks in Iceland. After some very strange, disrespectful and uninteresting discussions and situations with the farmer, reminding me of bad memories of my childhood, I realized that I had to accept the exchange with the Icelanders I was looking for was not going to happen. And it was better to limit my interactions with the character so as not to keep in mind a very curious image of the local people. On the Finnish and Estonian side, however, it is a great discovery and the exchange is intelligent and interesting. Despite our differences in nationality and age, I find myself greatly in the way Sanni and Anneli see life and the world.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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