Category: Norefjord

Norefjord

Place 17 – May 18 2022 to May 20 2022: Norefjord – Back To The Farm!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Day 1


We drove to Nordfjord to visit our friends at the farm that we visited on our travels around 6 years ago! The drive was through snow as well as a lot of tunnels and we got to see a bunch of new places we hadn’t seen!

On the way, we stopped at a bakery in Rødberg for a cinnamon bun and then we carried on to the farm.

We arrived and had some lunch and some coffee, as is tradition, and we caught up with the family who now have an extra child than they did last time which was lovely to see and amazing to meet them.

We were chatting about badgers being a problem and of course, one appeared! We had to chase it down and trap it.

We walked through the forest and cleared it up, clearing up rubbish and also branches that are in the way. The plan is for them to make it into a field that can be used.

We ended the night with some food and a chat. We got to sleep in the cabin we slept in last time which we loved!

Day 2

We had some breakfast and then went down to where the lambs and sheep live to stack a bunch of firewood/logs so they can dry and are stored for the winter. We love doing this so this was great!

We had a coffee break, as you should, it was really nice to sit and chat with them whenever we had a chance.

We needed to move some wood planks from a trailer onto the floor so the trailer could be used again. There were a lot of planks but we worked with Martin to get it sorted.

We loved the opportunity to feed the lambs, too! Some had to be bottle fed, so it was a super nice experience and something new!

For dinner, we had a big roast with a big lamb/sheep leg which was slow cooked. Kim obviously didn’t eat it but Curtis did and it was excellent! The vegetables were a delicious side too.

We needed to make a fence to put around the new sheep field, so we helped to get that done after dinner, which was nice and relaxing.

Day 3

We started with breakfast, as expected and then right when we were getting ready for getting some work done, there was unfortunately a crazy incident with a stabbing in the local town.

This meant that we needed to be vigilant just in case and also the owners of the farm went to see if they could get their kids from school and to see if they can help at all.


The craziness went on for a while and once the evening hit, we walked around and checked all the old fences for holes or trees sitting on them before moving the sheep to their new field!

We had a beer in the sheep field once they’d moved and it was a very nice feeling to see our work come to fruition.

We finished our time there with a curry night! Martin made some really good homemade curry and we even had a visit from one of their friends who sat and had some food with us as well.

We had about 1/2 a day left after this, which will be covered in the next post!

We loved visiting the family again and we can’t wait to head back, see even more farm improvements and help them out.

Norefjord

Place 17 – Day 13: Norefjord – Langedrag Nature Park 

Kim & Curtis Hale

Today we woke up at 07:00 to get ready to head out to Hege’s work which is a nature park up in the mountains!

We were lucky enough to get in early to the park and we were there for a good 8 hours!

Due to the park being in the mountain, it was a little windy and colder, but the weather was beautiful. The first thing we did was went into an enclosure which had horses and cows in. There were highland cows, including a lovely baby one and it was beautiful! 

Baby highland cow!

Adult Highland Cow

We then walked around the park, seeing many animals such as Reindeer, Arctic Foxes, Elk, Goats, Sheep, Pigs, Boar and more!

Baby Horse!

We were able to see the sled dogs which were training and they seemed to be very aggressive but they really were not!

Sled dog

We attempted to get to a feeding show of the Elk, but we went to the wrong place but we still saw the elk!

The Elk

We walked around a bit more and then we went on a talk which was actually a lot longer than expected which took us to the end of the day! Before we went to this, we had a nice hot chocolate in the café.

We then went on the talk which was feeding for 2 types of wolves, lynx, reindeer & arctic fox. 

One of the pack of wolves were just fed from afar. We headed to the Lynx enclosure, which the guide went into to feed them! 

The Lynx

The guide then took us to the Reindeer enclosure which also had Arctic Foxes in there. We actually got to go into the enclosure and feed both animals!

Kim feeding an Arctic Fox

Kim feeding a reindeer

We went to the next wolf enclosure next, which was awesome as the guide went into the enclosure and got them to howl!

A wolf being friendly with the keeper

We had a nice busy day and now we’re going to be having a big Chinese buffet, all homemade as Martin & Hege lived in China!

Tomorrow, we unfortunately leave here as we are going to another place which will be revealed tomorrow. 

Ha det!

– Mr & Mrs Hale 

Norefjord

Place 17 – Day 12: Norefjord – Fence Completion, Moving Logs & Tractor Ride 

Kim & Curtis Hale

We had crêpes, made by Kim, for breakfast and then, at 10:15, we began with completing the fence we started on our first day. We had to stretch out fencing wire across the posts we had put in previously and then hammer in staples.

Kim figuring out the fencing

We did this for a couple of hours but got hungry, so we went in for lunch. Today’s lunch was spaghetti with veg and a tomato sauce (and coffee).

We went back out and completed our fence, with some parts being an absolute mission as trees were in the way, but we were able to complete it!

Part of the finished product

We then had to do the same as the other day and move some logs. We got them all into the trailer and we all then got to have a ride on the trailer on the back of the tractor! 
Trailer rides are pretty exciting!

Kim went in to make a wonderful roast dinner whilst Curtis & Jana were working with Martin to try and get the trailer detached from the tractor as it wasn’t working as expected! We eventually got it removed and then came inside after a long and heavy day for our wonderful roast dinner which is heavily deserved!

This was our last day of working here, as we leave on Monday. 

We have a day off tomorrow and we have a plan to go with Hege to her work, so it should be an interesting blog!

Ha det!

– Mr & Mrs Hale 

Norefjord

Place 17 – Day 11: Norefjord – Hay Drying Rack & Moving Logs

Kim & Curtis Hale

We were told we could sleep in until 10:00, which was lovely! We woke up and went in to make breakfast. Kim made crêpes again and Martin came back from London and was able to get crêpes too!

We relaxed for the morning and then when we started on making a hay drying rack which is a traditional Norwegian thing to create. This was basically some wooden sticks with wire across them. These took a few hours and then we walked down the road and Martin & Hege were cutting and moving large logs into a trailer.

Using the tractor, we clamped it onto the logs and carried it onto the trailer. Kim was using the rope and making sure that it was still flat.

Once we did this, Kim made pesto pasta and a side salad as well as a lemon drizzle cake which was great!

Ha det!

– Mr & Mrs Hale 

Norefjord

Place 17 – Day 10: Norefjord – Project Pallet-Bed

Kim & Curtis Hale

We had finished the room yesterday which was nice to see our hard work completed, though we did have some things to finish up!

We needed to get a temporary bed made, from pallets, as well as get a desk upstairs.

We got 1 pallet from this shop this morning and luckily had 3 others which we had to sand down. Curtis sanded them down, but they each took a long time and only 1.5 were completed by lunchtime!

We had leftovers for luncb, as well as coffee, of course, and then we we back outside to complete the sanding. 

Curtis looking beautiful in his face mask

Once they were sanded they were stained to give them a nicer colour and then we had to get them upstairs.

We opened a hatch and used a homemade pully system to get them up! We attached rope to them and pulled from the other end and sure enough they went up! 

We got those upstairs and they are ready to be put together as a temporary bed.

We then had to get a desk up, which we used the same system to do, but it was a little more difficult. We had to jimmy it around to get it through the gap but we managed to get it through.

We then went outside, with a beer, to enjoy the sun for a bit before relaxing.

Incedible view with the sun shining this evening!

Kim is going to make either a katsu curry (if possible) or breaded chicken pieces!

Ha det!

– Mr & Mrs Hale 

Norefjord

Place 17 – Day 9: Norefjord – Mission Successful!

Kim & Curtis Hale

We were tasked with making breakfast this morning and Kim made a good ol’ English fry-up! Egg, homemade bacon (Yes, from previous pigs!), Lamb Sausages, baked beans, mushrooms, tomato and toast! It was beautiful!

We started at 09:30 this morning, so a little later, and all morning we were working to fit 2 last planks into the middle of the ceiling. There is a beam in the middle of the room which we had to fit 2 planks next to and they were causing a lot of issues! We had to fit it into the gaps, but it was a little wide and long, so we had to keep cutting this down, sanding it and shredding it. 

Eventually, we got these pieces to fit and one was short so we had to add another piece with an angle, but we fit those up there perfectly!

In the afternoon, we needed to add in the wood around the windows and most of it was perfect fit but one window was not. This meant that we had to cut it down, sand it and get it to fit! 

We did this and then the room was complete! We picked out the moss from the walls and cleaned the floor.

Curtis and Jana (another HelpX’r) sugar soaped the floor but didn’t wipe the excess off so it had to be done again! 

Kim went with Hege and Tarn to the shop to get both food and a pallet, which we are using for our next project! 

Kim made tacos for dinner and then she was fluffing wool!

Ha det!

– Mr & Mrs Hale 

Norefjord

Place 17 – Day 8: Norefjord – Room Project Nearing Completion

Kim & Curtis Hale

Today we were back to work and we were really excited to get started! 

We woke at 07:50 to make breakfast. Kim made french toast, which was delicious!

We then went back up to the room to continue with sanding, cutting and shaping the planks for the ceiling trim.

We spent most of the morning to get all of the planks sanded and cut and continued with the room after lunch and had a few planks left to screw in, but the problem is that we had to cut them to specific angles and let’s say it wasn’t easy!

We did manage to get them all screwed in and there isn’t many jobs left! We just need to remove the wall insulation and replace it with wool, add in some more planks in the middle of the room and then paint and varnish the floor.

We finished work and then booked some more flights and had showers. 

We’re being made Thai Curry for dinner by Hege, which Curtis is really looking forward to!

Ha det!

– Mr & Mrs Hale 

Norefjord

Place 17 – Day 7: Norefjord – A Whole Lotta Nothin’

Kim & Curtis Hale

Today, we decided to take our day off as we’re quite tired and also it was meant to rain all day!

We had a small lay in, waking up at around 10:00 before having a lovely breakfast of eggs on toast.

We relaxed for a little bit and then thought we should probably use our time wisely and look into some flights for some of our future travels.

This has pretty much been what we have done all day, along with playing with Tarn, the baby, Kim has been making some more ice cream and she also went shopping with Tarn & Hege and is now making honey roasted vegetables with beer gravy, which we’re all salivating just thinking about!

As mentioned above, it said on the forecast that there was meant to be rain all day, but there hasn’t been a single drop, which is frustrating!

We were considering taking a short hike, but decided that we really couldn’t be bothered and we will probably just do it after we finish work one day…Maybe tomorrow!

This blog is pretty much at its end now. Sorry for the short one, but we’ve pretty much done nothing all day, so not much to report! Back to work tomorrow, meaning there should be something interesting to speak about!

Ha det!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Norefjord

Place 17 – Day 6: Norefjord – Mini Trees, Heavy Trees & A Spot of Cleaning

Kim & Curtis Hale

Kim woke at 07:00 to feed the animals and left Curtis in bed for an hour.

Kim made crêpes for breakfast, which were delicious, and then we had a bit of a relaxed morning, just doing a few small jobs here and there. Kim hung out some laundry and created the pigs’ food, which consists of boiling spoiled vegetables. Whilst Kim did this, Curtis took the beer pots (the pots that the beer was brewed in) and washed them out outside.

We then headed outside to take the trees we cut the other day and move them (the cut parts) to a place up the hill which is a ‘burning pile’ for a future date. Unfortunately, this was very tiring as it was up a very steep hill and we tried to take all of the large cut offs at once!

We took a break for lunch, in which we had more coffee and some noodles and looked at some accommodation options for a place we needed to book for (You’ll find out where soon enough!). Unfortunately, we didn’t find anywhere suitable, so we headed back outside to cut some small trees out of a field so that a machine that cuts hay can be used in it.

Once we completed this, we headed back in so that we could look at some more accommodation for the unnamed place we looked for earlier. Luckily, we were able to book something for it, after DAYS of looking, so that was a big positive!

Kim is currently making a nice chicken Mexican-style meal, which should be delicious!

Ha det!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Norefjord

Place 17 – Day 5: Norefjord – 80 Brown Bottles…🍺

Kim & Curtis Hale

Last night, it took 4 of us to get one rogue chicken into the chicken pen, which was a barrel of laughs but then the sheep came and said hi so it was lovely!

Kim being loved by a lamb!

This morning, we got another lay in, but didn’t sleep great last night so we ended up being more tired! 

 We had breakfast and then went out to continue being carpenters and doing the ceiling trim! We did this for the morning and stopped for our lunch which was instant noodles. They were lovely!

Kim had a great time trying to lure the sheep away from the garage today, but she was unable to. She did get followed by them a lot which was funny!

After lunch we had a few more pieces of wood to cut, sand and screw in. 

We then had a break until the evening when we had to clean and sterilise bottles for beer bottling!

Post bottle cleaning, we bottled the homemade beer, which was a very fun experience!

We now have a LOT of beer!! 🍺

All the beer!

Before we bottled the beer

Mid-process bottle drying

We have celebrated with a beer and some more of Kim’s ice cream. Tomorrow we have some spare beer to use for gravy, which we can’t wait for!

Ha det!

– Mr & Mrs Hale