YCGL - Thursday and Friday, July 18-19, 2024 - Day 36-7 - At Home in Vingelen - Draft

 Hi, I'm combining Thursday and Friday, because everything important has happened over the last two days.  I got to Fremmermoen, Sally's family's farm in Vingelen at about 4;30.  When I walked up to the house, no one was there.  No surprise, it was two days before Tore and Marit's wedding, so I knew that Einar and Kiki would be busy.  It was early, but I thought I would try the milk barn, and as I walked there, Kiki drove in.  She had been up to the setra, Movollon, the summer farm in the mountains getting the house prepared because the wedding would be there.  As she greeted me, Einar walked up from the east side of the barn and he was laughing.  After we greeted each other, he said he had something to show me.  

We walked into the north side of the milking barn and he opened a pair of doors into the milking parlor.  And this was what I saw.  

The milking stalls are in the center blueish segment.  

All the floor is torn up and being demolished and the interior walls are being taken down.   He's going to make calving pens in the bottom for the fall calves, extend the stalls out to the front and install an automatic "robot" milking machine.  They will be able to increase their herd by about 50 percent.  Of course, it's summer time and the cows are up at the setra for the summer.  Einar is pushing hard to get this job done by early September.  Losing a few days in mid July isn't helping.... but he is as excited as anyone!  I may have to come again and see the new construction!

Kiki had to go up to the setra to help with the milking since the stall space there is more limited.  Einar and I went to Fjellheim, the community center to see the preparations for the party after the wedding.  It is absolutely increadible.  And I didn't want to take a picture because its their show and I didn't want to post a pic before they did.  I will tomorrow.  It also gave me a chance to meet up with Silje and Mali.

Next, Einar and I went for dinner that the cafe associated with the grocery store.  When we walked in, Einar's uncle and aunt Magna and Liv were having dinner with his daughter, Mari and her husband Magnus.  Magnus is a professor of Chemical Engineering at NTNU in Trondheim.  He did part of his MS at Penn State and had a sabbatical at Stanford in 2016.   

Silje's husband, Trond Peder, is the chief at the cafe.  My meatballs, using moose and pork, in gravy was delicious.  And his Napoleon cream cake was wow!

After dinner, we stopped at Einar's mother's house, of course.  Olov was just as happy and loving as she always is, she was making waffles for two of her granddaughters, so we had waffles and coffee.  The granddaughters are from Einar's youngest brother Anders who I met Saturday morning.  Synne is in 10th grade and Marie is in 6th grade, and they are two wonderfully social and sharp young ladies.  They also were great translators for Olov and me.  They both started learning English in 1st grade.  

I am staying at Silje and Trond Peder's house, which I knew was on the Fremmermoen property, but not which one, so the two girls drove over with me right as Tore drove up.  I had Tore lift my suitcase out of the trunk and I was going to drive the girls back to Olov's, but they had already skipped off.