Country living

For many years the only creatures in our stable were horses, but recently some new species have moved in too, and that doesn't make my daily chores less nice or interesting. I like the sounds of my quails, and I love their eggs. This winter I've even hatched nine chickens from own eggs and that was very exciting. Unfortunately only three of them were hens, so five of the roosters are now in the fridge...


Our cat that doesn't want to stay indoors anymore usually comes in for a drink as it's difficult to give him water outdoors when it turns into ice in no time. I took him indoors one day as I felt so sorry for him when it was so cold outdoors. He peed in the sofa and insisted on going out again...


Some of my guinnea pigs have got new homes, but I could not let go of Popcorn, the little white guy. I've also kept Bella's wonderful daughter, Snute. She has moved in with Popcorn now, and who knows; maybe they will have babies in march...


Petter Sprett is a Blue Little Wiener rabbit that happened to come here this winter. He was advertised as a Blue Wiener that actually is a bigger breed. That would be a perfect match for my white rabbits that are going to be mothers of rabbits to be sold for dinner. Unfortunately I cannot use Petter Sprett, so I need to buy another male. But he is such a nice and gentle rabbit that I think I'm going to keep him anyway. So now I'm looking for a female about his size...


My white babies are not old enough yet to become mothers, but I hope to find a nice male in a few weeks so that we can start producing meat and furs...


And we still have a couple of horses, but none of them are something to brag about...

The Peko Pe Stove, developed by Paal Wendelbo

Invented by Paal Wendelbo in the early 90’s. The stoves was named Peko Pe (NoProblem) by women in the Ajumani refugee camp because its use meant that they did not have to take long and dangerous trips out into the forest to collect firewood.

The Peko Pe was the first to be put into practical action based on TLUD ND Gasifier technology.

The Peko Pe stove is part of a larger biomass energy system which can help create jobs and incomes in developing countries. This work is being spearheaded by the Norwegian NGO Miombo.

Yesterday I went for my yearly trip to the mountains to gather cloudberries. It was a warm but cloudy day and it was expected rain, but I headed for Valdres anyway. Usually I don't see many people up there, but this year I saw several people walking the moors with buckets in their hands. Fortunately there seemed to be berries enough for everyone. These delicious berries so rich in vitamin C are scattered over a big area, and with all the rain that we've had this summer the moors were soaked. After a few hours both the dogs and I were getting tired. But I was satisfied having my little bucket full of cloudberries, so we started to walk back to the car. Then the rain started to pour down, so the timing of our trip was perfect.

Last year I visited a girl that bred guinea pigs for sale and I fell completely in love with these friendly little critters. This summer I came across an advertisement that someone in this district was giving away some of his guinea pigs and I just went and got them all. Three males and two females. The owner did not know that the females were pregnant, so in a few weeks one of the girls got three charming little babies. Unfortunately I lost the other one just before she was due to give birth. I now know that guinea pigs easly get something called pregnancy disease, so that was probably the reason she died.

Father and son. The black male is probably the father of the new born babies and also the father of the white fellow. They are very good friends and live together in the corner of a room behind the stable as I don't have enough cages yet.

This white little guy, only five months old was terrorized by the oldest male and now has his own cage standing right beside the cage where the mum and her kids live in an empty stall in the stable. They don't seem to mind having horses as neighbours. He also has got his fur back. It turned out that all the guinea pigs had mites and scratched like mad, so no wonder the former owner was eager to give these creatures away. But now I've treated the whole bunch and their fur has come back, except one. The tricolour female was really bad and had big wounds all over her back, but her skin is now fine and her fur is coming back also.

This summer another dream came true and I've got my first young quails. They are only five weeks old, but are eating a lot and have an unbelievable rapid growth. When they're born they are not much bigger than bumble bees! They seem to like it here and often have their siesta sleeping together in the hay.

Quails are actually very curious birds and very active and fun to watch. If I'm lucky they will start laying very healthy eggs in a couple of weeks. I've still room for a few more quails, so I will buy some more chickens and hopefully have some eggs to sell in not too long.