A dairy farm needs cows. If there are no cows – no dairy farm!
Video is from when they first got out this spring. Always fun to watch the dairy-laidies when they discover the door is open!
This is only the beginning. Within 5 minutes, the barn was empty, and the whole bunch of milking-girls were outside! On days like this, one sure do wish the weather could be like this year round, so that all of the herd could be outside all the time. Truth is, we do live in a place where it could get really soggy and wet, and on those days, the cows are actually better off inside.
In 1937, the same year as Jentoft Strandvahl became owner and farmer of Vaag after his parents, his sister Kristine Strandval got a piece of land besides the main buildings to build her own house. The lot got named Nytun, and she got a house built in the same year. Kristine shared her house with her sister Inger Dine Strandval and her husband Martin Jeremiassen Flosand. They kept a phone station in the house, called Øvervåg telefonstasjon. They were co-owners of the property, and when Kristine died in 1960, they got the house and land belonging to it without charge.
Martinstua, anno 1958
Dine died, and Martin later remarried with Eva, a widow with two grown children, Åse and Hans. Martin and Eva were two gentle souls whom I have spent quite a few breakfasts with in my younger years.
After Eva died, her family kept the house for many years, and used it as a summer residence. But, as years go by, things change, and they decided to sell the property. I feel very fortunate to be able to have acquired this proud, nice, old house filled with so many, many memories.
Since the fall of 2012, we have been renovating and restoring the building. We have been trying to keep most of it in an old style, but updating kitchen and bathroom facilities to modern standards. The colors on the doors upstairs are as they were originally, and we have brought to light the old, wooden floors.
The most visible change however, might be the change of colors on the outside. The house was originally white with green framing around the windows. Now, the outside coloring is orange with white framing and grey at the bottom. The house is now finished, new electrical wiring and all. The final pieces of the renovating process is the garden. Eva and Martin used to have such a wonderful garden. We still do see traces of the past, but most of it is overgrown and gone. I really do have some huge gardening-shoes to fill to complete this task.
Welcome inside! The coloring of the door is as it used to be when I was a childKitchen, 2020Food storage, 2020Livingroom, 2020In old times, there used to be a door between the oven and the cabinet… The door is now in the back hallway, and the old phone-room is now part bathroom and laundry space.The new bathroomBack hallway changed just a bit.Now there is a bedroom where the freezer used to be.The bathtub upstairs is gone… but the room is still quite useful, and the paneling is original!Martin’s old roomEva’s old roomThe old guest roomPart of Martin’s old copper beech.
The latest fixing of the house was Morten building a new railing for the front steps in the summer of 2020. Pictures following are the step-by-step making of the beautiful, new railing.
BeforeGoing down!Old poles can be useful! I do not think the winter storms are going to knock this one down! Poles finished.Framework coming up – this was the easy part.Making of the insertsAlmost there!Finished!
Martinstua is a house we have really enjoyed spending time in and renovating. Morten has spent quite a few hours working in and on this cozy, old farmhouse. Currently, we use it as a house for our guests, giving us plenty room for visitors!
As a little girl, one out of many dreams, was to be a flower girl in someone’s wedding. It did not really matter who was the bride, really. My cousin was very lucky to be a flower girl in our grown-up joint-cousin’s wedding, and many hours have been spent looking at those wedding pictures throughout the years. Dreaming….
My dream of becoming a flower girl never came through, but the love of flowers never dissipated. I truly hate digging in the dirt, but do like nice flowers and watching things grow. I really dislike weeds, too, especialle where there really should be flowers in my garden. But, I hate pulling weeds just as much as I despise getting dirt on my hands. Luckily, gloves do exist, and some flowers you can just buy, nice and fully grown, ready to just hang!
Front yard display 2020
Another one of my dreams as a child was to have chickens. However, live chickens need a nice, suitable place to stay, and there are so many more important projects to be finished before building a chicken coop. Meanwhile, I have to manage with chicken and rooster look-alikes. Very low maintenance since they do not need food, and they are a nice treat to the eye. And, I do not need to clean up after them!
Asmund Hestø ordered a boat from the shipyard of Ole Fjær in Ramfjord, Nærøy. The boat was finished and delivered to Asmund in 1948, at the cost of 27 000 NOK, which at the time was a substantial amount of money. Tax and insurance documents show the value of the boat when acquired, and that there a few years later was a damage done to the boat.
Asmund used the boat fishing both locally and for the cod fisheries up north in Lofoten, often in the company of and with the help of his two oldest sons, Arvid and Åsmund.
Tax document, courtesy of Anton RamfjordInsurance document, courtesy of Anton RamfjordBack side of insurance document, courtesy of Anton Ramfjord
The boat was not only used for fishing as the following picture shows. It is told that Åsmund was the captain on a trip with a class visiting the Gjæslingan lighthouse in 1954. The grandfather on Kjell Øiahals’ mother’s side was the guide showing the way, and the children in the picture, were 4th and 5th graders. Åsmund was 18 years old at the time.
School adventure to the Gjæslingan lighthouse in 1954, courtesy of Kjell Øiahals
The history of the boat after my grandfather Asmund sold it has been unraveled by local historians and men very interested in boat histories of Ytre Namdal. Thanks to Anton Ramfjord, Terje Fossaa and Terje Haugvik especially, the continued story of Bølgen came together.
My grandfather sold the boat to Leon Hellesø, a local of Vikna, and the boat changed its name to Aunskjær, and it got a new registration NT5V. This was in 1963 or 1964. Hellesø used the boat locally doing shrimp-fishing, and up north in Lofoten. It is told by Terje Haugvik that Hellesø was a skilled fisher and a nice man to work with. In the beginning when Leon Hellesø owned Bølgen/ Aunskjær there was a Brunvoll 28 HP engine onboard. In the winter of 1981 Leon visited a shipyard in Lyngsnes and got the engine changed into a 1978- Scania truck-engine rebuilt to be a marine engine.
NT5V – Aunskjær, courtesy of Anton Ramfjord
In August of 1984 Hellesø sold Aunskjær to Vidar Johansen in Mevika, Gildeskål county. New registration number on the boat was N-73-G (Gildeskål). The boat was now sold for about 200 000 NOK. Vidar Johansen was originally from Snyen, a small island west of Bolga in Meløy county in the northern parts of Norway. Johansen continued using the boat for shrimp-fisheries, and he kept the boat well and modernized what he needed – changing the winching as the latest and biggest replacement.
In August of 1991, Vidar, along with a colleague, took Aunskjær/ Bølgen to its final resting place; a dumping field for boats in Gildeskål county. The place where Bølgen finally ended its days, stripped of all equipment except for the engine, was in the Fugløyfjord, west of the cairn of Femris. It was sunken at 100 meters depth.
The last picture of this story is the last known picture of Bølgen before it was condemned.
A slow, rainy morning by the dining room table… Surrounded by a mix of family heirlooms and newer, non-inherited furniture and accessories. Someone’s trash can likely be a treasure for others – and various items have mysterious ways of coming around.
Some days feel like living in a fairytale, while other days feel like quite the contrary! This summer has been awesome in many ways, and more awesomeness is luckily yet to come! This morning is a perfect morning to be working digitally before heading out pretending to do something useful.
The Hestø family has its roots from the islands in the nearby region; Hestøya and Arnøya. There are many beautiful islands surrounding this area, and the ocean is close by almost everywhere one can turn. Asmund was both a farmer and fisherman, and had a fishing boat called “Bølgen”. He was up north in Lofoten during the winter for the cod fisheries there, while his wife Wilhelmine stayed at home with the younger children and took care of what was at home. They had a few cows, pigs, hens and a horse.
In 1974 Willy, their youngest son, started running the farm Vaag together with his wife Ingeborg. They had been at sea for a few years, but decided this was something they wished to do, and had built a new house on the farm this year. Four years later, the new dairy barn was finished, and yet another era introduced. Ingeborg and Willy have done several expansions of the farm – both when it comes to buildings, how much milk can be produced, and to the size of their land. The couple had four children, and their oldest, Aslaug became proud farmer of this land in 2010 along with her husband Morten.
