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Apparently the weather has been so good in Iceland this year that haymaking has begun about two weeks earlier than usual 🙂
Heyskapur í fullum gangi
Haymaking in full swing
Bændur eru byrjaðir að hirða hey á nokkrum bæjum, bæði sunnan heiða og norðan. Heyskapur hófst sums staðar allt að tveimur vikum fyrr en venja er.
Farmers have begun to collect hay in some towns, both in the south and north. Haymaking began in some places as much as two weeks earlier than usual.
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I’m not sure what the exact delineation is for sunnan/norðan heiða, whether it’s just a generic reference to the north/south half of the country, or if there is a geographic feature like a range or a road.
Tíðarfar hefur verið óvenju gott þetta vorið – hlýtt í veðri, sólskin en þó næg rigning. Bændur á nokkrum bæjum sem fréttastofa hefur rætt við, segja að spretta sé afar góð. Nokkrir bændur byrjuðu að slá á föstudag, þegar ekki var liðin vika af júnímánuði.
Weather conditions have been unusually good this spring – warm, sunny, but still enough rain. Farmers in some towns we spoke to say the growth is exceptionally good. Some farmers began to mow on Friday, even before the first week of June had passed.
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The verb slá has several meanings, like hit/strike/beat, but here is refers to the cutting (mowing) of the grass.
Kári Ottósson, bóndi í Viðvík í Skagafirði, segir að það hafi hjálpað til að það var enginn jarðklaki í vor. Þá hafi tíðin verið góð og engin kuldahret komið. Kári segist hefja heyskap um tveimur vikum fyrr en venjulega. „Það hefur aldrei verið byrjað svona snemma.“
Kari Ottosson, farmer in Vidvik in Skagafjord, says it’s been a help that there was no frost this spring. Weather conditions have been good with no cold spells. Kari says he is beginning the haymaking about two weeks earlier than normal. “It’s never begun so early.”
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I used frost here for jarðklaki, but it’s specifically referring to the fact that the ground wasn’t frozen over, hence the jarð- part.
Sunnan heiða eru menn einnig byrjaðir í heyskap. Fréttasíðan Skessuhorn ræddi við bændur í Reykholtsdal sem sögðust aldrei hafa byrjað jafn snemma og nú. Í Hvalfjarðasveit var einnig byrjað að slá á föstudag. Í hlýindaveðrinu yfir helgina hefur heyið þornað fljótt, svo hægt var að binda það í heybagga í dag og flytja í hlöðu.
Haymaking has begun in the south as well. News site Skessuhorn spoke with farmers in Reykholtsdalur who said they have never started as early as they are now. In Hvalfjardasveit they also began mowing on Friday. They hay has dried quickly in the warming weekend weather, so it was possible to bag it today and put it into the barn.
There are two different examples of reported speech in the article using the verb segja. On the one hand, you have something like the straightforward “Kári…segja að það hafi hjálpað…” – an að clause with the verb (hafa) in the subjunctive. But there is also an example with segjast – the reflexive form. It is used often in cases where people are speaking about themselves, which translate into English as “he said he…” or “they said that they…” sentences. So instead of “hann sagði að hann…“, which could potentially be ambiguous, you’ll find sentences like the ones in the article – “Kári segist hefja heyskap…” and “[Þau]…sögðust aldrei hafa byrjað jafn snemma…” This is how I understand it at least 🙂
hey·skapur m haymaking hirða v (acc) collect, pick up heiði f mountain road; heath, moor tíðar·far n weather conditions spretta f rate of growth (grass) hret n cold spell with snow or rain þorna v dry, become dry hlýindi n pl warm weather hlaða f barn