The Icelandic Canadian - 01.11.2007, Page 36

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 61 #2
June 2nd, 1894
Porey and I went for a walk to the
riverbank this afternoon. We sat in the long
grass with our feet in the water, watching
the large numbers of fish swimming about
and seeing whether we can catch one. To
my dismay I couldn’t seem to catch any! I
was hoping to boil one up and have it for
dinner. It is strange for us to eat so much
red meat when we come from a country so
abundant in fish. Porey is really coming
along with her pregnancy. She is letting out
the front of some of her clothing.
Tomorrow we start the house. Kristjon
told me that if I have his help now, when I
need it the most, he should reserve that
priviledge for himself, when he is in need of
me.
June 23rd, 1894
The first four logs on each of the four
sides have been chinked and placed, and
there has been space left for a door. Porey
has started clearing away the sticks and logs
cluttering the area while Kristjon and I
build the cabin. We heard some strange
noises last night in the tent, like a volcano
in the distance and flashing lights on the
wall of our tent. The rumbling got louder
and louder, suddenly there was a bright
flash and a terrible wind. All at once it was
raining more than we had ever seen in our
lifetime together; pouring rain, loud boom-
ing noise and bright flashing lights. We
learned earlier today on our trip to Lundur
that this was a common thunderstorm -
there are so many new things to experience
here in Canada.
June 8th, 1894
The house is sure coming along. It is
wonderful, and we covered the roof with
sod, as we did with our first homes in
Iceland. The house is beautiful. We had to
go to Lundur to get the windows and it was
difficult chinking the top logs, but days
later we are finally finished. Another settler
and his family have moved into the
area.The family’s last name is Gislasson,
but as yet, I don’t know their first names. I
hear, too, that his wife is a midwife. As
soon as our house is built, we shall go and
visit them. Kristjon will be adding to his
house in a few days, after our house is com-
pleted, and I shall help him with that.There
is always hot food for us working men and
always help when it’s asked for. May sug-
gests that we all go to visit the Gislassons
on Sunday, and we all agree that we should
go visit them and bring them some nice
thing, like a bouquet of wildflowers or
fresh caught fish from the river, filleted and
ready to bake. We must start seeding the
wheat we bought in Lundur a week ago,
because from what the storekeeper in
Lundur told me, we only have three
months in which to grow it.
June 14th, 1894
Today is Sunday. The Finnssons came
to our house and we had morning coffee
and headed over to the GIslasson’s. They
are pleasant people. Halldor and Porey
Gislasson are their names and they are also
from Skagafjordur. It turns out that we are
related distantly, unlike Kristjon who came
from VarmahllS. We enjoyed a nice filleted
fish dinner baked in a cast iron stove
(which reminds me, I still have to go to
Lundur and purchase one for Porey and
me.) The meal was delicious! Porey is a
wonderful cook. She says it is her mothers
doing, teaching her to cook so well; I
believe it is purely talent. We decided that
we should try and get some trade routes
going and that we should try cutting and
selling wood for money as a co-operative.
If we purchased a flatboat we could take at
least one load a day to Lundur and we
could make a lot of money that way. The
weather is sure warming up, and there is
almost no moisture, which is strange, I’m
told, for this region.
June 21st, 1894
Today was a beautiful day. Kristjon,
Halldor and I went to Lundur to buy the
tools for a sawmill. We have all built our
houses now and we thought it would be
appropriate to start an industry in the area.
Across the river, on the North side, we
have cleared an area. This land belongs to
Halldor but he has agreed it is the best
place for the mill. Kristjon’s two horses can
be used to haul the timber to the dock and