departure time - 12:20

It is officially the day before we leave for phoenix!! tomorrow our first flight leaves Norway for London at 12:20pm! AH I am sooo excited to get bombarded with heat and the sunshine, see family that I haven't seen in ages! Also I am overly excited to fill my days with relaxation/meditation, getting tan, lots of yoga, getting able to go to a gym that is not far away, swimming, shopping and getting a chance to be a fully raw vegan!!! I will be a fruit monster while being able to go high carb low fat raw vegan. it sounds like a diet but it is a lifestyle. since fruit is so expensive here in Norway it is hard to do, but in phoenix it is much cheaper and I already found farmers markets, whole sale places where I can stock up on fruit and fully live the lifestyle that I dream about and thrive to wanting to live. It is the superior diet which I believe you can achieve your optimal health and now I can do it 100 percent for a whole 1 month!! when I get back to Norway I will probably have to resume the raw vegan diet at only 60-70 percent with having some cooked meals here and there but still going high carb low fat vegan. It is sooo rawsome and carbalisious! :P don't be afraid of carbs they fuel your body for the whole entire day!! I mean good carbs of course (fruit, vegetables, whole grains, wild rice, quinoa..). don't be afraid of the sugar in fruit since every cell in our body runs on glucose! on this lifestyle you have unlimited calories and can have humongous portion sizes since it is pure nutrients your body uses. you won't gain weight either since your body is using all the good healthy things you are feeding it! you will never overdose on fruit! if anything the only thing you have to worry about while going on this lifestyle is eating enough calories! so I will be trying to shove down 2000-2500 calories a day at least of raw fruits and veggies with small amounts of nuts and seeds. if you want to see proof that oyu don't gain weight search up freely the banana girl, durian rider or fully raw Kristina on YouTube or the internet to see it! they all are high carb low fat raw vegans that have been doing this long term and are lean mean working machines!! the two girls freely and Kristina are both SUPER fit and healthy and they eat at least 3000 calories of fruit and veg every single day! I wish I could live their lives.. my family is quite against the idea and with fruit being soo expensive it is hard to convince them.. but where there is a will there is a way!! so my lifelong goal that I will for sure be starting once I move out and go off to college will be to become a 100 percent raw veganer. but I am doing the best I can for now and just having that dream at the back of my head of being at that optimal health that I can achieve.. I can only dream..

on Thursday my brother and I walked down to a beach only 20 min away and 5 min driving distance. it was super sunny and we toke our dog with. we are thinking of putting our money together to buy a gopro camera thingy that we could get for phoenix so we have a project to work on in phoenix and Colorado. so that will be fun! :) then that afternoon I went horseback riding with my friend. I rode for a long 50 min at gave my horse punky and myself a real workout! we were both sweating our brains out! so since he was dripping and covered in sweat I gave him a cold shower. then of course when I let him back out into the field the first thing he did when not even taking two steps into the field was roll in dirt.. haha that is punky!! he is one funny fjord :P the next day I just went on a trail ride with him which was nice and peaceful. he was especially good and I got some cute pictures of him and the herd when I put him back out in the field for the night. I figured out that he is the leader of the herd since when he was gone the other horses waited at the gate for him until he got back :P so I am proud of him being a leader and taking care of his herd :) I also got priceless pics of when he came up to the gate to say goodbye his girlfriend joined so I got pictures of them both together <3

on that Friday Erlend joined me down at the farm to feed the lambs and I got some funny pictures of him giving milk to 49 aswell. We saw a group of horseback riders go bye that were riding western with western saddles! Not something you see everyday in Norway! 

on Saturday we got up super early to drive down to Kristiansand so we could watch Erlend play 2 baseball games. it was really intense, they lost the first game only by 1 point after having to go into extra innings and the second game they won 10-4! the team they won against was really good but erlends team was better! he did so well pitching and playing first place, he did a lot of good plays! I am sure proud of him!

today was just a packing and planning day to prepare for our journey to phoenix tomorrow. Erlend went to oslo to play more baseball. I cooked, fried and ate the plantains raw that I have been ripening for weeks now. my mom and dad loved them and so did I. they were so creamy and tasty! then afterwards we drove our dog, Nickie to the kennel wich was sad ;(

okay bye bye and remember stay golden ;)

quote of the day: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
― H. Jackson Brown Jr.

I Love Lucy and homemade orange juice

The last couple of days I have been a little under the weather.. I have had a stuffed up head and nose for a couple of days now but its getting better. I didn't go down to the barn or the farm for two days so it was good to see 48, 49 and Punky today after not seeing them for a while!

on Sunday and Monday I literally just chilled the whole day since I was feeling so sick. it bugged me that I couldn't do anything physical like go horseback riding or do my daily yoga or go jogging in the sunny weather there was. but I just had to accept that my body was telling me it needed to rest, and I had to listen to it by taking it easy. it makes sense that my body needed a rest since after exams my brain was dead and once summer started I was going down to the farm to work for 4-5 hours and then straight to the barn for 2 hours to ride each and every day, so I needed the rest :P

a favorite thing I like to do when I am sick is to watch the  "I Love Lucy" show. it is a comedy tv series filmed in the 50's about a red head named Lucy and her Cuban husband. it is just pure humor, I love it! its not like todays humor that is racist or sexist or based on making fun of cultures or nationalities. so I grabbed some raisins and squeezed some oranges to make my own homemade orange juice to sip on while laughing to "I Love Lucy" and nurturing myself back to health.

when my family and I watched "Downtown Abbey" that night a big thing happened, one of the characters died. I knew it was going to happen since I accidently saw a picture about it online but surprisingly I kept my mouth closed and didn't tell my family so they were shocked to find out that I knew this was going to happen all along! :P

on Monday we all headed down to the beach to grill our dinner in the sun and have our own BBQ. Nickie came along as well! earlier that day my mom and I went to the organic market to get some vegan hotdogs and hamburgers to eat that evening. we forgot to get some normal chicken hotdogs for my brother so my whole family ended up eating vegan that evening at our own BBQ!! it made me so happy, my brother was a little unhappy and sceptical but he even liked it! it was awesome, we brought our 'engangsgrill' which is a portable grill that you use only one time. we brought towels to lay on, on the sand and a picnic basket with watermelon berries, dried banana and our vegan hotdogs and burgers! we brought along some paddle things with a ball that we all played with after eating our dinner. we found a place that was like a ditch amid the sand dunes that was protected from the wind so it was the ideal place. my brother and I ran with nickie along the shoreline on the sandy beach to tire out nickie so he could rest while we would eat/ we told some riddles while waiting for the hotdogs to grill which was fun and tricky!  it was intense while I was diving all over the place while we were trying to beat our record of hitting around 8 times! doesn't sound like a lot but it sure took some time to beat! the sun was absolutely gorgeous and it was a fun family bonding time for sure!

on Tuesday I went to the hairdresser to get my hair re dyed and I decided to get it dyed close to my natural color which is a dark honey dirty blonde colour instead of my normal blonde highlight and lowlights which I usually get. so it was a nice change and now my hair is more darker and closer to my natural hair colour.

today I went down to the farm at 9 30 am. it started with me milking 48 and 49 as usual. then afterwards I helped the famer gather up the pigs that were going to be sent on to their new location. he first went into each stall and slapped on a tattoo marking that pricked a number in ink on their rump and he marked the ones we chose he was going to send off with a blue sharpie. then afterwards we had to go in each separate stall, gather and move the ones that were marked while making sure the other ones that weren't marked wouldn't get out. that took a good 2 hours of pure muscle and sweat since the pigs are heavy and strong weighing in at about 100 kilos and they can be stubborn while they put up the fight!

while we waited for the delivery truck to come get them I went in the tractor with the farmer to go get some fertiliser (pig poo) from this big container where he stores it all and then we drove to one of his fields which he owns a few km away to do some rounds of fertilising of spraying the fields with this pig poo. it was sooo fun it was like riding a roller coaster when the tractor was powering up the hills while spraying the fields in this pig poo. I didn't mind the smell since I am used to it and I was just in farm heaven! when we got back the farmer asked me to try and go give some milk to this lamb that is so small and weak which he doesn't think will make it. so I went out to the field and 48 came running down along with 49 so I gave them a drink and then I suddenly noticed a lamb laying down in a little dip in the grassy hill only a few meters ahead of me. I realised it was the weak lamb I was looking for. I approached it and it was worrying when it didn't get up and run away from me since it is usually scared of me. it struggled to get up with it barely having enough energy to lift its head. so I got down and petted it gently to calm it down. it layed its head down and it looked sick. I really thought this was its last minutes alive he looked like he had no more life in him. thinking this I started saying things like " don't worry you can pass away, you can just rest here, we all love you, you have had a great life and it is okay if you leave.. you will go to a more peaceful place where you can have as much milk as you want and there will be so much green grass that you will become overexcited with pure happiness and joy. after 10 min of petting him he showed me he actually wanted to get up, so I lifted him up and helped him on his feet. he wobbled away and started eating some grass. he stumbled a few times and I could sense how weak we was. the farmer said its because he isn't drinking enough milk from his mother and he wouldn't even drink out of the bottle I tried to give him so due to the lack of milk he isn't getting he is just to weak and has trouble staying on his feet ;(

after being down at the farm I had some lunch and then headed to the barn to ride Punky. he was AWESOME, he was on his best behaviour and I was so happy with him. so we got a good workout and just missed the rain too! I got the rain while walking home though, but I loved it every step of the way. that summer rain hitting my face that was previously warm with sweat after the ride was one good feeling that couldn't stop me from smiling!

quote of the day: "Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. Your really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world."
— Lucille Ball (from the 50's hit TV show 'I Love Lucy')

bye bye and remember stay golden ;)

motherly instincts

These past few days have been interesting.. on Friday when I went down to the barn I couldn't find the bottle that I use to milk the lambs with so I sort of freaked out because now I had nothing to give the milk to the lambs with. the famer wasn't there so he couldn't help me so I just had to try using something else. there was another bottle but it had a different tip so I tried that but the poor lambs were confused since they had never seen this type of bottle before. so they got a bit frustrated and so did I since they was nothing I could do to help them. this is where my motherly instincts came in and I decided I was going to do something about it. I got my dad to drive me to a warehouse store that sells farming equipment where the farmer of the farmer I work at buys most of his stuff. my dad is familiar with the store since he worked there when he was a teenager himself. sure enough we found what we were looking for the first place we looked. after that we drove straight to the barn to save 48 and 49 from their famine ;P so they thought it was good to have a nice warm drink of milk out of a bottle they were familiar with.

on Friday afternoon I went to a BBQ down at my stables for a summer social kind of thing for everyone who boards their horse there. I grilled my vegan hotdogs while others grilled their pork ribs and burgers. on Saturday I went down early to the stables to get in a morning ride before continuing on down to work on the farm. I biked down at 8 in the morning to get in this workout session. Punky was really good and awake! so we got in a nice solid hard workout before I turned him back out into the field again for the day.

these past nights my dad, my brother and I have been watching the matrix movies and I just love them! I just think the concept of the movie is so cool. how the real world is actually fake and in the real world the machines rule. the machines made up this make believe world called 'the matrix' where the humans live their lives inside their mind when they believe they are doing things when they actually aren't. the machines trick them into thinking they are living a normal life when they actually are hooked into this system. the humans do things in this make believe world and create energy which forms electricity for the machines to use in the real world.

it was raining the night before so a lot of slugs were out crossing the sidewalk. a lot of cruel Norwegian kids like to runt hem over while biking. but when I biked down to the barn I felt like the girl in the matrix who can do anything while I was dodging all the slugs at lightning speed down the steep hill.. it was an adventurous moment in the morning :P the field next to the barn was being sprayed with pig poo as a fertiliser (that's what Norwegian farmers like to do to save money and be more efficient with resources) as I rode down the sidewalk on my bike to go to the farm after riding, the farmer was rounding the corner with the tractor and as he was coming on the edge of the field right next to the sidewalk I almost got sprayed with poop! it was a near hit experience! that would have been bad.. anyways it was a good busy day with me being outside for most of it.

quote of the day: “A mother knows what her child's gone through, even if she didn't see it herself.”
― Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Gadis Pantai

bye bye and remember stay golden ;)

farm life = heaven on earth

Not everyone knows this about me.. but I want to live on an organic farm when I grow up and grow my own food and selling some of my produce as well. I don't tell a lot of people this so it is mostly just my family who knows this because every time we are on a road trip in some country I get overly excited when I see a sign for fresh produce for sale on the side of a road at the beginning of a narrow long drive way leading up to a picturesque barn with animals surrounding the red barn in fenced fields with grass greener and taller then I have ever seen before.

so anyways this summer I am working on a farm as a summer job one could say, but it is more voluntary due to I just love working there :D I wanted to work here for a bit just to see how farm life is like and get a reality check as to if this is really what I want to do in the future. since a couple years back I wanted to be a vet and then after I volunteered at a vet hospital for over 2 years I realised it just wasn't for me. so that is why I am working at this farm just for a few weeks before I head off to Phoenix for a month!!

I absolutely just love the atmosphere of working there, the farmer is super nice and chill as he comes and goes from the farm to his house to help out with his family as well. for example he will give me a task to do of cleaning out the pig stalls and then he continue doing his own chore and then head home after lunchtime to help his kid with some homework before returning back to the farm an hour later. I just love how flexible this lifestyle is, you do your work on your own time, you are your own boss, you make the rules, and plus you are outside all day doing what you love and being with animals. how much better does it get!?! farming has truly become my passion and I cant wait to explore more of it in college/university when I take courses on it and I can dedicate my education to it!

so the farm I am working at, at the moment is a pig/sheep farm. so there are many different chores that have to be done. one of the first things I always do straight away when I get down to the farm in the morning is to milk the lambs. there are two lambs in the herd that have been neglected by their moms who wont give them milk so we have to give them milk out of the bottle. these two lambs that need milk from the bottle are called 48 and 49 since that is their register number on their ear tag, so it is easy to figure out who is who in the field. I feel they need proper names since they are sooo cute and adorable and both have very separate and different personalities, so I believe they deserve better names supposed to just being called by their registry number.

so the first time the farmer showed me the formula they get for their milk and told me their number and just to go searching in the field. I was a bit sceptical because I didn't know how I was going to find these 2 lambs amist all the other sheep and lambs which would just run away from you if you got to close. as I was walking around in the field I was starting to think it was a hopeless case but then suddenly this lamb looks at me at sees the bottle and just starts charging straight for me, I was confused because it was doing the opposite as to what the other sheep were doing. then I realized it was 49 that had come to me, it was just a blissful moment having a baby lamb run up to you as if you were their mother. :) after it finished the first bottle it wanted more so as I started back towards the barn to make up another batch of warm milk it followed me all the way up until the fence stopped him. I could already tell we were going to be good friends during the next couple of weeks. when I returned from making the second bottle 48 had shown up and boy was he thirsty! once he saw me round the corner he got so excited he climbed through the small hole in the wired fence to reach me first before 49 even got a chance. I was so shocked and I didn't know what to do, out of pure panic because I didn't want him running away since he was basically free now on the other side of the fence, I climbed over the fence into the field on the other side trying to encourage him to climb back through the fence. he was confused and couldn't figure out where and how he got through in the first place :P but he found a hole and managed to climb back through.

that day my main task was to walk around the field spraying all the weeds and unnecessary plants with poison. it was one tough job that took a good 4 and 1/2 hours since it was a big field. even the farmer apologised for it being such a tough task on my first day, but I was up for the challenge!! I hauled a big plastic container on my back containing the poison up and down across the field that day and when I say field I don't mean a nice calm flat field I mean a field that has no flat land it just goes up and down with steep areas with rocks sticking out of the ground and slippery mud just waiting for you to slip on. so I got my workout that day and by the end I couldn't feel my legs or my back.. I did some yoga when I got home to try to relieve the tension in my back. it was tough work but I sure enjoyed it! I love doing hard work outside because I never get tired due to the fresh air giving me energy, the fantastic view of the sea that is only about 200 m away from the farm and the lambs following me around as to motivate me to keep on working. it was such an awesome first day!!

the next day I woke up bright and early to get some yoga in before heading down to the farm. when I went out to the field I couldn't see where the lambs and sheep were so I climbed the steep hill going to the top of the field where I guessed they would be. halfway up I see a lamb appear at the top baaing at me. I soon realised it was 49 so I kneeled down shaking the bottle to show him the milk and he came running down the field to greet me. I couldn't help but smile. he had a wet fur coat since it had been raining earlier that night. that day I had the job of cleaning out the troughs in the pig stalls before the new pigs arrived that day. when the pigs arrived the farmer and I herded them into separate stalls, 13 in each. we categorized them by size since some were bigger than others. after that we went over to talk to the guy that drove them over, and all I can say is he was one sketchy looking farmer! he had a heavy Norwegian accent with torn up clothes and 2 missing fingers on his right hand. ya you can say rough and sketchy alright... so after talking to him we got back to work, I cleaned another set of stalls in the other part of the pig house and prepared it for new pigs as well. it was another long job as well, took me about 3 1/2 hours and boy did it smell. I can see why they compare pigs to being gross when people say "you're a pig!" because they sure make a mess and I know from first hand experience!
when I went to go milk the lambs again before I left (they get milk 2 times a day) I took my phone so I could take some pictures of them since they are so cute! I saw two small lambs by themselves on the side of the hill near some trees so I figured it was 49 and 48. I started my trek over there and when they saw me they came a running and even with my poor eyesight I could see that it was indeed them (48 and 49). I quickly whipped out my phone to take a video and got another cute video of them milking from the bottle. after they were done they both just sort of stayed with me so I kneeled down on the grass and just started to pet them. they surprisingly loved it and wasn't afraid of the touch of my hand. 48 leaned in close to me and loved it when I rubbed his belly and stroked his head just like nickie my dog! 49 started to eat the grass beside me while 48 just loved being cuddled. when I took pictures he would look straight into the camera as if to smile :P he got so tired and relaxed of me cuddling and petting him that he layed down beside me. occasionally after a while of petting him he would look up and give me little kisses on my face, it was pure love and bliss. my day got 10 times better after that moment. its funny how one tiny little second can change your whole day just with the power of love and kindness. so remember that you can find pure happiness anywhere you just have to be open, look for things that make you happy and give things a chance. you can always find happiness in a dull moment.

so remember the power of positivity can alter your way of thinking and make you one happy person! give it a try! I challenge you to find something positive with everything that happens which seems negative. I also challenge you to smile at, at least 8 strangers today and say 1 positive comment to someone you do not necessarily like. the power of kindness is way stronger then the power of revenge. so if someone made you mad today simple say a nice comment back, it will through them off guard and there will only be positive outcomes of this action. the more positivity and kindness you share with the world the more you will receive back from the world around you :) so stay happy and positive through those rough times it will help ease away your problems, I guarantee it!

Quotes of the day:

Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough”
― Oprah Winfrey

“Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

byebye I got to go take my dog out for a walk then do some peaceful yoga <3 remember stay golden ;)

(I will post pictures of the lambs from my phone in not too long)