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| Title: On our way to meet Rolf Hetland and Gunleif Seldal and our tour of the Gjesdal, we must first wait for the ferry at Oanes in Forsand kommune. Here we take a photo looking northeast at the new bridge over the famous and beautiful Lysefjord. |
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| Title: From the same spot as the last photo, we use our telephoto lens to get a closer view of the new high bridge over the fjord. In a couple of days we would be driving over this bridge to the town of Forsand to catch the tour boat for a cruise up Lysefjord. |
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| Title: Now on the ferry from Oanes to Lauvvik, we see the town of Forsand to our left. The prominent Uburen mountain in in the center with Høgsfjord continuing to the southeast on to its right. |
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| Title: Now driving south of Høgsfjord and the community of Dirdal, our tour guide, Rolf, points out one of the monuments related to WW II activities in this area. |
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| Title: We continue driving southeast in Gjesdal kommune. Here we are in the very pleasant Dirdal Valley. |
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| Title: Here Peg and Rolf pause for a photo in a reconstruction of an old summer mountain farm setting (or "seter") located in the community of Byrkjedal. |
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| Title: After making a large loop around in beautiful Bjerkreim kommune, we are now back to Gjesdal kommune and are on the road east towards the Madland farm. We lost some of our notes from this day, but we think this photo was taken about in the Vølstad area. |
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| Title: Here we come to the forks in the road with a view of Madlandsvatnet (lake). The road to the right goes to the Vatne and Brekko farms. We will follow the road to the left to continue on to the Madland farm area. |
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| Title: We park the car at the main current day Madland farm where the current owner, Mr. Sven Lima, will show us the old Madland place. We will walk down the lane in the center here and hook around to the left where the old place is beyond the green field. |
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| Title: After walking down towards the lake we turn back and can see the old Madland place in the trees across this field. |
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| Title: Here we come closer to the center of the old Madland farm where Keith's 3rd great grandfather, Tormod Jensen Madland, was born in 1780. The old house, now painted red, is in the trees on the right. |
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| Title: Here Mr. Lima and Rolf look over the old house while the faithful farm dog takes a break. On the far right you will notice the attached barn which was quite common in the old days. |
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| Title: Here Mr. Lima, Keith & Rolf go around to where the present front door is (just showing on the left). We were told that the original entrance used to be where the double windows on the right now are. |
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| Title: This view shows the back side of the house, again with the attached barn showing. |
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| Title: Inside the attached barn we can get a better feel for this building's great age as we inspect the ancient beams and rafters. |
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| Title: This shows detail of the construction used on this building which at least parts were probably built around 1700 or before. The building appears to be well cared for and seems very sound. |
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| Title: Another view of the underside of the roof in the old attached barn. |
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| Title: Next to the old Madland house is a very interesting and large farm building. Here most of the walls are
constructed
of large stones. We were impressed by the great energy and skill it must have taken to construct this large stone building. |
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| Title: Here Keith and Mr. Lima are at the south sunny side of this old stone farm building. On the ground just behind Keith is a "sitting rock." Mr. Lima speculated that Tormod's mother probably held him on her lap here in this comfortable protected sunny spot. |
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| Title: Keith tries out the "sitting rock" and finds it surprisingly comfortable. |
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| Title: Just next to this center of the old Madland farm runs this idyllic stream, the obvious water source for the farm and home. |
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| Title: Looking along the stream in the opposite direction we see the Madland Lake in the background. What an ideal setting for a farm! |
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| Title: Near the old farm house, we find the hay being dried and stored in the old way. |
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| Title: Looking up from the drying hay, we see one part of the upper grazing field of the Madland farm. |
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| Title: Leaving the old Madland farm, we drive up to the upper grazing field, where (of course) sheep are grazing along the road. A summer cabin gets a magnificent view from here. |
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| Title: From this upper road we look down on the Madland Lake and the old Madland farm nestled in the grove of trees just to the right of center. The stream's course is evident by the tree line going to the right. |
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| Title: Moving the camera's aim just to the right of the last photo, we see the location of Mr. Lima's current day Madland farm with cultivated land to the left and grazing land to the right and foreground. |
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