Superstition

It has been told to us children that way back in time, Kåragården was located around 500 meters to the northeast up by Gammelgårdsbacke. The location must have been very pleasant with the forest to the north and open to the south. But, a wanderer, who on a hike from up north on his way to Stockholm to buy new medicines, always slept over in Kåra, told the Kåra farmer that "your farm is on the wrong side of the water and the road, that is, north of the stream that flows down from Steneberget and the road up towards Nordsjö. The farmer took the advice to heart and moved to the present location. We never found out the year, but as up at Gammelgårdsbacken hops are still growing in a cairn of stones, we may well assume that it may be about 200 years ago. The same patch, or perhaps a later descendant, was over in the new yard sleeping out in the barn. In the morning he spoke of the heifer in the far right stall being unwell, owing to the timber beam just below her base being a "sun log" – that rascal was perpetually twisting after the sun and would never be still.The log was replaced and apparently this had a beneficial effect as no hiking patch thereafter offered new changes.

When a cow had calved inside the barn in the winter, dad was always there in case help was needed. I sat with him one night and helped out a calf. When the after-crop came and lay in the dung-fall behind the cow, father took out his matches, rasped fire on a stick, and drew it in a cross over the after-crop. Then he took a clean knife and cut a cross in the same way. I asked why he did that. Wasn't there a bit of troll cloth in the whole thing? He replied that his father used to do that and in any case it had not had any negative impact so he intended to continue that practice as long as he lived.

We have probably all heard that animals, especially horses and dogs, have a developed mind that we cannot explain. We had a dog called Fjall that my brother Henrik got for Christmas when he was little. If it can be said that it was probably the best Christmas present a little boy could get. The intention was that Fjall would act as a yardman and defend us against intruders, but as he was insatiably friendly to people, he used to rush out to welcome as soon as a car or stranger entered the yard. The dog was large – a cross between a large poodle and a labrador, so in a way he instilled in the stranger proper respect. However, I and later also my brother Gunnar started working as travel assemblers with workplaces all over Sweden. Because we liked being at home with mum and dad, it could be long journeys from Umeå or Gothenburg to get home on Friday evening. Mother said that one evening at 11 o'clock Fjall became unruly, ran in and out and finally stopped outside in the yard where he sat completely still facing the gate. After three hours Gunnar came driving into the yard and Fjall calmly went in and went to sleep. The dog already knew when Gunnar was in the area around Siljan that he was on his way home.

Kåra Lars-Erik