Broken!

A wet soggy Turbjørn. Our alpacas seem to have their heads
down most of the time eating while they can still get to the
grass

Just recently we seem to have a catalogue of things breaking or going kaput. Some of them are silly little things but many are things we have been relying on and will need fixing or replacing and it is getting rather annoying. Maybe it is being out in the cold that is doing it and sudden changes in temperature. I suppose that won't help, but not the case for all of them. So here is the catalogue of broken things

Even formation eating. 

The newer greenhouse - some of the poles have got bent or snapped. It doesn't seem to be lasting as long as the other one we bought a few years ago, but then again we anchored that one down into the ground and this new one is not in a permanent place yet.

Sometimes our animals stay inside when it is wet

Halogen oven, aka Robbie - that went a while ago and Ian thought it was probably the bulb and so ordered two when we went to England, but now it looks like it might actually be the thermostat and we still need to locate a replacement for that.

Slow cooker - I cracked the bowl. I think this might have been a temperature thing and so annoying.

Lady V sporting the newest curly look

Transformers - we have had a variety of small transformers and this week one of the bigger ones went kaput on us and that brings the total to four that have gone this year. Ian really needs one of these for the tooth cutting machine and I need one for my sewing machine that are both from the US. Fortunately for the sewing machine we have a large transformer but it is not exactly portable and so no good for Ian. We are now trying to source a new one of those.

Cleaning a bucket in the pond

Pipe for soot collector - this went today whilst trying to clean out the wood-fired oven before the winter heating season. Nothing major just annoying and made worse by the fact we don't seem to be able to get any decent duct tape to repair it with.

It has rained a lot this week and so the ponds have filled to
overflowing. The ground water has also leaked into the well.
It added 330 litres of water in one day where had been filling
up by about 20 litres a day just before as it had slowed down
from the 40 litres a day we were getting.This is no big deal
from a contamination point of view, there is nothing nearby to
contaminate it except sediment, so the water is now cloudy.
The problem is that the ground around the well has still not
settled yet and Ian had to pack it down a bit more. It slowed to
70 litres the day after and 30 litres today (yes Ian does like
to keep records)

Coffee press - that was this week too during washing up. Fortunately we have a spare that our friends bought for their use whilst they were here in Latvia. So we at least have one we can borrow.

Kettles - the one at our apartment went kaput but fortunately our friends who were there at the time bought us a new one. The one out on the land also started to leak but fortunately Ian fixed that with some super glue.

One foaming cat. Of all our cats, Sofie is the best at not taking
tablets. She has perfected the technique of foaming the tablet
rather than swallowing it. Here I am making sure she doesn't
work the tablet out of her mouth. It still had to be put back in
about three times. I wouldn't mind, but normally I don't have
a problem, she is the only cat to have ever beaten me.This was
the worming tablet, fortunately her antibiotic tablets she will
just eat with her food- well most of the time anyway.  

Even the cat, Sofie, is broken. We have no idea what happened but she disappeared for a day - nothing unusual in that, she often disappears for a little while although these little trips have been getting fewer - but when she turned up she was not putting one of her rear legs on the floor. Somehow she had dislocated her hip joint and so that entailed a trip to the big town to get an x-ray and then an operation to put a pin in. At least a specialist was in town that day for his weekly visit. She is now quarantined to the caravan for three weeks to stop her jumping around so much. She still climbs but nothing major and after nearly five days I think she is beginning to accept or enjoy being confined. At least she is in the warm caravan during the day.

Oh yes! Winter struck

The timing of Sofie's accident was not great as winter decided to have a bit of a blast this last week. We had about 5cm of wet slushy snow and so the roads were rather nasty on the way to the big town. We haven't got the winter tyres on yet, instead we have all weather tyres which are legal even in winter, but they are past their best. We got new winter tyres last year, but in the spring we put the old tyres back on to save wear and tear and we haven't swapped back over yet. The wintery weather lasted for about three days before disappearing, but the forecast for the week ahead is not looking too great.

A light blanket of snow as described by the English version
of the Latvian news

We had to take two trips to the big town as we had a meeting with a rural business consultant. She is helping us with getting the rural support for our land and looking out for project money that might help us with the farm and our alpaca tourism. We hadn't gone down the route of EU money before because, to be honest, we weren't sure what we were going to do and had only vague plans, which are not helpful when trying to access project money or the rural support money. We now have a clearer idea of which areas we are willing to manage according to the rules to get the money and which parts we are not for the time being. This year has helped us to crystallise out some of our plans for the future and helped us to work out what we need help with, although this is still a work in progress of course.

Agnese has been trying to show she is boss to me this week.
I have ignored her stand offs and yesterday she ran off instead,
so I think that is progress. She was being standoffish with Ian
but is now back to being more friendly, so hopefully she has
got over the early pregnancy and feeling more like her old self

The snow this last week of course concentrates our mind on what needs to be sorted before winter proper starts. Some of our plants need protection and we notice people have started wrapping up their trees with fleece or plastic, so that will be on the list of to-dos. Whilst Ian was sweeping out the oven earlier on today I got out and picked the last of the beets. I was surprised though that the rows of beans were still okay.

We did see some sunshine and it always makes Chanel's coat
glow

I was annoyed I haven't had the chance to pick them earlier and fully expected them all to have rotted away by now, but they weren't. The pods were soft but not rotten and there were lots of them. I decided to save them and managed to pick the lot before some sleety rain came down. It was fairly easy to separate the beans from the mushy pods and they were rinsed and put on the electric dryer and we had to finish the job by the light from the caravan, but at least it was done. There are still parsnips, jerusalem artichokes and carrots to dig up before they get frozen into the ground and then that really will be the end of the season.

A damp and shaggy looking Mr. P.

We are still out in the caravan, because despite the snow, it hasn't actually been that cold. It was colder overnight earlier on this month. We have though started the process of moving back to our apartment and plan to do that when I get back after a trip up to Estonia. It is easier for Ian to stay in the caravan when he is on his own. I have taken my clothes back and anything else that is not needed over the next week or so.

Lady V in the sunshine too. She is looking really good and
so having some time off from pregnancies has helped her a
lot, although occasionally we do wonder if she did get
pregnant after all in the five minutes she was left alone.

Also despite the weather we have still had visitors, but not the ones that booked earlier on. We were meant to have a group of fifteen but they decided the weather was too bad and let us know they weren't coming. We are pleased that they let us know anyway and to be fair it was pretty miserable over the weekend, so can't say I really blame them. We had two sets of visitors on the Saturday and both hit lucky with the weather as we were in the greenhouse giving the talk about what we do and how we came to be in Latvia when it rained and they managed to see the alpacas when it was dry. The first set were very generous, they bought a ball of hand spun wool, paid for the trip and gave us a donation too. We felt very appreciated. They also told us that neighbours around here are very pleased with what we are doing and the fact we haven't sold the land to some large Swedish company, as many do, which is good to know.

Herkules also looking a little damp

Our second group were two ladies helping at the camp nearby. One of them has her own small farm with a llama amongst other things. She also tries to grow her own food and so was interested in what we were doing. We decided on a cup of tea before going to see the alpacas since it was tipping it down with rain and just chatted about farms, spinning and handicrafts.

It's that time of the year again

No we haven't really been burying bodies in the greenhouse.
Just our sense of humour I guess. Actually Ian had just dug out
some soil from the other bed so that the chickens can build up
some fresh soil. This mound was then shifted to the outer edge
that needed building up.

So much of my blog turns with the seasons. That is what happens when we live and work in the countryside. What we do is dictated by the weather and of course by the more artificial deadlines of academic years that I work to as well. I was due to go away again and there was forecast for snow while I was away. It wasn't likely to be much or long lasting but after a cold, dry spell it could mean a period of wet and muddy weather. It was obviously time to put the caravan into its winter home in the greenhouse, while we still could. To do this we had to put the chickens in first. We also had to finish tidying up the greenhouse by removing the remaining tomato plant skeletons and putting logs down for the arks to sit on. The aim is to raise the beds more and stop the chickens digging their way out in the process.

The arks on the left and the caravan on the right in their
winter quarters in the greenhouse

The swans flew south last week and someone told us that
the snow would come three days later according to the
folklore and sure enough it did - well sort of. Fortunately
nothing lying on the ground yet, but those swans were right
to set off

We had been moving the chickens closer and closer to the greenhouse so that we didn't have to move them too far in the end and that was helpful. We have a bogey as Ian calls it, which is basically a wheeled contraption to put the arks on to help us move them, but it was somewhere at the back of the barn. It was just easier to move the arks by hand instead. As we are low in hay this year we decided to use leaves as bedding for the chickens and it freaked them out at first - well the older ones anyway, as it was a lot noisier than having hay on the floor. The younger ones though were thoroughly enjoying scratching through the leaves. Eventually they all discovered the dry soil underneath the leaves and were in heaven as they had their dust baths. If you have never seen a chicken having a dust bath, it is always good to be warned about it before you watch - they look more like they are having a fit as they cover themselves in the soil. It is hard to believe that they are actually in some sort of delirious state as they kick the soil about.

Chanel looks like she is having a really good chat

The girls blending in well with the autumnal colours

As I mentioned we got a good proportion of our apples picked and stored in our cellar, however, I forgot to mention we had some help in doing that from someone with a few spare hours. This was much appreciated, especially as they were much taller than either me or Ian and could therefore reach higher without a step ladder. I managed to get a pot load of apples boiled down for the freezer the following day and in jars, along with some reduced grape juice. I am going to have to work on some recipes over the winter to use our hemp and amaranth seed along with all this fruit we have this year. Maybe some sort of seed bar I guess.

Hercules with his happy face on

More preparation for the coming wet weather, a fresh layer
of chippings on the road way. This time there is also some
clay drains from the pond that were dug up earlier on this
year when it had dried up a lot. Now being put to better use
where we really could do with it drying up

I also managed to finally get an outline done for a third paper I am writing. Of course it took me a lot less time than I imagined it would once I got around to it. The problem I had was trying to get straight in my head what I actually wanted to say in some coherent form. It is far from finished of course but at least it is a start for my supervisor and I to work on to get it towards a publishable state. We have some very strict deadlines on this and the end of this month is the first one for the deadline.

All puffed up against the cold. They haven't left
us yet. They may head into the village though later

I have also got a trip to Sweden organised for the end of the year. It has been a long time in the planning stage and one of the biggest issues has been the financing of it. It still has to be agreed by the grant awarding body, but at least that is now functioning again after a year when there was no funding. I haven't had a problem before and so I hope there won't be one this time as there is little time to rearrange it if necessary. It will be a good opportunity to talk about the type of work I am doing to a different group of people and maybe work towards some sort of collaborative project in the meantime. That is what I definitely need to keep on doing research, otherwise I need to start looking towards some other way of deriving an income.

A workshop I organised on networks. We had good fun
throwing balls of wool at each other to show our connections

As I mentioned I have been away over the weekend at another conference. This was rather different to the academic conferences I have been too. There was academic input, which is why I went, but there was also a large input from people living in eco-communities. These are often called intentional communities and are effectively communities who live together with the specific intent of living more carefully in balance with nature. It was a bit weird to hear the kind of language used that I used to hear from evangelical Christian circles, especially in the preach, errrr I mean lecture I heard this Sunday morning. The young guy was relating the values of McDonalds and what could be learnt from them in terms of outreach and people centred approaches to customer service. I felt I had heard this before in some form or other in church sermons.

A nice cup of tea in Vilnius Old Town

Outside the cafe looking down the street. I was
surprised with Vilnius, it is a bit like Riga or
Tartu meets Italy and maybe the Catholic
influence. It is not as tidy as Riga and seems a
little more chaotic, but that was only a brief
impression. It felt like there was a lot to
discover though with some interesting looking
shops 

I found there was such a diversity of people and many with quite strong opinions. I wonder how this will work in the future. If there is consideration for the opinions of others then it may be fine and although the opinions were intense there did seem to be a commitment to listen to others  with respect over the weekend. If that lasts then the evangelicals would do well to learn from them I think. Some groups were quite traditional in their approach to the role of men and women in society, some were very free in their interpretation of those roles. Some were very spiritual communities and some less so. Some were based on more Catholic spirituality, some even based on a book I had heard about that encouraged people to live closer to a Garden of Eden style of life (at least the author's view of that) and some were based on a more Eastern spirituality. So there was a very diverse range of opinions on how to live the simple life that to outsiders would just generally view as some very hippy lifestyles.

Not quite sure what this random egg on a pedastal was for

There was a bit of a mix up in the end in the conference organisation but it did lead to an interesting evening. During the conference some of us stayed at the site of a potential eco-community. There was a kindergarten and school but the community did not live on-site as in other communities. One older, devout lady was the inspiration for the community and adored the fact that she could look out of her window and see the children enjoying the natural environment as they learnt and played together. Some people on the conference stayed in the kindergarten house and I and a few others stayed in the old lady's farmhouse. On the last afternoon there was a trip back to Vilnius where most of the conference itself had been held, but we found out that they were not returning back to the place where we were staying. I had only just arranged that somehow I would be given a lift back to Vilnius in the morning in time to get my bus and the same with a young lass from Georgia. Although we had been told we could stay over, they hadn't explained that we would not be able to go on the trip, which in some ways was why we stayed over.

Ooooerrr! What's that white stuff falling from the sky?

The young lass was a bit upset at missing out and we had contemplated joining the group and then staying over in Vilnius instead, but it was too late to make a decision without first finding out if that was possible or would not upset our host. In the end I and the Georgian lass were on our own. There had been a meeting of local eco-communities in Lithuania and they had finished with lunch at the kindergarten house and so they accepted us in their midst and then left us with enough food to eat for the evening. It gave the two of us a good opportunity to just talk about life and our different viewpoints on it. We also got to hear a little about life in Lithuania from our host, who had been an economics professor at the university at one stage. I got confused as to how many children she really had, but it was evident that many considered her their mother, which was a testament to her caring nature. She came to me in the morning with a cup of tea and a piece of cake for breakfast and sent me away with an apple and oranges to eat on the journey. The young lass left in the early hours as her plane was at 7pm.

A photo from a previous trip to Riga

So here I am on a wet Monday writing this blog while heading back to Riga by bus for a meeting with someone who I have only Skyped with before. Then I shall be heading home on the evening bus back to our land and our caravan in the greenhouse.

A side view of the Freedom monument in Riga

By way of a P.S. The meeting went really well and we both went away really inspired and with some questions we felt needed answering that would help both of us in our research. Always good to clarify the questions that need answers.

Chillier days

Frosty morning

Winter reared its head this week with some distinctly frosty days. One night it was -6.7C in the greenhouse and last night it was -5C. Staying out in the caravan in these temperatures is starting to lose its appeal. We are still warm enough, as our quilt and two blankets help a lot. Menopause also has its benefits. The disadvantage is waiting for the caravan to warm up sufficiently to want to get up out of bed. At least the heater is within reaching distance and the caravan warms up quickly, since it is only a small space. Of course our electric use has gone up, but our travel costs, or Ian's travel costs are still low because he's not travelling backwards and forwards all the time. I am also out and about on the land rather than cooped up at home this way too. At some stage it just won't be worth staying out as the nights will be so long in a small space. I know! I keep saying that and we are still out here. 

These two are forever fighting it seems, but I think they would
miss each other if they were separated.

A picture of me last week, filling in for Little Red Riding
Hood. I used the alpaca scarf to good effect. It was really
warm and kept the cool winds at bay.

I spent the week in Latvia and at this time of the year, it can become a bit of a novelty. I have several trips planned all ready and one to arrange. I did go into Riga though and had a great day chatting with some lovely people. One was a connection for professional as well as personal reasons. Lovely chap who I've worked with briefly in the past and we both value each other's inputs on rural development. Good to thrash ideas about and would be great if we ever found a project we could both work on. I'm sure we could spark some good ideas between us

Aggie looking rotund and hopefully pregnant

Chanel glowing in the autumn sunshine. She really is the
colour of autumn too

The other meeting was meeting up with some with an aim to start putting together a programme for a felting holiday (details to be announced in the near future we hope). I am working on finding activities for day trips for people to experience more of Latvia, including Riga and a chance to be inspired by Latvian art and design. It is mainly aimed at those from abroad of course. We hope to arrange various types of felting courses, to suit different budgets, so we hope to make some more accessible to local people and some for people who would like to come for the experience of felting on an alpaca farm and visiting Latvia for the first time. All this planning will mean we can also put together holidays tailored towards individuals or groups. Quite exciting really and not the sort of thing we had thought of doing before, but if it works then great. 

Eyre warily eying the alpacas, as they do like to chase her

A friend who I met at the local camp last year and this year is helping me organise the Riga city tour aspect and she also introduced me to a lovely textile artist Ieva Prane. Ieva's work is very varied and it will be wonderful to include her on one or more of our felting courses. She is really open to sharing her work and what she does, which not all felters in Latvia are unfortunately. I also briefly met her husband Guntars and as I write this blog, Guntars' music is playing on the radio. He produced an album of Gregorian chants from ancient records he found in a library in Riga. Very peaceful! 

All ready for our visitors. At least it was nice and warm in the
greenhouse

I am surprised that we are still getting visitors turning up on our farm, particularly at weekends. I even sold my first felted product this week, but don't get too excited it was just a felt ball, at least it was a start.We had one group from the local regional rural consultancy bureau during the week and a family who stopped to take a look at the animals at the weekend. We even have another booking for the end of the month for a small group who will be in the area for two days. It makes me wonder if we can do something for Christmas but that would be a challenge to come up with something but could be fun. 

Felt balls

A range of shawls, socks, pendants and scarves for sale

The ones that got away. The amaranth in the greenhouse grew

some lovely big seed heads and we harvested lots of seed

but these ones were much smaller. Unfortunately the wind 

seems to have also taken all the seed with it. No doubt there 

will be Amaranth growing all over the garden next year, as 

well as hemp

We are still making slow headway in finishing the harvesting. I collected all the beans from the garden on the land and started the process of drying them. Those that dried on the vine look fine to plant next year, but those that hadn't got frosted and I think they are only good for the pot. It was a shame as I was hoping for more beans to grow next years crop. We have also been collecting apples. Some of course are frosted, but many seem to have survived the frosty mornings. We have now got quite a few crates stored in our cellar. We hope they will last into winter and if not they will be processed at a later date. At least the chickens are enjoying the bonanza.

Sofie sitting in her favourite place when we are trying to move
the chicken arks. As we carry them to their new position, she
tries to lick or rub up against Ian's face. Not easy to carry the
ark with two hands and fend off an affectionate cat.

The humungous potatoes with a teaspoon for comparison

As usual our garden got a bit overgrown but I managed to find some potatoes that must have grown from some potato peelings which were in the compost heap and they were absolutely huge. I know there are lots who say you should never put peelings in compost heaps, but we do and not really have many problems apart from random potato plants from time to time. Unfortunately these ones also had brown, hollow centres. This is due to the hot dry weather when they started growing, followed by the wet weather which stressed the poor things out. Unlike blight though it doesn't affect their taste thank goodness, just a little disappointing to find they are not as big as they look.  One advantage to the frosts is they make parsnips sweeter and so we have started digging these up for a distinctly wintery flavour in our meals. 

Shawls outside for pictures for the
website

This one was inspired by dandelions, not
that they look like dandelions, but that
was the inspiration

Mari looking out for Eyre, our little grey cat

The greenhouse tidy up has continued in preparation for putting the chickens and the caravan in for the winter. This has definitely been a slower process than usual. Normally it is cleared much sooner, I'm sure. Or maybe it just feels like that. Certainly last year they were inside much sooner and there were more frosty mornings than this year. The steady drift towards winter though means that the animals are getting through the grass quite quickly and need to be moved more often as the grass stops growing. Soon they will be just on the hay, but the longer they can stay on the grass the better. 

Mari chasing Eyre off

Forgetful? Who me?

I would love one of these! Somewhere to hide or somewhere
to store our harvest over winter. One day! Maybe!

How could I forget? Actually for me it is really easy. Oh yes! I'm Wonder woman at the moment, I wonder where I have left my keys, I wonder where I have left my handbag, I wonder where I left my scarf (applicable if you read my blog about my Austrian trip)- you name it and at some point in the week I will have put it down and forgotten exactly where it is. I think I'm spinning a few too many plates at the moment.

I was waiting so long at one of the ten sets of traffic lights
along this road that folks had enough time to have toilet breaks

Anyway what I forgot to mention was that I went to a meeting about Citizen Science on the Friday of the week before - in Cesis, Latvia. I met up with one of my colleagues from the Estonian University of Life Sciences too. I got to ask lots of questions and make some new acquaintances. I even got a tour of the environmental institute, which is very swish. It was one of those good networking meetings, but due to travelling I haven't got around to following up on them yet, but I will. It's on the list of things to do!

I also forgot to mention that while I was at the meeting Ian got a visit from a lady from Sheffield, who a visitor earlier on in the year told us about. We had been chatting about where we were from in the UK and she mentioned her aunty lived in Sheffield where we used to live. She said she would tell her about us and we should expect a visit when she comes to Latvia, which she did on a regular basis apparently. Sure enough, Ian got a phone call and a visit from the aunty with a few others. Unfortunately we still haven't got our shop built and had only just taken everything back because it is getting damp out in the greenhouse, otherwise they would have been tempted to buy something.

The view from my hotel window this week

One thing I know will end soon is the harvesting. The weather is definitely taking a turn and the days are getting short and chilly. We actually saw the sun in what feels like ages today. Unfortunately the wind is still strong. We do not get many windy days here in Latvia, so the sustained windy weather is a bit unusual. I was away again at the end of last week and so I spent as much time as possible beforehand harvesting and more time when I got back. The tomatoes are all just about collected now, although I noticed a few loitering in vines that have not been cut down. Ian finished off the amaranth in the greenhouse that I had started on. We collect the seed off that to make into flour, or just add to breads or cakes. I am working on it as a seed for main meals but not really got a good recipe for it yet. The seed is so light though it is hard to sift in the very breezy weather, I think we would lose the lot.

The walk to the seminars. We had our morning and afternoon
coffee in the manor house you can see

The mill pond

The raspberries are also continuing but I think they may finish soon as frosts are forecast. I also collected the last of the squashes so they don't get ruined in the frost. I had to pull up some tall bean plants as they had got blown over by the wind and I will work on the short beans over the coming week. The only other things left now are the apples, carrots, parsnips, jerusalem artichokes and some beets. I say only but the jerusalem artichokes are quite big beds. I shall harvest half and leave the rest until spring. I hope the expected frost tonight will not be too severe for the apples. A job for tomorrow no doubt.

A choice of which way to go

The mill pond looking the other way

As I mentioned I have been away again, this time up in Estonia in the far north of the country in Lahemaa National Park. It's a hard job specialising in rural issues, I mean you have to go to all these lovely places like alpine farms and national parks. Someone's got to do it though! So I make the best of it. I seem to be getting a reputation for asking lots of questions but I guess that's okay, at least I hope so. I am hoping again that some of the contacts might yield some results eventually. I did get to meet some others with interests in rural Lithuania. I have only met one other person from Lithuania in all the time I have been studying and so I don't really know what the similarities and differences are. I can hazard a guess at many of the similarities as they are often the same across all post-Soviet countries, but that's where my knowledge ends. It will be good to find out more and so I am booked on another course at the end of this month but based in Vilnius this time - somewhere I haven't been to yet.

Palmse Manor House

The cow farm we visited where we could feed the cows apples
They came running when they saw the farmer with a basket

I wasn't sure what to do about getting back from the National Park. I thought it would be best to try and find someone going back to Tartu and stay overnight with my friend there. Otherwise it would have meant staying overnight in the hotel and a higher cost for me. I was actually rather pleased to find that the costs, including accommodation, was covered for PhD students from our university. I was expecting to have to pay for the hotel and so was very happy when I found out I didn't have to. Anyway I happened to mention I was having trouble working out how to get back home, to a friend who lives in Tartu and she said, in jest I think, that she should come and fetch me. I in jest back, told her that there was still room on the agricultural tour I was booked on (at least that was the one I thought I was booked on, but apparently I hadn't, but that is another story). Next thing I know she had booked on and so we got to spend a lovely day touring farms in the National park.

A coastal meadow. I nearly got blown backwards walking down
to this point. Definitely blew the cobwebs away

An abandoned manor house

Meanwhile back on the ranch so to speak, Ian had a visit from a Riga school. The only person who could not speak English was the teacher, as is often the case these days. There was a designated translator, a student who had a relative in the UK. Ian set up the greenhouse to give the talk and had it all organised so that the students were inside this time, since he didn't want to freeze chatting to them outside like we have been doing. They seemed to enjoy the talk and were all engaged and asking questions. He showed them the usual about shearing but also demonstrated the combing and carding of the wool. The sooner our shop gets built the better though. So let's hope the wind dies down and the weather stays fine for a few weeks - that would be really helpful.

I love doors

A sheep farm next where we had lunch and yes lamb was on
the menu

Our young chickens continued to escape this week, although I noticed they are starting to struggle getting through the fence now they are getting bigger. Each day they were fastened up at an early hour so that Ian didn't have to continue chasing them about. They were out twice today but now we have them sorted. We swapped them for another of the arks. We planned to do some swapping about later but it wasn't fair on the three hens that never escaped to keep fastening them up early and so I cleaned out the sleeping quarters of one of the arks and did the switch. Now we know the youngsters will not be escaping but I do have to clip the wings of the older birds to make sure they do not now get out of the uncovered enclosure that they have been moved to.

A guardian dog keeping an eye on us and sitting between
us and the sheep. However the farmer was really worried
about a new invasive species to Estonia, the jackal. I was
quite shocked to hear of this but one farmer has lost a
hundred lambs already over a few nights. The lady telling
me said, wolves have rules, bears have rules but jackals do
not and that makes them very dangerous.

Native Estonian sheep of many colours

Felted pieces in natural colours

My friend feeding a horse. She is in her element

Fitting up the horse in its gear for fetching logs from the forest