Drip, drip, drip

The dandelions have turned already and we still have blue
skies most of the day, starting very early until very late. 

Fortunately that is not our plumbing system. Hopefully Ian fixed that today. The dripping is us, melting in the heat. This feels more like June or July than May it has been so hot, and some days have been quite humid too. You know it has been warm when you step into the caravan and it is reading 28C and it feels quite cool. We've had one shower of rain all week and it was just enough to keep plants going and no more is forecast until this time next week. As my neighbour said when I went to collect my milk from her, that since we live on a hill, the rain just travels around us and that seems to be what is happening. She was heading south of where we live one day last week and had to stop the car because there was so much rain and here there was nothing. The only upside is that where we have some biting bugs, there are not as many as in those places where it has rained a lot more.

Mr. P attracts the bugs, poor guy!

A little hack job. Drawing cooler air from underneath the
caravan inside.

Sunrise at 6:36am

Talking of our neighbour, we had some visitors this week, her cows. All of them! Fortunately she does not have a very big herd. We rang her to tell her and she was sure at first they weren't hers as she had just seen them a few minutes before. Oh the contrariness of animals (and yes our stupid sheep got her head stuck again, just not as often and she isn't as noisy when she does it)! We weren't quite sure what to do with the cows though, we kind of just walked quietly trying to encourage them towards where they needed to go and not towards our sheep or bushes that are potentially laden with fruit. Ian went to put the girls away as we were worried the cows would break the fence or at least scare our alpacas somewhere else. Some cows did jump the fence - quite an amazing site to see an animal that size jumping. It doesn't look right somehow. All was sorted though when our neighbour called the cows. They recognised her call and moved in the right direction. The only problem was they had to cross the road and I heard a large vehicle coming, so I flagged it down so it would move slowly. Some trucks travel very fast along our road, despite the poor surface, but this fortunately was just the local bus and probably seen this sort of scene many times before. Anyway alls well that ends well and the cows were back in their field with many apologies from our neighbour. We'll let them off this time, after all their morning milk is rather delicious.

Yes she got her head stuck again! She is just waiting patiently
and quietly to be rescued this time

The more sensible two - but even then, why don't they go and
sit in the shade of the trees?

I am using a trolley that Ian made ages ago to help move
the chicken arks, but it was a little too small and the wheels
often got bogged down, but it is a perfect size for the chicks
cage and they don't have to be moved so far. They stay in the
greenhouse overnight and moved outside during the day into
the shade from the caravan.

The heat has also meant we had to sort out the chickens who were still in the greenhouse, they were starting to get seriously heat stressed but we had nowhere to put them. I meant to get a picture of where they ended up as it is a work of art. I managed to get some wire locally but couldn't get any netting to go over their enclosure to stop them flying out and decimating my garden and to stop them becoming hawk food. In the end we used good old garden fleece as it will come in handy once we have found some netting. We hope it lasts that long though. Although the fleece acts as a bit of a greenhouse, there is still plenty of draught down at chicken level to keep them cool and they are looking much better now, especially since they found some dark, moist soil to lie in and cool down in.

The other chicken arks were moved down into the field. They
haven't been there before and it is a weedy field. They might
not eat the docks but they sure do damage them. It will be an
area for re-seeding later on I think.

A little alpaca landscaping. The trees weren't like that before
but the boys seem to be re-shaping them

We finally handed over the keys this week to our apartment that we have lived in for the last ten years, well most of the time if you discount the summer months in the caravan. We still have all the admin tasks to do like get our registered address changed, but we will do that soon. It's hard to remember what paperwork needs changing, especially at this time of the year when we are so busy. It was in one way quite momentous and in another way not a big deal. It is not like our son who got the keys to his first home recently. It is in someways just a relief to finish that stage and move on with life. One less place to worry about. We've still got spare keys for the apartment as it means that if there are any issues while the new owners are away, we can step in and sort things out - at least we know where everything is.

Herk sunbathing

The boys in their field

We have also finished the shearing of the alpacas and lamas, or at least we think so; we have got some people visiting tomorrow who want to talk about shearing alpacas and general alpaca care, but we are not sure if this is now or for the future. The last group of alpacas we sheared had very long fleeces. The lady had been hand shearing them and it took her over an hour for each one. She was so relieved to not have to do it this year and liked the look of them after shearing that she has already invited us back again next year. I think the alpacas were relieved too, particularly the dark ones. We got to take the fleeces with us and so it will be interesting to see what we can do with the very long fibres.

The bug dance

Or is it the bug controtions?

Sofie keeping clean

I have been managing to get down my to-do list, although I think sometimes it grows when I'm not looking. I got a job application sent in on the day of the deadline for a three month contract with a Finnish organisation. So that is ticked off my list. I also got a brochure done for our next eco-printing and felting course (link here if you are interested). Ian got the kitchen unit wall cupboards up in the bedroom - which sounds ridiculous but doesn't look as bad as it sounds. It was a tight fit with the wardrobe that was put up last week, there was millimetres to spare. It was as if the whole was made to measure, although if it was it would all have been made to match exactly including the finish. Still it doesn't look bad. Something else to remember to take pictures of though.

Aggie looking pregnant

George officially has superfine fleece

With the wall cupboards up and the bed assembled it meant I could put more of our stuff away. We can now move around our other apartment where we will be living in the winter and it just needs some shelving to sort out the files and more books, but I think they can wait a bit. So that is another thing off the list - well half off.  The apartment is even looking quite homely (to my American friends, I just want to point out that says homely and not homey) and not a complete disaster area that it was last week. Everything seems to have a place and not all the cupboards are jam packed full, in fact I still have some empty ones at the moment.

A very pregnant looking Mari

Eyre joined Ian for a walk

We were also quite relieved this week that our car passed its technical. There is a warning on record that the horn needs sorting, but they felt it wasn't enough to fail it. In fact the inspector came up with an innovative work around to fix it that will work out cheaper than trying to get a dealer part. One thing we know we will have to watch out for though is that rust is starting to get a hold. Sigh! It has been a good car and still runs well - most of the time, but this is a mechanical object and they all have their issues from time to time. We were also relieved that it didn't cost as much as we thought it would, we are not quite sure why but grateful nonetheless.