No catastrophes!

A rather dramatic sky and sums up the weather 
this week. Sunshine and showers and now the
ground is soggy and our caravan not under
protection for the winter yet.

No catastrophes for us this week, thank goodness. Just regular work and preparations for winter. Of course there were a few late nights to catch up with work after missing a day to prepare chickens for the freezer after the massacre by an unknown critter last week. The winter woollies and thermal leggings are definitely out now though and a sign that winter is approaching. Apparently there was snow overnight but we missed it or it didn't reach us, so I guess the geese were right again. 

More of the rainbow

Jakobs is such a dapper young chap

Such a sweetie too, but don't be beguiled, he can
be quite the troublemaker.

Herkules, our treasure at the end of the rainbow

We were expecting a frost that didn't materialised - well not that we know of. Still we needed to be safe rather than sorry and get the veg in from the garden that won't take a frost or more rain. So the weekend chores involved bringing in the beans, as they would have rotted if left outside. The beans were then podded and the beans and shredded pods are now drying in the dehydrator. I'm make the shredded pods into bean powder for soups and stews. I also sorted out the squashes, tomatoes, apples and potatoes and we then took them back to the apartment to store overwinter. While we were there we also topped up the basement with the old wood from the woodstore, so the basement is now full to the brim. Hopefully we will be toasty and warm.

Herkules not looking his best. His wound at the top
of his leg was still healing very slowly and I was
dismayed to see it looking a little weepy one day. I
had a brainwave and put some turmeric powder on
it. It seemed to do the trick. I have applied it one
about three days later, but so far so good. 

Turbjørn has been having daily massages with a 
heat pad. He seemed to be reacting to it and 
becoming more uncomfortable. We are not sure
if that is because he's got more movement and so
it's sore, or because of the massage, so the physio
recommended giving him a few days off. 

While some produce is just stored in the basement and some is frozen, some of it is processed into jars, particularly applesauce and tomatoes. The problem is that I had run out of jars that were of a reasonable size. I have quite a few small ones but not the medium size ones. As I mentioned, last week we made an attempt to get some from a large DIY store but it was chokker and decided we wouldn't bother. Ian ended up having to go on a jar hunt this week though. He went back to the DIY store and got a few things he needed, but not the jars, there weren't any of the size we needed the most. The next day he tried again at a different store in the opposite direction. Success! 

Poor guy does spend a lot of time like this, but 
then again, so does Herkules sometimes.

Socially distanced alpacas.

Latvia has seen a spike in Covid19 cases this last week, from single figures or low double digits to 188 on one day. So the second day that Ian went on a jar hunt, he had to take a mask to go into the shop. It is only a small rural place but he noted that just about everyone was being very dutiful and wearing masks in the shop, unlike in our village. Little did he realise that one of the reasons was that this particular place was just beginning to see a large increase in numbers, from zero to 68 today. Most of the infections in Latvia have occurred in educational institutions, like this one. Next source of infection is from family members and the last workplaces. Masks are now mandatory in shops and such like places, so I guess I need to make a few more masks, although a scarf might suffice and it is getting to that time of the year.  

The grass is dying off and so the alpacas have
to work harder to get the green grass. It does
Brencis good as he is a little on the porky side.

Lots of autumnal colours this week

I mentioned last week that the remaining chickens were put inside the little greenhouse in case the critter that decimated the other ark returned. You would think they would be grateful, but instead they've been a pain. They seemed to spend a lot of time inside their box during the day only coming out for their grain in the morning and not going in for their feed at night. This means that I've been having to lock them out during the day so they will go in at night and still I have to physically get into the ark to put some away. At least it is not a problem to lock them out of the box during the day as they are not laying anyway. Contrary blooming creatures. 

Yes it's been wet!

I laughed! Josefs is a little soggy

Yes the winter coat, the winter wellies and the
polo neck jumper are all out. 

Two kittens have been into lots of mischief. They get up on table tops and into pots and pans. They meow because they want what's in the pans, which drives me potty. Along with the chicks who are the noisiest chicks ever! And we've had quite a few. Rocket Ron though does like to sit on our knees at coffee time and Ginger Tom sits nearby meowing, not quite brave enough to jump up, but not running off so much either. The four cats now mainly tolerate each other, although Eyre gets fed up and I swear that Rocket Ron deliberately winds her up sometimes. At least there are no serious scraps, just some keep away from me swipes with the paws from Eyre and some bemused kitten looks as if to say, "What's up with her?"

George is also looking a little damp. He managed
to ping the wire netting off a pole this week. 
Luckily I noticed it and tied it back on with good
old baler twine. Baler twine is great for all sorts
of things. Ian did sort the fence posts out and nailed
the wire back on later on in the week.

Mr. P looking a bit toothy again.

"This is my best side, though," he says.

More autum colours

Chanel is still looking a bit shaggy from her skin
issues but the cooler temperatures means it is more
difficult to deal with. 

We sometimes wonder if Aggie's face is a bit 
swollen again, but it seems to come and go. Here
she is just sunbathing

Here she's having a good scratch on the post.

Little Ilvija is a bit of a Houdini but she's still a
Mummy's girl too and will run to her Mum if 
there is the slightest hint of trouble. Then her Mum
gets all protective and starts spitting. Sigh! Fortunately
little Ilvija doesn't seem to have inherited this
characteristic.

Now is Mari looking pregnant or not?

"Who me?" You can see where her son gets
those sweet looks from

Hehe! Wouldn't you like to know? So I guess
we will just have to wait for the scans.

Tonight's sunset lit up the autumn colours

So I wonder what next week will bring? Hopefully no catastrophes.

One of those days

Ginger Tom is such a photogenic cat. He won't
voluntarily come up, but he doesn't run off like
he used to and even purred when being stroked
but not all the time.

Although it's been two weeks since I last posted, there hasn't been a lot of changes exactly. I have continued the preparations for winter in the garden. The squashes are all in and the plants pulled up in case there were any lurking ones and there were a few and some of a reasonable size - how did I miss those? The tomatoes have also all been pulled up in the little greenhouse in preparation for moving the chickens into it over winter. Slowly but surely we were moving the chicken arks up to their winter quarters. Until today that is!

13:47 on the 1st October

This eerie sky was not sunrise but the middle of
the day. It looked like a partial eclipse, but it wasn't.
It looked like smoke and there was even a whiff 
of it in the air. But nothing was burning nearby. 
I wondered if it was smoke from the American 
fires that we've heard so much about and so I
searched on the net but made the mistake of not
checking the dates. Fortunately someone 
corrected me and apparently this is smoke from
Siberia. Still a long way from here.

This area had a hop that had rather taken over.
It has been relocated to somewhere it can be
free to scramble and the errant shoots can be
mowed. Yes that is me hiding in the undergrowth
with a barrow load of weeds, and plants
that have been cut back. My garden is almost
looking tidy - well may be that's an exaggeration
it is tidier!

As usual I went down to feed the chickens in the morning and I threw the grain into the first one, then went to the second one and did the same. I went round to the back of the ark where the string was that controls the door to let them out. It wasn't there. I looked around for a stick but then something struck me, the roof of the box didn't look right. It then dawned on me that the chickens weren't making a noise. My heart sank. I had a feeling I knew what was behind the door to the ark. I went to the first ark and tapped the box, there was a clucking sound so I let them out and counted them - yes! All correct! I went back to the other ark and tapped the box, no sound! 

Rocket Ron is a photogenic cat too, but more often
than not he has a slightly deranged look.

Despite the rather alarmed look on his face, he's
the friendlier of the two kittens and absolutely 
adores to sit on our knees and be stroked.

At least these little fellas have survived untouched.
It does help they are in the greenhouse where
Eyre keeps an eye on the rodent population.

I went to look for Ian and couldn't see him, so I got the wheelbarrow and went back. I opened the door carefully in case of a cowering chicken - silence! Every single one of them was dead. All there, bar the head of one of them. Not a good start to the day. We were thinking of culling some chickens at the weekend but I had spent too much time gathering up the tomatoes and putting plants in to do that. The problem is, that these weren't necessarily the ones we were going to cull, maybe two or three. We had though intended to cull the chickens in the other ark because they have been egg eaters from time to time and not necessarily reliable layers. Well something decided that we needed to cull this ark instead. Even black tail, our oldest chicken, who was nine years old. 

A late flowering dandelion

Oh did you drop some potato? Never mind, let us
help you with that. Amazing how they tolerate 
each other when there is free food to be had.

Mr. P looking as suave as ever

Whatever had dispatched the chickens had done a neat job and as I said had only eaten the head of one of them, so we spent the day, getting them sorted and prepped for the freezer after a good soak in a strong brine solution. Of course it wasn't just a simple job of sorting them out, first I had to sort out the kitchen area as I had used the pans I needed and the table was too cluttered for gutting chickens. Not exactly what I was planning on doing today. I shall be spending the rest of the week trying to catch up with work now. Sigh! 

Over the last couple of weeks, Ian has been doing
some sorting out. Re-stacking wood piles with the
last remaining bits of wood we had from a load that
we had cut for building projects.

He's been moving wood ready for chopping for our
heating for next year. This winter's wood is already 
stacked in the basement and wood store.

He's also been adding shelves into the shed.

There's already been a rearrangement after a mouse
nibbled the bags of feed. They are now in the metal
bins. Not as convenient but at least they are safe.

The girls seem to be enjoying this spot with a 
view as they spend a lot of time in this area.

The one good point is that we have plenty of meat for winter, eight chickens (some a bit tough admittedly but a good pressure cooker helps), nearly a whole lamb (someone else wanted a shoulder, we got the rest) and some beef from a local producer. That is probably enough to see us through the year actually, since we don't eat a lot of meat and use the bones for making the broth for soups, so a little goes a long, long way. 

We've had all sorts of weather in the last few weeks.
Wonderful sunshine, pouring rain and blustery days
that gives Amanda's hair that windswept look.
Amanda the one on the left was out today and I
had a call from Ian to help him get her back in. 
He managed by the time I'd got my wellies and coat
 on though.

I think Vanessa finds Amanda's hair amusing

Aggie still needs cream on her feet. They have
healed from the cuts but the skin is still very dry
and so needs something to soothe them. Only
Aggie does not approve and has been a right
pain. She spat on my newly washed hair the
other day. She is down to only having cream
put on every three days to help us all de-stress.

The other chickens of course then had to be moved, they were safe enough during the day but we guessed that the perpetrator would be back if we left them out in the ark overnight. Ian had a brainwave of using the horse box. We haven't used it before because it is slightly too small to shut the door, but Ian worked out a way of using straps to hold the door up off the floor. I walked behind to make sure there were no disasters and watched carefully in case the ark moved. It worked well and was much easier than our usual methods of using a bogey that Ian had made. Just getting the arks onto it was always a challenge.

Happy chickens. They might not have the greens
to eat, but they can have a dust bath. 

The ark fitted neatly into the greenhouse and the chickens seemed much happier. Just lately they've spent quite a bit of time in the box rather than scratching around outside -we wonder how often the eagle has been bothering them. One day we were having lunch with some visitors and there was a bit of a commotion, when I went to have a look the eagle was sat on the corner of the roof. It must have been desperate for a bit of chicken dinner but that particular critter cannot get in. Sounds like too many critters around here are hoping for a chicken dinner. 

The greenhouse before the tomatoes were removed.
There be monsters in there!

A perfect fit. A good job I had cleared out the 
tomatoes at the weekend.

Turbjørn's not the only one that is having 
treatment. Herkules is still struggling with his 
wounds. It is getting better but much too slowly.
The other day it looked weepy again, so I blotted
it with some turmeric powder. It is an antiseptic
and it dried it out nicely and even the next day
it still looked good. I just hope this time it stays
dry. Turmeric on a white alpaca is not a great
look.

Our visitors that day were the animal physiotherapist who has helped us out with Turbjørn before and her friend who really wanted to see our alpacas. Her friend had tried to visit with her husband for their wedding anniversary but we had closed in the initial Covid19 shutdown. Turbjørn got another massage and the physio gave Ian a list of massages to do on him. At least now we know where the problems are because of the x-ray he had. After lunch Ian showed the visitors around and I went back to work. Turbjørn is getting twice daily massages most days now with a heat pack and we think it might be paying off. He seems to be able to move his head better in one direction anyway. Let's hope he continues to improve before the real cold weather sets in, they are forecasting a chance of snow for next week - not likely but a maybe.

The boys busy munching

And a little sunbathing. May as well make the
most of it

Not sure how much longer the caravan will be
outside now. 

I've been busy at work preparing pages for a database and this involves getting permission to use pictures from landscape designers or the organisation the designer worked for. I'm getting better at hunting out the kind of people that would be likely to give permission and be the most helpful That is saving a bit of time, but it is still amazing how many don't even bother to respond, town councils are often the best. I will have to do some chasing up soon. The work I've been doing with this project has made me look at water in a different way. Now I look to see how accessible it is or what aspects of the water make it interesting. We went to a town on Sunday to look for jars for applesauce and I realised I was assessing the river as I went over a bridge. and noticing different aspects of it that I probably didn't pay much attention to before, like the reeds that stabilise the banks, the rocks that prevent erosion, the rather badly designed beach area and neglected pathway. It is amazing how much detail there is to be seen, if only you know what you are looking for. 

Wild basil. Another of the numerous
mint family we have on our land. It is 
near where the chickens were and so
will be re-located to my herb garden soon.

The girls are making neat work of this area. 

We didn't get any jars though, there were none in the supermarkets and the DIY store was absolutely chockker and so we decided to be Covid19 safe and go home. Besides there was no where to park. The numbers have been increasing here in Latvia. Still low compared to many places but worryingly high for a country that struggles with its healthcare. At least they know where the clusters are at the moment and have been diligently chasing these up. The sad part is that one teacher in one school set off a chain of infections that has meant many having to quarantine and this was on the back of a bad flu outbreak too. I do hope they get it under control soon, although I think it might mean more masks to be worn.

Jakobs, such a cool dude!

Ilvija trying to look cool too.

Valeria

A wonderful gift from a neighbour that just shines
at this time of the year. Michaelmas daisies.

Another gift from a friend this time. It is still flowering
away.

Autumn mists.