Part 1: I Ran

Karla looking a little red around the eyes and
losing fleece from around her nose. Likely due to
stress from the insects. I've used my magic cream
and the fleece is starting to regrow. I think the 
pink around the eyes is probably sorted with the
fly repellent that seems to be working.

We have a root cellar where we like to store jars of food that have been processed over the summer and to keep water cooler in the heat. This year some wasps took up residence in the doorway. Normally we are pretty quick to sort out a wasps nest but we were wondering what to do about this one as we were also aware that wasps have pretty much disappeared from our land after the ground nesting types were dug up, probably by the pine marten or a badger. We decided on trying to relocate the nest and give them a chance to build somewhere else. 

It looked promising but didn't amount to anything over us.

This bit of meadow has been left again this year because
it is so pretty.

We kitted up for the job. Ian had on his mosquito net, thick gloves and winter coat, I had a waterproof coat on that I could pull the hood up tight. You have to bear in mind that even at 10 o'clock at night the temperature was still up in the mid 20s.  We had a bucket with a lid and Ian scraped the nest into the bucket while I held the lid ready to place it over the top as quickly as possible. It worked remarkably well and no wasps attacked. Next I carried the bucket down into the field a good way from where we spend most of the time. I put the bucket on the ground and lifted the lid. The wasps started to come out of the nest and so I beat a hasty retreat, in fact I ran. 

This is as far as Ian has got with a new haystore. Too many 
other things to do.

Freddie showing off his whiskery moustache. They do pull
some funny faces.

Not sure when was the last time I legged it, I think it was when the fox was chasing our chickens or maybe when an alpaca was on the loose before we found out we don't need to run. I'm sure I wouldn't have won any prizes for speed but at least I managed to exit the area without any damage. And the wasps? Some at least came back to the root cellar and so I've sprayed those ones as they were starting to re-build the nest. A bit sad about that, but we need the root cellar. I did go back to the bucket and gave it a gentle kick and the wasps started swarming out, so they were still in there. I've not been back to check but we have had a some rain since then.

Meet Hecktor, the newest addition to our farm.

Karla exploring

It seems so recent since I started working in the garden and already produce needs to be sorted. I've made up jars of strawberries, gooseberries and white currants to go on porridge in the mornings over winter. Harvesting these also means pruning and weeding of the bushes at the same time, so takes a while. I've harvested garlic and put that in the barn to store and I've harvested the onions, so some have gone on benches in the greenhouse and some have gone in the what should be an alpaca house but gets used for storing hay. Ian fixed some battening to what will be the feeder so I could hang the onions up. 

A glorious sunrise

This is self-heal but with a difference. Normally they have
purple flowers on our land but these are white. There
 is a whole patch of them. It must be a mutation or 
something because I haven't sown them.

It has been very hot again with record temperatures for the night-time. We've managed okay by staying out of the caravan until late (one of the reasons for not blogging) and having fans on most of the day, one of which stays on all or at least most of the night too. It works. The two heavily pregnant alpacas and the nursing one have struggled though. They are not interested in the paddling pool that Ian put out for them they just stop inside in the shade and away from some of the large horseflies. 

Mainly small to medium horseflies but not the
very large ones.

We have seen a diversity of insect life this year and mainly infestations of one thing or another. We've had Colorado beetles and their larvae eating my potatoes, Clover Hay moth which infests hay (not sure what the damage will be yet), little slugs everywhere, cabbage beetles demolishing my cabbages, and stinkbugs also everywhere sticking holes in leaves and fruit. Fortunately the aphids are now being sorted by the ladybirds and probably the heat. Crickets and grasshoppers are doing a sterling job of keeping down some of the insects that have intentions of demolishing my crops. Then there are the flies that bother the alpacas and us, such as the dark large horse flies, little horse flies and deer flies. The deer flies are like an insect stealth bomber that goes for your shoulders and will go through clothing if they are not insect proof - not pleasant. Fortunately it's been too dry for many mosquitoes and maybe the dragonflies and swallows are also keeping them in check.

Fascinating creatures but would rather they
would go away.

Although I'm on holiday I still have dribs and drabs of work, with two articles and one book chapter that needs some attention. They are still a work in progress.

Fortunately the fleece is pretty thick now and it means it is
difficult for the insects to really get in. They like the 
brown spots though.

A bedstraw hawk moth

A backswimmer. Most of them are just brown, so again an
unusual find.

I thought this was funny of GT with his tail
wrapped around some pineapple weed. 

Summer time again!

Little Karla is growing up fast. Now running
around and keeping up with the adults.

We are now at the stage of wondering when was the last time it rained. We seem to go so quickly from cold and wet to hot and dry. My garden is dying again! We have watered some plants that need some TLC (tender loving care) because they are relatively new, but even then I try to avoid watering them if I can. We rely a lot on mulch and it does very well, but when plants are used to water, it is hard for them to adjust quickly to drought. There is also no rain or very little forecast for the next ten days - or rather there is and then there isn't and then there is again. In other words the forecasters don't seem to be able to make up their minds. We should be haymaking but the aircon needs doing on the tractor and while it is not as hot as last week, it's still hot. Too hot to be working in a tractor all day without adequate ventilation. 

These baby swallows are also getting big in the
boy's alpaca house. There is one baby swallow in
the nest in Lady V's former residence. That one
has been rescued four times by Ian. Once as an
egg and three times he has put the fledgling back.

Fortunately the flies cannot get through the 
fleece, so they are just annoying here rather
than biting. It is the soft and unprotected areas
they get in and bite. 

The guy Ian contacted in the tractor shop forgot to pass on his details and so now we have to wait until the end of the week for the repair guy. So my forecast is for it to rain when the aircon is fixed. Meanwhile Ian has been using the two wheel tractor to mow near road, in a field that is now wall to wall docks, the walkways and around currant bushes. He's dressed up like a bee keeper, only in black not white. In fact he'd probably be better with a white beekeeper's outfit come to think of it. The bitey flies have been really bad this year and so we cannot go out without long sleeves and long trousers - no shorts for us, even in the heat.

A fourteen spotted ladybird. Excuse the gardening
fingers.

Aggie is looking huge. Maybe tomorrow?

Besides waiting for rain, we are still waiting for babies. Two more alpaca girls are pass their due dates and they seem imminent and then they don't and then they seem imminent again! You get the idea, everything seems imminent, like the clouds that pass over looking like they might rain but don't. At least little Karla is growing strong and her fleece is lovely and silky. As I mentioned the bitey flies have been pretty bad and so the animals have been having a rotten time with them. We've been putting on fly repellent on those worst affected, it is a mix of cloves and garlic that have been macerated in oil, strained and then added to vodka or gin (cheap diluent) and then sprayed on for a good coverage like Chanel and Freddie or rubbed on faces for those that struggle with flies around their eyes and noses like Karla, Tellus and Turbjørn.

Come on Silla, where's that baby? No time to be
lounging around.

Success! Horseflies that will fly no more!

The home-made repellent seems to work for most of the day and is a whole lot cheaper than the over €4 bottle of effective fly repellent that was based on clove oil anyway. It's not good for the wool of the white alpacas, as it attracts the muck though, so not perfect. Neither is the fly repellent good in the sun on exposed flesh as it tends to cook the skin, so not necessarily good for us either. The commercial fly repellent was only sold as something to wear in the forest so understandable. I put a message on Facebook asking for recommendations for dealing with all the bitey flies and a friend with horses recommended some glue that you paint onto buckets. In the heat of the day it certainly seems to attract the flies. It could do with being a bit more sticky when it is a bit cooler, but on sunny days it's very efficient. 

One outside the boys' alpaca house

One outside the former residence of Lady V. 
There is also one outside Vanessa's girl's alpaca
house. All are roped off to stop any alpaca 
wandering into the gloopy mess.

Ian took our neighbour back to the repair shop this last week to collect her milking machine. I think she was very relieved that it was fixed at a reasonable price and she didn't have to buy a new one. I'm sure she is also very relieved she didn't have to milk by hand again. I can't even begin to imagine how she managed for the day she had without one. Life on a dairy farm is hard enough, without something like this making it worse. It is also a good job she is a relatively small organic dairy farm and not a huge industrial unit. 

A wasp of some description. Not sure yet exactly

There was some rain after this was cut and so
now it has greened up. We have seen places
though where we walk or drive the tractor that
are now shrivelling up and drying out.

I'm officially on holiday this week but of course others are not and so I've had two work based meetings. One for the expert group I'm part of and one for a funding application. I've been very good and although I have volunteered to be a co-chair for the first one and on the editorial board for the second one, I did say I wouldn't be able to take on the responsibility until August as there is too much to do here on the farm. Everyone seems quite happy about that and it probably works out well as others have holidays in August or other work commitments. I have to admit I did not put my video on this afternoon as we had only just put Ilvija back in the paddock because she had escaped again and I was hot, sweaty and dishevelled - not a good look for a Microsoft Teams meeting. They laughed.

Six-spotted Burnet moth

Amanda, Karla's Mum taking a rest in the shade.

I would like to say that I've been able to do more practising for my Latvian lessons, although I've done more than I was doing, it still isn't enough. Food preparation takes so long when the harvest starts to come. The good thing is that I've now got fresh strawberries, rhubarb and peas in the freezer or in jars. We've also finally got around to setting some more eggs away in the incubator for a new batch of hens. I'm not sure we will keep the ones we have over the winter as they are all problem hens. Some eat eggs, some won't go away readily at night and so on. We'll see what the younger ones are like after the cockerels are culled - hopefully this next week. 

Now is she cream or just mucky? After a roll in 
the dust bath

We might not get many human visitors but lots
of insect visitors. This was on a plastic
chair. iNaturalist is telling me this is a snout
and bark beetle.

We haven't had many visitors just lately, which is kind of normal for us at this time of the year. There is usually a lull. We did have one visitor who turned up on her bike. Her relatives recommended she visit us as they thought she would enjoy it, which apparently she did. She didn't just get to see alpacas as she and Ian watched a hare go past as he was giving her the regular talk. I presume it was the same one that we saw earlier on today at coffee time. It is good to see the wildlife around here, well some of them. Not sure I would want to see the wild boar or any wolves thank you. Quite happy to miss out on that. 

Possibly a willow sawfly. I think we must have 
quite an extensive range of sawflies. Not happy 
about that as they eat my trees.

Scale insect that is also eating my mint.

It is nice to see all the wild flowers too and we are still occasionally finding new ones. Some plants are not so welcome though like the ragwort I found this week or the giant hogweed that is growing on our neighbour's land that we cut for hay. Ragwort is poisonous for animals even dried in hay and giant hogweed is dangerous when it is cut and spreads like mad. Fortunately for Ian, someone had already cut down the main infestation before it went to seed and he only had to cut a smaller one that was nearer the road. Extreme care has to be taken when cutting it down because even a little bit of sap on the skin can result in a severe burn on exposure to the sun. 

No idea but it's eating my mint

A fourteen spotted ladybird. Excuse the gardening
fingers.

So that's about it from a still rather warm and dry part of rural Latvia for this week. May be we will have more news next week of little cria, we had better have. We still have shearing to do in Estonia and Ian is having to think about going on his own if necessary, when we usually work as a team. So if you don't mind, blow some rain this way for this week and pray for babies to arrive safely.

Moth larvae