Oh, it's Tuesday!

Lolly

Are you confused by the days of the week too? Most of us are at this time of the year. I had fully intended to blog again this week on Monday night, like I used to, and completely forgot. I spent the evening revising some Latvian and writing an email to my Latvian teacher instead. All of which takes time. It was nine o'clock at night before I remembered.

A sun pillar. Apparently it means
it's cold.

UFO? No! Sure looks eerie
though

Last week I worked up until Thursday. I managed to get all the proofreading done and an invoice sent off before the deadline, along with my regular work completed. The money made will come in handy as a deposit on the car that I mentioned about the other week. I won't be looking forward to finding a space to park it though. There are so many cars around at this time of the year, more than in the summer. On Christmas Eve one of our neighbours rang the doorbell and complained that our car was parked in front of our apartment and I never cleaned the road of snow. I was really confused. I thought it was something to do with the fact they now had a baby (which I hadn't realised) and maybe it was difficult to get the baby in and out on the opposite side of the road. 

Brencis

Not sure that the lack of sow makes this look
any less weird. It looks more like the skeletal
remains of cabin than a hunting tower.

I was also confused because of being accused of never cleaning the snow. I certainly hadn't done it this winter due to working non-stop trying to get things done before the end of the year. I knew the neighbour upstairs always cleaned the road and he never complained. That day was the first time I had even seen the complaining neighbour's boyfriend actually cleaning any snow anyway. I did find out a few days later that the complaining neighbour's car is always left with a pile of snow around, because they had been quite awkward, so no one clears around their car. They don't actually clear the road, just enough to get themselves out and they were obviously disgruntled they had gone to all that effort and Ian had had the audacity to park in "their" spot because they had cleaned it. I did find out the neighbour upstairs is fine about cleaning the rest of the road as he likes to get out and do a bit of exercise. I helped him the other day as I wasn't working and he was very nice about it. He made sure I left the snow around the complaining neighbour's car though.

The snow has come and gone and come again
over the last week. The temperatures go up
to above freezing and rains and then drops and
snows. Still we did have a white Christmas, but
as a FB friend said, not quite sure if Bing really
knew what he was singing about when he sang, 
"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas".

Wintry scenes do have a striking beauty but it puts
stresses and strains on the the people and animals. 

Chanel

I spent Friday decorating the Christmas tree, that Ian had helped me set up the night before, and preparing food. I can never decide if we have a celebration meal on Christmas Eve, like our Latvian neighbours would be doing, or Christmas Day. In the end, we kind of did both. On Thursday evening we went to our goat farmer friend and she gifted us four goat legs, some wonderful aged pepper goat's cheese and some goat milk soap. I decided to first pressure cook the goat legs to make sure they were tender and then slow roast them in the slow cooker (also it meant I could fit the legs in the slow cooker, which they wouldn't quite do when fresh). 

A field of diamonds

Looking towards the neighbours

I cooked some kale, cabbage and leeks in white sauce to go with the meat. Normally I just do leeks in white sauce but certain little pussy cats kept trying to use that area for a toilet earlier in the year. It nearly drove me potty driving them off, but they still managed to dig up most of my leeks, so I only had about three left for Christmas dinner. That is why I had to eke the leeks out by using the kale and cabbage. It worked nicely anyway. We also had roast parsnips which we sprinkled with the pepper cheese, mashed potatoes and stuffing balls. I meant to make Yorkshire puddings too and forgot and then I forgot again the following night when I slow cooked a ham that I had prepared. Oh well! Maybe New Year's Eve instead?

People often ask he how the alpacas do in the snow.
Well? As you can see! Not so bothered. Deep cold
can be an issue, but a nice sunny day and they'll 
be outside.... sunbathing!

See!

Lolly is now adept at alpaca yoga.

The rest of the goat meat went either into a pie or in the freezer. Ian does like pies and it is a great way of making meat go much, much further. I put the rest of the veg in, added some onion and some dried mushrooms - which incidentally I found in a drawer that were leftover from the year before. I was worried we didn't have enough dried mushrooms this year, but apparently we have more than I thought. I only found them because I was looking for somewhere to put something away. I can't even remember what I was trying to tidy away in the excitement of finding a stash of stuff I had forgotten about. I'm not getting more forgetful, honest. I've always been forgetful about where I put stuff and constantly looking for things. I like things to have a place, I just never quite remember where all those places are. At least Ian has been enjoying the pie, as that's the nearest he gets to a Christmas present these days.

Investigating the snow.

Jakobs outside eating the snow

I had intended to do my usual Christmas trip out to see the alpacas, but there wasn't much point. It snowed quite heavily on Christmas Eve and so Ian spent Christmas day snowploughing the pathways and he did it again on Sunday, and again on Monday. Today is my second day out on the land this week though. Today Ian helped some neighbours collect a cow from the Daugavpils area, a trip of about 2 1/2 hours each direction. He wasn't be able to feed Lolly and do all the other jobs around the farm that need doing in the morning, so I'm standing in for him. 

Ian had spent quite a bit of time clearing the
paths on Christmas Day. Then it snowed!
You can just about see where he had been. The 
tracks are down the side so he doesn't trample
the path and make it more difficult to clear the 
proper path.

All cleared again. Although it almost looks the
same, I never get tired of seeing the snowy pictures.
Not sure Ian is as happy. He agrees it's beautiful 
but the extra tasks get old quickly.

Freddie eating the snow outside.

I was standing in for him on Wednesday of last week too. Ian was on his laptop first thing in the morning and after putting it down to get ready to go out, it switched itself off. When he tried to switch it back on, it only showed a grey screen. He managed to get hold of the computer technician and arranged to take it in. He had to come back to the apartment to pick me up first though so I could feed Lolly while he was away and put the animals away. I had a meeting that couldn't be rearranged and so I managed the first half hour, went to put the animals away and came back to my meeting. Again, it is good to have understanding colleagues. I think most people these days get the need to do something at home during online meetings, whether it is take kids to school, sort a child out or in my case, put animals away.

Accumulating against the greenhouse

Looking at the snow from inside the greenhouse.
Not sure how much will disappear over the
New Year weekend as it is forecast to warm up
for a few days before getting cold again.

I bet my Christmas tree is bigger
than your's! Mind you, this one
is a tad bit taller than the one we 
have inside the apartment.

He seemed to take a long time in Riga, but he said the traffic and roads were horrid. The roads were in a better state here in our rural municipality. Apparently the roads in Riga were not cleared and were full of slush, which is about the worst type to drive in, especially in heavy traffic. He also hit rush hour on the way back to compound the problem. At least the computer problem was fixable. They checked it over, gave it a clean and adjusted the connector to the battery. The battery connector was the problem and nothing more. So €25 and the diesel to get into Riga seemed cheap compared to the deposit on my car disappearing.

Looking towards the more pristine side of the
land

A rosie glow as the sunrises

Ian had to clear a path down to the barn.

More rosie glows

Normally an untidy spot but now covered in a 
blanket of snow.

A nice wide pathway so Ian can
drive on and get nearer to the
caravan in the greenhouse

The view from the boys paddock

You can see the pile of manure that Ian is building
on the left for planting our potatoes into in spring

The haystack. Hope that new cover
works.

Outside our apartment. There is a road over there
in front of the bushes.

And Breathe!

Winters can be brutal but definitely stunning

Oh gosh! Another three weeks have gone by and have I been busy? Oh yes! Most nights I've been proofreading reports for an organisation, a prospective business plan or a PhD thesis. Not much then! I have no problems when it comes to trying to help people craft their words into something more readable but dotting the i's and crossing the t's is not quite my idea of fun! Needs must though! By the end of it, I am spotting those full stops that shouldn't be there, at least on the second reading anyway. However, the main aim of ensuring a more readable piece was achieved. Although it wasn't fun finding some of the more mundane mistakes, they have been interesting reading material and I think I've learnt quite a lot in the process too. 

Hopefully that new cover is keeping the snow off
our bales of hay.

A perfectly formed snowflake on
our car

I have a confession to make. A couple of blogs ago I talked about buying only what we need and making do with what we have. I do still stand by that, but it has come to the stage where I need a car and I cannot use the one that we have now, as Ian uses it to get out to the land.  In summer it is not too bad as we are out in the caravan on the land anyway and a few days without a car for Ian is not a problem, In winter that is not an option. For several years I've used public transport and it's been okay. A long day but I've been fine with the travelling. The problem is that due to Covid-19 the travel has become more onerous. I looked at the timetable recently and it was not very convenient at all. I can still get the early bus, but will the cafe I used to use still be open and available to sit in for around 3 hours? I wouldn't know until I got there and sitting in a train station for three hours is not my idea of fun, especially in winter. I can work in the cafe but not so easy on chairs not designed for ease and comfort. 

GT aka Ginger Tom

The boys alpaca house. All is calm

To get to the university I used to travel to Cesis on the early bus and then catch the train to the Estonian border town, cross the platform and then get the Estonian train to Tartu. That meant just one three hour stopover in the cafe I mentioned between the bus and the train. Before that I used to travel up by bus to Cesis, another bus from Cesis to Valmiera, another one from Valmiera to Valka, walk over the border for 20 minutes, have a late lunch and then catch the bus from Valga to Tartu. I looked at all the possible permutations that I can think of and all of them involve several hours somewhere and most of them involve the 20 minute walk across the border. Not much fun in winter at all. I'm due for a pay rise in January and so I've decided that since I need to be up in Tartu more frequently then I need a car. It was decided with a heavy heart though. 

Wonder who is in the stable?

Most of these photos are from over a week
ago when it looked very Christmassy. 

There was another reason that tipped the balance. Our car suffered in the cold again, despite putting the additive into the fuel to stop it waxing out. One morning Ian set off to the land but the car died on the way and he had to get a neighbour to tow him. He got out to the land and fortunately had a new fuel filter. He got back okay, no issues but the following morning, he didn't even get away from the apartment. He had to call the garage out and borrow a friend's car. One without a heater and not ideal for the country roads. Not good when you have animals that need seeing to.

The last bit of fence was taken in last week.
The girls have to remain separated now until 
spring.

The hunting tower didn't
survive a windy day and looks
rather bizarre in the snow

Apparently the additive needs to be put into the diesel before it waxes, which makes sense, but not helpful to find out after the event. It isn't like adding salt to the icy roads that will melt the ice once it freezes (well as long as it isn't below -5C). The additive needs putting in before the temperatures drop to below zero to work. Unusually for early December we had a thick layer of snow and very cold temperatures. A friend of ours in his mid-20s does not recall such cold temperatures so early and his mother only once. 

Almost looks warm in the rosy glow of the sun, 
but do not be deceived

Josef out soaking up a bit of winter sunshine

One of the reasons for the additive problem was also trying to get enough of it. Ian had just a small amount left over from last year and the petrol station ran out of the stuff. Well Ian has now sourced some online and bought enough to last a few winters. People panic buy toilet roll, we panic buy diesel additive. I was meant to be going up to Tartu a few days later, but didn't dare risk getting stranded in the middle of nowhere and there is plenty of that on the journey up. Neither Latvia nor Estonia are densely populated outside of the capitals.  I will not be getting a diesel car for this reason, but I'm aiming for a hybrid. We'll see, I still have to organise the financing of it.

I just love seeing the frosted trees against the 
brilliant blue of a winter sky

Lolly is growing well but still being fed. It does
rather tie Ian to the farm. No going off for a few
hours yet.

With the cold weather we also got snow, quite a thick blanket too. That didn't help our greenhouse situation. It is definitely on its last legs and needs quite an overhaul for next year. Two sections tore and dumped some snow inside the greenhouse and some on the caravan. Ian managed to repair one patch but the other was more problematic. One of our visitors contacted us and offered to help. She came with a friend of hers and he was wonderful. He worked out what to do and organised us to help. It's not easy though repairing a central section of a large greenhouse. Hopefully it will last the rest of the winter. The lady also helped us with Brencis while Ian cut his toe nails and gave him his Vitamin D injection. I held onto Brencis' head and she kind of draped over his back. That is usually enough to keep him steady while he has his toe nails done. I think he even behaved better this time around. He's not bad, just very fidgety, which is not helpful when he is so big.

Not the sort of gaping hole we want to
see in the greenhouse

The caravan gets moved into the greenhouse to
protect it over winter. Not get snowed in.

"How warm is the water?", Lolly asks.

It did warm up again last week and the snow almost disappeared resulting in the usual post-snow muddy mess but now the cold has returned. Not sure if it will dip below -25C again this time though as the forecast is for more like -15C, but the wind is bitter. We've also had little snow flurries and so the ground is covered again, but not deep, more like a dusting - well a Latvian version of a dusting. The cold has meant we had unwelcome visitors to our orchard and some pruning was undertaken. Not quite the pruning we had in mind. At least the muddy weather meant Ian was able to put up the double stranded wire fence around that was enough to keep the deer out of the orchard the last time. Apparently they don't judge distances well and so a double fence works better than a high fence.

Karla has been eating the snow it seems. She is
one unfazed cria. Normally they are more timid,
not this bossy little madam. 

Sort of looks like Lolly is up to her
neck in snow, but not really

Since the cosy blanket of snow went I also decided that my plants needed some protection from the cold and cut down some spruce trees (Christmas trees). They grow like weeds on our land ad so we cut them for our alpacas and the garden. We leave the trees that are better for biodiversity. I also cut one to bring home to decorate for Christmas. Normally Ian would bring one back on Christmas Eve but it was due to snow and since I was cutting trees down anyway, I thought one of them would make a decent decorative indoor tree. 

I won't be getting much veg from the garden
for a while.

I had to laugh the other day when Aggie was
purposefully ignoring me till I offered her food.
She turned to me, snaffled the food and then
ignored me again.

So apart from that, not much else has happened. There are the regular things like putting cream on Aggie's feet as the mites had made her feet sore. It is now improving even with only a weekly slathering of home-made ointment. Unfortunately Chanel is a difficult one as she won't let us get near enough to put cream on as she sits down and all the parts that need cream are underneath her. During the summer we sprayed oil on, but that is not feasible over winter as we cannot direct it to just where it is needed and it means her fleece doesn't repel the water as well - surprisingly. We had to give her a good brush down to fluff her coat up again to protect her from the cold. She has now been started on a course of ivermectin (yes its for mites not Covid). She had one at the weekend and the next will be in about two weeks time. So all in all, plenty to keep me busy but just not so much to write about at the moment. No escaping alpacas, no traipsing to the garden to get veg, to the barn to get milk and then to the kitchen to prepare food. All the preparation of food from the garden has been done and in jars or in the freezer. A waiting time, a pondering time, a planning time.

Chanel is such a sweetie really, as long as you don't
want to put cream on her, cut her toe nails, do 
something to her daughter (who is now a grown 
alpaca and expecting her own baby hopefully) or...

Ilvija, Chanel's daughter, practicing her Christmas
carols

What's this doing here? This is from 
many years ago, when my hair was not
white for a start. I used to teach in 
children's camps in Latvia. This was 
a photo I used in a presentation for a
lecture to talk a little about myself and
some of my experience. A varied 
background for an academic really