The Journey: June 2022

Yes! Some of our grandkids visited
us in Latvia. This is our youngest on
our trip to Riga, with the travel bear.
a Latvian flag that she wanted to buy
and Riga in the background.

Oh my goodness, time flies. Life has just got so busy and then our son and his family came to stay too. It was wonderful having the youngsters around and showing them different things on the land and a bit of Latvia. They learnt about new life, death and foraging and of course about alpacas. I've been pretty busy after the family left too, trying to sort out a report and mark students' work but I can see a hazy light at the end of the tunnel, as students finish off for the academic year.

Watching chicks hatch, but also finding the ones
that didn't make it. It did give us the opportunity
though to find out how a chick fits into an egg. A
marvel of packaging. Unfortunately, the hatch rate
was not so great but wonder if some of the eggs
got a bit too cold when collecting them at a time
when they would be ready to hatch when the kids
arrived.

This caravan has an awning which is useful as a
conference room and a bit brighter than the
80s orange background of the curtains
in our original caravan.

I forgot to mention in the last blog that the caravan had come out of the greenhouse, where we store it over winter. However, now we have two caravans as our son drove their caravan over on an epic journey with his family so we can use it. It was really exciting watching the journey as they ticked off countries, France Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Lithuania - if I remember correctly. No "Lost in France without a telephone" these days and I was even able to talk with the grandkids while they were on the move from time to time. Anyway, we now have one caravan as our office and living space and one to sleep in. It saves having to set the bed up every night and Ian can get up as early as he likes (or not like). I get to sleep in or procrastinate until about 7am or maybe a bit later. Eventually they will be used for visitors or one for an office and the other for visitors - we have to decide yet and I'm sure it will be a process as we get the cabin built.

So the demised chicks had to be named
and properly buried of course!

Karla one of our younger alpacas will not back
down. A feisty madame methinks

We are behind on so many tasks as the weather has been so cold, It is like spring couldn't seem to quite get going properly. We were still having frosts (just) and the geese were still flying over until fairly recently. Everything just feels really weird at the moment and the weather seems to be taking its cue from world events. At least the swallows have returned now, as well as the cuckoo and the golden biscuit errrr I mean the golden oriole. So all migrants back and checked in, albeit rather late. Now we are just waiting to see if the swallows are actually going to take up residence in any of the alpaca houses, although they seem more interested in the barn at the moment.

What more do you need to play with than a few
bits of wood and some space?

The grapes are late getting going this year too

The cold weather has been playing havoc with the shearing schedule. Ian has to do the shearing by himself these days with help from the alpaca owners. I generally don't have time to help him out, unless they are more local and even so someone needs to be at home to look after the alpacas anyway. If we had help, either they could go with Ian or stay here and I would work in the car. I used to enjoy helping Ian out, but I can't be everywhere at once amazingly. There is a chance we might get someone to help over the summer, so watch this space.

Of course there was a walk with the alpacas

A sun halo

We haven't had many requests for visits and to be honest that suits us at the moment. It's hard enough trying to fit in the shearing schedule and my visits to Estonia for work.... never mind the garden jobs and taking care of the animals. We did have a large group though from the regional tourist office and Ian was even on regional telly and in the regional papers. We had two groups this Saturday, one group Ian gave a free tour as they had Ukrainian guests. It's a little bit we can do. Once we get sorted with the cabin and such, then maybe we can think about doing more advertising, but for now we will just keep a bit of a low profile.

Our road maintenance crew on the job.

The boys have been fighting again

At least we got started on our shearing schedule and we got the two pregnant ones sheared and Chanel, our spitty, awkward, highly protective mother of an alpaca. She's sweet really but we have always to be prepared. She doesn't like being separated from her daughter, so shearing is a bit of nightmare and she can spit over the gate at us while we shear. We got around this by constructing a small enclosure just outside the door. At least we could shear Ilvija in peace. Poor Chanel is a complete mess and we have now started the process of dealing with her skin issues. In the temperatures we get over winter, it is not possible to wash the dry, crusty skin or put cream on. It would freeze. So now she's sheared it was a good opportunity to start by using some medicated shampoo on her. It will be a process (photos probably next time of the sheared ones).

A visit to our friend's goat farm, in the rain but
the cheese tasting was a hit. The kids do like their
cheese

Rocket Ron on the prowl. Mind you, it took him
a week to not run off every time the youngsters
appeared. Rocket Ron was an appropriate name
under the circumstances

Out here in rural Latvia we don't see much disturbance from the war in Ukraine, but we do notice it in odd ways such as the lack of planes that fly over, it is only Chinese ones now that fly East/West, whereas before we were on a major flight path. There are still those flying North/South of course and we also see a lot more military aircraft on exercise. On my way up to the university in Estonia in my car recently, I passed quite a few military trucks and even saw a tank on my way back. We've seen whole exercises before but not so often.

At least we did have some sunshine! Just helping!

Just chilling! And it has been. There wasn't much
rain, until the kids arrived but oh those winds were
lazy! Straight through not around you.

Another odd things is there is a lack of radar on the weather maps, as they no longer access the Russian and Belarus ones. We can see rain arriving from all directions except the East. Fortunately there are also the satellite cloud maps and most rain comes from the West anyway, so not too bad - just weird.

A ride in the tractor.

At least the grass is now starting to grow faster
and we are not so worried about the alpacas
overgrazing it.

I think the weirdness of the current situation in Ukraine and being busy with work are a couple of the reasons I don't blog so often. It's hard to write about ordinary life when you know that some are having their lives destroyed in situations that don't seem so far away, where housing looks vaguely familiar. It is also hard because the actions of the Russian army is so reminiscent of aggressive acts during the Soviet era. How on earth they ever thought that the Ukraine people would welcome them with flowers I will never know.

Pops (Grandad) with one of his 4 boxes of broken
biscuits. A box of surprises and a loooot of biscuits

Lolly has got very fluffy

Russia, like too many imperialist nations (including the UK worryingly), seem to have an amnesia about the hardships they have already inflicted on countries they once occupied and that includes the hardships on the Ukraine people within living memory. It is shocking to hear of people dying in old people's homes who have survived the holocaust or holdomor (the starvation of the Ukrainian people during the collectivisation era under Stalin). It is also shocking to hear of the filtration camps that are so reminiscent of the deportations to Siberia during the 1940s. The reason there are so many of Russian origins in such countries like Ukraine and Latvia where I live is the Russification during the Soviet era, people brought in sometimes to replace deported families. History is complicated and there are no straight lines but much of this I had thought would stay in history, not be revisited.

Too soon it was time to set off. We arranged to meet
someone who wanted to thank our grandson for his
super fundraising initiative for Ukrainian refugees at
a cafe for breakfast. After this our world, once more
returned to quiet, without the cheery chatter of little
ones, or the knock on the door in the early morning
as our grandson came in for breakfast before going
to help Pops with clearing out the alpacas.

Well these guys are staying in for a change.

I know early on we were asked if we would stay or go if Russia got more expansionist ideas in our direction. Although there have been murmurings, they seem pretty tied up in Ukraine right now and it is why the Baltic States are so keen to support the Ukraines. They do know if they do fall then they could be next in line. It is hard but for now we feel as safe as anywhere, so not the uppermost in our minds. Instead we kind of carry on in our own little bubble, much as we did during Covid times, much as many probably did in times before the internet and such hyper-connectivity.

Finally spring is here, should be summer by now,
but better than more winter.

My peonies took a while to appear and now almost
ready for flowering. I'm sure there will be an update
on that

These took their time to appear too but the first
rhubarb meal we had was in a savoury meal. I now
need to get some frozen or jarred up for later in
the year.

A water container set up ready for watering
the greenhouse, but my tomatoes are still so
small they are not planted in the ground of
the greenhouse yet and the chickens have only
just been moved out of there.