Good to be appreciated

Yes we still have a lot of snow to get rid
of! Ian has been moving it around, to
clear the snow from around the
polytunnel in preparation for work
to commence on it.

Well thanks for waiting, but I just plain ran out of time yesterday. I had studying to do in the morning and then in the afternoon we attended a young ladies birthday party. It was lovely to be invited as a way of saying thank you for the help with transport issues and a fantastic time to hear the Latvian language around the dinner table. We were invited along with some other friends of ours and so there was a good flow of English too and time just flew by as we laughed and told stories, talked about farms, talked about families and generally got to know each other some more. We even became quite well acquainted with Raimonds and Rudolfs, the house shrews. Their cats are not interested in the shrews and it is a farm so only to be expected - good job we are not easily freaked out as they scurried about the kitchen floor while we were chatting in the dining room. We also had a trip out to the barn to see the animals as they have acquired a few more since the summer when we last had a tour, it was an incredible sight. At this time of the year the animals have to stay inside as they can't go out in the snow, so there are cows in stalls, sheep in pens with their babies, pigs in their own pens, chickens everywhere, rabbits scurrying around with the chickens and edging their way in to feed from the same trough and some rabbits in cages. What a menagerie and what a noise but I would rather see that kind of sight than the poor animals in industrial scale farms where the animals will never get to see the light of day. These animals maybe inside for quite a while with the long winters but come April or early May they will be outside enjoying the spring grass, and they seemed pretty happy with the human attention they were getting.

Knitted socks

I titled this blog "good to be appreciated" and indeed it is, I feel well and truly blessed this week to have appreciative neighbours, like the ones who invited us to the party but that wasn't all. One evening there was a ring at the door and my first thought was it was someone selling potatoes but it wasn't, it was a neighbour carrying a small bag. She explained that it was a just a very small way of saying thank you for what we have done and handed us the bag containing two pairs of socks. Now to some that might seem like an odd gift but not here in Latvia. When you go to a Latvian house you will be expected to take off your shoes unless there is good reason not to, like in farm houses, so a nice pair of thick socks to keep the chill off, or some slippers that will slip into a bag are good. Not only are they a nice pair of thick, warm socks they are a nice pair of hand-knitted socks which makes them even more special. To cap off this week even our sons were appreciative too after having some good chats.

Dismantling of the ruins in progress

It certainly is a good boost after a bit of a low time when I was beginning to wonder whether we are still heading in the right direction with our plans here in Latvia. It is easy to think when things are not happening or coming together that maybe we are on the wrong track, but sometimes it is just a matter of waiting (as my friend Mavis points out in her blog "Waiting time") but it is nice to have some confirmation of that, no matter how small. It doesn't take much to encourage me to keep going, but this week I feel that I have had more than a little confirmation. One of the things that has just not come together is our Jiksi business which we set up last year, one idea after another just didn't get going and I was beginning to think we should close it and think of something else but this last week there have been people who have thought the ideas were good ones, always a good thing, and we finally found someone who can help us with the administration which has been a real headache. Administration in Latvia can be rather bureaucratic with paperwork needed to breathe - okay that is perhaps an exaggeration - but the Latvians like their paperwork and it is probably needed to reduce corruption sometimes, but it can seem like a never ending hurdle, and so finding someone who can tackle that side of things is a real Godsend.

Last week's picture for contrast with this weeks

Now play spot the difference. Believe me when I say a lot
of snow has gone, just there is still a lot more to go

On the week after my certificate arrived from the Open University confirming I now have a Post Graduate Certificate in Development Management and can put PG Cert (Dev Mgmt)(Open) after my name, I had some more encouragement by being able to actually put some of my studies from that course and the one I am doing now into practice. It is all right having the ability to put those initials after my name which proclaims to one and all I am now able to do Development Management, it is quite another actually putting what I have learnt into practice into a real life scenario. Another neighbour is hoping to set up a business that will benefit the area we live in and it was useful to her to have some things to think about regarding aims so she can apply for funding. It was good to be able to draw on the knowledge of what funders are particularly looking for, what ticks the boxes for them, and to be down right honest it sure felt good to be able to help something along that fits in so well with what we would love to see happening here in the village.

See it is going! These pieces of equipment were virtually
under the snow last week

As I mentioned in my rather short blog yesterday we were heading into Riga today. We managed to get there in one piece, a feat in itself as it was an hour and three quarter drive on what could be termed farm track in most countries for the state it was in, the dirt roads were either wet ice or washboard surfaces and the tarmac once again was the springtime game of swerving around the potholes. Ian was helping out in the hospital, which he usually does once a month, by advising the doctor regarding the machine she uses in the diagnosis of leukaemia and helping to rectify a problem she was having and I went to visit a lady at the State Forest Service headquarters which entailed me taking a bus from near the hospital to the centre of the city. I was rather proud of myself for getting there using public transport. I got to the bus stop just as a bus pulled up and on the front it had Centrala tirgus, so taking the risk that this was going somewhere into the city centre I hopped on, only to find that most folks seem to have swipe cards and I had a moment of panic wondering if I should have prepaid somewhere when I noticed someone paying at the front. The driver though did not seem to understand what I was trying to say but I noticed it said something about 70 santims on a notice so paid that and he seemed happy enough, just had to pray no inspector would come on and question me on the ticket. It was only after I sat down I remembered that tirgus was market which was right opposite where I needed to be, so all was good. The reason I was in Riga is because I was on placement for one module of my course and it involves finding out what I can over the course of five days about forestry in Latvia. Normally the five days are done in one working week but due to the nature of the organisations concerned with forestry here in Latvia and the fact that they are all under a lot of pressure due to budget cuts it is not fair to spend five days in one place and so I have been visiting different people in different places and finding out about all the different aspects of forestry over a period of several months. I still have at least two more visits to make to complete my assignment but for at least one of them I need the snow to go and the ground to get a bit drier so we can do a forest visit.

I said I would post pictures of Ian's handiwork. This is the
coat rack made from a piece of wood destined for the fire
and three hooks. 

Since I am in rambling mood today I just wanted to ask if anyone has a similar problem to one I encountered this week. I managed to forget my key for our other apartment, not an unusual thing for me in itself, especially since I keep changing coats due to the warmer weather. I no longer need the cabbage layers and so just took a fleece last time I went to our other apartment. It takes about 10 mins to walk there and when I arrived I went to get the key out of my pocket and of course it wasn't there, it was in the fleece. I checked my pockets about three times but no it did not miraculously appear and then I stood and stared at the door, nope it didn't miraculously open just because I was staring at it. So what I want to know is why do we do that? Or is it just me? Why check three times in the same place and then stare at the door?  Anyway I walked back to get the key and then back again to the other apartment, but the weather was glorious and I needed the walk so no harm done.

The bath panel made from reclaimed panelling from our
kitchen.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I got some Kefir grains and the good news is that they are doing well. In fact I they are doing so well that I have had to freeze some of the milk ones as I have an over abundance of them, and the water kefir ones are doing nicely too but I do need to feed them three teaspoons of sugar every other day. Besides an over abundance of the grains we were also getting an over abundance of kefirs and so I used it with some milk to make cheese using some rennet that my Mum sent me across in the post. Hopefully in about two weeks time I should have something with the texture akin to Lancashire cheese. If that works I think I might need to invest in some cheese moulds to make the job a little easier.

Okay not the best picture in the world, snow does not
photograph well on a dull day, but the bushes we planted
last year are just beginning to make an appearance in
their fir coats that they were wrapped in at the end of last
year before the snows came.

I managed to get some clarification this week on my frustrations with the lack of information regarding survivors to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami from a comment on a blog. I felt the concentration on the reactor and the economy seemed to have overtaken the real human cost of the earthquake but I found out that one of the reasons for the lack of information is the focus on the unfolding drama of the nuclear reactor in Japanese news. I guess what has been and gone has passed into history now but the reactor would seem to be an uncertain and present threat to the Japanese. At least I feel I understand the lack of news of the people now and I am glad to see that the news about the economy and all that happens with that has been relegated to a minor issue and not headlining.

Growing!

Cherry blossom

 Well this week we officially became partners in a Latvian company called SIA Jiksi (SIA is a bit like limited in the UK and the name is pronounced Yik- si). We have plans to sell fruit, vegetables, meat (maybe rabbit and chickens), snails, mushrooms, processed foods like jams and juices (only that might have to wait until next year as our new fruit bushes won't be ready till next year at least and only fully operational the year after that) and craft items. Much of it is still in the planning stage but we wanted to get the company up and running and work on it bit by bit and build up slowly. Unfortunately we will have to wait another week before we work on it again as our friends have just moved house and they have a lot to do on it and we also have a lot to do getting seeds in. The weather has been really warm this last week, so perfect for sowing seeds and now we have some wet weather to water them in, so hopefully as long as we don't have a repeat of last year's rain then our gardens will race away as will the weeds no doubt.

Sweetcorn beginning to grow

We are still looking at the best way forward to market our produce and I heard about a CSA or community supported agriculture here in Latvia. Normally a CSA works by people paying up front for produce at the beginning of the year and then each week they get a vegetable box in return but I wondered how it would work here with the economic situation so we joined the one and only CSA for a meeting at the farm. As I suspected the practice is rather different here as the vegetable boxes are only paid for a week to a month in advance and so does not work in the same way as elsewhere but the farmer does at least benefit from a regular income. The boxes do not require the same pre-packaging that the supermarkets require and so this makes the farmers work much simpler. The consumers help out the farmer from time to time too just like in other CSAs, so somethings are the same. I also wondered what happened over winter as there is not much fresh veg available mainly potatoes, carrots, onions and cabbages but the farmer explained that she supplements the veg boxes with jams or pickles that she herself has produced, which at least keeps people coming back for the boxes. It was interesting to see how the mix of ecologically minded city folks and the two farmers got along at the meeting and how much the farmer appreciated the regular veg box orders, so it is obviously working although it is still only in its first year. The CSA members were originally intending to work on the farm but the farmer said it was too wet - turns out it was her birthday and she wanted a day off but didn't tell anyone, instead we had a pleasant day out sitting around chatting about farming.

Neighbours regimented gardens - very neat and tidy

While we were chatting we discovered some of the problems with the term "organic" for Latvia. Certified seed is hard to get hold of, or at least Latvian grown organic seed is. This means they are allowed to use seed that is not certified as long as it hasn't been treated. Now that might seem wrong to the purists but to be honest a lot of Latvian agriculture is organic by default, they don't put a lot of artificial fertilisers and such on their fields, so I am happy with that. They then grow the crops on their untreated fields and then maybe get the certification that it is organically grown - fine so far, but what about cereals? Cereals need milling and the farmers we met take theirs along to the local mill to be ground and the flour produced from their bags was labelled organic until recently - now okay there could be a minor amount of contamination from a previous milling but nothing that I would jump up and down about. This all changed when one mega-mill was certified to grind organic flour, in practice it only grinds organic flour once a week after cleaning all the equipment first - fine for a large mill but not fine for the local mills. In order to comply the old local mills must now comply with the new regulations that came into being with the large mega-mill. The major problem is that to get the organic certification the little mills have to comply with the same rules as mega-mill which is too expensive and the little farmers cannot take their flour to mega-mill because they are too small - minimum 10 tonnes only. Result the little farmers cannot now get their organically grown grains ground to make certified organic flour, not what the organic movement is all about. The farmers and small local mills didn't change anything but the rules did. This means that it now makes much more sense to make sure you know where your flour, or any produce is coming from and not solely rely on organic certification - it is too expensive and does not necessarily benefit the smaller operations that are actually better for the environment certainly better than the mega-farrms.

Nearly as neat, our garden with the fleece for the colder
nights this week

News from our land is that we have a rather natty newcomer to our pond, this dark little fellow has fluorescent stripes down his back, so why does he have to have such a boring name - a pond frog! No pictures though, sorry, well not yet anyway. I do hope he gets busy eating the mosquito larvae as they are dreadful this year, which is not good for me as anything that bites thinks I am tasty and I react badly to all of them. Good news though is that we think our greenhouse is finished, we have not had any contact from the boss of the company so not entirely sure but at least it is now usable and we already have it planted up with tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, peppers and chillies. Ian had to shovel a whole load of soil in it with his tractor to level it off and then rotavate it all so that he could get the stuff planted. It is not perfect but at least we can sort it out at the end of the year. I guess we could have organised our greenhouse a little better but it is looking pretty full already, maybe we do need another one - only I don't think I could go through the hassle again of trying to get it organised. Not yet anyway and I would want someone who can do it in less than 6 months.

We nearly dropped off our seats in surprise as we have actually got the plans for our new barn, only a week late perhaps; we even have some guys organised to get it done. Now we just have to pray that the weather is not as bad as Ian fears it is going to be so that it can be put up quickly (he has been reading last years blog and is worried that the bit of rain we have had just lately is the prelude to a waterlogged summer like last year).  We also have to pray that these guys are organised and will get it done on time and properly, which we have been assured of, but heard that one before too, but then again ever the optimist I think we may have found some good workers.

Horse Chestnut flower

As Ian also pointed out I have written less and less about what I feel God is saying, part of that is because some of what God is saying is not really something I can share in a public space but some of it is because I don't have a lot of new things to share. We are still learning the art of gardening and how that relates to faith, how weeds can sometimes get in and spoil a place, how sometimes they take a lot of skill to get rid of, and that is a lot like our walk with God, it is also like our spiritual environment. How preparing ground is important to get the finished result you want, it looks messy sometimes, like it does around our polytunnel right now but eventually the scar will heal and it will look less of a mess - at least I hope so. I am still amazed at the sheer creativity of God's handiwork, for instance I never realised how many colours there are in a horse chestnut tree flower, they just look white from a distance. Sometimes you have to get up close to see the detail of what God is doing!

Off week

Stormy skies and greening grass

 Its been an off week this week, water off, electric off, heating off, me off. They are working on the water system again as they upgrade the whole lot to European standards and they did warn us the water was going off (amazing how quickly you cotton on to key words when you need to ie udens = water, remonts = repairs and added together means your water is going off) and it did, the night before they said though and so we had over 24 hours without water. Fortunately we have a pond nearby which kept the toilet flushed but we had to buy some water for drinking. Must say though it is not much fun lugging buckets of water up three flights of stairs. Keeping hydrated fortunately wasn't a problem but what do you do about having a wash? And food preparation can be a problem as things like potatoes need too much water to prepare even if you save water by baking them. Still we managed. I tend to keep a jug of water handy now just in case it goes off again, without warning, like it did again today.

Surprisingly the wild boar haven't eaten all the bulbs I have
planted. These were such a beautiful, unexpected sight

Not sure why the electric went off and whether it is anything to do with messing about with cables to put new lights in along our road, but I doubt it as it went off in the middle of a holiday weekend; just the vagaries of our system I think, as it does go off on a regular basis especially if it is windy. Maybe one day they will upgrade that system too. Talking of electric the electric company have now marked off the path for the new cable that will run along our land and so there are lots of red and white tapes flapping about on twigs or tied to trees. That work will probably start soon as I signed the papers to give them permission in my official capacity as power of attorney on the land ie we don't own it but we can do what we like with it (within reason of course).

These wooden constructions form the basis of the
 old-fashioned hay stacks that are often still seen around
Latvia, although it is now more common to see the white bales

As for the heating I think the heating company must have been reading my blog last week as I mentioned that I was surprised the heating was still on as we had had some lovely days, they obviously took note and agreed with me by turning the heating off. Hmmph! Should have kept quiet as wouldn't you know it the next day was cold and damp. It did mean we could test the wood burning stove in our apartment though and it worked really well which is a relief. We have used it as a supplement to the heating when the temperatures got down to the -20s but the intention was really for it to be used in the in between times ie when the heating company think the weather isn't cold enough to put the heating on but we do, and when they think it is warm enough to do without, which normally does not coincide with when we think it is warm enough.

Leaves unfurling

Me being off? Well I have been struggling recently with studying and finding it hard, I had decided it was due to tiredness but then began to realise that it was actually to do with a problem with the apartment construction and the way it transmits noises. There is an intermittent low frequency hum that seems to make my brain resonate and the wavelength of it means it is worse in our living room. The noise is difficult to escape from as it can be heard in the rest of the apartment too and so I have often been trying to study with the noise without really realising it. I have started going up to our other apartment for some peace and quiet as I find I can think clearer there without the hum. Problem is though that once the other apartment is cleared of stuff which should be soon then our Swedish friend will be sorting out the bathroom and then there won't be much peace and quiet there either, might have to go up to the hotel and work as I can at least use the internet there. Good job that I have only two weeks to go and all assignments should be handed in by then.

Eggs frying on our stove, what better
setting could you have for a Sunday
lunch?

I have been making sure to take Sunday off from studies though and Ian and I both go out to the land usually. This time we took some bacon and eggs and a frying pan and had bacon butties (sandwiches for the uninitiated) followed by egg butties. They were wonderful even if we did get a bit smoky because we haven't go the little wood stove connected up to a chimney yet and the wind kept changing direction - oh but it was worth it. We had a walk around so Ian could show me what he had done that week and things are certainly changing. We now have an orchard of 9 apple trees which ripen at different times, 3 pears and 7 plums of different colours. We also have a five rows of bushes with raspberries, gooseberries (sweet ones we are told), blackcurrants, white currants and red currants. He has been harrowing more of the land too which means he has been dragging spikes across the grass to get rid of the thatch. Hopefully this will give us quite a bit of compost eventually but is also making a big difference to the grassed areas as the areas that have already been harrowed are much greener than those that haven't - it is almost as if the grass has a chance to breath now its thick winter coat has been taken off.

There is an orchard there, honest, if you look very, very
carefully you will be able to see the white labels on the trees

Even Ian has had an off week too. Tired with excuses he sent a text off to the company and asked when the polytunnel would be ready in rather undiplomatic terms shall we say. It had the desired effect though as on the Sunday in the middle of a holiday weekend we arrived to see some guys working on the polytunnel. We now have doors fitted and the start of the inner layer of plastic (two layers will be needed as we want to extend the season that we use it and temperatures can plummet quite quickly). Felt a bit bad that they had turned out on a Sunday but then again if they had got it right in the first place it would have been finished by now.

Ian signing the papers for the new company. Starting as we
mean to go on, on our knees hehe

All this work will be a bit useless unless we can do something with the produce and so we thought it would be a good idea to set up a company with some friends and we started the process of getting that underway. We are hoping to call the company Jiksi which we got from playing around with our initials and pronounced Yik-si in Latvian. We don't think there are any other companies with the same name and it doesn't really mean anything so should be okay. I think it sounds a fun name too. We started off the process by opening up an bank account and putting the required amount of money in and then filled in the relevant forms and took them to an office for registering companies. The office was quite a nice office with friendly staff but with the most unwelcoming entrance you could ever hope to see, it looked more like the entrance to a garage or maintenance building with wiring everywhere. We only had one hiccup as we needed our signatures notarising (ie verifying by an official for you Brits) but fortunately that could be done in our home village and meant we didn't need to make the long round trip back to the office to register, we just had to post everything off to them. Well at least that is what they said when we were there, we will have to wait and see I guess if they still think that next week when they get the forms in the post.

The ploughed rows with our fruit bushes

For once there are two positive items on the internet amongst the dreary depressing statistics about Latvia and one was on the Latvians love of singing. Latvia has been called the land of song and their recent independence was started with a singing revolution, reminds me a bit of the story of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe where Aslan the lion goes around singing things into existence and the Baltic nations in some ways sang their nations into existence as they showed their defiance to the Soviet system through their songs.

A beautiful Spring day

Another item I found surprising was that Latvians love to smile, maybe they visited our area as they do smile a lot, apart from the local building supplies merchant who has only been known to smile once; that doesn't mean he isn't helpful and tries to save us money, he just doesn't smile. In the survey Swede, Latvian and Estonian officials, shop assistants and bank clerks smile when helping. I have found that Latvians elsewhere in Latvia are helpful but I wouldn't have necessarily put them at the top of the smiling league. Still it is nice that someone has found them pleasant which I would agree with. At least that is a nice way of finishing what has otherwise been an off week.