Lockdown in rural Latvia is perhaps a bit different. We are in an area with no cases and it is easy to stay away from people most of the time. Ian still gets regular phone calls asking if people can visit and the answer is still "no". It seems a shame sometimes as it would be nice to show people around and one couple were hoping to get some anniversary pictures, but still the answer is "no". Most will be coming from Riga where the hotspot of cases are, even though it is still a low number.
Skyping with colleagues - no video
Alpacas down! No need to worry though, they are just sunbathing.
I feel sorry for other places that rely on the tourists coming in and some of those did open this weekend. One place opened as a drive-thru safari. Tickets were bought online, food could be pre-ordered, as could souvenirs and then people could drive around the site on the tracks where people normally walk. At least the weather has been mainly dry, so it won't ruin the tracks too much. It was an innovative response. As I study rural development, it made me think. Many recommend the development of tourism to improve incomes in rural areas - fine until something like this happens, although the rewards are not always fabulous, so it is not something I necessarily agree with normally. We are fine because my income is sufficient to see us through. Our tourist numbers are not high either and so we don't rely on it. For us it is a pleasant sideline at the moment and I would like to see us develop more than just outright tourism. Anyway, that is for a later date.
Out on the grass finally.
Some strange looking cloud formations
We started the shearing season by shearing at someone else's place this last week. Ian prefers to start at ours, but it has been cool and the people we sheared for have a more solid building to protect their alpacas. We were sensible, but it is not easy to shear by respecting social distancing. It was also another place that is Covid19 free so far and we know they take social distancing seriously, as they are still not having visitors either. We will have to seriously think how we manage other places that are in areas where there are definitely people with the virus.
Lockdown haircuts
Josefs
Ilvija
Amanda
Me! I was threatening Ian with the spoon, he'd wandered off to take photos and of course food was cooking.
George
This little pussycat is beginning to make a right nuisance of herself, always looking for food. She got in through our skylight roof while we were out shearing and snaffled cakes. She regularly gets up on the work surfaces where we have hotplates. We thought we could smell singed fur. Fortunately it was just her very fluffy tail so no actual injuries. Does this stop her! Nope! She now gets locked in the cat basket when I'm making food, so I don't trip up on her.
I have to give credit to the Latvian government, their approach has kept the numbers down. Here are some examples for comparison in counties where we have lived, (deaths per million population)
Latvia 8
Denmark 84
US. 204
UK. 419
Where's Wally! No I mean where's Ian?
Oh there he is!
Latvia hasn't got as good a health service as Denmark or the UK, but they have implemented a good track and trace system that seems to have worked, along with locking down borders. It does bother me when I hear of people who seem to think that the borders will open then they will just be able to come in. I am especially cautious regarding people who come from the US who have still got a few weeks before they will see the virus peaking and that is only if people are sensible and staying in, which doesn't seem to be happening in places. Even if the borders do open, there will have to be a substantial period of time when incomers will have to self-isolate for two weeks - that will make even visiting family difficult.
Is that Lady V up on the roof? At her age and in her condition with her dodgy legs
Fortunately not, it is just a matter of perspective
Keeping cool in the shade and in the dip
It has still been a bit of a fraught week, trying to meet some deadlines. I managed to get enough data together for a fortunately brief but important meeting last week and this morning I managed to submit a paper to an academic journal that has been on the go for a while. At least all were happy with it, finally! Now we have to go through the review process but at least I can relax for a week or two - or maybe not. I still have to finish off my thesis and I need to do some reading for that, then I can relax - or maybe not because it will be planting and weeding season. Maybe July?
Lady V staying cool inside
Aggie being miserable inside. She doesn't like the heat and it's not even that hot yet. Still she will be sheared soon.
In the background to all this was an ongoing saga for my daughter and her family. They had planned to move out to Australia and had got everything lined up when all this blew up. Anyway, they thankfully arrived safely in Australia and are most of the way through self-isolation. It's bad enough moving during the good times, but not exactly good for stress levels at times like these. Of course there is the downside they are so far away now, but I think the move will be good for them.
A great shot of pond skaters with emerging waterlily leaves
Hekules enjoying the grass errr I mean dandelions. At least they will be good for him, a good spring tonic.
Spring is definitely making itself known now, the days are slowly warming and some of the late arrivals are coming back. The cuckoos are back and already driving me mad with their incessant noise. It really echoes here. The swallows are back thank goodness as the flies are in abundance in the alpaca houses. The stork is visiting a lot and the dandelions starting to appear,. Our animals have been let out on the grass and going loopy, even Herkules is improving if still a little unsteady on his feet. We have seen such an improvement in his from where he was barely able to get up and often needed help to jumping up on his own. It didn't helped his recovery when some young upstart rear-ends him and then they all pile on top of him. Fortunately we were around to sort them out and get him up. Brencis has also been trying to mate with him from time to time. A bit worrying.
Here is the week before with some very jealous boys looking on. He was the only alpaca allowed out on the grass because he needed some fresh grass and some space away from the rough and tumble of the boys paddock. There was grass, but not enough for all of them just yet. They had to make do with the hay.
One of the plums is blooming
Spring has been dry again this year and the cool nights have meant that even though there wasn't much snow to melt this year, the grass hadn't really got going. The rain on Saturday was therefore a blessing and we have seen the difference in the grass already. I also managed to plant peas and beans along with some other seeds before the rain, so hopefully they will get away well. I'm a bit tired of watering in plants over the last few years and I haven't as much time these days for that. Still I have to make sure we are prepared as my contract runs out in June and down to part-time after that. So food growing in the garden will be helpful. I nearly have all the potatoes in, just some short rows to plant up and I'm doing that when my computer says I should get up and move.
Lockdown projects
The doors are finally on the new greenhouse. Plastic next
This ash tree was cut down years ago and Ian has been cutting them up for chopping blocks and maybe some seats and tables.
Chopping block and handy mug holder
Marking out for another project
Levelling off
Some reinforcements
Building inspector
Finally some level ground outside of our greenhouse. For all who have visited us and we've had to warn you to be careful where you put your chair, we've fixed it! Well Ian fixed it!
I just took advantage of a beach area to work from
The boys mowing the lawn
I still need a good stint in the garden as there are still autumn raspberry canes to cut back, a strawberry bed to finish weeding and of course the weeds are starting to appear again in the beds I've already weeded.
Josefs having a good scratch on a small spruce tree. We'll not be using that one for Christmas then
And this is why. That's not dust but clouds of flies. You can tell it's been a mild winter. I hope those swallows are going to work overtime.
I forgot to take a picture before it was cut up, but I treated myself at the bakery.
Oh yes and I had a birthday the week before. Not much to write about in terms of that, except that all my grandchildren said or sang happy birthday to me.
Alpacas going loopy on the fresh grass (technical term - pronking)
Vanessa's girls. I'm not sure I've really seen them pronking. Running into the paddock because Ian is moving them back in the evening but not running around just for the sake of it.
Tellus running. He's no spring chicken either, he'll be 13 years old this year.
I love the colours in this photograph. Jakobs, our
multi-coloured alpaca against a moody dark blue sky
I know for some people this year has been an absolute drag, stuck indoors with not a lot to do, maybe kids to supervise and not much garden. It's tough. For me the opposite is true, time has flown by. We are over half way through April and I'm wondering where all the time has gone. Working from home is something I'm used to and I value the freedom to change my timetable, only that is not happening so much at the moment. I have deadlines to meet, work to get through and it's turning out to be a bit intense at times, even without a pre-defence to prepare for like last week. The availability of doing online meetings can be a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it is possible to keep in touch and a curse because it ties up my timetable. I know if you are used to working in an office you can probably appreciate what I mean. I'm just not that used to it. I am used to intense busy periods as I try to work on the land and do the work for courses or my job, but not often that intense just for the job.
We woke up to this on Wednesday morning
But it was short-lived. All gone by 5:30pm
The peonies are coming through
I often look back on the previous week's blog to try and avoid the temptation to repeat myself (sorry I don't always succeed), but it looks like Blogger has swallowed most of my pictures. That's rather annoying. They were there last when I posted them. If I had the time I would reinstate them, but just at the moment there won't be much chance of that. I finally found my inspiration for an article I still have to write so that is finally progressing again. I had to write and ask for some extra time. I knew that even if I had time to finish it, my co-authors wouldn't have time to read it as they are deep in pre-defences for master students now. I had other frustrations this week, as I had to try and get my head around some new software to help with getting information from articles. Our electric also went off before a meeting, due to the windy weather we've been having- mind you that was useful to get on with some other work that didn't need the internet.
The Siberian squill I dug up from outside the apartment is
doing well. It is the nearest I get to bluebells here. Hopefully
one day we will have a carpet of blue in spring.
Aggie. She looks like she's getting a bit of a mite problem
again - normal for this time of year. At least she usually
responds to my magic cream - well most of the time.
One of the little jobs I had to do this week was to write a short biography and send a picture to add to a list for the project team I joined this month. I looked through all my photos but struggled to find one of me without alpacas and one where I wasn't wearing farm clothes. Not easy but I found a nice-ish one. A nice outdoorsy one, since it is a project to do with health and well-being in the outdoors, only in this case by water. I didn't have one by water but with a tree in the background, or sticking out of my head depending on how you view it. My biography for an academic is also a bit eclectic and there may have been a mention of having alpacas, but it does fit with my research on rural landscapes - honest! At least the lady who read it thought it was inspiring, so I think I got away with it.
If it wasn't for the fact that Lady V's legs are wonky, she
is doing very well for an old lady of nearly 17 years old.
She's a year older than Herk
Ilvija's fleece is rather varied in colour, brown, dark brown
then light again
I think it should calm down soon, as we head towards the end of the academic year and I certainly hope it does before the planting season starts, at least at the moment it is too cold to really get going on the garden. The longer days will be helpful then. I have started on the potatoes, though as they are all snuggled up in the alpaca manure, so should be fine with a dip in temperatures at night. Ian is also making progress on the greenhouse and doing a very tidy job of the landscaping, so I think that will be ready in time for when the tomatoes are due to be planted up at the beginning of next month and we are going to make another herb bed. One job out of the way anyway.
Synchronised eating. There is hardly a blade of grass in their
paddock. They still try to find some though. They are not
starved, there is plenty of hay for them and it's pretty good
this year, full of nice leafy material - but they still would
rather have grass
Just to prove the point, Lady V has her head through the fence
to find some tasty morsels. Between her and Mari the fence
is a bit wobbly. It doesn't help that the ground is so soft, so
not holding the posts firmly enough
We did have visitors again this week, but these ones we knew and we did observe social distancing rules (unlike the old lady in the supermarket this week). Our visitors came bearing gifts - a bag of wood pellets, empty egg boxes and some empty jars. All useful gifts for us. Our hens are producing regularly, our composting toilet needed some sawdust and jars are always handy when you grow your own stuff. Jars are also handy to keep the mice out of food. Actually jars are handy when trying to keep a certain cat out of our food. I found a mangled silicon muffin case on the floor this morning, but it wasn't a whole one. I did mutter something about I hoped it made her sick, well it did... on top of one of the chicken arks. Yuck! I don't believe it will cure her from eating all the stuff she shouldn't do. She seems to spend all of her time hunting for crumbs and not as much time hunting mice, which is what a farm cat is for. In fact she even nicks mice off our other cat sometimes, rather than hunting for her own.
Amanda (not pictured here, this is Silla) managed to limbo
dance her way under the fence that you can see behind. We
at least could stake that down to prevent a repeat escape.
Herk enjoying the grass in peace. He can still see all the
other alpacas, not that he's that bothered if he doesn't. He
is often on his own because he's deaf and doesn't realise
they have all gone out.
Herk has still been causing us much concern over this last week. We have tried all sorts of things to help him recover. Finally he seems to be improving and he seems to be able to get himself up at last. Not easily but at least he can. Ian still has to help him up in the mornings as he seems a bit stiff - don't we all! We honestly thought at times we were going to lose him. He's had injections that are used to strengthen the heart, worming treatment because he suddenly had worms in his poo samples, despite the fact he's been pretty clear so far, he's had thiamine tablets because alpacas are thiamine sensitive and can rapidly go downhill without it and he's also had his own patch of grass to eat. The other boys are insanely jealous of this, but there isn't enough for all of them and Herk really did need it.
Red-veined sorrel
Mossy logs. I love the colour contrasts
Trees down from the windy weather
No not goldfish, but my waterlily starting to grow
Not a large cow pat either, but the remains of silage bales.
Once they've dried out a bit, I will remove the plastic that is
still underneath. At least I will need to do that before our
bin is emptied next month. We only have a collection once
every three months.
The water in the pond is crystal clear at the moment, but
no frogspawn yet
You can tell this is a stork in springtime because their beaks
and legs are so red. After a few months of raising chicks,
they don't look so glossy.
Mari looking fluffy
More synchronised mowing
Stopping for a scratch
Landscaping nearly done. Now for the water diversion
features and herb bed
Josefs is such a cutie and a lovely sweet personality too -
he also moans a lot though
