Playing the waiting game

Posing in my wellies

It was my daughter's birthday this week and in a Skype conversation, she mentioned she was rather fed up with what she could eat for breakfast, so I managed to find something suitable online and sent her a breakfast hamper - actually hamper is too posh for a cardboard box, but it does sound nicer. Thank goodness for the internet that makes that kind of gift possible these days.

Agnese at one year old

It was also Agnese's birthday this week, unfortunately Ian goes out to our land before the shops opens and so no cream cake for her - not that she would have appreciated it, but Ian would have. Despite the appearance of the stork on the ladies’ alpaca house, we still do not have any new arrivals yet, well not of the four-legged variety. We have new arrivals in terms of seedlings, which have finally started poking through the soil. The soil must just have been too cold, because within a few days of warm sunshine and some rather heavy downpours, we now have different sorts of plants popping their heads up, here, there and everywhere. Some are welcome and some are definitely not so welcome.

The stork on the ladies' alpaca house but still no little
arrivals. Maybe just scouting out the area

Storks are magnificent birds though, when they fly

Well the raindrops do look pretty hanging off the oak leaves

The weather forecast at the beginning of the week was not good, more rain and some which was predicted to be quite heavy and prolonged, so Ian got on with cleaning out ditches, adding more ditches where needed etc in preparation. He also ensured that there were bales of hay nearer to the animals and made a cover for our periscope, aka mobile internet (if you have no idea what I am on about, you will have to take a look at the picture) to stop it raining in down the pole. On the day though, the rain was nowhere near as persistent over us. To the East and to the West it was though, so I feel sorry for the farmers in those areas. The next day after that was colder and wetter than predicted and Ian was feeling pretty fed up of not being able to get on with work – although it didn’t stop him getting on with digging the beds in the greenhouse. We are way behind on that work, with tomatoes only just going in today.

The periscope, aka mobile internet. The gadget is inside the
margarine tub, which is covered in gaffa tape. The cover
Ian made for the hole is from a cup from an old broken thermos
flask. The bad news is, that is just another excuse not to throw
anything away, the good news is, it works

Sunflowers coming through

There are some short beans in there
somewhere

Orchard plot, finally tidy

As I mentioned the rain did dry up though and we have had a few days of some quite sunny weather, hence the seedlings coming through. I managed to get the orchard vegetable plot tidied up at last, which was a relief. I have even started work on the new plot, which is showing a lot of grass growth, rather than much in the way of seedlings. They are there, just the grass is more visible. I have spent a lot of time outside rather than on the computer, which has made a nice change. I just wish weeding was not quite such slow work. I also planted up the climbing beans and made a nice wigwam terrace, as Ian calls it. I had asked for bean poles over the winter, but I think they ended up in the shredder and so Ian had to cut me some new ones. It is nice we have a patch of thin tall young trees that needs thinning out. I would have got them myself, but I’m useless with a machete or more likely lethal.

Climbing beans planted and construction for them to
climb up

I got the beans planted in and cossetted with some hay to keep them from drying out or being buffeted by the weather – it is a good job I did. Just as I was finishing off the structure for them to climb up, some very black clouds rolled in and we had the first thunderstorm of the year. It was a good test for those ditches, but I was not so thrilled about the hail. My poor beans! Fortunately the hay mulch protected them, as did the construction. Unfortunately the construction itself got a bit of a battering in the wind and a third of it had to be set straight again after the storm. With the clearer skies, I went back to sowing peas, since the ground was nice and moist, but I just got started on that and more black clouds rolled in. Talk about speed sowing. I got them in and got into the caravan, just as the next thunderstorm started – fortunately not as ferocious as the last one. It was a bit frustrating, because if it was just a rain storm, I would have worked in the greenhouse, but since it was a thunderstorm, I would rather be in a tin can than a plastic/wood construction.

A very obvious baby bulge there on the right. 

It does look like a lawn with stripes

Whilst I was planting beans and finishing off the construction, Ian was mowing the lawn – okay not quite a lawn, but from a distance it now looks like a lawn. The cow parsley was starting to come into flower and the dandelions were heading into making seeds, so rather than let that happen, he cut everything on a high setting. The alpacas are not fond of long grass and so Ian will often cut the grass before putting them on it about a week or so later, so cutting the field does not matter to them, especially when it is on the high setting as there is still plenty of grass to eat. The cow parsley is a biannual and so hopefully by cutting it back, it should be greatly reduced in a year or two. It would be simpler with a weed killer of some sort I’m sure, but since we don’t like using those, we do the best we can to manage the weeds. Cow parsley and ground elder which we have been battling for a few years now are not favourites of the animals and so we are trying to ensure they are definitely reduced. I think it has been working, slowly. Dandelions, whilst not great in a field, as they have a habit of taking over, are at least nutritious for animals and they will eat them – especially once the grass is getting low.

The flail mower that Ian has been using to cut the lawn. A
normally very trusty machine but seems to be suffering today
and as I write this, Ian is in the barn trying to service it.
The service book is out

Greening up quite nicely - well if you like grass too

Big bird having a rest, before the fox had a go at her

We did manage to get to see some friends of ours this week – the ones with the goats. Her goat business is doing really well, which means they haven’t got a lot of time to see us and we have been so busy with the start of the season, we haven’t had the chance to see them either. Unfortunately our visit coincided with a visit from Mr or Mrs. Fox and so one of our good egg layers went missing, whilst we were away. A couple of days later there was a commotion and our cockerel was strutting up and down the field sounding the alarm, with a very muddy looking big bird following him gingerly out. We didn’t realise it at the time, but we think the fox had a go at her too. Ian managed to get hold of her to check if she was okay the next day and found she had a nasty gash on her back, so we cleaned it up and set her in a box for a quiet day, away from the cockerels.

At least the amaranth has germinated quite quickly

And the hemp is getting away well too

The tooth-a-matic for cutting alpaca teeth that arrived last
week. Yes that is an angle grinder with attachment

I haven’t had all week away from academia; there has been time to finish off a short paper for a conference in August, as well as finishing off marking the Masters thesis, that I was doing last week. I found out that one of my Masters students got an A for their Masters, which I am very pleased about. I thought he might, it was well written and so I am pleased someone else thought the same and it gives me more confidence in my own ability to mark work. Still not sure how the other student has gone, but I think hers not due for another week or two yet and since hers will be written in Latvian, I will not have the opportunity to read it apart from a summary, which is usually in English. In addition to all that I have worked on Sociology lessons and worked on THE paper (the one I have been doing for soooooo long). I may have cracked the problem there at last, with some help from a friend who happens to be a Sociology tutor. The answer for that might have been hiding in plain sight. I'm also signed in for the Latvian Rural Communities Parliament, which happens this week as well as a development forum that is running some parallel sessions that I was invited to join. So this next week will be a bit different again.

The critical tenplate that makes the operation so much
easier - apparently!

To Tartu and Back Again

On the road between Valka and Smiltene. A
nice place for a cup of tea

Actually that should say "To Home and Back Again," but it doesn't have the same ring about it. I had a lovely drive home from Tartu last week. Shame the sun didn't come out, which means the photos I took on the way back, don't bring out the best of the glorious autumn weather in the landscape. Still it was nice to be able to pull off the road for a sandwich and a cup of tea on the way home and just drink in the view, as well as my tea. It was a more relaxed ride back home than up to Tartu, as I didn't have to be somewhere for a particular time. The rest of the week was taken up firstly with trying to do some more studying and I'm making my way slowly through a mound of academic papers that I need to sort through to see if they are any use to my studies. I do hasten to add that is not a physical stack of papers but virtual papers sat on my computer - no wonder I need new glasses. I am also trying to write up some articles to go in journals using the information I gathered from my Masters and that has been an interesting exercise in trying to get the relevant thoughts together and not cram in every single point that I discovered along the way. Will it get any easier - possibly! Then again it might not.

Blueberry plants showing their autumn plumage. Pity they
weren't covered in berries earlier on in the year. At least they
look nice now

Black beans, navy beans, brown beans, 

I try not to do too much studying over the weekend, unless I have had a day off during the week. It doesn't mean I am not doing anything, but I am doing something different and this week it was harvesting, just for a change. We have been blessed with some extra help this week from the American family staying at our other apartment. They have helped Ian shift wood and I wouldn't be surprised if they would rather not see another piece of wood in their lives, but at least they should be warm enough in their stay and we have some wood brought across to keep us going too. They also sat and de-podded that whole box of beans that I posted the picture of, on last week's blog. That was nearly a days work for two in that alone. That didn't mean I got out of de-podding beans either. The beans I podded actually turned out a little different to what I expected, they must be crosses of different sorts and so there was a surprising variety of colours of beans. One group I planted were all black beans, but when I opened them up there were chocolate brown ones, navy blue ones, plain brown, purple and of course black. I'm not sure which colour I planted in another block but the beans I opened up were a mix of pink spotted ones, brown lined ones, plain brown and pinky red ones. It was quite a lot of fun and they did look rather like jelly beans.

You need to look hard at this one, but in the middle is a
seed with a tiny shoot. We are hoping this is barley and
we will see how that grows for next year. Another
experiment and we hope to have a little more success than
with the oats. We will probably bale it green like the oats
and let some go on to ripen properly and then thresh it.

The wild boar have reduced the amount of good grass for
the alpacas, so Ian enlisted their help in our middle pond
area where there is no water at all. There was lots of long
green grass, but they made short work of it. Saves him
having to strim it anyway. 

That wasn't the only harvesting I did. It was forecast for rain and so I decided the priority was not the potatoes that are still sat out in the garden (as far as I know anyway), as they won't come to harm unless the voles eat them, but the amaranth and quinoa. I started off processing the amaranth by rubbing the seed off the plants into a box, but that was taking far too long and was hurting my back, so I then took to just stripping the whole heads off and then spreading them out in the greenhouse so they didn't go mouldy. I was worried though that the cats might think this was a new kind of litter box and so made sure they stopped out of there. The quinoa wasn't quite ready and needs to dry more before the seeds would come off easily and so I cut the heads off and tied them up in bundles in the greenhouse. At least the rain won't spoil them and I hope they don't get too damp and mouldy in the greenhouse. Sometime I really need a drying room for all the harvest. That will definitely be on the list one year, maybe a one that can be heated with wood heat too to speed the up process in the damper time of the year. I somehow think it will be a couple of years before I get that done though.

We now know the new alpacas are due to arrive on the 20th
so Ian is busy getting on with the fence. Here are the fence
poles that have been painted in preservative

The wooden bridge that connects two of Tartu's many,
many parks

And after all that! Back to Tartu again. A different route this time though. My supervisor was going up on the Sunday from his summer home that is only 3/4 hour away from us, so I hitched a lift up with him. He has loads of apples at his place and so while we were there, we gathered a crate full ......and then a large bag full .......and then another carrier bag full. Plenty for eating, for juicing and making apple cider vinegar. Something to look forward to when I get back. There are times I have to remind myself that it won't be long before all the processing is done - apart from the squash in winter time, if they start to go off. I will appreciate all the stored produce though in the middle of winter I'm sure.

Cobbled, tree lined streets also abound

Paths paved with gold

Tartu at this time of year, is definitely a place paved with gold, in other words the place is covered in autumn leaves. It does look beautiful though. I had a particularly productive day too. My lift up to Tartu gave me the opportunity to talk about expectations with my supervisor and being English, but with much more experience of Estonians than I have, he was able to help me to plan how to work better with the people at the university. Emails don't work - I found that out. They do sometimes, but not all the time. I was advised to actually go and see the people and talk about the things I need to. I haven't done that for two reasons, people are busy and I always thought an email was quicker and I am also more used to dealing with people online for my studies. Well somethings have to change, and so I called in and had a quick chat with one of the lecturers and I am now down to help out in a seminar on participatory processes at the end of the month. Success! I decided to call my other supervisor too, but he was away in Budapest, I did manage, however, to get an appointment to see him. Success number 2! And last, but absolutely not least, I managed to get hold of the lady I met through my blog again and we had a lovely lunch and chat together. I did decide though not to go to that wonderful cafe with cakes, as I wouldn't have been able to go without feeling I had to take one back for Ian. Maybe I should have done though as Sunday was our wedding anniversary and I disappeared off again. We have been married for 29 years now! At least there is always next year, especially as it is our 30th.

A little different to my frozen pathway to
university of the winter 

There are lots of statues around Tartu and this one is near
to where I stay