A little natural immunity

I think we can say that mud season has begun

We finally got our first vaccination this week. I'm grateful we didn't have to wait too long after the cancellation and I'm not bothered that its Astra Zeneca either. As one video explained, the best vaccine to take is the one you are offered. I've been watching some of the chats on Facebook and thinking about the comment that I often see, that people would rather develop their own natural immunity to the virus. It suddenly occurred to me that is precisely what the vaccine does, just without the greater risks from the virus. I really do not get why people would rather play Russian roulette with a virus than take an inactive portion of it that stimulates your own natural immune response. Okay maybe there are some after effects and some people have been wiped out for about 24 hours or so, but generally that's it. If the reaction is stronger it could equally be due to fighting something else too. 

Coltsfoot, one of the first flowers to make an 
appearance every year.

Kind of a damp day.

Ian got the worst reaction, as he started a bit earlier and was feverish with it. I had achey glands mainly. We both woke around 2:30am though and were gagging for a drink. When the nurse told us to drink plenty of fluids I thought it was just the general recommendation for feverish people - plenty of fluids and take ibuprofen or paracetamol. We did get those drugs in because we weren't sure if we had any that were in date but we didn't bother using them. At least we were feeling better when we got up for a cup of tea. Both of us felt a big sluggish today and Ian went back to sleep after letting the animals out apparently. I just did fairly easy and mundane tasks for work today - nothing that demanded a lot of work or thought. 

We transferred some of these to our land last year
or the year before. We have about three that 
have come up now. It's a start.

Ian has been doing some thinning out and
chopping of trees before the end of the season, 
which finishes this week at the end of March.
This is so the birds can nest without being 
disturbed. We need some more wood for our
fire. 

Time seems to be flying by but at least I managed to get back to some database work (this is mainly written by my colleagues and I've just been uploading it, but some I've written too here and here). I even set up a blog on that too (you can see that here). The idea will be to share updates to the database but also to talk about different aspects of blue space and health and well-being, in other words little newsy items about lakes, ponds, the seaside or even fountains and spas that are good for our health and well-being in some way. It seems a timely piece of work when we are discovering the benefits of being in the great outdoors. The first blog is about cold-water swimming. It might be a bit later now for swimming in ice, but not too early to prepare to swim outdoors. With the proper preparation it can be a fun and safe activity to do. There are some links about the benefits too. 

Looking towards a soggy road.

Piles of wood

The snow has just about gone now and suddenly we are getting an uptick in requests to visit, even before we announce we are open. We ended up with three groups over the weekend and potentially there was one more but it got too late for them. We are going to be quite strict though on only allowing people to come who have booked. We want to make sure we are prepared and not have too many visitors. Although we've had one jab we won't get our second until the end of May at the earliest and we have animals that will need our care, whether we are sick or not, so it is best to ensure we stay healthy. At least we only have outside visits, so that is less risky than being inside. 

I love the colour of alder when it is freshly cut.

Yes! Valeria has been sitting outside in the mud.

Our car was in for a service this week. We were fortunate enough to be able to borrow a friend's car while it was in the garage. There was rather a lot that needed doing on it, so it was a bit on the expensive side. However, this is rural Latvia and not the UK so labour is not that expensive. It is getting closer and closer to the stage I guess where we have to think about changing it, but so far it has still been reasonably reliable and suffers mainly due to the dirt roads that Ian has to travel on daily and a newer car is not any less likely to cost us at service time and we know how this car has been looked after over the years. At least it will change soon as we will transition to caravan living, far less travel on the roads. 

More signs of spring. There is a Latvian tradition
of making a whipping branch from these and saying the following
Apaļš kā pūpols,
vesels kā rutks,
slimības laukā,
veselību iekšā!
Or in English means,
Round as a pussy willow,
healthy as a radish,
sicknesses out,
health in!!!" 

The Worm Moon - such a strange name

We did have one hiccup while the car was in for the service. I was having a meeting where I was going to show people our land and our alpacas but forgot to put my headphones in my rucksack. I had to drive back to collect them as the ones Ian had wouldn't fit my computer. As I set off, I thought the car sounded a bit noisy and by the time I got to our village, I was sure the exhaust had gone on it. When I got back to the land, Ian came striding over. He'd heard me coming and come to see what all the noise was. Sure enough the exhaust had broken. Sigh! All sorted though before it went back to our friend.

The ice is going on the pond at least

Brencis is such a nosy alpaca,
he came up for a look.

The meeting I was attending was a virtual tour of our village, done by me and a virtual tour of a small provisional town of Latvia done by a friend of ours. It was a nice exchange, as my own students got to join in too, although they were a little shy it seems. After my main talk, I then took them on a short walk to the boys alpaca house and they met Josefs on the way as Ian was taking him out for a walk. It worked quite well and it was fun to be able to show them the alpacas. Unfortunately it was a bit windy but at least it was okay in the alpaca house itself. 

This is usually the last place for the snow to leave

Kind of dull but nice to see, as it means winter
is just about over. There maybe still some cold 
days but it's not going to last long.

We'll soon be heading out to the caravan again. Last year we went out to stay out there quite early due to a threatened lockdown. We reckoned it would be easier to be out on the land than Ian having to travel backwards and forwards and the winter was fairly mild. This time the cold season has lasted a bit longer and so the drive to get out there wasn't so urgent. The changing of the clocks this weekend though does make a difference. Ian is now only arriving back well after 7pm, which means we eat late and that's not so good for someone working with animals and outside for much of the time. We make a point of sitting down together to eat, so it is not so much of an option for him to take enough food for him to prepare his own meal. We just need to get sorted now.

When the snow goes, we can see where the pigs
have been. Sigh!

More damage here too

With the snow melt comes our lake, but it has
taken quite a while to appear. I guess the 
ground must be wet through now, which is
a good sign for the summer, as it means the
water table is high.

Just little bits of snow here and there.

Sunshine!

Yes really! That yellow ball of light is sunshine!

Yes! We really do have sunshine. Not only do we have sunshine we have had sunshine for the past two or three days, with blue skies too. Bliss! It does mean that it has got pretty noisy around here. Often it is so quiet you could hear a pin drop, but at the moment we hear chainsaws, strimmers and tractors as people get jobs done while the sun shines. We are no exception and Ian has added to the noise from time to time. Not to mention the 4x4 cars that kept going past all Saturday. We saw more cars in a day than we normally see in a month.

I got to feel George's coat this week and it is super soft. I'm
usually quite a good judge of fineness, so I'm hopeful that
his turns out to be a good fleece

We saw the first flock of geese heading south-west tonight though. In Latvia they say that the geese fly off two weeks before the first snow. I do hope this group have got it wrong. I know it is due to get colder and we have had snow in mid-October before but please not this year! Not yet!

Frederiks is such a cutie. His fleece doesn't feel quite so soft
but it is very dense, so probably still a very good fleece
producer

It has been, shall we say an entertaining week of sorts. On Tuesday I went into the village as normal as it is milk day (as is Friday). This means that unless I have dropped a bottle off earlier, I need to be in the village by 8am or thereabouts. It has become a bit of a bind this year and probably one we will not continue next year after we move back out to the caravan in spring. We will see if we can source the milk more locally or worse have to get supermarket milk. Not keen of the supermarket idea, so we hope our neighbour will supply us. We haven't wanted to change as we have had our milk delivered to us for near enough 10 years now from the same lady and when we are in the apartment delivery days are not an issue. Oh well! Times change and we have to adjust.

Glowing in the sunshine

A contemplative moment

Anyway, as I was saying I went in as normal and did the normal Tuesday type jobs, such as get a shower, do some washing, bake cakes and bread and bottled up some tomato sauce. I also did some sewing on my sewing machine. Not so normal though I ended up clearing what appeared to be a leak from our upstairs neighbours in our other apartment- fortunately not a big leak and one that had stopped, but as always a bit of a concern (we have had a few leaks from upstairs over the years). Also fortunately it had leaked onto the vinyl floor that is sealed so no worries about causing other issues and only needed mopping up. As I set off to go home that evening though I tried to start the car and it wouldn't fire up. It didn't sound good at all, so I phoned Ian. He managed to get a lift with one of our neighbours who was heading back into the village and they came to the conclusion there was an issue with the starter motor.

More contemplative moments and a spot of sunbathing 

Gathering on the few dandelions that have popped up 

Sigh! I was relieved though it happened this week and not next when Ian is due to go on his travels. Our friend who gave Ian a lift was kind enough to lend us his wife's car. She was going away anyway, so wouldn't need it for a few days. Unfortunately the car is just a two wheel drive car and our land was rather squelchy from all the rain. We managed to get the car on, but then got it stuck in a trench that Ian had made to divert water off the roadway. We resorted to pulling it out with the tractor and was able to park it where it wouldn't get stuck getting off the land. What a day.

We put in some barley to suppress the weeds. It is supposed
to be green manure over the winter too, but it has gone to
seed and looks healthier than any barley we have grown
in the fields. Typical it might even ripen too or not if it
snows

It still amuses me the balance of alpacas when they have an
itch to scratch

The next day Ian went to the garage to sort out getting our car repaired. The mechanic asked if we could tow the car with our friend's car, but it was not something we wanted to risk, so he got an old Fronterra and the mechanic and Ian went to collect our car from the village. After bump starting our car they got the car going and they both headed back to the garage (as Ian said, why didn't he think of that! Well it is not something that would have occurred to me either). Along the way though the Fronterra developed a fault and when Ian caught up with it, there were clouds of steam coming out from under the bonnet. Ian ended up towing the Fronterra back to the garage. Our car was fine until it stopped and then it wouldn't start, so not an issue to tow the car.

One bowl so of course the cat has to sit in it

If you go down to the woods today, you're
sure of a big surprise

That was a bit of a wasted day since it was a day without rain, but we still got the chance to get out and find mushrooms. We got a nice load of chanterelles but there weren't many other mushrooms we recognised as edible, enough for our evening meal and some to dry at least. The next day was wet again and during a discussion a few days previously we had decided on the next wet day we would have a brainstorming session. We decided to discuss what we want to see happen on our land and what our values and focus were. We were doing quite well and we were both reasonably happy and positive about the ideas when the phone went. Our car was ready! We decided to go straight away, so we could return our friend's car back as soon as possible and we also decided that since it was still rather wet, we would have a drink and cake at the bakery. End of brainstorming session!

Well that was a big surprise. It was huge.
Unfortunately also past its best

And as for these spiky little chaps

The next morning we woke to the rumble of thunder. It was quite weird as we could feel the caravan shake with each rumble. At one point we heard a crashing sound, a tree near our pond had come down. The weather cleared up after that so Ian went for a walk and found a few more trees had come down in the morning storm. I think the rain soaked ground and the buffeting wind had been just a bit too much. We managed to get some jobs done that day and so we didn't get back to the brainstorming session until the evening, by which time we were both a bit tired and cranky. That didn't go too well, but we still made progress. We decided that if we were going to make any progress our caravan had to have a permanent shelter and not one to move in and out each year. This would free up the greenhouse to make it more suitable for a workshop.

Really weird

You can see the stump of the tree in the middle of the photo.
It makes the place look a bit empty now, as it was the only tree
growing in a swampy area

The girls out in their extended area. 

Our land has beautiful rolling terrain and so trying to find flat places for buildings, even small ones, can be a bit of an issue. It took a morning of discussions to finally settle on a spot for the caravan and a method to house it that we think will work and won't require any special permission to build. It is also close enough to the greenhouse to run electric to. We also decided on where to put a barn. We had decided on an area before but realised that wouldn't work with the caravan. Such a palaver! If that goes there, then that can't go in that spot, but if we put that there... and so on! We are not sure if it will happen this year, as it depends on the weather when Ian gets back, especially with those geese flying over. The forecast is dry for now, so I guess it is unlikely to stay that way for much longer. We do at least have the wood to build it. The caravan has served us well, but it will not do so out in the sun and rain every year for six months of the year. It needs a cover and it definitely wouldn't last long in the winter weather, hence the need to move it into the greenhouse every year.

The finished fence

The last two days have been glorious and so we finally got the girls fence wired up. This is a huge area covering about half a hectare or just over an acre and the posts had been in since May. While Ian is away the girls can be just left to roam around in it during the day and I won't have to worry about moving fences. It also means we won't have to worry about visits from the boys. We nearly had an incident this morning. We were sat in the caravan having breakfast when Ian issued an expletive and said "Mr P's just walked past the caravan". I didn't compute what he said straight away but knew by the tone of his voice we had to move fast. We got outside to see Mr. P. heading up to see the girls, he had obviously missed them. Fortunately he knew where to go and wandered up to the gate where we eventually managed to catch him. There may have been some bribery involved and it wasn't quite that simple but we got him in the end in a relatively short time. Ian harnessed Mr. P up and walked him back to his own paddock where he was confined to calm himself down and forget about the girls.

The boys were really excited about all the extra space,
especially George. I'm not quite sure if Aggie wanted to join
in or was just exasperated with George for getting too close
at huge speeds. 

Our view at morning coffee yesterday. Mr. P. staring at the
girls, pining again

We are not quite sure how he managed to break the fence, but they will be getting a new area to graze tomorrow, as Ian was out putting up a new one this evening. The problem is that they exhaust the grass quite rapidly at this time of the year and have to be moved often to give the grass a break. At least with the girls behind their big fence we now have more spare poles to make the boys grazing area bigger and even if they get out, they can't easily get to the girls. Our only worry would be Veronica really as the others are almost certainly pregnant. Mind you, Veronica knows how to put up a fight when it comes to amorous males and she hasn't wanted any of that sort of thing. It is not something we want to risk though, she is too old and she is retired.

We'll have none of that carry on!

Prepping

The roadsides are looking gorgeous this year with the mix of
meadowsweet and rosebay willowherb. I got permission to
cut some rosebay willowherb from a neighbours field away
from the road, as it makes a great tea. That has now been dried
in the solar dryer

Our youngest son surprised us recently, he rang out of the blue and asked us if we would like to go to the UK paid for by him. I was a bit flabbergasted really. He explained that the grandchildren were growing and they rarely saw us together and could we therefore spare a long weekend to come. He realised that longer would be more difficult to arrange since we have to get someone to look after the alpacas. We have been to the UK for longer periods of time, but not at the same time, as one of us - usually Ian - stays behind to look after the animals and the land. So it is all organised for later on in the year, the flights are booked and he has already arranged the Friday and Monday off, so that he can pick us up from the airport and take us back. He is even organising a get together with other members of the family. So I'm looking forward to being pampered for the weekend, I am assuming of course that we will be well looked after.

A rather sweet looking strawberry. The strawberries are coming
to the end but our red and yellow gooseberries, redcurrants
and raspberries are all maturing nicely now. 

It's play, spot Ian time

Besides all the regular jobs we have been prepping the place for our felting course that starts this week. We want the place to look as neat and tidy as possible and so Ian has been strimming round the garden and mowing the lawn. I say lawn, but really it is a rather large lawn and he still bears a grudge that I didn't let him buy the motor driven lawnmower. In my defence we only had a small lawn in the US when we bought it and a driven motor was not really necessary for that. I have to admit it would make his job easier now for those areas we want looking neat and tidy. It isn't necessary to use it all the time though, often he will use the flail mower but that doesn't give as neat a finish, but I can almost hear his regrets for not buying the more expensive lawnmower as he works hard pushing the mower up the hill.

One man went to mow, went to mow a meadow

That was a lot of work! And just in case you thought I was only
taking photos, I tied up our beans and weeded the garden, a mega
task in itself

Chanel having a roll in the dirt

Visitors are still turning up to the land to have a tour to see the alpacas and although they are not coming in droves, they are coming on a regular basis and quite willing to pay too. We even had our first contact through our website this week to book a visit. We have been talking about what we feel will be an acceptable level of visits, as we hear from friends of ours the huge numbers people they have visiting and we have nowhere near the same numbers. We don't have the infrastructure for large numbers of visitors and we are not sure we would want to totally go that route, we like the peace and quiet of the countryside and we think we would lose the joy of talking about our alpacas if we had group, after group, after group. We would want enough visitors to make it worthwhile and to run some workshops through the warmer months. We don't need much and so balancing our needs with what we can provide will be our goal.

He mowed beside the greenhouse so we can hold our course
outside on nice days

Test drilling for the well at 7am. We are pleased that he
decided to drive down where we take the tractor and
didn't mess up the area that Ian has spent all day mowing

We had a visit on Sunday evening from a guy who was recently recommended to us for digging wells. He came by and did the tour of the land with the hazel sticks and decided there was a spot close to where the last guy said. At least they agree! He also came early the next morning and brought a drill to do a test dig. It was encouraging because he had a great deal of difficulty getting the drill out at one point due to the suction from the wet ground. We do indeed seem to have a very wet layer, not exactly gushing at this point but promising anyway and only about 3 metres down, low enough to be below freezing level and not too deep that it will be difficult to dig. We presume he will be back before long to see what he thinks and then we can talk about actually getting the well dug.

The paths to the garden look neat and tidy too

Lady V the indomitable old lady

I mentioned last week that we have started the process of mating our alpaca girls. Our original idea was to put our black male, Mr. P. with our white females, Lady V and Aggie and our white male, Tellus with our coloured females, Chanel and Marie. We had to rapidly change our mind though about Lady V and Mr. P. because she will not let him anywhere near her and has completely intimidated him. She only has to look in his direction and he backs off. At least Tellus is not so easily intimidated, but Lady V. despite her age is giving him the run around. We hope she gives in soon, because we only plan to mate her this year, before retiring her. We think Chanel might be pregnant already though, as Tellus is suddenly not interested in her and she won't let him near now, although she was flirting heavily with him at first, so that is promising at least.

Yes it has rained a lot this week and so we have more rainbow
photos. Our ponds are also still continuing to fill

This fabulous looking spider was not cooperating in having
its photo taken. It crawled along the wire, upside down and
so this the best I could do. I shall try again another day

Last week a friend of ours set off on her travels and so she arranged for us to have the keys to her car. It was a good job she did as Ian suddenly discovered that we had forgotten to insure our car and it had run out the day before he found out, by which time it was too late to get it insured at the office in the village. We discovered later we could have rung and got it insured over the phone and paid today, so we will know if we ever have the same problem again. At least while I had the use of the other car, I could get on with the jobs I needed to do and Ian got the chance to change the brakes and fix the fog light on our car that was damaged by the deer we hit on our Estonian trip.