Time flies again!

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.

GT was much happier to be around the grandkids,
than Rocket Ron, which is surprising as he's often shy.

Silla looking silly in the wet and very dirty

Marie and Karla also looking rather damp

Such hippy style their Josefs

Karla looking fluffy again

A bee on a dandelion. We have a lot of dandelions
but not so many bees - where have they all gone?

I said we had a lot of dandelions. Fortunately the
alpacas like this nutritious spring-time feast

Blackbird nest

Platystomos albinus - apparently!

Clouded border moth

Common or dwarf milkwort, not sure
which.

Wild strawberries

A very large Roman snail, aka escargot

And Breathe!

Winters can be brutal but definitely stunning

Oh gosh! Another three weeks have gone by and have I been busy? Oh yes! Most nights I've been proofreading reports for an organisation, a prospective business plan or a PhD thesis. Not much then! I have no problems when it comes to trying to help people craft their words into something more readable but dotting the i's and crossing the t's is not quite my idea of fun! Needs must though! By the end of it, I am spotting those full stops that shouldn't be there, at least on the second reading anyway. However, the main aim of ensuring a more readable piece was achieved. Although it wasn't fun finding some of the more mundane mistakes, they have been interesting reading material and I think I've learnt quite a lot in the process too. 

Hopefully that new cover is keeping the snow off
our bales of hay.

A perfectly formed snowflake on
our car

I have a confession to make. A couple of blogs ago I talked about buying only what we need and making do with what we have. I do still stand by that, but it has come to the stage where I need a car and I cannot use the one that we have now, as Ian uses it to get out to the land.  In summer it is not too bad as we are out in the caravan on the land anyway and a few days without a car for Ian is not a problem, In winter that is not an option. For several years I've used public transport and it's been okay. A long day but I've been fine with the travelling. The problem is that due to Covid-19 the travel has become more onerous. I looked at the timetable recently and it was not very convenient at all. I can still get the early bus, but will the cafe I used to use still be open and available to sit in for around 3 hours? I wouldn't know until I got there and sitting in a train station for three hours is not my idea of fun, especially in winter. I can work in the cafe but not so easy on chairs not designed for ease and comfort. 

GT aka Ginger Tom

The boys alpaca house. All is calm

To get to the university I used to travel to Cesis on the early bus and then catch the train to the Estonian border town, cross the platform and then get the Estonian train to Tartu. That meant just one three hour stopover in the cafe I mentioned between the bus and the train. Before that I used to travel up by bus to Cesis, another bus from Cesis to Valmiera, another one from Valmiera to Valka, walk over the border for 20 minutes, have a late lunch and then catch the bus from Valga to Tartu. I looked at all the possible permutations that I can think of and all of them involve several hours somewhere and most of them involve the 20 minute walk across the border. Not much fun in winter at all. I'm due for a pay rise in January and so I've decided that since I need to be up in Tartu more frequently then I need a car. It was decided with a heavy heart though. 

Wonder who is in the stable?

Most of these photos are from over a week
ago when it looked very Christmassy. 

There was another reason that tipped the balance. Our car suffered in the cold again, despite putting the additive into the fuel to stop it waxing out. One morning Ian set off to the land but the car died on the way and he had to get a neighbour to tow him. He got out to the land and fortunately had a new fuel filter. He got back okay, no issues but the following morning, he didn't even get away from the apartment. He had to call the garage out and borrow a friend's car. One without a heater and not ideal for the country roads. Not good when you have animals that need seeing to.

The last bit of fence was taken in last week.
The girls have to remain separated now until 
spring.

The hunting tower didn't
survive a windy day and looks
rather bizarre in the snow

Apparently the additive needs to be put into the diesel before it waxes, which makes sense, but not helpful to find out after the event. It isn't like adding salt to the icy roads that will melt the ice once it freezes (well as long as it isn't below -5C). The additive needs putting in before the temperatures drop to below zero to work. Unusually for early December we had a thick layer of snow and very cold temperatures. A friend of ours in his mid-20s does not recall such cold temperatures so early and his mother only once. 

Almost looks warm in the rosy glow of the sun, 
but do not be deceived

Josef out soaking up a bit of winter sunshine

One of the reasons for the additive problem was also trying to get enough of it. Ian had just a small amount left over from last year and the petrol station ran out of the stuff. Well Ian has now sourced some online and bought enough to last a few winters. People panic buy toilet roll, we panic buy diesel additive. I was meant to be going up to Tartu a few days later, but didn't dare risk getting stranded in the middle of nowhere and there is plenty of that on the journey up. Neither Latvia nor Estonia are densely populated outside of the capitals.  I will not be getting a diesel car for this reason, but I'm aiming for a hybrid. We'll see, I still have to organise the financing of it.

I just love seeing the frosted trees against the 
brilliant blue of a winter sky

Lolly is growing well but still being fed. It does
rather tie Ian to the farm. No going off for a few
hours yet.

With the cold weather we also got snow, quite a thick blanket too. That didn't help our greenhouse situation. It is definitely on its last legs and needs quite an overhaul for next year. Two sections tore and dumped some snow inside the greenhouse and some on the caravan. Ian managed to repair one patch but the other was more problematic. One of our visitors contacted us and offered to help. She came with a friend of hers and he was wonderful. He worked out what to do and organised us to help. It's not easy though repairing a central section of a large greenhouse. Hopefully it will last the rest of the winter. The lady also helped us with Brencis while Ian cut his toe nails and gave him his Vitamin D injection. I held onto Brencis' head and she kind of draped over his back. That is usually enough to keep him steady while he has his toe nails done. I think he even behaved better this time around. He's not bad, just very fidgety, which is not helpful when he is so big.

Not the sort of gaping hole we want to
see in the greenhouse

The caravan gets moved into the greenhouse to
protect it over winter. Not get snowed in.

"How warm is the water?", Lolly asks.

It did warm up again last week and the snow almost disappeared resulting in the usual post-snow muddy mess but now the cold has returned. Not sure if it will dip below -25C again this time though as the forecast is for more like -15C, but the wind is bitter. We've also had little snow flurries and so the ground is covered again, but not deep, more like a dusting - well a Latvian version of a dusting. The cold has meant we had unwelcome visitors to our orchard and some pruning was undertaken. Not quite the pruning we had in mind. At least the muddy weather meant Ian was able to put up the double stranded wire fence around that was enough to keep the deer out of the orchard the last time. Apparently they don't judge distances well and so a double fence works better than a high fence.

Karla has been eating the snow it seems. She is
one unfazed cria. Normally they are more timid,
not this bossy little madam. 

Sort of looks like Lolly is up to her
neck in snow, but not really

Since the cosy blanket of snow went I also decided that my plants needed some protection from the cold and cut down some spruce trees (Christmas trees). They grow like weeds on our land ad so we cut them for our alpacas and the garden. We leave the trees that are better for biodiversity. I also cut one to bring home to decorate for Christmas. Normally Ian would bring one back on Christmas Eve but it was due to snow and since I was cutting trees down anyway, I thought one of them would make a decent decorative indoor tree. 

I won't be getting much veg from the garden
for a while.

I had to laugh the other day when Aggie was
purposefully ignoring me till I offered her food.
She turned to me, snaffled the food and then
ignored me again.

So apart from that, not much else has happened. There are the regular things like putting cream on Aggie's feet as the mites had made her feet sore. It is now improving even with only a weekly slathering of home-made ointment. Unfortunately Chanel is a difficult one as she won't let us get near enough to put cream on as she sits down and all the parts that need cream are underneath her. During the summer we sprayed oil on, but that is not feasible over winter as we cannot direct it to just where it is needed and it means her fleece doesn't repel the water as well - surprisingly. We had to give her a good brush down to fluff her coat up again to protect her from the cold. She has now been started on a course of ivermectin (yes its for mites not Covid). She had one at the weekend and the next will be in about two weeks time. So all in all, plenty to keep me busy but just not so much to write about at the moment. No escaping alpacas, no traipsing to the garden to get veg, to the barn to get milk and then to the kitchen to prepare food. All the preparation of food from the garden has been done and in jars or in the freezer. A waiting time, a pondering time, a planning time.

Chanel is such a sweetie really, as long as you don't
want to put cream on her, cut her toe nails, do 
something to her daughter (who is now a grown 
alpaca and expecting her own baby hopefully) or...

Ilvija, Chanel's daughter, practicing her Christmas
carols

What's this doing here? This is from 
many years ago, when my hair was not
white for a start. I used to teach in 
children's camps in Latvia. This was 
a photo I used in a presentation for a
lecture to talk a little about myself and
some of my experience. A varied 
background for an academic really