Done! Well some of it!

One bed of Amaranth found amongst
the weeds. Believe it or not there is
another on the right of this picture and
another four beds you cannot see.

It has been a week of a lot done and a lot not done, such is summer time. I managed to finish the paper I have been writing for ages. Hopefully this re-write satisfies everyone. We will see! I didn’t think I would be able to edit it down to the correct word count, but I amazingly managed it. I was very chuffed with myself for that.

Fortunately not all weeds are quite so
large. This was in our small greenhouse
that is more like a storage area and errrr
weed incubator.

Food mill and halters for the alpacas arrived from our good
friends in America. If only this package could talk, it would
be interesting to know why it was sent from Oregon to
Florida (diagonally opposite across the country) then up
north to New York? It took 12 days to leave the US and yet
we were give a delivery date of 6-10days. Oh the efficiency
of the US postal system, I guess. Fortunately after that it was
flown straight to Latvia and took a day to go through
customs before being delivered to our local post office.

Of course there has been much weeding and processing of berries, as usual for this time of the year. I got my new food mill that meant I could process a whole load of berries for the freezer. I decided not to do them all, but wait until later on in the year, when the weather is not so good and process the berries first by steaming to get juice and then through the food mill for jam or berry sauces and that means I can just sling them in the freezer with leaves, stems the lot. I think we have just about finished the strawberry harvest though now - so sad when that happens. We had been really enjoying the strawberries on our porridge for breakfast.

Blackcurrants ripe for picking

The barley is ripening

The season seems to have turned here and it has a definite feel of late summer now. The weeds are slowing down in growth (thank goodness) the leaves on the dandelions and strawberries are going red or mottled and the leaves on the trees are the dull green of the end of the season. Birds are also starting to congregate in preparation for migrating soon – it may still be a few weeks away yet, but the signs are there.

The first cabbage of the season. The cool weather has
favoured the brassicas this year and our cabbages are
looking quite good. We are not necessarily great
cabbage growers usually. Mind you, the snails were
out in force tonight and I had to pick quite a few off and
squish them underfoot.

We are not sure if we should be worried about the
appearance of these bugs on our redcurrants or not. Not
really sure what they are.

We are still getting summer visitors too, which is rather nice. This week the chap who wanted us to meet his German friend the other week and who Ian keeps meeting at the car technical place, came with his wife and young son. They stayed for quite a while chatting. Ian showed the wife around, since she had never been before and I got into a conversation with the chap about hunting. It is funny that I can explain the Latvian system to a Latvian, as I know more about the topic. Still not every Latvian is acquainted with the laws of their land on the topic – they don’t need to be in general and I did spend quite a while studying the ins and outs of hunting in Latvia. We are enjoying it when many visitors come, they bring chocolate - always welcome in our place and we had only just eaten up the last one from a previous group.

These bugs, however are a very welcome sight - ladybird
larvae

Oats all behind an electric fence.

Talking of hunting, our hunter told us he had shot a wild boar on our land the other day. We are pleased as we are starting to have more serious trouble with them and we had to put an electric fence around the oats to try and prevent more damage. Unfortunately the electric energiser we have available to use is not that powerful, but it might make them think twice – it made our kitten think twice when she came into contact with it. A learning experience for any farm cat!

Rather close to the barley field but an area the boars do
dig regularly next to the trees. Apparently boar are not
so fond of barley - probably due to the stiff hairs that
stick out of the head of the barley ears.

You won't see a sight like this very often. It has been nice
and warm but not too hot this week and so a chance to wear
a t-shirt and not a long, sleeved top to keep the sun off.

The reason we knew the hunter had shot an animal was because we had been to our local festival and they were having a grilling competition and he told us that on the menu was the wild boar that he shot at our place. We really wanted to organise taking our alpacas to the festival and show the fleece to people but yet again we didn’t get organised in time, not easy when we need translators for it. Maybe next year (that sounds like the gardeners’ refrain when something doesn’t work)

We have seen more bees this week, which is good news

Eyre, our kitten, obviously under-whelmed by Le Tour!

Our kitten has also been learning other lessons this week. Firstly she has been getting quite good at catching insects, unfortunately she tends to bring them into the caravan to play with, which is not what we really want. Neither was Ian impressed with the dead stinky mouse she brought in and even less impressed with the live one. We are not sure if Sofie, our older cat, had caught the mouse earlier and was trying to train our little one, or whether our little one had actually caught it herself. Either way, Ian made sure she caught it again and then evicted her from the caravan with the mouse in her mouth. She caused us a bit of consternation, just before we are about to leave the land tonight as she went missing Ian looked all over for her. Just as we were about to give up, she turned up.

Venturing out. She often accompanies us on our walks now
but gets very panicky if she cannot see us and we have to
whistle or talk to her so she can find us when we are going
through the long grass.

There are lots of flowers blooming in our meadows at this
time of year in the areas we haven't already cut

Our other visitors this week were friends of our goat farming friend and she brought her friends around to see what we were doing. It was great to hear their ideas on the things we are doing and they asked lots of questions of the sort that you know they know a lot about the topic. They have also used a seed processor before and loved the fact we had one. They reckon that ours is over a hundred years old. We were also told that the old Russian tractors use belts like the processor one and so we should be able to replace it without a problem. They told us there was a screen missing and what it would do and explained that the movable sieves underneath could do with some repair, which we thought might be the case. Other than that it was fine. At least we feel a little more confident that we know what it does and how it should work. We thought we had worked it out, but it is nice to know that from someone who has really used them. It was also nice to get an email from the people who had donated it to us where they mentioned that they think the seed processor is in good hands.

The hemp is growing well

To let more light in when we are
checking over the animals in the
evening, Ian made the back door into
a half door. It helps, but we could still
do with more light in. 

We have been trying to do some planning this week. Sometimes we get so busy we don’t really take time to think ahead, which is not so good. Ian put all my planned trips away into his diary and so he should now know when I am likely not to be around. Basically every month I am away somewhere now until November. Our daughter also asked if Ian would go over to their place to help her husband work on their new house and so that means Ian will be away for part of the time too, leaving me home alone with the animals.

We didn't have much in the way of seed for the sweetcorn and
didn't want to risk it outside anyway - heavenly food for boar
- so we planted it in the greenhouse, which it seems to be enjoying

Cooking the chicken out on our land
means using our halogen oven in the
greenhouse. It was too warm to have it
cooking in the caravan. We call our
halogen oven "Robbie." can't remember
why.

Part of our plans included dispatching three cockerels, since they are not really needed. One was making itself a nuisance by pestering our other free-range cockerel. One was favouring one particular hen and her feathers were coming off on her back, so hopefully she will recover. The other cockerel didn’t have a nice temperament and so we had no wish to keep him any longer. We had the bad tempered one for our evening meal, he was chewy but tasty. The others will definitely be put in the slow cooker.

Are we worried? These are the chicks and not for dispatch-
well not yet anyway. Some will be when we are sure which
are cockerels and which are not.

The grapes are beginning to turn too

Other plans for the future included prioritising new fences for pastures and fields, digging for water, and sorting out a container for winter storage. We started to put a list together of what needed doing when and who we needed to talk to about the plan if needed - or in other words, I got out a paper and pen and wrote it down. It’s a start. We also chatted about all the requirements for a happy and long marriage. Since we have been married for over 30 years, we feel we have some experience in the matter. We decided that deliberate mis-communication, selective deafness, repeated story-telling repeated and of course all that has to be washed down with a liberal dose of humour, otherwise all of that will end in tears. Well it did help the planning to go down a little bit better, or there would have been many a cross word I think.

Brencis is growing up fast. His mum, who
is sat behind him, must be giving him some
good stuff.

Skipping along. Not!

Blue skies of winter

Another milestone week this week, it is ten years since we left England. It's hard to believe it is that long, as time has flown by and we seem to have done so much in that time. We lived in Denmark, I learnt a little Danish, loved the transportation system in Copenhagen and liked our Danish house, if only it had another floor it would have been perfect. One of the ideas I would like to take from that house into our new one, if possible, is to have a utility room as soon as you come in the door, so that all those mucky boots, coats and vegetables have somewhere to go before being traipsed through the house. New Years in Denmark was always something to remember too, it was almost like being in the blitz, but an awesome experience. Colorado was inspiring too, all those mountains. Ian still misses the blue skies, but I missed the clouds when I was there. I also began to see how and why Americans think the way they do, it is different to a European mindset, not necessarily better and maybe not worse either, just different. Whilst in America I also got the chance to go to Brazil three times, which was quite an experience.

Freezing cold outside but lovely and
warm in the greenhouse. A chance for
feet up and a James Herriot book

It is also five years since we came to live in Latvia and in that time we have done out two apartments, had a barn and two greenhouses built (if you remember one fell down in a bad winter), got animals and just thoroughly enjoyed our time here. I have also got a Masters degree and now embarking on a PhD, something I would never have envisaged when we set off on my travels. In all that time we have met some remarkable people along the way, not many of them would think they are remarkable, but they are and whilst sadly it hasn't been possible to keep in touch with everyone for one reason or another, we are still the richer for having known them.

Ian's been busy again. He made this trailer for the tractor.
I love the little details like the stand for the trailer, just
like on the real thing and the wooden thingymajigs on
the wheels which he made on his lathe

Talking about my course I am taking statistics as one of the compulsory courses I have to do, it is not a subject I'm particularly fond of, but our statistics lecturer loves his subject, however 2 1/2 hours is perhaps getting a bit long for a lecture. I actually leave early (well on time actually but he is still talking when I leave) as I have a bus to catch. If I miss it then I am stuck in Tartu for an extra day, nice though it is, it is also nice to get home. I nearly managed to miss the bus this last time, as there were lots of people at the bus stop and they all had tickets. I found out today that I have to be down there 15mins before the bus leaves to be able to buy a ticket at the office, this is going to be a challenge on Wednesday with the paths being so icy. I shall have to put on a bit of speed where the paths are not so bad. This March seems to be turning out to be colder than February, with sunny days to melt the ice and intensely cold nights to freeze it rock solid again.

Icy here too. That snow bank is also snow from the
greenhouse, it wasn't that deep really. 

The icy paths are not doing my nerves any good, two falls in recent weeks has not improved my confidence on the ice, I feel such a twit when folks just stride on past and there am I with my ice grips on my shoes, shuffling along. Still I would rather shuffle along than hurt my arm again. The first arm I hurt is fine now, if anything it is tired because I hurt the other one and it has do more work and being my left arm it is protesting (that conjures up some funny visions). My right arm that I hurt last week is getting better, but it still hurts a lot and I haven't got full mobility back in it. I keep stretching it bit by bit to try and get it moving yet I still feel rather pathetic when I wince putting my coat on. Mind you that is an improvement from last week, the reason it hurts putting my coat on is the weight of the coat, at least I can put it on easier now, last week putting on a blouse hurt. I must say I was really grateful for all the sympathy I got last week on the blog, thank you for taking the time to comment, it was greatly appreciated.

More seed boxes made too, ready for when we get back off
our hols

The weeks do tend to fly by just lately and if we are going to see some of our neighbours and friends we have to try and make a point of seeing them when I am not in Tartu, otherwise the weeks would pass and we wouldn't really talk to anyone much. We didn't get off to a good start with one of our neighbours, but we have made amends this week. Ian went to move the car so one of our neighbours could clear the snow away from the roadway with his tractor, which I mentioned that last week. While he was down there, he got chatting with the young man that we hadn't seen eye to eye with and found out he really wanted to see development in our village, Ian suggested to him that he could do with talking to me, since that is my field of study. One evening we decided to call around and see if he wanted to chat some more, we were welcomed in and spent hours chatting, later on relatives arrived too and we were invited to a small party with cakes and more jasmine tea - how could we refuse, especially since we knew the relatives reasonably well and I had taught the mother-in-law English a while back. The occasion was International Women's Day, not a big thing in England but celebrated here for sure. Still one excuse is as good as another to eat cake! Even after we left the home, we met another neighbour outside who was having a smoke, we knew him as a child from kids camps but he isn't often in a talkative mood, he was that night though, and surprised us by the fact he remembered our boys from those times in camp. We perhaps could have chatted longer but it was far too cold to be stood outside for very long.

Definitely a grumpy looking cat and a bit of a scar on the
side. She isn't that grumpy though, really

One of our children has managed to get flights booked to come and see us in June, bringing with him his wife and baby son. It will be the little ones first visit to Latvia and they are already teaching him a little song about tractors, which he loves. At around six months old, the little one will probably love seeing our alpacas - or at least I hope he will. Mind you, as much as I am looking forward to them coming, I wasn't so ecstatic at the time I got a text regarding what flights to get. At just gone midnight I got a text with the query and a few seconds later a second one apologising - oh yes! Someone had forgotten what time it was in Latvia. I suppose it shows that kids can still wake you up in the night, even if they are over 25 from time to time. I'm sure I will get over the fact he managed to wake me up the night before a 2 1/2 hour statistics lecture - no wonder I was having trouble staying awake.

Our chicken that was sick last week is on the mend. So far
all bits are where they should be and she is eating well now.
Same can't be said for the cockerel on the left. As he was
the most immature of cockerels he is no good for breeding
and only kept as long as he has been to add his body heat to
the ark over the winter. Now he has gone to the great freezer in the sky, well actually the freezer in our dump room and I
have the scratches to prove it. No he wasn't unduly treated
badly, it is just chickens flap around a bit after being
dispatched and I didn't have hold of him properly.

They've talking about us (Hercules and Tellus)

We have been wondering what to do about the alpacas. We would like to buy some more and we are looking at options for buying. The ones in Sweden are more expensive as they were the last time, but we know how to get them sent across now. We are thinking of talking to someone locally but not sure about the genetic quality of the animals. They maybe okay with our male as he might have some good genes to pass on - he had a very good fleece as a youngster but never tried as a stud male. Our options are more limited with trying to get a house built this year too. We had wondered about seeing if people would like to sponsor an alpaca, after all they are rather cute. It has been done by other farms too and usually involves sending cards, pictures and updates a few times a year. Sounds like a bit of fun, I mean what would we write about the alpacas in a quarterly newsletter? I am sure there must be some more ideas out there though and wonder what people would think is great for a bit of fun and what some people would just think is silly. So all ideas gratefully received and if you want to sponsor one, then you can always send me an email (just click on the icon on the left-hand side).

Pick me! (Hercules)

Happy chap! Blue skies, what more could he ask for?

Ian and I were chatting this week (yes we do sometimes actually talk to one another) as we had both seen an article about an accident between a motorcyclist and a bison. You don't often see a bison on the road there, believe me, we lived there for 15 years, but the occasional cows and sheep we have seen. The tight twisty roads don't help either and you always had to drive as if you expected there to be something around the corner, without getting to paranoid about it. Apparently the farmer checked the field every day, but says there is little he can do when cars and walkers damage stone walls and fencing and I agree. Even if the farmer is very diligent it is still possible for animals to get out, okay some farmers are not quite so diligent as others but even with the best will in the world, those critters will escape. Some are more likely to escape than others, like Hercules our alapca. If any of them were out it was usually him. Eventually we got the better of him and managed to stop him escaping, but it took time to find out the best method of keeping him in. As far as cows are concerned, usually one strand of electric fencing will keep them in, but not all of them and not all the time. Putting up and taking down the fences is hard work and farmers have got other things to do with their day and so country dwellers  and visitors do need to take care on the roads and not expect them to be clear.

Turbjörn

Evidence of a visitor, but what animal?

We did get onto more philosophical fences too and wondered if some fences were meant to be broken. Some of the fences are their for our own good and sometimes they are there to keep us out of places we would rather be or are even better for us. So should you be breaking out of a fence today? Or should you stay where you are? Always worth a ponder or two.

Not this one for sure.

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