Not very regular!

If my Nan took selfies, this
is what she would have 
looked like. But I can
see my mother and my
grandparents staring
back at me in this photo.

As I mentioned, I'm kind of busy but there's also less to write about. Well that was until this weekend when both Mari and Turbjørn were causing us some worries. Ian found Turbjørn on his side one morning early last week. He wasn't sure if he had been knocked over, fallen over, or just got stuck and couldn't get up due to his neck problems. Ian got him up and he seemed okay. He started feeding him more food and coated him up and he seemed to recover somewhat. Over the weekend though he started to struggle again. We couldn't work out what the issue was. We suspected colic, maybe from a small change in his food. We gave him some drops a neighbour had given us before and he seemed to perk up. 

Winter has its challenges but also its beauty

RIP Mr. Turbjørn. You were a unique alpaca
with all your quirks, but we loved you anyway.

Monday morning I got one of those dreaded phone calls. Turbjørn was on the floor, Ian had got him up as he had been doing most mornings recently but he didn't seem well. Ian went on to do his chores and then went back to check on him. He was back on the floor but on his side and unresponsive. Not sure of the exact sequence of events but Ian came back to get me and we both went to see him, we knew the look and realised that he was going, there was nothing we could do. He finally passed away just before lunch.The vet came out that evening and she did an autopsy. He seemed to have had a bleed and Ian has taken some samples to be tested. At least he didn't seem to have worms, liver issues, ulcers or anything that could be treatable, so in that respect a relief. It is always a worry if there is something we've missed that could have been dealt with.

You took your time to trust us, but you did towards
the end.

The route back from burying
Turbjørn. It was a lot of work
with the tractor to dig a path
to get him to his final resting
place under the elder tree. We
had rather a lot of snow over
the weekend.

It took Ian two days to dig the path to where
Turbjørn was buried. This was the start of the 
path. We had to slide him down on plastic to
the barn as there was no path up from the alpaca
house to the barn at the time.

A serious looking Mari. At least we think she 
might just have had a virus. 

Fortunately there was a happier ending to Mari's saga. She staggered one morning, not a good sign. Ian came back to the apartment to get some vitamin B1 as a lack can cause similar issues and so I went back out to the land with him. Ian had also arranged to pick up our neighbour who often helps us when an animal is sick. It turned out that Mari's temperature was high and so she was given some peppermint drops and paracetamol. We had to go back late at night to give her another tablet and then see what she was like in the morning. Fortunately by morning her temperature was back down, not quite normal but at least heading in the right direction. She is much perkier now and eating her food again, so we think and hope all is well now.

After the sad news a smiley alpaca picture is 
needed I think. Thanks George.

Spring is coming, you can see it in the longer
days and the intense colours of the trees

I was meant to drive up in my new car to Tartu the other week but it didn't happen. Several of my colleagues contracted Covid and many of the others decided that it wasn't appropriate to gather together, so staff training went online. I was actually quite relieved, as the roads were awful, so icy. Global warming! Yes! This winter has been warmer than in previous winters and weird. We had an unusual cold spell in early December and then it seems to have snowed on and off all winter since then. More often here in Latvia the snow comes, stops and the days become crisp and clear. This year the temperatures have hovered around zero and so the snow is generally wet and heavy and now everyone is running out of spaces to put it. Pathways are narrow and have snowbanks, which I guess stops the cars sliding into pedestrians at least. The big industrial scale tractor has been out several times this year to clear the roads right back so the usual snow ploughs can do their job. 

Mind you, there are days it is hard to imagine that
spring is just around the corner

I guess we need another smiley alpaca picture.
Thank you Vanessa. Someone else who looks
like their mother!

I'm planning on going to the UK soon to see the kids and grandkids but the situation today makes such plans so much more complicated, especially when I'm working nearly full-time. Gone are the days when you can just book time off and go. I was chatting to a colleague in the UK and she was worried she wasn't going to get to see family in another country due to Covid going round the school and sure enough her kids got it. It has meant I'm kind of nervous of going out, as I don't want to jeopardise getting to the UK to see my family. I'm not worried exactly about getting it, I just don't want it and I sure don't want it to mess with my plans, especially when I've heard of other colleagues having to change plans right before they were due to travel. It just makes life far too complicated to keep chopping and changing when I'm supposed to be teaching too. 

An interesting visitor to the 
boys paddock. Lynx tracks

Funnily enough though, her daughter doesn't
resembler her as much.

In preparation for going to the UK, I had booked in for a flu jab, along with Ian (who will be home-alone to look after the alpacas) but I didn't get one as the doctor and nurses are all in quarantine. The numbers of Covid are incredibly high here but they are hoping it peaks soon. It might not seem a lot to have 11,000 cases a day but the country only has around 1.8m population and they are not sure how many of them are actually in the country. Some say it is actually around 1.3m. Being a hermit can have its advantages sometimes but I know I shouldn't remain a hermit. 

So this winter has been mainly about clearing snow
for Ian. Also for our upstairs neighbour at our apartment, as he has usually cleared the road by the time I get a few spare minutes. He even helped me clear the snow around my car so I could get out, although Ian had to come and drag my car out in the end. The plan had been that he would clear the roadway onto our land and then I drive out to help him bury Turbjørn. Well that was the plan.

Anyway, as you can see from the picture above, 
Ian has been busy clearing the snow from the side
of the greenhouse. Good job as it was getting a bit 
high. Then it snowed again!

And again! Not quite back to square one, as
you can see the pile on the left... well there
isn't so much space to throw the new snow now.
We are just hoping there isn't any more.

Think we need another smiley alpaca. Thanks
Karla.

Thinking into the future, I wonder how safer communities can be encouraged or even created. It is something that occupies my mind a lot as I teach the students to think strategically and to incorporate people into their plans. What would communities look like that are small enough to be able to provide the level of care needed for all and yet still be open enough to not stifle people, the young folk in particular. How would these kinds of communities operate? There certainly will not be one solution but a myriad of solutions but then how do they fit together? Yes those are the types of questions that buzz around my brain.

Karla is a bit easier to photograph than Ilvija
against the snow. 

Freddie! Just not appropriate! 

Other news for this week - like buses they all come at once - I got elected to a board of an organisation. It wasn't hard, I just needed to volunteer and since I've been involved so much in their meetings over the last year, it seemed like I should put myself forward. I also found out that a consortium (a group of organisations, usually universities) that I had joined for a potential project has got the funding and so that's me sorted with some work for the next four years. It doesn't pay for a full-time post but it contributes to the overall mix of my employment, so that's good. 

I'll pass on the kisses!

It's warm up here

I guess I get too busy and at times I feel I'm getting too disorganised. Computer alerts are not enough and I needed something to simplify my life. The problem is that this takes time to sort that out. I've spent a few evenings looking at management software. I'm finding it a bit annoying as it is time I could be doing some Latvian, which I also need to progress on. Sigh! 

Paths, paths and more paths. Ian is ready for 
spring. Can't think why!

The path to the 
greenhouse where the 
chickens are

Have you got my milk or some food!

I found one programme that was recommended the most but it seems to have so many options that it is difficult to know where to start. I need to integrate it with the plethora (lots) of different programmes that we all seem to use these days and the programme suggests that possible, but how? What do I integrate and where? Gmail, outlook, calendars, slack, teams, zoom, you name it and I've probably used it, or so it feels like. I'm sure that's not true as there always seems to be yet another platform, format whatever to get to grips with. It kind of feels exhausting just trying to set it up but I do need to be able to get more organised there will always be a variety of projects, it's the nature of the job and I want to make them work well, so I will get there in the end. I will find a solution as I'm determined to do it.

Food delivered by sledge
these days. Rather a trek.

Our lively and uncooperative Jakobs

At least having the experience of all these different platforms means that I could show Ian how to use Zoom because he's using it for an alpaca course. I was able to work out how to get him on it, even if it didn't seem to work the way it normally should. I usually find a way. At least the courses he's been on seem to be paying off. We did the toe nail cutting recently and it seemed so much easier. Only little Jakobs was particularly awkward and Brencis tried to bite his ear in the process - we still think Brencis is trying to protect us but we really wish he'd stay out of it. Brencis was sent outside for bad behaviour - no not really, he was sent outside so we could carry on with the job safely. Good job it was only snowing lightly at the time and he has a nice thick winter coat.

Yum! Christmas tree

Tasty

The hay bales are under that mound. I guess
Ian will be digging it out tomorrow as the boys
will need more hay.

Remind me again where my
herb bed is!

The road to our land

A blanket of snow to keep the alpaca house warm

But how long will it last? 

How much more snow will our poor greenhouse take?

So close!

You can tell we are heading into summer with where the sun
sets. So different to mid winter. This was also taken after
the light snow shower and after 9pm. Not a sky promising
good weather tomorrow.

I was going to tell you how the weather has got warmer and winter seems to have gone, but oh no! The temperature dropped again today with a bitterly cold northerly wind and it keeps trying to snow. Fortunately nothing serious (except as I am writing and big flakes start to come down), but it sure is not pleasant. Such a shame as I was out in the sunshine yesterday preparing more vegetable beds. At least I managed to weed and water the cabbages, Brussel sprouts, mizuna, beetroot and poppy seeds that have all sprouted under fleece. I also wrapped them up with some mulch too, so that will have helped in this cold wind. It will stop them from getting quite so hammered by the fleece as the fleece is just laid on top and is not over a framework. Ian also ploughed a small patch that we are going to plant up with buckwheat and squashes, which at least do not have to go in just yet anyway.

Sunrise on a cold and frosty morning at 5:37am - yes Ian was
up early

An early rise means the animals are allowed out early too

At least this week we have sorted out a few things. Firstly the debt we allegedly owed to what was the heating and water company and is now just the water company. It all goes back a loooooooong way, when they were not supplying adequate heat and we argued with them and then refused to pay for the heating part or rather lack of heating. As I mentioned the last week, the new director promised to have a look at it and we now have a reasonable reduction in the amount owed. I am not quibbling over the amount, as he did explain the difference in calculations and where I would not agree with how it was done, it is what it is, as a friend of ours would say.

We don't get out to this bit of the land very often. This is the
old ski hill with the rest of our land over the road on the left
hand side and one of our neighbour's to the right. 

Signs of spring! Really! Lesser Celandine I think

The other bit sorted was the application for farm payments. We have about 13 hectares total, but about 3 hectares is forest and some of the land has been taken over by trees and would not be allowed under the payments. We also decided not to add in another section that would have been complicated to put on the map, maybe another year, but not this one. We won't be retiring on the amount, that is for sure as it only amounts to about 5 hectares and EU farm payments in Latvia are some of the lowest in the EU, but at least it will pay for the summer diesel for the haymaking.

These little daffodils have hung in after being uprooted by
the wild boar. I expected a whole clump of them by now

An early morning visitor to the land. We also had the previous
owner out to the land today with his son. A nice surprise

One thing we didn't manage to sort out was getting an authorised receipt book. To collect money from visitors we are supposed to have an official receipt book that has a stamp on it from the tax office. For that we have to drive 45km just to get the stamp and for them to register the book, that you can buy in an ordinary bookstore, on their system. There is no way of doing this locally and I wonder how some people manage, although I can guess. Unfortunately we arrived on the wrong day. Not only do we have to drive all that way, we also can only go on a Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and we went on Wednesday of course, silly us! In this day and age, there should be a way of registering a book online or locally at least, such as at the local council offices. Anyway the lady at the tax office spoke very slowly after several requests to do so and then took us to the door to show us the days the tax office dealt with registering receipt books. At least that was clear now.

Our old oak tree with moss growing on a branch in the morning
sunlight

Mr. P

Fortunately it wasn't the only thing we went to do, we also went to have a look at a builder's merchant we had been told about. It was in a small village near to the big town, in an out of the way place and not the sort of thing you would find by accident easily. Not exactly on a main road and yet the stock looked good. We ordered some more fencing and then returned on Saturday with the trailer to get the fencing and roofing panels for a new alpaca house and to replace the roof on the boys place. The boy's roof is deteriorating badly and so we are just replacing it with a metal one. At least it will last. The owner was quite a character. He didn't speak more than a few words of English but we managed and he just rattled away in Latvian.

And Mr. B looking very fluffy

How does she manage to do that when she is so pregnant?
She is due in a couple of weeks

I said last week that we had a cancellation for our felting course, but we are relieved that we have got another lady to fill the place. So we are back on track now. The pieces for that are starting to come together now. It was all decided on before Christmas, but of course we have to double check that everything is in order and transport booked. Our biggest worry at the moment is the weather. It has been so cold that shearing is later than anticipated. We had hoped to have that done at the beginning of the month, but it looks like it is going to be the end of the month instead and does not leave me much time to test the fleece samples before the course. We still have some fleece left from previous years so that will help at least. The wonderful thing about our greenhouse though, is that although it might feel like Christmas outside, at least inside it is nice and warm. The good news is that we also have a booking for all three days on the August course too.

Getting big. 

The girls enjoying the sunshine in the cool morning. They
did struggle a bit on the warmest day and sat inside then,
but on the cooler sunny days they sunbathe. I half expect a
worried passer by to call in and tell us our animals are sick,
but no, they really do like a sunabathe

A gorgeous day when spring felt like it had arrived, even the
trees were coming into leaf

Talking of the greenhouse, we have had an unwelcome visitor, another cat. I had a bowl of uncooked sourdough mix left out on the side in our greenhouse kitchen which it ate. Eeew! Hope it had a poorly tummy after that lot. We decided to block off the hole where it was getting in, which meant our cats were either in or out. If they wanted shelter they had to go down to the barn. The problem is that one of our cats worked out a way to get in. We had no idea where and one day we decided to find out as she was just on the outside. We rattled some food in a pot and sure enough she revealed how she was getting in - through a hole in the plastic. Not a good idea. Normally they go under the framework of the greenhouse, which is fine, but through the plastic is a definite no, no! Especially when a certain little cat is still getting on the roof from time to time and putting holes in the roof plastic.

Lady V is starting to show her age, we really hope she is
pregnant before retiring her. 

Doing some gardening

I have been continuing to work on an article for a journal and at least I am making progress, even if it meant printing out all the interviews on a ream of paper in small print to sort it out. At least it feels like I am getting some sort of structure worked out to categorise it and I might even be able to use the material for another paper that will be in progress later on. Even if I can only work on it for an hour before having to take a break and do some gardening. I saw today on Facebook that the National Geographic has an article on the customs and traditions of one of the places I am working on in Estonia along with its troubled history as a tribe divided by a modern day border (you can see the article here). It was funny to see the faces of people I have heard about through the interviews gathered by the students who have been helping me.  One annoying problem I have had this year is having funding turned down twice for a conference in July. It is only on every other year and it is a relatively important one too. I'm not happy. It will go in for a third attempt this next month, but I have to think about booking flights etc. to get there and there is still a risk I won't get the funding.

Savouring every blade

There is some grass there, honest! 

While I was getting on with the writing, Ian had the harder job of clearing out alpaca houses. He did the girl's alpaca house on is own but he had help for the boys'. The young lad who came to help us had cerebral palsy, which made helping a bit of a challenge but he was willing and between him and Ian they worked out a system to do the work. They also fixed the boys fence, as that is definitely a two person job. We will definitely be happy to have him back and help, but we will have to work on how that will be a good experience for him and manageable.

Having a chase

Ian re-baling hay

One really big issue we had was the hay for bedding. Ian decided to break open one of the hay bales we bought but it was hardly usable at all. They obviously had the same problem we had with bales that were baled in September and hadn't been dried properly due to the weather. Out of three big bales of hay he managed to put bedding down in the boys' alpaca houses and re-baled four bales into the more manageable small bales we normally use. He didn't want to use the hay in the girls' because of them being pregnant and due relatively soon. We usually layer the hay over time and only clear out twice a year. We would have expected to use one bale for both houses and they normally take three or four bales each, which means that 3/4 of the bales were lost to mould.

Blow dried hair

Someone found a cool place to sleep

One other important job was to get some sorting out done in our apartments, ready for summer visitors. It has meant doing some rearranging and now all Ian's tools are in one place and he brought out his shelving and fixed them up in the barn. He has also been doing some sorting out in the barn as so much stuff is piled in that it is difficult to get to it and so doesn't get used properly. It also needed a bit of rearranging to get the fridge in that lives in the barn in the summer months. It wasn't really needed until this week as the barn was quite cold enough for food and we had a big box to store it in.

I love the clouds on this breezy but sunny
day

The sheep were finally let on the grass this week too. Ian seems to spend a lot of the week moving fences at the moment because he cannot leave the alpacas on for long before they have eaten what is there and we were hesitant to let the sheep out as they eat twice as much. They needed grass though but you wouldn't think they appreciated this when they come to the gate in the evening and stand there baaing away for grain. Our chickens probably need grass too, but they are on lock down still due to the threat of avian flu- although we do notice quite a few people disregarding the rules, which to be honest is probably healthier for the chickens. It is a bit like cooping everyone up in an office during flu season when it would be healthier to get some fresh air and some good food. It is probably why the chickens are getting picky with what they eat. It has been cool enough to keep them in the greenhouse - just, but they are getting fresh food for health reasons.