Show and Tell

We've been watching the rain clouds a lot just
lately

Well it is two weeks since I last blogged and a lot has happened and not much has happened. It's rained a lot, that is for sure. Yesterday (Sunday) I worked as there were students who needed an English check before they submit their theses this Tuesday, but that was okay as it rained for most of the day and so not much else to do in a caravan. Even the greenhouse is showery in that kind of weather as the moisture collects on the plastic and then flaps down in the wind, sending a fine drizzle onto anything below. We make sure that anything that needs protecting from rain is under a table these days. 

One of our visitors this week. Fortunately he and
his Mrs. decided it is not a good place to raise
ducklings and went somewhere else. The pond is 
not reliably full enough to make sure they would be safe
from Mrs. Fox who is somewhere nearby. Another 
visitor was a hare that I stood and watched as it
made its way across our field. I couldn't believe that
it couldn't see me in my bright red coat, but I was
standing very, very still with a watering can in one
hand, hardly daring to breathe while I watched.

More rain on the way, fortunately not much
today though.

The rain started late at night and then carried on until well into the afternoon. It was also pretty heavy at times. We could hear the rain on the greenhouse plastic and then a steady and irritating drip onto the caravan. Yes the caravan is still inside the greenhouse, even though it is near the end of May. The weather has been that cool it is better off inside the greenhouse. I think there's only been one uncomfortable night so far this year. when the temperature was too hot to sleep well. The weather forecast though did promise us that the weather would be better next week. We'll see, but then again the Ieva or bird cherry tree has nearly finished flowering and they do say that it is often cold when the Ieva flowers.

Someone has a sunny smile anyway

Lockdown haircut

Although it's been cold we have been shearing all over Latvia. We still have Estonia to do thought. The problem with shearing in Estonia is that there are still restrictions on travel across the border, so that does not make our job any easier. To get a test we would have to travel to the big town about 45km away just before we head north. Theoretically we should then self-isolate - but we cannot do that when we have our own animals to take care of. Once we have our second vaccination, this should help, but then some of our animals are due to give birth. 

Poor Mr. Tubjørn, he has bad days...

And he has good days. The yellow around his 
eyes is from eating dandelions or lying around
on a field of dandelions. As you can see it is 
definitely dandelion season.

 

Jakobs always looks a bit of a rascal and that's 
probably because he is. He's always up for a
play fight and being the smallest, usually comes
off the worse. 

Fortunately the weather cooperated reasonably okay for us while shearing. When we had to shear outside it was dry and on the other days we had shelter. In fact at one place they have had a new garage built last year, that meant we could shear inside for the first time Normally it has been really hot and we sheared outside in the heat. We were always worried about cooking the alpacas on the shearing mats. It was a good job they did have the new shelter, as it did rain. They also had a new metal construction for the llamas and so Ian was able to shear them standing up. A steep learning curve but better than trying to pin them down, one year a llama went unshorn because he couldn't be restrained. The construction was too big for the alpacas though, so they were restrained on the floor as usual.

Ian has another order for handspun yarn, so he's in
the process of cleaning Chanel's.


It ta
kes a lot of time but it's lovely when it is done.
The fleece here is a bit dusty but it will be fine
once washed. It also has a slight purple tinge to
it. Not sure if it is the light or what, but it is 
interesting.

Mr. Tellus, the old man now but suave as ever.

The Internet has been really bad, especially after a rainstorm the other week. I complained to the company and it did improve to some extent, but when I pushed them a bit they said there was nothing they could do about it. Funny how it can change a bit but not enough to get a steady access. We use our mobiles and we have anything from 0.2 to 17Mbps. Not helpful when I work so much online, as do so many others obviously. Whine, whine, whine, but I was there first! I will talk to someone higher up at some stage and find out what their strategy is for the future in the rural areas of Latvia, i.e. the majority of Latvia. Our access is not bad compared to other places around the country, so I don't know how other's manage. 

Oh to be that flexible!

Sorry but I think that's just lazy
to eat while lying around on the
floor.

I was a bit worried about the internet access when I couldn't even do a Zoom call with video with just my Latvian teacher. Neither I nor my teacher had our video on that day. I usually have mine switched off due to the access issues but it is very bad when she has to switch her's off too. Fortunately it had improved enough to do an online presentation for a conference organised by a Lithuanian university. It is the first time I've done a presentation for a conference since the pandemic started. Then I was literally zooming around Europe nearly 18 months ago and now all the zooming I do is online. It worked anyway. I even did a "Show and Tell".

Brencis always looks content with life.

We have had some gorgeous sunsets too.

We were discussing food and where we get our food from in a workshop for the conference. In principle the other participants understand about eating home produce but in practice many do not and so it was just easier to take my computer outside, switch on my camera and take them on a quick tour of the garden. They also got to see the alpacas but not up close as it started to rain. That isn't something that is so easy to do in a face-to-face conference. 

I have a garden in there somewhere. Honest! 
Fortunately Ian managed to find it or at least
strim around the beds.

Amidst the sadness there was also the joy of
remembering a life well lived.

Sadly this week we had to say goodbye to a friend of our's. We've never been to a Latvian funeral but I guessed there would be flowers, at least I remembered at 3am on the morning before. I ended up sending an email to another friend to ask about the protocol for flowers. He kindly got some for us and brought them to the farm, he also explained what to expect and the order that things would happen in. I'm glad he did. Although it didn't happen quite the same because of Covid restrictions, at least we kind of knew what to expect. It was a moving time and the weather was kind to us all. The sun shone through the trees and warmed us through. Goodbye dear friend!

Ian found my veg beds. The peas are growing 
anyway. I also planted some broad bean plants
so at least it is possible to see something is
growing. Next I will need supports for all
the plants.

Today I finally managed to get some time in the garden, but first we had to go to the Immigration Office in the big town. We thought we were just going to pick up our ID cards. We didn't realise that we should also have our passports with us. I fortunately had mine with me but Ian didn't, so he has to go back tomorrow. I thought the whole point of an ID card is that it is an ID, or am I missing something? I handed in my old ID so not quite sure why they needed our passports too. They already have a copy of them anyway from previous trips. They also looked at our passports when we went the first time to apply for the new card. Sigh! 

I lost count of the number of storks we saw on the
way back from the big town. Ian had to slow 
down for one, to give it time to get some height
as it tried to fly off. 

Sunbathing at last! Not that the alpacas really like
sunbathing a lot at this time of the year, they do 
after they are sheared.

Normally by now we have the tomatoes in the greenhouse, but the chickens are still in there and even if they weren't the tomato plants are still rather small. It's just not been hot enough to make them grow much. I even started them off with heat and had bottles of water to retain the heat of the day through the night. I haven't lost any to frosts this year, but neither have they exactly rocketed away. The weather hasn't stopped the weeds though. All the moisture has meant they've grown but all the moisture falling from the sky has meant that Ian hasn't been able to get out very regularly to strim them. At least today he managed to sort them out and I can find my veg beds again.

Grandma Oh Oh

Our granddaughter reading
the book

I mentioned last week that Ian's mother had an unusual name, but that is one given her at birth. I have acquired mine from my youngest granddaughter and it is Grandma Oh oh! For Christmas I put together a book called "My Grandad," it was a way of sharing what Ian does on the farm and there was also a little bit about me of course. There was a picture of me feeding the alpacas and one of me skiing. Every time my little granddaughter gets to that point in the book, she goes Oh Oh! And that is the story of how I acquired my name. My daughter finds it hilarious and so I think there is a degree of encouragement going on there. I am also known as Grandma Jo and GJ, short for Granny Jo to my other grandchildren.

The front cover of the book

Whilst on the subject of Grandma's and Ian's mother we are heading to the UK the first week of February, for the funeral. It would appear there has been a spike of deaths over Christmas and a refurbishment of a crematorium, creating a backlog of funerals, hence the long wait. I am sure that must be hard for the families, for us at the moment it all seems so distant. I know it will hit us more when we see the family.  At least we won't be paying over £500 just to fly Ryanair though, which would be horrendous, the flights were much cheaper in February, not much of a consolation really. There was one point this week when the reality of it hit Ian, it was when he switched off the alerts to remind him to ring his mother. He had the alerts, because it is too easy to get busy and suddenly time has passed. It did mean that although she was so far away, he was in regular contact. It is such a shame she was afraid of computers, I'm sure she would have enjoyed a Skype to Skype call with him, rather than just hearing his voice.

Herk up to his usual trick of hogging the alpaca house.
Not too bad when it is fine, but he does this even when
it is snowing hard, so Tellus stays in the outside shelter and
poor Turbjørn ends up out in the cold. Doesn't seem to
be doing him any harm though. He seems fit enough.

One of the reasons for not dashing over is the animals. We have managed to find someone to look after them for the time we are away, as I mentioned last week, but it is a difficult time of the year to leave them for long. The days are short and they need more than just hay in the colder days. We had to give Veronica some more injections as we suspected she was being bothered by mites again, but the course should be finished by next week. We know a few people who would be willing to help, but it is a hard time to ask. One neighbour, who is the closest, also sometimes has the most difficulty in getting out from her house if it snows, because she is up the hillside. Another neighbour to where we live works regular hours and it would be difficult to fit in letting the animals out and putting them away at the times they need to be dealt with. At least another neighbour is more flexible and should be able to work something out if it snows heavily, which we hope it won't. I must share one funny incident about our alpacas that happened recently though. It was one of those, "I wished we had a camera handy" moments. We went up to the alpaca house to feed them and there sat on the back of Estelle, was one of the chickens. Obviously the chicken had found a very nice cosy place to sit, I bet her toes were warm. We were surprised that Estelle didn't seem bothered at all.

This was actually taken on the 6th January, but it is
pretty and since I am not at home today, it is more difficult
to get photos that Ian has taken

It has been another of those weeks of "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!" and in between melting away, but not quite. Ian is not a fan of snow any more, he used to enjoy it, but now it just makes more work that he has to do because of the animals. More work, more clearing and it stops him getting into the forest to cut down trees for next winter's fuel and progressing on the clearing work that needs doing. Chances are now the snow will be hanging around, once past mid-January the temperatures usually plummet and the ground is cold, so we shall see.

Ian kitted up for the winter. I keep
thinking he looks like one of those
Bayeux tapestry soldiers in that hat
and neck warmer

Sometimes I think I make it sound like alpacas are a lot of work. In many ways they are not, they need water, hay and additional feeding in winter. It is better to clean their paddocks daily, but since they have a communal poo pile that is not a huge problem. It is just that you have to be there at strategic times of the day at this time of year. In summer they are hardly any bother at all. Then it is just a matter of let them out, they eat grass all day, clean their communal poo pile to stop it spreading, fresh bedding in their living quarters every now and again, put them away at night and jobs done. There is of course the moving of fences for fresh grass from time to time and shearing. They are the main jobs. Of course as we get more, it gets more complicated and we have to think or rather Ian has to think, how we can manage them best. Like when do we want babies? Some folks have them all year round, we don't. I think the main issue is being tied, it is not like just caring for the land, where a day a way won't hurt.

A puppet I made for our grandson

On a completely different topic I have to admit to a degree of disorderliness over Christmas presents and I only got around to posting them after Christmas. Incredibly some of the parcels only took four days to arrive, normally it is more like 10 days. Unfortunately Ian's mother's present wasn't one of them and so that didn't arrive until after she died. At least that wasn't as bad as the Christmas card she sent to us that was posted on the 16th December to us and arrived a few days later here than her parcel did. Having said that, we actually got two Christmas cards from her, as one arrived before Christmas. Not quite sure if Ian's mother had got confused, or the two daughter-in-laws both sorted out a card on her behalf, knowing she wasn't feeling well. It is the sort of thing that Ian's family would laugh about. They have quite a black sense of humour at times, but it is one way of coping with the bad times and sometimes not a bad way at all.

Our egg layers

Since it has been quite a varied week this week, the next topic is about development. Development in our area has not been particularly fast. There are bright pockets where people are working hard, but there are also real institutional barriers - to put it diplomatically. There is money available, but trying to get people together to access this money is a bit of a challenge, especially with those barriers. It was interesting therefore to be involved in the first meeting to do with the Leader programme. This has been run by the EU for many years and run quite successfully in many places. It is a way of getting local people to decide where money should be spent, it is also a way of getting local people to think of ways that would benefit many people, not just themselves, but as I said, people have to cooperate.

The setting sun

We were fortunate that there was someone there who could translate, there were actually a few people, but one was coopted - poor guy. I have heard a lot about this programme, but I had never seen it being set up in an area before and so it was quite fascinating to watch and take notes. We got talking to the ladies after the meeting, as a friend of ours had helped to organise the venue for it and the lady was working on getting farmers together to talk about their experiences - we are down to talk on February 26th about alpacas and tomatoes in particular, as my friend insisted we do that. I had to ask my friend what was so fascinating about the way we grew our tomatoes and apparently it is because we mulch them and don't water them as often as Latvians do. We also take all the leaves off at the first sign of blight. Didn't realise that was so fascinating.

Christmas lights in Tartu are still up, but the Christmas tree
is not. Lights tend to stay up longer in Estonia and in
Latvia, as it brightens the dark nights.

And last but not least, I had my yearly evaluation today. The evaluators didn't seem to have any problems with where I am in my studies. They shouldn't do, I have more than enough credit points. I need 60 by year four and I have just finished my second year and I have 65. I also have papers in progress and I need three by year four. That might be more of a problem, but hopefully by the end of the year, I shall have full papers published and not just the short papers so far. I did explain my approach, because I am working in a social science field and they are all natural sciences, at least my science background helps there. I think they were still a little bemused by my presentation, because it was bright, colourful and had pictures of art work and diagrams with pictures. All my creative embroidery artwork board prep and children's work coming into play there.

Before

After! Courtesy of Google. They automatically created a panoramic shot