A sad time

RIP Herkules. You have a lovely sunny spot to
rest now.

I think I spoke to soon when I wrote my last blog. "No catastrophes". The week was ticking along nicely until the Friday. I was talking in an online staff meeting and Ian burst in through the door, grabbed the box of injections we have for the animals and said, "Herk's down". I apologised to my colleagues and hastily joined him. Poor Herkules was on his side and unable to get up. We weren't sure what had happened. From then on, it was a roller coaster of a weekend. We said goodbye to him several times until we finally decided that enough was enough and he wasn't improving, so we called in the vet to put him to sleep on Tuesday morning. He went very peacefully.

We supported Herkules between two hay bales
to stop him from falling over on his side, as this
seemed to make him worse. We don't know how 
long he'd been on his side when Ian found him.

One less tray of food at night for putting away time.

Within a few hours of putting Herkules to sleep,
this lot decided to escape. Someone and we 
suspect George must have lent on the gate and it
swung open. 

We had spent most of the weekend trying to work out what was wrong with him. We first came to the conclusion that he may have been suffering from a sub-acute thiamine deficiency that goes into an acute phase from time to time. It is a common problem with alpacas as they are sensitive to thiamine and it can be related to many causes such as bad teeth, or guts not working properly.  Earlier on in the year he made a rapid recovery after a high dose of thiamine, so it made sense.

A bit of bribery didn't go amiss. The only problem
is that they get through the grass so fast at this time
of the year. They have plenty of hay to eat, but still
prefer the grass.

The morning milk run

The vet came to do an autopsy that evening and we then changed our minds and thought that maybe he had cancer as he had lots of little granular lumps in his liver and lungs, but after doing some reading it appears that might have been from a parasite infection. His heart didn't look very healthy either as our vet said the walls of the heart were very thin. Another aspect was the mushy spleen and maybe this explained why he was susceptible to infections. Some of the things we had queries about we were able to resolve later through reading, such as alpacas do not have gallbladders so that explained why that was missing. They also have smooth stomachs, unlike goats, sheep and cows that have lots of papillae in them, so that looked fine.

Spot the swans heading south.
Hint: Just above the treeline in the
centre

Lots of mushrooms, just not all 
edible. There are some edible
ones still growing in our greenhouse,
so one night we had baked parsnip, 
mushroom, lentils and walnuts
in a sour cream sauce with tomato
and cucamelon salad.

All in all, we are still not entirely clear as to what caused his illness or whether it was just a combination of factors. If it had been spring, then we may have fought a little longer but we knew that even if he recovered, it would be a very tough winter for him. He was already underweight and hadn't put much weight on over the summer like he did the year before. In the event we spent the nights sleeping in our clothes so that we could get up through the night to move him and massage his legs. Ian had also got up very early on Tuesday morning and just sat with Herk, except when I did so he could see to the other animals. I had to insist that Ian at least eat a cheese sandwich, which is not like Ian at all (definitely a breakfast first kind of guy) and I kept him going with hot drinks until the vet arrived. We were both exhausted and Ian especially so. He even got up once and I managed to sleep through. Sometimes it is just wiser to know when to call it a day.

More non-edible mushrooms

I'm so proud of my cauliflower this
year. Normally they don't do so well.
The hot summers are not good for
this slow growing veg.

Of course that is not all we did all weekend. On one of Herk's good days we managed to sort out the chicks. They needed cleaning out and were just about ready for moving on to bigger quarters - only the kittens were being shut away in the ark overnight that we intended on putting the chicks in, so that meant big changes all round. Normally the chicks go into an ark once they have all their feathers and can cope with the cool nights. These are late in the year and so more tricky. We decided to keep them in big greenhouse for the time being so we can run a cable to the heater we use for chicks. Not sure if they actually used it overnight as they seemed to be huddled into the egg box section of the ark, but at least the heater was providing warmth in the box. 

Hmmm! Hello!

The kittens have been very interested in the chicks but fortunately that seems to be the extent of it. The older cats ignore them - they've seen it all before and know to leave well alone. Now the kittens are out and about in the night too. So whenever we went up to the alpaca house in the night to see to Herk, there was often some little followers. Okay if they stay outside but not when they climb in through the roof openings as it freaked out the other alpacas. The number of times I've taken one or both back to the greenhouse. Of course they can get out but they don't do that immediately. Fortunately Herkules was not so freaked out by Rocket Ron, as he was too sick to bother. In fact at one point Rocket Ron was sat on his back. Pity we didn't get a photo of it, he climbed off before we could. 

How about a game of ball?

This section of road collapsed into
the river a few years back. They
have finally repaired it and even
put barriers in. The road is now set
further away from the river.

Life without Herkules carried on much as before. The worries we had before he got sick are no longer a problem. He was being challenged from time to time by the younger ones and sometimes they rear ended him - as alpacas do - and that would cause him to stumble. We had thought about separating him off at night, along with Turbjørn with his bad neck and possibly meek and mild Freddie. In the end we didn't need to. Turbjørn still has a bad neck but now he won't stand still for Ian and he's started resisting going in at night - not a good idea when some neighbours have experienced a dog attack on a ewe recently. Separating him off at night would only make him even more wary. Sigh! As another of our neighbours said, "No animals, no problems!"

Friends now?

Well maybe. This is still a rare 
occurrence. Our two naughty little
kittens now have to be locked away
while they eat, because they gobble
down their food and then go and 
muscle in on Eyre's. Not sure if
Sofie would be so submissive, but
she isn't around as often at feed time.
Eyre boxes their ears on a frequent
basis, but they don't seem to take
much notice. 

The nights are closing in so much faster these days and is making life more difficult for caravan living. Temperatures are not too bad and our heaters keep us warm enough, but it is the cooking in the greenhouse that is getting more of a problem. We have lights in the greenhouse but it is cold and peeling potatoes in the cold is never much fun. It is these kinds of challenges that send us back to the apartment eventually. One of the things that holds me back from suggesting is that we are still getting fresh food from the garden. The mild autumn means that I am never short of veg. Much to Ian's dismay the Brussel sprouts... errr! I mean little cabbages, are doing immensely well, as are the parsnips, beetroot  and cabbages. Even the late planted turnips and celeriac are doing well - although I haven't harvested any of those. It is so easy to just go out in the garden and pick them or dig them up, rather than have to plan what to get at the weekend or get Ian to get them.

No caption needed really

Such a sweet looking little chap!

Over the weekend I had to do some thinking. Travel across the borders to Estonia became difficult once the Baltic Bubble was punctured. This coming Friday is my graduation day when I formally receive my doctorate, a culmination of a 12 year journey. Could I make it or not to my university? Someone travelling from Latvia to Estonia should take a Covid19 test, as now Estonia has a lower rate than Latvia. Easier said than done when living out in the sticks, especially when the government changed the rules and there is now a charge for tests after the service was inundated. Anyway it transpires that I don't need the test because the journey is for my studies and that's okay from Latvia. Another aspect was that I didn't want to travel such a long distance by public transport, there have been a few incidences of infections from doing just that. Another issue is that it means a whole day of travel each way so I would need somewhere to stay - harder now with the virus threat. Anyway that has been solves as a friend of mine is lending me a car - ours sounds rather creaky at the moment. I just have to pray they don't change the rules on Friday.

He's starting to earn his keep now though

No catastrophes!

A rather dramatic sky and sums up the weather 
this week. Sunshine and showers and now the
ground is soggy and our caravan not under
protection for the winter yet.

No catastrophes for us this week, thank goodness. Just regular work and preparations for winter. Of course there were a few late nights to catch up with work after missing a day to prepare chickens for the freezer after the massacre by an unknown critter last week. The winter woollies and thermal leggings are definitely out now though and a sign that winter is approaching. Apparently there was snow overnight but we missed it or it didn't reach us, so I guess the geese were right again. 

More of the rainbow

Jakobs is such a dapper young chap

Such a sweetie too, but don't be beguiled, he can
be quite the troublemaker.

Herkules, our treasure at the end of the rainbow

We were expecting a frost that didn't materialised - well not that we know of. Still we needed to be safe rather than sorry and get the veg in from the garden that won't take a frost or more rain. So the weekend chores involved bringing in the beans, as they would have rotted if left outside. The beans were then podded and the beans and shredded pods are now drying in the dehydrator. I'm make the shredded pods into bean powder for soups and stews. I also sorted out the squashes, tomatoes, apples and potatoes and we then took them back to the apartment to store overwinter. While we were there we also topped up the basement with the old wood from the woodstore, so the basement is now full to the brim. Hopefully we will be toasty and warm.

Herkules not looking his best. His wound at the top
of his leg was still healing very slowly and I was
dismayed to see it looking a little weepy one day. I
had a brainwave and put some turmeric powder on
it. It seemed to do the trick. I have applied it one
about three days later, but so far so good. 

Turbjørn has been having daily massages with a 
heat pad. He seemed to be reacting to it and 
becoming more uncomfortable. We are not sure
if that is because he's got more movement and so
it's sore, or because of the massage, so the physio
recommended giving him a few days off. 

While some produce is just stored in the basement and some is frozen, some of it is processed into jars, particularly applesauce and tomatoes. The problem is that I had run out of jars that were of a reasonable size. I have quite a few small ones but not the medium size ones. As I mentioned, last week we made an attempt to get some from a large DIY store but it was chokker and decided we wouldn't bother. Ian ended up having to go on a jar hunt this week though. He went back to the DIY store and got a few things he needed, but not the jars, there weren't any of the size we needed the most. The next day he tried again at a different store in the opposite direction. Success! 

Poor guy does spend a lot of time like this, but 
then again, so does Herkules sometimes.

Socially distanced alpacas.

Latvia has seen a spike in Covid19 cases this last week, from single figures or low double digits to 188 on one day. So the second day that Ian went on a jar hunt, he had to take a mask to go into the shop. It is only a small rural place but he noted that just about everyone was being very dutiful and wearing masks in the shop, unlike in our village. Little did he realise that one of the reasons was that this particular place was just beginning to see a large increase in numbers, from zero to 68 today. Most of the infections in Latvia have occurred in educational institutions, like this one. Next source of infection is from family members and the last workplaces. Masks are now mandatory in shops and such like places, so I guess I need to make a few more masks, although a scarf might suffice and it is getting to that time of the year.  

The grass is dying off and so the alpacas have
to work harder to get the green grass. It does
Brencis good as he is a little on the porky side.

Lots of autumnal colours this week

I mentioned last week that the remaining chickens were put inside the little greenhouse in case the critter that decimated the other ark returned. You would think they would be grateful, but instead they've been a pain. They seemed to spend a lot of time inside their box during the day only coming out for their grain in the morning and not going in for their feed at night. This means that I've been having to lock them out during the day so they will go in at night and still I have to physically get into the ark to put some away. At least it is not a problem to lock them out of the box during the day as they are not laying anyway. Contrary blooming creatures. 

Yes it's been wet!

I laughed! Josefs is a little soggy

Yes the winter coat, the winter wellies and the
polo neck jumper are all out. 

Two kittens have been into lots of mischief. They get up on table tops and into pots and pans. They meow because they want what's in the pans, which drives me potty. Along with the chicks who are the noisiest chicks ever! And we've had quite a few. Rocket Ron though does like to sit on our knees at coffee time and Ginger Tom sits nearby meowing, not quite brave enough to jump up, but not running off so much either. The four cats now mainly tolerate each other, although Eyre gets fed up and I swear that Rocket Ron deliberately winds her up sometimes. At least there are no serious scraps, just some keep away from me swipes with the paws from Eyre and some bemused kitten looks as if to say, "What's up with her?"

George is also looking a little damp. He managed
to ping the wire netting off a pole this week. 
Luckily I noticed it and tied it back on with good
old baler twine. Baler twine is great for all sorts
of things. Ian did sort the fence posts out and nailed
the wire back on later on in the week.

Mr. P looking a bit toothy again.

"This is my best side, though," he says.

More autum colours

Chanel is still looking a bit shaggy from her skin
issues but the cooler temperatures means it is more
difficult to deal with. 

We sometimes wonder if Aggie's face is a bit 
swollen again, but it seems to come and go. Here
she is just sunbathing

Here she's having a good scratch on the post.

Little Ilvija is a bit of a Houdini but she's still a
Mummy's girl too and will run to her Mum if 
there is the slightest hint of trouble. Then her Mum
gets all protective and starts spitting. Sigh! Fortunately
little Ilvija doesn't seem to have inherited this
characteristic.

Now is Mari looking pregnant or not?

"Who me?" You can see where her son gets
those sweet looks from

Hehe! Wouldn't you like to know? So I guess
we will just have to wait for the scans.

Tonight's sunset lit up the autumn colours

So I wonder what next week will bring? Hopefully no catastrophes.

Anarchic Grannies and Alpacas

Alatskivi Castle, Estonia is based on Balmoral Castle in
Scotland. I wasn't far from Balmoral Castle on my last
field trip with a conference. This was where we had our
conference dinner

Another mixed week, as you may have guessed from the title. I love the phrase anarchic grannies, what a wonderful picture it conjures up. It was a phrase used by a Finnish architect, Marco Casagrande, in the conference I attended to describe the Taiwanese grannies who grow food wherever they can and are often quite influential in challenging the status quo. It certainly turns the assumption on its head, that it is the young who change the status quo. It actually reminds me of the interviews one of my Masters students did, where he talked to one lady from a group of pensioners who had challenged the local authorities. The authorities kept voting out mayors in one particular village and the pensioners had had enough of this behaviour. They got together and petitioned the council to let the mayor stay and to let him get on with his job. I guess they have not got a lot to lose at that stage and so take it upon themselves to do something. Brilliant! So if you are feeling over-the-hill and past your usefulness, just remember the anarchic grannies of Taiwan.

All ready for dinner

Perigree moon taken from the alpaca paddock, Sorry no
pictures of alpacas, must take some more soon

As for alpacas! I'm home alone with them. I got back from the conference a day earlier than I had originally planned, also a different route than planned. Someone in their infinite wisdom decided it would be a good idea for the Latvian train to set off earlier than the arrival of the Estonian train that usually connects, due to the extended time taken because of rail track work. At least I found out that the buses do connect after that, as long as I cross over the border into Latvia, which fortunately is only a 20 minute walk and a route I normally do in reverse. At least it meant that Ian and I spent a whole day together, before I had to take him to the airport. He is with our daughter and her family so that he can help our son-in-law with some building work. Our youngest son travelled up to see him too and so he had a small birthday party with chocolate cake. He's also had fish and chips so I hear and therefore he's very happy.

The castle garden

The lake

The alpacas are sort of behaving themselves, at least at putting away time. I have no complaints about that aspect. However, Aggie has escaped twice already and I have to go up with the sledge hammer to hammer a post back in the ground tomorrow morning. I am just fortunate that none of the others decided to escape along with her. The boys had a bit of a ding dong this afternoon, with Tellus our male chasing the others around the field and paddock and trying to bite them. I am now wondering if he got a bit worked up due to Aggie being too close and perhaps he was showing off or demonstrating he's boss. No idea, because I hadn't noticed if Aggie was out at that point. I know occasionally our very mild mannered alpacas will start to fight, but fortunately not often. If they had carried on, I would have gone and sorted them out, but it only lasted about five minutes before calm resumed. The exercise probably did them some good.

The bridge over the lake

Near the train station on the way back from the conference

Wish I could say that Sergeant Wilson was behaving, in other words our free range cockerel. He has been stalking me occasionally and once he actually did go for me. So far I haven't had to strike back as such, as he has backed off as soon as I turned round to him. He's a bit of a coward really, but I could do without the sneak attacks. If he carries on like that he is going to be caught and put in a box to calm him down and to get the idea he is not boss.

Not the best place to sit I don't think. Ian was recharging
the batteries in the car. The water level had got a little too
low and so they weren't charging properly. All sorted now

It is a good job Eyre was not around when
this little fella was. She is getting so good at
catching mice and voles. This is taken
without a zoom, it let me get so close to take
a photo with my phone camera. It didn't seem
to be very afraid at all. It should have been,
if it wants to live much longer.

Eyre our kitten is also being a bit of a pain. She seems to get under my feet wherever I stand, which is not helpful when cooking. I had to put her away just so I don't stand on her. She also spent about 20 minutes trying to sit on my chest while I was trying to do some work and she wouldn't settle on my shoulders, where she would often sit. She was put away again. It sound bizarre to say we put her in the toilet because of course we do not mean that literally, we mean the little room of the caravan. Fortunately once in there she settles down and she never disturbs us at night.

The skies have been amazing just lately. This was the view
in one direction one morning, just after I had let the alpacas
out

The opposite direction was equally stunning

On the subject of being out in the caravan, it is starting to get cool these days and the temperature is rather low at nights. It is a good job caravans are quick to warm up and we adjust to the lower temperatures anyway. Hot flushes do help a little in that respect, since they have started up again. It means I don't really get that cold at nights. It would be quite nice and peaceful being out here, but I have got a bit of a cold which is making me muddle headed. I nearly forgot to close the barn tonight, but remembered in time and last night I forgot to put the chickens away in the arks - fortunately they are relatively safe due to the netting, at least from foxes and the like. The free range ones usually go away earlier before the alpacas as it is much easier to put away the alpacas without the chickens under feet. They also go away earlier because they have started wandering too close to the greenhouse in the evening.

Sunrise

The state of many of my brassicas. These are even in the
greenhouse! They are not safe even here. There were not
many insects around for so long, I think we got complacent
then suddenly the cabbage white caterpillars appeared and
stripped the leaves before we knew what had hit us.

Anyway, must finish there, I still have the washing up to do and I can't go to bed until that is done - oh the joys of being in a caravan. The table is the base for the bed and so it needs clearing before the bed is made up, hence I have to do the washing up first. It is also getting a little cool and so being under a duvet will be a much better.