A little running around

We'll be good, honest! At least I hope so.

I'm looking after the alpacas this week as Ian is in hospital. Ian went in for his scheduled surgery today and had four bladder stones removed. He had been expecting major surgery as he was told keyhole surgery was not an option and he would be under general anaesthetic. Instead they did not make any incisions at all and it was done with an epidural. Hopefully if all goes well, he will be home by Wednesday.

Narnia struck again!

I'm not going out in that!

He was expecting to be in a week and he wasn't sure if that was a seven day week or a work day week, so only two days is a bonus. I had to leave him at the hospital this morning as they wouldn't allow me in while they prepped him for surgery. I did get a text to say when his surgery was going to be and was rather surprised to get another one from him in the afternoon. I was expecting the hospital to ring, as I was still expecting him to have a general. So why the change? I have no idea and will probably find out more later on in the week.

Half alpaca, half mountain goat. None of
the others do this. 

It might be a nuisance, but snow does make for nice pictures

At least this does mean that the six-eight weeks I was planning on being home to see to the alpacas might not be necessary. It was funny to see the alpacas today, they obviously sussed that I was not in treatment mode, but there to look after them, as they weren't running away at all when I arrived with the bucket and shovel to clean out their alpaca houses. In fact I had a hard job trying to clean out the girls shed, because they kept getting in my way and coming to see what I was doing. At one point Agnese nearly poked me in the eye with a straw she had in her mouth because she was being so nosy. The sheep also decided I was their best friend and I ended up getting soaked because they kept brushing up against me when I was giving them some feed (their fleece is obviously holding a lot of water at the moment). One of them let me scratch her on the nose too.

The pond near our apartment building

The pond out on the land

This last week though has been a sorting out week with lots of running around trying to get all the pre-op tests done. First Ian had to go and get a blood test taken, then the following day an ECG and an x-ray - fortunately these were all done at the local village hospital. After that we had to take a drive to the big town to see an anaesthetist. It is all rather different to the UK system, or at least the way we remember it. There was a bit of an issue with a few of the results not being available when we saw the anaesthetist but fortunately they had them at the big hospital. He was warned that if all the results were not there he would be sent home, a trip of nearly two hours, because the regional hospital where he would have the operation was even further away. The distance is one reason why I won't be visiting until it is time to pick him up. It is too far and too costly to drive there and back and not really an option with animals to see to.

I was good and cleared around the barn as
instructed by Ian. The problem apparently is
that when it melts it leaks straight into the
barn, so needs clearing to keep the barn dry

Herkules looking more perky now

The regional hospital was half way between us and our Estonian alpaca friends, so we decided to call in there first and get some of the new feed, they have developed with an Estonian feed merchant, to see if Herkules continues to improve on it. His skin seems to be looking much better and beginning to get hair on his legs and ears again, He lost a lot of hair in those places due to a mite problem. He also looks brighter in Ian's opinion. As Ian had to be in hospital at 7:30am we also decided to stay overnight in a hotel nearby to the hospital. It is the first time in my life we have spent Valentine's day in a hotel. The hotel was lovely and the evening meal was delicious but not exactly a romantic weekend away.

A moody sky this afternoon before putting away time

The boys like to be out in the snow even if the girls don't.
Well when I say snow, they don't mind being out in the snow,
just not when it is snowing - sensible types. Sometimes!

As a side note, the meal had potatoes with it, three large ones and I thought I was going to have a high sugar reading in the morning. I didn't! In fact I had one of the lowest I have had for a while. Either I have to go back to the drawing board to work out how that happened or put it down to the fact we missed lunch, albeit a piece of fruit cake due to our travels. Working out what makes my blood sugar levels high or low is a nightmare. I wish it was simple.

Peekaboo

Prepping for early seed time. I put black
bags on these today to melt the snow,
because it still hasn't melted completely
after two days. We will grow hardy
greens, peas and broad beans to get an
early start on fresh veg.

The other major news this week is we made it onto Facebook. Or rather Griezītes alpakas has made it onto Facebook (you can see it and like our page here - link). That was nearly more traumatic than the thought of surgery. Ian will be running that mainly, because he can upload pictures on a regular basis. Ian is not a fan of Facebook and so trying to explain how it works and also trying to work out what a page does and does not do myself has been well...... trying at times. Little by little we will get the information out there about what we are doing and hope to do, as well as getting to grips with what we can achieve with having a Facebook page. We have a few ideas that we are hoping to organise over the summer, so keep in touch, especially if you are in Latvia.

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.