To cap it all

With our normal washing machine disconnected we decided
to try out the new portable one that we have for washing
fleeces to wash our underwear instead. It worked well enough
and even spun out the clothes quite well. It might still use
too much of our precious water on the land though. 

This week we emptied the cellar of our old apartment and moved most of the remaining stuff out from the apartment itself. We also finished putting wardrobe together in the one we will be living in over winter so that we could put the clothes away. It is nice to be able to find other clothes again to wear. On the Thursday I took the car to the garage early then went back to our old apartment to clean it, since just about all our stuff has been taken out that needs to be taken out. I had arranged to meet up with someone to talk about weaving that morning too but somehow I managed to mess up the times. At some point what should have been 10am meeting in my head turned into a 10:30am meeting. It meant that the poor lady ended up waiting for me and I didn't show up. I was mortified, when I rang and found out my mistake. I hate it when others do it to me and so to do it to someone else was awful.

This little madam decided to worry our friend who was
looking after our animals by disappearing overnight. I did
explain that she does do that every now and again and is less
often now than it used to be, when she sometimes
disappeared for a week at a time

I said last week, very tongue in cheek, "Not much on my plate then!" but it was at the point when I realised my mistake that I knew I had too much going on in my head. I was making too many mistakes like that. I can be forgetful but I don't often leave people waiting without at least calling to explain. I went back to the apartment and sat down and wrote an email to Ian to explain what had happened and said I wouldn't be back until later on in the day as I wanted to get my head clearer and I wasn't in a good mood at all. I also wrote down in the email about all the things that were in my head and needed sorting or I was dealing with. Bless him! When I did eventually go back to our land on the last bus (only about 6ish) he was busy making shelves in the barn so that stuff could be organised and it means we can clear out the greenhouse in time for our felting workshop at the beginning of June.

Rain clouds. Not much but at least it is some rain for our
plants

A friend also realised that some of things we were talking about could be causing me a degree of stress and offered to take some of the workload off me. I hadn't said anything about what had happened and that things were piling up on me but it was such a relief to be able to say that her actions were really, really helpful at the minute and yes it would take some pressure off me that I rather badly needed. Of course, just sitting down and writing everything out was also helping me to sort things out in my head and made me feel a bit more balanced and less overwhelmed. There is still a lot to do, but I am starting to tick things off the list and another job was postponed by someone else until later on in the year, which again was helpful.

Ian has been busy cutting grass again. The alpacas don't like
long grass and Ian also likes to keep the grass short in some
areas like the orchard and around the current bushes.

I managed to book a flight to Slovakia for around mid-June to attend a PhD course. I was quite pleased to find out that flights to Vienna were cheaper and it is relatively easy to get to Slovakia from there. The only problem is that it was easy to find out how to get to Bratislava and quite cheap too, but the next leg was not as easy to find out. I sent an email to the university organising the course and they will send me details later, so not a problem - I think! I will worry about that nearer the time of course.

The view from the "office" yesterday

We went without a car for 2 1/2 days and Ian went to collect it around mid-day on Saturday. He rode there on his bike, which he hasn't done for a long time. He felt surprisingly okay and I was surprised how quickly he got back. It was rather an expensive job though and the car still needs a couple of jobs doing on it. When I say it was expensive, that is all relative but it is certainly more than we have paid for a long time. The car is getting old and so in many ways only to be expected.

Looking the other way from the "office"

Potential client?

The office. Ian starting the shearing. I had my own shearing
the day before. A friend of ours came to get some of our eggs
to put under a broody hen and since my hair was getting a
bit long she cut it for me. It won't be long before I'm as
white as that alpaca.

I have finished planting out all the tomatoes  and pepper plants in the greenhouse and the trees I bought outside. The spaces in the greenhouse we have left now will be planted up with basil or other plants that can tolerate warm weather. Outside we have been having to do quite a bit of watering.  We are resorting to emergency measures with the water as we are seriously short of moisture in the ground and it is only May. Since last week we have only had one very small shower on Thursday and little more again today. Just barely enough to wet the ground and not much more. This is not helping the germination of seedlings or helping plants just getting established. We have now set up a water tank next to the garden and filled it with water pumped from the newest pond. We might have lost many strawberry plants in the newest bed I made, but at least I should have been able to save some anyway. It is mot too much of an issue as there are still plants that are growing well that were made when there was more moisture in the ground and those strawberries are very prolific and will soon recolonise the plot.

Concentrating hard

Those shears are sharp. I hold the animals head down to
keep it still

We have also now organised getting our milk from our neighbour. We went up to take milk bottles ready for filling and she was in, so she gave us some milk from the morning milking. As she says, the morning milk is the tastiest - something you don't really appreciate with supermarket milk. Whilst we were chatting, aided by her son who was home for the weekend from university, her husband came out. He said with a big grin on his face that he went to make coffee and, spreading his arms out wide to emphasise his point, there was no milk in the house - apparently we had the last of their milk and she hadn't done the evening milking yet. Not too worry, it was time for her to go milking and for us to put our animals away and so he didn't have long to wait for the milk for his coffee.

Taking a sample for testing

This time holding the animals head still while Ian shears
the tail

For the last two days we have been shearing up in Estonia again. This time we had 17 alpacas, which is more than Ian can manage in one day without straining his back. He could manage more if he was just shearing, but we often help with getting the animals to the shearing area and then there are toe nails and teeth to check too, so it all adds up in time. Those who do more in one day, usually have a larger team. It is also a time when we get to socialise with other alpaca owners anyway and so is not a high pressure event. This particular gentleman and his wife are also good hosts who feed us well. A coffee break for instance means sandwiches or some savoury pastries, large home-made cookies, some fresh honey still on the comb and maybe some salad too. As for lunch! That was a tender slab of spiced, roast pork each with roast potatoes, leek sauce and salad with more of those home-made cookies. I don't think I need to eat for a week. We were put up in a local hotel overnight too and so it made for an enjoyable and reasonably relaxing time, even with the long day, due to the early start and late finish on the Monday.

Clipping toe nails - yes a pedicure too

Ian is holding down the animal while I clip around the ankles
which cannot be done with the shears as the ropes holding it
down are in the way. It might look kind of drastic but the
animals are much calmer once they know they can't get away

Taking time to get up

Off she goes

To cap it all! She was stuck again when we got back

I did manage to create chaos again though before we left. This time I forgot to shut the door on one of the arks and the chickens escaped. Not great when you are trying to get away early. I don't think I was particularly popular when the incident was discovered. We managed to capture the chickens - or at least we thought we had, until a friend of ours who was putting the animals away at night discovered one was still out. He wasn't sure how she had escaped. At least he managed to get her in and she seemed happy enough to be reunited with her flock and so he guessed he had managed to put her in with the right group. Our stupid sheep was also discovered once again with her head stuck and making a right racquet and our friend ended up cutting the fence to free her. Obviously she is not going to learn her lesson.

One stuck sheep and two more sensible ones, who don't bother
sticking their heads through to get grass, maybe just their noses.

Our friend ended up cutting the fence to
free the sheep this morning. She had been
there a while, but did this teach her? No!

Uggghh!

Our old oak tree covered in snow and lit by the sun looks so
pretty

After a week of Narniaresque type weather with beautiful snow covered trees, it rained. The snow is still here but it looks rather drab and dreary now. Such a shame as it all looked rather festive, although it did keep Ian busy clearing paths with the snowblower. Of course there is still plenty of time for snow to return before winter has finished, but for now the dark days are back.

Chanel with a bit of festive frosting

A path made with the snowblower

This time of the year is one of beginnings and ends. It is the end of the milk season for one of our milk suppliers. We have two sources for our lovely, thick and creamy unpasteurised milk. One has milk all the year round, presumably by staggering her cows delivery dates and the other opts for time off in the winter. I can understand that, as milking animals is quite demanding. Our friend the goat farmer looks forward to the rest she gets at this time of the year as she prepares for her goats to start kidding.

Mr. P shows up much better against the snow

The ponds are frozen but our well was still filling up until
a few days ago

The lighter days with the snow has meant some of our hens have started laying again and they seem to have got over their autumn moult. When the cold weather really kicks in the number of eggs usually drops off but come February time they should be starting to lay more consistently. We are going to buy some eggs this next year to raise more stock. We have managed to breed out consistent egg laying out of them, but some of them are a decent size for meat birds, so not all bad.

Eyre or Floss as we usually call her has got a good long coat on
now. So long it is starting to get all matted again. She isn't so
patient as Sofie but she let Ian comb out a huge chunk of matted
fur with the new super duper combs that have rotating teeth.

Lady V checking out the weather before heading out ....

We have our first booking for next year, on the first of January from a Russian family. We subscribed to a site that advertises rural holidays and activities but also puts tours together for individuals and groups. It will be interesting to see what else comes of this. We really do need a shop building for our products rather than bring them backwards and forwards from home though.

... for a roll around in the snow. I mean! At her age too

Investigating the old jar of oil 

On the subject of buildings, we were discussing our wish list and besides a shop we would like a purpose built workshop. I would love to have a round building that looks out over the alpaca paddocks with an offshot kitchen. The shop would be next door to that and then a barn at the end nearest the greenhouse. We were thinking of putting the barn nearer the alpacas but I think it would be nicer for people to have the possibility of seeing the alpacas better whilst doing some felting and not just when Ian brings them on a walk or far away in the distance. We would need to find funding for this though and so will have to submit proper plans, which is not too much of a problem, but we have to get organised and although we are getting there, we are getting there slowly.

Sunbathing father (standing) and son (sitting down). Brencis
is getting huge, he looks like he might be bigger than his
father. Let's just hope he remains a laid back sort of guy like
his dad.

I thought of decorating this tree for
Christmas, but I think the snow did a
better job of it

Last year we made some wine from our grapes. It was not a stunning success and the wine was at best palatable, however, it does make some rather nice gluwein. Well we like it and since we have plenty of bottles of the red stuff, we have been having a cup of gluwein on a rather regular basis. If we haven't had gluwein, we have had a hot juice drink with similar spices. We have plenty of juice from all our berries to get through but we are not big juice drinkers. We go through phases. I would rather have a hot drink though and so this makes a good alternative.

It was nice to see the sun this week

A bit cold for using the outside loo these
days

I noticed that a friend of ours had what looked like a turkey one mealtime and I asked her where she got it from. It turned out to be a goose and she got it from a friend of hers. I thought that would make an interesting change for Christmas and asked if she could help us get one. She gave me a number for someone called Martinš. We know of someone with same name and it sounded like they were in the same direction and so wondered if it was the same person. The name was on the noticeboard in our caravan with the number, so Ian checked and no it was not the same Martinš. A few days later I asked Ian to phone to arrange for the goose for Christmas, because I wouldn't be home. Eventually he remembered to phone, but the person who answered was not Martinš and neither did they speak English as we expected. Whoops! Turns out Ian had phoned the number on the board, it may have been Martinš' number before but not now and it wasn't the one I asked him to ring. Finally he got the right number and the right Martinš and so we are definitely having goose for Christmas now.

I would think the chickens are grateful to be inside these days.
This was meant to be removed and put under cover

Blackcurrant bushes forming snow sculptures

I have been busy trying to process some apples that were a bit past their best and squashes that were not going to last long. We had run short of jars but after a sort out of various jars with small amounts of jam or chutney in them I managed to free some up, a friend gave us some more and after sorting out the boxes of empty jars I managed to find some the right size. Amazing what a little sorting out will do while procrastinating a writing project. So there is blackcurrant and apple jam, wild strawberry and apple jam, there is spiced squash and dried fruit marinating waiting to be turned into christmas puddings and some orange peel being turned into candied peel. There is also dried squash and dried spiced squash.

You can just about see the sign

Tree and snow art

Another reason for the sort out was that we need to free up freezer space for lamb. We cannot keep the male lamb as his mother was the best mother of all our ewes, she gave birth unaided and took good care of the lamb, hence his good size. The other two were rotten mothers, one didn't even attempt to feed her lambs and the other was not much better and her lambs didn't really thrive. We hope it is just inexperience and next year they should be better. I say next year, they are all pregnant again and we don't know when they are due. Whoops! If the lambs from this round survive then we will cull the ram, if they don't they have one last chance before the ram has to go.

I thought I might try to cover the Brussel Sprouts, they are about
pea size now

Aggie with her dusting of snow

Such is the farming life and trying to at least maintain some genetic integrity and not inbreeding them. Next year we plan on making a better shelter for the sheep at the top of the land for routine husbandry and hopefully what was the old alpaca house will be strengthened and repaired or replaced for winter quarters. We'll see what we actually manage. It is a problem when the alpacas are our focus but the sheep do a valuable job of providing us with mowing services on rough ground and provide us with some meat. The idea is also that the fleeces we get from them will help with making felted or knitted items. A little bit of sheep's wool helps alpaca fibres to felt or hold its shape.

A bit more obvious on Chanel and looks like that fungus that
kills bats. Fortunately this will not do any damage

Digging for Jerusalem artichokes

At least this week I managed to get some skiing done. Last winter season I managed to get my skis out only once in the whole season. I hope this year to get more opportunities than that. It is always with a bit of trepidation that I get back on my skis and I always practice out of sight, well mainly out of sight. Of course the bit where I started to wobble was in sight of the road, just as a car was going past. Despite the snow, the ground is not frozen and so I also managed to dig up another bucket load of Jerusalem artichokes, so the chickens will be happy and I brought some home for us to eat. There is not much else I can do on a winters day out on our land, Ian had made all the paths necessary.

A full bucket and deep snow. Good job I had ski trousers on

The lines across are my ski track, honest!

Done and dusted

One, two, three, four, five .....zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Well the good hay has all been done and dusted! Cut, turned and baled. Over 200 bales at that! We lost count after a while so we are not completely sure of the number. So if anyone wants to try counting the number of bales you can start with the picture of them on our ski hill. I have lost around 2 kilos of weight in the process and walked miles and miles and miles. We slept in the caravan all week, as it meant we could get the jobs done we needed to do and didn't have to go home to eat. They were late nights too as we often didn't finish until around 9pm, but then again we couldn't really get going until the afternoon as we waited for the grass to dry. There is not much point in baling wet hay it will only go mouldy.

Garden Tiger Moth

It was a nice start to each day as I set off to get my milk for breakfast from the neighbours farm, although at times it seemed quite a trek and one day I had to have some of the milk on the way back as I was so hungry. It was lovely to be able to chat to my friend each day though and when I got back I would pick a handful of raspberries and blackcurrants to add to my cornflakes. The rest of the mornings were spent either just pottering about or taking trips into the village to replenish supplies. We sure got through the water this last week but then again temperatures were up in the low 30s and did I mention, I walked a lot.

Took a little time to clear this problem, but Mr.Fixit
sorted it!

Cutting was hard work again as I cut the top part of the ski hill with the two wheel tractor and so walked some miles just getting to the hill and back - or rather it felt like it, especially going back. I wasn't too impressed with my cutting this year at all. The lug wheels we have for the tractor are great at keeping the tractor on course and meant it didn't get stuck in pig holes, but they made the tractor heavier and I had difficulty not letting it ride up at times and so it is definitely not a clean cut but rather tufty. Still better than nothing. Ian did the larger section of the ski hill with the two-wheeled tractor and then finished off the rest of the field with the ordinary tractor. We also got to try out the hay rake this year. There were one or two issues and it wasn't set up perfectly, but I'm sure it will be better next year, just as Ian found it easier to cut the hay this year to last year. The baler is slow though and so took two days to do altogether, so it was good that we have had a good long dry spell. I had to follow the tractor to set the bales at a different angle so they didn't roll down the hill and so guess what! Yes I walked a lot, and it was 33C on one day. There were a few times that the baler got clogged and we, or should I say mainly Ian, had to get out and clear it. I sat on a bale and watched, they are perfect sizes for seating.

Ian's little helper

We had some help this week, one of our friends gave us a chicken pot pie to eat and it was lovely even if we had to have it cold. It was lovely not to have to cook and it was lovely that it was ready when we needed it, as well as filling. Ian also had some help with the baling. One of our neighbour's little boy is absolutely tractor mad, so one day he came to see us and got to sit in the tractor and pull the cord that opens the baler to release the bale. He took his job very seriously, it was funny watching his little face. He did release one or two bales a little early before the cutter got into action but it didn't seem to matter too much, apart from the fact I had to be pretty quick to make sure I was on hand on the steeper sections to catch the bales and turn them. There was one point when I could see that he was watching something and seemed to be going "oooooh!" I turned around to see one of the bales had suddenly started moving and had to run to catch it. Good job they are only small ones and not those huge monstrosities they usually bale around here.

Turbjörn as usual outside with Herkules hiding in the stable
(can't call it the workshop any more). Tellus is taking a
little sustenance outside for a change. At least they like the
hay we have.

The alpacas are definitely getting more used to us, but we are surprised that they seem to be spending quite a bit of time actually in their stable, rather than out in the paddock like alpacas are supposed to prefer. It might be that the poor things are actually bothered by the horse flies and some of them are huge - the flies that is! Or it might have been the heat. Mind you I say that they spend time in the stable, two of them do and the other one seems to be made to stay outside. Definitely a hierarchy and not too sure if it is the same heirarchy while they were in Sweden. Herkules is the greedy one and the more dominant one, but Tellus the stallion will stand up to him and occasionally they have had a bit of a fight, nothing serious but a lot of spitting and some rearing up going on. They are obviously deciding who gets priority in which part of the stable. Turbjörn though just lets them get on with it and stays out of the way, quite clever really as while they are arguing over one feed tray, he goes over to one of the others and starts eating in peace. They all very quickly got the hang of shutting up time and now we have no issues getting them locked up for the night and even just one of us can manage. Better than the visions we had initially had of chasing them round the paddock for hours trying to get them in.

Who us?

This is my best side I think! (Herkules)

Getting big now!

The only problem with having spent the week in the caravan and getting the hay in is that the other gardens got sadly neglected. I was a little bit worried about the state of them, but it hasn't taken me as long as I thought it would to do the weeding, thankfully much of what we have planted has started to take off now with the heat and out competed with the weeds, especially the squash plants. I had made a nice isolation enclosure for one type of squash plants so that we can collect the seed from them but that is making a bid for freedom and taken up the whole of the space and was happily making its way through the bean plants that were surrounding it. The beans have finally got enough heat to get going but unfortunately the potatoes have been hammered with blight and one of my experimental plants, Aztec broccoli succumbed to black fly. At least now there is more than peas and lettuce coming out of the garden for us to eat. We have even got our first decent sized cabbage and tomato sandwiches are gorgeous.

Okay I hitched a lift a couple of times.
Health and safety? Definitely!
Heat exhaustion vs hitching a lift!
No competition

Well that's about our week really. We cut, I walked, we turned hay, I walked (taking the hay off the steepest part of the slope), we baled, I walked, I walked to get my milk, and I have walked up and down the gardens weeding and that was it. Or at least that feels like all we did. I did catch up with a bit of the internet when we got back to civilisation and it was funny to read one blog that I usually follow called "Taking time in a rushed world!" Time was not something we had in abundance this week, we had to get the baling done while the weather was holding. It was not something we could put off till next week and just shows how our time is governed by the seasons and by the weather now. For instance if you want to guarantee time to see us and time to talk then the winter is the best time, the rest of the time it depends. If it's wet and we can't get on with much then sitting around a table chatting is great, but if it is dry then somethings might have to be done. The article, however, was something that is quite close to our heart and that is waiting until the time is right to do things.  We waited 6 years before we knew the time was right to move to Latvia, but the article talks about people waiting 20 years before embarking on what they knew God was leading them into -something that we find difficult to comprehend these days in our instant society.

Unfortunately we weren't the only ones busy
this week. Oh yes! The pigs are back!