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!

Planted up

Rows of Latvian beans, peas and squash in some rather
soggy fields today. Well watered in I guess

Been a rather slow wet day for me. There wasn't a whole lot I could do, it was too wet to garden, and besides I needed a day of rest after the last week when we have worked quite hard getting stuff planted and weeded while the sun was shining. The rain for us was just in time to water in the oats, buckwheat, beans, squash plants, brussel sprouts, celeriac, dahlias, and goodness knows what else because I can't remember now (but don't worry it is mostly written down somewhere). Most of the plants are now out of the greenhouse that should be outside, and I am just waiting for the amaranth and quinoa to get bigger and then they can go out to finish off. Apparently they sit around for ages at the seedling stage before growing vigorously and they have certainly done the sitting around bit. I shall grow a few in the greenhouse though, just in case they are a bit late. The amaranth and the quinoa are an experiment to see how well they grow in our climate, as they would make a good grain addition to our diet if they work. 

Our boating lake! You can see the sun did shine this week

I can't complain at the weather really as it hasn't been too bad once it dried up after the spring thaw and it certainly is not as bad as in the UK at the moment where there has been flooding near places I used to live in the North of England. I know our field here in Latvia was flooded again today but it will dry and it is an area we are going to work on over the next few years to raise the level so it no longer dips there. Neither have we the problems that friends of ours in Colorado have, where some of them have been evacuated due to a giant forest fire. I wouldn't mind, but I had only posted a message to my friend asking if the summer had warmed up enough for her as I know she likes the hot Colorado summers, she thrives in temperatures where I wilt. I am fairly certain though that she would gladly swap some rain and cooler temperatures right now. At least the weather for us was nice enough to sit outside yesterday with a take away from the bakery, soaking up the evening sunshine, listening to the very noisy frogs, the cuckoo still prattling on in the background and resting our aching feet. Twas bliss it was, twas bliss!

Flooded again but at least no river running through it.
Forgot to mention our nice hunters put a cover over
the drain to stop any more wild boar from drowning
because as they say a drowned pig is no good, you can't
eat it.

The new chicks are doing well apart from our poor little chick with the gammy leg. One morning I found it hanging upside down from the sling I made it to take the weight off it's legs. I was horrified as I put it down on the floor and both it's legs were all over the place again. I picked it up and massaged its legs, saying "Come on remember how to walk". I put it back down and it seemed to be moving around better and not scrunched up in the corner. It is still having its ups and downs though, we put it into a separate compartment with four other chicks that seemed to be quieter in nature or smaller, also means we don't have all 16 chicks in one box. The chick, or Hoppy as it is now nicknamed for obvious reasons,  seems to be holding its own and even seems happier in there rather than on its own, but occasionally it seems to get exhausted through trying to keep out of trouble or feed in competition with the others, today was one of those days. I picked Hoppy up and it just sat there, so I snuggled it into an old jumper and just had it on my lap for a while and it fell asleep. I think that was all it needed as it seems a bit more sprightly again this evening.

The monster eating machines. They are also fussy, they
aren't that bothered about a handful of weeds thrown in
they only want the fast food, so they get both and then
they have to scrabble around in the weeds to get the chick
crumbs. We will make them work for their food

All the chicks are growing fast and so Ian made another chicken ark, which will suffice for the time being while they are small and while we are deciding which are for keeping and which are to head for the freezer and which can be swapped. We know someone who ended up with all male chicks and no layers which is what she wanted, so if we have plenty of laying hens then we can swap as we don't need that many just yet. Before you all go arrrrhhh how could you, you should see the way the older chicks behave, they don't seem so cute now. In fact they are quite a menace; we think that is because they are the ones that are just bred to eat and not for their quiet temperament. We also think that we have three males amongst those chickens and only one female and I guess that doesn't help. Assuming the little one survives with the gammy leg Ian will make a small box that sits nearer the ground for those chicks, and if it doesn't survive then it also means we have a broody box ready just in case we have a broody hen when the others get bigger or as a box to keep any poorly hens in if necessary.

Getting more sophisticated now. This has a hinged door to
make it easier to enter and it has a bigger box for the birds
to roost in/

Running water! Even the middle pond was pouring into
the bottom pond.

It seems like we will have visitors galore this summer, which is nice. We had another two "bookings" this week. One is a young lass who came to help us before on the land and in the garden and she is coming back for more. It's lovely being able to talk garden and faith together as we work and it's lovely that someone wants to come to specifically help in the garden. Another is a family who we bought our apartment off that we live in now, they are back from Canada and in the area so would like to stay. I had a feeling this might be a busy year for visitors and it's looking that way.

Blackberries are flowering

I have been acting as an international trade negotiator this week. Are you impressed? Well I wouldn't be, because all it means is that I have been talking to a guy in Ireland who is trying to buy some railway sleepers from our neighbour's company and they find it hard to talk to someone in English over the phone, so they asked if I would do it on their behalf. I should know how hard it is to talk in a language you are not fluent in over the phone because I have had to speak Danish to the tax authorities there and I found that far harder than talking to someone face to face. At least now they have a Latvian contact, which is easier, as I was having to learn a lot of new terminology along the way. Did you know that a bale of railway sleepers is 24 sleepers bound together? Well I didn't before this week. 

"I'm not going out in that!" Sophie sitting in the barn and
not exploring outside. Can't think why!

Latvia has been in the news a lot this week on the internet. The lauding of the Latvian "success" though has made me mad. Christine Lagarde the IMF chief has been praising the Latvian success and the collective determination. More like collective acquiescence I think. The last few years in reality has been an exercise in prying the money out of those least responsible for the crisis in the first place to pay those perhaps most responsible. One dissenting voice rang out though and I have to congratulate the man

Dissenting voices were few........... Armands Strazds, an economist with political ambitions. "I feel like everyone in the auditorium except me has been hypnotised," Strazds told bne. "Sweden tricked the politicians and everyone in Latvia into a rescue package that was actually to save the Swedish banks. For them of course, it was the right thing. For Latvia it was and is terrible suffering." 

A dragonfly on the strawberry plants

At least there is more dissent amongst the journalists these days who are beginning to see how brutal the cuts have been for Latvians and there have been articles in both Reuters and The Guardian slamming the so called recovery. To sell Latvia's so called recovery as a success is to ignore the ongoing pain of those least likely to complain.