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.

Broken!

A wet soggy Turbjørn. Our alpacas seem to have their heads
down most of the time eating while they can still get to the
grass

Just recently we seem to have a catalogue of things breaking or going kaput. Some of them are silly little things but many are things we have been relying on and will need fixing or replacing and it is getting rather annoying. Maybe it is being out in the cold that is doing it and sudden changes in temperature. I suppose that won't help, but not the case for all of them. So here is the catalogue of broken things

Even formation eating. 

The newer greenhouse - some of the poles have got bent or snapped. It doesn't seem to be lasting as long as the other one we bought a few years ago, but then again we anchored that one down into the ground and this new one is not in a permanent place yet.

Sometimes our animals stay inside when it is wet

Halogen oven, aka Robbie - that went a while ago and Ian thought it was probably the bulb and so ordered two when we went to England, but now it looks like it might actually be the thermostat and we still need to locate a replacement for that.

Slow cooker - I cracked the bowl. I think this might have been a temperature thing and so annoying.

Lady V sporting the newest curly look

Transformers - we have had a variety of small transformers and this week one of the bigger ones went kaput on us and that brings the total to four that have gone this year. Ian really needs one of these for the tooth cutting machine and I need one for my sewing machine that are both from the US. Fortunately for the sewing machine we have a large transformer but it is not exactly portable and so no good for Ian. We are now trying to source a new one of those.

Cleaning a bucket in the pond

Pipe for soot collector - this went today whilst trying to clean out the wood-fired oven before the winter heating season. Nothing major just annoying and made worse by the fact we don't seem to be able to get any decent duct tape to repair it with.

It has rained a lot this week and so the ponds have filled to
overflowing. The ground water has also leaked into the well.
It added 330 litres of water in one day where had been filling
up by about 20 litres a day just before as it had slowed down
from the 40 litres a day we were getting.This is no big deal
from a contamination point of view, there is nothing nearby to
contaminate it except sediment, so the water is now cloudy.
The problem is that the ground around the well has still not
settled yet and Ian had to pack it down a bit more. It slowed to
70 litres the day after and 30 litres today (yes Ian does like
to keep records)

Coffee press - that was this week too during washing up. Fortunately we have a spare that our friends bought for their use whilst they were here in Latvia. So we at least have one we can borrow.

Kettles - the one at our apartment went kaput but fortunately our friends who were there at the time bought us a new one. The one out on the land also started to leak but fortunately Ian fixed that with some super glue.

One foaming cat. Of all our cats, Sofie is the best at not taking
tablets. She has perfected the technique of foaming the tablet
rather than swallowing it. Here I am making sure she doesn't
work the tablet out of her mouth. It still had to be put back in
about three times. I wouldn't mind, but normally I don't have
a problem, she is the only cat to have ever beaten me.This was
the worming tablet, fortunately her antibiotic tablets she will
just eat with her food- well most of the time anyway.  

Even the cat, Sofie, is broken. We have no idea what happened but she disappeared for a day - nothing unusual in that, she often disappears for a little while although these little trips have been getting fewer - but when she turned up she was not putting one of her rear legs on the floor. Somehow she had dislocated her hip joint and so that entailed a trip to the big town to get an x-ray and then an operation to put a pin in. At least a specialist was in town that day for his weekly visit. She is now quarantined to the caravan for three weeks to stop her jumping around so much. She still climbs but nothing major and after nearly five days I think she is beginning to accept or enjoy being confined. At least she is in the warm caravan during the day.

Oh yes! Winter struck

The timing of Sofie's accident was not great as winter decided to have a bit of a blast this last week. We had about 5cm of wet slushy snow and so the roads were rather nasty on the way to the big town. We haven't got the winter tyres on yet, instead we have all weather tyres which are legal even in winter, but they are past their best. We got new winter tyres last year, but in the spring we put the old tyres back on to save wear and tear and we haven't swapped back over yet. The wintery weather lasted for about three days before disappearing, but the forecast for the week ahead is not looking too great.

A light blanket of snow as described by the English version
of the Latvian news

We had to take two trips to the big town as we had a meeting with a rural business consultant. She is helping us with getting the rural support for our land and looking out for project money that might help us with the farm and our alpaca tourism. We hadn't gone down the route of EU money before because, to be honest, we weren't sure what we were going to do and had only vague plans, which are not helpful when trying to access project money or the rural support money. We now have a clearer idea of which areas we are willing to manage according to the rules to get the money and which parts we are not for the time being. This year has helped us to crystallise out some of our plans for the future and helped us to work out what we need help with, although this is still a work in progress of course.

Agnese has been trying to show she is boss to me this week.
I have ignored her stand offs and yesterday she ran off instead,
so I think that is progress. She was being standoffish with Ian
but is now back to being more friendly, so hopefully she has
got over the early pregnancy and feeling more like her old self

The snow this last week of course concentrates our mind on what needs to be sorted before winter proper starts. Some of our plants need protection and we notice people have started wrapping up their trees with fleece or plastic, so that will be on the list of to-dos. Whilst Ian was sweeping out the oven earlier on today I got out and picked the last of the beets. I was surprised though that the rows of beans were still okay.

We did see some sunshine and it always makes Chanel's coat
glow

I was annoyed I haven't had the chance to pick them earlier and fully expected them all to have rotted away by now, but they weren't. The pods were soft but not rotten and there were lots of them. I decided to save them and managed to pick the lot before some sleety rain came down. It was fairly easy to separate the beans from the mushy pods and they were rinsed and put on the electric dryer and we had to finish the job by the light from the caravan, but at least it was done. There are still parsnips, jerusalem artichokes and carrots to dig up before they get frozen into the ground and then that really will be the end of the season.

A damp and shaggy looking Mr. P.

We are still out in the caravan, because despite the snow, it hasn't actually been that cold. It was colder overnight earlier on this month. We have though started the process of moving back to our apartment and plan to do that when I get back after a trip up to Estonia. It is easier for Ian to stay in the caravan when he is on his own. I have taken my clothes back and anything else that is not needed over the next week or so.

Lady V in the sunshine too. She is looking really good and
so having some time off from pregnancies has helped her a
lot, although occasionally we do wonder if she did get
pregnant after all in the five minutes she was left alone.

Also despite the weather we have still had visitors, but not the ones that booked earlier on. We were meant to have a group of fifteen but they decided the weather was too bad and let us know they weren't coming. We are pleased that they let us know anyway and to be fair it was pretty miserable over the weekend, so can't say I really blame them. We had two sets of visitors on the Saturday and both hit lucky with the weather as we were in the greenhouse giving the talk about what we do and how we came to be in Latvia when it rained and they managed to see the alpacas when it was dry. The first set were very generous, they bought a ball of hand spun wool, paid for the trip and gave us a donation too. We felt very appreciated. They also told us that neighbours around here are very pleased with what we are doing and the fact we haven't sold the land to some large Swedish company, as many do, which is good to know.

Herkules also looking a little damp

Our second group were two ladies helping at the camp nearby. One of them has her own small farm with a llama amongst other things. She also tries to grow her own food and so was interested in what we were doing. We decided on a cup of tea before going to see the alpacas since it was tipping it down with rain and just chatted about farms, spinning and handicrafts.

Chillier days

Frosty morning

Winter reared its head this week with some distinctly frosty days. One night it was -6.7C in the greenhouse and last night it was -5C. Staying out in the caravan in these temperatures is starting to lose its appeal. We are still warm enough, as our quilt and two blankets help a lot. Menopause also has its benefits. The disadvantage is waiting for the caravan to warm up sufficiently to want to get up out of bed. At least the heater is within reaching distance and the caravan warms up quickly, since it is only a small space. Of course our electric use has gone up, but our travel costs, or Ian's travel costs are still low because he's not travelling backwards and forwards all the time. I am also out and about on the land rather than cooped up at home this way too. At some stage it just won't be worth staying out as the nights will be so long in a small space. I know! I keep saying that and we are still out here. 

These two are forever fighting it seems, but I think they would
miss each other if they were separated.

A picture of me last week, filling in for Little Red Riding
Hood. I used the alpaca scarf to good effect. It was really
warm and kept the cool winds at bay.

I spent the week in Latvia and at this time of the year, it can become a bit of a novelty. I have several trips planned all ready and one to arrange. I did go into Riga though and had a great day chatting with some lovely people. One was a connection for professional as well as personal reasons. Lovely chap who I've worked with briefly in the past and we both value each other's inputs on rural development. Good to thrash ideas about and would be great if we ever found a project we could both work on. I'm sure we could spark some good ideas between us

Aggie looking rotund and hopefully pregnant

Chanel glowing in the autumn sunshine. She really is the
colour of autumn too

The other meeting was meeting up with some with an aim to start putting together a programme for a felting holiday (details to be announced in the near future we hope). I am working on finding activities for day trips for people to experience more of Latvia, including Riga and a chance to be inspired by Latvian art and design. It is mainly aimed at those from abroad of course. We hope to arrange various types of felting courses, to suit different budgets, so we hope to make some more accessible to local people and some for people who would like to come for the experience of felting on an alpaca farm and visiting Latvia for the first time. All this planning will mean we can also put together holidays tailored towards individuals or groups. Quite exciting really and not the sort of thing we had thought of doing before, but if it works then great. 

Eyre warily eying the alpacas, as they do like to chase her

A friend who I met at the local camp last year and this year is helping me organise the Riga city tour aspect and she also introduced me to a lovely textile artist Ieva Prane. Ieva's work is very varied and it will be wonderful to include her on one or more of our felting courses. She is really open to sharing her work and what she does, which not all felters in Latvia are unfortunately. I also briefly met her husband Guntars and as I write this blog, Guntars' music is playing on the radio. He produced an album of Gregorian chants from ancient records he found in a library in Riga. Very peaceful! 

All ready for our visitors. At least it was nice and warm in the
greenhouse

I am surprised that we are still getting visitors turning up on our farm, particularly at weekends. I even sold my first felted product this week, but don't get too excited it was just a felt ball, at least it was a start.We had one group from the local regional rural consultancy bureau during the week and a family who stopped to take a look at the animals at the weekend. We even have another booking for the end of the month for a small group who will be in the area for two days. It makes me wonder if we can do something for Christmas but that would be a challenge to come up with something but could be fun. 

Felt balls

A range of shawls, socks, pendants and scarves for sale

The ones that got away. The amaranth in the greenhouse grew

some lovely big seed heads and we harvested lots of seed

but these ones were much smaller. Unfortunately the wind 

seems to have also taken all the seed with it. No doubt there 

will be Amaranth growing all over the garden next year, as 

well as hemp

We are still making slow headway in finishing the harvesting. I collected all the beans from the garden on the land and started the process of drying them. Those that dried on the vine look fine to plant next year, but those that hadn't got frosted and I think they are only good for the pot. It was a shame as I was hoping for more beans to grow next years crop. We have also been collecting apples. Some of course are frosted, but many seem to have survived the frosty mornings. We have now got quite a few crates stored in our cellar. We hope they will last into winter and if not they will be processed at a later date. At least the chickens are enjoying the bonanza.

Sofie sitting in her favourite place when we are trying to move
the chicken arks. As we carry them to their new position, she
tries to lick or rub up against Ian's face. Not easy to carry the
ark with two hands and fend off an affectionate cat.

The humungous potatoes with a teaspoon for comparison

As usual our garden got a bit overgrown but I managed to find some potatoes that must have grown from some potato peelings which were in the compost heap and they were absolutely huge. I know there are lots who say you should never put peelings in compost heaps, but we do and not really have many problems apart from random potato plants from time to time. Unfortunately these ones also had brown, hollow centres. This is due to the hot dry weather when they started growing, followed by the wet weather which stressed the poor things out. Unlike blight though it doesn't affect their taste thank goodness, just a little disappointing to find they are not as big as they look.  One advantage to the frosts is they make parsnips sweeter and so we have started digging these up for a distinctly wintery flavour in our meals. 

Shawls outside for pictures for the
website

This one was inspired by dandelions, not
that they look like dandelions, but that
was the inspiration

Mari looking out for Eyre, our little grey cat

The greenhouse tidy up has continued in preparation for putting the chickens and the caravan in for the winter. This has definitely been a slower process than usual. Normally it is cleared much sooner, I'm sure. Or maybe it just feels like that. Certainly last year they were inside much sooner and there were more frosty mornings than this year. The steady drift towards winter though means that the animals are getting through the grass quite quickly and need to be moved more often as the grass stops growing. Soon they will be just on the hay, but the longer they can stay on the grass the better. 

Mari chasing Eyre off