New student

Warning alert! Staged photo. This isn't how I 
normally feed Lolly but I needed a photo in 
nature for the expert working group. So this is
me with our biotope as a background which
we manage using the alpacas of course.

It was Ian's turn to be a student, but he's now graduated with a certificate. Our land was designated a moist meadow biotope and it meant he had to attend a mandatory course four day course to get the special subsidies for this piece of land. He had forgotten about it in the busyness of this time of year. He suddenly remembered and checked it out to see when it was. It turned out the course started the very next day. Fortunately the lady at the bureau suggested her son as a translator for the zoom videos. It was a bit frustrating as Ian didn't understand a lot of it, but he's got a very nice book that has lots of details and will help us plan the management of the land better. We will also see about a consultation to draw up plans. 

The girls proving that alpacas don't mind long
grass sometimes. They weren't eating the long
grass mind - it's not the sort they like, they were 
eating all the vetch and clover that they really 
do like.

They also appreciate the tasty, short green grass
too.

Another frustration has been the weather. We still seem to be missing some torrential downpours but we haven't escaped entirely unlike the period of drought a short while ago. The drought has definitely ended and we are well into the showery season. It doesn't help for cutting the remaining hay fields. Some hay was cut and has been left in windrows for the last week. It won't be good for anything except mulching somewhere, even then some of it is too weedy and just wants composting in a hot composter - rather a lot of compost though. I do need some, but perhaps not that much. 

Having a nosy in the greenhouse. There is a
fence between the alpacas and our greenhouse.
Not sure they would go in anyway, unless they
spied our grapes perhaps.

This looks like the two young ones with their
Mums but it's not. It shows the young ones
are well integrated into the herd, which is good.
Especially relieved to see that Lolly is 
accepted and her and Karla are often together.

The weather has meant a change in flies. We no longer have the giant horseflies. Hurray! We now have the irritating ordinary flies. Booo! Can't win it seems. The flies themselves are generally not too bad, but if they find a weak spot they are in and feasting on sores. Horrible things. We are having to put daily fly repellent on the alpacas, creams, barrier sprays - you name it, we've tried it. It's okay in the morning to put the creams/barrier sprays and fly repellent on the animals for most of them and that seems to be keeping the issues at bay to some extent, although top ups for Tellus is sometimes needed during the day, but Chanel!!!!! Oh my! Her skin is the worst, she attracts the flies due to being so dark and sweaty and...... she's our most awkward animal to deal with. 

Silla enjoying the sunshine. Good job as there has
been precious little of it just lately.

Still inseperable

All the other animals we can generally treat by Ian holding onto them and I applying whatever is needed. Except Chanel, oh and Brencis but that's another story. We have to time the encounter. The strategy is that I get my spray in hand and as Ian takes hold of her head, I move in swiftly to start spraying before she sits down. The good thing is that she isn't spitting quite so much when this is done, she just moans pitifully all the way through the procedure. She has also developed an annoying habit of bracing herself so that it makes it doubly difficult to get hold of her legs to put anything on. Whatever goes on has to be sprayed to stand a chance of putting it on. Any creams that would heal her skin are too difficult to apply. Maybe we should get a non-electric plaster sprayer and see what that does. I have a feeling that might not end well though. 

Karla is turning out to be a very laid back little
lady and the spitting image of her father. She
can be a bit stubborn though, also just like her
father, Brencis in the picture below.

This is the look I get when I call her name for
feeding!

Since Lolly our youngest cria (baby alpaca) has arrived, all I seemed to do is prepare food, eat, feed the baby, wash bottles, on repeat until it is time to sleep.  I'm grateful we've managed to drop the middle of the night feed, although the early mornings are proving more of a killer. I've added 5 minutes a day onto the length of time when we feed her in the morning until it is a more reasonable time i.e. 6:15. Up until the last few days I've been traipsing up the field every two hours to wherever the alpacas are loitering. Fortunately when I shout for Lolly she generally comes running. Sometimes she's even prowling waiting for me, but not too often. Now the feeding has extended to more or less every 2 3/4 hours, which at least means I can get some work done in between.

Not sure if they are just having a chat or a 
disagreement. Still a nice day!

New fashion, obviously!

So yes! I've also started back at work. It's a bit hard going. One of my current projects is screening articles, so reading over a 100 titles and abstracts in a day to decide if we include them in in a study or not. Normally I can read them faster, but for now that is a start. The other job this week was to finally, finally finish off a paper. I had to learn how to create an interactive table matrix from data in a programme we use. It was easy once I got the hang of it, but it took some working out how to ensure I got the right data in the right place to be able to create the file I wanted. I had to listen to a video and I'm not really a fan of videos and could have quite happily fallen asleep trying to watch it. Still! I got there in the end!

Hello!

Potatoes all wrapped up under a mulch of hay
and my squashes that are doing well.

Last week was my final week of holiday and I did get some gardening done at least. I managed to cut all the potato tops off and mulched them up to mature. If I leave the tops on they could spread blight to the potatoes tubers and I also found last year that the potatoes swelled up so much they ended up poking through the soil and turning green, so a thick layer of mulch should help stop that. They'll be dug up in September. My garden is a mess as usual at this time of the year but at least we still find enough to eat in abundance. 

We were a little worried about Turbjørn recently.
The youngsters had been fighting and we wonder
if Turbjørn had been caught up in one of their 
arguments as he seemed to be in quite a bit of pain.
Fortunately he settled down and seems much better
 now. He's also put weight on over the summer, so
that's an improvement.

On the lookout!

My main task is just trying to keep my brassicas going, to get them through this season as the onslaught of bugs continues. The cabbage bugs have been a pain all year and the caterpillars have been joining in the feast, the snails and slugs will be next I'm sure. One night of not checking - usually due to a torrential downpour - and the little teeny-tiny caterpillars turn into monsters. At least the rain means the plants are looking better than they were. I also managed to get some more seeds in and they have now being watered in, or perhaps washed out. I must go and check to see if anything has germinated beyond the radishes I spotted today.

Oh! So that's who they've spotted. Rocket Ron!

Our land looks so nice on a lovely day. Currently
it's looked rather more moody.

We had a worrying few days when Ginger Tom went missing. I messaged a neighbour to see if they had seen him or heard anything but they hadn't. We know the risks with foxes around here and concerned that one of those may have taken him. The weather was awful over those few days too. After 5 days he turned up looking fit, healthy and dry. Hmmm! Did he stray a bit too far and found a cozy barn? Who knows! Anyway, he's back and not wandered off again since. 

Mother checking on her little one. She's only
sunbathing.

A popular preoccupation for alpacas, designed
to worry their owners.

Ian has been giving advice to some other alpaca owners recently. They had some sick alpacas and some had already died. They weren't able to get the right kind of information, so Ian passed on the contact information for the veterinary school and shared what he knew from the very technical books we have on the subject. A bit later he was going to the big town and so decided to call in and see them, as they are kind of close to the town. He spent a long time just chatting about alpaca things of course. A little while later the alpaca owners contacted him again and said a little one was ill. They had told Ian previously that he hadn't been thriving as his mother had died and the other alpacas ignored him, so not surprising. The poor little mite. They were struggling because he needed quite a bit of care and they had a lot of work to do with other animals. Ian went back out and took what medication we had, mainly vitamins, particularly B1 which can be critically low in a sick alpaca and doesn't harm if not needed and just hoped that something might have worked. We chatted about it and he decided to offer to bring it to our place so we could nurse him, but unfortunately he died that night.

Vanessa does look like her Mum.

The grapes are delicious.

I've been in Tartu this last week, just for a few days though. It now seems like a major expedition rather than just popping up the road (long day of travel though that is). A work colleague has a summer home in Latvia and he was visiting his place before travelling up to Tartu for a few days. The summer house is only about 3/4 hour away from us and so I took the opportunity to cadge a lift as we say. It saves a full day of travel and means I could finally get my health check for work done. I could also say hi to my work colleagues. One of them pointed out that we had never met in the flesh before, which kind of surprised me as I had got to know her in the online meetings and forgot she had only really started post-Covid. I had also only seen another work colleague last year when his family visited after my graduation. Such a long time has passed by when we see each other regularly via the computer but not actually in person. So much has changed.

The chicks are growing fast. They'll have to be
moved outside soon

Planning ahead

Our cats have been cuddling up for warmth this week. 

The clocks changed, did you notice? We sure did, especially as Ian is now home from the land very early, about 5pm at the moment, by which time it is quite dark. The changing clocks really does focus our mind on the coming winter. This last week has been so cold (-10C/14F at night and not above freezing in the day) that the ground has well and truly frozen. This does mean that Ian has been able to get on with some work, like moving bales of hay with the tractor, but he can't get the wooden stakes in to mark the road yet for when the snows come. It should thaw though this next week and so that kind of preparation work will be undertaken in earnest. I should have got the garlic in a couple of weeks ago, but didn't and now I have to wait for the ground to thaw too to put them in. Mind you, I have a cunning plan, there are some chippings that have got far to rotten for Ian to put on the roadway, but they are not so wet that they are frozen. If the worse comes to the worse then I use that to put the garlic in, on top of the frozen soil. It will sort itself out in the Spring if not before.

Ian experimenting to see if he can get
our woodstove up and working out on
the land. It will help to dry wood out,
provide some warmth if the electric
ever goes out and heat up water for
the animals to drink

I mentioned last week that the heating was rather too warm, but the house manager got a system installed that seemed to be working to keep the temperature pleasant and so it stayed for quite a few days (no that is not a picture of our apartment house heating system). The last few days have been on the cool side, but I think that was due to the rather bitter cold wind we have been having. I don't care though, I would rather have it a tad cool than too warm or freezing. After all an extra layer or a blanket suffices or even the fire on if necessary, but when it is freezing for days on end or too warm, there is not much you can do when you have communal heating and no individual means of regulating the heat.

Improvements to the stove. Ian took
the legs off so it would sit lower in the
little woodstore area. He then put
stones around to retain heat. Next
will be some walls of some description

Besides preparing for winter I have been sorting out my students. I now have three, one in Estonia, one in Latvia and one in Uganda. The Estonian and the Latvian are both Masters students and helping me with my PhD research, the Ugandan is my Sociology student. I was a little concerned I wasn't getting work from my Ugandan student to mark, but it turns out the electric has been a little haphazard. Oh they joys of online learning! It is challenging supervising Masters students and tutoring someone at GCSE level, which are exams aimed at students primarily around 16 years old in the UK, but I like a challenge and would get bored if I didn't have challenges to keep me going. I met up with the Latvian student in Riga last week and we had a good time. I think we got a good understanding of the project and where we are heading, so that was encouraging.

The Freedom monument in Riga

I went by bus to Riga to meet up with the Latvian student and it was my neighbour who was driving. I got the privileged front seat, the one they usually rope off until the bus is full. It was a dark start at 6:40am and it made me realise how observant the drivers have to be on the dark country roads. I would notice the driver signalling and slowing down and then see a small bright light at the side of the road, that I had taken for a reflector on one of those road edge indicator posts. I did wonder what they used to do before bright torches and reflective strips. There was one guy who had neither of those and was dressed in a dark jacket and dark trousers. I wondered how on earth the driver saw him, but I guess it helped that by then the sky was starting to brighten. It was sad to see the tail end of the flooding though. There was so much water still standing in fields and rivers were also running high. Some of the large round bales of hay were sat in water 2/3rds of a bale high. All I could think of was the wasted effort and money for the farmer.

Old Riga, taken with my back to the Freedom Monument

Whilst in Riga I also met up with my young friend and she helped direct me to a little shoe stall on the market that had winter boots. I managed to find a pair, for which I was very grateful. I hate trudging around shops looking for things and to my delight, so does my young friend. We hit the second hand shops for about an hour, if that! Then we were both bored and had enough, perfect! I didn't buy any clothes, but she found some fabulous blouses that really suited her and were great for a more business like look. At least I know where to go for decent second hand clothes in Riga now. On my way to find my friend at the bus station I spotted a statue I hadn't seen before, I didn't think it was the prettiest of statues, as it looked like a fairly gaudy statue of Mary and baby Jesus that looked like it belonged in one of those very over the top, decorated churches or maybe the kind of relics they sell at tacky shops for Christmas. I was trying to work out what it was and why I hadn't seen it before, when the statue started to sink down into a black box looking thing. It was very freaky. Once it had almost disappeared from view and just the crown on its head was all that could be seen, another statue started to rise of a gentleman from either the late 1800s or early 1900s, quite yellow in colour. I'm sorry I was so bewildered by the scene I never thought to get out my ipad and take a video and I hadn't got my camera with me anyway. By way of explanation I did find this quote from a Guardian news article  

To mark its status as European Capital of Culture 2014, hundreds of small projects are aiming to explore Riga's rich heritage, while also looking to its future. Monument Wars is a new art installation on Brivibas boulevard, where a Lenin monument once stood. Designed to illustrate different influences on the city, it is made up of four alternating sculptures, including a Virgin Mary and a black-skinned Barbie in Swedish dress.

Well that explains one of the other statues and I know there was a fourth but I didn't hang around long enough to see what that one was.

Frosty days and autumn leaves have nearly all gone

 All this planning for future projects and winter preparations wasn't the only planning we have been doing this week. My daughter announced that she could come and visit us again in early December. I won't be there for the whole of the time she can come, but then it does give our granddaughter a bit of grandad time, which I'm sure they will both enjoy. It is nice to have her that much closer that she can come and visit more and it is nice to be able to do grandma-ey type things.

At least the sun has returned

I forgot to mention last week we had more pig damage and quite close up to alpaca fences. It is very annoying, as the pasture was finally looking good after a summer of loving care and attention. The advantage though of freezing temperatures this last week, was no pig damage. The ground was just too hard for their big snouts. This next week maybe more of a problem if there is a thaw, they could be quite hungry and it seems like the pigs will not be fed this winter to allow their numbers to dwindle to reduce the problems of over crowding to tackle the spreading African Swine Fever epidemic. Apparently they are still finding about one animal a day with the disease, but fortunately for pig farmers, none have been found in the domestic herds since September and so biosecurity measures seem to be working. 

And yes that is one my neighbours, raking up the leaves
and depriving the worms of leaf mould, whilst making a
very smoky fire to envelope the washing line. There will
not be a black hole in the grass, as the leaves are burning
in the ditch and fortunately there was no washing on the
washing line. 

And that brings me to the end of our week out here in Latvia, so I thought I would finish with my thought for the week. After all the negative thoughts about my neighbours last week, the thought crossed my mind "Who is my neighbour?" When Jesus talked about the Good Samaritan we forget how despised the Samaritans were. I am pretty sure that if Jesus was re-telling that story today, the Good Samaritan would be replaced with the Atheist, the Muslim or the homosexual, all groups often despised today by those who would call themselves Christians, just as the Jews demonised the Samaritans in Jesus' day. I know the way that some groups or authorities treat Christians is appalling, but often in those cases the venom and hate is not just reserved for those who profess faith in Christ, they reject any decent human being and sometimes those who are not decent too. They just hate, full stop! Not all atheists are God-haters, who take delight in pulling down Christians, some of them are quite nice actually, they just don't believe in God. Not all Muslims are terrorists, waiting to blow us up at the least provocation, many are longing for peace and secure families just like many of us. Not all homosexuals are out to pervert our children, again many just want to live in peace and some are the kindest people you might meet. I'm tired of hatred, so let's stop it, please!

If you are squeamish about insects, do not scroll down

I'm warning you! This isn't pretty 

You were warned

These monster cockchafers were found in our wood chipping
pile. The smaller ones you see are a more normal size and
there are some sprouting acorns for comparison. We have
never seen any this big before. Still not sure if I knew
they were edible if I would eat them, but then again, why
worry about that when the chickens fight over them.
Well some of them do anyway, some just look with complete
disdain at the offerings.