The final push!

A panoramic shot of rain clouds on the way. Noooooooooo!

The field is cut but what are the strange shaped
clouds?

I've said it before, but haymaking time is nerve wracking. We have EU subsidies to cut hay on some of our fields and the cut off date is August 15th for regular payments. The weather has been so unpredictable this summer that there has been times when the forecasts said no rain and we had rain, then there have been times when they said it would rain and it didn't. This does not make an already unpredictable but vital part of our calendar a nightmare to plan. Haymaking can occur any time between the end of June till mid-August and of course depends on the weather. If it is very hot, it can be done in a few days, or like this year it has dragged on and on and on. We have three main areas to cut, these are the main part of our land in the areas not eaten by our alpacas, our meadow - or what used to be a ski hill and a neighbour's land. We managed to get the neighbour's land cut, the main section of our land cut, albeit we lost maybe a quarter of the hay when the weather turned but the ski hill was left till last. 

Amanda does look tired. Hopefully she is pregnant, she certainly
does not like to see the males going past now.

Ian's boots were falling apart. He forgot to take them to the cobbler
in the big town, so he decided to fix them himself

They are very robust boots, so he drilled some holes and fixed 
them with wire

Surprisingly, they don't look that bad.

Potato beds

Finally the weather stabilised and the forecast was for no rain for a good long period of time. It was also forecast to be fairly hot and sunny, so perfect weather to get going. Ian started the process as soon as the grass has dried out after the overnight dew. The following day he turned the hay in one section and then the next day he started on the steep section, meanwhile I was in the garden cutting the tops off the potatoes to reduce the risk of blight getting to the tubers that will carry on maturing in the ground until we get around to digging them up (they are still a bit new to get the out just yet). I was surprised to see Ian but no tractor. The tractor had died. It just stopped working in the middle of the field. 

My companion when I was cutting off the potato 
tops. I don't think he/she was happy about me removing
his cover and certainly wasn't happy about me 
relocating him or her to somewhere safer. It peed on me

Another companion and an unwelcome one at that. 
Colorado beetle larvae, a significant potato pest. I was
only telling someone the week before that we hadn't 
seen any in a while and most potato crops are too far away.
Anyway it and its companions have now been dispatched.

The visitor attraction has now been cut. The flowers had gone
over anyway and it has to be done before August 15th

Josefs got a telling off from me tonight as I had to put them
away, since Ian was baling, and he bumped into me.

We managed to get some neighbours to turn the last bit of hay before we had a couple of showers of rain - not great for hay but with continued fine weather, not the end of the world. Thank goodness for good neighbours. Ian then spent Sunday working on the tractor to try and find the fault before the rain stopped him as the tractor was still stuck in the middle of the field. He thought it might be a faulty ignition switch, but after taking it out, that turned out not to be the problem. He finally traced the fault to a wire between the ignition switch and the fuse box. Apparently the wire must have rubbed on the fuse box bracket over the years, until it rubbed through the insulation and shorted out. He has never been so relieved to find a singed piece of metal that confirmed his suspicions. So the bracket has been altered so it doesn't rub on the cable and the cable re-insulated. The tractor is now working and Ian is in the middle of baling as I write this blog. Hopefully he will be finished soon and we can eat. Tomorrow will be a hay shifting day to get it all undercover before Thursday's predicted rain.

How many bales? 269 off the ski hill you say? Good job, I'm 
eating for two (at least we hope so!)

A knot grass moth

Freddie with his bandage on.

I've worked hard this week. Most of the blackcurrants have been picked and processed. I also started the process of preserving the tomatoes for tomato sauce for over winter. As I mentioned above I've been cutting off the potato tops and weeded the plots while I was at it, which took me a bit longer than I would have liked. I've also been spending quite a bit of time fixing alpacas. The hot weather has meant an increase in flies and all the alpacas with vulnerable skin have been struggling with attacks from the flies. Each one seems to have a different reaction. Herkules has another growth on his leg, similar to a reaction he had a couple of years ago. I thought we were getting on top of that, but now the bandages keep working loose. Freddie seemed to have developed more of an ulcer, but some cream from the vet's and the bandages seem to be working on him. Veronica was developing a few red spots on her back legs but that has been sorted with my cream mixed with clay, the same with Aggie. Well until tonight when the flies have now got to her leg. Another one to bandage up in the morning.

Herk's bandage is slipping down. We've tried the t-shirt but he
knows how to take that off. For goodness sake Herk! It would
be much better if you kept the bandage on. The growth will 
go away much quicker.

I extended a flower bed for the irises that a
friend gave me. I also added some lavender
that she has grown from seed.

Who me? Would I do a thing like that? 

Now Chanel!!!!! Oh my goodness! She is a sensitive and spitty soul at the best of times, more so when she is pregnant and she seems to be now. The plan was to get some oil on her back legs overnight and then to wash it off in the morning. No chance! Ian could not keep her still long enough for me to get her scaly skin covered in oil. We had to abandon that idea. Normally she improves over summer, as she gets out in the sun and onto the fresh grass, but this year she didn't. So we are now trying Vitamin D (with a few other vitamins because they are in the bottle), some metabolites and Vitamin B complex to try and boost her immune system. She does seem to spend a lot of time indoors and she is a dark alpaca, so she may not be getting the full benefit from the sun this year, plus it has been overcast. It is weird, but giving her injections isn't as much of a problem. She didn't seem to bother as much about that, but she was not going to let us in to look at her legs. We'll just have to see how she responds to that as the stress could just exacerbate any other type of treatment. Sigh!

Sunbathing again!

Yup! And this group are all at it!

Such a hard life.

Angelica

Other than that! We've picked mushrooms from the forest and dried them. We also been backwards and forwards to the village for bandages etc. for the alpacas, diesel for the tractor, to do washing, get plastic to cover the hay bales, fuses for the tractor, the bakery, shopping - it's a good job it isn't far. Normally we don't do that much running backwards and forwards to save diesel and wear and tear on the car. We try to keep it to once a week. Ian also had a trip to the big town to get baler twine. Annoying now there is not a tractor supply place in the village now. 

These mushrooms are easy to find, they grow in 
our greenhouse. Very tasty too.

We think Aggie's pregnant, not only is she spitting off the males,
she's very grumpy and here she is getting ready to spit at Ian if 
he gets any closer. 

Miss laid-back Mari. It's hard to tell if she's pregnant as she isn't
the spitty sort at all. We thought she was, then maybe not and
now Ian's not sure at all. Let's see what she does next time
Mr. Tellus pays a visit.

Mr. Tellus sure has a spring in his step. Not bad for an old chap
and the girls do like him, when they aren't pregnant.

Mr. P. has finished on mating duties for this year. 

Finally! We had visitors, or rather we didn't have visitors. Ian had an email for a visit from 25 children and four adults, he responded and then the night before but no confirmation, then the night before there was a flurry of communication and they were coming, but later than originally planned. We tidied up the greenhouse a bit, so that there would be more washing stations and then Ian got a message to say they weren't coming. The greenhouse needed tidying but we both have other jobs to do than prepare for visitors who then change their minds. It is amazing how many people ask to visit and then change their minds or turn up late - as if we have nothing better to do than wait around for visitors. It is a good job that the vast majority of people are not like this, otherwise we would seriously question whether we open for visitors or not. Rural areas are supposed to benefit from tourists, but I sometimes wonder. So many of our friends are seriously cheesed off with visitors who do not behave or do not do as they are told or do not obey notices. It is not as if the hosts are being awkward, we just have other things to do, we have our animals to keep safe and we have visitors to keep safe. Maybe people should go on courses before they are allowed to visit farms.

Looking for shade

Daisies are pretty

Fortunately not as many hornets (pictured here) or wasps this
year. Mind you, hornets are not quite as aggressive as wasps

Turbjørn is doing okay. Not as good as we would like, but he seems to be better in himself

Bee balm

There is a vegetable garden in there somewhere.

Marshmallow flower

So happy with my waterlilly. It's still blooming away.

Blueberries are ripening

He looks like such an in charge chap! Apart from he isn't, he's
a coward really. This week when I was doing something in the 
greenhouse when I heard a commotion from the chicken arks.
There was something about the noise that made me think that
the pine marten might be back, so I ran down and next thing
I see is an eagle flying off. I went to check on the chickens and
I think it had been pulling at the netting to get to them. No wonder
they were freaked out. 

Not a plant I wanted to find. I think it's ragwort
which is poisonous to alpacas and many other
animals. I pulled it up.

Grape season is on us. Plenty of little ripe ones to snack on.

More strange clouds and you can see more of the field where
Ian has cut the hay

With love - tomato style

I think the tree must be sick, but with what.
The insects are going mad over it. There are 
flies, lots of musk beetles, hornets and butterflies

They seem to be feeding off something but what?
The grass is also dying around it.

Autumnal

Hmmm! What mischief can we get up to today? We have
done the escaping through the electric fence lark and been
rumbled. Ian our human only went and switched the electric
on didn't he! That put a stop to our wanderings

It's raining as I write. Not much rain, little bits both welcome and not welcome. The forecast was for a clear day with rain to the north. Well most of the rain was to the north but it also drifted southwards. It wouldn't be so bad but we are in the middle of putting in a root cellar and wanted to do that while it was dry of course. It also rained a little on Saturday and the tractor broke when a log managed to break the accelerator pedal. A sheer fluke of an accident. Ian has fixed it for now but it just meant hours wasted, first trying to identify the problem and then trying to solve it. It could have been worse of course and it is a good job Ian is reasonably handy when it comes to things mechanical.

Just walk away and look nonchalant. We are being watched

Still waiting for the move into the hole.

At least we managed to get the old chicken hut into the hole that was dug and onto a layer of insulation. It was tricky trying to get it into the hole with our small tractor, but with a bit of the appliance of science and a few hefty planks to push, it went in perfectly. The roof was cut to size, as the hut doesn't need an overhang now and then some plastic on the top for now to keep the rain out. The floor has also been fixed as that was getting a bit loose in places. The forecast for the rest of the week is quite pleasant, so hopefully today's rain won't hold us up so much.

Herkules without his fashionable apparel, which he didn't
appreciate anyway

It would have been better if we hadn't been in the village this morning when the weather was fine. We had to get a medical to renew our driver's licences which runs out on Saturday. It was an amusing time, once we got in to see the doctor. We went back twice because it was too busy the first time and we had other things to do in the village. It was a joint effort with the doctor and two others. We had to have our blood pressure taken, do an eyesight test and a test for colour blindness. The eyesight test was done partly in English and partly in Latvian much to the amusement of everyone. I can do my numbers relatively easily in Latvian but I get confused with the letters so I did those in English. Ian did all of his in English.

He looks happy about that anyway. I just hope that the flies now
stay away. He kept tearing the garments made from old
t-shirts, so we gave up. He seems to be improving now.

Just chilling on a sunny morning.

Whilst doing the test for colour blindness we both said "r" with an English pronunciation and the lady said "no", which confused us, she then said "r" with a Latvian pronunciation. We laughed. The rest of the book was done as a Latvian letter practice. Maybe she could teach us Latvian? We then had a form to fill in. Many of the medical terms are familiar to us but occasionally we weren't sure of the answer, in those particular cases the doctor who was sat on the other side of the desk piped up and answered them for us. She knows her patients well and knows what they do and don't take and since we are not on any medication for anything she could answer for us.

Turbjørn and Brencis

There were the usual stupid questions about drugs and alcohol - as if anyone is going to answer those truthfully if they really did have a problem. When Ian was answering and the nurse said "alcohol?", Ian said "ne"(no) and the doctor quipped "kapec?" (why?) with a big grin on her face. Again we laughed. Occasionally we resorted to phoning our friend to make sure we understood a question but on the whole we managed well enough. It helps that the village doctor is relaxed about these kinds of things to make the process easy even though we don't have the language. If we didn't have things to do, it would have been an entertaining morning really.

Leaves on linen

Our friend who helped us with the translation was coming to us in the afternoon anyway. She was fascinated with the botanical printing I did in August with our felting tutor Galina, so we planned a session to experiment with the process. I pre-mordanted the fabrics, which is a process that helps the dye from the plants to stick to the fabric the day before, so all we had to do was to go and pick leaves and then arrange them on the fabric. I showed he which leaves should work better and explained a bit about the process from what I could remember. You can't see any photos of the finished articles yet as it was steamed over the afternoon and the great unveiling will be tomorrow.

Freddie - inquisitive as always

I have said the rain was both welcome and not welcome. Our friend was explaining this week that they have run out of water on their farm and having to use lake water for the animals and do washing in the village at the apartment that she also owns. She also told us of someone who had dug a lake a couple of years ago and that had completely dried up and the river which usually you could swim in was now walkable. She also said that someone who was getting on in years remarked that he had never seen the water situation so bad as it has been this year. You would think by this that everywhere would be brown, but it isn't as the dew in the morning keeps everything going - just! How the plants will fare over winter with so little moisture in the ground is a worry though and our friend said that many fruit trees may die if they don't get the moisture to their roots. I know a few years ago when it was very dry one summer our new fruit trees really suffered and they have only just recovered to fruit properly this year.

Mr. P. always looks so toothy, but he's not that bad really.
He had his teeth trimmed in May after shearing

The plans are coming together for the new alpacas arriving in October. We will be culling our sheep. There is no way we would be able to keep them this year due to the hay situation and the extra work they create. We have enough hay for the alpacas including the new ones, but not if we have sheep and three sheep eat about the same as five alpacas. Most people around here are scrabbling around for hay or silage and two of our friends' farms only have around a third of what they need. Some farmers in the country are selling to Sweden for nearly three times what they could get here. We heard that many farmers are reducing stock levels if they can, but sometimes that is not possible or desirable if farms are trying to build their businesses.

Some serious eating going on here

Culling the sheep means I need more freezer space and it is full with fruit and veg at the moment. I have been spending time making juices and jams so that they are in bottles rather than the freezer. I fit this in with the runs to the apartment to do the washing and fetch water for us and the animals. The recent rains have eased the situation a little, as we do catch the water off the roofs of the alpaca houses and barn. It sure makes us careful when we use water and makes us appreciate how others suffering from a lack of water must struggle, especially when they don't have the resources we do to fetch water.

Hopefully Chanel is pregnant, she is excitable enough. We
tried to give her some treatment for her feet as they look
to be having problems again, but she makes it difficult.
The most recent treatment we gave her, doesn't seem to
have worked so we have to get some more tomorrow. 

I forgot to mention last week that two of my papers have gone to review whilst I was away.  Hopefully that means I only have another five weeks to get some idea of whether they are acceptable or not to the reviewers. One of the papers is not my main responsibility, as I was only one of the co-authors, but the other one concerns the major part of my research. It was rejected over a year ago by another journal and it has taken sometime to write as other projects got in the way. At least it got past the first stage and the editor sent it out for review, it's pretty bad if it fails at that stage.

Peekaboo!

Josefs is getting quite tall now. They grow so quick. 

I also got my thesis structure kind of sorted. It didn't take me too long. I had made some notes when waiting in the airport last week and finished them off and collated them this week. I have a feeling of things beginning to slot into place now, which makes life a lot simpler. The plan is to get a good way on with putting the flesh on the bones of the structure, so to speak.

You can at least tell that Mari and Jakobs are mother and son

Jakobs is very fluffy and very cute. He looks so innocent, but
he's not! He's a crafty one!

It was interesting this week that I was able to drag up this quote from something I wrote with some co-authors and presented to a Sustainable Educational conference back in 2015.

You would think that Chanel and Josefs were mother and son, but they are not related at all. 

 

  

Adopting sustainable landscape governance needs inspiration and participation more than mere information. It has to address minds by providing a toolkit to help frame problems and possible solutions, but it also has to address hearts as well. There is a need for innovative approaches to draw artists and story-tellers, scientists and therapeutic professions, conservationists and policymakers, the public and experts into a conversation to help formulate images of a healthy, sustainable lifestyle, well connected to the landscape and the environment in which people live. This is not about portraying a utopia, but inspiring people and bringing hope. Without a dream of the future, without hope, it is unlikely people will be willing to make the tough changes needed to get there. 

These are the cranes heading south. I always have the lyrics
of Forever Autumn run through my head when I see the
birds flying off.
"I watch the birds fly south across the autumn sky
And one by one they disappear,
I wish that I was flying with them
Now you're not here."

The autumn raspberries are producing well this year. They
are easier to pick since we made a pathway down the middle.
It is hard to think that we only started with a few sticks from
a friend and now we have quite a job keeping them in check
and there are escapees showing up in various other bits of
the garden.

It just seemed to fit very nicely with what some others had been writing about. I feel very encouraged that others are beginning to feel this is a way forward. We need to change, we cannot stay the way we are. It is like my garden, it needs the rain, it looks kind of okay as it heads into autumn, but it's still dying. Not the kind of end of year death that we see every autumn, but the kind where it will not grow back next year. We need a vision for the future, that we can grasp and hang on to to make the painful changes we need to do. If we don't our civilisation will continue to die. That is not the way I feel it ends. I believe in a God who created this world that we are busy trashing and he is in the business of restoration, but we also need to be onboard. We have to catch a vision that we can change and we have to change. We need those artists and storytellers to show us that future, so we can track how to get there.