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

Squelch!

The weather may have warmed up, but it is still
rather dreary. I think Silla is singing a lament

The weather warmed up a bit after the wintry blast of last week when we had a good frost, but only a bit. At least it has dried up somewhat and we have stopped squelching around in mud. I was getting to the stage where I thought I had better dig out those ark plans and start building or looking up special shoes for walking on mud. It isn't even winter yet and I've already perfected the penguin walk, arms out, feet pointing outwards (kind of like this Youtube video). I suppose it's good practice for walking on ice. I hope I don't need that much practice though.  

Ginger Tom is still a shy cat. Rocket Ron will 
jump up onto our laps and loves a good cuddle,
Ginger Tom though is more likely to run away.
He also prefers Ian but that is cupboard love.

The soft lighting and damp conditions makes 
Josefs hair look super curly

Ilvija with her pack lunch

Amazingly we still have so much in the garden that is keeping us going in fresh veg. The brassicas are looking amazingly well, so green and red cabbages, Brussel sprouts and broccoli. My parsnips are humungous and the turnips and celeriac are coming along nicely too. We've only just started on the beetroots, one was so large I'm going to feed it to the chickens tomorrow - it looks suspiciously like a cross between fodder beet and beetroot anyway - which it might be. I have a mix of beetroot seeds and plant some for seeds in the following year and since some are for the chickens and some for us, it doesn't really matter that there are a mix of sizes. I've also just remembered that there are the Jerusalem artichokes to dig up, or at least another bucketful for the chickens. They do have some rather smelly repercussions if we eat them, but since we are supposed to be social distancing it doesn't really matter that much I guess. 

Ilvija looking like she's had one or two rather good
pack lunches too many. She isn't starving for sure.

Poor Turbjørn. He's struggling and could do 
with a massage, the problem is that he is beginning
to hesitate coming in and so Ian's had to stop. We can't
have him stopping out at night with the risk of dog
attacks. Ian's possibly found a source for a heat
pack that goes on horses though, so that
might help enormously. We have to find out
though how the battery does in very cold temperatures
as the deep cold kills batteries as we've found out to 
our cost.

Lady V trying out the new minimalist headwear

This weekend I finally got some more pickling done. So now we have jars of piccalilli, pickled red cabbage and I pickled the last of the cucumbers and green peppers. Something to pep up the main winter diet of squash, potatoes and beetroot. It's a good job as I don't think I planted enough onions this last year and the carrots didn't do very well either - although the ones outside are doing okay, they are nowhere near ready for picking yet. Not sure how they will fare over winter, but we'll see. I might try and put a protective bank of hay around them and plastic over the top, like a protected mini greenhouse. My pantry and freezers are full to overflowing too, so we won't be short of food. Ian's a bit worried that it is a portend of a bad winter. I like to think it is just good planning but in reality it is just I did manage to get a lot frozen this year. 

A bit bleak these days.

Ian has been busy chopping and stacking wood
ready for the next year

Not the sort of evidence of wild animals we like
to see. Obviously the wild boar are getting active
again.

The drier weather has meant we have finally got our caravan into the greenhouse. We had hoped to make a permanent construction around it this year so we wouldn't have to, but just didn't get around to it. I was a bit worried about getting it in because of the new flattened area just outside the greenhouse that meant there was now a very large edge to reverse the caravan over. Ian found some substantial pieces of wood that had been intended for a bench and used those and it worked well. There was one hairy moment when I had to get Ian to stop quickly, as it was a bit close to the edge, but once we worked out a system for directing we managed it fairly smoothly. In fact, despite my reservations, it went smoother than normal. 

That's ma' boy! Tellus at the front, father of 
Brencis at the back

Is that my girlfriend over there?

The caravan in the greenhouse. With only the
chicks in the top corner this year and the older
ones out in the new greenhouse, the caravan
has been pushed further back. This is partly
because the greenhouse now leaks rather
badly where it used to go. Another thing on the
list of jobs to do. 

I'm pleased we are under some protection now as the wind today was vicious and it felt like sleet in the air. We can hear the plastic flapping about a bit and it is a bit cool in the caravan at times but on the whole not too bad. My Granny's old Arran cardigan is working well, it is so warm and keeps the wind out. We manage quite well in the caravan for most of the year, but it is getting close to needing to move back to the apartment. The apartment needs heating for a start, but also the nights are getting too long and cooking and washing up becomes a pain in the greenhouse as it is cold and damp. 

My view is not so interesting while I work these 
days. No longer can I look out and possibly glimpse
an alpaca. All I can see now is my washing that is
taking ages to dry. In fact we now are putting it on
the radiator in stages in the caravan with the
dehumidifier going.

The caravan in the greenhouse again!

Finding green grass at this time of the year is
tricky. We don't want them to completely scalp it
but they do generally prefer the grass to hay,
although Ian thinks they may be starting to
prefer the hay now, which means they can stay
in their paddock areas for winter.

We are still not on lockdown here in Latvia, although the numbers did climb rather quickly and new restrictions were put in place, so we managed a little road trip to see someone who has new alpacas. Outside of the cities the numbers are generally fairly low, so still relatively safe. It was nice to get out for a bit and see someone. Ian had mentioned I had graduated last week so they gave me a bottle of apple juice as a present. Very nice it was too! 

The reason these girls got some extra green grass
is due to moving the caravan into the greenhouse
(that bare patch in the middle of the photo).
We couldn't move them to this area until the
caravan had moved as Ian needs the space to swing
the caravan round to back it into the greenhouse.

I think we can safely say the new pond is full

I had some good news today from work. I'm getting a pay rise as I they found I wasn't being paid the rates for a PhD graduate, so that will be a nice Christmas bonus. I also have extra hours and some new challenges for next year, so I'm quite looking forward to that. It certainly takes the pressure off trying to work out how to make sure the farm pays its way. It will be still nice to find out how to do that, but for now in these uncertain times we can relax a little and try to think of what we want in place for welcoming back people to our farm to be able to enjoy our alpacas with us. 

Rocket Ron looking super cute....

....on top of the caravan with Ginger Tom. It didn't
take long for them to work out it is warm up there.
Don't be beguiled by these super sweet kittens, they 
are little rogues and tormenting Eyre. Sofie has 
gone to our neighbours again. She likes the
warmth and her hunting skills are greatly appreciated.
Probably good for her as she is starting to get old,
she is over 9 years old now and the warmth of the cow
barn will be good for her over winter. She did
pop back to say hello yesterday afternoon though.

Mari looking a little crazed here.

Phew! Back to her normal smiley face

He definitely gets his cute looks from his mum.

Not much grass left there.

At least Ian found somewhere that could do with
a quick bit of mowing

They're up to something, I'm sure

See they're even whispering to each other.
Hmmm!