Departures and arrivals

One of the last few pictures we have of Estelle. Here Lady V
and Estelle are hogging the water buckets in the heat.

We have had a dramatic end to our shearing season. We have spent the last month shearing animals both on our farm and in Estonia without an issue apart from the dirty fleece issues I have mentioned before and the usual occasional cut, which unfortunately happens. The very last animal we sheared however, our own pregnant Estelle, unfortunately collapsed and died shortly after shearing. We were not able to save the baby either. She was one of those animals we had high hopes to build our herd on. The others who had died were older animals or the young from older animals, but Estelle was only four years old and pregnant with her first baby. She didn't manage to get pregnant last year and we have been wondering for most of this past year if she was or not. Her behaviour changed, which gave us a clue, but she only started to show visible signs in the last few weeks, so it is a double blow for us.

Mari before shearing 

And afterwards. Not sure the hair cut works so well, but it will
grow back. Don't be fooled by the clouds behind either, we
still have not had any significant rain fall , bar one good shower
that didn't leave much in the way of puddles but at least refreshed
the plants. We could see the rain to the North, the East, the West
and the South but they passed us by with only the odd drop for comfort

We have never seen this type of caterpillar before. A very
vivid turquoise though

The shearing itself went okay and she literally jumped up after being released from the restraints. She wandered outside a little stiff in the legs, but that is normal and she walked over to the gate as if she wanted to go in the field. She then moved away, but as she did the other alpacas stopped and stared at her, which was odd. There is usually a bit of hilarity as animals are not recognisable to each other after shearing and they have to assure themselves that the animal is familiar to them by their smell and at first we thought that was the reason. She then seemed to spraddle her legs and we thought she was going into labour, she righted herself and then moved on again before sitting down

Before

I like Chanel's hair cut. I think it suits her

By this time we felt something was wrong and Ian went to phone the vet, but before he finished phoning we think she had gone. The vet was on her way though so we started pumping her chest to keep oxygen going around her system to try and save the baby at least and just in case the vet could bring her round. The vet tried two injections but no response before doing an emergency caesarian. The baby though had also died in the process and we could get no response out of it. So hours later saw us burying Estelle and baby Edmunds. It happened all so fast that it has been hard to process.

Before 

After. A much slimmer look and unfortunately shows her age.
At least she is better for it and has been out much more. Neither
is she hogging the water bucket so much, but then again it has
cooled down a lot. So much so that lots of folks have been covering
their tender plants with fleece tonight

Estelle on the 5th May starting to look pregnant

It has been a tough spring/early summer on our animals, especially the girls who had to wait to be sheared. They have been drinking a lot to keep cool, as there have been no showers of rain to wet their fleece to help them cool down from time to time and we just do not have the facilities to spray water on them like some do. Having said that I think now I would contemplate at least using a watering can to help, but our animals have managed with similar problems before, especially our older ones who had babies in dry hot years. It wasn't comfortable for them, but they managed. So of course there are the unanswerable "Why?" questions, when she was only four years old and "If onlys!" of which there are many. What's done is done though and for future years we try and make sure that the animals have electrolytes in their water from time to time if they are drinking lots and we try finding a way of getting them cooler if needed.

Before

Aggie after her hair cut

Group photo, but kind of sad because Estelle is not there

Next year we will not have the same problem and we will be more organised. At least that is the plan, but who knows what our plans will be next year if the UK decide to pull out of Europe! That is a worry in itself, especially as we see the debate slipping into re-creating a supposedly glorious past that in reality never existed for all. Also there those protectionist stances or taking back control over sovereignty as it is labelled, which never achieves what its sets out to achieve, of protecting the state, as it usually end up with an isolated and increasing xenophobic society - not healthy.

Our Christiania bike 

Another departure that is more bittersweet than just bitter is the departure of our Christiania bike. We bought this bike in Denmark and it served as our car for three years. We have many recollections from the mundane carrying a week's worth of shopping in it, to the more bizarre such as the 4m long pipe that was rested in the box and over Ian's shoulder; the numerous friend's of our sons who were ferried to the bus stop in it and the time I had to pick up one of our sons at night from the train station because the bike seat and wheel had been pinched from his bike, so he couldn't ride it home, which meant bike and son had to be ferried back from the train station in it.

The Christiania is not so useful with the hills we have around here though

Mia their dog is having a great time in the Christiania bike.
The bike has carried all sorts of materials in its time, but
never a dog. 

We have tried to use it on our land, but it is just such hilly terrain that it is difficult to ride with it. Even when the ground looks flat it isn't, so our friends from Alpakafarm in Estonia have bought it. We were sad to see the bike go, but we are pleased it is going to a good home where it will be well used. Our friend drove all the way down from his place near Pärnu, dropped some alpaca feed off had a quick look around our farm and then drove all the way back with the Christiania bike. An epic journey in one day for sure, especially on the dirt roads around here at the moment. The last few kilometres are dreadful at the minute.

Even though the boys were sheared a while ago, they still like to
hide in the shelter from the sun

Already we have had to put a mesh on the top because this
little one was trying to escape

On the arrivals front we have three chicks so far, although one seems to be struggling with its legs - if it doesn't improve and get up on its feet that one will have to be despatched. I hate doing it but it is better than letting the poor thing suffer. I aim to make sure it gets the idea about getting up on its feet and making sure the tendon is in the right place, but apart from that there is no point in going through any more rigmarole from experience. Yes there is lots of information about strengthening legs and maybe it works with a lot of intensive effort, but it then also means that there is probably some weak genetics in there and it is better for the flock health and for future generations to dispatch it. Fortunately I think the chick seems to have got the idea about standing properly and so the grisly deed may be avoided.

As this was the first chick by a long way, a day ahead of schedule

Enjoying the cooler weather and eating

There is no news from our expectant sheep, we are still waiting for the arrival of their lambs. Hopefully by next week they will have produced, although it is a bit cold for the arrival of newborns at the moment after our hot weather.

Chanel and Aggie

We also have some friends from Estonia who have arrived today. Our Latvian roads proved a bit daunting and so progress was slower than anticipated. I am not surprised. We thought the dirt road was particularly bad on Saturday when we went to visit a friend about 3/4 hour away and we have a 4x4 (by the way on that trip we ended up with a lovely meal cooked by a Ukrainian, an Armenian and an Englishman so a lovely mix of foods representing the different cultures and a bit of a last minute invite so a rather pleasant surprise for the day). We decided to go and meet our friends from Estonia in the village, rather than make them come out the extra 6km only to travel back to the village later where they are staying in our guest apartment. We will introduce them to the alpacas tomorrow instead.

Still dry!

All shut up for the night

It has been a busy old week again, but for now we have finished doing shearing for others. We are just waiting for one of our alpacas to give birth and then we will shear our girls and that will be it for the year - at least we think it will be. We have had other jobs too that needed doing anyway, such as topping the cow parsley so that it doesn't go to seed. The animals do not like it and they won't eat it so it is taking over, which means we need to get it under control. The girls have not even been bothering to go into the field with the cow parsley as it is taking too much effort to sort through in the heat. Now the flowering stems of the cow parsley have been removed they have been out in the field to eat the grass. It does mean hours of walking up and down with the flail mower for Ian though. I can't handle that machine as it is far too heavy and besides I was inside for much of the day assessing a Masters thesis on urban allotments - a very interesting read.

Such a pretty flower for an
invasive plant

I did get out and do little jobs during the day like planting beans that have been soaking for a couple of days. There is no point in planting any seed unless it has been soaked because we haven't had any rain for over two weeks, it might even be three weeks now - we lose track. It is also my job to feed the chickens since we have gone across to using flour to feed them. I add crushed egg shells, mineral powder and some dried herbs - depending on what I have, then mix it altogether with some water to make a mush. The flour is organic and a mix of different types of grain, buckwheat and I think it has a bean flour in it too. I have even used it with white flour to make bread, after sifting it for some of the hulls that are still in it. Cheaper than buying organic flour from the shops by a long way.

Enjoying the cooler evenings and the shadier spot. They look
huge and I keep teasing Ian that they have triplets. Most likely
they will have twins and by the end of the year we will only
keep four females altogether. 

Ian moved the sheep this week while I finished off planting tomatoes and a friend of ours weeded our strawberry bed - a mammoth task in itself. The sheep have been moved nearer as they are due to give birth too any day soon and we wanted them nearer to us, where we can see them and they will have less of an issue with foxes. I would hope the ram will be useful in protecting the mothers though. Normally we take down some mobile orange netting fencing to pen them in while removing their fencing and then setting up the next stage. This time we decided to buy extra wire and posts and set up the second fence first. Moving them is easy, Ian just rattles the feed trays and they follow him as good as gold. Wish they were that well behaved when we want to do anything with them though.

This was where the boys and the chickens were last year,
the grass is recovering well now

The shearing this last week was a lot less stressful than it has been because Ian has felt more at ease knowing it wasn't the way he was shearing that was the problem, but an issue with dirty fleeces. Some alpacas attract the dirt and it is a particular problem when the ground is gritty and alpacas love to roll. The large alpaca farm has clay and possibly denser fleece animals and so there were fewer problems shearing their animals. Ian has ordered the sharpener now, so hopefully we can avoid many of the problems in the future.

Oak leaves

Again we were fed well and could have spent longer at some places. One place we went to they had a friend around to translate and after one animal we had a break for coffee, well coffee, cakes, some pies made with a bread dough and open sandwiches then we sat and chatted for quite a while about alpacas. The gentleman who was translating was a beekeeper and he had to go and take care of his bees. We only had two more alpacas to shear so didn't take a huge amount of time and at the end we were offered coffee again. Only this time the coffee came with sausages, potato salad and a tomato and cucumber salad. We were stuffed. We got to the next place and set up and again offered coffee only we asked if we could have tea as we were coffee-d out. This also came with bread, cheese, salami and tomatoes. It is a good job I am now in the habit of having to watch what I eat otherwise I think we would have rolled home.

Sunset behind one of our many oak trees.
This was taken at 9:52 and it will stay
light until way after midnight

We had a bit of an adventure on the way to the next place. Twice we have had to brake sharply for wild boar on the road when travelling to places for shearing and several times had to avoid other animals or birds, such as a stork who sauntered across the road, ducks who refused to move and of course there were a few deer from time to time. Our luck ran out though this time and we hit a deer. We stopped of course and we tried to look for the animal but couldn't see it at all, our car didn't look too bad but then we realised that the grill was slightly bent and the fog light was not in good shape. The corner of the car also suffered some damage - not bad but enough to need a small repair. The fog light also needs replacing. Oh well! The hazards of country life.

Buttercups look so pretty but they are not very welcome on
our land too as they are definitely not edible for our animals.
Fortunately I think the clover is gradually driving it out

The last shearing job we did, we got on reasonably well but we didn't finish again. We had set aside two days but the people running the farm were getting busier and busier as more groups booked to tour the farm for the second day. We were already having to take breaks because groups were visiting on the first day and the owner wanted to see the condition of the animals being sheared, rather than just let us do all the work - which we totally understand. It is helpful to see the animal while it is restrained so that the overall condition can be assessed.

Rather light for so early in the morning

In the end it was decided that they would shear the remaining eight animals gradually over time on days off. It was also easier for them for us to set off that evening and so we started off home at 10:30pm. We stopped for a short while to snooze but it was a chillier night that night, in fact there was a touch of frost, so the snooze wasn't quite as long as we would like - or at least it felt that way. We rolled onto our land as the sky was getting light at 4am. We had a few hours sleep because we wanted to be up in the morning just in case our alpaca decided to give birth, which she didn't of course and we caught up with some sleep later on in the day instead.

The boys all shut up for the night too. Their paddock grass is
ever so short but they still like to eat the grass in there. When
it cools down they will be shut out of the paddock for a few
hours so the grass gets a chance to recover a bit, but when it
is so hot, they need the shelter.

We have had a school group in this week as well. We were a little surprised when the coach pulled onto our land - normally they stop at the bottom and people walk on. Fortunately the ground is solid at the moment due to the lack of rain and it was only a 3/4 size coach and not the full sized one. There were about 20 children and they were quite engaged with what Ian had to say and followed along quite well considering that they were Latvians listening to English. I am not so sure that I could have followed along in a different language at their age. The talk Ian gives on alpacas from shearing to product seems to work quite well now and we then take them to see the boys, who are more aloof. The girls, however, are much more willing to come for carrots and apples which the children brought with them and we sliced up so the animals do not choke.

Our pond is receding again due to the lack of rain

Agnese amazed us though. Ian called her over as she is the most friendly of the girls and he took hold of her so that they could feel her fleece. She never bothered at all. At one point Ian let go and she sat down with lots of children around her taking photos and stroking her. She just sat there. She stayed sitting down until the children left. Apparently some of them got some really nice photos where she looks like she is giving a big grin. Some of the children tried to feed the other alpacas and those who were quieter and more patient were rewarded with the animals eating from their hands. Many were just a little too impatient, but some learnt and with a bit of coaxing managed to feed at least one animal.

Mystery solved?

Such a sweet little alpaca.

We went to Estonia again to shear alpacas. We managed six out of ten on the first day and Ian became more and more frustrated. The shears were just not cutting well and seem to be blunting very quickly. Not all of the alpacas were with year and a half long fleeces, which are challenging in themselves (some of that fleece was about 20cm long and tangled together) but many of them had fine fleeces. It still should not have been that hard. We ran out of combs and cutters again - something that should last many, many more animals.

The black alpaca paces up and down the
fence each and every day eyeing up the
ladies. He once broke through the fence
but made a mistake and ended up amongst
the beef cows, who are not so friendly.

Sharpening our cutters and combs

We ended up travelling to see a lovely guy who had a slightly hippie look about him with his long bushy beard. He was a shepherd who had about four hundred sheep (if we remember correctly) and despite being on the older side and living in an out of the way rural place, he spoke quite good English, which suggested another side to him that we didn't have much time to enquire about. We did find out that he had been to Wales to shear a few times. He had also taken part in competitions and taught on shearing courses. His son was a champion shearer until he came down with Lyme's disease. He sharpened our shears at a fraction of the cost that it normally costs us in Latvia and he agreed that some of the combs were quite badly scoured, suggesting that the grit in the local area was causing us problems.

While Ian was observing to pick up tips, I marked some
students work, so this was my office for the day. Amazing where
you can work these days

Wile looking very smart with his new haircut

We got to our friends who have a large alpaca farm and managed to shear all but three of their alpacas, theoretically leaving us enough combs and cutters to do ten the following day. We should have been able to do all of them, but it was all taking too long and Ian's frustrations bubbled over at one point. Added to Ian's woes the transformer broke and so we couldn't cut teeth either. Our teeth cutting machine is American and so will not run on European voltages. Despite all the problems though, we have been well looked after along the way. We have been fed well and treated kindly, with many paying Ian extra for his work in appreciation.

Our hobbit home for a few days. It also has a sauna, but we have
not really got into saunas, but it made a lovely place to stay.

The girls looking shadows of their former selves

Alpacas and ponies

The last place we went to was a farm with ten alpacas and forty horses or ponies. The guy had a look at our transformer but could not see what the problem was, so he pulled out an old Russian contraption. It looked rather alarming and I was relieved to see a modern tester also appeared before Ian plugged in the tooth cutting machine. The guy even had something that would take an American plug to attach to the contraption. There was something about the chap though that made us think he knew more than the average person and in our chats later we found out he was a retired physicist.

Back at home Estelle is getting bigger every day

Trying to keep cool during the day.

We managed two alpacas before Ian's machine was starting to struggle, but earlier the guy had said he had also bought some shears, but just didn't know how to shear with them. Ian asked to borrow his to see if it would do any better and showed him the technique along the way. It started off well but before we had finished the whole animal it started to struggle - it wasn't Ian's machine then. It must be the local environment.

The rain has encouraged the barley to germinate

Barley poking through - at least where the crows have not
been digging it up

Buckwheat too has started to show through

The left hand side is where the girls were and the right hand
side is the newly fenced off area

We didn't shear any more but we sat down to a lunch of salmon soup and discussed alpacas and life in general for the rest of the afternoon. It was a perfect way to finish a frustrating few days. He did mention that he hoped people in the UK would see "common sense" and vote to stay in the EU. He could not comprehend why the people in the UK would vote to exit the EU at all. This shearing venture has cost us more than we would like, but we have learnt a lot and also met some great people along the way. Most will have us back too because Ian is the only alpaca shearer in Estonia and there are even problems finding sheep shearers, one person we met is working her way through around 50 sheep by hand. Our friend with the large farm felt it was easier to sort out the fleece when Ian was shearing, as sheep shearers do not shear the blanket - or the best wool- first. They also shear so fast that it is hard to keep up - not one of Ian's problems yet. It will be different though when he gets a grinder to sharpen the cutters and combs on-site. It will quickly pay us back just in reducing stress and wear and tear on the car.

Spring planting of broad beans, kale, mizuna, beetroot together
with cucumber and peppers for the summer. 

Strawberries in the greenhouse

 Ian emailed the people where he took his shearing course to see what they said. They suggested that it could also have something to do with the fleece density. Our animals have quite dense fleece - apart from the crias who are notorious for collecting grass, muck anything in their fleece and so it means that the dirt does not get right down into their fleece. We also do not have the grit and these two factors explains why Ian doesn't have as much of a problem with our animals and has been having so many with some of the fine fleeced Estonian ones. So I think it is mystery solved now.

We shall have grapes

Fencing off the garden to protect it from wild boar who love
potatoes

It is still dry here and we haven't had any significant showers since last week's rain. Of course that rain was enough to encourage plants to put on some growth spurts and so Ian has had to mow paths and strim around many of the areas that need to be kept neat and tidy. We attempted to put up the fence around the garden and got over half done before the mosquitoes drove us inside. We will finish that off in the morning when they are not so active. I have also been trying to finish planting up the tomatoes but not quite got there yet. At least I have finished off my herb bed and most of the vegetable plots are tidied.

Chanel and her happy quizzical look

There is water to drink, honestly! So of course she has to drink
the rice water that I drained onto the path

Brencis 

Thank goodness our land does not have lots of gritty areas.
Alpacas love to roll

All of them do and the whites end up looking grey at first

Not quite sure why Sofie has taken to sleeping near the
chickens. She was not a happy cat today, we had to give her
the second dose of worming tablet. She is the only cat that
I have not been able to get a tablet down successfully
in no more than two attempts. She was even trussed up
 in a towel by Ian as I attempted to get the tablet down her
throat and then wash it down with water. Even tried cake!
There is no kidding that cat and she can foam out a tablet.
Still we sort of managed in the end.

We had some visitors over the weekend too. They are neighbours to us, well 2km away, which counts as neighbours in a rural area. They have wild horses and come every weekend to see to them and had heard about us, so paid us a visit. She was thrilled that we love working here in such a rural place. In her words she saw through our eyes what a wonderful place the area is. Like in many things, it sometimes takes an outsider to see the extraordinary in what to us is an ordinary place.

Outdoor broad beans and onions for onion leaves

Showing the advantage of pre-soaking carrot seed and the disadvantage
of sowing them too thickly. I obviously should have added more peat
to spread them out more

Cherry blossom time

Had to mow a path down to the office

I found out today that my presentations for the end of each year of my PhD have been very favourably received by the people doing the evaluations. All I knew was that I had passed each year without too many questions or hassles. I only found out because my supervisor asked if I had any presentations and ideas that other students could follow because of the positive reflections he had received on my presentations. Nice to know I am doing something well.