All finished?

The last of the bales stacked for winter. A bit wetter than they
should be, but they will be used first

Well haymaking is finished, that is for sure. We finished collecting and stacking the last of the hay bales from our neighbours land. Ian still had grass cutting to do but he was not baling it, as it was full of weeds that rot too easily. Now we can concentrate on other jobs to do. It is easier for me because it is computer work and it has been raining quite a bit. For Ian that is harder as much of what he needs to do now still depends on dry days, such as fixing the boys' leaking roof or putting the boards on the new alpaca house. Even preparation requires some dry days as he needs dry wood to prepare the pieces for the new roof or dry boards to nail onto a dry framework. A dryish autumn would be good for us.

One of the jobs to do before the rain was to empty the well
so that we could let it flush through to see if it improved the
flow rate. Well that was the plan. We got a container so we did
not waste the water, but after about half an hour of a trickle of
water, the water was all stirred up by the pump and instead of
a well full of clear water, we had a muddy mess. We now need
to let the well settle again and try with another pump. It also
started raining - not too good with electrics cables outside 

This is one of our chicks that has a punk hair do. It is also a
complet dipstick and is often stood there while the others are
chasing about after some tasty morsel with a look on its
face of complete bewilderment.

The school year has already started in some parts of the world and so some of my students on the online school where I teach Sociology and Development Studies have started sending in assignments for me to mark. Most only start back in September though. They have been told that they cannot expect work to be marked in a timely manner as I do not officially start back yet, but since it was raining I managed to do it anyway. I also managed to write an abstract for a conference that I had said I would attend and will take place in Riga. I was not going to send in an abstract but I was talking to one of keynote speakers at the conference last month and he suggested that I should do a presentation on some work he knew I had done. I thought it was not sufficiently complete and needed more responses, but he said it would be fine as it is. I had missed the deadline but the organisers were happy for me to send one in late. I had hoped to complete it a little earlier but life has been too hectic and I forgot about it.

Our cats appreciated the new places to sleep, well when it
isn't raining

This is supposed to be a path over the ditch
with a wooden bridge in the middle.

This week we have seen rain like we have never seen before. We have known some pretty torrential downpours here in Latvia, but never have we seen a storm where the rain has meant the visibility was practically down to zero. Our ditches all overflowed and even the wooden bridges across them were under water. It rained a bit into the caravan because we had left one of the skylight vents open and the seal had gone on the other one . The rain and wind also dislodged the plastic on the hay bales meaning rain got in and it also blew the plastic off a bag of sawdust, which we use for our composting toilet. At least we have had some dry spells too and so Ian took off both the skylights on the caravan and repaired the seals and cleaned them.

Old fashioned long stemmed barley. I'm amazed this is still
standing

My poor Marshmallows took a hammering in the wind and
rain though

This time the storm didn't wreck the greenhouse as much as a previous storm did. I forgot to mention that during one particular thunderstorm, there was quite a crack as the wind whipped up and we thought it was a tree brought down. Later on in the evening I needed to nip to our outdoor loo and found a window from the greenhouse on the floor. It was one of the high windows and I thought they were all shut, obviously not. That was another job for Ian to fix the next day.

After all the other jobs, the wind and the rain, my garden
looks a little worse for wear. The bees are enjoying the
flowering marjoram 

Aggie in friendly mood

Mating has continued this week, although we are now fairly sure that Chanel and Mari are pregnant. Chanel was compliant at first and now she spits and kicks Mr. P if he comes anywhere near, which is alpacaspeak for "I'm really not interested!" Mari is a little more laid back and just runs away in a more determined fashion than before. Ian will take Mr. P. to them again in a couple of week's time to make sure they are pregnant. Meanwhile he has started mating Mr. P. with Aggie. It seems such a shame in some ways, as she has been so nice and incredibly friendly again and we know that as soon as she gets pregnant she will be more aloof, but we also need our alpacas to be productive. If she is successful this next year in getting pregnant then she will get a year off, so we can assess her offspring. The other's might get a year off too, as it depends on when they give birth. If it is too late in the year, we will need to wait to reset mating time to earlier in the year.

The rowan berries have been amazing this year, we should
get a good harvest from these and plenty of sharp, tangy
rowan jam

This apple tree in our orchard is finally beginning to bear
more than two or three apples. Not exactly a bumper crop
yet but progress anyway

Our grapes are beginning to turn quite fast now

We have spent a few hours away from the farm this week. Firstly we went to the farm of our young helper who has been with us over the summer to practice her English. She was still a little shy and would only take Ian for a look around the farm and not me. We did get to meet her grandma who was a very interesting lady. Our interpreter who is an English, German and French teacher had not realised that our young friend, who is one of his pupils, was the granddaughter of a Professor who had written a methodological book for teaching German. He explained that he had been taught using her methodology and he thought it was a good way to learn. I think it explains why a farm girl seems to be so good at sorting out practical problems.

Not all my squashes are doing well, but this one is certainly
happy in its position on old hay bales under an old oak tree

It is even starting to produce squashes. 

Preparing our evening meal

Although our young helper denies it, she is very clever and a creative problem solver, which fits with her grandma's ability to teach a methodical approach to learning a language. It is the same logical approach to different problems. We also came away from the farm with biezpiena (a type of curd cheese), 3 litres of raw milk, a jar of honey and two cockerels to improve our chicken flock in exchange for a jar of home made English style chutney.

Kale seed for another year

Our onion harvest drying. A rainy day job will be to string
these up so they can continue to hang and dry

We also went to our friend's open farm day. There weren't as many people this year, but then again the forecast for the day was not good. In the end the rain held off and the afternoon was very warm and sunny. It also held off until well after everyone had gone and just enough time to get everything in, except the tent, which unfortunately collapsed. We met a German couple and their family there, who had family links to Latvia and were holidaying in the area. Of course we invited them to our farm, so maybe they will pay a visit.

Our tall bush blueberries are also starting to produce fruit now.

The herb garden I created last year out of rotten wood is also
doing okay. I lost a variegated sage plant and only one
lavender survived the winter, but all the other plants are
starting to take off now

Now the chicks are unable to escape. It is nice to have free
range hens, but Mr. Fox also likes free range, as do the hawks
and other birds of prey of which we have plenty 

We had planned on getting the cockerels later on in the week, but our translator friend was heading off to Germany so it had to be earlier. We weren't quite sure where to put the cockerels at first as we needed to do a change around with the chickens in the arks. We needed to get the chicks in one ark, as they were getting far too adventurous and escaping far too frequently from their hutch, but to do that we needed to cull some chickens. We had planned on doing that before getting the cockerels but couldn't. In the end it worked out fine, because we put the cockerels in the old chicken shed that now houses windows and door and that meant the cockerels could be quarantined for a few days - one of them seemed a bit snuffly and we needed to know it wasn't something more serious. Eventually we did the cull of some older hens who were often difficult to put away in winter and were past their best egg laying days and a cockerel that was too inter-related with the other chickens. That might seem a bit harsh, but in reality they had had a longer life and better quality of life than your average supermarket chicken and they are tastier too.

Did I say it had been wet?

The echinacea is a glow of sunshine in the garden though
on a dull day

Well who could resist when they are as cute as George

We have had more visitors to the farm this week and we have had another family who were interested in owning alpacas. This is the third group within two weeks who are serious about having alpacas. I am beginning to wonder if we should have an introductory course on alpaca handling and husbandry. Nothing complicated, just a getting to know the alpaca type and a chance to find out about the routine jobs that need doing. Too many ideas maybe....