Getting ready

A lovely sunset

It is still that time of the year when it is tempting to get everything planted up and yet it might not be a good idea. There is still a long way to go before we can be certain (or as near as you can be) that there won't be any more frosts. We reckon on the end of May as our more certain time. Having said that, there is still a lot that can be planted, either indoors or a lot of work that still needs to be done to prepare for them.

Mr. Tellus looking happy with himself

So far the potatoes are in, mainly tucked into some alpaca manure beds or beds of old hay to save digging new beds. Last year's potato beds are a beautiful dark colour and now planted up with parsnips, carrots, turnips, beets and onion sets. There is just a little bit of space left in some beds for more onion sets and some are waiting for squash plants that I will start off this next week if all goes well. The strawberry bed that I remembered was too old has now been covered with a thick layer of hay and pockets of fresh soil from an old compost pile added for strawberry plants that I had dug up. We shall see if that gets over the issue of the bed being too old and full of disease with less work than digging it all over and moving it somewhere else. If it doesn't work then the hay will rot down and give me a fresh bed for something else next year.

Not sure about his rather wild hair do here though 

As well as sorting out beds for vegetables and still sorting out our old apartment we have been sorting out the EU subsidies for the land. This entailed going into the village to see the local contact lady and using google translate and gestures to sort it out. It was a bit of a slow process but it got done with enough goodwill and hopefully finished for now.  We should get just a little more than last year, which all helps to keep us going financially.

The clouds were building tonight at sunset and now it is
raining and we maybe in for some thunder

The weather has not been good all week and so there was an opportunity to go and visit friends. We went to our friends' goat farm nearby to do some catching up and then our friends further afield in Estonia to also catch up on what they are doing and collect six months worth of alpaca feed. I was rather jealous of their lovely new farm shop with all their alpaca products, coffee making facilities, some tables to sit at and lots of lovely space. I am sure it would make a great felting venue. They were busy prepping for their new season and so we didn't get to stay long.

Ian has been moving wood to start preparations for our
shelter for the caravan. It is getting a bit old now and
could do with an outer protective layer. It is certainly still
liveable in, but we are worried about being out in the sun
and rain over summer which will eventually end in a leak
somewhere. Moving it doesn't do it much good either these
days

I have also been doing some work on my paper but that is still going slowly. It didn't help that my supervisor was on a family holiday and so replies were not immediate - but then again maybe I shouldn't have been getting them at all really. At least it is still heading in a positive direction and not stalled completely. Hopefully I should get to hear soon about the other two papers that are already submitted.

George has been wowing the visitors with his cute face. I will
be glad to get him sheared though, so that he can see properly
again

The last two days have been very warm and this has brought out the visitors - well kind of. Yesterday we had a call that someone was planning to visit in the early evening. Technically we shut at 5pm, but we are not inundated with visitors and so quite happy for people to call in up until putting away time, which is getting quite late these days. We got everything prepared and set up and waited and waited and waited. I even went and got on with some work, as I got fed up with waiting. Eventually Ian texted to see where they were and apparently they ran out of time. It would have been nice to know. We can't leave everything out as our cats would sleep on it all, which is not good with dust and straw about. Oh for a nice purpose built shop!

The boys have gelled together quite nicely. We haven't had
any issues between them. Freddie was a sweetie today, as he
even took carrots from some visitors. 

Today we had three groups of visitors, although one group decided not to stay for an excursion around the property as they didn't speak English. They could have joined the group who had already turned up, as they were fluent and would have translated, but they decided not to. That is fine with us. If we know ahead of time that someone is coming who is not able to speak English, we try to make sure someone is around to help us, but that does require booking in advance and not everyone does that.

Despite Turbjørns elegant stance, he will not be in any
wedding photos - he is much too skittish for that

One of the reasons the first group came was to talk about a possible visit to take photos for a friends' wedding. This is something we have discussed ourselves but when you look at the wedding photos that people post, the alpacas are always in full fleece. Here in Latvia, it is not usually a good idea to have them in full fleece during wedding season, it is too hot. We also need to shear early enough to try and make sure they have enough fleece by the beginning of winter. It might look nice in the photos, but a hot and bothered animal is not a good idea. There is still a chance they might go ahead with it even though they might not be so fluffy, so who knows. Watch this space, either that or people need to organise their weddings for now, when ours are at their fluffiest.

Storm brewing

We had everything out on the tables again for the first group as they had booked in advance and I said to Ian as we were packing it all away that maybe we should have left it up in case we had more visitors. I should have listened to my own voice of reason, as we were half way through a late lunch when the next lot turned up. We had to hurriedly stick our sandwiches in a drawer to stop the cats nabbing them while our backs are turned and then went to meet them. When I asked them if they spoke English (asked in Latvian of course) the lady turned to her young son and he immediately started translating. He looked about 12 or so but translated very well. He was also quite curious himself and so he also asked lots of questions and didn't just translate for his mother and grandmother. We could do with someone like him around.

Lady V, looking contemplative

So all in all, it is definitely the start of the busy season. We never know who will turn up and yet still have our farm chores to do on top of that. I also still have my academic work and that probably will continue so that I can try to finish my PhD before the end of the year. It's no wonder I am not appreciating our early alarm calls - we really do need to move the chickens further away soon. At least it is getting warm enough to do that.

Our boys were pronking around the paddock this week. We haven't seem them do this before, the girls we have, but not the boys. If you are not sure what pronking is, then you will need to see the video from our Facebook page. (Link here)

Donk! When life has just got too much for you! Actually it is
probably Aggie just having a good scratch around her ankles

You put your left leg in, your left leg out!