Oh Sweet Rain!

We have seen clouds that look like they might rain and some
we could see were raining but passed us by. We are so
grateful to hear the rain on the caravan roof right now.

We actually sat down and just watched the rain. There wasn't much else to do really, except maybe tidy the greenhouse, but since we had just baled and stacked 36 bales of hay and shifted another 20 or thereabouts,  I think we deserved a rest. We badly needed the rain though. It is only early June and already plants are struggling with the heat and lack of water. Since early April we have had very little rain at all and I think we have only had about three showers since I got back from the UK in mid-April. Many of the days have been hot and sunny, further increasing the stress on the plants and animals alike.

A very pregnant Aggie having a sunbathe

An airy cover for the chickens. Two have escaped or nearly
escaped from the enclosure this week though. Hopefully
we have sorted it now. Unfortunately it was after one of them
reduced the number of carrots by scratching through one of
my veg beds. Wouldn't have minded so much but not many
had germinated in the first place. Grrrr!

Last week I was going to write my blog as usual when I discovered an email that told me that a meeting in Slovakia was cancelled. I had heard that there wasn't a huge amount of interest, not that surprising as it seemed to be arranged last minute like a lot of these things, but it was supposed to be going ahead regardless. Rather annoyingly someone had had a change of mind, as I had put a lot of effort into finding out how to get there and so I then had to put a lot of effort into cancelling everything on a week when I was particularly busy too. At least I got my money back on the flights from the meeting organisers- well at least most of it, as I am waiting for AirBaltic to get their act together and send me my taxes back. They said they would in the expensive phone call to them 52c a minute.

At least the cool nights have meant the grass still got some
moisture but it was beginning to struggle and in some places
dried to a crisp. I was beginning to worry that Jani - the
midsummer festival with bonfires was possibly going to cause
havoc and a wildfire.

Ian has been clearing a mound to make way for a root cellar.
Both these heaps will be used to cover the old chicken shed.
Details are still to be worked on

At least the rain gives me a chance to write the blog. It is after all, too wet to do any weeding and  there isn't that much to do anyway as I haven't put many seeds in yet because it has been so dry. We also need to wait for the cut grass to dry out again, so no more baling for now (don't worry there isn't that much cut and it will be fine, there is more hot weather forecast).  So what's been happening over the last two weeks? Well first of all we had a visit from a mother and daughter who live close by and had just bought some alpacas. They asked lots of questions and Ian gave them lots of advice, we also agreed to shear their two animals that still needed doing. We were concerned that they might get too hot in the high temperatures we have been having.

A grateful addition to the greenhouse. A side door for ventilation

A chance to try out the feltability of the fleeces from these
little chaps. We found George's felts incredibly well
whereas Frederiks takes a bit more work.

It was not the best plan, but we ended up shearing the following day. One of the problems was that we still had jobs to do to get ready for our felting tutor's arrival that evening. Animal welfare though was uppermost and since the family had important commitments the rest of the week like finishing off degree courses, we decided just to get on with it. We started off with an enjoyable short tour around their property while we collected their animals from the field. I was worried at first that the animals were not already rounded up, but the family seemed to have sorted out the walk from the field to the barn and it wasn't an issue. Getting the animals in for shearing itself was a little more problematic, but we got done and showed them one or two tricks for improving compliance with the animals - some of the things learnt from experience the hard way.

Poor Mr. P has been bothered by the flies. They really annoy him

Cow parsley makes such pretty pictures, but it is a pain in
the field as the alpacas do not eat it

There was one point where we used a rope to corral one of the animals so we could check its teeth. Unfortunately another of the animals managed to get entangled in the rope and then set off at full pelt around the paddock with the rope dangling from its body. I managed to grab the rope and slowly haul it in, to get the rope off, whilst Ian was dealing with the other animal. After we had finished the shearing and checking on the animals we were treated to cold Latvian soup - the ideal sort of food on a hot day. It was nice to be able to do all that and still be home mid-afternoon, since it is much nearer than most other places where we do shearing.

The grapes are starting to swell and the leaves provide a nice
bit of shade

Pine cones forming

I still had time to get the apartment we have moved into presentable for our felting tutor before we went to collect her in the evening - presentable in the loosest sense of the word. The next few days were then spent finishing off the greenhouse to transform it from a dumping ground into a workshop for the following week. Now the barn looks like a dumping ground and so does the little greenhouse structure outside, but its progress of sorts. While Heather our tutor and I were clearing the greenhouse out, Ian was having fun, I mean working hard digging out one of the ponds. It had dried out quite a lot and so it was the ideal opportunity to try and tackle the problems we have of it draining away and deepen it. Ian found more clay drain pipes, so now they have been plugged and our pond is filling - very, very slowly due to the drought, but at least it is filling and not emptying. I don't think the fish were terribly happy about it all, as the pond got a bit shallow in the process, but we reckon there are still at least four of them left of the 8 put in and they are getting quite big. I'm sure they will appreciate more room later on in the year, as the pond fills though.

Pied wagtail

Small in number but we had great fun

Our Latvian Alpaca Adventure didn't get the numbers we were hoping for and it was really difficult to get time to really push the advertising of it, so we decided to run it with just the one participant to try and work out some different ways of running it in the future. We had hoped to visit a Latvian felter, but unfortunately she pulled out just before the event and so all our plans ended up changing anyway. It was very frustrating. Especially as I had taken quite a bit of time trying to help them understand how to work with the international folks on the course and provide reassurance. On the plus side though, our participant was lovely, she thoroughly enjoyed the week and made some good suggestions for the future.

We ate a lot of fresh bread that I
baked and pastries from the bakeries
 in the village. I'm really pleased to find
that vine leaves make great replacements
for baking sheets.

Just pointing out that a rain cloud was on
the way.

One suggestion was to build some pods for people to stay out on the land rather than at the hotel, which has some potential and maybe a step forward - although when I've checked on prices, small cabins would work out cheaper. The hotel is nice and we get a good deal on it, but it does mean I have to organise transporting people backwards and forwards, which can be an issue sometimes when there are still jobs to do on the farm. It is also a way of reducing the costs of the holiday.

Felting with George's fleece. The rings are to work out how
much shrinkage occurs during the felting process. I still have to
finish this one off.

Doing some eco-printing. I use that term loosely as I don't
like the use of so much plastic, despite not using strong
chemical dyes. I did find out that leaving the fabrics that
had been soaked in rusty water with the leaves overnight
made a blue or purple dye. Those steamed right away were
blacker. 

Another aspect of the pod idea is that we could also offer some sort of retreat, whether that is a craft retreat, an academic retreat or just a retreat away from it all. We could even use them for artists in residence where felters, painters or any artist comes to spend time using the resources we have on our land, such as our fleeces, natural materials, landscape etc. The possibilities are endless I'm sure. Heather will be using the rest of her time here on our land getting to know more about the alpaca fleece and how it differs from sheep fleeces as our first artist in residence. She has already made a truly gorgeous scarf using some of George's fleece and some of Aggie's. Alpaca fleece can be wonderfully soft, but it is still a pretty unknown quantity in the felting world and even has a bad reputation at times. Obviously something we would like to change and there is no better way than to have someone experiment with it to find out what its strengths and weaknesses are.

Teamwork!

There are so many pictures from these last two weeks that I will post some more later.