Challenging times

We had cabbage soup, which might
not sound terribly exciting, but it
was rather good.

My supervisor and his wife came to visit us. I had told them to come in the morning when we arranged the visit just in case we had to do any baling after lunch. At least I knew they would understand as he comes from farming stock. As it turned out we had to wait for the grass to dry out and so couldn't get on with the baling that day anyway. It did mean we had a chance to sit around and chat into the early afternoon, which was nice and relaxing. The weather was dry on the day and so after they left Ian got out and turned the hay before we had a visit from another couple who have just moved to Latvia. It was a chance to give our view as Brits on what life is like in rural Latvia since one was a fellow Brit, albeit with the advantage of having married a Latvian. It was a nice way to round off the day and they bought cake, so even better.

It amused me to see George's head
pop up when I was walking towards
the alpaca house

I love this pink knapweed. Not a beautiful
name but a beautiful colour and they are
growing wild everywhere on our land
at the moment.

Later on in the week we went to do some shearing at the place where the alpacas were too wet to shear the last time. It still wasn't the most ideal situation to shear in, a shelter in the middle of a very large field and a goat and one small child intent on getting into everything. I had to keep the goat at bay and repeatedly tell the young chap "ne" and "nav" (no and not in Latvian) while Ian fetched the equipment. In the end I did shout at the young chap. I don't normally shout at children, I do not find it necessary, but I couldn't hold off the goat and ensure the young chap didn't strangle himself with the alpaca restraining ropes. Fortunately at this point his mother did realise that this couldn't carry on and removed the child and tied up the goat while we finished preparing for shearing.

Freddie! Why do you have to go to the
toilet inside? Couldn't you go outside?

Dainty little mushrooms just
outside one of the chicken arks

That was just the start though. We also had to catch the alpacas first. We thought we might have to and so came prepared with some wire and post fencing, but the cria (baby alpaca) tried to go through it and nearly strangled itself. It was released with the alpaca mother spitting and attempting to bite Ian. Next attempt was with a long rope that we used to herd the animals and trap against a solid fence. That worked and Ian managed to put a harness on the spitty animal and walk her to the shelter. She was sheared no problem. The next one was not so easy. We tried for quite a while to capture her but she was quick and clever and managed to duck under the rope each time. Most alpacas will not do that.

The grapes are ripening.

I love the slightly regal look of Brencis, completely unfazed
by the argument going on behind is back between Turbjørn
and Herk

I rather testily asked if we could have help to get her and eventually the owners managed to do it. We got a harness on and the owners once again disappeared. The problem was that this alpaca was not so compliant and sat down... on a very steep, gravelly bank amongst tall grass and small pine trees. We had to carry her and fortunately she didn't fight back. It is a good job that we've already shifted a few hundred 25kg bales of hay and so I'm stronger than at the beginning of the season. We only really persisted because this poor animal had a two year fleece on her and kept sitting in water buckets to cool down. She needed shearing badly. She was a bit of a wriggly alpaca but not too bad and we got her sheared okay once she was in the restraints. We did charge some extra for the time taken and maybe would have charged more if this wasn't the first time we had sheared for them. Hopefully they will know better next time and we can give them some hints to make the process faster.

Marshmallow plants and echinacea

Kind of steep don't you think? Well
it is an old ski hill

It wouldn't have been quite so bad but we had tried to fit it in before baling in the afternoon - well it was very late afternoon by the time we got back, we were meant to finish early-afternoon. We stopped on the way home for dessert and a coffee, we were too thirsty to eat properly despite missing lunch. When we got back we had a chocolate and mint milk shake with an apple before getting out on the field to bale up hay. Ian baled while I moved the bales to two convenient pick up points. Okay at times but this was on the steepest part of our ski hill and so a lot of trudging up and down hill again. Once Ian had finished baling it was back to the other part of our land to pick up the trailers, grab a cup of tea and  a couple of rounds of toast then back to collect up the bales. After putting animals away we put a tarpaulin over the thirty bales in the large trailer and finished at around 10pm to sit down and eat. It was quite a day!

These are the red ones. We have a barrow load of white ones
drying on a rack in the barn.

The rest of the week has been quieter with some return visitors who brought friends with them. It has been the start of harvesting season and I pulled up most of the onions and put them to dry in the barn. Only before I did that, I had to remove the dried marjoram and put that in the greenhouse to finish off processing later. I also needed to tidy up the greenhouse ready for our felting course at the end of this week coming, but to do that I needed to put some seedlings into the garden to get them out of the way and to do that I had to clear a bed to put them in. For every job that needs doing it seems they're other jobs that need doing first.

Dried marjoram for tea and adding to food and onions for a stock

I managed to squeeze the parsley into my small herb bed

I'm rather chuffed with this
cauliflower. It's not often they
grow to a decent size without
getting yellowed by the sun, or
attacked by caterpillars.

Along with that there is the worry for the health of a friend. We know there is much that needs doing on their farm but we are a bit helpless as to what we can do at the moment, partly because we have our own farm work to do that is essential for our animals over winter. It does make you realise how vulnerable farmers are to health issues during peak seasons. So much uncertainty and so much to do and not just for them but for others who could help. People do what they can, but they also have their own farms to run and their own animals at the busiest time of their year too.

Mind you, I think the pathway
needs a bit of looking after. 

But if the veg is growing well,
then what does a few overgrown
paths matter?

Today I'm on holiday apparently, according to my work calendar. I've even been getting reminders to tell me. It's rather amusing really. Not that there has been much to do because all my colleagues have been on holiday. I've done what I can and now have to wait for everyone else to get back on board. As for being on holiday! Hmmm! Today we are doing the last shear of the year and I still have my PhD to work on, the farm work to do and the felting course to prepare for. I won't be bored anyway.

The orchard finally got a mow this week. We are hoping the
grass will have reseeded itself in the process. It didn't get
cut at first because of the drought and then it just got left.

The Jerusalem artichokes are forming
a hedge at the back with self-seeded
borage taking over the strawberry plot
and I think courgettes in front. I hope
they have not left it too late to start
producing. However, with plants like
this it can go from famine to glut in a
very short space of time.

At least the shearing today was to one of our favourite places where we feel heartily welcomed and well fed, so a good way to finish off our shearing season. The mother is definitely someone with a gift of hospitality and I feel all that pass by, including the foster children under her roof, know that. I always feel that those who welcome others, especially, the vulnerable in our society are too often under valued. We need many more people to rediscover the gift of hospitality with open homes and warm hearts. After a good meal it was back home and Ian turned hay again, this time on our neighbours field, ready for baling tomorrow before more rain. At least this time we weren't hungry and thirsty.

Two arks made it down onto the field, one more to go. They
didn't get moved much at first as they were nice and cool by
the forest edge. Now I need them to get to work turning over
a weedy field.

I had a surprise email this week with a request to use my blog and the articles I write for teaching purposes. I gather it is not "how not to write," but how to write for specific purposes. It is nice to feel that at least some of my writing is useful to someone and an encouragement to keep plodding on. So while Ian was turning hay, I was busy booking onto a conference, because I heard today that an abstract I had written for it was accepted. An eclectic life anyway.