The Journey: Baby steps

Jakobs has overdone the moustache this week.

Big breath now! We made some plans! Now don't get over excited. Big steps we can do, after all we have moved countries three times now, so it is not that kind of plan. These plans are more baby step planning that is needed for a business venture. Errrr... well... let's just say, we are not terribly good at that type of planning normally. Making plans for something that is not essential for the now, we are not terribly good at either. Normally we get bogged down, me with my apparently grandiose plans and Ian in the details. It is hard to plan when someone is focussed on the big picture and the other on all the details to get the job done.

Shadows! That can only mean one thing! SUN!!!!

A dusting of snow, came and went earlier on in the
week though

Anyway with a little prompting from outside influences we managed to come up with some plans we could agree on. Now that is a miracle. On our planning list we have our probable and necessary column, our possible column and our wishlist. They still need fleshing out a bit and some investigations done, but it's a start. In fact we have even decided on our first purchase towards the plan. Three picnic tables. Exciting heh! Now we just have to decide on the when. Despite the comparatively warm weather we are having currently, we have to remind ourselves that spring is still a way off.

Budding blueberries! Too early?

Ian has been busy in the forest. At least he can get on with
that in the mild weather.

So why picnic tables? Because it means that people can linger, take in the scenery or just sit and watch the alpacas. Why not? Lunch with the alpacas? Well, maybe not lunch with the alpacas exactly. The alpacas don't eat sandwiches and we wouldn't want them trying to nick people's lunches or for guests to be feeding the alpacas inappropriate foods; so we will place the picnic tables in places where they can see the alpacas but not be bothered by them. Or maybe they can be used for those who want to draw or paint, or for our felting courses in August (once the wool is wet and at rolling stage that is). The possibilities are endless.

Although it is mild, we are still having snow flurries, just not
-20C like it can be at this time of the year.

Green, not white.

We also made some baby step progress with using the waste fleece. Our plan was to make them into duvets! Ideally it would have been a totally Latvian made product. Latvian linen, Latvian alpaca fleece and made by someone local. Unfortunately, we have found out that the Latvian linen is not a suitable fabric for the alpaca fleece, so we have to try a different type of fabric specifically for down fillings. Needless to say that fabric will not be made in Latvia as it will be made from cotton. We tried! At least we are further down the road by having some products to test, which is how we know the linen is not going to work. We've even taken steps on sorting out the fleece processing. Ian took that job off me thank goodness and he's already contacted a company to help us with that. It is one thing to hand process fleece into yarn in small quantities, it is another altogether to get it processed into fleece for duvets.

Ian is still busy spinning

It's nice to see Ian using something my Granny used to use.
This old winder to make the hanks, also using Ian's
home-made gadget.

Ian's home-made gadget to hold the spool while he winds it
onto the frame above.

It looks like Freddie has got dandruff. This might be an
oversensitivity to mites, just like his mum.

There has also been some baby steps in reconnecting with people here. One of my friends has returned to the village and so we were able to meet up for a cup of tea. We were going to take a trip out to the land, but the weather forecast was not good, so we opted for an indoor meet up instead. It was good to catch up. It was good not to be working on projects, my thesis or marking, just chatting.

A meeting going on?

The girl's paddock. It has been rather wet just lately

Work is progressing as to be expected. I managed to get out of half a Skype meeting today, to get on with some other work. That would have been the third Skype meeting within a week. I was needed in the beginning to work a bit on some text, since the text was in English and I'm the only native English speaker. All that means is that I can re-word things a little more succinctly than the others or come up with certain words to convey an idea. I have my uses!

Marie looking wistful. Is she thinking of a man? She will be
mated again this year. It will be interesting to see what she
produces this time, but we will have to wait a while with
their 11 1/2 month pregancies.

Good job I have some new cream steeping for Aggie's face.
The wet weather is probably not helping to keep the mite
population down.

And that is about it really. It is winter after all and so writing takes up a good portion of my time or a little marking. It won't be long before we go back out to the land to our caravan. The night's are already noticeably shorter. When Ian is home later than when we eat, that will be the time to start thinking of going back out. Hopefully the weather will be drier by then. Before that I will have to start thinking about starting off the plants for the greenhouse, but it has been so dull the poor plants would need extra light, so I haven't got started on them yet. Just some salad type seeds but they look a little sad and sorry. So maybe a heat mat and lamp is in order.