Just another week

I love the colours in this photograph. Jakobs, our
multi-coloured alpaca against a moody dark blue sky

I know for some people this year has been an absolute drag, stuck indoors with not a lot to do, maybe kids to supervise and not much garden. It's tough. For me the opposite is true, time has flown by. We are over half way through April and I'm wondering where all the time has gone. Working from home is something I'm used to and I value the freedom to change my timetable, only that is not happening so much at the moment. I have deadlines to meet, work to get through and it's turning out to be a bit intense at times, even without a pre-defence to prepare for like last week. The availability of doing online meetings can be a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it is possible to keep in touch and a curse because it ties up my timetable. I know if you are used to working in an office you can probably appreciate what I mean. I'm just not that used to it. I am used to intense busy periods as I try to work on the land and do the work for courses or my job, but not often that intense just for the job.

We woke up to this on Wednesday morning

But it was short-lived. All gone by 5:30pm

The peonies are coming through

I often look back on the previous week's blog to try and avoid the temptation to repeat myself (sorry I don't always succeed), but it looks like Blogger has swallowed most of my pictures. That's rather annoying. They were there last when I posted them. If I had the time I would reinstate them, but just at the moment there won't be much chance of that. I finally found my inspiration for an article I still have to write so that is finally progressing again. I had to write and ask for some extra time. I knew that even if I had time to finish it, my co-authors wouldn't have time to read it as they are deep in pre-defences for master students now. I had other frustrations this week, as I had to try and get my head around some new software to help with getting information from articles. Our electric also went off before a meeting, due to the windy weather we've been having- mind you that was useful to get on with some other work that didn't need the internet.

The Siberian squill I dug up from outside the apartment is
doing well. It is the nearest I get to bluebells here. Hopefully
one day we will have a carpet of blue in spring.

Aggie. She looks like she's getting a bit of a mite problem
again - normal for this time of year. At least she usually
responds to my magic cream - well most of the time.

One of the little jobs I had to do this week was to write a short biography and send a picture to add to a list for the project team I joined this month. I looked through all my photos but struggled to find one of me without alpacas and one where I wasn't wearing farm clothes. Not easy but I found a nice-ish one. A nice outdoorsy one, since it is a project to do with health and well-being in the outdoors, only in this case by water. I didn't have one by water but with a tree in the background, or sticking out of my head depending on how you view it. My biography for an academic is also a bit eclectic and there may have been a mention of having alpacas, but it does fit with my research on rural landscapes - honest! At least the lady who read it thought it was inspiring, so I think I got away with it.

If it wasn't for the fact that Lady V's legs are wonky, she
is doing very well for an old lady of nearly 17 years old.
She's a year older than Herk

Ilvija's fleece is rather varied in colour, brown, dark brown
then light again

I think it should calm down soon, as we head towards the end of the academic year and I certainly hope it does before the planting season starts, at least at the moment it is too cold to really get going on the garden. The longer days will be helpful then. I have started on the potatoes, though as they are all snuggled up in the alpaca manure, so should be fine with a dip in temperatures at night. Ian is also making progress on the greenhouse and doing a very tidy job of the landscaping, so I think that will be ready in time for when the tomatoes are due to be planted up at the beginning of next month and we are going to make another herb bed. One job out of the way anyway.

Synchronised eating. There is hardly a blade of grass in their
paddock. They still try to find some though. They are not
starved, there is plenty of hay for them and it's pretty good
this year, full of nice leafy material - but they still would
rather have grass

Just to prove the point, Lady V has her head through the fence
to find some tasty morsels. Between her and Mari the fence
is a bit wobbly. It doesn't help that the ground is so soft, so
not holding the posts firmly enough

We did have visitors again this week, but these ones we knew and we did observe social distancing rules (unlike the old lady in the supermarket this week). Our visitors came bearing gifts - a bag of wood pellets, empty egg boxes and some empty jars. All useful gifts for us. Our hens are producing regularly, our composting toilet needed some sawdust and jars are always handy when you grow your own stuff. Jars are also handy to keep the mice out of food. Actually jars are handy when trying to keep a certain cat out of our food. I found a mangled silicon muffin case on the floor this morning, but it wasn't a whole one. I did mutter something about I hoped it made her sick, well it did... on top of one of the chicken arks. Yuck! I don't believe it will cure her from eating all the stuff she shouldn't do. She seems to spend all of her time hunting for crumbs and not as much time hunting mice, which is what a farm cat is for. In fact she even nicks mice off our other cat sometimes, rather than hunting for her own.

Amanda (not pictured here, this is Silla) managed to limbo
dance her way under the fence that you can see behind. We
at least could stake that down to prevent a repeat escape.

Herk enjoying the grass in peace. He can still see all the
other alpacas, not that he's that bothered if he doesn't. He
is often on his own because he's deaf and doesn't realise
they have all gone out. 

Herk has still been causing us much concern over this last week. We have tried all sorts of things to help him recover. Finally he seems to be improving and he seems to be able to get himself up at last. Not easily but at least he can. Ian still has to help him up in the mornings as he seems a bit stiff - don't we all! We honestly thought at times we were going to lose him. He's had injections that are used to strengthen the heart, worming treatment because he suddenly had worms in his poo samples, despite the fact he's been pretty clear so far, he's had thiamine tablets because alpacas are thiamine sensitive and can rapidly go downhill without it and he's also had his own patch of grass to eat. The other boys are insanely jealous of this, but there isn't enough for all of them and Herk really did need it.

Red-veined sorrel 

Mossy logs. I love the colour contrasts

Trees down from the windy weather

No not goldfish, but my waterlily starting to grow

Not a large cow pat either, but the remains of silage bales.
Once they've dried out a bit, I will remove the plastic that is
still underneath. At least I will need to do that before our
bin is emptied next month. We only have a collection once
every three months.

The water in the pond is crystal clear at the moment, but
no frogspawn yet

You can tell this is a stork in springtime because their beaks
and legs are so red. After a few months of raising chicks,
they don't look so glossy.

Mari looking fluffy

More synchronised mowing

Stopping for a scratch

Landscaping nearly done. Now for the water diversion
features and herb bed

Josefs is such a cutie and a lovely sweet personality too -
he also moans a lot though

Sunset on the oak tree hill

The boys paddock at sunset.