The Journey: Getting there! Again!

A rather dramatic sky, but not tonight's.

We are sat in the caravan in the sweltering heat with the fan going. The last few days have been hot and dry. We could have been haymaking but the weather forecast said rain for today. Pah! When the forecast was for no rain - we got rain, not just a sprinkling but a torrential downpour. They forecast rain and we get blue skies and hot sunshine! Perfect haymaking weather! It's not helpful. The thunder clouds are rolling in now and we may get rain after all but they stopped forecasting rain for us yesterday. Sigh!. We still have one field left to cut for hay and time is ticking on as we collect subsidies on that field. That means we have until August 15th to cut and clear. The forecast is for lower temperatures next week and we are still not certain about the rain, one site says no rain after Friday and the other says yes and only goes till Sunday. Sigh again! Will we won't we? At least we did get some hay in last week and that's why I didn't blog. I was in the field until well after 10pm and we only rolled into bed at midnight.

Finally got to see some noctilucent clouds. Usually
it has been too light to see the high silvery clouds
that you can see in the background. I decided that
the reason I never became an astronomer is because
really I'm not a late night person.

Poor guy! All a bit too much at
times

Turbjørn is doing a bit better these days. He doesn't seem as stiff. He still obviously has a sore neck and it is still a bit twisted. The animal physio came out again and used some laser heat to heal the tissues. She is fairly sure it is just soft tissue damage because of the way he is responding to treatment but she cannot be absolutely sure without an x-ray. The problem is that, although we found a couple of vets that can do mobile x-rays, they can't come until August. Meanwhile Ian continues to massage the tissues around Turbjørn's neck and the tops of his legs, where the problem may have started. At least he seems to be staying out of the way of any fights that break out from time to time. The young boys are growing and testing their place in the herd and the older ones have been on mating duty, so hormones are a bit high.

Sometimes he looks quite perky though.

I have a wilderness for a garden, as
usual, but it never ceases to amaze
me what beauty there is to be seen.
This is just a weed, but so pretty.

Hopefully the boys will all settle down soon though as the females get pregnant. We are fairly confident with a few of them, as they are usually compliant and are definitely being resistant now. We were surprised with one of our particularly spitty females though (at least to males not to people), as she actually sat down for mating today. It seems she may have been ready. Normally she puts up quite a fight. Her and her mother have not read the books on alpaca mating that say spitting and fighting only occur once they are pregnant, not before. They are definitely a feisty pair and take after Veronica, who is the mother and grandmother of the pair. She too though has been showing signs of being ready to mate. The difference is that there is no way we will let a male near her, she is not in a good condition for pregnancy with a bowed back and wonky front legs. It is possible for alpacas to give birth successfully at her age but not recommended with those issues.

A damp morning making the grass look frothy

Clustered bellflower

With the increase in temperature comes an increase in flies that are bothering the alpacas. Some of them get sores from the constant nibbling by flies and is not pleasant. I've been putting some of my cream on mixed with clay. The clay of course is good for skin, but it also hides the redness of the sores, which should stop the flies getting to the sore patches. Unfortunately that is not working quite as well as we would like and so they also still get some fly repellent sprayed on them too. At least that seems to do the trick.

The lawn's doing well

Flowers amongst the grass

This last week we took a trip to just north of Riga to see a couple who have got some new alpacas. It was interesting to see them in their large garden. They are hoping for more space but the animals seemed contented enough. We were able to reassure them that on the whole fights at their age are not really something to be concerned about, they are still young. As it is between the less dominant ones they are probably just working out their hierarchy in the small herd too as well as just playing.

The remains of the old small greenhouse, repurposed
as a smaller drying shed again.

A start of another project. There will be a replacement
shed here where the old little greenhouse had fallen down

You can just about see the new greenhouse. The
potatoes have taken over. No chance to mow
between the rows at the moment.

We have been getting a trickle of visitors to the farm. People are coming in small groups of about 6-7 at the moment. That's nice as it is small enough to handle but the money earned is of course better. One group sent Ian a very nice email afterwards to thank him for showing them around. Obviously they have enjoyed themselves. I leave Ian to it, so I can get in the garden or on with my work. Sometimes I would like to just join in, but then I wouldn't get other things done and I only have so many hours in the day. One family who visited turned out to be someone we had met many years before at Gančauskas, a camp just north of Sigulda that started us off on our journey to living in Latvia. This lady had been there at a time when it was just the two of us, without the children. Not sure if she recognised Ian or not and I've changed a lot since then, but we managed to find her picture amongst ours. I wonder how many more there are who will visit us and will they remember us?

The tomatoes are doing well though

In different colours too

A cloud building this afternoon while I was working
on the project

I'm still working and trying to finish off work projects. I'm determined to have them finished by the end of the week to get some time off before I start on my next project. I'm getting there, it is just taking too long for my liking. At least I got the chance to get in the garden at the weekend but that is another slow job. I have a huge pile of weeds and a long bed and a half of strawberries cleared out now. At least Ian has somewhere to dump the manure to give the strawberry plants a good start for next year. Strawberry season was a little short this year as there were not many strawberries, probably due to a frost at a critical time but they were nice. At least the tomatoes have got going and so we are starting to get colourful salads again.

Our fruit is doing well. I must get some of it in the freezer or in jars.