Summer time again!

Little Karla is growing up fast. Now running
around and keeping up with the adults.

We are now at the stage of wondering when was the last time it rained. We seem to go so quickly from cold and wet to hot and dry. My garden is dying again! We have watered some plants that need some TLC (tender loving care) because they are relatively new, but even then I try to avoid watering them if I can. We rely a lot on mulch and it does very well, but when plants are used to water, it is hard for them to adjust quickly to drought. There is also no rain or very little forecast for the next ten days - or rather there is and then there isn't and then there is again. In other words the forecasters don't seem to be able to make up their minds. We should be haymaking but the aircon needs doing on the tractor and while it is not as hot as last week, it's still hot. Too hot to be working in a tractor all day without adequate ventilation. 

These baby swallows are also getting big in the
boy's alpaca house. There is one baby swallow in
the nest in Lady V's former residence. That one
has been rescued four times by Ian. Once as an
egg and three times he has put the fledgling back.

Fortunately the flies cannot get through the 
fleece, so they are just annoying here rather
than biting. It is the soft and unprotected areas
they get in and bite. 

The guy Ian contacted in the tractor shop forgot to pass on his details and so now we have to wait until the end of the week for the repair guy. So my forecast is for it to rain when the aircon is fixed. Meanwhile Ian has been using the two wheel tractor to mow near road, in a field that is now wall to wall docks, the walkways and around currant bushes. He's dressed up like a bee keeper, only in black not white. In fact he'd probably be better with a white beekeeper's outfit come to think of it. The bitey flies have been really bad this year and so we cannot go out without long sleeves and long trousers - no shorts for us, even in the heat.

A fourteen spotted ladybird. Excuse the gardening
fingers.

Aggie is looking huge. Maybe tomorrow?

Besides waiting for rain, we are still waiting for babies. Two more alpaca girls are pass their due dates and they seem imminent and then they don't and then they seem imminent again! You get the idea, everything seems imminent, like the clouds that pass over looking like they might rain but don't. At least little Karla is growing strong and her fleece is lovely and silky. As I mentioned the bitey flies have been pretty bad and so the animals have been having a rotten time with them. We've been putting on fly repellent on those worst affected, it is a mix of cloves and garlic that have been macerated in oil, strained and then added to vodka or gin (cheap diluent) and then sprayed on for a good coverage like Chanel and Freddie or rubbed on faces for those that struggle with flies around their eyes and noses like Karla, Tellus and Turbjørn.

Come on Silla, where's that baby? No time to be
lounging around.

Success! Horseflies that will fly no more!

The home-made repellent seems to work for most of the day and is a whole lot cheaper than the over €4 bottle of effective fly repellent that was based on clove oil anyway. It's not good for the wool of the white alpacas, as it attracts the muck though, so not perfect. Neither is the fly repellent good in the sun on exposed flesh as it tends to cook the skin, so not necessarily good for us either. The commercial fly repellent was only sold as something to wear in the forest so understandable. I put a message on Facebook asking for recommendations for dealing with all the bitey flies and a friend with horses recommended some glue that you paint onto buckets. In the heat of the day it certainly seems to attract the flies. It could do with being a bit more sticky when it is a bit cooler, but on sunny days it's very efficient. 

One outside the boys' alpaca house

One outside the former residence of Lady V. 
There is also one outside Vanessa's girl's alpaca
house. All are roped off to stop any alpaca 
wandering into the gloopy mess.

Ian took our neighbour back to the repair shop this last week to collect her milking machine. I think she was very relieved that it was fixed at a reasonable price and she didn't have to buy a new one. I'm sure she is also very relieved she didn't have to milk by hand again. I can't even begin to imagine how she managed for the day she had without one. Life on a dairy farm is hard enough, without something like this making it worse. It is also a good job she is a relatively small organic dairy farm and not a huge industrial unit. 

A wasp of some description. Not sure yet exactly

There was some rain after this was cut and so
now it has greened up. We have seen places
though where we walk or drive the tractor that
are now shrivelling up and drying out.

I'm officially on holiday this week but of course others are not and so I've had two work based meetings. One for the expert group I'm part of and one for a funding application. I've been very good and although I have volunteered to be a co-chair for the first one and on the editorial board for the second one, I did say I wouldn't be able to take on the responsibility until August as there is too much to do here on the farm. Everyone seems quite happy about that and it probably works out well as others have holidays in August or other work commitments. I have to admit I did not put my video on this afternoon as we had only just put Ilvija back in the paddock because she had escaped again and I was hot, sweaty and dishevelled - not a good look for a Microsoft Teams meeting. They laughed.

Six-spotted Burnet moth

Amanda, Karla's Mum taking a rest in the shade.

I would like to say that I've been able to do more practising for my Latvian lessons, although I've done more than I was doing, it still isn't enough. Food preparation takes so long when the harvest starts to come. The good thing is that I've now got fresh strawberries, rhubarb and peas in the freezer or in jars. We've also finally got around to setting some more eggs away in the incubator for a new batch of hens. I'm not sure we will keep the ones we have over the winter as they are all problem hens. Some eat eggs, some won't go away readily at night and so on. We'll see what the younger ones are like after the cockerels are culled - hopefully this next week. 

Now is she cream or just mucky? After a roll in 
the dust bath

We might not get many human visitors but lots
of insect visitors. This was on a plastic
chair. iNaturalist is telling me this is a snout
and bark beetle.

We haven't had many visitors just lately, which is kind of normal for us at this time of the year. There is usually a lull. We did have one visitor who turned up on her bike. Her relatives recommended she visit us as they thought she would enjoy it, which apparently she did. She didn't just get to see alpacas as she and Ian watched a hare go past as he was giving her the regular talk. I presume it was the same one that we saw earlier on today at coffee time. It is good to see the wildlife around here, well some of them. Not sure I would want to see the wild boar or any wolves thank you. Quite happy to miss out on that. 

Possibly a willow sawfly. I think we must have 
quite an extensive range of sawflies. Not happy 
about that as they eat my trees.

Scale insect that is also eating my mint.

It is nice to see all the wild flowers too and we are still occasionally finding new ones. Some plants are not so welcome though like the ragwort I found this week or the giant hogweed that is growing on our neighbour's land that we cut for hay. Ragwort is poisonous for animals even dried in hay and giant hogweed is dangerous when it is cut and spreads like mad. Fortunately for Ian, someone had already cut down the main infestation before it went to seed and he only had to cut a smaller one that was nearer the road. Extreme care has to be taken when cutting it down because even a little bit of sap on the skin can result in a severe burn on exposure to the sun. 

No idea but it's eating my mint

A fourteen spotted ladybird. Excuse the gardening
fingers.

So that's about it from a still rather warm and dry part of rural Latvia for this week. May be we will have more news next week of little cria, we had better have. We still have shearing to do in Estonia and Ian is having to think about going on his own if necessary, when we usually work as a team. So if you don't mind, blow some rain this way for this week and pray for babies to arrive safely.

Moth larvae