It's finished! - No really! It is this time.

Thirteen hay bales. Not all are usable but at least we can
move them off the field and decide what to do with them
later.

Haymaking is finished. We nearly lost the grass that Ian cut last week. We had a day of rain and the grass was fairly green and leafy, so it looked like it might rot away before we got the chance to do anything with it. A few days of reasonably hot and dry weather, however, meant that Ian managed to rescue it and bale it. Not sure how worth it was doing it, as it needed turning and then spreading out and turning again before it could be baled. Not something Ian would do normally if it wasn't needed. At least it's all experience. Experience of what not to do next time.

Back to finding the shade. People often ask how they do in
the winter and we tell them fine, as long as they have enough
fleece on them. This year the fleece is growing well and so the
recent spell of good weather is hard on them. They enjoyed
the shower they got the other day when it rained most of the
day.

Skype call from the office to colleagues. I didn't have my
video on, I think they would have been jealous. Actually
it's because the signal strength is not good enough for
Skype with a group.

I've been busy with my thesis this last week, trying to get all the work I've done pulled together into one piece of coherent work. As I mentioned last week I started with the easier chapters to get the writing flowing and it seems to have worked, as I actually feel like I'm progressing. I have had other work to do though, so maybe not quite as fast as I had hoped. Another day of washing helped.

How is that comfortable? Joesfs a bit
soggy and muddy and that was before
the rain. We have been having some
heavy dews in the morning.

A hard life!

Vanessa's crew up on the oak tree hill. When we had the
biodiversity team come to look at our land in June they
suggested that it would be good to graze the land to increase
the biodiversity. It should be cleared to ensure it does not
get taken over by aggressive grasses. The problem is that
also driving a tractor over this patch would likely end up
damaging it and so the soft pads of the alpacas is ideal. They
munch away, taking some of the nutrients away and deposit
it somewhere else. Perfect! Job done! I hope!

Where does all this washing come from at the moment? Well that has to do with another milestone passed this last week. After the rain we organised with the young chaps to come and help us out and remove some furniture that was on loan to the people who bought an apartment from us. We hadn't got the room to move all the furniture from two apartments into one very small one and the people who bought the apartment needed some extra, so it worked for the time being. Not long ago though I got a message that they were going to sell it and then another one to say they had found a buyer who  wanted a quick sale, which meant we had to move the furniture asap. Fortunately we had already discussed with a friend that we could store it in an unused cabin and so not a problem to shift it - once the horse box passed its technical though, which it did the week before.

Tut! Tut! Amanda. You are not supposed to be eating oak
leaves. 

They have a good view of the land from up there.

This is actually a quilt cover that
was used as a curtain in the
apartment. It was decorated in
August 1992 with the help of my
two oldest children. They were the
same age that their oldest two
children are now. 

And the washing? Well we had also left curtains,  they were a tad dusty and needed washing before they get stored away. Once the apartment was cleared the post key was left on a windowsill and we dropped the key to the apartment into the postbox. And that was it! We had finally vacated the first apartment we had had in Latvia. Time to move on from that chapter in our lives. We have no idea who the new owners will be, but understand they have connections with the people in the block.

Chanel and Ilvija. It is getting hard to tell them apart sometimes

Ilvija is definitely darker though

But not as dark as her father.

Alpaca fleece drying in the greenhouse.

Ian has also been doing some washing with our little portable washing machine that we bought last year and rarely used because we ran out of well water and there was no rain to collect rain water. He has been washing some of the not so good fleece, the stuff on the legs and neck, to give to a lady who visited just over a week ago. She makes duvets with sheep wool filling and so we are going to work with her to see if we can make alpaca duvets. We are starting off with small sample pieces to see how they work and what happens when you use them and see if it will work with Latvian linen. If it works we will get the wool processed in a factory into batts - it takes too long to process it all by hand for a full size duvet. If it doesn't work with linen then we may go for a good quality cotton manufactured in Latvia. We'll see!

Lady V not looking amused. Not surprising as she has a sore
on her leg that developed quite suddenly. 

Not sure if she has been nibbling it, as I would think it is a bit
difficult to reach. The flies were plaguing her though and so I
mixed some of my magic cream with clay. I sterilise the clay
from our land and it makes a good cover for the red sore patch.

Having a little chat with friends.

I will get my own chance to do some chinwagging later this year. I was accepted to take part in the European Rural Parliament, which sadly is in Spain. I know! It's tough isn't it! Spain in November too. I am also going to take the opportunity to connect with a few friends who live there. Although they do not live close by to the venue, it is still a lot closer than I normally am.

Busy eating

A wink from Jakobs

And the final piece of news this week. I got a pay rise or rather I am being paid a full week's work, rather than the four days a week I am currently paid for. The department has money for wages but not trips and so it was easier to employ me for extra days than pay for my trips. I'm not complaining, at least the trips get paid for eventually, one way or another. So this autumn I plan to go to Hannover in Germany, via Berlin; Helsinki and Mikkeli in Finland and  Madrid, Candás and Oliva in Spain. Just a few miles then and I promise there is only one return flight in that lot, the rest is by bus, train or ferry.

Let me whisper in your ear. These flies are bothering me!

Awww having snuggles! Not! They are actually play fighting.

The three muskateers

My garden

Knapweed seeds outside the greenhouse.

Drip, drip, drip

The dandelions have turned already and we still have blue
skies most of the day, starting very early until very late. 

Fortunately that is not our plumbing system. Hopefully Ian fixed that today. The dripping is us, melting in the heat. This feels more like June or July than May it has been so hot, and some days have been quite humid too. You know it has been warm when you step into the caravan and it is reading 28C and it feels quite cool. We've had one shower of rain all week and it was just enough to keep plants going and no more is forecast until this time next week. As my neighbour said when I went to collect my milk from her, that since we live on a hill, the rain just travels around us and that seems to be what is happening. She was heading south of where we live one day last week and had to stop the car because there was so much rain and here there was nothing. The only upside is that where we have some biting bugs, there are not as many as in those places where it has rained a lot more.

Mr. P attracts the bugs, poor guy!

A little hack job. Drawing cooler air from underneath the
caravan inside.

Sunrise at 6:36am

Talking of our neighbour, we had some visitors this week, her cows. All of them! Fortunately she does not have a very big herd. We rang her to tell her and she was sure at first they weren't hers as she had just seen them a few minutes before. Oh the contrariness of animals (and yes our stupid sheep got her head stuck again, just not as often and she isn't as noisy when she does it)! We weren't quite sure what to do with the cows though, we kind of just walked quietly trying to encourage them towards where they needed to go and not towards our sheep or bushes that are potentially laden with fruit. Ian went to put the girls away as we were worried the cows would break the fence or at least scare our alpacas somewhere else. Some cows did jump the fence - quite an amazing site to see an animal that size jumping. It doesn't look right somehow. All was sorted though when our neighbour called the cows. They recognised her call and moved in the right direction. The only problem was they had to cross the road and I heard a large vehicle coming, so I flagged it down so it would move slowly. Some trucks travel very fast along our road, despite the poor surface, but this fortunately was just the local bus and probably seen this sort of scene many times before. Anyway alls well that ends well and the cows were back in their field with many apologies from our neighbour. We'll let them off this time, after all their morning milk is rather delicious.

Yes she got her head stuck again! She is just waiting patiently
and quietly to be rescued this time

The more sensible two - but even then, why don't they go and
sit in the shade of the trees?

I am using a trolley that Ian made ages ago to help move
the chicken arks, but it was a little too small and the wheels
often got bogged down, but it is a perfect size for the chicks
cage and they don't have to be moved so far. They stay in the
greenhouse overnight and moved outside during the day into
the shade from the caravan.

The heat has also meant we had to sort out the chickens who were still in the greenhouse, they were starting to get seriously heat stressed but we had nowhere to put them. I meant to get a picture of where they ended up as it is a work of art. I managed to get some wire locally but couldn't get any netting to go over their enclosure to stop them flying out and decimating my garden and to stop them becoming hawk food. In the end we used good old garden fleece as it will come in handy once we have found some netting. We hope it lasts that long though. Although the fleece acts as a bit of a greenhouse, there is still plenty of draught down at chicken level to keep them cool and they are looking much better now, especially since they found some dark, moist soil to lie in and cool down in.

The other chicken arks were moved down into the field. They
haven't been there before and it is a weedy field. They might
not eat the docks but they sure do damage them. It will be an
area for re-seeding later on I think.

A little alpaca landscaping. The trees weren't like that before
but the boys seem to be re-shaping them

We finally handed over the keys this week to our apartment that we have lived in for the last ten years, well most of the time if you discount the summer months in the caravan. We still have all the admin tasks to do like get our registered address changed, but we will do that soon. It's hard to remember what paperwork needs changing, especially at this time of the year when we are so busy. It was in one way quite momentous and in another way not a big deal. It is not like our son who got the keys to his first home recently. It is in someways just a relief to finish that stage and move on with life. One less place to worry about. We've still got spare keys for the apartment as it means that if there are any issues while the new owners are away, we can step in and sort things out - at least we know where everything is.

Herk sunbathing

The boys in their field

We have also finished the shearing of the alpacas and lamas, or at least we think so; we have got some people visiting tomorrow who want to talk about shearing alpacas and general alpaca care, but we are not sure if this is now or for the future. The last group of alpacas we sheared had very long fleeces. The lady had been hand shearing them and it took her over an hour for each one. She was so relieved to not have to do it this year and liked the look of them after shearing that she has already invited us back again next year. I think the alpacas were relieved too, particularly the dark ones. We got to take the fleeces with us and so it will be interesting to see what we can do with the very long fibres.

The bug dance

Or is it the bug controtions?

Sofie keeping clean

I have been managing to get down my to-do list, although I think sometimes it grows when I'm not looking. I got a job application sent in on the day of the deadline for a three month contract with a Finnish organisation. So that is ticked off my list. I also got a brochure done for our next eco-printing and felting course (link here if you are interested). Ian got the kitchen unit wall cupboards up in the bedroom - which sounds ridiculous but doesn't look as bad as it sounds. It was a tight fit with the wardrobe that was put up last week, there was millimetres to spare. It was as if the whole was made to measure, although if it was it would all have been made to match exactly including the finish. Still it doesn't look bad. Something else to remember to take pictures of though.

Aggie looking pregnant

George officially has superfine fleece

With the wall cupboards up and the bed assembled it meant I could put more of our stuff away. We can now move around our other apartment where we will be living in the winter and it just needs some shelving to sort out the files and more books, but I think they can wait a bit. So that is another thing off the list - well half off.  The apartment is even looking quite homely (to my American friends, I just want to point out that says homely and not homey) and not a complete disaster area that it was last week. Everything seems to have a place and not all the cupboards are jam packed full, in fact I still have some empty ones at the moment.

A very pregnant looking Mari

Eyre joined Ian for a walk

We were also quite relieved this week that our car passed its technical. There is a warning on record that the horn needs sorting, but they felt it wasn't enough to fail it. In fact the inspector came up with an innovative work around to fix it that will work out cheaper than trying to get a dealer part. One thing we know we will have to watch out for though is that rust is starting to get a hold. Sigh! It has been a good car and still runs well - most of the time, but this is a mechanical object and they all have their issues from time to time. We were also relieved that it didn't cost as much as we thought it would, we are not quite sure why but grateful nonetheless.

Still waiting

Early morning sunshine

Gosh it has been busy this week. I half expected a Masters thesis to land in my lap to mark, so to speak and sure enough it did. There was not much time to mark it as it was just one more thing to add to the numerous things that needed doing this week. I did spend quite a bit of time on it though, because it was only fair to the person who had put so much effort into putting it together. I had to put off marking an exam for the course I tutored, as I knew I couldn't do both and the Masters student's work had a deadline for marking and a defence this week.

Morning mist

I also managed to get our apartment sorted into some sort of shape for a family to live in over the summer.  They are safely installed now, only they are coming and going, which has actually been a boon for us as we had someone help us cull two of our sheep this week and we needed to prepare them for the freezer. This was much easier in the apartment and being nice and tidy, it was lovely just to get on and sort it. Still took us until midnight before we were back in our caravan.

Aggie looking unusually alert in the cool misty morning.
Normally she just looks tired

The sheep were noisy, demanding things. We were half considering giving them away to a charity that wanted animals for work experience for ex-offenders but we couldn't give them these particular animals. It would not have been fair. Since they have gone the other ewe and the two lambs that were born earlier this year have just got on eating and not made much of a noise. There was no chorus at around 7pm demanding their grain. Actually chorus is too kind a description. The three that are left  just ran up tonight and followed me inside, good as gold. I even had the lambs eating out of my hand. This is preparation for moving them further away from the area they are in now. They need to be able to follow the food.

The alpacas are there somewhere

The week feels a bit of a blur and it is hard to remember what happened. I had time to Skype with my daughter and her three. The two oldest ones read me books, the eldest has memorised most of the books, but the nearly two year old just babbled along - most amusing. He still calls me MAM-MA at the top of his voice. I got a bit more done on my analysing of work to be done for a paper that needs to be re-written and I was so close to finishing that before the thesis landed on me.

A white rainbow

So other random things? We had another coach party. We had a visit from our neighbours who haven't been around for a while, in fact they haven't been around for a couple of year, so nice to see them again. I have planted tomatoes, but still have loads more to do. I have planted herb seeds. I have sorted out restaurants, car hire, invoices, helped Ian move the chicken arks outside onto the grass and done lots of weeding. It doesn't look like I've done lots of weeding, but I have honest!

Griezites-henge

Ian has been trying to get the place shipshape and looking good. He has mowed grass, but of course with warmth and rain it needs doing again. He has moved the tractor equipment away from in front of the girls paddock to near the forest. He fixed the toilet that was sinking in one corner and he started building the next alpaca house, or maybe workshop, shop, barn - whatever it is needed for basically.

Working hard

Impressive he can still get in that t-shirt. You would be
shocked how old it is. 

We both saw a baby moose with its mother. Ian saw it being chased by dogs and I saw them later. I wondered why I saw them in the day time and the baby was behind the mother. I stopped the car as I felt it was panicking the little one but it decided to go down the bank towards the river. I had no idea what to do, I couldn't go and check to see if it was okay, because a moose mum is not something to be messed with. I stood on the car runner and listened and I couldn't hear any distress calls from an animal in the water and decided the best thing was probably to hope it had found a safe place and let it's mum find it.

Looking rather skinny now after shearing. Mind you, Brencis
looks bigger than we thought he would. He's getting a big
chap now. He also decided to act up before shearing and so
he took quite a bit of convincing 

I don't normally mention what happens on Tuesday in a late blog as that is the beginning of a blog week (if that makes sense), but I will this week as it is destined to be busy again as our first felting course of the year starts next Monday. So today I nipped back into our village, picked up the milk, transferred some towels to our other apartment, picked up a big pot for making stock out of bones, kept my eye on some new chicks we have and so far we have ten, we have got the boys sheared, I planted fodder beets, beetroot, carrots, peas and then put the animals away - since Ian is back at the apartment mincing up the bits of mutton, finishing off the stock after our hot plate stopped working and getting a shower.

Still waiting to hear if he is the father of a girl or boy

So all of that and we are still waiting for cria to be born. We half expected one to go into labour today, especially since we planned to do some shearing, but no. Maybe next week.

This picture amuses me because the shadow looks almost
the same as Mr. P

How elegant! Having a roll in the dirt after shearing

Look what you did to me!

Now the flies can get a bit nearer! (Look carefully to the left)
One of the downsides of shearing

Sunbathing without the fur coat.