This week there are mainly just stormy photos. This is the
view of the thunderstorm rolling in
Just the way I like it! Well at least for now. There was no drama this week, no tragedies and that's fine with me. Agnese has continued to be fed goat's milk and it is having an effect. Most mornings she is not just running around the paddock, but galloping, so she has plenty of energy. Although she continues to drink goat's milk, she is also refusing some bottles and so we think she must at least be getting the majority of milk from her mum, Veronica. With the cooler weather Veronica, has been outside eating constantly, which is encouraging and probably helping the milk supply. Agnese is also getting a little cheeky with the other alpacas and I don't think it will be very long before she is being taught some alpaca manners and put in her place. I had to be quite firm with her this morning to prevent problems later on in life. She came up all sweet and tried snuffling, but it is not a good idea to let alpaca babies do this, as they then start to think they are boss and a 50kg animal which thinks they're boss can be at best a nuisance and at worst dangerous. I had to insist she give me space and not accept any advances. Hard when they are so cute and cuddly. Estelle and Agnese had a bit of a run around the paddock today. Estelle hasn't been her usual self since we had Alicia put down and this is the first day she seemed to be more of her normal adolescent self.
Looking the other way and it still looks relatively peaceful.
You can see the cutting that Ian has been doing. It serves
two purposes. Firstly we had a lot of cow parsley that we
don't want going to seed and secondly we have
discovered that alpacas prefer short grass, so it is cut about
a week prior to the alpacas going on and then it has greened
up enough for them to start eating it. Ian hasn't been
keeping it short this year, as we are trying to encourage the
grass and discourage other weeds and letting it grow
apparently helps. We'll see, the proof will be next year.
I managed to catch up a little on the weeding front. I finally found all the carrots that have germinated along with fodder beet and beans. I re-sowed seed in all the places where there were gaps just before it rained, so hopefully they are well watered in and not washed down the hill. I also managed to weed and straw up half the potatoes, before running out of straw and having to ask Ian to bring some more from the land. I decided I wasn't going to carry on doing the weeding without the straw, otherwise it means doing the job twice, as no doubt the weeds will have grown back in the meantime. At least the potatoes nearest to the very tidy neighbour's plot are done. Since it rained in the afternoon, I even managed to actually do some housework and so our house is almost presentable. Of course this level of productivity could not last, so when I went to our other allotment plot the following day, I got as far as hoeing some rather weedy paths, putting a few more seeds in of carrots and rainbow chard and I had just started weeding the onions when the heavens opened. The light showers forecast for later in the afternoon, turned out to be a torrential thundery downpour in the late morning instead. Well rain stopped play and it was so heavy, there was no point in going into the garden for the rest of the day. I had planned to work through and have a late lunch, but stuck inside our other apartment and feeling peckish I ended up with the only things I could find - dry cornflakes and raisins, whilst I sat out the storm.
A hint of a rainbow
So most of the week has been spent weeding various plots, putting out seedlings and dodging showers. We did intend on sending our sheep to be sheared at the camp/sheep farm nearby whilst they had the professionals in and shearing our remaining alpaca, but none of that happened. First of all we had to get our sheep into the horse box. Now if you recall we have two cockerels in the horse box while we fatten them up and so that meant finding a big box for them, while we transported the sheep, so far so good. The next job was getting the sheep into the box. We rigged up a temporary fence that kind of funnelled them into the horse box and Ian led them in with a bowl of sheep concentrate. Two of them followed quite happily, but of course one of them wouldn't and headed off out. Well then they lead us a merry game of chase, with two of them exhibiting great show jumping potential at one stage by leaping over the fence we had constructed from a standing start. It shows that if they really wanted to, they could actually clear the electric fence without a bother. We gave up in the end, as they were getting harder and harder to convince to go into the horse box. Fortunately getting them back into their paddock was not a problem and they followed Ian back quite happily. Grrr! Ian went to see the guys at the sheep farm and watch the shearers in action. He came back and said, "it's quite easy really this shearing lark" followed by an eye roll. So if anyone is ever stuck as to what to buy Ian for a present, a shearing course would be an excellent idea. We have arranged for the guys at the camp to come and help us shear the sheep this week, after Ian builds a small enclosure and gets the sheep used to it first, so at least we can trap them in it. Just need the rain to stop now - once it starts it seems to have difficulty stopping.
The storm clouds make the alpaca houses look small
I forgot to mention last week that Estelle also tried out her show jumping skills. We have the ladies alpaca house divided into two with planks if necessary and I was busy putting them back to keep Estelle in the right side to shear her, when she leaped over the first one and smacked into the second one that I was busy trying to slip into place. Somehow I ended up on my back with the plank and was kind of stuck. Not that the plank was heavy or anything, although it did smack me rather hard in the leg and gave me a lovely E for Estelle shaped bruise, but it was awkward and I couldn't swing it anywhere without hitting an alpaca and risk spooking them with me still on the floor. Ian had to come to my rescue. Another problem we have had both times whilst shearing is one of the alpacas piddling on the tarpaulin. Not pleasant. The first one was Turbjørn when we were shearing the boys and we were totally unprepared. At least the next time it was Aggy when her Mum was being sheared, before we decided that actually she was better on the other side of the fence to her Mum.
I love storm clouds, so atmospheric
We still haven't sheared Snowdrop. We planned on it on Saturday and it rained, so we decided that since the forecast was better on the Sunday, that would work. Nope! In rolled another thunderstorm and saturated everything. It turned out nice in the afternoon, but I was due to take a trip up to Tartu, so we have to wait for me to be home and the weather to improve. Still at least I got some weeding done and now I have re-discovered a bed of strawberries and planted out some self-seeded squashes that were growing in the greenhouse outside.
Not our own picture I'm afraid. Not had much time for the
bird photos, but one from the birdforum
One of the delights of being out on the land is the number of birds we see. There seem to be new ones turning up all the time too. The bird box on the side of the barn is now home to a pied flycatcher family and one day we spotted a red-back shrike on our raspberry bushes. Both birds we had to look up to discover what they were, as I haven't seen them before. We see plenty of pied wagtails, and we can identify most finches, I can even identify the grey backed shrikes, but those two had us flummoxed. The osprey continues to hover around and the eagle made an appearance the other day. There is also a hawk, but I haven't been able to have a good look at that to decide what sort it is.
My trip up to Tartu was short and sweet. I borrowed a car from a friend and went up on the Sunday night and travelled back this afternoon. I went to see the PhD defence of a colleague. It gave me a good insight as to what to expect in about 2 1/2 years time. If mine is as civilised as this one, I shall be very happy. As far as the defence is concerned it is mainly a done deal, as they say. The main work is done in getting papers published, which means the work has already been peer reviewed and that is the reason there is a lot of pressure to get academic papers written. Three have to have been published by the time of the defence and it can take over a year to get them through the publishing process, which means getting as much done, as early as possible. One of my supervisors also thinks he may have made a good contact for some collaborative work in Latvia, but until there is a formal agreement, I'm not getting too excited. Still its progress. At the moment I only have one Masters student to supervise in the autumn to begin collecting data, which of course I need for publications. Heh ho!
We didn't get the full force of the thunderstorm, that was
to the north of our land. My supervisor who has a holiday
home about 3/4 hour away said his house shook with the
force of the storm. Glad it wasn't quite that bad sitting in
the caravan
I know last week's blog was not exactly a barrel load of laughs and it was a tough week. I couldn't even face letting others know on facebook about Snowflake's death on the day, while we processed the event. I didn't want to hear any well meaning phrases that can be trotted out in these situations, I just wasn't in the right place for that. I know people mean well, but sometimes well worn phrases don't work. In the end when I did post, folks were much more understanding than I gave them credit for and many just posted "sorry" or "hugs" or something like that, which I find far more helpful. At one point whilst working through stuff, I said to God, what I would really like is a bunch of flowers, something that kind of says "I know." Well I got them! The youngest of the girls from the flat where the water poured down into ours, had been out picking wildflowers and when I turned up, she handed me an exquisite bunch. On the way up to Tartu I had a meal that was rather nice, chicken with grapes and pistachio nuts, but it was more of a starter than a main meal and I thought it would have been rather nice to finish that off with a nice piece of chocolate cake, but I needed to be on my way. When I got to my host's home though, she offered me an evening meal ..... followed by chocolate cake. I feel like it was God's way of just letting me know "I know life's been tough and you don't understand it all at the moment, but just hang on in there." So I will!
Nearly time to put the Christmas decorations away, but not
just yet. I know it is traditional to take them down either
yesterday or today, but ours make the place look cheerful
in this rather dreach weather. You may notice the rather odd
addition to our manger scene. He comes out every year and
is called Dally.
The first of January saw the beginning of the end of the Lat, which many are quite sad about here in Latvia; although there are some older folks for which is not a problem as they have seen rather a lot of changes of currencies over the years and at least the Euros have bigger coins that are easier to see. It was quite common to see an old lady hand over a pocketful of change for the cashier to sort through, as it was almost impossible to tell a 1 santim coin from a 2 santim coin. We still had some Lats leftover and so we have just about spent them all now, we have until the 15th January.
Some green grass, but not much
Being in the Eurozone means there is now no more confusion between Latvia and Estonia for me when I'm travelling, since Estonia was already in the Eurozone. There were worries of prices going up with the switch, but since I don't buy much or take much notice of prices when I do - it is what it is!- as our Swedish friend is fond of saying. It is the kind of attitude we have developed over the years of travelling, after it became much to complicated to convert back to a currency we were familiar with. However, I do know my milk, from my local farmer, has gone down in price. It should be 57c per litre but it was reduced to 55c - easier to add up I guess.
Ian has dug up the last of our carrots. Normally we don't
leave them this long, but since the weather has been mild
we could risk it. In fact this is the second mildest year in
Latvia's history or rather since records began.
As I said, the reason we don't take much notice of prices, is the fact we don't actually buy much from the supermarkets. My milk as I mentioned is from the local farmer, we are practically self-sufficient in vegetables, the lamb we hopefully get this week is a swap for some hay at the beginning of the year and we should have some chicken soon, once the cockerels are big enough to dispatch, which all goes to mean that we don't need much beyond citrus fruits, mushrooms, oil, salt, flour, cheese, rice, sugar, margarine, yeast, tea, coffee and toilet rolls. I think that is about it, apart from chocolate and it isn't just me who craves chocolate from time to time, Ian is the more regular consumer of that.
Not much grass here!
We decided to go on a walk this New year's Eve to watch the fireworks. Turns out it was a little more dangerous than we thought it would be, as one chap threw a firecracker in our general direction. He wasn't even a young chap, so we can't blame the act on youthful exuberance. Fortunately it just made us jump rather than doing any damage. Fortunately the rest of the walk was uneventful and we saw quite a few fireworks. On our way back we saw a glow in the sky and wondered what it was, too low and slow for a meteor, too low for a satellite and not enough noise for a helicopter - besides who flies helicopters on a New Year's Eve? It turns out it was a paper lantern, as we saw it stuck in a tree burning away. The thought that came to our mind, was what if it had landed in a farmer's hay stack instead? I do hope it is a fad that disappears.
The new shelter for the sheep
We've had a little change around on the farm this week. The sheep, as I said last week, were escaping and we can't really blame them. Although they were being given hay and concentrated feed, what they really wanted was green grass and there was precious little of that where they were being kept. Ian could only move the fence a little and they still have shelter and so we decided on a complete change. Around the back of our barn and greenhouse is some reseeded grass that was still long and green. Ian built another shelter from some logs and a tarp we had and between us we moved the sheep up. For two of the sheep it was pretty easy, Ian just walked up with a tray of food and they followed, the other one is a bit more nervy and so I walked behind to encourage her to go in the right direction. That sort of worked, most of the way, but she didn't quite make it into the area we had fenced off and she had to be chased back in to join the other two. Unfortunately she decided to take the quickest route and crashed the fence, breaking one of the fence posts. Oh well! At least now they have the opportunity to eat fresh green grass during the day and they get penned up into the smaller enclosure at night. They may as well make the best of it, as the temperatures might plummet in just over a week's time and we would be lucky if the grass was still green then, or even if it could be seen if it snows.
Yey! The food man's here! Even when there is green grass
the concentrate is still appealing
Our young chickens have shown signs of growing up this week, two of the cockerels started crowing. These are the two we decided to keep, as we thought they were the more advanced of the chicks. It is funny when they first start to crow, it is almost as if they are shocked at what they have just done. Even the other chickens turn their heads and seem to give them a funny look, as if to say "What was that?" On a slightly different note, we had a visit from a forest ranger this week. In Latvia you need a permit to cut trees down over 12cm wide, which is fair enough as it is to stop people from over cutting the forests. The only problem with getting a permit, is that the forest rangers then start inspecting the forests and expect it to be kept tidy. That means clearing the undergrowth and thinning trees, which is what we were going to do, but at a slower pace than they were hoping for. Anyway we have done the majority of it, and he could see we had done some work on the forest to tidy it. The only thing was that he couldn't speak English and our Latvian is not good enough to hold a conversation. Still he got as much information from us as possible, we didn't have the paperwork out on the land, so that wasn't helpful for him and in the end, he decided it was enough and went. Sometimes it is helpful not to speak the language.
Yum! Grass!
Life at times takes on a bit of a scary quality - although that seems a bit of an overdramatic statement when you compare our safe lives compared to living in a war zone - but there are times we are not certain of the next step and it reminded me of the "Bridge of faith" in one of the Indiana Jones films, where he has to step off the cliff before he sees the bridge (you can see it in the YouTube clip below). I feel a bit like that at times. I know it might seem stupid, but marking someone else's Masters project felt like that. It doesn't help that I didn't have the kind of feedback that I'm giving to the young man whose Masters I'm marking, mainly because the process is different in the UK. It is only by stepping out though and trying these different things that I can put into practice what I know. I'm sure it will get easier, but it still feels a bit scary.
Shattered fence post. Not the one the sheep broke, this is
one the alpaca girls broke when they decided to go walk
abouts. At least Ian found out the girls are now quite happy
to follow him too. No idea how they managed to shatter
the fence post though
I’m not into resolutions and haven't made any for years; that is partly because I fail miserably at that sort of thing anyway, but thanks to another blogger who is, I have a phrase to carry with me for a while and that is the phrase “God is enough.” I do know that really! I have lived that! Time and time again I have know that to be true, but each time the journey gets scarier and the potential to fail higher and each time it is like stepping onto that bridge of faith in the Indiana Jones film, that aspect doesn't get any easier, well not for me anyway. On the topic of war I know I know, I sometimes get on my soapbox but I couldn't let this pass. A Unicef representative said this last week, "Targeted attacks against children are a violation of international humanitarian and human rights law and must stop immediately. Concrete action is needed now to prevent violence against children." But war full stop is a violation of human rights, not just targeted attacks on children. That is abhorant, but so is blowing them to bits with bombs, so is blowing anyone to bits with bombs. A war by its very nature is a violent act that violates rights. When will we learn? There is no justification for war, ever! Right now I will get down off my soapbox. I managed to get a little creative this week. I not only finished some presents and sent them off along with the presents I posted the photos of last week- now that the post office is finally open. No photos for those I'm afraid, hopefully the recipients will take photos. I also did some more felting. I managed to find some finer fleece and so made some slightly softer felted pieces than the last time. So here are my efforts for one days work - combing the fleece by hand is obviously not such a quick job, but it was relaxing anyway.
Oh yes, lots of ours to comb enough fleece for this little lot
A piece done on a long silky piece of fabric
Close up of the swirly pattern
Background for a snowy scene?
Felted onto a piece of dark purple and green fabric
