A time to dream

Look up as my friend in Colorado would say

This time more than ever is a time to dream. The weeks ahead are going to be tough, whether sickness comes to us or not. The worry etc. is going to be hard to bear, but we need to plan and dream for days  beyond the crisis. What's important now, should help us to focus on how we organise our life in the future. It's not about stuff, we are almost certainly going cold turkey on that. It's not about toilet paper, important though it is, but its about networks that help us to find dignity in contributing to a society and food to keep us healthy. Artists and musicians, we also need you now and we need you in the future, to help us get through the unsettling times and to dream and imagine a new future.

There is quite a lot happening up in the sky at the moment.
Migrating birds are returning

However, this has become a rare sight. A plane! An actual
plane! Normally our sky is criss-crossed with contrails 

One thing I think we have all learned is that we now know who the key workers are and we need to value them, not just the nurses and doctors of course, but also the cleaners, the volunteers, the supermarket staff, the delivery drivers, the postmen, the transportation folks, the bike mechanics - who knew!, the car mechanics, they are the people that keep our society running. We need to value them more. Then there are the scientists working on cures, not more pills to take for our obese society, important though they are. Cures do not bring in the money for pharmaceutical companies, so we cannot outsource our health to them anymore.

The storks are finally back. Ian thought they would come on
Saturday, but they didn't. It was so nice on Saturday with a
southerly breeze. But no they had to wait for a northerly and
a cold day. At least it wasn't Sunday which was freezing,
blowing a gale and snowing.

A very grumpy cat. We got most of the tablet down her, the
rest was frothed around her mouth, as usuall but then she
had no option but to clean if off. Hehe

There is so much more to think about, but adjusting to thinking instead of doing can be hard for many, especially when it is enforced. I've always been a bit of a daydreamer. Always had my thoughts on something else, as I'm going about daily tasks or getting lost in a book. I'm so absorbed in my thoughts sometimes that I forget to look up and take in the scenery. While I have my head in the clouds, imagining the bigger picture and trying to think what life would be like if we changed how we approached agriculture, the economy, community and trying to link it all together, I sometimes miss the bigger picture of our land in the sunshine. Ian the detail man is the opposite, he takes in the bigger picture of the land, while sometimes getting tied into the detail of how things should be done. It can make for some interesting miscommunications at times.

Cup of coffee anyone

This was taken on Saturday to show our grandchildren what
we had been doing. We had just sat down for our afternoon
coffee after spending the afternoon constructing part of the
new greenhouse that you can see behind Jakobs. After this
we had a WhatsApp chat and watched our granddaughter
blow out her candles for her birday

The weather warmed up at the end of last week and we managed to get a start on the new greenhouse.    These are part of our preparations in the downtime for the future. Little by little we are transforming where we live to be a place to gather and talk, to relax and contemplate, to visit our alpacas, to do courses. We don't want a constant flow of visitors, the introvert part of us would not cope with that, as we will need rest and recuperation between the busy periods, but we do want more people to be able to share what we have and to benefit from it.

3 sheets of 12m length polycarbonate. It is a
good job I'm reasonably good at maths and
problem solving. The instructions say to cut 4x
3m lengths to do the ends of the greenhouse, but
the problem is that if we had done that then
one sheet would have been too short to go over the greenhouse in one go. So we measured the arcs
and realised that we could only cut three sections
out of the four for the ends and the last piece
will have to be a patchwork quilt. There will be
enough, but there won't be a lot of wastage.

Ian finished off the ribs for the greenhouse today

One of our plans is to have a cabin for people to stay in, nothing fancy, just something simple. We even had a quote for it this week from one of the companies that we saw at the trade fair a few weeks ago. Unfortunately although they do not cost a huge amount, we still don't have enough for that, so we continue to work with what we have. At least we should be able to grow plenty of food this year. Our beds for the potatoes are ready and our garlic is beginning to poke its head through the mulch. They haven't been noshed over the winter by the mice this time. Soon it will be time to start planting outside, but not yet, it is still too risky.

A smiley and slightly toothy Josefs

It's greening up slowly, as it is still too cold. Most of what
you see is moss too. So the alpacas will just have to wait and
still eat hay.

My life hasn't changed that much beyond the normal rhythm of life we have here in our country place. We were out in our caravan a week earlier than before and we have spent the week adjusting to being out here. There is always something we have left behind that we suddenly find we need. I still have to travel back into the village anyway, for supplies and to tend to my little seedlings that are too tender to bring out just yet, especially with the heavy frosts we've had over the last few nights. I managed to pot up a few of the tomatoes now they have germinated and growing well.

Mind you, it doesn't stop them trying to eat the grass. Tellus
actually managed to get through the gate today. Ian doesn't
know how the gate came loose but Tellus was definitely on
the wrong side of it. Ian just about managed to get him
back through before all the others sensed freedom and
were heading for the gate. Soon chaps! Soon!

Mr. Tellus on the right side of the fence. His eye is also
better this week

Unfortunately on my last trip back into the village, I wasn't able to get any bread for Ian. They were completely out of that - then again it was a Sunday and not very unusual for out here. He does like toast in an evening and so he just uses the cheap white bread. Good job I did think to buy some yeast, to make some bread. My sourdough is great for buns for sandwiches but not so good for making a loaf. Mind you, the loaf I did make, wasn't quite right for toasting either. It was too thin. It tasted great and had a nice texture, just not the right shape, so I need to work on that a bit more. I'll have to bring out some loaf tins - of course they are back in the apartment.

Herkules got quite thin over winter and so Ian has started
feeding him extras. He gets his in the training pen, so he
can eat in peace. He now goes and stands in there waiting
for Ian. Smart guy! He seems to be losing his position in
the herd though. He was always the boss, but now the others
challenge him more.

Despite getting thin, Herkules is actually looking quite bright

I think Brencis looks like he's developing. a teenage
moustache

I have also travelled back into the village for an online meeting as the reception for my phone is better there. I'm used to online meetings, as I've mentioned before, I'm part of a project with colleagues in different countries and so we can only meet regularly via Skype. However, despite having regular meetings with my overseas colleagues, I'm not used to being involved in meetings with my colleagues from my own university, but since they are now all online and working from home, I don't escape so easily. Still it was good to catch up with them and get their perspectives on the next project that I'm involved with, which I officially start on April 1st, but have already been doing a bit of work for.

Mr. P is getting quite grey now and his black is changing to
a dark chocolate.

The face! It is just hilarious

One thing that I have realised during the Skype meetings is how long my hair has got. I did lots of preparations for a lockdown, but entirely forgot about having a haircut. When doing the Skype calls with a video on, I get to see how my hair looks and the longer it gets the older I look. I'm not generally so vain, but my hair is now really getting on my nerves and several times I have seriously thought about getting Ian's hair clippers out and cutting it very short. At least with three months in social isolation, I wouldn't need to show my hair so much, but then I would look pretty silly wearing a hat on a Skype call. Hmmmm! I do confess to doing some research on how to wear a scarf to cover up the shortness.

Jakobs is finishing off the tree I think. and Brencis enjoying
some downtime in the sun. I think he's missing the visitors
though. He's very chatty just lately. Hemdidn't come
for a chat though when we were chatting to our grandkids

George as smiley as ever. He looks like he might need a
haircut too

It always perplexed me why Latvians considered a hairdresser such an important part of the community. I enjoy my visits to the hairdressers and she does a good job I think, but it has never rated high on my agenda until I have a presentation to do. But even in a small place, you will often find a hairdresser. Now, however, when it isn't possible to get out and get it cut, I can see why. Here in the rural areas the price is not high for a cut, but it is priceless to not have hair in my eyes and to not look silly with a hair that isn't straight when it should be. So add hairdressers to that list of essential workers that keep the country moving. We won't die if we don't have a haircut, but we often feel better with a decent cut and that is worth a lot.

Another migrant who returned this week, a wagtail

Boo!

Mother and daughter staring at Sofie
the cat

Amanda, thinking! Dreaming! Planning...oh oh!

The new and the old greenhouse.

Bright but not green yet!

Writing and raining

Just awwww!

Writing is going well for me at the moment. I've recently had two more articles published in Dispatches Europe, this time encouraging people to travel slowly through Latvia and visit places outside of Riga. I also encouraged people to visit our own farm of course, nothing like doing a bit of self-promotion while I'm at it. Having said that, it is not something that comes easily to me, but I recognise that if we want people to visit, then we have to take what opportunities come our way.

Herkules gets fed up of the heat and the flies. He's probably
enjoyed the rain just lately.

It was a relief to hear that a paper for an academic journal that I have co-authored was accepted the week before. I am not the main author on that one, I just added a section and polished the English before the second review. I haven't actually taken a look at the last revision as I haven't had time really. Although I now have three full published papers which kind of qualifies me to get my PhD, they are not the main bulk of my work.  I am still waiting to hear the results from that particular paper, but since I only submitted it on the 17th June it is not surprising. I hope to hear soon though. Apparently the turn around is very quick. Then I can get my thesis sorted. Now that will be good.

The baby swallows, still hanging around

There have also been three papers submitted for the EU project I'm involved in. I am only named as first author on one of them and co-author on another. Being first author makes a difference, it basically means I have put the most work in to it, after that it just means I contributed. Anyway all three got rejected. The editor though requested we have a Skype call with someone to help us with the content so they could be resubmitted, as they like the idea of the project. That at least is promising. During the Skype call we found out that the one I had mainly written was basically okay but the others needed re-wording to get accepted.

This bug was rather reluctant to
give up it's hold on the
meadowsweet flowers but I had
plans for these in a dessert, so he
had to go. There have been some
amazing bugs just lately.

We found out today what the minor the changes that were needed were but they are so minor that we should be able to sort it out by tomorrow. It takes a little bit of time to coordinate with my colleagues since we are not in the same office and in this case relying on emails but we get things done. Still it is progress. Published papers can be very important for academics and some places demand many publications to keep your job. Fortunately that is not the case for me and the job I'm doing, but having publications is still helpful for the future.

Our view for our evening meal

Of course, being summer, my time is not taken up just with writing it is also usually tied up with working on our land collecting hay, doing something with the alpacas or chickens or the gardening. So we are quite relieved that the drought is mainly over. We've had a reasonable amount of rain, but still not as much as elsewhere. It seems Riga is flooded in places, so we are grateful that it wasn't that bad for us. We have had enough to give the plants a good soak, but not enough to create a mudbath. Still it has rained most days this week, so I haven't done that much in the way of outside activities. I did get the chance to do some weeding and finally stake up some peas because I can get the sticks in the ground. I also started some seeds off in the greenhouse so that I can get some of the quick growing plants in for salads and some perennial plants for next year. It is much easier when I can get water without a great palaver.

After the rain 

We've actually been able to harvest rainwater to water plants and stock up on our own water supply. The ponds are still too low to water the greenhouse though. I have been taking the water first from a reserve we pumped from the only reasonably full pond earlier in the season and then I have been getting the water from the collapsed greenhouse. It was covered in black plastic and just happens to make a good rainwater catcher. Now there's an idea.

Still a very pregnant alpaca

We are still waiting for Chanel to have her baby. There have been odd days when she's looked uncomfortable but most of the time she looks rather too relaxed. We had hoped that she would have given birth before we start on the process of getting the other girls pregnant for next year's babies. Instead we just had to get on and hope she doesn't go into labour while Ian was supervising the mating process. We have never mated five girls in the same period before and it takes some planning. Not all of them can be mated to the same stud. Ian made a gate to separate the alpaca house into two so we can use two studs at a time and keep the girls separated to some extent.

Just how though can she bend round that far whilst pregnant?

Mr. P with a faraway look in his eyes.

One of our concerns is Mr. P maybe passing on some genes for rapid teeth growth and a possible asthmatic tendency with dusty hay. Not ideal for an alpaca. They are cute babies that he produces but not much good if they are then going to be a health liability. We are giving him a try again to see what happens next year. Meanwhile we decided to give Tellus another go. He's starting to get old, but then he gave us one very good baby in terms of fleece, George, a very, very sweet natured but not good fleece, Freddie and a reasonable fleece but rather large alpaca, Brencis. All of them are lovely natured, so we'll see what happens there.

The sweetest natured alpaca of them all I think. Only his
fleece is not very fine at all. He does produce a lot, so it is
a shame that his isn't fine too.

Brencis having a good scratch.

We've also tried Brencis now he's old enough with one of the girls, which has been interesting. Poor guy, it is his first time and he doesn't quite know what to do. He has needed some coaching by Ian to at least get on the right way around. He was fine the first time but must have got over excited the second time around. We have had to stagger the mating, as there is not enough room or appropriate accommodation to have three stud males. We also need to know who is mated when so that we know when to expect the babies next year, hence Ian has to supervise. Some of the girls have been rather resistant and we even considered trying Tellus instead of Mr. P with Vanessa, as she is a feisty lady like her Mum, Veronica. The reason we didn't is that we realised they both had the same father and so too close a relation.

Veronica might be old and a bit unsteady on her legs at time
but she is still feisty

Don't let this sweet, innocent face fool you.
She wasn't so innocent looking as she was
spitting at Mr. P.

Is it safe to come out?

Female alpacas will sit down if they are receptive and being around others that are mating helps them to ovulate and therefore be more receptive. This is the reason for having so many of them in the alpaca house at the same time. It's all a bit mind boggling really. We are hoping that Vanessa will respond to the mating going on behind the gate before bringing down Mr. P because otherwise he is just getting absolutely covered in spit. We are not sure she likes him really. Vanessa is on the older side and because we can't mate her with Tellus or Brencis because they are too close a relation, and George is too young, we are kind of stuck with persevering with Mr. P.

Amanda is such a cutie

Our boys can be very relaxed and calm

Normally our boys are fairly chilled. About dusk there maybe a bit of a fracas but rarely anything serious. However, the other day there was quite a to-do. I can't remember who was chasing who but they all seemed to be at it and this was before any of them had been to see the girls. Eventually Ian had to separate Mr. P. off to cool down as he was the one that seemed to be the main instigator. He seems to be picking on George at the moment and it seems to either set the others off trying to stop him or off on their own disagreement with another alpaca. There are probably hierarchy issues as the young ones grow up. Still, most of the time they are calm, so we just wait and see.

I love how Herkules, our deaf old man is still the boss and
will sort out the youngsters

Even Turbjørn tries to keep order, despite being the grumpiest
alpaca we have. No one, but no one invades Mr, Turbjørn's space

Jakobs is too young for faraway looks in his eyes. 

It was our time for a flat tyre or at least a soft tyre this week. One of our friends has had to repair three tyres on two cars due to the state of the roads and our visitor last week had a flat tyre. The washboard dirt roads are not good on cars. It's a good job our village has a tyre repair place, so not too big a job to deal with. It just meant it was one of those weeks when we were backwards and forwards to the village. I went back one day and realised I'd forgotten the key to the apartment and so had to drive all the way back to get it. There are traffic lights in our village because they are doing some major renovations on the main road and since the traffic lights take a long time to change and were on red when I got to the junction, I turned in the opposite direction and did the shopping first before heading back for the key.

Jakobs  does take after his Mum, Mari though. She's the one in
the foreground with Aggie behind.

Munching away on the hill

There are not many Brits in Latvia, around 400 I think, not too sure of the exact number, so it is almost inevitable that we will know a fair proportion of them or at least know about them. One guy we had met a while ago after I found out via a blog he had written that he lived in a town that wasn't very far from where I grew up. I even worked on the edge of the town where he used to live when I was a teenager working for my parents before going to uni. His son and grandkids were visiting and so he decided to come and visit us again. Funnily enough one of our previous visitors recommended our place when our friend posted a message in a Latvian expat site to ask for ideas for places for his grandchildren to visit. It is nice that someone recommended us. The weather could have been better but at least the rain held off and wasn't nearly as bad as forecast, well not over us it wasn't. It was amazing to find out his son and grandchildren live quite near to one of the places where we had the best holiday ever. One that nearly ended in disaster but made good by the open hearts and generosity of strangers, but maybe that's a tale for another time.

I know Aggie isn't pregnant but it is still unreal to be able to
scratch your nose with your toes.

We got the results back on the alpaca fleeces. We are a bit puzzled with some of them. Not sure if it is a problem with the testing or our sampling. It turns out that Turbjørn's fleece has got a whole lot finer, but we didn't think it was by that much. Also a sample we took from a young alpaca to be tested because we wondered how fine her's was, didn't turn out to be as fine as I thought it was. We shall have to compare them with next year and see what they show then.

Ooh my head!

Mari is cute

I have been on Skype most of the day today, so forgive me if I am a bit dull. It was a one hour meeting this morning with my Estonian colleagues and just over three hours in the afternoon with the colleagues from around the Baltics. All of it was to do with the project I'm working on with the university. We are all trying to find a route forward, bringing in our different skills. It is one of those projects where not much has been done in this way before and so it is a bit like trying to join the pieces of a rather complicated jigsaw, not just moving on from a well worn path. We are getting there though, just it is a bit slow at the moment. Once the route is clear the rest should slot in fairly easily - she says! Ask me that in a few months time and see if I say the same thing.

Tellus looking suave again

It's going to be another cold night!

It has been pretty cold during the nights in the caravan, but mainly glorious days - well if we discount the rather bitter north-easterly wind. Not always so pleasant. It also snowed one night, but only a small dusting and that was the only moisture we've had all week, so everywhere is still looking fairly parched. At least we did find that by sitting on the sunny side of the boys alpaca house we could soak up the sunshine on the warmer days and watch the boys hunting down the tiny blades of grass in their paddock. Not a bad way to drink a cup of coffee in the morning. They are still itching to be out in the field but we can't until that grass grows, no matter how much they moan at the gate.

A George close up

George doing his Elvis impression

The three muskateers... sunbathing! Herkules, Tellus and
Brencis

A couple came one evening to see the alpacas, I had some work I had to prepare for the following day and so said hello and then excused myself. About an hour later I finished up my work and I realised Ian was still chatting in the greenhouse with the couple and they hadn't even been to see the alpacas yet. They did see Vanessa's group (the newer acquisitions) pronking around their paddock from a distance, even Vanessa was doing it even though she is 10 years old. And yes I do mean "pronking," as it is a technical term for the running they do where they look like they are on springs not legs (you can see our youngsters pronking in a post on our facebook site here).

Who me? Pronking? You would never catch me doing a thing
like that.

The parched grass means dry moss .... all over the fleece

Mr. P trying to disguise himself with the moss

Antonia showing off her good side

Ian finally wrapped up his talk and we all went to see the alpacas. It wasn't the warmest of evenings and the temperature was rapidly dropping, but there was still a lot to talk about and the alpacas were being cute, so all was well. At the end we all had a cup of tea to warm up. we needed it. As they toddled off home we put the display away and hurriedly got the alpacas and chickens tucked up for the night. We were glad of the heaters that evening and always glad of them in the morning. Ian is close enough to switch it on first thing and we don't get up until the heater is warm enough to warm our clothes on it. We might be tough, but not that tough.

Herkules looking cute and cuddly. Some days he looks kind of
old, but today not so much. He must be enjoying the sunshine

Digging Jerusalem Artichokes

One advantage of the cool weather is that spring is sluggish to get get going and so spring jobs in the garden are getting done and I don't feel like the weeds are getting ahead of me yet! Ian has been dumping the manure from the alpaca houses just over the fence over the winter to save time but of course now the snow is gone it needed shifting. Last week I mulched the raspberries with some of it and this week it was the turn of the blackcurrant bushes and half of one of the Jerusalem artichoke plots. I am gradually digging up the Jerusalem artichokes and mainly feeding them to the chickens. We can't eat so many but they are good for chickens, so that works and they are so easy to look after. I also managed to weed two of the strawberry beds too. I just need them to grow a bit more to mulch them with some old hay.

Partying too hard the night before?
We can see Brencis' fighting teeth have
grown though and he will definitely be
having those cut during shearing time.

Mr. Turbjørn, have you been spitting by any chance?

That's better Mr. Turbjørn

Ian has been busy too of course. He put the back hoe onto the tractor and went around to one of our neighbours to dig foundations for a cabin for him. He is going to use an old cabin and rebuild it, but first he needed an old fashioned style foundation where a trench is dug and filled with sand and then large stone placed on top of the sand. These are then levelled off to rest the cabin on. It will be interesting to see what that looks like when it's finished. While the back hoe was on he went to dig out a load of barbed wire that was stuck in the ground where we cut hay. Ian always had to remember where it was and go around it, as it was just a single wire stuck up out of the ground, but firmly attached to something.

And now for the funny poses! Josefs in
the poo position

Chanel mid-roll. Look at that belly! Take care Chanel, we
don't want any accidents in your condition.

Slowly greening but still needs more moisture

Water is already an issue and as I mentioned, we've hardly had any precipitation since the snow went. Just the odd dusting. Our well is going down, which is to be expected as the weather dries and the force from underneath decreases. We just hope it doesn't go down as far as last year. We couldn't actually draw from the well from July onwards. In preparation for sowing the seeds we decided to fill up a water container from our pond that stayed fairly full last year, despite the drought. The water is brown from the peat, but it will be fine for the plants. So that was another job for Ian as it required the generator to work the pump. I hope we don't have to fill that up too much though. We still do not have much rain forecast for the next week either. The last time Latvia had a dry April was in 2009 apparently and was followed by a dry May and a cool rainy summer. Err Yippee! That would be challenging for sure. We'll see though, after all the weather does what it does and there is not much we can do about it, except pray for rain at the right time.

The yellowhammers are back

Mari already eating through the fence.
It's not as if there is any grass on the
outside either.

Aggie is still feeding Josefs, despite he being nearly as big
as Aggie. Mari has stopped feeding little Josefs though.