So it begins, again!

A new academic year, new students online, a new online course too. I'm not just tutoring Sociology this year but Development Studies too. So did you know you could do an IGCSE in Development Studies? Well now you do!  I am also getting back into the groove of academia and I am in Innsbruck, Austria, for a conference leaving Ian home alone with the alpacas again. I would post some pictures of Innsbruck, but I forgot the cable to download the pictures to my computer and so you will have to wait until next week. I'm sure you will all cope.

The only problem with heading back into the academic world is the fact that the growing season hasn't quite finished yet. There are still potatoes to dig and they are not as bad as we feared, although some look like they are being eaten by something like a vole. There are still apples to pick, but they are not quite ripe yet and so will wait until I get back. The buckwheat the only grain crop that seems to have survived needs harvesting and the hemp needs chopping back and drying for the seed. I wasn't allowed anywhere near the hemp before travelling by plane in case it set off any sensors. Funnily enough I did set off the metal detector though in the airport and no idea why, shoes, belt, watch, phone etc. all went in the trays.

People watching in the airports is quite amusing for me. I loved watching the grandma with the little baby and I was maybe a tad jealous. I knew I was in Germany when I spotted an older guy with sleeveless cardi, shorts, socks and shoes. To cap it all though there was the couple in their Sound of Music outfits who hurried up to the gate to take the plane to, where else, but Salzburg. There was the the spot the academic moments! And there were quite a few of them. There was the deep intense discussion on the bus about confluences and determinations and not getting the algorithms to work - or something like that. They were obviously going to a conference and I was beginning to wonder if I had got the right one, but fortunately a guy on the plane behind me told his seat companion that he was going to a conference on landscapes, so at least I felt I was going to the right place. I was amused to hear the ladies reply and I am sure she was thinking landscape gardening type of landscapes and not in the wider sense of the word, like regional scale. Another thing that amuses me now is that more and more I am addressed in the language of the country I'm in. The Latvians were speaking to me in Latvian, the Germans in German and the Austrians also in German of course. I must have lost my British look! Maybe it's the weather beaten look about me.

This rest of this week's blog is a bit of a pictorial tale, partly because I have to finish off my presentation for tomorrow and that takes priority and because I sensibly uploaded the photographs before I flew out.

Ian felled a rather large aspen to give room for a small oak tree
that was growing behind it. He is getting very attached to the land
as he said sorry to the tree before felling it. 

He was making room for a new hay store that he is building.
The last one he made of a similar size, holds around 30 bales
and does a very good job of keeping them in a good state for
the animals. 

Awww! Doesn't she look sweet? As she sits on my NEW herb
bed. What is it about this cat that makes her do her best to
do all the things she shouldn't? Like climb on tables straight
after we've eaten. She learnt a hot lesson the other day when
she tried to jump on the kitchen counter in the greenhouse and
the hob was still hot - fortunately not that hot.

There have been lots of damselflies around. Great for eating
small unwelcome insects

Now this picture tells a tale. I have seen the fish in this pond
several times over the week, but Ian hasn't. I even got him to
come across once and they disappeared just as he arrived. He
was beginning to doubt my sanity and the jokes started flowing
about the shoal of blue finned tuna, or the killer whale, or the
jumping dolphins or the dinosaur at the far end of the land in
the forest! We even had our morning coffee by the pond to
see if we could see them. It wasn't until Saturday he finally
spotted one.

Yes we have a well finally! They were doing quite well until it
rained, but then they were getting muddy and wet anyway from
the wet muddy water they were digging out. Apparently there
were about five points where water was oozing out of the ground
which is very promising, so we are told.

There is even water in it! It has to fill up to the second ring and be
pumped out three times before thinking of using it. It should also help
to flush the system out and make it run better. 

As it is on a hill they have dug a trench around the well, so that
water does not run directly off the land into the well water. The well
water should have been filtered through a sand layer before it gets
to this point

Ian had to move our drying rack as the hay bales at the back of
the barn got in the way.  We have been having to leave the doors
of the barn wide open to try and dry the bales out. They are worrying
us as they seem to be wet on the outside in the mornings

And what is a blog without a few alpaca pictures, well this blog anyway

Don't Panic!

A green and pleasant land

Last Monday we took a trip to the airport to collect some friends of ours who are going to be staying with us for two months. We decided to put them in our apartment, especially since we are not even there most of the time at the moment and then they have access to all the kitchen equipment, fridge and washing machine. It also means that our other apartment is still free for guests to come. Our friends have been willing helpers and proved a useful extra pair of hands at this busy time of the year. They have prepared herbs for the solar drier, shifted wood out of our barn, barrels out of our old alpaca house, strimmed grass and cooked meals.

The lambs are growing up fast

Half the ski hill cut, so about a hectare

The forecast was good for haymaking this last week but not quite long enough to do our whole ski hill and so we only cut half as we have for the last two years. Unfortunately the amount of grass was greatly reduced due to the lack of rain we have had up until now. Some people are waiting to cut around here to see if their grass will grow more, but we decided we couldn't wait because sometimes those windows of time can be few and far between, even if it has been a dry year so far and a lot of the plants we didn't want to take over were rapidly going to seed. At least we may get another cut later on in the year if we need to, especially now we have had some good rainfall over night and into this morning.

This one always looks like he has eye liner

Mr. B with his muddy knees after last night's rain

The last two years we have used our neighbours barn to store our hay and that has been such a blessing but this year she said we won't be able to. She has been increasing the number of cows she keeps and so needs the space. It was a bit tight last year too. Unfortunately we hadn't got around to checking earlier - it was something we kept meaning to do and she only told us last week when we went to collect some of the older hay. Now we are desperately trying to think how we can store it all. As I mentioned our friends helped to move out wood from our large barn and the barrels out of our alpaca house, that way we can store a certain amount in those places, but we really don't know how much yet until we stack it in there. For now they are in the tractor trailer under a tarp, in a horse box and under plastic outside while they cool off after baling. Tomorrow we will start stacking them and see how far we get..

We finally have a post knocker, for knocking in posts for
fencing. This was made by a friend of ours and he brought it
over because he doesn't need it right now and he will make
himself another one when he needs it. Now Ian can get on
with doing some fence repairs around the boys paddock

So here is the tractor trailer I was clambering over to fix the
tarp on. There are about 54 bales in these two and we only
needed to make one trip with these and another with the small
trailer. Normally for the hectare there are at least two runs
if not more

Ian was doing some baling and we were expecting rain so I had to put the tarp over the tractor trailer, which involved quite a bit of climbing. It amused me to be doing that at my age. I'm glad I'm still able to and I am pretty sure losing weight recently has helped. I certainly feel I can bound up the stairs a bit quicker these days and I definitely can bend over much easier to do all the weeding that needs doing. It makes me realise how much fat I was carrying internally around my middle. Today though I was back on the computer finishing off written work, which was fine as we finally got the saturating rain we so desperately needed.

We watched with a certain amount of bemusement as this
little lady stalked a stork. We wondered at what stage would
she realise that a stork is way beyond her capacity to catch?
It was also a bit worrying to think she might also go after our hens 

A close up of our oak tree. We measured it recently to see if
it would be classed as a protected tree, but it was about half
a metre short around its circumference at only 4.5m

We have been staying out in the caravan for quite a while and go back to have showers and do our washing during the week when we go to collect milk. The problem is that it has been so hot and with doing the baling it can be dusty work and so we really needed a good shower but didn't want to go home. We ended up having to use the pond water and watering can for a makeshift shower instead. All I can say is thank goodness it was too late in the day for visitors. We could do with a shower area but trying to work out a place for that will be more tricky than where to put the loo, aka the office, due to the problems of mosquitoes and horse flies. It would be good to find somewhere though that we can use the sun to heat the water up during the day. A challenge for another day, until then, the pond and the watering can will have to suffice.

Some swallows can't quite decide where to nest in the girl's
alpaca house

These three have certainly got the hang of this visiting lark.
As soon as anyone appears now they are ready for some food.
It is one of the reasons they usually get apples or carrots and
not grain. 

It was a holiday week for Latvians and many stayed up to celebrate their midsummer festival, Ligo. We didn't, we needed sleep to get the baling done. It has been so hot and difficult to sleep at times, which is unusual for Ligo, normally it is quite cool or even rains but this year was a great time to celebrate. The holiday week though has meant we have had quite a few visitors and we have found out that word has been going around our village about our alpacas and it has become known as a place to visit. Two groups mentioned that friends or people they know have told them about us. One group stayed for a very long time and were very interested in what we were doing generally and not just with the alpacas. One lady who visited was an Australian married to a Latvian and so language wasn't a problem there and all the rest of the groups had at least one person who could speak very good English, so we haven't had any issues communicating.

The landscape completely changes again when we start cutting.
We got a reasonable amount of hay from here because it is
wetter than on the ski hill so that at least increases the amount we
have collected but we have a long way to go yet.

Veronica usually looks very regal and so we call her Lady V,
but here she is looking rather cute

It's been quite a week for many of us. So many of my friends seem to be in a state of shock. Some are happy with the result from the UK referendum, but since I know many outside the country there is a sense of vulnerability and concern over what comes next. It isn't just a feeling of what comes next personally, although that is a worry in itself, there is also the sense of what next? What chain of events could this precipitate? Will it really have positive effects on the UK economy? I rather doubt that but who knows. Will it have a contagion outside of the country across Europe?

Mari always looks cute though. We found out that she has some
of the finest fleece of our herd, apart from Brencis who is
younger anyway. 

Agnese in deep thought about Brexit. Will we have to find
new homes for us all.

If the arguments for Brexit were just about the unwieldily and bureaucratic EU and the changes that need to happen, I would have totally understood, because that is in some ways what I am working for in my research. So often though it was about taking sovereignty back, which to be honest I don't understand in this global world. It was about immigration, which is not affected that much by the EU. Yes there is freedom of movement and that is why I'm in Latvia, so it works both ways. What was even more bewildering was seeing the look of shock on the supposed victors' faces, the leaders of the Brexit campaign, as if they had no idea what was going to happen next. It would appear that no one wants the poisoned chalice of enacting Article 50, the mechanism for countries to exit the EU. Such shocking disarray.

At least our apple trees in our orchard on the land are finally
starting to produce. We haven't had much more than about
two apples

I was given these scented stocks last year by a friend and they
remind me of my Grandad's allotment from childhood

These past few weeks have seemed like one thing after another and so it was hard not to be down at times and sometimes it is the smallest of things that annoy us. One of the first things our friends from America needed to do was get some cash out of the cash machine. We pulled up to the spot in our village and one of them got out, but when he got back in the car he said the cash machine is not there. We were rather stunned, as we had only used it the week before, so of course I got out to see if he had missed it or something, as if he was likely to miss a cash machine he had used before - daft really, but sure enough there was just a blank wall. It was already plastered up and painted as if there had never been a cash machine there before. Apparently we weren't the only ones to stare in disbelief at the wall and one of our friends spent an amusing time watching the confused look on people's faces. Fortunately they haven't completely removed our cash machine services to the village, but what they have done is put it in a shop that is not open 24/7, so we have to remember to have cash outside shop hours - something I will definitely have to remember if I ever catch the early bus.

I think the rain was too late for some of our blackberry bushes

The new pond is gradually filling up

The buckwheat seems to be recovering a bit but very weedy

And as for my vegetable plot! We have a nice crop of
self-seeded hemp 

Tyre-ing week

A bull frog 

Not been a good week for tyres this week (tires for my American friends). One of the mud guards on our tractor keeps getting stuck and jamming against the wheel, this time  it ripped a hole in the side wall of the tyre while Ian was trying to fil in pig holes. Not helpful at this time of the year. Fortunately here in Latvia there is a make-do-and-mend type attitude and the tyre will be fixed, just takes a few phone calls to the right guys and a few days. Saves a very expensive replacement anyway.

Pretty field flowers

The next time we had tyre problems was rather inconvenient too as we were on the way to the airport to pick up two guys who have come to see what we get up to here in Latvia. Fortunately we had left plenty of time to get to the airport and we got there on time, just! It was still a little worrying as we had forgotten to organise swapping mobile numbers in the process - not very organised of me. Fortunately Ian had swapped the tyres around earlier on in the week and so it was a back tyre that went, we only knew about it when the road noise seemed to get incredibly loud and a van went passed us and the folks in the van were gesticulating madly to us and pointing downwards to tell us we had a flat. We pulled off the road and Ian backed up to a spot where there was some tarmac to give a firm surface for jacking up the car. There was a slight issue with the area as it was an area where giant hogweed was growing and if you don't know about this particular rampant noxious plant it is dangerous because the sap from it can lead to serious burns when the sun gets on it - not good on a sunny day. The large leaves were not an issue as they were easy to see and set back from the road, it was the small plants that were gradually getting a hold that were problematic, as it was just the area that Ian was working in to get the spare wheel off the car and clean up the very mud encrusted wheel. Ian had some plastic in the car for such occasions - experience is a wonderful teacher, so it saved him from the chance of actually lying on the plants. At least we managed to get sorted.

Pond beetle sunning itself in the sun

Our guests are new friends we have made via the internet - well kind of! One of the guys, Paul, is a guest blogger on another friend's site and he became interested in what we were doing when I made comments on his blog, his travelling companion, Geoff, is a recent friend to him and since Paul enjoyed Geoff's company on a recent trip to Sweden he invited him to join him on this trip to Latvia. Well we waited at the arrivals gate, wondering if our friend Paul, looked anything like his pictures on facebook and wondering who this other guy was. The glass rolled back and two guys who were obviously looking for someone walked through, sure enough Paul looked like his pictures and the guy next to him! "I know you!" he says and sure enough his face was very familiar to us. We have to back up quite a few years though, but Geoff was from a church we had visited many years ago, as it was in a town not so far away from Ian's parents, so when they used to meet together at the leisure centre in the town and we were in the area we would join in their meetings. Paul talks about our life's journeys and joining the dots up and this seemed to be one of those occasions, reconnecting of connections made many years ago in some very different and unexpected ways. I love the way God works.

Our paddy field with the river running through it

Well that was yesterday, as for the rest of the week! I mentioned last week that we had a very peculiar thunderstorm that just seemed to roll on and on, we also had a shorter one on the following day, but with plenty of rain and one of our fields ended up looking like a paddy field - maybe a good job we decided not to plant seed last week. We literally had a river running from a land drain that drains water from the road right across our field and unhelpfully pooling in the middle of it. Ian spent quite a bit of that morning making ditches to drain the water away. We found out later that a wild boar had got stuck and drowned in the drain, not many tears were spilt over the animal I'm afraid. Still got to find out what we are supposed to do about it though.

Ditch digging to drain the field

Had one of those really sweet moments this week which really brightens the week. My neighbours little son, he is lovely. He was the one I babysat for last week, he is such a helpful little guy. He helped me take some dahlias, that his mum was giving me, in his little wheelbarrow to our basement to await being planted up. I think he would have carried on carrying them in his little wheelbarrow, backwards and forwards as long as it took if I hadn't got my much bigger wheelbarrow out and helped. He's one of those little chaps who is older than his years and he makes me laugh in many ways and gives cheery waves that really give a lift to any day. Mind you that is such a change from a year ago, he really struggled with the fact we don't really speak Latvian and was incredibly shy, now he just chatters away and has even got another little girl chatting away to us too. I still have no idea what they are saying but I continue to nod in all the right places, so we get on well.

Our pond was turned a very strange chocolate colour after
the heavy rains

People think we are very busy, but I have to confess to cleaning taking a back seat at every opportunity and so sometimes I am really pleased that people come to visit as it means that it has to move up the priority list and get done. So floors washed, windowsills cleaned after they had got grubby from growing plants ready for the allotments and a general spruce up and we were set for our two guests. I like housework when there seems to be a purpose to it, but not the normal run of the mill stuff. All we want to do at the end of the day is generally flop and so we try to ignore the housework for as long as possible, bar making meals and washing up.

Peacock butterfly

Continuing on from last week's concerns highlighted by the UN about the problem that Latvia faces as the economically active population moves away, France24 ran an article too highlighting the demographic challenges. The bottom line, however, is that there are few jobs for the young and the authorities are not very good at enabling businesses to start up and mentor them to keep them going, hence they move away. To stem this tide takes a different kind of investment from encouraging big businesses to invest in the country, that is the lazy option and not a very helpful kind of investment. It looks good because many jobs can be provided on paper, but the truth is they are often poor quality jobs as the top jobs go to outsiders. Investing in an entrepreneurial types at local level with local connections requires investments in schools to foster the right ways of thinking - not state dependent thinking and it requires bold initiatives and infrastructure changes and is not popular in an age of austerity. The other problem is that an entrepreneurial labour force is not an acquiescent work force but active and so they are not as easy to deal with. Much easier to deal with a docile people, who accept the way things are run now.

Out on the land

The European Commission has issued warnings on a slightly different note regarding the trading atmosphere in Latvia and the warning runs like this :-

 As is often the case with the Latvians, when presented with a straight-forward competitive bidding process to upgrade and modernize its rolling stock, they have turned the procedure into a thriller, and a potentially costly and wasteful one to the taxpayer, due to narrow and well-connected special interests. 

This sounds like fun but it is not in the best interests of the nation. Hopefully there will still be thrillers written about this nation, but it will be one where they show how they can over come the problems of the systems they have with an ability to cooperate and see through changes. I would dearly love for the Latvians to commit to holding hands across the nation again and sing in changes to the old order of things. They did it before in the Baltic Chain and they can do it again.