The year is turning

Autumnal looking

The leaves are turning yellow and the geese are flying south. Summer has just about gone and we even had a mild frost this week. Not enough to kill off my plants yet, but it speaks of autumn days and the rapid slide into winter. Well if feels like a rapid slide at times. The geese heading south often means that snow might not be far away, even if we are having some almost summery temperatures at the moment. We are not beguiled, we know too well how rapidly the temperatures can drop in these parts. The rather blustery northerly winds we had a few days ago reminded us of that fact. The plastic over our hay bales needed rearranging one night, which was not a fun job in the pitch dark. The plastic stayed on during the few light showers we had but one section blew off the following night - thankfully it didn't rain that night. We seemed to escape the worst of it, as the coast bore the brunt of it and the very heavy rain passed to the north of us.  

Definitely a hint of autumn here

My garden was looking a bit battered before the
latest storm, now it looks worse. Maybe next weekend
I'll get around to dealing with this.

The girls fence was moved today and George was
very interested. Normally he's quite curious anyway, 
but this time it looked a little different. 

Josefs is turning out to be such a super alpaca with 
visitors

Our quiet time with no visitors ended this week, as we had two groups. One group had a child with special needs and our alpacas were very good with him. It's nice how the alpacas can be a calming influence on some children. The more active children often soon learn that they have to be quiet and stand still and then the alpacas will come to them. If they go after the alpacas, they just run away. Josefs stood still while he draped himself over his back. He's like his mum Aggie, as she will also let people gather round and stroke her. Not all alpacas will do that. 

Some cheerful nastursiums 

Aggie in relatively good mood here.

Mind you, Aggie won't do that at the moment generally, it depends upon what mood she's in, now that she's pregnant. She's not in a particularly good mood now as her foot is sore and cracked. I had just about got her leg healed from the problems with flies and noticed that her foot was cracked, when I looked more closely I saw that it was worse than I thought. She will let me touch the leg that I've nearly finished treating but she gets very antsy when I try to get cream on her sore foot. Sigh! And I thought we were getting somewhere now the flies have died down. At least Herkules is slowly improving. I would prefer it if the sore leg would heal quicker but at least I don't have to put bandages on it now and can let the air dry it out. I think the bandages were making it worse to some extent but had to try and keep it covered due to the flies. 

Aggie and her poorly foot

Herkules looking quite sprightly for his 16 years

Then he has his moments like this, just resting
his weary head. Then again, he's done this for
quite a few years. He just likes to lie about.

Turbjørn struggling with his neck

We finally got a visit from the vet with a mobile x-ray this week to x-ray Turbjørn's neck. We are still waiting for the x-rays but at least got to see what the problem was. He has slightly dislocated one of the vertebrae in the lower part of his neck. The upper part of his neck is either ligament damage or over-compensating for the lower problem. Poor guy, it's been so long in getting an answer to the problem and he is struggling a bit again. Maybe the cold, maybe just jarred it again. Who knows. At least it is not as severe as we thought it could be. We now just need those x-rays to work out some treatment plan. We helped the vet with taking the x-rays and got all kitted up in lead overalls. I could just about move, because of course they are made for someone taller than me. Ian held Turbjørn still while I held the x-ray plate. While the vet was there, we had him x-ray Herkules' back leg, because he had started limping quite badly and we knew that if we didn't take advantage of the x-ray there and then, it could be worse and need to have him come out again. As it was we found out it is just an age related issue and it will be sore until two bones have fused, then he should be fine. 

We had 13 chicks hatched but a couple of them 
died. Hatching is such a stressful time for them.
At least these look healthy enough and the heater
is keeping them warm enough at night.

The shed is beginning to be filled
with the stuff that has been in the
greenhouse. I now even have a 
recycling point - second shelf up!

Working from home has its advantages, but there are downsides to having flexible working times. I guess it's partly laziness and not getting up so early, but now it's dark when we get up and so it's getting later and later when we see to the animals, especially with their various ailments. I then end up working later to compensate, and as a consequence our evening meal is later. We end up juggling putting the animals away with the timing of sitting down to eat. It doesn't help when I get into the garden to pick a few beans, then spot a caterpillar or two, then a few weeds and before I know it that's 20 minutes gone. When Ian was working, we used to have regular mealtimes, but since we've had the animals, our mealtimes varies with the seasons. In the summer we eat before we put the animals away, by winter it is the other way around, but spring and autumn it depends on the day and what we are doing. The light and the weather determines the routine of our days. 

Jakobs 

The tomato monsters before taming

The pleasant weather over the weekend meant I got the chance to finish off digging up the potatoes in the area where I planted them. I know there are still some more to dig up, but in areas where they weren't deliberately planted. That will be next weekend's job. It's good to look at a large section of the garden and think that is done. I also started to tackle the tomato monsters in the new greenhouse. I gave them a good hacking back a while ago and didn't really expect them to put much growth on since then, but they did. It won't be long before we start pulling the tomatoes up and preparing the beds for the chickens to overwinter in there. But for now we make the most of the warm days to ripen what we can. 

It's getting neater bit by bit

Autumn raspberries are doing well. There are lots
to come. Let's hope they ripen before any major
frosts

Don't you mess with us little one!

Our two little kittens are being allowed out more and more. They know the rattle of the cupboard doors and that it means food. Today Ian went to feed the older cats and the two little ones were straight in there and muscled in on Eyre's food. She wasn't sure what to do. Ian ended up taking them both by the scruff of the neck to their own tray. Eyre doesn't really like them at all, but they largely ignore her. I do wonder if our older two cats have decided they need to up their game to compete. Eyre has been out of the greenhouse more and is less likely to be under my feet, now it's more likely to be a kitten. Sofie on the other hand has excelled herself as a hunter. One evening we watched her bouncing up towards us with something in her mouth. It looked on the large size and I wondered if she had caught another rat. No.... not at all. Our little cat (not compared to the kittens of course but to other cats) had caught a small hare. The hare was the same size as Sofie. How far she had carried it we have no idea. We tried to have a look and she immediately took it into an old chicken ark that was lying around and stood guard over it. Over two days she then ate it. Today she had the look of a cat whose had a heavy night out on the town. She must be absolutely stuffed. 

Sofie with her hare

Have they gone yet?

Morning coffee with the Kelly Kettle

It was Ian's birthday on Sunday. We didn't do anything special but I did get in some special treats. I bought some beef from the local organic farm and so we've had beefburgers for lunch and I slow cooked a joint of beef for Sunday's evening meal, only we didn't end up eating it on Sunday due to the timing of the visitors we had. We had a quick, light, early lunch before they came and then finished off with more burgers mid-afternoon after they went. The problem is that I was so stuffed after the mid-afternoon meal that I wasn't really ready for a roast for evening meal, so we just had a few small jacket potatoes, cheese and salad. Still the roast meal was nice this evening. I also surprised Ian with a Kelly Kettle. It is a rocket stove kettle that boils water with just a small amount of fuel. It's been nice to sit outside and boil the kettle, although today it was a bit smoky before it got going. I think we need to work on the fuel mix a bit first. I told Ian that I went into the village to get a better internet signal for a meeting, which was sort of true, but it was also so that I could be at the apartment to get the package and then it could sit in the car for a few days without him knowing I had got it. It worked! It's not often I can surprise Ian, he's usually quite observant of that sort of thing.

Ginger Tom in the chicken ark where they were 
living while they got more used to us and our routine

Rocket Ron 

The waterlily is still going strong

Black tail is one of our original chickens. She's 
about nine years old now and still sprightly

A fine comb on this cockerel.

Bee balm has such an out of this world look about it

Rocket Ron also has an out of this world look 
about him much of the time. Here he is hiding
in a ditch

Ginger Tom is definitely the quieter of the two

Always on the alert for something to go toddling into

Spot the kitten who had followed Ian all
the way up to the alpaca house. They both
went at one point and Ian had to rescue them
from the alpacas as they tend to chase the 
cats.

Yes there is still a lot to explore in the greenhouse 
and to climb and to hide in. Great fun for a kitten

RIP Spuggie

This was Spuggie as a little chick. One of those will be
Black Tail too but she was a little hard to pick out at this
stage. Unfortunately I haven't got any recent photos of
Spuggie on this computer.

Spuggie, the Geordie name for a sparrow, was a survivor. She got her name because she resembled a little sparrow when she was born, a little stripey brown chick, amongst all the yellow and peach coloured ones. She grew up in an ark that we moved daily and then as we raised more chicks we decided to let her and her cohort become free range chickens. We did this for a couple of years, raising new chicks and putting the older ones in a hutch in the alpaca paddock. The idea was that the alpacas would protect them. We did this until we got to the stage of losing too many of them to foxes and birds of prey.

A view of the ski hill from a track we have or at least had
around our land for alpaca walks. Details below

Herk have you been rolling in the mud? Last year I used to
cover him in clay to protect a sore spot from the flies, he
obviously thought it was a good idea.
He is one of the alpacas that was meant to protect the chickens
and didn't. We used to say that they had a hotline to all the
foxes and birds of prey to tell them we were out and come
and get the pesky chickens. 

Obviously the alpaca deterrent wasn't working and the chickens went through the fences anyway and left the potential protection of the alpacas. Big bird, the only female broiler chicken we managed to hatch even had a big bite on her behind from one fox attack. We had known the alpacas watch with amazed expressions on their faces as a bird of prey circled the hen house causing panic amongst the chickens until we chased it off. So it was with great reluctance that we decided that free ranging was not working for us and Spuggie and those who were left were re-incarcerated in an ark to be moved daily in summer. That was a few summers ago now and Spuggie and Black tail have hung on from the second brood we ever raised (Big bird was in the first brood and died a few years back at a great age for a broiler chicken of over 3 years).

Ilvija is definitely the most inquisitive cria I've seen in a while

Mari and Ilvija are definitely good friends. We were worried
at first that maybe Mari would hurt her, but they seem to
encourage each other and Ilvija does not run away all the
time.

Spuggie was always a bird with a full crop. She always looked like she had got food stuck in it and if any other chicken looked that full we would have been worried, but not with Spuggie. We were used to her waddling around, her crop swinging about looking so stuffed we wondered how she could possibly move. She was still the boss though to the end, albeit a boss with an eye for the fellas. Unfortunately the other night we found her with a leg that seemed to be unresponsive. We settled her comfortably into the ark to see if she had just hurt it rather than put her on her own in the cat basket, but by the morning she had passed away. Her end was swift. I do wonder looking back if she was struggling a bit with her legs the day before but up until then she was often one of the first in for food every night. RIP Spuggie, you had a good innings of just over 7 years. So now all that remains of that brood is Black Tail, a chicken often too intelligent for her own good but still going.

Poor Freddie, he often looks startled. Bless him!

A soggy looking Jakobs.

The day I found Spuggie dead in the ark was a rather busy day. I ran into the village (in the car of course) for some supplies and called in for some cheese from my friend the goat farmer. Late morning a lady I had met at the Rural Parliament came with her husband and some friends with their two girls. We had a great time chatting, seeing the alpacas and drinking tea and eating cake. In the middle of that a vet who is beginning to specialise in alpacas came with her mother, so more alpaca visiting and talking about alpacas. Our friends hung around and helped us to cut the toe nails of the boys, which involved haltering up Brencis and the two guys who came hanging onto him while Ian cut his nails. He is a lovely guy, except when it comes to shearing and toe nails and then he becomes quite uncooperative. Not good for a huge chap. I must admit to leaving them to it while I had a chat about development and such with my friend from the Rural Parliament.

The boys out enjoying the cooler weather

This! Yes we had rain, but also some trucks turning round on
this spot. Our driveway is not designed to take big trucks.

We did it! Just enough bales now to get
us through the year, with still more to cut
if the weather will just hold long enough.

Our friends left to get something to eat and I went back into our village with Ian to collect a young lass from France. She was a friend of my long-time crazy young friend (crazy in a good way, you understand and I wouldn't have her any other way). My young friend had suggested a few places to camp in Latvia and she chose to come and visit us. What a blessing she was. When we were busy, she pitched in and when we weren't ,we either sat around and chatted or she read. It was so good to have someone help us on a rather hot day to gather the bales of hay and get them put away before the rain. She camped by the side of our greenhouse, which is one of the few flat areas to camp on our land and went with the flow. She helped with washing up or whatever little or big job needed doing.

Ilvija's neck is now just about long enough to reach the
ground to eat the grass.

You can never have too many baby alpaca pictures.

She also joined in chatting with friends and came with us to visit others. She went with Ian when he went up to our friends north of us with alpacas to collect some feed and see her new alpacas that had arrived that day and she went with me to my goat farming friend to pick up her daughter who also came to do some work for us again. It was rather sad to see her set off on the bus to Riga today the first leg on her way back to France on the bus.

Rain clouds gathering from the south.

A lovely evening sky to relax with.

It has been such a lovely weekend with great visitors but the only downside was the good weather was followed by the rain on Monday. It was only meant to be a short shower, but we got a deluge instead. It wouldn't have been so bad but we are still trying to finish off hay cutting. Ian had cut the steep part of the hill and had planned to turn it to get it off the floor but ran out of time. He turned it this morning even though it was still damp in the hopes that it might dry off, but it rained again. We still will have to clear it, we cannot allow it to rot onto the field, otherwise we lose subsidies.

I love the stripes but would rather see it baled. You can see
a bale on the left hand side. It is one of the large bales that
should be on top of the hill. As our friend and
I were rolling bales together to make them easier to collect,
there was a guy baling for our neighbour at the top. Ian
pipped the horn of his tractor and pointed up the hill. At first I
thought that he was pointing to the large number of storks
setting off (Ian counted 27 storks), but I then realised he was
pointing to this huge bale rolling down the hill. I did move
slightly and watched until I was sure it was heading away
from me and not heading towards the road. 

An evening rainbow

Our very own grumpy, pesky cat. This week's haul was
nearly a large tub of sour cream. Fortunately, although she
got the lid off, we caught her before she had eaten very
much of it. A rattle of a pan has her skulking around. It's
driving me mad.

Other snippets of news this week is that a paper I co-authored was officially published this week. I had heard it was accepted a few weeks back but now it is online (unfortunately behind a paywall though - link here if you are interested and have access). Ian finally got around to fixing the horse box, which was a good job as we needed it to collect hay from the field. He also had to take a wheel to get another puncture fixed. Not good. And finally the mushroom year continues and we managed to collect more and get them dried. So potatoes, mushrooms and peas for winter this year it would seem.

The daisies are looking a little sad after the rain

The apples are ripening

Welcome to the jungle.

The road alongside our land is being remodelled. They are
putting in humungous ditches. This is going to be fun! Not!
Imagine what it will be like when it has rained consistently and
turns into mud soup or when it has snowed and turned to ice.
Now imagine a huge logging truck or one of the frequent
trucks heading to the biogas unit hurtling along the road. A recipe
for an accident unfortunately.
 

This is the top of our land. When they put an electric cable in
they created a track that we had been using to access some
woodland for mushroom picking. We can't get this way now
the only options are to access it by road, scramble down the
bank or over a swamp. Hmmph! The road is dangerous to
walk along on this stretch as it is on a bend.

And this is the bank to scramble down

Another view of the bank. The only other option is to cut
back more trees on the left of this picture.

They have also sculpted the soil back onto the land. It isn't
technically ours as the road belongs to the state up to 11m
from the centre. Only this does go over the path where we used
to walk the alpacas and will need remaking now.

It is already washing away into the ditch too.

And full of water after the rain.

Yes of course you can park on our land! Without asking!
It is a good job that we had already cut the hay.