Happy birthday to you, happy birthday tooooooo you

A gorgeous sunset making the hill
look like its on fire

I am having to do a bit of writing on my blog a little early this week as it is Ian's birthday on the day I should be posting and I am not sure if we will go out or have a special meal but whatever we do it will mean spending time together but not a lot of money. He has too many toys anyway, and his toys are not cheap! (Oh err sorry! Essential pieces of equipment! hehe). The dilemma is if we go to the local hotel he could have a nice steak but if we don't, I will have to track down some meat in this village - easier said than done. There are often salamis and there is usually some sort of pork but chicken is hit and miss and beef forget it. Roll on next year when we grow some chickens for the freezer. (update: surprise, surprise we went to the hotel and he had steak, at least I didn't have to do the washing up)

One of the culprits before it met its doom

You can tell when the temperature is going down when the layers start piling on. We have had some lovely autumnal days but haven't escaped the drizzle and the rain this season brings. It is hard to believe that not so long ago we were sweltering in humid 30 degree heat and now the temperature has slipped to about 10C during the day. At least it makes it pleasant to work in the polytunnel now, instead of being like a sauna. We removed the last of the big tomatoes from the polytunnel this week as it looked like blight might be starting to creep in and the rest of the summer plants are looking a little bedraggled and barely hanging on. We would remove them too but the melons haven't all quite ripened yet and the cucumbers are still producing so they are being left for the time being. Our other plants planted for the autumn are looking good, well if they haven't been stripped by caterpillars that is. I always think of caterpillars as being an outside problem but not in our polytunnel, the little blighters must have laid hundreds of eggs and there is one thing for sure I am not going to use a humane way of getting rid of them, so they get squished. Disgusting job but effective.

You can just see the clay irrigation pot poking out from
between the lettuces in the right hand pot.

Our clay pot irrigation trial is working well. It is a little hard to tell from the photograph but the lettuces with their little clay pot on the right are actually doing slightly better than the hand watered pot on the left. I have also found that the clay pot irrigation uses less water than watering using a watering can. These lettuces have only been topped up twice since planting too, so perfect for going away. The theory is that the unglazed clay pot acts as a reservoir from which the plants can extract the water. The pot has to be the kind of pot that allows water out and so should not be glazed or fired at to high a temperature, ie not over 800C preferably. We had ours specially made by a local potter and they have a quirky hand made appearance. Ours are also part glazed at the top which means that the pot can stick out above the plants making watering easier and yet not lose water to the atmosphere. It also has a jaunty little cap to keep out the bugs. We will roll out the trial for next year to see how they cope with things like tomatoes and melons but I think we will need some bigger pots made first.

The dark line that runs up the side of
the road way is where the pigs have
turned over piles of hay that were
used to slow down the flow of water.
This and some activity beside the top
pond means the pigs were worringly
close to the polytunnel 

Outside on our land the wild boar have been having a field day, there are patches of churned soil all over the place and some alarmingly close to the polytunnel, fortunately not many of them are deep. They are becoming such a nuisance that I might even make them the subject of my study for my Masters degree. I was going to look at how new landowners or inexperienced ones anyway get help and support, possibly contrasting the new crofters scheme in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland with what happens here in Latvia, but after this week I have come to the conclusion that you can give new landowners all the help you want in order for them to set up sustainable enterprises on their land but it will all be a waste of time unless the problem of the wild boar is sorted. There are tales of people digging up carrots while the pigs are at the other end taking their fill, of fences not being sufficient to keep them out and vast damage done to gardens - the problem is that these are people's essential winter supplies. Our neighbours had to dig up their potatoes early due to pig activity alerting them to the fact the pigs had their eyes or rather their noses, since they smell very well but can't see so well, on their garden. A friend of ours is increasingly afraid of going out at night as the pigs are often in the garden, eating the apples and digging big holes and one night they hurt their alsatian dog quite badly. I did some quick research to see if looking at this problem would make a feasible project and I found that pigs normally will stick close to the forest cover when rooting and so the middle of fields should be safe, but this is not the case here. The pigs are obviously not afraid of people or other wild animals like wolves.  There are no wolves close to us that I know of and farmers here cannot shoot on their own land unless they have an agreement with a hunting organisation that they are part of and have the permission of the organisation to hunt, which means organising a special event. So complicated!

A rather deep pig hole

Our wild boar problem makes me wonder if Latvia does not suffer from a few human versions of the wild boar too. Greedy, opportunistic, turning over the ground irrespective of what is there, a disaster for farmers and the rural poor in general. They don't care that they are destroying the farmer's fields, all they care about is filling their bellies. Now within an ecological standpoint that is fine and wild boar do have a valuable role to play in the ecology of the land but when they get out of control then we have problems. The destructive nature of some of the elite which does not care about the rest of humanity is as destructive to the landscape as the wild boar and both will lead to the abandonment of the farms ultimately, unless something is done.

Love this lichen encrusted sign but it is looking a little
worse for the wear this year.

Well on a different note I saw a couple of blog posts this week with phrases you have to think about. The first one was "The more quietly you speak the farther you will go". I think that too often as Christian's in the world we do a lot of shouting, "Come this way", "I will show you which way to go" etc. We are on a journey, and we might know the final destination - a city where God dwells, but the journey is not as straightforward as we think sometimes, there are twists and turns and sometimes we need to ask the way of others. Yes we can be guides to those also on a journey who need some help and direction but we don't necessarily need to stand on a mound shouting at everyone as if we have all the answers. Maybe if we heeded this phrase then we might indeed be heard when we have something relevant to say!

Mushrooms in the forest

The next was from Amnesty International's Advocacy director "The only real question is not whether impossible things can be achieved, but how and when?" Such an inspiring thought! I am often accused of being too optimistic, but how much more optimistic can you get? The examples he used were from events that led to the fall of the Soviet Union, a huge momentous event which was amazing to see and happened so suddenly and rapidly. A mighty stronghold brought down by some people willing to make a stand with tomato ketchup and songs (see the article). Impossible things do happen; after all when Elton John sang "Nikita, you will never know, anything about my home" about a border guard on the Soviet side, we believed that was true and yet the strain on the system was showing only two years later and the collapse a mere 4 years later. Likewise who thought the banks were invincible in their greed? Yet the system is creaking and people are busy papering over the cracks and the warning sounds have not been heeded. They are trying to revert back to business as usual - bad mistake. Maybe you are thinking that is nothing to be optimistic about but I find it both exciting and exhilarating because I believe there has to be a better system than the one we have and I am looking forward to seeing it come into being. So hold on folks the ride might be a bit hairy but there is a good ending - I read the end of the book.

A view from the top of our ski hill with the remains of one
of the light posts to light the hill at night 

Not so encouraging though is a brief run through of the recent history of the Roma, it is a tragic story of a despised minority. The current expulsions by France fill me with horror that people can be treated this way in a so called modern nation. I am not singling out France either because they are doing what many people would like to do as we saw from the success of the far right party in Sweden. Is it not time that this particular minority were actually listened to with a measure of compassion? Their way of life has been under pressure for a long time and their options limited. They are in many ways a good example of stewardship by shunning the use of large energy hungry houses and by resourceful reuse of materials and yet I am not blind to the issues of where they stay and some of the problems they have. How much of that though is because of a lack of choices? Shouldn't we be able to dialogue with a group of people rather than stigmatise and ostracise? Maybe, just maybe a better understanding between Roma and non-Roma may diffuse the tensions and maybe, just maybe a better dialogue with immigrants and nationals may help people to live together peacefully.

The top of the hill and we think the remains of the ski lift

Reading through the Coloradan today I found out that there was a brush fire about a mile away from our old house in Fort Collins which seems really bizarre as we are sit here in Latvia after having a torrential downpour last night that meant we could hardly see through our windows at one point. It is hard to remember how dry it is in Fort Collins now- bet they still have green lawns though!

Surprising finds

Our three ponds full!

We are amazed by the amount of life in our ponds even though they are new and can spend quite a while gazing at the busy water boatmen, backswimmers, pond skaters, frogs and now a newt. Where do they all come from? Frogs I can understand because they are all over the place and right now the whole of the countryside seems to be alive with tiny tiny frogs, but where did the newt come from? It must have travelled quite away. Water boatmen and backswimmers can fly as I discovered on the internet, so that explains their presence (what would I do without the internet?). Unfortunately we also had some very unwelcome pond life this week in the heat, algae! I made up some mini bales of straw and chucked them in the pools and it seems to be helping, no idea why that idea works but it seems to, and I can't even remember where we first heard that gem of advice but I know it was a long time ago maybe even pre-internet days. At the start of the week we had some blessed rain  which filled the ponds, all three of them, that is a lot of water over a day and it emphasises that we don't just need a soakaway around the polytunnel we will need storm drainage. Pond number 2 though, we found out, does not hold the water and drained away quite quickly, so it looks like we might need to line that one, we were hoping the clay filled soil would retain the water but obviously not. So our ponds remain works in progress as we reshape and dig more out until we have something along the lines of what we need that will keep the water in. Eventually they will get landscaped and seeded which will also help with water retention, the ground cover helping to keep the ground moist and therefore less likely to steal the water from the pond in the dry spells.

Member of the pea family

After the rain the temperatures rose and it has been very hot up to 31C (88F) in the shade that has meant a switch to Mediterranean type work practices - up early to work in the garden, home for lunch in the heat of the day and even a siesta one day then work in the cool of the evening. We are not eating like the Mediterranean's though with very late meals, instead we continue to have an early evening meal and then Ian eats his way through the evening. Trying to keep his weight on is a challenge at the moment but at least we don't have the normal problem that in trying to keep Ian's intake up high enough to keep his weight on mine goes up to compensate, mine is dropping too thank goodness. How much of it is sweated off, I have no idea. I do try and keep the fluid intake up as I just drip most of the time. Okay enough information there!

Not sure you can really see the detail in the hat, but it
pretty. Honest!

Had quite a successful week of purchasing items that normally I cannot get easily, first it was steel capped work boots for me, and considering I am a size 4 (37 European, 6.5 American) they are not the sort of thing that are readily available. At least I can now stop digging in my good walking boots, and I don't have to wear wellies (rubber boots) all the time. The next successful purchase was a hat, again I have problems as I have a small head (shame my girth is not as dainty as my feet and head - whoops sorry too much information again) and so when I was living in Colorado and managed to find an Australian hat that fitted I bought it. It was great for keeping off the sun and fitted in nicely with the culture but somehow it doesn't quite fit in here when walking to the shops or at the agricultural show we attended, fine for on the land but not around town. So now I have a pretty hat, that I can wear out and about that doesn't come half way down my face. Also the perfect travel hat too as it folds up without crushing!

These blackcurrants are huge, they are the size of a small
grape. The teaspoon gives an idea of scale. They are from
the garden at the other flat and a surprise find last week.

I mentioned that we went to an agricultural show this week, it is so long since I have been to one of those and it brought back memories of some pretty hot days working on my parents jewellery stall that they used to run at agricultural shows in England. Sometimes we were in the shade of a hot sticky craft marquee and sometimes in our own caravan. There were some good times but mostly it was actually quite boring, once you had seen one agricultural show you had seen them all, well that is what it felt like as a teenager; the upside of it was the wonderful settings for some of them and the earnings were good. My favourite memory was getting up early for the Rose show at Cartmel in the Lake district and seeing the mist clearing away as the sun rose, and the deer making their way across the parkland, it was magical in a magical setting. I think they moved site since so don't know what it is like now. This Latvian agricultural show was just a local one with the usual big tractors and huge implements, makes us wonder what many Latvian farmers with their small plots of land make of it all. Some of the tractors are so huge they would barely turn around on our land and we have 33 acres, admittedly it is a long narrow strip with forest down one side but still a standard size for a Latvian farm. It just appears that the tractor companies are not really interested in the small farmer, probably because they do not make much money and they cannot get credit for the type of farming implements they could really do with.

A tasty way of using up a radish glut courtesy of Sophie  Grigson
only I used a red grapefruit instead of an orange as they didn't
have any oranges at the local supermarket and I added some peas

Thanks to a kind comment by Denise Thornton on last week's blog I found out all I needed to know about the wild parsnip  and that confirmed to me that we don't want it around. It is hard to believe that seeds are for sale - don't buy them whatever you do! A friend of ours was strimming by the lake when he felt his arm burning and rushed up to the house to clean off whatever it was that was burning. When we were talking about the wild parsnip he showed us his arm with little burn marks all the way up it, he didn't know what had caused it at the time but he does now. Denise's blog seems to be a mine of information and it is interesting to see someone trying to manage land from a conservation point of view but in a different country and yet some of the issues we face are the same like the wild parsnip. Another piece of infomation I found out on her blog was that you don't have to preserve wood. At first I found that hard to believe, especially in such a wet country like Latvia but when I think about it, there are lots of grey wood buildings around and they have been around a long time. Often the barns and houses are unpreserved wood but they might be raised up off the floor on stone foundations - makes sense when it can be under snow for a long time during the winter. Mind you does the wood rot in the cold? I guess it might not and it might only be at risk of rot setting in during the cool wet spring and autumn days rather than over winter as you might think. A challenging thought to our throw chemicals at it way of life of the 21st century.

Sunset

Another surprising find this week is that clay pot irrigation is 10 times more efficient than surface irrigation. We are struggling at times to keep the polytunnel watered properly and it set me thinking about some drip feed irrigation when I came across the article above, it would be interesting to find out how efficient this system really is and whether we can make some easy low tech plant watering systems. We have commissioned some pots from a local potter to try some ideas out, so watch this space!