Summer around the corner

Beginning to green up nicely in the few sunny days we have
had

This week was the first week after the winter when we ate fresh greens. We had nettles, bitter cress, dandelions, onion leaves, chives and ground elder. It is like weeding straight from the garden into the pan. Later on in the year, many of these plants will not taste so nice but at this time of the year they are like a fresh tonic after the stored produce we have been eating over winter. It is a relief that things are growing now, as we are down to the last few onions and carrots. I think I also have one bag of peas left in the freezer. We have lots of meat though, still plenty of fruit, potatoes and beets, some frozen squash and some that have survived storage over the winter, so we wouldn't have starved - just meals would have taken an interesting turn.

Our neutered kitten. She is recovering very well and been
bounding around from the start

Eyre went to be neutered this last week. We don't believe in letting our cats get pregnant to increase the number of feline murderers of birds. Two is quite enough around here to keep the mice out of our feed bins and stop the mice and voles from eating our newly sprouted seedlings and if anything happens to the cats, there are plenty of replacements from the village. I say we don't believe in letting our cats get pregnant, but we were a little late with Eyre, as the tom that visited the other week had obviously had a successful visit, however the vet terminated that pregnancy. I am pleased we didn't wait any longer.

Old manure forming raised beds

Other signs that summer is on the way is our ground preparations. Ian moved the old manure heap to make some raised beds. His next job will be to fence it off so we can plant potatoes in the beds. He has also been trying to clear the areas where trees are down so that we can get to parts of the field ready to prepare that ground too. We have had some nice sunny days, but we have also had spring showers that means we can't get the tractor out to work the ground, one is too heavy and would chew up the ground, the other small walk behind tractor would not cope with the wet and sticky soil. Hopefully it won't be too long though, as the ground tends to dry out quite quickly at this time of the year as the newly growing vegetation laps up the moisture. He has also been clearing trees in preparation should we make a final decision to fence off the land. It is obviously quite a bit of money and so we have to way up the pros and cons carefully.

Out on the grass

We moved the cockerel tonight into his new home with the good egg producers. He was such a sucker. I put a handle of grain down on the floor and then easily moved into to grab him. We will attempt to get a few more hens this year but we are not going into big production like last year. Although we will wait until we know we are not going to be out and about so we can take care of the little ones better. The cockerel wasn't the only one to be moved, the sheep finally got moved out of their enclosure. They were getting noisier and noisier because they could see the green grass and wanted to be out on it, even though there isn't really much and it will harm the grass to be eaten down to low. We decided to put them in an area that we don't mind if it harms the grass because it will be ploughed over anyway. It is not as if the sheep were starving, although they were getting through the hay at quite a rate, so we are pretty sure they are pregnant. Our neighbouring farmer friend who has sheep paid us a visit to check out for us and he thinks they are pregnant too. He came to see us as I got a bit confused with the timing. I suddenly had a panic and thought they might be due when we are planning trips out and it wouldn't seem fair to leave friends and neighbours in charge of lambing sheep. Fortunately we are pretty sure they are due at the beginning of June.

They had had enough of being in here over winter and were
nibbling the grass through the fence and in the process broke
a few corner posts - so definitely time to move them

If you look hard you can see a rainbow. We don't often see
rainbows in this direction, as it was from the early morning
sun and we aren't on the land that often at that time in the
morning at that time of the year. Anyway I missed it, but
Ian saw it as he was letting the animals out

Another sign of summer being around the corner is we have started living in the caravan again. We spend as often as we can out there during the summer months and it is now warm enough to be able to do that, albeit the caravan is still in the greenhouse because the ground is just a tad too wet to get it out. The problem was that just as we were preparing to nip home to get all the things necessary to sleep out in the caravan like a quilt and pillows, another sign that summer is around the corner turned up - cyclists. Two ladies from Riga came up to see the alpacas. I was expecting Ian to come back to collect stuff to take home and seemed to be taking rather a long time considering we had things to do, when I realised I could hear him talking. I peeped out of the greenhouse to see him walking across the hills with two lycra clad ladies, so I went to introduce myself as I don't like to miss out on chatting to visitors.

Mari demonstrating the use of a communal poo pile

We were busy chatting when we heard a car and since the ladies bikes were down near the road, we were a bit worried in case a car had stopped to nick off with their bikes. Ian set off at a jog to make sure everything was okay and a car drove up onto the land. Another group of visitors. I stayed chatting with the cyclists for a few more minutes, while Ian showed around the next group. This group were very interested in what we were doing and we chatted for quite a while - meanwhile time was ticking on. Eventually they left and we got ready to go home and eat and bring back what was needed - needless to say, it was rather gloomy when we got back with our car full of stuff. We just had enough time to sort things out when it was time to roll into bed. We slept well enough, as it is so dark and quiet out on the land. We slept even better the next night when we got the pillows the right way round - I had Ian's and he had mine.

Chanel always looks like she has a lovely smile

We had other visitors too. We had a surprise phone call from one of our Estonian alpaca breeder friends to say her husband was in our village and could he pay a visit. We thought he was going to come in the evening but I got another phone call in the morning to ask if they could come. We decided to go to the hotel and guide them to our place as it is a bit hard to explain over the phone (will be easier with our brown sign). Our friend was doing a 4x4 course and the instructor was joining us too, so we had a 4x4 entourage back to our place. Mari, Chanel and Mr. P. all decided to ignore our friend - typical of animals really. I think it was really because they were enjoying finding those blades of grass too much.

If there is a blade of grass they will find it. Don't worry though
there will be plenty of time for this grass to recover before it
is eaten again. This year the animals have got even more space
to feed from that last year due to separating the boys and girls
further apart

One of the reasons for being away is that Ian has been offered shearing jobs up in Estonia and so we are trying to work out how to organise all of that. It should mean he will be shearing around 80 animals, not including our own. It is unlikely he will make much money this year, but it is the experience and finding out about the logistics that will be helpful for the future. He will then have a better idea of how much to charge next year.

More signs of spring, the grapevines are now showing signs of
life

Trying to track all the different things going on at the moment is a bit exhausting but I feel at least like I am ticking off jobs and getting things done. I am doing two courses at the moment and I hope I haven't already mentioned them and repeating myself. One is to make sure I have the right technical language for writing up my thesis later on in the year and the second one is to help us develop the business side of things. It is about social entrepreneurship, rather than straight ordinary business but it still gives me the right kinds of information that I need to get straightened out with the business side of things. I got a bit behind because this online course started whilst I was in the UK and then there is group work - challenging across time zones etc. One of the groups is now working together nicely, but the other one not so much. Not a lot you can do when it is like that. It is amazing though that it is possible to do group work in different countries, even me here in the caravan in the middle of nowhere. We have used Skype, Facebook, Google docs and an online Wiki. Quite a combination, but it worked.

Estelle finally beginning to look a bit pregnant. 

Another aspect of the Social Entrepreneurship course is that I have to do an interview with a social enterprise, but the problem is that in Latvia there are no formal social enterprises. I have opted to interview our neighbours who have a camp. They were the ones that lost the sheep not so long ago in a huge barn fire. They often employ people who struggle with work for one reason or another and that had become part of their goals, so it is the nearest to a social enterprise as I will get without an official designation of the business. The sheep business also helped to fund campers to attend the camps. Of course there will be issues this year, but they are working through them and seeing it as an opportunity to show value to people they employ as well as re-evaluate what they are doing - not much option really with farming. You have to carry on regardless of the losses to keep the whole thing going and to get subsidies that keep farms afloat. It is the reality for many in the farming industry and not all get through it, but I think, hope and pray these folks do and at least they do have a lot of other support, unlike some farmers.

This one is not ours but it is this sort, a very wide carder with
a large drum. We have got as far as opening the box and not
had a chance to play with it yet.

Finally we got a carder delivered this week. A carder combs the fleece so it is easier to use for spinning and some types of felting. It also cleans the fleece to some extent. I also brought back a felting machine with me from the UK. It was kindly donated to me by a friend and the felting machine has been on an epic journey. My friend lives up in Northumberland and it just so happened that another friend of mine was going up that way and so he collected it for me. The plan had been that his daughter would then take it down to Bath where she lives and another friend collect it from there as her children go to school in Bath, she would have then brought it back to Latvia (Did you follow all that?). My last minute plan to go to the UK though, meant that I could bring it back. So instead of going to Bath it went to Derbyshire where my daughter lives and then travelled back with me in hand luggage, after removing all the sharp needles and putting those in the checked in baggage. It did cause quite a laugh in security and it was a good job my daughter gave me a small suitcase to put it in, instead of the wrapping it had because I had to take it out of the bag as it was classed as an electrical item, like computers.

I'm home - for now!

The site of the Latvian University of Agriculture. Well part
of it and the site for one of our lectures and lunch
on Tuesday

I never did find the kettle in the hostel I was staying at, but at least I did find out that there was one at the place where the course was being held... well eventually anyway. It was only a small course and the other students were lovely. The people who ran the course got on very well and it shows, with the lovely friendly atmosphere. In the afternoon there was always a themed break, such as chocolate break, apple break and cookie break and I ended the week with a rather high blood sugar reading when I got back home. Note to self - stay clear of the sweet stuff. That is going to be so tough for me, I do have rather a sweet tooth. Fortunately I also like fresh vegetables and there were plenty of those too for lunch.

Apple break by the river

Ironwork on the bridge over the river

A dowry chest in the old tower

The hot flushes have started up again and it is getting a little annoying to be talking to someone and then feeling myself suddenly getting rather hot and starting to sweat (okay you didn't want to really know that, but unfortunately that is the reality). Occasionally even my glasses start steaming up, thank goodness not too often. I just laugh though and say "It's my age!" I don't want people to think I'm embarrassed or anything like that, because I am not. I used to be easily embarrassed when I was younger, but not so much now.

Examples of old spindles made by young
men to demonstrate their prowess in
woodwork to the woman he wants to
marry

Traditional patterns Zemgale,
a region in the South of Latvia

This is where I spent much of the week and is called
Valdeka palace

Overall the course was good, not because I particularly learnt much new. I did finally get the idea that cognition does mean, life the universe and everything, as I thought it seemed to do. The title was Landscape Cognition and as I mentioned last week the topic was a part of what I have been studying for over a year now. The problem was that I was always a little hazy on what the cognition part meant. I of course looked it up in the dictionary and tried to get my head around what it meant, but it just seemed too vague. I explained to my course mates that I too struggled with the word cognition, as they did, because it is not a word we use regularly. On the last day though, the Norwegian visiting professor pointed out that while it is true we do not use the word cognition very often, we do use the word recognition. Finally it made sense. When we look at a landscape our brain is matching the elements in that landscape to our knowledge, past experiences, our cultural understanding and so much more. Our brains are constantly trying to make sense of our surroundings and that is basically what cognition means, so it is life, the universe and everything.

The room was painted to recreate the
original interiors of the place

The wild horses

The course was not all study and we had a couple of excursions, one to see a spit of land in the river that regularly floods every year. They keep wild horses there to keep the meadow from turning into scrub. The horses are actually quite gentle, but are free to wander around, hence the term "wild". The gentleman who cares for the horses explained that they will be selling some of the young males off because they have too many stallions this year and so I have got his details in case we ever decide to get one. They are quite sturdy creatures and very hardy, because they effectively grow a fur coat for winter and so can be kept outside with some shelter, but not necessarily a shed, it can be a hedge, even in our harsh winters.

Furniture in the tower museum

The remains of the wall of the old church

The other excursion was to an old tower that once was attached to a church, but that part was blown up by the Soviets. The tower was kept to store explosives and the idea was that they would eventually demolish the tower. The problem was that it has really thick walls and by the time they were ready to blow it up they had built housing around it. To blow up the tower would have meant blowing out the window of every home for up to 300m around, so the tower was kept. It now has a nice glass roof on top with impressive views over the surrounding area. Our guide for the day was quite a lively young man, with ambitions on being a president one day. At least he has a positive attitude to life in Latvia, which is promising.

The greenhouse in the morning light

The cold weather has meant our two cats are now tolerating
each other much more. Cuddled up for warmth

One of the ladies on the course dropped me and another student off in Riga. On a previous trip through Riga I purchased a bus ticket, but I didn't need it as it was a celebration day and all public transport was free; fortunately it came in useful this week as we had to catch the bus to the bus station so I could get the last bus home. I got there in enough time to catch the bus, but not to buy a ticket for that trip at the station. Fortunately the last bus home on a Friday is not as full as the earlier one and so I got a seat. The earlier bus is usually standing room only for those who have not already bought a ticket.

The wine we started a little while ago

My first day back at home I sorted out the green tomatoes from the red tomatoes, sorted out the apples and removed the bad ones. I then cooked down some tomatoes, made green tomato chutney and made a batch of apple sauce and juice using the steamer. I also got two loads of washing done and read through my paper that was returned with amendments just before the course. It doesn't sound like a huge amount in one day, but it took ages to sort through the large amounts of apples and tomatoes alone. Cooking them was the easy bit.

Because there has to be pictures of alpacas :)

Ian working on the roof panels

The next day we decided to stay out in the caravan so that we could get on with jobs out on the land. The alpacas needed toe nails cutting and Aggie needed an injection, all jobs that I need to help Ian out with before clearing off to the UK for nearly a month. I also helped him with the roof panels for the new alpaca house. We have been joking that it is big enough to live in and it is seriously tempting to make it into a small house to stay in.

If we had a window in the new alpaca house, this would
be the view towards the road

One side finished

The mouse storage compartment revealed

One job we didn't plan on was spending rather a long time cleaning out Larry our Lada, but had to after we discovered that a mouse had been relocating alpaca feed into the roof space of the car. We thought that Larry had developed a leak as the roof liner was sagging, but when Ian drilled a small hole into it, no water came out, just dust. The mouse had shifted about 17kg of grain into the roof space - an amazing amount of storage for such a small animal. We had to cut open the fabric cover for the roof space to clear it out. We plan to feed the grain to the wild birds over winter, as we can't feed it to our chickens or alpacas and we don't want to tip it somewhere as that will encourage the wild boar. Sadly we had to put some poison out to kill the mouse as we don't plan on feeding mice all winter with alpaca food. It is a last resort as we haven't managed to catch it with a trap and we can't just lock the cats in there.

Some of the grain that was stored in the roof

Building inspector

A race against time

The Amaranth after the frost. Hopefully
the seed is still fine and I have started
processing it.

I mentioned that last week we had our first frost and this week we had our second frost early on in the week with the forecast for even cooler weather on the way, this meant we had to get motivated to sort out some of our crops. We harvested all of our climbing beans, they were all just about ready for harvest anyway and then we harvested the cabbages, although they will stand some frost the forecast was for up to -7C and that is a tad cold for them, so better in the freezer than destroyed. We also harvested as many apples as we could. In addition I potted up the basil to take home. All in one day. Not bad hey! Those geese were definitely in the know.

A peaceful scene, belying the fact that Herkules has been
escaping for much of the week. He has been forced to stay
in with a little help from the more powerful electric charger.
It is not as if there is nothing to eat, just not first choice and
since the other two in particular have weight issues they can
jolly well stay in that area until they have finished the grass

The caravan in its winter quarters

I did cover some crops up in fleece, as it was impossible to harvest everything, but it wasn't perfect. The autumn raspberries did okay for a few days, but the number of hard frosty nights we have had finished them off. Such a shame as there were still plenty to come and they had been ripening nicely. The hard frosts has meant we can empty the greenhouse sooner than anticipated and since I am planning to be away this next week and then about five days later I will be away for a whole month, we decided that the chickens and the caravan needed to be put away in their winter abode. Another one of those markers in the year, that tells us the seasons are changing.

Of course the chickens had to go in first, even though it is
still dry weather outside. I still think they appreciated the
move, one of them laid an egg and they had stopped prior
to this

I know you are not supposed to move
asparagus, but it was not working
where it was and so we have chanced
it and moved it to a sunnier spot. The
asparagus bed had also got weed
infested and so another excuse to move
them. They look nice and neat now

As many of you know who have followed my blog for a while we often have trouble with wild boar (wild hogs) but lately there has been African Swine fever making its way through the country. It is an extremely infectious disease apparently, so I had a look at the updated maps showing the spread of the disease and it appears to have moved into our area now. Not sure if that is the reason we haven't had much wild boar damage this autumn or it is because the ground is so dry meaning there aren't as many grubs to dig up and eat. Whichever way the decrease in pig activity has been very welcome. If it wasn't for the fact that wild boar will be suffering, I would even go so far as to do a happy dance.

Wish I could say all the beds were as nice and neat. Maybe
next year

Ian working hard and wrapped up against the chill

I am not sure it was a good idea to let Ian go to our daughter's, it seems to have had expensive repercussions. He suddenly found out that a laser levelling device, a laser measuring device and an electric mitre saw were the must have items for the newest constructions he is doing. Wouldn't mind but he has had to take back the laser level already, though it did start working again after a bit of tinkering at the shop and now he will have to take the measuring device back. Not good for Bosch products really. I always associated Bosch with good quality and now not so sure. I've told Ian that he will now have to build the house to justify the costs. Hahaha! I wish. To be fair though, he had already requested an electric mitre saw to make the building of the alpaca houses easier and faster.

The base laid out

I helped with the first two uprights and the rest, Ian has
been busy with while I'm away

It wasn't the only repercussion. Our daughter has a blood sugar monitor and since diabetes runs in Ian's family he decided to try it out. Our daughter informed him that he was showing signs of being pre-diabetic due to his fasting blood sugar levels (she is a qualified nurse). That meant he needed to buy his own monitor when he got back home, more expense. Fortunately the monitors themselves are not so bad, but it is the strips that rack up the cost. I decided to try the monitor one morning too and what was even worse was that my fasting blood sugar was higher than Ian's. At least I can lose some weight to see if my levels will go down. I have lost the usual weight over the summer but I would need to keep an eye on it over the winter. Ian doesn't really have any weight to lose and trying to keep his calorie intake up without overdoing the carbs is going to be a bit of a nightmare. Thank goodness fat is getting less bad press than it used to.

Our little pest. If she can get in the way
she will at the moment. At least she is a good
mouser, just wish she would not leave them
lying around all over the place

Tellus in the frosty morning light

It is quite odd really, as one of the ways of managing blood sugars is to use less carbohydrates that cause the sugar spikes. What is needed is a slow release carbohydrate or a way of slowing the release down. Many moons ago while we were at university, we took part in some studies to observe how to modify the sugar spikes from foods like apples and sweetcorn. It is as if the research we were part of back then is going to affect how we eat in the future. We did something useful after all. Wish I could say the same about the paper I have been trying to get published. It has been sent back again regarding the quality of the English. I know this blog is not always written in perfect English, I am often a bit tired when I sit down to write it and it isn't an academic exercise and so I am not always so careful, but really my English is not that bad, nor is my co-author and definitely not the lady who proofread it. I am really quite bewildered by the comment and thoroughly exasperated by the process. Oh well! At least the editor made the changes she felt necessary and so I need to go through them and find out what the problem is ..... again!!!!

Herkules our escape artist

Turbjørn looking quite jolly in this picture

We had a brush with the law this week too. The regional police have been doing a tour of the area looking to generate a few Euros by some accounts. We were travelling back from the land and there was a BMW behind us and Ian was expecting it to pass us once we got onto the tarmac, but it didn't. Instead a police car overtook both of us with lights flashing and then pulled up in front of us. The policeman was unusually brusque. Once they realise we don't speak much Latvian the Latvian police usually try and deal with us as quickly as possible and are usually reasonably polite, at least not rude. Ian wasn't quite sure what they were asking for and so I explained that it was the driver's licence, but in the meantime the policeman seemed to be muttering something about in Latvian speaking Latvian. I realise that we should, but it would have been quite rude if we had just been visitors and at the time he didn't know whether we were or weren't, apart from the car being registered in Latvia. The policeman looked rather disappointed that Ian had zero for alcohol when he used the breathalyser and they couldn't find anything wrong with the car either.

An empty space where a caravan once stood

Estelle. Now is she pregnant or not? We think she is

To wrap up this week, I am in Jelgava on a course. The course description is something similar to the research the students did for me earlier on in the year about Sense of Place - how people are attached to places and what they feel about them. Should be interesting to hear some different perspectives. It was a rather early start as normal when I catch buses and it was also a very cold start, as it was minus 5C (23F) this morning. So after that early start, I am now sat in one of the university hostel rooms, which is noisy from the traffic outside and that is with the windows shut and I can hear voices from the room next door, but at least I am not sharing a room and the bed is comfy. I am also longing for a cup of tea, but there won't be one until later on in the day tomorrow because they do not seem to have a kettle in the communal kitchen area. They have mugs, two cookers and two frying pans, but I cannot see a kettle.