Baby steps

Jakobs has overdone the moustache this week.

Big breath now! We made some plans! Now don't get over excited. Big steps we can do, after all we have moved countries three times now, so it is not that kind of plan. These plans are more baby step planning that is needed for a business venture. Errrr... well... let's just say, we are not terribly good at that type of planning normally. Making plans for something that is not essential for the now, we are not terribly good at either. Normally we get bogged down, me with my apparently grandiose plans and Ian in the details. It is hard to plan when someone is focussed on the big picture and the other on all the details to get the job done.

Shadows! That can only mean one thing! SUN!!!! 

A dusting of snow, came and went earlier on in the
week though

Anyway with a little prompting from outside influences we managed to come up with some plans we could agree on. Now that is a miracle. On our planning list we have our probable and necessary column, our possible column and our wishlist. They still need fleshing out a bit and some investigations done, but it's a start. In fact we have even decided on our first purchase towards the plan. Three picnic tables. Exciting heh! Now we just have to decide on the when. Despite the comparatively warm weather we are having currently, we have to remind ourselves that spring is still a way off.

Budding blueberries! Too early?

Ian has been busy in the forest. At least he can get on with
that in the mild weather.

So why picnic tables? Because it means that people can linger, take in the scenery or just sit and watch the alpacas. Why not? Lunch with the alpacas? Well, maybe not lunch with the alpacas exactly. The alpacas don't eat sandwiches and we wouldn't want them trying to nick people's lunches or for guests to be feeding the alpacas inappropriate foods; so we will place the picnic tables in places where they can see the alpacas but not be bothered by them. Or maybe they can be used for those who want to draw or paint, or for our felting courses in August (once the wool is wet and at rolling stage that is). The possibilities are endless.

Although it is mild, we are still having snow flurries, just not
-20C like it can be at this time of the year. 

Green, not white.

We also made some baby step progress with using the waste fleece. Our plan was to make them into duvets! Ideally it would have been a totally Latvian made product. Latvian linen, Latvian alpaca fleece and made by someone local. Unfortunately, we have found out that the Latvian linen is not a suitable fabric for the alpaca fleece, so we have to try a different type of fabric specifically for down fillings. Needless to say that fabric will not be made in Latvia as it will be made from cotton. We tried! At least we are further down the road by having some products to test, which is how we know the linen is not going to work. We've even taken steps on sorting out the fleece processing. Ian took that job off me thank goodness and he's already contacted a company to help us with that. It is one thing to hand process fleece into yarn in small quantities, it is another altogether to get it processed into fleece for duvets.

Ian is still busy spinning

It's nice to see Ian using something my Granny used to use.
This old winder to make the hanks, also using Ian's
home-made gadget.

Ian's home-made gadget to hold the spool while he winds it
onto the frame above.

It looks like Freddie has got dandruff. This might be an
oversensitivity to mites, just like his mum.

There has also been some baby steps in reconnecting with people here. One of my friends has returned to the village and so we were able to meet up for a cup of tea. We were going to take a trip out to the land, but the weather forecast was not good, so we opted for an indoor meet up instead. It was good to catch up. It was good not to be working on projects, my thesis or marking, just chatting.

A meeting going on?

The girl's paddock. It has been rather wet just lately

Work is progressing as to be expected. I managed to get out of half a Skype meeting today, to get on with some other work. That would have been the third Skype meeting within a week. I was needed in the beginning to work a bit on some text, since the text was in English and I'm the only native English speaker. All that means is that I can re-word things a little more succinctly than the others or come up with certain words to convey an idea. I have my uses!

Marie looking wistful. Is she thinking of a man? She will be
mated again this year. It will be interesting to see what she
produces this time, but we will have to wait a while with
their 11 1/2 month pregancies.

Good job I have some new cream steeping for Aggie's face.
The wet weather is probably not helping to keep the mite
population down.

And that is about it really. It is winter after all and so writing takes up a good portion of my time or a little marking. It won't be long before we go back out to the land to our caravan. The night's are already noticeably shorter. When Ian is home later than when we eat, that will be the time to start thinking of going back out. Hopefully the weather will be drier by then. Before that I will have to start thinking about starting off the plants for the greenhouse, but it has been so dull the poor plants would need extra light, so I haven't got started on them yet. Just some salad type seeds but they look a little sad and sorry. So maybe a heat mat and lamp is in order.

Just yuck!

At least the ponds are full and the
water table re-charging. Hopefully our
well will not run dry this year.

The water is running.

Little Ilvija sill looking like a walking haystack. Can you
imagine how much fun that is going to be to process?

Josefs looking dapper

Kale hanging on in there 

Potato beds being prepared with the alpaca manure

The beds I covered with hay last week.

The flowing ditch by the forest edge.

It's finished! - No really! It is this time.

Thirteen hay bales. Not all are usable but at least we can
move them off the field and decide what to do with them
later.

Haymaking is finished. We nearly lost the grass that Ian cut last week. We had a day of rain and the grass was fairly green and leafy, so it looked like it might rot away before we got the chance to do anything with it. A few days of reasonably hot and dry weather, however, meant that Ian managed to rescue it and bale it. Not sure how worth it was doing it, as it needed turning and then spreading out and turning again before it could be baled. Not something Ian would do normally if it wasn't needed. At least it's all experience. Experience of what not to do next time.

Back to finding the shade. People often ask how they do in
the winter and we tell them fine, as long as they have enough
fleece on them. This year the fleece is growing well and so the
recent spell of good weather is hard on them. They enjoyed
the shower they got the other day when it rained most of the
day.

Skype call from the office to colleagues. I didn't have my
video on, I think they would have been jealous. Actually
it's because the signal strength is not good enough for
Skype with a group.

I've been busy with my thesis this last week, trying to get all the work I've done pulled together into one piece of coherent work. As I mentioned last week I started with the easier chapters to get the writing flowing and it seems to have worked, as I actually feel like I'm progressing. I have had other work to do though, so maybe not quite as fast as I had hoped. Another day of washing helped.

How is that comfortable? Joesfs a bit
soggy and muddy and that was before
the rain. We have been having some
heavy dews in the morning.

A hard life!

Vanessa's crew up on the oak tree hill. When we had the
biodiversity team come to look at our land in June they
suggested that it would be good to graze the land to increase
the biodiversity. It should be cleared to ensure it does not
get taken over by aggressive grasses. The problem is that
also driving a tractor over this patch would likely end up
damaging it and so the soft pads of the alpacas is ideal. They
munch away, taking some of the nutrients away and deposit
it somewhere else. Perfect! Job done! I hope!

Where does all this washing come from at the moment? Well that has to do with another milestone passed this last week. After the rain we organised with the young chaps to come and help us out and remove some furniture that was on loan to the people who bought an apartment from us. We hadn't got the room to move all the furniture from two apartments into one very small one and the people who bought the apartment needed some extra, so it worked for the time being. Not long ago though I got a message that they were going to sell it and then another one to say they had found a buyer who  wanted a quick sale, which meant we had to move the furniture asap. Fortunately we had already discussed with a friend that we could store it in an unused cabin and so not a problem to shift it - once the horse box passed its technical though, which it did the week before.

Tut! Tut! Amanda. You are not supposed to be eating oak
leaves. 

They have a good view of the land from up there.

This is actually a quilt cover that
was used as a curtain in the
apartment. It was decorated in
August 1992 with the help of my
two oldest children. They were the
same age that their oldest two
children are now. 

And the washing? Well we had also left curtains,  they were a tad dusty and needed washing before they get stored away. Once the apartment was cleared the post key was left on a windowsill and we dropped the key to the apartment into the postbox. And that was it! We had finally vacated the first apartment we had had in Latvia. Time to move on from that chapter in our lives. We have no idea who the new owners will be, but understand they have connections with the people in the block.

Chanel and Ilvija. It is getting hard to tell them apart sometimes

Ilvija is definitely darker though

But not as dark as her father.

Alpaca fleece drying in the greenhouse.

Ian has also been doing some washing with our little portable washing machine that we bought last year and rarely used because we ran out of well water and there was no rain to collect rain water. He has been washing some of the not so good fleece, the stuff on the legs and neck, to give to a lady who visited just over a week ago. She makes duvets with sheep wool filling and so we are going to work with her to see if we can make alpaca duvets. We are starting off with small sample pieces to see how they work and what happens when you use them and see if it will work with Latvian linen. If it works we will get the wool processed in a factory into batts - it takes too long to process it all by hand for a full size duvet. If it doesn't work with linen then we may go for a good quality cotton manufactured in Latvia. We'll see!

Lady V not looking amused. Not surprising as she has a sore
on her leg that developed quite suddenly. 

Not sure if she has been nibbling it, as I would think it is a bit
difficult to reach. The flies were plaguing her though and so I
mixed some of my magic cream with clay. I sterilise the clay
from our land and it makes a good cover for the red sore patch.

Having a little chat with friends.

I will get my own chance to do some chinwagging later this year. I was accepted to take part in the European Rural Parliament, which sadly is in Spain. I know! It's tough isn't it! Spain in November too. I am also going to take the opportunity to connect with a few friends who live there. Although they do not live close by to the venue, it is still a lot closer than I normally am.

Busy eating

A wink from Jakobs

And the final piece of news this week. I got a pay rise or rather I am being paid a full week's work, rather than the four days a week I am currently paid for. The department has money for wages but not trips and so it was easier to employ me for extra days than pay for my trips. I'm not complaining, at least the trips get paid for eventually, one way or another. So this autumn I plan to go to Hannover in Germany, via Berlin; Helsinki and Mikkeli in Finland and  Madrid, Candás and Oliva in Spain. Just a few miles then and I promise there is only one return flight in that lot, the rest is by bus, train or ferry.

Let me whisper in your ear. These flies are bothering me!

Awww having snuggles! Not! They are actually play fighting.

The three muskateers

My garden

Knapweed seeds outside the greenhouse.