A Gentle Day

Josefs and Jakobs charging around. A little different to last
week when we were so worried about Josefs. We are not
feeding him at all now, so Aggie's milk must be good stuff

Well it was kind of a gentle day, if you discount the group of 15, 5 adults and 10 children who joined us today. Before they came we had to spend some time trying to get the greenhouse in some sort of order after our felting course at the weekend. We only managed half our lunch before they turned up, but thanks to our friend who stayed on after the felting course it was packed away from our marauding cats, while we greeted the visitors.

Josefs feeding from Aggie

Our regular evening visitor

The group today were mainly Russian speaking children on an an upmarket sports camp with extra activities. They were superbly organised and even had people turn up beforehand to make sure everything was in order. They also made sure the children were listening, which was really nice. At one point they let one of the youngsters do the translating because he wanted to have a go. He did quite well. We took them on the usual tour and then all the children had a go at making a felt ball from the alpaca wool. Sometimes groups can be a bit of a nightmare to handle, especially when they keep trying to feed the little cria (alpaca babies) - who are not up to eating the grain and really do not interact much with people yet, but this group weren't too bad at all. To be honest, Josefs seems to be a very inquisitive kind of alpaca anyway, so he maybe okay. We are still wary of over socialising male cria with humans though to prevent problems in the future.

Josefs and Jakobs have bonded well together. We had a surprise
message via Facebook asking if we would ever think of
selling Josefs

Our visitors even brought flowers

We've had other visitors as well. There was a group who were a mix of our apartment neighbours, their children and their grandchildren. The children speak very good English as one works as a translator in Luxembourg and the other works in Sweden. The couple from Luxembourg were some of the first visitors we had to see our alpacas, shortly after we got them over six years ago (link here). It was nice to be able to show them the changes we have made over the years. Slowly but surely we are getting more organised. We still have a long way to go though.

Listening to Galina talking about dyeing in the shade
of the barn (Photo by Edith Chenault)

It has been quite an international week really, as our visitors have been Latvian (of course), French, Swedish, an American living in Estonia, Belarusian and Polish . The last few were the participants and tutor on the dyeing and felting course that we held over the weekend. We didn't have as many participants as we would like, but it didn't stop us enjoying ourselves. It was Galina's, the tutor, third visit and she always loves coming as she likes the atmosphere at our workshops on the farm. Even though it was hot we were able to sit in the cool shade of the barn to eat and watch the cria racing around. It is always good to see her friend who she brings with her too.

Picking leaves  (Photo by Edith Chenault)

Our wonderful helper modelling some
flowers made during the weekend course

Her friend helped us sort through some wool to remove the vegetable matter, as well as helping Galina collect leaves for the dyeing process. If an extra pair of hands were needed, she was there. Even though we couldn't communicate directly as she only spoke Russian, that didn't matter so much. She understood what was needed and helped. She has certainly been a big blessing to us and we are pleased that she also enjoys coming to visit us, as this is her second visit.

Preparing the table for the laying out of the silk and leaves
 (Photo by Edith Chenault)

Leaves on silk
 (Photo by Edith Chenault)

People have been popping in all week really. Another group made a return visit after two years to see what had changed over the time. This was mainly a group of young men and women in their twenties or early thirties. One guy with a hipster beard turned up with his wife and two children and finally two ladies who were looking to see if we were suitable as a visit for schoolchildren later on in the year. One lady remembered me from a meeting a few years ago - I thought she looked familiar but I have met so many people in very different circumstances I forget where or who people are, especially if they are in a different context when I meet them again. I do wonder if the rating on the Latvian news site has anything to do with the upsurge of visitors. Although I think August does tend to be a more popular month.

Laying on the dye cloths
 (Photo by Edith Chenault)

Dyed t-shirt
 (Photo by Edith Chenault)

We still haven't had much rain, although we did get a much needed shower yesterday that at least freshened the garden. I was rather despondent at one point though as I could just see my garden dying. Plants that had hung on in through the heat were really beginning to struggle and wilt, the caterpillars were having a field day eating anything remotely cabbagey and what the caterpillars didn't eat the woolly aphids were starting on. I have been tied up with preparing food for the participants and so the garden has been quite neglected as usual. Normally though, the plants are fending for themselves amongst the weeds, this time even the weeds are sometimes giving up. I had planned quite a few salad type plants to be growing during the course and although I have managed to produce some different types of salads, particularly pickled cucumbers, there hasn't been much in the way of salad leaves. Many lettuces just didn't bother to germinate and the early crops were a bit strong. The potatoes though! Oh my gosh! They are huge already - well at least those that have grown where they shouldn't have. We will see what the main crops look like later on in the year.

The great reveal. Dyed silk
 (Photo by Edith Chenault)

Hanging on my line in the forest
 (Photo by Edith Chenault)

There was five reasonable sized carp in there. Now relocated

Another issue we've had is the ponds have almost disappeared and we got quite worried about the fish in the small pond. Ian caught them and relocated them to one of our other ponds that at least still has a reasonable amount of water in. We laughed though at finally using the net for actually catching fish. We usually use it to catch escaped chickens and had to do that one day this week. One of the chickens had managed to dig its way out underneath the fence.

Ian was showing one of our visitors the
poo sample under the microscope, as
you do
 (Photo by Edith Chenault)

Sewing silk pieces together

It has been a bit of a busy week for Ian too. besides relocating fish, helping where necessary on the course, he has also been baling hay, having to move it by himself and attending to an emergency call out. We had a call from our neighbour's daughter to ask if Ian could take them to a repair place for their new milking machine. As you can imagine it was necessary to get it done as fast as possible so the cows could be milked that evening. Glad to say it was all done in time and we got our milk the next morning too.

When an alpaca comes for tea
 (Photo by Edith Chenault)

It got a tad hot. A heatwave is not helpful

Rolling outside in the shade of the greenhouse is much better

Always helpful

Hanging quilts for some shade and t-shirts drying in the
greenhouse

Sewing felted flowers

Rolling felt

Nuno felted jacket with dyed silk made from leaves from our land

Mittens made with merino wool and Aggie's fleece

Eco-printed silk scarf on my new display
stand that Ian made from hazel with some
home-made bread that I made.

Taking photos of the photographer taking a photo.

Group photo with Brencis

Oh so quiet!

Day one of our felting course. Although the day was bright
the wind meant we had to keep the door shut until the
wool was wetted 

Our farm has a certain quietness about it today. We were visited briefly by some friends collecting a key who stayed for a short cup of tea, but apart from that, no one else has been around. It has made quite a difference to this past week when we have had quite a few visitors and a felting course going on. In fact even Ian hasn't been around as he was turning and cutting hay at a neighbour's property.

Preparing a salad from our garden produce. Most of the food
was bought in from the local hotel and bakeries but we
decided to add a bit to it from our own land

Felting the mittens to fit

On Tuesday our young helper was back and we practiced making felt so that she knew what to do on the Friday when she joined us on the felting course. She got the idea pretty quickly, which was good and it meant she was more confident on the day. It was still a bit intimidating though with a whole group of adults when she was only 11 but she did make a nice pair of mittens for her mum.

Trying on one of Galina's creations

Even suits Ian. It is what every alpaca
farmer should be wearing don't you
think?

On the Wednesday I went to pick up our felting tutor Galina with her friend from Riga bus station. Galina was travelling from Poland but her friend was coming from Belarus. At least this year I didn't make Galina carry her luggage across town and got a place to park near the station. I learnt where to park for that during the last felting course but this time I managed to navigate out of Riga much better. Not skills I particularly enjoy employing but at least they are useful skills.

Galina's friend making my hat

One of our participants and her children. Her daughter also
got to make a fabulous hat and scarf. Her son was not
particularly interested but still did a little felting at one stage.
What is nice about our location is the view from the
greenhouse when we get the chance to open the doors

One of the nice things this year is our American friends have been around to help clean and wash bedding between visitors, which left me free just to get on and prepare for the course and do whatever farm work needed doing. It is getting to the stage where I don't look too closely because of the weeds starting to get a hold. At least it isn't as bad as it could be, I have known it much worse. One of the jobs I tackled was to cut back the foliage of the potatoes as blight had got a hold while I was away. I haven't dug up the potatoes yet and that can wait until September but at least the spores should not be washing down into the soil as much.

My friend from Tartu, who I stay with when I travel up there
for university. She didn't want to do the felting but decided
to come for some time away and brought her spinning wheel.
She plied some yarn for my scarf that Galina and her friend
made for me

My scarf in the making. A joint effort

That took me all day near enough, as did cutting the leaves off the tomatoes today. I wanted the greenhouse to look nice and green during the felting course so I hadn't cut back the leaves and consequently we had a tomato jungle. I knew though that blight will eventually make its way into the greenhouse and at this time of the year and I would rather the tomato plants concentrate on ripening tomatoes than fighting blight. It has been such a cool year that so far we have had about four ripe tomatoes. Hopefully this next week they will get a spurt on and ripen, some are at least starting now.

In the process

This had a blue dye added. Aren't the daises amazing though?

On the Thursday, Galina, her friend and I had a wonderful day experimenting with eco-printing. Galina is really generous with her knowledge and we often spend some time experimenting. She gathered various leaves and flowers from around our land and used those to make imprints by steaming them with t-shirts and a pair of trousers. I was amazed with the daisies that left an intense yellow imprint of the flower on the t-shirt. We also found that our wild geranium leaves make a very dark imprint and darker than Galina was expecting, it was her turn to be amazed.

T-shirt from the eco printing day. This is just a t-shirt which
had been soaking in an iron mordant and then steamed

Making the scarf on day three

Ian got on with turning hay and other jobs around the place, while I got the greenhouse ready as well as joining in with the experimenting. At one point though I got a text to say someone had tried to call me. It turned out to be our friends from Estonia who were travelling down for the course and had hit a rock and got an oil leak. Fortunately Ian was not too far away and I managed to attract his attention to tell him about our friends' predicament. After finishing off the field he was turning he went with our American friend to see what he could do, which unfortunately was not a lot. He ended up towing her to the garage we go to in the next village, since we know they do some good work - unlike the more local places. Anyway all's well that ends well and she got her car repaired and returned the following day with Ian and our friend going to fetch it while she made felted mittens.

Trying out the hat. It was a bit tight at first and so even though
it was damp I had to wear it for a bout half an hour to stretch it

Eeee the youth of today! Always on their phones! We were
actually sharing details so that we could access a specially
created private Facebook page for our group to share photos
of the event. Amazing we can do such things whilst stood
on a field in the middle of nowhere

One of the lovely things about the course is that everyone who came fitted right in and it was like felting with friends, whether we knew them before or not. One of the ladies was a hairdresser that made felt hats and I got to know her in June when we were introduced by the neighbouring porcelain factory owner on our felting course. The hairdresser came for all three days and brought jam and home made bread on the first day. I encouraged her to bring along her hats to show people and I bought a poppy hat that she had made to go with my bag that Galina and I made last year. On the last day the hairdresser brought a bottle decorated with decoupage poppies and filled with strawberry syrup for my poppy collection.

Scarf in the process

Washing out the soapy scarf

The hairdresser brought her friend on the first day to join the course, and her son and another friend drove her to the farm on the second and third day and so she asked if they could see the alpacas. She needed to get the bus home though so one of our friend's decided to take her and a few of us decided to go with her to see the porcelain factory studio next door to her hairdressing salon. Some bought mugs and someone bought the other poppy hat that the hairdresser had made. We not make huge profits but we sure seem to put money into the local economy, so that's a plus point.

Throwing water away in the forest so it doesn't contaminate
the pond with soap

A group photo on the last day with the felted hats, scarves
and mittens

During the felting course on the last day we had some visitors to the farm, so while I was still helping with the course, Ian was doing his second tour of the day. The first one was for one of the ladies on the course who came for the first time and her husband. They had travelled quite far to join us but are talking about coming again and bringing their daughter. The second group of visitors consisted of someone who had come with her husband, daughter and grandchildren a few days before. This time it was with another grandchild and her son and his wife. The son and his wife were very keen on the alpacas and are seriously considering getting some of their own. Unfortunately we are not at the stage of selling any, as we still need to enlarge our own herd. Still we would be able to help in other ways and it will be nice for more people to have alpacas in Latvia.

We all felt like this at times as it does get rather warm in the
greenhouse. It is great when it is cloudy and the light is good,
but when the wind blows from the North and the sun is out that
is not a good combination. It almost feels at times like it waits
until we could do without the sun and it then shines. However,
as soon as the wool is wet we can at least go outside and work

Making the hat

It was sad to see Galina and her friend go, but at least she got a lift into Riga from the lady and her husband who had travelled from a distance to join us on the last day, so that worked really well. Galina's friend doesn't really speak English and so it was hard to tell her how much I liked my hat and mittens she had made, so I made her a certificate to say thank you with pictures on to remind her of her time on the farm. I had the printer with us out on the land because one of our friends on the course also wanted to adopt an alpaca and I needed to print a certificate out for her too.

Brushing the fur on the felted shawl

Yes the cats were around as usual

We sold some of our fleece as well to some of the felters from the course. One took half a kilo of Brencis' fleece, which doesn't sound much but it was a quarter of the total and we had to use a basket to put it in to weigh it. We now only have about 160g of his fleece left from this year. I think we will spin it up and make some lacey scarves like the one that Galina made for me.