Spring so near and yet so far!

A glorious day that offered the hope that Spring was close

For a few days this last week we almost dared to think that Spring had arrived. Ian has heard the cranes settling in and seen them flying around with bits in their mouths for their nests and the sun has shone. In fact it was so nice yesterday that Ian sat outside the greenhouse to have his morning cuppa and to eat his lunch and I hung the washing outside on the balcony of our apartment. It didn't last though, we had light snow showers all day on and off today and the forecast is for another cold snap down to around -10C overnight later on in the week. Oh well! Nearly there.

Not the best shot, but at least you can see it is a crane

Time to move on from the female alpaca house 

The animals have been pretty restive, especially our male alpacas and so it was with some trepidation that we separated Brencis (or Mr. B as he is more often known) from his Mum and put him with the other boys. He looks so little in comparison and he has moaned such a lot about it. He is obviously not enjoying the change, but it had to be done sometime. During the day I had cut some paths to give them a bit of room to move around and alleviate some of the boredom of not having much space. Fortunately apart from some initial overbearing moves from our older breeding male, where the other two older ones intervened, there hasn't been too much hassle. We have no idea why the other two males intervened, but when Tellus tried to mount poor Mr. B they spat in his face, which put a stop to his antics. We could anthropomorphise the actions of the two males stepping into protect a younger more vulnerable member of the group, but we are not convinced that was the case, but welcomed nonetheless. At least their actions seems to bring a kind of peace to the transition.

Poor little thing spent most of the day near the fence 

Mr. B with the other male alpacas. Tellus who was the most
unfriendly is actually his father. 

Ian has continued to take the female alpacas for a walk, at least he can do that with the snow on the ground, although the routes are a little restricted and monotonous. Mr. B will be given a week off to settle in, as Ian doesn't want him to get too attached as this could cause problems later on down the line. Mr. B has to relate to the alpacas first and foremost, otherwise we could end up with an aggressive alpaca in the long run. Which would be a great shame as he is a lovely looking young alpaca and hopefully with potentially great fleece making qualities.

Here is Mr. B relaxing in the sun though with Turbjørn
standing, so not all bad.

A tree stripped of its bark

There are other signs of Spring out on the land, such as an increase in wildlife as they come out of the forests looking for food. Ian saw three roe deer today and earlier on in the week he saw evidence of an enormous elk (or moose for our American friends). The footprints were of a similar size to mine, but went right down to the ground suggesting a huge beast. It also damaged one of the trees by stripping off the bark - that tree won't live to see another year now. Our chickens are also noticing the increase in daylight and started laying more eggs. About time too. Our youngsters from last year, however, have still not got the idea of what chickens are for and we still have seen no evidence of eggs from them. Chicken hotpot sounds in order soon for some if not all of them.

An elk footpring

The ruler gives some idea of how far
apart the footprints were for this
sauntering beast

The temperature in the greenhouse was even up to 28C this week and the seeds I planted, as well as some weeds have started to sprout. Quite relieved as we could do with some greenery soon to supplement the dwindling supplies of vegetables in storage. It isn't called the hungry gap for nothing in days gone by. We forget these kinds of realities for rural folks of yesteryear when we have a year round supply of anything we like. We also forget the reality of what it takes to get those things to our table though as well unfortunately.

A rather small egg. Maybe one of the chicken's has just started
laying again. This came from one of the more mature hens

Ice-cream? You wouldn't think there was a bucket of fresh
water to drink would you?

It was unfortunate that Ian hasn't been able to work his magic on my mobile that I washed a couple of weeks ago. He got it working and after I realised some settings had changed I got it functioning fine apart from the lack of the down button. It didn't last though and with the aid of a magnifying glass, Ian was able to see that the problem was the contacts had got corroded under the board and would probably just carry on getting worse. Big pain. I'm now back to Ian's old phone that wouldn't charge up, but using my old phone to charge the battery - my phone didn't work apart from being able to charge the battery. Confused! Not surprised if you are!

Tellus our oldest breeding male, normally a gentle soul

Mari still up to her climbing tricks

I have made a few contacts over the last few weeks online, which has been exciting. One of them was with a felter in Poland. It has been a bit of a slow progress as we are still working on an acceptable figure to charge for the workshop, but I'm beginning to think it is a relatively new type of venture when not connected with cultural events and so funded by alternative sources. I tried looking online and there were shorter courses in Riga but no whole day events with lunch provided. I don't think there are many felters wishing to share their knowledge, they may see it as a threat to their livelihood and not another way of earning a living. We are getting there though and soon I should be able to release details.

Sheep sunbathing too

Sun with a halo

The other two contacts were with academics. One was someone who has studied wild boar for over 17 years in Germany. It is fantastic to find someone with such knowledge because here in Latvia there is no one doing that kind of research. I could have done with this kind of knowledge a few years ago when I was doing my own research, but I still keep an eye on what is happening as it is still an important rural issue, especially with the difficulties over the current African Swine Fever in the area. Another contact is looking at groups who decide on how a particular type of EU funding is spent called LAGs - not the most elegant of names but stands for LEADER Action Groups (LEADER being the type of funding and is actually a French acronym that I won't even attempt to write). This is hopefully going to lead into a bit of a collaborative effort and one that might use the format of a reflective workshop that I had developed for another occasion. That will be a nice feeling to know something I have done might actually have a wider use.

The bacon's in the cat and other tales

Sofie earlier on this year in the greenhouse

Oh yes! Sneaky puss! It took me ages to work out why there was no bacon in the bag that I had brought for our lunch. I thought for a while that I must have been having a senior moment. If it had been our other cat Bella, the evidence would have been all over the floor, but not Sofie. Since Bella is still missing it could only have been Sofie. She is so sneaky that she gently takes the food out of bags and so the only evidence was an empty bag inside another larger plastic bag. Unfortunately it meant our guests over the weekend had to have an egg and veggie burger instead. At least for one of them that was fine, as she is vegetarian.

January 3rd and our snow has nearly all gone

So with that introduction you can tell that we have indeed had guests over this last week. It was my crazy young friend, who I meet up with from time to time and her boyfriend, who I haven't met before. We had a good few days, despite the rather miserable wet weather we had. The snow that fell last week left us under the rather relentless rain that heralded the New Year, but it did fair up just enough for our friends to pay a visit to the alpacas of course. Our new friend is a chef and so he commandeered the kitchen one early evening and made his own version of pumpkin pie and rather nice it was too. He can come again anytime.

January 4th and it is back again

I love the way that the frost has made a star pattern on our
barn door

Because the weather was rather dreich (I do love that Scottish word, so evocative of wet, miserable weather) that we were sat in the caravan for much of the visit to our land, but while we were sat there, two of our cockerels who had just started crowing, decided to start a fight. Normally when our cockerels fight, it is because a slow developing bird suddenly finds its voice and tries to challenge the top cockerel. The challenger then finds out that it is a stupid idea and rapidly backs down. These two though, appeared more evenly matched and after a couple of minutes we realised neither of the cockerels were giving in. It wasn't pleasant to watch at all. Ian had to step into the ark and grab one of the cockerels and isolate him. As the weather was still mild, he was eventually placed in the horse box and we dispatched the pair the next day, as neither were for breeding, although we had hoped they would put a little more weight on. Still tonights tea (I'm northern, so it is still breakfast, dinner or lunch and tea in our house in that order) was roast chicken, roast veggies, mashed potatoes and steamed beans, all home-grown and very tasty.

A frosty morning

Our hens seem to be responding to the longer days and the relatively mild weather we have been having, by upping the production of eggs. We even had four eggs one day from our four very productive hens that have been keeping us in eggs over the winter, normally we have been getting been one to two per day from that ark, occasionally three. Another chicken from one of the outside hen huts has also started laying and I'm not sure if it was shock or fear, but one of the young hens started laying for the first time that was in the ark where the cock fight happened. Maybe they took me seriously that they would end up as stock or soup if they didn't get a move on and start laying.

I made this felt waistcoat from Tellus' fleece. 

I have been enjoying some down time over Christmas and getting some presents made. I know, I'm a bit late - No I'm very late actually! At least I feel on a bit of a roll now and I feel like I have sort of got the cleaning under control in our apartment, which leaves me freer to create. I have been fine as long as it was handwork, such as knitting and hand embroidery, but eventually I managed to get organised to do some sewing on my sewing machine. Unfortunately that didn't last long as my machine started to mangle up the stitching. The bobbin case cannot handle the old cottons I have and the annoying thing is that even when I have bought supposedly new cotton from the local shop, that wasn't new enough either. I am not happy with my machine, a BabyLock Quilters Choice - so not a cheap machine and I am beginning to regret buying it. When it works, it is very good, but not much use to me if it is temperamental over the cottons I use. I did a little research on the internet and I think I can buy 10 bobbin cases for my machine from China for the same price of two in Europe or America and then I can use a silicon spray on the threads to stop them snagging on the bobbin cases. If that doesn't work, I will be very annoyed. Only thing stopping me, is that I have never used Alibaba before or bought anything directly from China before. Hmmm! At least today, four parcels were winging their way across the waters to the UK with some belated Christmas presents.

A close up of the alpacas that I cut out and sewed onto
the waistcoat front. I love the bobbly texture of the felt.
Not quite sure why it did that, but it works I think!

Some felt Christmas tree decorations. The wooden bead
heads were also turned by Ian on his pole lathe

I said last week that the snow had come and gone and come and gone again. We have had a little of the same weather again this last week, as you may have gathered, but there was at least enough snow to finally get my skis out. I don't think I got them out at all last winter. The wind was a bit keen and the snow not so perfect, so I didn't ski for long, but at least I did manage something. The snow blower has also had another couple of outings, as we try to keep the greenhouse clear. We are perhaps a little paranoid about it not falling down, but one 18m by 6m greenhouse falling down in the snow is quite enough, thank you! There was also enough snow to get our car stuck, or rather enough ice underneath the snow to get it stuck. Fortunately it was out on the land and so Ian just got the tractor out and dragged it out while I tried to steer. It was a little difficult to get it heading in the right direction, but we managed.

More snow blowing duties

Making a path up to the sheep

My exercise for the day, clearing the
snow from around the greenhouse
that had slid off the roof.

Today I feel like I have spent most of it, trying to organise a meeting. It had been due to happen tomorrow, but the longer distance travellers were reluctant to travel for a one and a half hour meeting when it takes them four hours to drive down and the lady we were meeting up with has to work, so couldn't meet for any longer. I was a tad annoyed that I had to cancel it at the last moment, but in the end it works out better for me, as it means I can get a lift back up to Tartu and so fits in better with my timetable. Some you win, some you lose!

Baling at last!

Half our ski hill, cleared of hay

It has been a bit of struggle to get motivated this week, we are both tired, but we didn't have a choice. The weather held off and we got half the ski hill, turned and baled within 32 hours. Not that we worked for 32 hours but the drying time was very short due to the hot sun and a good drying wind. It is not good to leave it out in the sun for longer than necessary, otherwise it just cooks. We only finished the baling at 10pm and we ate rather late, with Ian watering the greenhouse while I cooked a real greasy café meal of fried pork and egg with fried potatoes. We needed it, even if we were eating at eleven at night. We didn't do the whole ski hill, although we possibly could have, as the weather forecast was variable for the Thursday and we didn't want to risk rain while baling. I think this issue of will it or won't it rain has been as tiring as the actual work. Just in case you are wondering, the reason we call it a ski hill is that in the Soviet times, that is what it was. There are still the odd electric light slowly disintegrating in places.

Stacking the hay bales this year has been really hard. The
grass is not as tall this year and there is not as much stringy
stuff to bind the bales tight and so they are soft and squashy.
Well that's the theory we are working on. This stack was
stacked three times and still we had to add some support.
We have also ensured that the stack has a point on it this
time and not level. No place for water to rest and leak in.
It also has a sacrificial layer of hay on the outside.
We would like it to be thicker and so may add to it as we
get some more bedding type hay cut. How we will get it to stop on will be the next challenge.

Ian has also cleared a space in the barn to add some bales
but it might mean that some stuff doesn't get stored in the
barn over winter. We already need a second barn.

Our neighbour took a look at what we had cut and thought it didn't seem like a lot of bales this year and so she offered us another field to cut, as she doesn't use it. It is twice as big as our ski hill with a good flat section. Some of it is steep with a lot of weeds in it, but there is still a lot of grass in there. It is looking like a race against time though as some of the grass is beginning to turn and so less and less nutritious as days go by, fortunately it also has a lot of clover and vetch in, which is still green, and even so it is still useful for bedding which we really need. She even offered us her barn to store some bales in, which will be very helpful. We are wondering about coming to an agreement about the field, for future use, as there are weeds that are coming across into our field. If we can manage the two fields together, there will be enough to cut and enough to let our field go fallow in places for a year too, which will do it better in the long run. Now all we need is another good week of weather and we will be set to go, only the weather is proving as unpredictable as last week too. So the will it, won't it rain, hassle continues.

An infestation of daises, but they do look pretty

The swallow is sitting on eggs in the alpaca house, at least
some birds don't think it is autumn yet.

Egg production has started to go back up after the dismal showing with the lack of sunshine the other week, but I swear that some of our chickens think it is autumn already. In their little minds eye, we've had the summer then there was all that rain and low light levels and so we must be in autumn now! Right? No wonder as the early part of July has been the coldest in meteorological records here in Latvia.

Our first tomatoes of the year. They were sharp and tangy.
We also had our first broad beans. Last nights meal was
pasta with goats cheese, rocket, spinach, mizuna, lettuce
peas, broad beans, tomatoes and strawberries. In other words,
whatever I could find to throw in a salad.

Yesterday the rain rolled in again and this is a picture of
the thunderstorm we had. It made putting the animals
away quite exciting.

I'm trying to think what I've done all week. I know that I tried to write a blog post for a farming website after a request and found that harder than I thought it would be. I keep falling into the same trap of trying to cram too much information in, when really folks won't be interested in all the details. I know I have done some emergency gardening - the sort that attempts to rediscover there are plants in there somewhere and not just weeds. At least I have managed to keep on top of our orchard plot, but I think that is a combination of two things, firstly having a bed of wood chippings and secondly the weeds haven't been so fast to grow this year. Seeds I have planted nearly two months ago are only just germinating in some cases. It is quite weird to see bean plants that germinated shortly after planting and are reasonable sized plants and others still coming through. We have pictures from the previous year
of squashes growing  and this year the plants are barely hanging on in there and only just beginning to flower. Not sure if we will get any at the moment.

Oh yes! We now have the internet out on the land. It means
Ian can now watch the rain on the radar and satellite pictures.
He found the best signal was achieved by putting the dongle
into a plastic margarine tub on top of what used to be a pipe
for the aerial. The tub has also been covered in duct tape.
Not quite sure what we do in a thunderstorm though. The dongle
reception was a bit hit and miss in the caravan itself. When it
worked with the wind in the right direction, it was great, but
otherwise it kept dropping the signal. The good news is that the
signal is good at the height of the hill where we plan to build
a house - when it gets built that is.

Two of the three chicks. Their feathers are starting
to grow quite fast now. They seem to be cream
coloured and so does that mean they are from
one of the brown hens or are they really big bird's
our white hen? The brown hens are far too small
to have such large eggs though, surely!  

I have also planted more peas, they will at least take the cooler weather at the end of the year and maybe we will get a second crop. If not the plants will be eaten by the sheep or the chickens.Other jobs included following the tractor round picking up the stuff that wasn't turned or reducing piles where it had got too thick for the baler. I also followed the baler round to turn bales on the steep sections and picking up large amounts of grass that had been missed. I've stacked hay and fed the troops, well Ian and our helper. Yes we actually had help this year. Our neighbour's daughter who offered the field was translating for her Mum and when we told her we were stacking hay the next day, she said she was free to help. She was certainly a good worker and wouldn't accept any payment either. Payment enough was avoiding having to do the weeding for her Mum I think. I also slept for an hour and a half on Sunday afternoon. That all looks a lot written down, but it has kind of passed in a blur and gone over far too fast. It also helps that I don't have a regular job to do, nor do we have a television, although we can waste hours on the internet - all in the name of research you understand.