And next!

I promised more alpaca photos this week and so here's the
first one. Can you believe, this tribe moaned at me for not
being fast enough to open the doors of their alpaca house
when it started spitting and yet here they are out in the
pouring rain. Typical!

Gosh another week over! Is it only a week? Not two or three? Not having Ian around and having to do his chores on top of my work, trying to get the garden sorted for the year and showing visitors around the farm, has been a tad trying to say the least. There have been nights I haven't got to bed before midnight as deadlines for work loomed. It's not as if work has taken too much time, it is everything else on top of it. It is not my employer's fault that I can't really get started on my paid employment until the animals are sorted after all. It's a good job I have the flexibility to be able to do all that though.

Well they certainly had a good shower

Precious rain water

My brain of course has been buzzing after working far too late but I have found that putting the heater on for the last half hour and putting my pyjamas and pillow on the top to heat up, sorted out any problems of an over stimulated brain. The warmth helped me to drift off very quickly on the cool evenings. Mind you, the next morning it has been hard to drag myself out of bed sometimes. I'm surprised that the alpaca hooves drumming on the walls hasn't woken me up some mornings. Fortunately I don't need a huge amount of sleep, but of course it can catch up from time to time.

A misty evening after the rain

Mist in the lower field

Alpacas sunbathing

There have been some irritating things happen this week, which just add to thebtime taken to do something. For instance there was one morning I was just going to have a quick cup of coffee before running some errands, but there was no electric. I just wanted one coffeeeeeeee.  I was going back to our apartment to do some washing, so no worries, I took the milk with me. Hmmph! The kettle wasn't working. I did eventually get my cup of coffee by boiling the water in pan on gas hob, only the milk was just starting to go off, so it was a bitter cup of coffee. Pah! At least when I got back to the land later on in the day the electric was back on and I could make a cup of tea. I don't have milk in tea. I text my neighbour to order some more as well.

These ones spend a lot of time sunbating but not all the time,
there is also some serious eating to do too.

I think they've been missing Ian, particularly Aggie in the
middle. She's been tutting away at me for the last two weeks

Since Ian was away, I had to get the technical sorted on the car. It was due before he got back and he hadn't had the time before he went away. This is the first time I have had to do it myself. The young chap spoke good English, although I could have done with him being a little louder and there were times I had no idea what he was actually asking for. I'm not sure if it was because I had misheard him or he was using a word I didn't know. He was very patient and when it came to getting the emissions tested he drove the car to the point and reversed it in, on the basis it was quicker for him to do it than to try and explain what I was supposed to do. I'm pleased as I hate reversing our car, the visibility is not great, especially when you are only 5'0". I can do it, but..... At least it passed with only one minor fault. Phew!

This madam gave me a right start one evening at
putting away time. She jumped so high, I thought
for a moment she was going to clear the fence. The
rest of putting away time for these girls was a bit
fraught as they all seemed hyper after that.

Veronica at 16 years old, still plodding on

I also went to the opticians to sort out some glasses. I got the prescription done in March in Estonia through work, so the actual prescription was in Estonian. The lady didn't speak much English and definitely not Estonian. However, we managed and the optician came back just in time and verified all was correct. I figured that it was a standardised prescription, because it looked the same format that he had done previously. I begin to wonder if anything is simple in my life.

The dandelions have nearly all turned now

But there are still some to keep the
bees and butterflies happy

The door tied up now

There have been various moments when the animals have given me issues. One afternoon I opened the door to the greenhouse to see several of our chicks running around. I'm not sure if one of our cats was weighing them up for a tasty snack or not, but if she was, she wasn't serious about it. The other one just sat and looked on, until one went a bit closer. I am guessing they had only just escaped, otherwise more mayhem would have ensued, I'm sure. Anyway I spent the next quarter of an hour rounding up the little darlings. I worked out that the side door clip is getting a bit slack, so I tied it up and that seems to have sorted it.

I've seen a few of these from time to time and wondered what
they were. Although it kind of looks like a bee, I thought it
probably wasn't. After googling it turns out to be a fly that
is a bit like the cuckoo of the bee world. It flips its eggs into
the nest of other pollinators and then the larvae eats the
pollen store. It's a good pollinator, but not much good for
the other ones. It is a Bee-fly (Bombylius)

Chanel sitting out in the sunshine with Aggie 

Now picture this, one evening, I am feeding the chickens in their arks when out of the corner of my eye I see something flying through the air. I look up to see two paws disappearing. Our cat had tried a flying leap from one ark to the other and didn't quite make it. I giggled for the next ten minutes. She is fine, if a little embarrassed about the episode. One day our pregnant alpaca was moaning away and I was concerned that she was moaning because she was going to give birth. She had also been a bit sensitive and more spitty than usual. She is a spitty sort, but sometimes more than others if she is a bit stressed. Fortunately she didn't. I told her this evening, she had better hang on until the end of the week when we are both around. I hope she was taking note.

My pathway back after putting
the girls away for the night

Last trip to the loo for the evening.
Don't worry, there is a loo in the
caravan too.

Evening sunshine

It was a blessing this week that the rain continued for another two days. Not solidly but on and off. It meant there have been two full water troughs of water and so I siphoned it off into a container to save it for later. Since then we've had some pleasant dry days and now the grass, which was struggling to grow is waist height, especially in the garden. It's tall enough to cut for hay. I hope then I can get my paths back. It makes gardening challenging, trying to find the beds. Fortunately there are not many weeds in those because they are covered with old hay and only the most robust weeds grow though that and they are easier to pull.

A friend of mine made me a shawl to remind me to look up.
In Coloardo the ground was often brown, not a verdant
green like you see in the pictures above. I missed the seasons
but she encouraged me to look up at the clouds. Too often I'm
either watching where I'm walking or lost in my head and
then I really should look up.

More gorgeous cloudy skies

Ian hasn't been in touch much the last two weeks. It has been busy for him too. I've just heard though that he has finished shearing the last alpaca in Hungary

I've been locking the boys out of
their alpaca house most of the day
recently to encourage them to stop
sitting in.the dark and get outside.
So in protest they sit in the shade of
the alpaca house. There is shade
down in the field too, in the shade of
huge oak trees, but oh no! Not
good enough apparently.

More hiding around the back

A beautiful early summer's day.

One point I didn't mention last week because it is a bit more involved is that I didn't get to vote in the EU elections. I wouldn't mind but I had been on the radio, and on the webpage after a journalist interviewed us about our thoughts on the EU. They got a few points wrong in the article but the journalist was ever so apologetic and got the website writers to put it right. Apparently lost in translation, but these things happen. Anyway, I fully intended to vote and since voting is automatic according to registered address I went along to the voting station. My name, however, was not on the register. Apparently it is automatic for Latvian citizens but not for other EU nationals. We were supposed to register again each time because they work on the principle that we could vote in our "home" country. The reality is though that we can't vote there either because we've been out of the country more than 15 years. Oh well! At least I tried.

Rain, rain go away!

Two wet best buddies

We have baled about 30 bales of hay, or semi-wet grass, which is not recommended as it is likely to go mouldy. We have put them under cover with plenty of air circulation and so far most of them have not got hot, which would be a sign that they are decomposing rather than drying out, so maybe we have got away with it. The problem is that we have now cut half the hay on the ski hill too. It looked really promising as it was drying nicely and it was a better harvest than last year, but then it rained. Not a tiny little bit like the forecast suggested, but frequent showers through the last two days. We still have more we can cut, but it is not looking great so far. We can only hope that the next few days are really as dry as forecast and any possibility of rain does not turn into a downpour. At least we are not in danger of a drought and the ponds are full to overflowing and even the well is filling up faster now.

Well when they are not fighting that is

Drenched. Fortunately this is not so catastrophic as a few
weeks ago. George is not showing any signs of his poor
start in life and is very active now.

All this rain has turned us into obsessive weather watchers. We lose count of the number of times we check the radar and the weather forecast. It has been so unpredictable that I think it is not really helping. At least with a radar it is possible to see the rain coming, but sometimes that is just downright depressing, sometimes it is the spur to get a job done, but not so much at the moment.

Frederiks reaching that itch behind the ear!

George nibbling on cow parsley

The insects have not been quite as bad for us this year but the animals have been bothered by them. It seems that the mite problem has flared up and the flies have been taking advantage of small bits of raw skin. Ian has been putting fly spray on, but the animals are not so keen and so it is more difficult when they are out in the field. Ian tried to take Tellus and Mr. P for a walk with our young helper but there were too many insects irritating them and Tellus gets really cross with them. It didn't help that Mr. P kept trying to walk through long grass, so they gave up. We have also used Fiprinol on some animals with the mites, which often sorts the issue out, but we are well aware that in itself could become a problem if the mites become resistant, so we are trying to monitor the situation to ensure it does not get out of hand.

Frederiks has been losing some fur from off his nose, so we
are starting him on some cream.

Ian sporting the newest head covering. Our young helper
made the hat for him

As I mentioned before, this year it has been easier to keep on top of the garden and not have unkempt look. I think it is easier because even the weeds have been fairly slow to grow. I bet they are waiting until I am away at a conference to leap forward with wild abandon. One bed did get rather weedy and there wasn't really anything to plant in it yet, so we have planted oats and barley for a green manure and to keep the other weeds in check. They have germinated well, so that is a help. I do plan to sow some autumn crops soon though as well, as I have plenty of other spare places. It is nice to be able to concentrate on the garden on our land and not have to make sure I get the gardens weeded in the village too. Even if it does get in a bit of a mess, at least it doesn't affect my neighbours.

A still heavily pregnant Agnese. Come on, hurry up Hilda
- at least we hope we finally get a girl this time.

Chanel before shearing

We finally got most of the girls sheared this week. Agnese still hasn't produced and so she is still waiting for her haircut. I tried to comb through Mari's hair but there was so much matted fleece and remnants of hay from two years ago that I gave up. With Chanel we decided to give her a shorter look than we would like to give her as she had the same problem as Mari. At least now it shouldn't get so matted. We will sort Mari's hair out at the same time as we finally shear Agnese. Our young helper helped out with the shearing this year and she sat with the alpacas heads on her lap, which they seemed to be remarkably calm with, even our spitty alpaca Chanel, who only spat once and not while she was being sheared.

And after shearing. Sorry Chanel! The haircut was a bit
drastic but it will grow back, honest!

The wood pile is growing

Our other helper has started making an impression on the wood pile. Ian had logged up the wood and the young chap split it. He has to work on his knees as he can't stand for long, but Ian gave him some knee pads and that helped. He worked really hard and even when we stopped for coffee he would get up before us and get back on with the job. It is really nice not to have to insist that someone get on with a job. He was pretty tired when it was time to go home though.

Mari before shearing

And after with the rather funky hair cut. That will be going
soon

We've had a few minor miracles this week. The last large hay bale was split up and mercifully this at least had some good hay in it to use as bedding for the girls. We have had to clear it out again for shearing as it was just too wet. We also saw the fish in both our ponds. We haven't seen the ones in the lower pond since last year. It is hard to see them in that pond due to it being so overgrown but there had not even been a glimpse of them. We haven't seen the ones in the top pond either for over a month and thought that maybe a local heron had managed to get them, despite the steep sides of the pond.

We really do have fish in the pond!

Veronica before

Another miracle is that we also narrowly missed our chicks becoming a snack for our cat and a hawk. They are escaping on a fairly regular basis at the moment and Eyre spotted one and started to go for it. Fortunately she stopped after we started to make a commotion. She never bothers while they are inside their netting. The hawk also made a swoop for them, but I don't think there is enough room to fly in and fly out by swooping and so they are safe as long as they stay inside the netting. I have tried clipping their wings to stop them flying out, but not sure this is having the desired effect. They seem to be able to flap and sort of walk up the netting at this age. Plan B will be a cull of some older birds and make room in one of the arks, then there will be no escaping. Oh yes! And finally, there are 15 chicks and I thought we only had 14.

And after

And finally the two best buddies having a rest in the alpaca house