Show and Tell

We've been watching the rain clouds a lot just
lately

Well it is two weeks since I last blogged and a lot has happened and not much has happened. It's rained a lot, that is for sure. Yesterday (Sunday) I worked as there were students who needed an English check before they submit their theses this Tuesday, but that was okay as it rained for most of the day and so not much else to do in a caravan. Even the greenhouse is showery in that kind of weather as the moisture collects on the plastic and then flaps down in the wind, sending a fine drizzle onto anything below. We make sure that anything that needs protecting from rain is under a table these days. 

One of our visitors this week. Fortunately he and
his Mrs. decided it is not a good place to raise
ducklings and went somewhere else. The pond is 
not reliably full enough to make sure they would be safe
from Mrs. Fox who is somewhere nearby. Another 
visitor was a hare that I stood and watched as it
made its way across our field. I couldn't believe that
it couldn't see me in my bright red coat, but I was
standing very, very still with a watering can in one
hand, hardly daring to breathe while I watched.

More rain on the way, fortunately not much
today though.

The rain started late at night and then carried on until well into the afternoon. It was also pretty heavy at times. We could hear the rain on the greenhouse plastic and then a steady and irritating drip onto the caravan. Yes the caravan is still inside the greenhouse, even though it is near the end of May. The weather has been that cool it is better off inside the greenhouse. I think there's only been one uncomfortable night so far this year. when the temperature was too hot to sleep well. The weather forecast though did promise us that the weather would be better next week. We'll see, but then again the Ieva or bird cherry tree has nearly finished flowering and they do say that it is often cold when the Ieva flowers.

Someone has a sunny smile anyway

Lockdown haircut

Although it's been cold we have been shearing all over Latvia. We still have Estonia to do thought. The problem with shearing in Estonia is that there are still restrictions on travel across the border, so that does not make our job any easier. To get a test we would have to travel to the big town about 45km away just before we head north. Theoretically we should then self-isolate - but we cannot do that when we have our own animals to take care of. Once we have our second vaccination, this should help, but then some of our animals are due to give birth. 

Poor Mr. Tubjørn, he has bad days...

And he has good days. The yellow around his 
eyes is from eating dandelions or lying around
on a field of dandelions. As you can see it is 
definitely dandelion season.

 

Jakobs always looks a bit of a rascal and that's 
probably because he is. He's always up for a
play fight and being the smallest, usually comes
off the worse. 

Fortunately the weather cooperated reasonably okay for us while shearing. When we had to shear outside it was dry and on the other days we had shelter. In fact at one place they have had a new garage built last year, that meant we could shear inside for the first time Normally it has been really hot and we sheared outside in the heat. We were always worried about cooking the alpacas on the shearing mats. It was a good job they did have the new shelter, as it did rain. They also had a new metal construction for the llamas and so Ian was able to shear them standing up. A steep learning curve but better than trying to pin them down, one year a llama went unshorn because he couldn't be restrained. The construction was too big for the alpacas though, so they were restrained on the floor as usual.

Ian has another order for handspun yarn, so he's in
the process of cleaning Chanel's.


It ta
kes a lot of time but it's lovely when it is done.
The fleece here is a bit dusty but it will be fine
once washed. It also has a slight purple tinge to
it. Not sure if it is the light or what, but it is 
interesting.

Mr. Tellus, the old man now but suave as ever.

The Internet has been really bad, especially after a rainstorm the other week. I complained to the company and it did improve to some extent, but when I pushed them a bit they said there was nothing they could do about it. Funny how it can change a bit but not enough to get a steady access. We use our mobiles and we have anything from 0.2 to 17Mbps. Not helpful when I work so much online, as do so many others obviously. Whine, whine, whine, but I was there first! I will talk to someone higher up at some stage and find out what their strategy is for the future in the rural areas of Latvia, i.e. the majority of Latvia. Our access is not bad compared to other places around the country, so I don't know how other's manage. 

Oh to be that flexible!

Sorry but I think that's just lazy
to eat while lying around on the
floor.

I was a bit worried about the internet access when I couldn't even do a Zoom call with video with just my Latvian teacher. Neither I nor my teacher had our video on that day. I usually have mine switched off due to the access issues but it is very bad when she has to switch her's off too. Fortunately it had improved enough to do an online presentation for a conference organised by a Lithuanian university. It is the first time I've done a presentation for a conference since the pandemic started. Then I was literally zooming around Europe nearly 18 months ago and now all the zooming I do is online. It worked anyway. I even did a "Show and Tell".

Brencis always looks content with life.

We have had some gorgeous sunsets too.

We were discussing food and where we get our food from in a workshop for the conference. In principle the other participants understand about eating home produce but in practice many do not and so it was just easier to take my computer outside, switch on my camera and take them on a quick tour of the garden. They also got to see the alpacas but not up close as it started to rain. That isn't something that is so easy to do in a face-to-face conference. 

I have a garden in there somewhere. Honest! 
Fortunately Ian managed to find it or at least
strim around the beds.

Amidst the sadness there was also the joy of
remembering a life well lived.

Sadly this week we had to say goodbye to a friend of our's. We've never been to a Latvian funeral but I guessed there would be flowers, at least I remembered at 3am on the morning before. I ended up sending an email to another friend to ask about the protocol for flowers. He kindly got some for us and brought them to the farm, he also explained what to expect and the order that things would happen in. I'm glad he did. Although it didn't happen quite the same because of Covid restrictions, at least we kind of knew what to expect. It was a moving time and the weather was kind to us all. The sun shone through the trees and warmed us through. Goodbye dear friend!

Ian found my veg beds. The peas are growing 
anyway. I also planted some broad bean plants
so at least it is possible to see something is
growing. Next I will need supports for all
the plants.

Today I finally managed to get some time in the garden, but first we had to go to the Immigration Office in the big town. We thought we were just going to pick up our ID cards. We didn't realise that we should also have our passports with us. I fortunately had mine with me but Ian didn't, so he has to go back tomorrow. I thought the whole point of an ID card is that it is an ID, or am I missing something? I handed in my old ID so not quite sure why they needed our passports too. They already have a copy of them anyway from previous trips. They also looked at our passports when we went the first time to apply for the new card. Sigh! 

I lost count of the number of storks we saw on the
way back from the big town. Ian had to slow 
down for one, to give it time to get some height
as it tried to fly off. 

Sunbathing at last! Not that the alpacas really like
sunbathing a lot at this time of the year, they do 
after they are sheared.

Normally by now we have the tomatoes in the greenhouse, but the chickens are still in there and even if they weren't the tomato plants are still rather small. It's just not been hot enough to make them grow much. I even started them off with heat and had bottles of water to retain the heat of the day through the night. I haven't lost any to frosts this year, but neither have they exactly rocketed away. The weather hasn't stopped the weeds though. All the moisture has meant they've grown but all the moisture falling from the sky has meant that Ian hasn't been able to get out very regularly to strim them. At least today he managed to sort them out and I can find my veg beds again.

Ugggh!

One of our summer visitors.

Shall we say the weather today was not the best. I heard the wind and the rain start about 2am in the morning. It has just about stopped now and it is after 8pm. Most of the time it was heavy sleety snow. I even had to move some snow to get into the greenhouse to feed the chickens tonight. Not because we had a large accumulation of the horrible wet stuff, but because I use the north-facing door to get in and that has been the direction it has blown from most of the day. 

Two tone alpacas!


Now he is supposed to be two tone, but the damp
weather made it more obvious.

Yes that is snow on the bank there 
and it isn't even our village where
the grass was mostly covered in
the white stuff.

We went for a trip out to see some alpacas and llamas to cut their fighting teeth this morning. Many fields on the way were substantially flooded and the rivers were running high with water as a brown as a Yorkshire cup of tea - in other words they look well stewed. The alpacas and llamas were a tad wet but not too bad considering the weather. It's always a worry when we go to somewhere the first time, what will be the conditions and will they be able to catch the animals. Fortunately in this case there were enough helpers on hand and the jobs themselves were relatively easy - at least with three reasonably hefty guys to help keep the llamas still. 

A strange abstract piece of work?

Nope! Just the cat hiding on my heated box of 
seeds. Hmmph!

Silla with a rather damp and mucky hair do. 

They will be aiming to shear their own alpacas and so we suggested they come and see how we do ours. We have enough to do with the current customers we have and the tight window we have to shear, so we are more than happy for people to learn how to do it for themselves. They seemed quite happy about that, so with any luck that means a few willing extra pair of hands on shearing day. We already have one couple who will be coming to help us. It's not the case of the more the merrier, in fact that could be the more the more stressful, but when they know how to handle animals it usually works out okay. 

Has Vanessa been having a disagreement with
someone? The droopy lip suggests she has been
spitting. 

Sometimes, you just have to have a good scratch.

Lawnmowers in action. I like these self-
propelled lawnmowers, much easier. Well,
I would say that. I don't have to move the 
fences.

It was nice to be able to call in at the bakery on the way back to our caravan and pick up some hot food to eat too, so we didn't have much to prepare to eat. We must have got a bit cold this morning and maybe disturbed by the noise of the wind and rain in the night, because as  soon as we had eaten and warmed up, we both fell asleep. Not something we do in the middle of the day on a regular basis. I spent the rest of the day on the computer, even though I'm on holiday from work, but it has meant that I've managed to do some sorting out that I've just not had chance to do. I've had a desk-tidy up folder for ages when the clutter on my desktop got too much and so I just shunted it into a file to sort out later. Well it's gone now and that makes me feel like I've done a good spring clean. Not bad when there was no chance of getting in the garden due to the weather.

Amanda looking quite rotund and very tired. Not
long now to go.

The three amigos 

Another bad hair day

Even though I've been on the computer for half the day, I haven't really been on the internet much. Our internet generally suffers when it is a holiday in Latvia and bad weather doesn't help at all. Facebook in particular is far too slow when the internet gets lousy, so I haven't been on all day. Pretty unusual for me, I do like to keep up with everyone's news and so tend to spend too long on it. It just shows though what an utter drain on energy Facebook is when it takes so long to load. 

Love the angle, makes Ilvija and Mari look like their having a kiss.

A layer of mucky fleece but then nice and clean.
Phew! Not long to go now before shearing time.

Lecturing 2021 style. My 
backdrop was a field of alpacas
though.

I gave a lecture to a German university this week. I was given permission to be controversial, so I threw a few comments in to get students thinking. I also outlined some of the problems that farmers face at certain times of the year, when the job can be so draining. I gave an example of us at haymaking time when the clouds are rolling in and we have to load up the hay. A time when we might be barely talking to each other because we are both irritable, tired, dusty and hungry. Those times when there is no clocking off at 5pm because you work till you're finished. It wasn't to make us look good, because our days are not all like that, but I wanted them to understand how advising farmers to diversify makes a mockery of what they do in those busy periods. If their income is not enough, then it is because they are not receiving the benefits they should for the hours they work and the system is broken. 

A little daffodil. They are still hanging on in there.
I thought we might have a mass of them by now,
but the wild boar thought they were tasty a while ago.

And what else does the modern lecturer do? Feeds
the chickens of course. They are still in the greenhouse.
I was tempted to get the arks outside but the cold 
forecast put me off and I'm pleased we didn't.

We've had some lovely days too, just a bit cold.

One student asked how they could support farmers to be more efficient and I challenged the student on whether that was a good thing to do because efficiency is a rather difficult term for someone facing the challenges of climate change. To be sustainable and resilient might not mean becoming more efficient. What is efficient in a factory or a laboratory is not necessarily efficient in the field. It is not necessarily efficient to plant four crops, but if one fails then there is always the other three to fall back on. It is efficient to plant up one large field with one crop because it doesn't require a multitude of machinery, but then that might not be sustainable or resilient, particularly in a bad summer weather-wise. I certainly enjoyed the challenge of the presentation and I look forward to hearing the feedback from the students.

Chanel looks very proud of her grass balancing trick

Turbjørn is at least eating well. He is still struggling
a bit though and some days are better than others.

It is amazing how similar these two are in 
colour. They have the same father, Tellus, but 
George on the left has a white and brown mother,
Mari and Freddie has a dark brown mother,
Chanel.

I also finished my own seminars this week. My students still have an essay to hand in, but there are no more whole class meetings. It was a good job it wasn't today, as I think I would have had to cancel it. I think I will miss them. It was only a short course, but I've enjoyed hearing the progress they've made in their ideas and it was great to hear how they are thinking about including people, even children, in future planning. If that is the route they take then that is something to be optimistic about. 

Josefs is a lazy one, can't even be bothered to stand
to eat. Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with him.
He can run around and leap about when he wants to.

Not as clever as his brother George, but still quite
a bright spark is Jakobs.

You can see the alpacas share our
challenges! Don't worry, they are
just sunbathing.

On the farm itself we've had a few challenges of our own. One day I went to our fridge that we keep in the barn to find that a mouse had obviously been in it and left a few calling cards. Ian had even put wire over the back to stop them getting in, but it wasn't sufficient. We think it might have hurt itself on the wire as there were also a few spots of blood. Well the fridge has been fixed now and Ian has managed to work out a way of attaching a piece of metal over the only possible place it could have got in. It was a bit tricky and it is into the foam insulation, so we hope it holds enough to deter a mouse.

Poor Aggie. Her nose is sore. I will be giving her
another course of cream to ease it. We do it for 
three days then stop because she gets so fed up
with it and gets awkward. More stress won't help.

Mr. P tucking into the grass too. He's much 
better. He was staring longingly at the girls today.

Mr. P has been having antibiotics and steroid injections most mornings but at least his breathing seems to have improved. We think it might be an environmental allergy of some kind as Ian realised he asked our vet out to listen to him this time last year. We knew it was a regular thing but hadn't realised it was tied to a particular time of the year. It's a good job that Ian is very methodical in his approach to note taking - unlike me!

Some glorious days indeed.

Aggie is looking huge. 

It hasn't been a bad week, weather-wise up until today as Ian's managed to get quite a bit done around the place. He got the back hoe on the tractor and dug out the old remains of electric poles that are always an issue at haymaking time; he's filled in pig damage on our neighbour's land where we also cut hay. he's also expanded the pond on the other side of our oak hill and dug out the drainage ditches to help drain the field better - not that it worked this time but it was an exceptionally large amount of water in a very short period of time and all our other ponds are overflowing.

Josefs is an inquisitive chap.

Silla was the bravest and went into the field first.
Mari and Aggie were having a sniff to see who
she was before Silla decided to make a rapid exit.

The grass is still growing slowly as the days have still been a bit cool and so the animals have needed to be moved fairly regularly. They started to eat through the fences rather too quickly - even though they have plenty of hay they could eat instead. Ian ended up having to sort out the charger units as they seemed to be not working well enough. So they are cleaned up and working now. Ian also took the opportunity of letting the two groups of girls mingle together. This will help us later on in the year when the youngsters need to be separated from their mums. It means we can create a new herd with less stress. We'll see how that works obviously later on. 

The rest of Vanessa's group starting to investigate
the field where Aggie's group were.

Aggie's group investigating Vanessa's paddock

They have better trees to scratch through.

All together now. They are still not quite acting 
as one group, so still easy to separate. 

So on this rather blustery wet day, when it still cannot quite make up it's mind whether it's spring or winter that is about it for life in our little rural place.