A really boring post!

Not much to do here! 

I had a brief Latvian lesson recently and I had to recall what I did over Christmas. Not a lot really. I then had to tell my teacher what I would be doing for New Year's Eve.... errr not a lot really. I'm being rather boring. We didn't plan on staying up as Ian had to be up early to see to the animals. I had some work to do between Christmas and New Year and so I didn't get the chance to do much sewing, which is what I planned, although I did finish off a pair of trousers. So all in all.... not a lot, apart from making a nice meal... but I forgot to make the Yorkshire puddings again. 

Lolly is now being halter-trained and doing
well. She was even outside for a walk today.

Well someone finds the process amusing.

Winter days are for hibernation but it doesn't
mean they are not glorious at times.

We are not into giving presents to each other these days. Too much hassle I guess and I hate the idea of buying something for myself just for Christmas. I could never see the point of that. We have what we need anyway. I did finally get a present to open though. My daughter ordered lots of lovely spices and some peaceful tea. It works too! The tea I mean. It seemed to stop my head from spinning from one subject to another to let me sleep well and through the night. I might be rather boring and not doing a lot outwardly, but in my head it's a different matter. Some of our grandkids struggle with paying attention and I realised that perhaps it was my fault. I'm not hyperactive, in the slightest but in my head - well that's another matter entirely. 

So bright and sparkly

The boys are in a sparkly shower too

Normally someone with ADD can struggle to concentrate at school, but I didn't. I was hyper-focussed and this probably had a bit to do with a hearing problem that meant I needed to sit at the front of a class. There is nothing like putting a super shy kid at the front to ensure their concentration. It was hard work though as there was no way I was going to embarrass myself by not knowing the answer. I have also come to realise that my brain works super hard to fill in gaps, so if I didn't hear everything, it was not too much of a problem - well normally. It has also trained my brain to fill in gaps, which is kind of useful for a researcher who specialises in being a generalist. It does mean I have to work pretty hard to stay on task though. Stubbornness helps there!

More trees with a golden glow

Lolly again, coming out to see Ian. Have you 
got food?

Another difference for me is that most kids with ADD find reading hard, but I could lose myself in a book. I could speed read and that gave me plenty of time to have another story going on in my head at the same time. I would read the words and my head would be somewhere else. There were times of course when I would read a paragraph and get to the end and realise my brain hadn't engaged with the text at all and I would have to read it again, but sometimes I could do the two things at once. Sometimes my brain was just filling in the scene and so I could really visualise what was going on in the story. There were some stories I could not read though because of that. Too scary!

Still being bottle fed. It's been a long journey.

I never tire of this view of our land. The same and
yet different every time.

And frosted trees are always beautiful

I think it also explains why I don't find travelling that bad, as it means I can just look out of the window and let my mind wander where it likes. I'm not having to constantly pull it back on track (fortunately not many of my travels meant I had to pay attention to the stops where I needed to get off). The downside to an ADD like brain is too many ideas and too many half finished projects. I finish what I have to, but that's sometimes about it. The thought of starting a project can also be a bit overwhelming as I have to clear the clutter, physically and in my head, to get going. Another technique I realised I employ is to challenge myself so I don't get bored. Once the boredom sets in, I lose interest, so if it's important then I have to find the challenge in what I'm doing. It helps though that I find so much to be super interesting or maybe that's a disadvantage. Not sure how many papers I have downloaded for reading later, or how often I get side tracked by one more really interesting line of enquiry. There's a whole world to explore and learn and.....one more rabbit trail, one more rabbit hole .... and where did the time go?

Same view, different day and different time
of the day.

Aggie in contemplative mood, while chomping
away on the hay.

One place where I do struggle is learning Latvian. I'm trying to slow down to notice the details, but my brain is trying to race ahead. It is coming along but oh so slowly. The problem with Latvian is that the endings give you a clue to the context. I'm pretty good at spotting the root of the words, but I have to slow down and sometimes squint at the screen to see the difference. There is not much difference between an "i" and an "ī" (a long "i"), a "l" and a "ļ" or a "n" and a "ņ", but those little characters can make a difference in meaning. You would want to make sure you get the difference right between kazas and kāzas, the first being goats and the second wedding. My Latvian teacher has been known to laugh a little occasionally at one or two of the mistakes I made. She doesn't laugh at me often and she's pretty gentle with me generally. 

Chanel in contemplative mood too. Ian is experimenting
with a different holding technique. It seems to be
working and she seems a bit calmer these days.
Now all we have to do is stop her from sitting
down so we can put cream on those dreadfully scaly
legs of hers.

Ilvija and Chanel are still close. We wonder
how this will work when Ilvija has a baby.

It took me a few attempts to write a sentence about our unwelcome little visitor to the house, that appears every morning about 10:15 or so - although not today. I've named it Ronald. Not quite sure why, as I am endeavouring to find ways to dispatch it. One morning I saw it three times, always going in one direction. Or was it three mice? I only ever see one. There is no point leaping up to see if I can somehow corner it as there are just too many places for it to disappear. It must be immune to the poison, as we do leave that in the apartment due to us being away. I don't like to use such stuff, but the thought of it eating it's way through the wiring and causing damage to our neighbour's property is enough for me to take proactive action and normally that's enough to sort the problem.

Chanel's multi-coloured fleece. Over the summer
we sprayed her with oil that had cloves and garlic
in. It seemed to help the skin and keep the mites
under control. The problem is that now the winter
is here, it seems to have not helped the fleece.
She has been dusted with potato starch to absorb the
oil, but also with turmeric, garlic and clove powder
to repel any mites. Gradually it is absorbing the oil
but also the sweat. Most of the alpacas are no
where near as sweaty as Chanel is. It might be
part of her problem with the mites.

Josefs has been eating the snow

I've tried setting traps but it is such a little thing it just says, "Thank you very much for the tasty.... Christmas cake, fat, crumbs" or whatever else I've used to try and get it to stay long enough to trigger the trap. I don't like using traps either as we have had to dispatch a mouse before now that was caught in a trap and wasn't killed instantly. I know there are supposedly humane traps, but is it any more humane to capture a mouse and dump it in the open countryside in a place it doesn't know in the middle of winter? It might sound humane to relocate an animal but they suffer stress through being introduced to a strange environment. Yes! I've read the studies on that too and their survival rate is not great. So the battle continues of one human vs a teeny, tiny little mouse. We might have to call in reinforcements, namely Rocket Ron and Ginger Tom. Not sure what they will make of being in the apartment for a day. We'll see!

Another sign that Lolly is growing up is that she
is eating from a tray. We are pleased as it means
she is getting the minerals and vitamins that alpacas
need. Karla will be getting hers from her mother
still. 

They remind me of teasels, but they are not. They are
bee balm covered in snow.

Yes more snowy pictures.

It has been a long process to get to the stage where
Ian can feed Turbjørn by hand. We've had Turbjørn
10 years in July of this year and he only started
eating from Ian's hand last year.

No problems with these two eating from anyone's
hands, although they are not happy about sharing 
really.

Please Sir! Can I have some more?

Amanda is a cute alpaca. Hopefully she will have
another cute baby this year.

More snow!

Antonia eating the snow. 

Jakob's with his brown tash and swept back 
hairstyle. 

And we finish with George, Jakob's half brother
who always seems to have a smile for everyone.

RIP Lady V.

Lady V outside late last year. You can see her
bent front legs.

I was going to title this blog, "Pootling About," but circumstances changed that. Rather sadly our elderly alpaca, the matriarch of her herd, died this morning. We had been kind of expecting problems going into winter as her legs got more and more bent. We had been giving her higher doses of Vitamin D, but if it was doing anything it wasn't enough. She started losing weight and that could have been down to problems with her teeth - a common problem in older alpacas and maybe also related to a lack of Vitamin D or just getting old. We can't be 100% sure. She was nearly 18 years old, so not very old for an alpaca but certainly on the older side. The do live for around 20 years and some can get to 24 or more, but this winter turned out to be a bit tough for our old lady. 

Even though she wouldn't get up, she looked
perky and alert until close to the end

Turbjørn eating his food in peace with his 
neck warmer on. It came in useful for also
providing Veronica with a bit of extra heat
yesterday.

Veronica is her proper name but she always had a rather regal bearing and so was called Lady V. When she came she was a feisty animal. She was always one of those I dreaded trying to hang on to, as she was so long and quite powerful. Fortunately, she wasn't ever so tall. She calmed down a lot after Brencis but this could be due to the fact she wasn't pregnant again. She was definitely the boss. No one, but no one stole food from Lady V, right up till the end. When Ian gives extra feeds to Turbjørn, our alpaca with the slightly dislocated neck, he separates him from the rest of the boys to give him peace to eat, he never needed to do that with Lady V.

The boys looking on while Turbjørn eats.

Josefs today (note the skulking cat that he
just chased away)

One thing Lady V was really good at, was looking after the little ones. There is often an aunty in the herd and she let the little ones sit next to her. This was a godsend for Josefs as Aggie rejected him at first, Mari wouldn't tolerate him and Chanel wasn't really happy with him either. Lady V though would sit with him, giving the company he needed when he was little and learning to be an alpaca. Even when Aggie eventually accepted Josefs she wasn't a nurturing mother and so Lady V continued in her role as Aunty. 

A frosty Josefs. Don't worry he's
warm underneath.

The snow is deep enough to cover now to at
least 20-30cm. A good job as it meant that we
didn't have the same performance digging the
grave to put Veronica in that we did with her 
friend Snowdrop who also died in January
and I wrote about that exactly three years ago
to the day.

In her last few days she refused to stand. She ate well and Ian would use a hoist to get her up and massage her legs. At first she would remain standing once he got her up, but as the days wore on she refused to stay up or couldn't. At the very end she wouldn't even put her feet down on the floor when she was hoisted up. Gradually over the last three days she started to take less interest in food and water. Ian decided to be guided by her and didn't try anything invasive apart from some injections to keep her comfortable. We knew that even if she recovered this time around, she was going to struggle in the rest of the winter. Maybe the very cold nights hastened her end, but she was warm under the old sleeping bags and blankets Ian put on her. When Ian went to her this morning she had passed away. Still warm, but obviously gone. Mourning for Lady V is mixed with a lot of relief. She almost seemed to have decided that it was time to go and just accepted it. This made it a lot easier for Ian than when Herkules died and Herkules went through several rallies before Ian had to call the vet in. 

The snow got quite deep around the girls' alpaca
house.

From L-R: Vanessa, Veronica's daughter, Valeria
Vanessa's daughter and Silla (not related to
Veronica)

We still have a few of her progeny. There is Brencis who was bred on our farm. He takes after her in a few respects, he's a gentle giant with a sly kick. He's long in the body from his Mum and long in the leg from his Dad (Tellus). We also have Vanessa, her daughter and Valeria, daughter of Vanessa and therefore granddaughter to Lady V. We bought Vanessa and Valeria from the same breeder in Sweden that we got Lady V from. We would have loved to have got a baby from Valeria this year and then we could have had four generations on one farm, but it wasn't meant to be. Valeria is not pregnant again and Lady V passed on anyway. We should welcome another grandchild though from Lady V, as we bred Brencis to Amanda.

Brencis, Veronica's son is the white alpaca
eating the snow nearest the gate.

A peaceful sunrise out on the land. The days
are definitely getting longer at quite a pace now.
Ian used to be back by 4pm as it was dark by
then, now it is still light at 5pm. What a change
in less than a month.

As I mentioned, I was going to call the blog Pootling About. To pootle: Move or travel in a leisurely manner. Well there's not much point in rushing about these days as there aren't many places to go to at the moment. Instead I've been home like most folks and Ian has braved the rather brutal sudden drop in temperatures. We've seen temperatures that we haven't seen in about three years with the thermometer in the car reading -23C one morning. It was a beautiful day but so very cold as there was a gentle breeze. Ordinarily a gentle breeze wouldn't be much of an issue but at that kind of temperature it feels much colder. I went out to take the recycling, which is a couple of blocks down the road and it wasn't bad going one way but when I came back the draught was going down the back of my glasses making my eyes hurt.

There are skiers on the ski track and discgolfers
trying to play discgolf at the same time. Not 
heard of any clashes yet.

There is a dirt road and then a
tarmac road but I think you
will just have to trust me on that!

I had a lot of meetings this week. I find that sitting at the table I get cold as we don't put the heating on until around 4pm-ish, otherwise we are sweltering in the evening and it uses too much fuel. I can wrap blankets around my knees while sitting in an easy chair and that works well, but it's harder at the table. If I'm just listening to a webinair I can pootle about the kitchen to keep warm, but if I'm an active participant it is harder. Standing is warmer than sitting and better for us really, but my back begins to ache if I'm standing for too long. I finally found a solution and that is to put a plank of wood on the floor and prop my heels up on that, or stand on it and point my toes downwards. 

Down by the lake. I love the blues in
this photo. There is also one ice
fisherman in the very centre of the picture. 
Yes! Right in the middle of the lake. 
There are also ski tracks across the lake.

The hill where one of my son's proposed
to his girlfriend - quite a few years ago and
three children later.

The rest of the time has been filled with learning Latvian and sewing. The language lessons have been a healthy mix of frustration at not knowing so much stuff and knowing quite a bit. I discovered some bad habits that haven't helped. They are good habits in the right place but not for learning a language. I speed read. Great for reading large volumes of academic literature when sifting through them for relevant articles to read, not so great for learning a language. I don't notice the details, such as the Latvian letters used, just the keywords needed to understand a sentence. The teacher I'm learning with uses Flash cards on a site called Quizlet. I've found that very helpful for checking the words I do know and making me learn the spellings. What I did discover though is it isn't so helpful for me to learn verbs. I need to see those in a table so I can see the pattern. Anyway, I'm making progress.

The pond by the ski track

Bundled up for the cold weather.

I've been continuing with the sewing projects. I didn't have any sewing machine problems this week as I worked a bit more with the over large t-shirts and fixing underwear. Probably too much information but I was tired of the fabric disintegrating before the elastic. Some I've used the old but perfectly usable elastic and some fabric from old t-shirts and some I've fixed the fabric before they disintegrate more. I used to be a great M&S fan, not any more. The other more enjoyable project has been to cut out squares from old pieces of fabric to make patchwork dresses for my younger granddaughters. I'm not sure how much of an impact it is going to make on my stash of fabrics but it has been fun, since I got myself a new smaller cutting board and a rotary cutter. I have even ironed fabric - now me with an iron is a very, very rare sight and I think I only iron for crafting projects these days.

Believe it or not, these are my errant
seeds that have been sunning themselves
in Portugal. Every now and again I 
would check to see if they had moved
from Portugal and suddenly discovered
they were supposed to have been delivered
only they hadn't as I was in all the time.
My friend rang the post office and they
said the parcel was there. They have been
struggling with Covid19 there and so
maybe they had tried the wrong door. 
Sometimes happens with new folks.

After so much gloom, it's been nice to see the sun

Ian had the usual car problems for this time of the year. He was heading out to the land on the coldest day when it died. Not sure if ice had got stuck somewhere or wax had come out of the diesel - the more likely problem as they haven't put the additive in for low temperatures. They are never prompt enough and there is an additive but we have to find it. Ian has seen it once somewhere. Fortunately a friend of ours drove out to him and towed him to their farm. He had some of the additive needed and put it in the tank. Meanwhile Ian had managed to keep the engine running and that seemed to do the trick. Maybe it was just a very small amount of wax, enough to cause issues but not to clog up the whole thing. Seems to have sorted itself out anyway, thank goodness.

Apparently she has been following Ian everywhere.
Not so easy for a little cat jumping from one
boot print to another.

Just saying hello to Silla.

Initially Aggie chased Eyre like she always does

and Ian was worried that Aggie was going to stomp

on her like alpacas do sometimes if they feel threatened

but Eyre just stopped and Aggie just sniffed her.

Ian cleared the snow from the paddock of Aph2 as
we call it.

This is Aph1 at the bottom and Aph1b. Here the 
snow is quite deep.

Aggie enjoying the sunshine.

I think George has been eating the snow.

Ian hasn't had chance to clear the boys' paddock 
yet.

A pathway has been cut up to the girl's paddocks

Such a wonderful sight. I love winter but it is hard
on Ian and the animals.

Chanel has been enjoying the snow and the sunshine
too, can you tell with that smile?

Freddie thinks the snow is delicious

Ian draws the water from the well that is fortunately
still flowing this year.

Brain freeze, despite the water being above freezing

Looks like someone has been drawing pictures
in the snow. Not sure which artistic alpaca this is 
but I think it is a good likeness of an alpaca in a 
shed - well for the artistic abilities of an alpaca
it's a good likeness.