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.

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.