A chilly week

My herb garden looking like a scene
from Narnia

I'm sitting here wondering what on earth I have done this last week. Sometimes I write notes to remind myself, but somehow they didn't get done this week. It has been a week of chopping and changing of plans, I remember that much. I meant to get on with sorting out the details for my evaluation that happens every year for my PhD studies and will be sometime before the end of the month. I managed a little of that today, but not much before. I meant to finish some Sociology lessons and I managed a few of those too one day whilst trying to warm our other flat through to prevent pipes from freezing.

One of our projects this week was to get black plastic on
some field plots before it snowed. The idea is that in spring
these will warm up quicker and encourage all the weed seeds
to germinate, which will then die off underneath the plastic
leaving us a cleaner bed to plant into, either in spring or later
on in the year depending on what we decide to plant in it.

My orchard allotment plot

It has been bitterly cold and we saw -28C (-18F) one morning. Fortunately the car has not let us down, even though the diesel in the car is only rated down to -21C (-6F). By now it should be rated down to -30C (-22F) at least. Our alpacas have been shivering a little but on the whole they are doing okay and certainly relishing the increase in temperatures to a giddy -9C (16F) today. As a friend of mine wrote on facebook, you know it has been cold when -9C (16F) feels quite warm. One of our alpacas, however, is not doing so well. I spent a few nights this week making first one coat out of an old sleeping bag and then another one lined with an old fleece underblanket. Now she is wearing both.

Looking rather cold and bleak

Coat number one. Not bad considering I don't have a
working sewing machine at the moment. I had to sew it all
by hand and my fingers are still sore. The edges aren't
finished either, but I reckon she is not that bothered about
that

I was quite proud of the result from my efforts. I had been wondering how to make an alpaca coat for emergencies for a while and this week we checked them out online as our poor Snowdrop started to really suffer in the cold. Although we found some reasonably priced ones, the problem was that we needed it right now and not next week. I suddenly had a brainwave when I remembered an old nylon sleeping bag that had seen better days. I halved the sleeping bag, then cut a section off the bottom - otherwise it would be too long - and used that to make some flaps for the front of the coat to fasten around the throat. I used some velcro straps from a fleece jacket that had started to look tatty and a strap from an old bum bag (I know I have a few followers from America and I suggest you look up the translation, as it is not a word I like to use in polite British circles).

The new alpaca house can be seen in the distance

Despite the cold there have been some glorious days too

Unfortunately it wasn't sufficient to keep her warm and Ian said it had never made a good sleeping bag anyway and it always felt cold. I used the other half, but this time I lined it. I had to use a strap this time off an old Garmin heart monitor that was no longer working, as I had no more bum bag straps. You can tell from that list that we keep rather a lot of stuff that normally would and perhaps should be thrown in the bin (trash can). There is a pile of such stuff in the middle of our living room floor that has been there a while waiting to be sorted, but the pain of throwing things away is weighing heavily. This is not helped at all by the above example of the possible ways to recycle broken and old things. It just makes the job doubly hard. From where I sit I can see the Christmas tree (yes ours is still up) and see the baubles made from old lightbulbs that were sprayed red and decorated with gold paint and the soft balls made from an old bronze dance dress and stuffed with the contents of an old pillow. I can also see two pictures where one is made from old scraps of cloth and the other made from torn tissue paper.

And some rather nice sunrises

Out of the apartment window, looking one way

It has been an eventful weekend. Firstly we met a fellow Lancastrian, called Andrew, who also lives in Latvia (I hasten to add that I am the Lancastrian, i.e. born in Lancashire, Ian is not, he is a Geordie, born in Northumberland). Andrew is more famous than we are, he made the Latvian news, which is how I came to find out about him. Our friend who teaches English and often translates for us sent us the link to the news article about his blog a while ago and so I posted a comment. Eventually we made contact which resulted in him and his wife coming out to see us (you can see Andrew's blog here). We had a lovely few hours and I made wild boar stew in the slow cooker, which was rather tasty, if I do say so myself. The next day our neighbour who often comes to see our alpacas came out with another neighbour and her daughters to show them the alpacas. She had to show them around and explain about alpacas, which she is very good at now, since she has heard so much about them and has helped us out quite a few times, because Ian unfortunately had to call out the vet to Snowdrop and they were busy dealing with her when our neighbour came out.

Further down the street

The extra string was supposed to stop
the sheep from thinking of escaping
from their new paramour 

The alpacas appreciated the carrot snacks our visitors brought but two of the sheep decided to freak out and escape. It was a shame because they had been so much calmer this week because the girls now have a man. We have been quite startled by how much less demanding they are, now they have a ram around. The ram is a much calmer meat merino from the neighbouring sheep farm, which we went to choose earlier on the week. We are not sure there has been much in the way of mating going on though unfortunately. The idea was that we have the ram for about a month and then pack him off for a rendezvous with the freezer. That would then mean we have some hopefully calmer lambs to replace the skitty sheep we have now, meanwhile still manuring and trimming the pastures as required. Not sure how that is going to work out now if he doesn't get the girls pregnant. It might be past the breeding season, apparently.

Penned up waiting for the arrival of the ram - just in case they
freaked out.

The meeting went quite calmly really. Hello ladies, I'm
your new fella and that was about it. 

The new ram is not so used to Ian yet!

Anyway back to Snowdrop, since she has taken up quite a bit of our time this week. The coats have made a difference to Snowdrop insofar as she is actually warm with both of them on, but she is now a very sick alpaca. The vet gave her drips yesterday and something to help clear any blockages in her stomach, since she could feel a lump there. Today we have been pouring oil down her and our vet came back and gave her another couple of drips. Snowdrop isn't getting up on her own and she has been sat next to a radiator to keep her warm. We are grateful Ian managed to get the alpaca house done and wired up for electrics, even if it has meant several extension cables to get to it - not ideal but in a push it has to do. We only finished treating her at around 5pm tonight and couldn't have done that without the lights and the radiator to keep us warm as well as Snowdrop. She did at least eat a tiny bit of hay, which is a promising sign and made attempts to spit at another alpaca. Snowdrop is usually very ready to display her displeasure of any other alpaca who gets to close to her, she is normally quite a feisty madam in that respect, but not over the last few days.

We think the greenhouse tore due to the
cold. Fortunately we had plastic to
replace it with.

Poor lass! Not a happy lady.

It is hard to have to make her as comfortable as possible and then just leave her overnight and we half expected to find she had died when we arrived on the land this morning. We had even been talking about how we were going to bury her if necessary - not an easy job considering it has been so cold just lately. It would have involved chipping away at the layer of ice for several days and covering it so it doesn't freeze lower down, before we can get the back hoe out to dig a hole deep enough. Fortunately that wasn't necessary today. Unfortunately it has started snowing and we are not sure how much snow we may get tomorrow, we may miss the worse of it, we may not so we need to be prepared for a night out in the caravan if necessary.

It is finished - well maybe!

Just a dusting this week

All the electric trenches are dug, and the job of getting electric to our greenhouse would have been finished if we had got enough cable to finish it, but we don't. Not quite sure why the cable has not arrived yet and it is worrying, as the dry but dull weather we have had has now changed and we even had a dusting of snow this last week. The forecast for the rest of the week is not good either. If you are of the praying kind, then please pray the cable arrives tomorrow before the rain or snow comes.

Yup we still have a muddy mess and we still have an open
trench! 

I mentioned that we had holes developing in our field last week and we thought it might have something to do with the high powered cable laid last year (update - my husband reliably informs me this was not last year but a couple of years ago. Doesn't time fly when your having fun?), so we had the electric guys in to have a look. It seems the electric cable is actually about a metre away from the hole and they can't work out what is happening as the hole they dug filled up too quickly with water. The rather large hole that they made is still there and so we can see what happens to it over the winter and spring. Ian can then have another look at it and decide what to do with it at that point.  At least they have marked where the cable actually is and so Ian isn't likely to put the back hoe through it when he digs the area.

Trees wrapped for winter with straw blankets around
their roots

I emailed my PhD proposal to be looked at before submission proper and I have had some positive comments back on it, but unfortunately that too is not quite finished either. It shouldn't take long to make the recommended amendments, but I didn't get the chance today as I wanted to get some jobs done out on the land just in case it does snow later on this week.

Ian sharpening the ends of the sticks for
marking the edge of the drop to the
greenhouse ditch

Other land jobs this week included marking up the road for winter, so we can find it even if it does snow. I also got a thicket of trees thinned out and the thinned out trees will make some good supports for beans and peas next year. It's nice to get at least something prepared ahead of time. I have also finished off some beds and paths in our orchard plot. It all looks far too neat and tidy for me, but at least it means we are ready for the spring sowing. There are still bits that are not prepared, but they will wait until next year as I am taking the easy route of covering the weedy area with black cloth. It makes digging the area over much quicker when it is needed.  I also decided to wrap the trees up this week, although it is still damp the weather forecast is not looking too good and so rather than wait until plummeting temperatures I went ahead and got them all safely tucked up with straw blankets for their feet and plastic bubble wrap around their branches.

A pipe to span the trench to make sure the
water runs away from the greenhouse ditch
and not into the trench

Ian has also plodded on with winter preparation and autumn type jobs. He has been continuing to cut the trees that are in front of ditch that we want to dig out. The pile of logs and branches is getting quite big now as the forest has encroached onto the field rather a lot in the last 15 years. At least that means plenty of firewood for next year, unfortunately not good enough for covering a house. Or at least I think they might not be, but I have just checked and alder and birch are considered hardwoods, just possibly not quite thick enough in diameter. I must do some more research! I know I have seen larch used on cladding and they have been thin strips rather than the thicker cladding. Anyway back to Ian! He has also fixed the car this week, we had a problem with the gearbox again and so he took the housing apart and all the problem seems to be is a nylon bearing (well I think that's what he said) that gets jammed every now and again. Doesn't seem such a good system for what should be a robust car! He also made a shelter outside the workshop/stable for the alpacas as when it rains heavily one of them always seems to get stuck outside. It will also mean that there is less snow comes in between the wood paneling on the side.

This male is for keeping and we wonder if
he was the one responsible for the noise.

We said goodbye to one of our chickens this week, as we packed him up in a box and sent him off to a new home (no we didn't put him in the post, just in case you were wondering). Our neighbour's mum has a farm and all her old male chickens died recently and so she wanted a young replacement. We had agreed to this ages ago and we got a dispatched broiler chicken in advance. Seemed like a fair swap! Once we know that he has adapted to his new home and settled in, then we will make a final decision as to which chickens to keep and which to cull. There should be three chickens heading to our freezer, as we are still not too sure about the gender of one of the chickens and being smaller anyway will benefit from a little longer to fatten up if it is male. One of our chickens also went "Cock-a-doodle-doo" the week before. It was really odd as we had just left the greenhouse where our chickens are housed at the moment when we heard it. We both stopped in our tracks and looked at each other as if to say "did you hear what I thought I heard?" Strange thing is that we have not heard it since and no idea which chicken made the noise - probably gone into shock and that is why we haven't heard it again.

More pipe to ensure water runs where we
want it too during the upheaval of digging
trenches

We had a bit of a surprise this week, as we arrived on our land I saw something pale sticking out of the ground on our hill, but it was way too far to see clearly what it was. I asked Ian and he said he thought it was a tuft of grass. It turned out that it wasn't a tuft of grass at all, it was a fox. It must have been sat in the middle of the field wondering what on earth it was going to do now as it was stuck inside the electric fence. It dashed this way and that but couldn't work out how it was going to get past the fence. Ian came to fetch me and the sight of two humans advancing towards it was enough to help it overcome the fear of the fence and off it shot. At least we know the fence works - sort of! It must have run into the fence and got a bit of a shock, as the wires at the top of the field were lying on the ground or at least popped out of the fasteners. They wouldn't have done that if it had just walked into them.

Finally got around to having a fire to burn
tomato plants. It has been too wet or we've
been too busy. We also got rid of some
rubbish from around the place too

We found out this week that we finally have recycling facilities in our village. We have even got rid of some plastic bottles that have been lying around for ages. So years after everyone else we can now get rid of plastic, paper, cardboard, tetra packs, cartons, and glass bottles. Very exciting! (I guess we don't get out much) Sadly another bank in Latvia closed its door this week and that means the only permanent bank in our village has closed its doors. Fortunately though it was a bit more orderly than the last time a bank closed and people have had time to sort out alternatives and if they don't do that personally they will just have their funds transferred to another bank who has agreed to take on the accounts. We are not sure though if we the bank taking on the accounts will keep our branch open or not. We do know we get to keep the ATM, but that is a bit of a moot point as that particular bank already has an ATM in our village anyway, just hope they keep it better stocked than before, as occasionally it is not possible to take out much if the money is low.

This isn't as flat as some places, but you can imagine
being able to look forever as the prairie goes on and on.
This was taken from our time in Colorado

Finally I am nearly finished (hope there are not too many sighs of relief there) but I have been revisiting Rich Mullins songs. He sang about his faith with such honesty which was straight from the heart and even now some of his songs can make me cry, which is saying something as normally I am not the emotional type. Some words from one of his songs really struck me this week as words for our times and it is from the song "Calling Out Your Name"

From the place where the morning gathers
You can look sometimes forever 'til you see
What time may never know
What time may never know
How the Lord takes by its corners this old world
And shakes us forward and shakes us free
To run wild with the hope
To run wild with the hope

The song itself is about nature calling out its praise and I really grew to love this song as it mentions the prairies which I saw for the first time in Colorado. But this song has a new resonance in a time of shaking, when nothing seems certain and feels so uncomfortable. To know that God takes this world and shakes us forward and shakes us free helps me to understand more than ever that the shaking has a purpose and it is not just some random act of the universe. God indeed wants us to run wild with the hope, the hope that he is setting a new order to things, that life cannot carry on the way it always has done, he has a purpose in creating a freer world, a fairer world. One where we can run free with hope.

Of course Colorado is not all prairie. Here is a picture from
Cameron Pass in the Rocky Mountains.