Kitten cuddles

Mr. P looking very dashing

Since the beginning of July I was down to 14 hours a week. That was fine with me as I had been working hard up until the end of June working on projects and my PhD. The earnings had been good too and so there were no worries about money. I even had a holiday - well no academic work but plenty to keep me busy on the farm. So I eased myself back into work and tried to get the project work that hadn't been completed done - still a work in progress unfortunately, but still..., it left me with time to do the farm jobs. Now that has changed, but that's okay because the farm jobs are starting to come to an end and rainy days mean there is not as much to do - well kind of. There are still lots of potatoes to dig and the garden to tidy up, but there is time to do that over the autumn, there is not so much of a hurry because everything is growing slowly. Anyway all that to say that I started back with full-time employment this week as there is still enough project money to pay me, so I'm sorted now up to December. 

The boys field is looking much greener this year
than last year. Last year we were struggling to
find them fresh grass. This year they cannot 
eat it fast enough.

Ian had to mow this to stop the weeds and trees
from taking over.

Rocket Ron and Ginger Tom

I mentioned the devastating news of the loss of all our new chicks a couple of weeks ago. We decided that our two cats - good mousers that they are - were not enough to keep the rodent population under control. One morning Ian was telling me about a dream he had of getting two more cats, one was a yellow looking cat and he called it Turmeric and the other Ron. Later on in the day I went to see the vet and asked if she knew of any cats that needed a new home? Her eyes lit up and she said, "You want cats! Come and look." There were two boy kittens, one ginger and one a dashing black and white. They were feral but she had been getting them used to people, they were doing okay and not aggressive. I took pictures to show Ian and he was amazed to see they similar to the ones he'd dreamt about. We sorted out the hamster cage that the incubator had been in and went to fetch the boys. We also took our older ones to get their rather overdue vaccinations done. 

One of older cats must have caught this. Up until
this year, we have not seen rats and our cats have
not caught them, so the numbers must be increasing.
So hopefully these two youngsters will help to keep
these numbers down.

Rocket Ron is a bit of a handful. Twice a day
we take them out for cuddles to get them used to us.
I call him fidget widget as he never seems to stop.

Ginger Tom, is a much shyer kitten. In fact one 
afternoon he took off during cuddle time. Fortunately
he dashed into the greenhouse and so we rapidly
shut doors and I blocked off the escape hole while
Ian caught him. The greenhouse needs some emptying
out before they are let loose. Far too many places to hide
for a little kitten.

Do not let that sleepy pose deceive you. She is an
ace mouser.

Our three original boys, from left to right,
Herkules, Tellus and Turbjørn

Turbjørn is still struggling and we are still waiting for the vet to come and x-ray him. We had just about given up when Ian got a phone call to say he would come the following day at 4pm. We were so relieved, but it was short-lived because about midday Ian got a message to say that the vet's car had died and it was in the garage for repair. So close! We've had to put cream on Turbjørn's ears because the flies have been bugging him and he can't shake them off. He's been going around with his head down and long overdue for some more deep physio, but there isn't much point until he's had his x-ray. Sigh! We had to be so careful with him when we were cutting his toe-nails, which was one of this week's jobs. Fortunately he wasn't reacting like he used to and more or less stood still while Ian cut the nails and I held onto his head very gently. 

This is my best side!

Freddie escaped toe nail cutting this time around, 
as his were already cut due to needing bandages
on a sore spot. We cut his toe nails to stop him
using them to tear the bandage off, just in case.

Star performer! Josefs

As I said toe-nail cutting was one of this week's jobs. We started off with the boys, as they are often the easiest, except for Brencis. Jakobs played up a bit but he's small enough to deal with. Joesefs on the other hand was an absolute star. I hardly had to hold him at all, just enough to let him know that he shouldn't go anywhere. I wish they were all like that, life would be so much simpler. Vanessa's girl's were next and they were okay. Much better than about two years ago. Vanessa has always been good, once you get a hold of her and I was able to use the proper hold that cups under the head and at the back of the head. The others were a little bit more of a handful, especially Vanessa's daughter, Valeria, but I've known worse and we got there with them. 

Vanessa has a good reason to smile
she was relatively well behaved and
now has properly manicured nails-
well for an alpaca anyway.

Vanessa's girls up on oak tree hill. They do seem 
to enjoy it up there. There are lots of flowers but
not much grass, so not sure what it is they are 
eating.

Amanda and Silla coming down from the 
oak tree hill. Pruning and mowing are their 
specialities.

Veronica with her wobbly legs. She's still getting
about and doesn't seem to be in pain, just a bit
slow at times.

However...... Veronica's lot!!! Oh my! Veronica was okay, she's getting old and finds it hard to get away anyway, We just have to try and make sure she gets her balance. Mari was a bit of a handful and ended up being restrained against a wall, but we managed - that does sound worse than it was. Aggie was not a happy alpaca and fussed and was difficult, but again we managed. Chanel! Now that was different. She usually cushes, which means sitting on her legs, so we can't get to them under normal circumstances, so we had decided to take up the restraining ropes. We got her fastened down like at shearing time and then got hold of her daughter to cut her toe nails. There would have been no point trying to do it without Chanel being restrained because she stands between us and Ilvija if we are going to do anything. She's a good Mum, but not helpful. After cutting her toe nails we gave her legs a wash to try and soften some of the crusty skin and then I put on some nourishing lotion. She was not happy about this process and she still hasn't forgiven Ian after three days. She just keeps spitting at him. For a change I think she blames him rather than me. Aggie blames me though for anything that she disagrees with, like changing bandages and putting on cream. 

Chanel's crusty legs. She would be much better
if she would let us deal with them. 

"Don't come near me or I will spit at you!" This was
today, three days later and she still has not forgiven
Ian. My coat on the day was a lovely putrefied grass
green colour. She obviously did not appreciate the time
and effort that went into making the lotion for her. 

Good job that Ilvija is no where near as spitty as
her Mum. She moans about toe nail cutting, but
doesn't spit. Phew!

Mari showing off her manicure

My boss paid us a visit to collect some blackcurrant bushes for his garden. We have a very good variety that roots from cuttings easily and I had also found some rooted suckers that were in the way. As his family are of farming stock, I didn't feel bad about asking for help with Brencis. As I have mentioned before we can't manage to cut his toe nails on our own, not yet anyway. Hopefully one day he will calm down. Brencis didn't cooperate very well but we did get him sorted out, with only a few minor bumps along the way. We paid for the help by giving my boss a lunch of freshly picked mushrooms and tomatoes, and potatoes from our garden, home-baked bread, pickled cucamelons and chutney. Grapes fresh off the vine for dessert. I thought that worked out okay, a fair exchange.

Mari and the photographer in reflection

We have reds and whites. Not sure what varieties
either of them are, but they do taste nice.

I then spent the rest of the weekend digging up more potatoes. Now the long rows are finished and I just have short rows to do, but still a way to go. It is much easier if the plot has not got weedy and some are weedier than others. I must remember to mulch better next year as so many of the potatoes popped up and got green. Fortunately we have so many, it isn't an issue and if they are still okay next year, then we can use them as seed potatoes. Blight was another big problem this year. I don't think I got the tops cut off early enough and it has been a particularly wet year compared to others. The alpaca manure I think was a bit too fresh for a wet year, perfect in a dry year though. The potatoes that had grown from those left in the ground from the year before did a bit better and not as blighted. We shall have to watch them carefully in storage and check them regularly. We've managed before and they have lasted the winter. 

A good capture by Ian, a dragonfly in flight.
I love to see these flying about, knowing they are
helping to keep the biting bugs under some sort of
control.

The shed is looking good. Ian's not happy with
the door as it has dropped slightly. Still it is
just a shed, so not great but not the end of the
world either. 

Ian has been busy finishing off a small shed to replace the little greenhouse that fell down. The shed is a bit bigger than the floor space of the greenhouse and a lot taller, so we have plenty of space for the growing pots, feed bags and general gardening stuff. It will be nice to get that all out of the greenhouse and so we can work on that to make it a nice workshop space with a nice greenhouse ambiance. Well that's the plan! Bit by bit we are getting there. 

Greenhouse ambiance.

Not quite greenhouse ambiance as
Jerusalem artichokes trying to escape

The insects are still finding this tree fascinating.
We would love to know why. A group of hornets
feasting on something.

Not sure what the grub is or what the flies are
up to. Hmmm! 

Aggie with her bandage. We are getting through
the bandages between her, Freddie and Herkules.
Fortunately Freddie's has now healed. Aggie's was
nearly healed and then she scratched it again overnight
and it swelled up again. Fortunately I have found
honey seems to be the most effective at reducing
the swelling. The animals are getting through 
more honey than we are. Herkules original sore
is now well and truly healed but not sure if the 
plaster started another patch off and this
one is more difficult to bandage.

Some squashes from the field curing in the 
greenhouse.

A very broad but short rainbow between the 
trees tonight.

New arrivals

Meet Valeria, Vanessa, Silla, Antonia and Amanda

The first part of the week was spent preparing for our new arrivals. Our five new alpaca girls arrived from Sweden on Thursday. They took a little persuasion to get out of the van and into our paddock, but at least we have a better idea how to handle the animals these days. Fortunately the rain that we had the day before wasn't bad enough to stop the small horse truck from driving on and getting close enough to the paddock to be able to herd them straight in. Not quite sure how we would have managed if they had to be led from the roadside up. I don't think they would have been very cooperative.

Our usual view of them, in other words running off

Vanessa, in the front is Veronica's daughter and half sister to
Brencis. She also seems to have good fleece like her mum. 

I say our girls, two of them are ours, Valeria and Amanda, the other three are either to be sold or we start to pay for them in six months time. We will let them settle in first though before we make any final decisions. We like to know what the animals are like before we would consider selling. The girls are still quite timid of us and so we have to use a rope going from the fence to the alpaca house door to stop us having to just chase them round and round the alpaca house. At least Ian has devised a way of being able to do this on his own, but ideally he would like them to follow him in for food, like the others do, but so far they don't seem interested in the pellet food. It is quite important they go in as the sheep camp lost one of their sheep this week and people think it could be a wolf. DNA checks are being made to see if that was the case.

Valeria is Vanessa's daughter and so we have three generations
of alpacas here on our farm now.

Silla is the little one and is Snowdrop's granddaughter. That
makes Aggie her Aunty, even though she is older by one year.

It was nice to have the new girls arrive on the 4th October, as it was 36 years to the day that Ian and I met. So a bit of an anniversary present. We met on the first day of the first term of the first year at Sheffield University. We also celebrated our 34th Wedding Anniversary on the 6th October. We did intend on going out to the hotel to have a meal to celebrate. Instead we ended up at the bakery for a cup of tea and a piece of cake as the hotel was shut on the day we went and we haven't had much time since.

This picture was taken shortly after they had arrived. They
will now wander around the paddock on their own and not always in a pack now, so they are starting to relax.

An unwelcome visitor, probably some pig damage. We have
a few more around the land, but mainly close to the forest
edge or like this, in the forest itself, so not too bad and
we can live with that. We have also had visits from deer.
There has often been a fawn browsing and sometimes I see
another one or their mother too.

Last week I said at least the geese haven't migrated yet! Well I spoke too soon, they are definitely heading south now. Over the last few days there have been several flocks fly over. So that's it so they say - two weeks till winter. The forecast for the next ten days though is for more nice weather. I guess it means that Ian can get on with more jobs while I'm away before the winter weather sets in. We have had some rain at least, but our top pond gets a puddle and then it all drains away again, so everywhere is still dry under a moist top layer. I left beds of soil exposed, just so the rain will actually soak in before adding a mulch layer. Not that the mulch layer got added, it was just that was the plan. The annoying thing is that the day it decided to rain properly was the day that the sheep were destined for a rendezvous with the freezer. That will now have to wait until I get back from the UK in November.

Sunrise one morning when I was going to feed the chickens

Some rather large carrots, but still tasty. The ones on the
right are rather odd. One looks like a family of carrots and
the last one reminds me of a ballerina, well the legs anyway.
I have named it dancing queen and it went in the pot for our
evening meal tonight.

It has been another busy week trying to get jobs done before I go. The chickens are now all in the greenhouse. We got the last lot in today. The caravan is in too. We had hoped to get a new building to house the caravan in over the winter, but the new alpaca house took precedence over that, so back again it goes into the greenhouse. I had hoped to get two beds of carrots dug up, but I had to help Ian with getting the last lot of chickens in as well, so only one got finished. Mind you, I am surprised we got any carrots at all due to the drought. Not all the seeds germinated, but those that did have mainly grown into enormous carrots. Some have split badly and won't keep, but many of the carrots are fine and I think we have as many as last year after all.

Ian made this bogey to transport the chicken arks and this
year he added a hitch so that he could use the tractor to help
us. We had further to move them this year and up hill. It did
make the job easier to some extent but I had to walk behind
the arks as they still needed to be kept up off the floor. In the end
we used the other smaller bogey too, but that was a bit of a
challenge with one ark as a base board snapped in the process
of moving it. Sill we managed in the end.

This ark involved a complete remodel of part of the greenhouse to
fit it in. It will be easier to get in and out of the area this year to
feed the chickens compared to last year. It also holds more
chickens in this than the arks.

The arks have worked well for us and lasted. The oldest
one on the right is probably about 6 years old now.

The caravan is in. Of course the greenhouse looks a bit of a
tip again.

I found this little leaf chap in the forest whilst looking for
mushrooms. 

We managed to get some squashes taken back to the apartment. It's a bit of squash in more ways than one. That's the problem with the large squashes. They used to make a nice autumnal display in our spare apartment, but since we sold the other one there is less space for my autumnal display. The extra marrows will have to wait until I get back. When we are living in the other apartment, rather than in the caravan, we will have a wood burning stove to dehydrate food on, or I can reduce the squashes down to pulp for the freezer. Another job I tried to do was to have a go at making some felt but haven't really had time to finish if off. I did get some more botanical printing done ready for a felted project but again it will be another job that will have to wait until I get back.

I love podding beans. Such a variety of colours. Apparently
these are the beefiest beans, so we will see later on what
they actually taste like.

The trees around us are starting to turn qiote fast now. This
year the autumn colours are stunning. I wished we had taken the camera with us on our trip out.

One of the problems we have had is that our car is still in for repairs. The guy tried to send us some pictures of the work but he hadn't got the right email address, so Ian went to the garage to see for himself. He was very impressed with the work they were doing as they have taken it apart and re-doing the bodywork bit by bit. Each part has to dry in between though and that is why it is taking so long. One day I decided I would just have to drive this old van they had lent us but when I got in I found out I was too short to drive it. I have driven a box van before and that was fine, but there was no way I was going to be able to drive this vehicle without some serious modifications. This has meant I couldn't just hop into the village to get jobs done, I've had to wait for Ian to be able to take me.

More beans, mainly stripey ones this time. These aren't
grown for their taste but just because I love the
different beans. At least with beans there isn't the disappointmen
of opening them up and seeing many eaten by something

Our friend's farm has a lovely view of the lake. It is as hilly
as our ski hill.

On Sunday we went for a visit to the other alpaca farm nearby. They are rather disappointed as it looks like the alpacas they had bought are not pregnant, or at least the ones they thought were due soon. They still have some lovely animals though, with sweet natures, so that is something. They wanted to chat about things they were worried about and so it was easier to chat when looking at the animals. We were fed well and I managed to pick up some presents for the grandchildren at the same time. Now I just have to see how many of them I can pack in my bags, the presents that is, not the alpacas.

Another sunrise but this time through the fog. Excuse the mess
in front but the other pictures didn't look as atmospheric