It is finished - again!

Ooooh Good! The snow is going! 4th March

The academic paper I have been writing for absolutely ages on and off, has been submitted yet again. Not sure if the reaction will be better this time or not, but I don't think I will hear anything for about six weeks and so I shall just put it out of my mind until I hear back from them. It is nice not to have to think about it and it means I can concentrate on other work that demands my attention. I have now also completed the work for the online educational organisation I work for and so the first year's curriculum, including exam is finally written up and loaded onto the website. I even marked three lots of work sent in by one student who seems to save up his work to post to me at the worst possible time. Normally work should be returned in three days, instead I acknowledged I had it and said I would get onto it as soon as possible. I don't feel too bad about that when someone is not posting work back regularly. I also have interviews either booked or in the process of being booked, so I feel like there has been a lot of progress on many fronts. 

Oh no it's not! 5th March

Oh yes it is! 9th March In fact it has been quite tropical,
relatively speaking that is. 

I am really looking forward to the interviews, as it will be a change of scenery and I get to do them myself, as the ladies I will be interviewing can speak English quite well. These are people who have taken an initiative to bring development to their communities and so I shall be trying to find out what motivates them and how they have found it, their struggles and their highlights. Doing research is a great excuse to be a bit nosy really, but I hope in the process to be able to point to ways that others can follow or at least help to make sure these initiators are given the kind of support they need to do what they do best. Well that's the theory anyway.

Spring has sprung. This is the 5 spice plant in the greenhouse

The comfrey is peeking through

Ian has been doing a lot of thinking and planning just lately. He is trying to think about the best way of moving forward with keeping alpacas, It is no good me telling Ian what to do all the time, I can make suggestions (something I can be rather too good at), but at the end of the day, he is the one that has to do most of the work with the alpacas and on the land. I also have a lot to think about with my research and so it is nice to listen to his plans for a change. One of the decisions he made was to go on a shearing course and that has now all been organised and booked. He will also do an intensive husbandry course at the same time and then stay on to help them do the routine shearing. Staying on to help out means that he gets the shearing course for free and thus saving us some money and gets Ian some extra practice at the same time. He is also going to stay with one of my regular blog readers who came out to see us a few years ago, so that works out rather nicely.

Fresh onion leaves soon

And the Brussels Sprouts survived too, albeit a bit squashed

We lost one of our chickens this week, well not quite lost, she was caught by a falcon, possibly a peregrine falcon, but it dropped the chicken and so Ian managed to recover the carcass. It was a shame as she was a good layer and not that much meat on her. Still she made a tasty pot pie and soup. It might sound a bit harsh, but just burying her would be a waste and it was a clean kill, so not much of a risk to our health either. Of course that meant that today all outdoor chickens had to stay inside. No point in encouraging a falcon to think we will provide endless meals.

The hawthorn is budding too

Agnese coming to take a look as always

Ian has spent most of the week cutting down trees and taking Agnese for a walk. One day I shall have to get a video for you to see. The tree cutting is part of the ongoing thinning process we are doing to help the rest of the trees grow stronger, as well as provide us with fuel for next year. Taking Agnese for a walk is part of her training and Ian's training. Having never trained an alpaca before and only having books to learn from, he is taking it slowly and just seeing how she reacts. He says she even seems to be enjoying the walks, after all alpacas are fairly curious animals. There are alpaca farms where you can take an alpaca out for a walk and I think it would be fairly therapeutic, as they need a calm and steady manner to walk quietly with you. It is also good to know how to train an animal if we ever want to take an alpaca to a show. Halter training an animal means it might make it easier for Ian to deal with an animal if they are sick or need some treatment and I am not around to hold onto them.

Tree cutting. What you cannot see so well in this picture
is the orchard fence to the right. Ian was pleased that he has
managed to miss it, despite the rather close proximity to the
forest edge

Agnese's fleece. This is a bit different to the other fleeces.
It had us looking through on the difference between Suri
alpacas and Huacaya alpacas. Suris have long silky fleeces
and there is a hint of this in Agnese's fleece. Suri genetics
though are dominant and it is unlikely to be Suri from two
Huacaya parents, but I do need more information on that.

Someone asked fairly recently what people think about the situation between Latvia and Russia and to be honest I am not really sure. I haven't really had much opportunity to ask anyone. A quick chat with a friend today suggests it is not a current conversation, but could still be on people's minds. It has been on my mind a bit this week for a few reasons, firstly Ian mentioned an article which talked about pensioners who had had to move away due to fighting in the Ukraine. Some had loved ones on both sides of the buffer zone and one old man had had to move away during the Second World War and even spent time in Dachau and now at the age of 87 years old was torn away from his home again. He then had a dream where he let the animals free and then we packed up the car and horsebox and headed south. Lastly today Putin finally admitted to discussing taking back Crimea even before the little green men headed in.

Estelle's fleece - much fluffier and less stringy looking and
more like a traditional Huacaya fleece

Agnese's Mum is looking in much better shape this year
than last year. I guess she must feel far more settled

I am not sure what game Putin is playing at, but he certainly is playing a dangerous game and we do need to keep a wary eye on what is going on. Does this mean we are planning our escape? No not really. As I ponder what we would take if the whole situation was to blow up, it makes me realise how traumatised people must be as they have to make decisions on what to do with animals and their possessions. Which of our possessions are precious enough to fill a horse box with? What would be considered necessities? Pots, pans? Or furniture that once belonged to my grandparents? Books? What an awful dilemma so many folks in Ukraine have faced and are still facing and it is sad to say they are not the only ones.

Tellus' fleece is thickening up a lot just lately

Our not so favourite animals have been back, the wild boar.
They have not done a huge amount of damage, but it is getting
persistent and our neighbour has told her she has a hectare of
land that is full of very deep holes now. Not sure the African
Swine Fever has had much effect around here then.

Sofie with her very long winter coat exploring more and
more out of the greenhouse. She is also acting rather daft at
 times, charging around all over the place. That cat can
move fast! I suppose she must be sensing Spring around the
corner

Now where am I?

Do you see that browny green stuff
down the path? That's grass! Oh yes!
The snow is gradually going

I had a lovely Skype chat today with my friend in America, who I met at my first academic conference in Florence.  Part of the time my supervisor joined in the chat to talk about academic things to do with my paper that I have been writing for ages, but we also had time for a good old natter. My American friend's first question was "Now where are you at the moment?" Good question! It is only mid-February and I have been up to Estonia three times already this year, as well as back to the UK and off down to the very far South-East of Latvia. Today I am at home! Having said that I have only just got back from Estonia, some of which was planned and some a last minute arrangement.

The ponds are beginning to show themselves too, although
Ian is wondering where all the melt water is going, because
the ponds aren't filling up

I knew there was not much point in booking interviews too far ahead, because from previous experience, that can mean they can get cancelled at the last minute and that is not easy when it takes a day to travel up. As soon as I got back from the UK I started enquiring as to when I could meet up with some "real" Estonians, in other words just ordinary folks not connected with the university and I tried to organise it so that it coincided with the rearranged doctoral seminar (the one that got cancelled and somehow I didn't get to know until the last minute). My answer came on Tuesday afternoon, could I make it up by Wednesday evening. My heart sank, would I be able to make it or not? I consulted with the Estonian bus webiste and it at first did not seem possible, as it looked like there was only one bus a day that connected. I was just about to decline when I decided to look up where I was going on the map and see where the website was routing me. At this point I found out it was routing me with an out of the way place and I could just as easily take my normal route up to Tartu and then catch a bus from there and those buses went about every hour and half - now that was more reasonable.

The castle gates of Põltsamaa. This
suffered a lot of damage during the
Second World War. It also houses the
towns wine cellar. Apparently the town
is the wine capital of Estonia, but not
wine from grapes but Estonian fruit
and berries. The town is also renowned
for its rose gardens

After scrambling around to get ready Tuesday evening, I set off from home on the 7:15am bus the next morning. I met up with the Masters student who is doing most of the interviews in Tartu and then we travelled up together to his home town, Põltsamaa. We were met by his father in a mini bus at 6:15pm and so after eleven hours on the road we were straight off to our first interview. Fortunately the type of interviews I do are more like homely chats and so it was not too hard a job. I just wanted to know what it was like to be an Estonian and a little about the way Estonians think, trying to weigh up along the way what differences I could detect from the average Latvian - whatever that might be. The Masters student's father sat outside for the whole of the hour and a quarter interview, but I guess he is used to that as he is a bus driver who drives his own buses.

Now if I remember the story correctly, this
statue is of a famous musician. He gets
pelted with eggs and flour at the end of
the year and the graduating students then
have to clean it up. At least I think that is
the right way around and why they do this
I'm not quite sure.

This was Lustivere the village where I did the interviews.
They are very proud at having won village of the year last
year and this bench celebrates that

After the interview I stayed overnight at his parents' house and was treated very well. Better than a hotel any day. I had roast chicken, veg and potatoes for the evening meal and in the morning giant pancakes with meat, cheese, pickles, sour cream, jam and some gorgeous honeys, one with blueberries in it and one with the honeycomb (not all together I might add). As our next interview was not until 11am there was a chance to chat with the parents. Of course the pictures of the alpacas came out, since people usually want to know what we are doing in rural Latvia and the pictures of the grandchildren. The mother of the family said I should really come back in summer when it looks much nicer, but I explained that I rarely get to travel about in summer these days, since it is the busiest time of the year on the farm. Still it was nice to have such an invite and it certainly made me feel very welcome.

I was given this rather nice pincushion after one interview

The river in Põltsamaa. I can't remember now how many
bridges there are along the river, but there are a lot of them

After a tour around Põltsamaa I was off down to Tartu in preparation to attend the doctoral seminar the next day. That was fairly uneventful but at least it meant being able to touch bases with both my supervisors - which is a miracle in itself, if not exactly startling news. One asked how I was getting along and how the interviews were going just after the seminar and one with a more general chat over lunch. One of the most annoying parts of the last few days though is that in my rush in the morning to get ready for the bus I forgot my computer charger. It serves me right for being on the internet and losing track of time, but it did mean that it was hard to do much work on my travels. I did at least have my iPad and so I could check my emails and read books but the time dragged much more this time. Such a shame as I really felt like I was getting the hang of utilising my travelling time to get stuff done. I did manage a bit of work on the iPad, but most of what I really needed to get done was still on my computer and not so easy on the iPad.

The old people's home in the former manor house in Lustivere

Hmmm! I think I got the best deal. I got moved in with
four more ladies

As for news down on the farm, we have had chicken chaos this week. Last Monday we decided to do the chicken change around. The young broiler cockerels in Ark 3 were being picked on by the more mature one and we knew they would need changing around soon anyway. It was a little like one of those games where you have to move a piece so that you can move another one and it had to be done in order or it wasn't going to work. First we moved out the cockerel from Ark 2 that was going to be culled into a basket to await his fate. The two young cockerels were moved into to take his place, as they were not as closely related to the hens in there, unlike the one removed who was their brother. Next the cockerel from the ark we call Ark 1 was swapped with the other two from Ark 3, a female broiler hen and the bossy cockerel.

What did you move me for? Life was so peaceful before

The hope was that moving the cockerel and the hen together would make it easier on the hen - it did not. Broiler chickens seem to be more docile and since she hasn't reached egg laying maturity yet, she is not so aggressive as the older laying hens. We are still waiting to see how that move goes, as she is still being picked on. There was a lot of squawking and complaining going on in the Arks even as we culled the male we had removed, until suddenly one of the young broiler chickens crowed for the first time. Suddenly peace descended and we decided it was time to make a move and go home, leaving them to settle down for the evening. Ian had to move one of the young broiler cockerels out though later on in the week, because the absence of the older bossier cockerel meant they both decided to boss around all the hens in Ark 2, so he has been put in with the cockerel from Ark 1 and after a short flurry, they settled their differences. We don't want to cull the other males just yet as they are probably heading for the outdoor free range accommodation, but it is too early yet and they can go out when the snow is gone and we are sure they are surplus to requirements in the Arks.

Sofie finding the warm spots again

Aggie or to give her her proper name Grizītes Agnese

Ian has been training Aggie to the halter this week. She has been really good and doesn't seem to mind the halter at all. He is thinking of getting her out on a rein, once he has found a halter with a good fit. Unfortunately the ones we have are a tad on the large side to be trusted to hold her firmly enough for a walk, plus the paths are still too icy at the moment and Ian doesn't want her slipping and getting freaked out. Although halter training has been going well, Aggie hasn't been a good alpaca all week. One day she tried to playfully butt Ian. Ian had to stamp his authority pretty firmly as he doesn't want her growing up thinking she can do this. He told her no and firmly but gently pushed her away. She seemed to have got the idea she had over stepped the mark and now she takes a little more care at approaching Ian. All good training to ensure she is people friendly but not a nuisance to anyone.

Lost and found

The roadway is getting a little chewed
up now. At least this week the forecast
is for a freeze and so that will help

I think we lost our sense of humour this week, somewhere in the mud with the dreach weather we've been having and the nasty emails going between neighbours. I can just do without it at the moment. I have had extra things to do with my course, that I should have anticipated, but didn't. For instance I have an evaluation to do, as it is a year since I started the course, but what I hadn't realised is that this is not a cosy chat with my supervisors, but a meeting with a board and a presentation - all to be done by the end of the month. Okay if I had actually sat down and read through all the steps of doing a PhD on the university site, I would have realised that, but just like most people, I haven't. So there is that to do, on top of the reading I still need to wade through and some prep work for a course in the beginning of February, where I shall be learning how to make pretty maps using computer software.

Dreach! A Scottish word for dark, damp gloomy days

Water has been pouring into APH1 (Alpaca house one) and
so Ian has put plastic under the roof, so he can stop it from
raining in on the boys. It is angled to drain out of the house
through the funnel you can see on the right hand side of the
picture

Learning to do maps, reminds me of some of the decisions I made when I was younger. I had to choose between Geography and History at school and I chose History. I did prefer history and I was good at the subject, but there was one more element in the decision - I didn't want to do a subject that my Mum taught. My Mum was a supply teacher at one point and I didn't really want the risk of being in a geography class with my Mum, it was bad enough the one class that I did have where my Mum filled in for another teacher, but that was Chemistry and she just supervised that class, as the teacher had set us some work. Some children don't mind. That particular chemistry class was taught by the father of one of my classmates and he didn't seem to mind. Not sure why I didn't want my Mum to teach me, but it is ironic that I am now learning some of those things that are more akin to geography than history, although there is some of that too in the subject I am researching.

To drain the water away from the inside of the alpaca house

This is one of the hats I knitted. I knitted the one below
first and thought it was a bit too small and so that will
be a present for a young one later. I knitted this one
bigger and went to wash it and was horrified to see it
expand a lot and was now too big. Fortunately it is alpaca
wool, not ours though, and so it felted relatively easily
and so I felted it down to the right size. Worked nicely
as you can see. 

As you can tell I am feeling a bit inundated really, but rather than spend more and more time working, I realise I need to take time off and relax, otherwise I will get less and less done in the long run. I need time to think and mull things over. I enjoyed just pottering about at our other apartment yesterday. I could have got some sewing done, something I find relaxing, but hadn't taken my sewing machine lead up and it was a while before I found a decent pair of scissors amongst all the boxes of stuff I have. I packed most of my stuff into boxes when we had a family staying at the apartment. I realise that I really need to do something about our organisation, I have sewing stuff in two places and rarely do I have the right things in the right place - not helpful! I wasn't always so disorganised, I could be and can be quite organised. I must get more organised again though and then I will be more productive. I find that what happens is discipline slips and then the organisation slips and then I end up running rings around myself and that has to stop.

Thought this looked cute with a little pompom on
for a little one

All three ponds are full to overflowing

I'm writing this blog early because a series of things have fallen into place, which is wonderful when I feel under pressure. I sent off a chance email this last week, wondering if someone had some contacts that might be useful for me for starting my field study and he did. Not only did he have some contacts, he had a meeting with them today (Monday) and I was welcome to join him and his colleague. He even offered to come and collect me, as I was kind of en-route, which was really appreciated. I decided not to take up the offer when another series of things started to fall into place too. A friend of mine offered me their car and suggested a young man we both know would make a good translator and he was able to rearrange his work shifts to go. This all means I can now combine the meeting with some interviews in a nearby village, which is good as it is a couple of hours drive away. This should all get me off to a good start with my research, as I can test the type of questions I want to ask, to see how understandable they are and if they spark the kinds of answers I need.

Not just dripping either, but quite a flow

Estelle, our inquisitive youngster

Ian has been working with the animals to get them used to him handling them and yesterday he even managed to hug Estelle. She is a lovely, inquisitive alpaca though and has a very sweet nature, which is good if we have visitors. Gradually during feed time, Ian has been tickling them under the chin, particularly Tellus and Estelle, as they are the ones we might need to move around to show or in Tellus case as a stud male. He has worked up to stroking them down their necks and feeling more pressure each time. It's taking time, but hopefully it will pay off in the long run. It is always nice if the animals will actually come up and interact with people. Although we may have to work on that a bit, it is at least a start. Ian has been keeping the animals penned up just lately though. One of the reasons is that alpacas do not have lanolin like sheep to shed water, being animals designed for high desert and not lowland wetlands and so with the prolonged rain, they are getting wet. This not always a problem, but we are due to some drastic drops in temperatures and we want them to dry out before that happens. They will cope with the cold well enough, but not if they are wet, especially our old girl Alicia and we want to take extra care of our pregnant girls too.

Mud, mud, mud! This is the entrance to the girls paddock.
Even though this whole area is on the top of a hill, we
will have to look at drainage later on in the year, to stop a
repeat of the mudbath

Even my cranberries are underwater

We took a trip to a sheep farm nearby and stopped for cup of tea. Thankfully they don't speak much English and it forced us to use some Latvian. Our conversation was rather short, but at least it was a start and they were very kind enough to talk slowly for us and repeat things until we understood. That is what we really need. The reason for our visit was to pick up a whole lamb - of the meat variety and not a live one. Even though it was very fresh, we have to butcher it straight away as we just haven't got somewhere to leave it to hang. Did I say butcher? I should really say we hacked the lamb and you probably wouldn't recognise any of the joints from the butchers. Still it is in pieces that are manageable for us and the not so good pieces are minced and the slightly better pieces are cut up into chunks and we have some things that could be recognised, maybe, as roasting joints. I did slip a bit with the knife at one point, but we won't go into detail, just to say all digits and limbs of ours are still in tact.

Ian made some modifications to his Franken-shit stopper
(yes that is what he named it, and I didn't tell you last week)
These prongs are to help rake up the hay, after he has
cleared the poo up. Apparently the pegs were handmade
on the pole lathe or treadle lathe.

I did say we found our sense of humour, our cup of tea with our neighbours and a bit of bonding over the butchering process helped. It also helped to see our grandchildren on Skype and in a video clip on facebook. It also helps that life is just is too much without a laugh and there is no point in hanging onto bad moods. We maybe still have to work somethings through, but a sense of humour does make things a little smoother to get there.