Done!

Baling finished as evening gathers.

Finally the haymaking is finished and the cutter, hay turner and baler are put away for the year. The hay is baled, stacked and under cover and we can relax a little as we now have more than we need. It is always good to have reserves in case of a bad year. Or maybe we just need more alpacas. Whoops! Did I just say that? I don't mean it. We have nowhere to put more alpacas except the old greenhouse and that is stock full of stuff at the moment - a job for a rainy day to sort out and there hasn't been much of that over the last week. 

In the longest stack there are 150 bales of hay

Three stacks. That's a lot of plastic, but would be even more if
they were individually wrapped as you see in some fields. We 
have re-used the plastic from last year too.

This cricket hung around and let me photograph him (or her),
it looks like something out of an alien film.

I've had a lovely couple of weeks off. It was nice just to be able to get in the garden and be available for haymaking without worrying about getting my university work done too. I managed to find the onions that needed harvesting in my vegetable garden gone wild and lots of potatoes in places where we hadn't planted them. I've also sown some more carrots and turnips in the hope that they will germinate and grow in the warm soil and be ready later on in the year. In the greenhouse I've sown some broad beans, cabbages and kale that will give us some late autumn salad leaves if nothing else. I have to sow them in the greenhouse since the mice ate a lot of my beans that I planted outside earlier on in the year and the cabbages will be eaten by lot of different bugs. I've been delighted to see that the brassicas outside have done remarkably well this year, normally they struggle due to our dry summers, but the rain that made haymaking difficult meant they have grown well, now we just have to keep the caterpillar onslaught in some sort of check. I'm not a fan of daily caterpillar squishing chores, but needs must as we say.

We are still waiting for the vet to come and
x-ray Turbjørn's neck. Hopefully he will come
soon, as we finally had contact again. Ian enjoys
giving Turbjørn a massage as he gets to cuddle him.
Amazingly for a very nervous alpaca that doesn't
like anyone nearby, including other alpacas and
can be very vocal in letting everyone know, he does
stand and let Ian massage his neck. He seems to 
appreciate it. Turbjørn is a highly strung alpaca and
so this is quite a breakthrough really.

A pygmy grasshopper

We use permanent beds and try to dig as little as possible, but I think this year we will have to dig some beds over. They have got far too weedy, but also the mice and ants seem to have taken advantage of the lack of soil disturbance, which is something I didn't anticipate. Our cats are reasonably good at keeping the mouse population down in the greenhouse near the alpaca food, but not so good in my vegetable garden. Sophie though does seem to be in the process of controlling a weasel population, which we didn't know we have. Weasels are cute animals but not good when you have chickens, they can get through small holes and decimate a flock. So can pine martens as we found out earlier on in the year and we saw one of those this week scampering around in the evening before we put the chickens away. The main menace at the moment though is an eagle that seems determined to try and get through the netting to the chickens. It's had a chicken by the feathers twice, once last week and once this week. We just hope the netting around the ark holds up to the attacks.

A southern hawker dragonfly. I love the vibrant
pattern on this one.

Bargain flour... I think! 😂

Haymaking took up much of the early part of the week and we were grateful for some cooler weather when it came to collecting and stacking the bales. It's a hard job made worse in the high heat. We were even able to do the job over two days, which is a good when we had 269 of them to move. Even though they are very small compared to most bales, it is a lot of manual work. No rain was forecast but there were still some very dark and ominous looking clouds and so we were relieved to see them pass over and have all the bales under cover before the few spots of rain that did land in the night. There wasn't much rain though, despite the predictions, so now the ground is parched. 

A mushroom

A common field grasshopper - maybe! Only it looks different
to the other one I photographed as it has a darker back. 

Our friend took us out for a meal but after we
got back the animals needed some treatment
so on with the wellies and the head torch so I 
could see what I was doing.

With haymaking complete it was good to have a friend of ours come down to visit us from Estonia, it meant we could sit and chat a bit, as well as have some help pottering around in the garden. There was a query as to whether she would be able to, as there had been a spike of Covid19 in Tartu, but it seems to be under control for now and we know she's pretty careful about avoiding too much contact. Travel is certainly more complicated these days and I don't really fancy the journey with the potential to get the virus but our friend came by car so a safer option. I wish it was that easy to get to see the grandkids. 

Arachnaphobe alert: There are pictures of spiders below, look away if you don't like them. I still think they look amazing though and do a fantastic job trying to keep the fly population down.

Herkules and Freddie sporting the very useful cohesive bandages.
At least these have mainly stayed on. Herk occasionally scratches
his off, but we've found that if we spray some fly spray on, then
the flies stay away and he is less likely to scratch off his bandage.
The wounds are healing slowly. Freddie's bandage gets taken off
every third night and left to heal. Unfortunately we can't do that
with Herk's as he scratches at it. Slowly we are getting there.

Willowherb

A drone fly

Zebra jumping spider with a fly. Good job Mr. Spider

Cross orbweaver

My waterlily is still going strong with lots of 
flowers

A herald moth

Brrrrr!

A frosted thistle

It's cold! The rains stopped and the temperature plummeted. We had a mild frost last week but this morning we had a proper frost. It killed off the leaves on the grapevine and the uncovered tomato plants. I think even the beans that were under cover suffered. It was a lovely bright day today but oh when the sun went down it was chilly. It was a good job that our friend came to pick up our blue grapes a few days ago to make wine. I think I will have to sort out some ice-wine with the rest.

Frost accumulated on Ian's boots after a walk around the farm

It rained a lot this last week. The ponds are much fuller
now and the top pond is nearly full to overflowing. The
alpacas don't seem to have been that bothered though.
Sometimes a drop of rain and they go scurrying inside and
other times they don't even bother, they just carry on eating.
At least someone took shelter under a tree here.

Ian thinks he saw one of our bikes that I mentioned were stolen in last week's blog. If it was, it was someone very local who took it. It was tempting to walk off with it, but since it was a different colour,  due to a bad paint job and a different saddle we couldn't be 100% sure and it would have made us no better than whoever took ours. Every time I'm out and about now I'm looking at people's bikes to see if it is one of ours, which is kind of sad.

I don't think Freddie was under the tree in the rain though.
Although with such a sad face, you would think he should
 have.

I couldn't decide which photo of Freddie to use and so I used
both of them. I like the close up in the other one and the
contrast of his colour against the trees in this one.

At least it wasn't all sad this week. We had a visit from a friend who has been many times before and so we got to sit around and chat a bit. We had to eat our evening meal back at our apartment, as it was a tad too chilly to be sitting around talking. It worked out okay as she was staying in our apartment anyway. It felt odd dropping someone else off at the bus station though the next day as it is normally Ian dropping me off when I go on my travels.

Is Brencis singing in the rain?

Nope! The droopy mouth gives him away. He's been spitting

We decided to go out for a meal this week for Ian's birthday. His birthday was on Friday but since I had a Skype meeting on that day we decided to go out for lunch on the Thursday instead. As we are putting the animals away around 7pm it is easier for us to go out for lunch and then we have plenty of time to get back and plenty of time to eat. Most restaurants around here close at 8pm or maybe 9pm on the weekends and the one we went to was half an hour away and not the local one. It was a lovely meal with an interesting salad, which was beautifully arranged and plenty of colour. Besides the normal normal cucumber and tomatoes there were local berries. No I didn't take a photo.

What a hair do. 

Jakobs is no better. 

It is our son's birthday today, so happy birthday son! Ian will get to see him soon, so I am sure they will take the time to celebrate, although I think our son has lined up some jobs for Ian to do while he's there. It's funny to think he was once a little baby that I carried. I was thinking of that today when I went for an ultrasound. When a woman goes for an ultrasound when she is young it is often to check on a baby, but when you are my age it is to make sure that there is nothing more sinister there. I knew there wasn't. As I mentioned last week I've been feeling pretty good just lately and mainly over the menopausal wobbles. As I thought it was just a fibroid that I have known about for ages. Nothing to worry about and nothing to do. Perfect! That's what I like to hear.

But Ilvija wins the cutest wet hair do. I just love the curls

Ilvija's mother, Chanel, eating over the fence again

Of course being in Latvia did mean that the appointment itself wasn't so straightforward. My friend took the call from the hospital to book the appointment lats week and so I thought I just needed to turn up at the hospital. Apparently not! I think I should have had the usual note from the doctor anyway. When I got to the registration desk they were a bit bemused and told me there were no appointments for today. It was my turn to be bemused. I thought surely they should have my appointment on the records since they called me. Fortunately I still had the number on my phone and my friend rang to find out what the problem was. The people in the department then rang the registration desk. Problem solved! The lady at the registration desk even left the office to show me to the room. I'd been before but we had taken the long way round to get to it the last time obviously, much to our amusement.

Not amused at being caught

The boys playing twister again.

So we sat outside and waited. We even let a lady go in front of us as she had an earlier appointment but had to come back and she needed to catch a bus. No problem, we weren't in too much of a rush, even though we had been waiting a while already. We reminisced and talked about hospitally things. Ian has spent many an hour in a hospital, fortunately working most of the time and not in it for health reasons. Eventually I went in and the lady was lovely. She contacted her daughter at one stage to translate - as you do. Her daughter spoke good English because she is an English teacher. This might not be considered correct procedure in some places, patient confidentiality and all that, but at the end of the day it got the job done. I got to understand what was happening and that there was nothing to worry about so there will be no complaints from me. I just have to make sure that my GP gets the letter and the ultrasound scan. I texted my friend and said, "It's a boy! Hahaha not really."

Good for wearing down teeth, not so good for the tree though

George giving yoga lessons. Not sure I will be joining in

What a weird political week it has been, although weird seems the new normal. I've seen some things that have dismayed me and some things that have encouraged me. I have watched with interest the court case against the government about prorogation of the Parliament and wonder if this is going to be one of those let downs or another tale which requires suspension of disbelief. The rise of young people to defend the climate though, is the one that brings most hope to me. These children and young people are the future and they are rising up and declaring our political institutions are bankrupt. They are no longer fit for purpose as their own futures are at stake. We need a radical generation to take us into the future, ones prepared to get out and demand changes. We do well to listen to them instead of patronising them.

Here have you heard the latest?

No Aggie, you are supposed to prefer short grass

Mari shows where Jakobs gets his looks from

Short grass? Well I suppose it will save Ian time not having to
top the grass on a regular basis.

Yes it's getting cold. Jumpers and rain coat on

Not that the alpacas seem to mind. Mind you, there woolly
coats are growing well.

Please turn the lights down a bit, I have a headache or maybe
mmmmm sunshine at last. I think the latter really.

A frosty morning on the farm

Aggie looks happy to see the sun

The leaves on the trees are looking very autumnal

In between times

Vanessa looking cute again

So Christmas came and went and it's New Year's Eve. I was doing my usual grazing the internet and nearly forgot it's blog night again. In a few hours we are heading out to join a party. It's a long time since we have gone out on New Year's Eve. We have tended to be a bit like hermits at this time of the year and last year we were heading home from the UK anyway.

Plodging through the snow. And if you don't know what
plodging is, try looking it up in a Geordie dictionary 😀

Looking through the fence

Christmas day was rather different as I didn't go out to see the alpacas. I had things to do like cleaning and a bit of decorating. I made us a steak pie with a suet crust in some pots I bought on my travels last week. Not exactly the traditional Christmas fare but something a bit different. We did have roast parsnips though and Yorkshire puddings with it, although they were a bit of a flop. We don't do presents, unless we have an inspiration as we have enough clutter in our apartment as it is. So all in all, a bit of a quiet, relaxing day.

There's a good piece of hay in there somewhere (Josefs)

Or maybe here? (Freddie)

Our friend commented that alpacas have such lovely big eyes
and they sure do.

The following day we had a friend around for a meal and this time the Yorkshire puddings rose. Phew! Before the meal Ian came back from the land to take us both out to say hello to the alpacas. She hadn't met alpacas before but could see why we love them so much. The girls were very interested in the carrots she brought with her, so much so they polished off the ones I cut up, so I ended up having to cut some more for the boys. It was great to see Freddie and George eating them, along with the usual ones of Mr. P and Brencis. Tellus and Herkules kept coming up to see what there was but each time they turned their noses up when presented with carrots. Fussy pair! Turbjørn of course wouldn't come near, whether it was grain or carrots.

Freddie just chillin'

The weather warmed up a bit this week and so the snow has
been slowly sliding off the alpaca houses. 

We had a lovely journey to take our guest back on the snowy roads. The main road to her little village is usually awful, but in the snow it wasn't so bad, not so bumpy. Her house though was quite a way out from the village and so we travelled on a road we have never been before. The last section had been cleared by her father and there were sticks on either side of the road to mark it. We used to do that every winter but now the boys fence indicates where the road is and so we don't really need to do that.

Amazing how it can slide so far off without breaking

Wonder if someone has taken a bit out of this one?

Once Christmas was out of the way, it was back on with some academic work. There is a joint paper that needs to be re-worked before January 15th and I needed to check through my data to see if there was anything relevant that could be added and post that off to my supervisor. I then had to get back on with my own paper, which involved sorting through some downloaded papers to see if there was anything I could use. So much sifting of data and academic papers. I might as well get used to it as that is what my job will be for the next 18 months.

9:41 on a dull day with Jakobs looking out towards the trees

Come on! Hurry up! Feeding time for the girls at putting
away time. Only 15:37 but it will soon be dark

Ian had a surprise request this week to do some shearing in Hungary in April. That works from the point of view that we don't start shearing up this far north until May, but there are so many logistical questions to run through first before he can make any decision on that, so he has been emailing back and forth while he processes the practicalities of it all. An interesting request though. I can't go for definite as someone has to look after the alpacas and I have my own work to do too.

Everyone is looking for the elusive bit of hay. Veronica's crew
certainly know how to eat, their feeders go down at an
astonishing rate.

Ian has been fettling. The plastic on our halogen oven has
been getting brittle and I broke the handle on it. This
meant the switch didn't work, so Ian has put a new
switch on the casing and made a workable handle. It will
last a little longer now. Rather annoying as the rest of it is fine

I seem to have done quite a bit of baking this week, such as the usual croissants - although I haven't got around to making our New Year breakfast ones yet, so that will be late. I've made a late Christmas cake, Chelsea buns, scones, mince pies and my usual bread. The mince pies are for the party tonight. Not quite the traditional heavy mincemeat for the pies, but Christmassy enough. At least it will keep Ian in cake for a week or so - maybe! That man can eat.

Switch added at the back

The boys alpaca house

Today I kind of took a day off and I didn't do any academic work. Instead I did some felting, only not the decorative sort, just the utilitarian stuff. I used Herkules fleece to make felt pads to repair some inserts for Ian's winter wellies as the bases of the inserts have started to disintegrate. I have got so far as making a good thick pad about the right size, but I had to wait for them to dry before using them to repair the inserts. Herkules fleece makes a good tight felt, but it cannot be described as ultra soft, so do not worry that I have wasted fleece on wellie inserts. So I should finish there really, as I will need to get photos added and then get ready for the party.

Vanessa's crew have been getting black necks from reaching
over this feeder. It was designed to stop the sheep from
climbing in or from pulling it down. The alpacas are a little
more genteel when they eat and can reach over the top, well
almost. Ian is going to lower the feeder a bit sometime.

Not sure if it is the snow on the feeder that is being eaten
or chomping on the wood. They quite often eat the bark
off trees

Still hanging on in there and not slid off yet.