Part 1: I Ran

Karla looking a little red around the eyes and
losing fleece from around her nose. Likely due to
stress from the insects. I've used my magic cream
and the fleece is starting to regrow. I think the 
pink around the eyes is probably sorted with the
fly repellent that seems to be working.

We have a root cellar where we like to store jars of food that have been processed over the summer and to keep water cooler in the heat. This year some wasps took up residence in the doorway. Normally we are pretty quick to sort out a wasps nest but we were wondering what to do about this one as we were also aware that wasps have pretty much disappeared from our land after the ground nesting types were dug up, probably by the pine marten or a badger. We decided on trying to relocate the nest and give them a chance to build somewhere else. 

It looked promising but didn't amount to anything over us.

This bit of meadow has been left again this year because
it is so pretty.

We kitted up for the job. Ian had on his mosquito net, thick gloves and winter coat, I had a waterproof coat on that I could pull the hood up tight. You have to bear in mind that even at 10 o'clock at night the temperature was still up in the mid 20s.  We had a bucket with a lid and Ian scraped the nest into the bucket while I held the lid ready to place it over the top as quickly as possible. It worked remarkably well and no wasps attacked. Next I carried the bucket down into the field a good way from where we spend most of the time. I put the bucket on the ground and lifted the lid. The wasps started to come out of the nest and so I beat a hasty retreat, in fact I ran. 

This is as far as Ian has got with a new haystore. Too many 
other things to do.

Freddie showing off his whiskery moustache. They do pull
some funny faces.

Not sure when was the last time I legged it, I think it was when the fox was chasing our chickens or maybe when an alpaca was on the loose before we found out we don't need to run. I'm sure I wouldn't have won any prizes for speed but at least I managed to exit the area without any damage. And the wasps? Some at least came back to the root cellar and so I've sprayed those ones as they were starting to re-build the nest. A bit sad about that, but we need the root cellar. I did go back to the bucket and gave it a gentle kick and the wasps started swarming out, so they were still in there. I've not been back to check but we have had a some rain since then.

Meet Hecktor, the newest addition to our farm.

Karla exploring

It seems so recent since I started working in the garden and already produce needs to be sorted. I've made up jars of strawberries, gooseberries and white currants to go on porridge in the mornings over winter. Harvesting these also means pruning and weeding of the bushes at the same time, so takes a while. I've harvested garlic and put that in the barn to store and I've harvested the onions, so some have gone on benches in the greenhouse and some have gone in the what should be an alpaca house but gets used for storing hay. Ian fixed some battening to what will be the feeder so I could hang the onions up. 

A glorious sunrise

This is self-heal but with a difference. Normally they have
purple flowers on our land but these are white. There
 is a whole patch of them. It must be a mutation or 
something because I haven't sown them.

It has been very hot again with record temperatures for the night-time. We've managed okay by staying out of the caravan until late (one of the reasons for not blogging) and having fans on most of the day, one of which stays on all or at least most of the night too. It works. The two heavily pregnant alpacas and the nursing one have struggled though. They are not interested in the paddling pool that Ian put out for them they just stop inside in the shade and away from some of the large horseflies. 

Mainly small to medium horseflies but not the
very large ones.

We have seen a diversity of insect life this year and mainly infestations of one thing or another. We've had Colorado beetles and their larvae eating my potatoes, Clover Hay moth which infests hay (not sure what the damage will be yet), little slugs everywhere, cabbage beetles demolishing my cabbages, and stinkbugs also everywhere sticking holes in leaves and fruit. Fortunately the aphids are now being sorted by the ladybirds and probably the heat. Crickets and grasshoppers are doing a sterling job of keeping down some of the insects that have intentions of demolishing my crops. Then there are the flies that bother the alpacas and us, such as the dark large horse flies, little horse flies and deer flies. The deer flies are like an insect stealth bomber that goes for your shoulders and will go through clothing if they are not insect proof - not pleasant. Fortunately it's been too dry for many mosquitoes and maybe the dragonflies and swallows are also keeping them in check.

Fascinating creatures but would rather they
would go away.

Although I'm on holiday I still have dribs and drabs of work, with two articles and one book chapter that needs some attention. They are still a work in progress.

Fortunately the fleece is pretty thick now and it means it is
difficult for the insects to really get in. They like the 
brown spots though.

A bedstraw hawk moth

A backswimmer. Most of them are just brown, so again an
unusual find.

I thought this was funny of GT with his tail
wrapped around some pineapple weed. 

Pine Marten

Sorry no photos of the pine marten, it
was nighttime. Will one of Ilvija do?
She is getting more and more
inquisitive. I don't think it will be long
before she is eating from the trays. She's
been very interested in everyone's tray

Just after I finished the blog last week Ian heard a noise. He has exceptional hearing -well, exceptional compared to mine. He went out to investigate. It seems there was a pine marten on top of the nesting box on the side of the barn that had been taken over by wasps. He was impressed with its climbing abilities and that seems to be characteristic of those creatures. The reason for it being up there was obviously it was partial to a little wasp snack and by the next morning the wasp nest had disappeared.

The wasps nest in the process of being
created. It got far more elaborate than
this before the pine marten destroyed
it. It saved Ian a job and he had been
wondering how he was going to remove it.

Michaelmas daises are blooming. This
was early one morning so the flash
went off.

Now the nesting box seems to be inhabited by hornets though. Not sure if they are just finishing off the job that the pine marten did or not, as they do eat wasps. At least it does seem to have cured the wasp problem. We are beginning to wonder if maybe it was the pine marten digging up the wasps or whether it was badgers or both. I also wonder if it was a pine marten responsible for removing another wasp nests on the side of the barn a few years ago, we thought it was birds. Maybe not! Interesting what goes on around here in the night.

The sun just coming up. I was surprised to note how far it
has moved since summer. 

Three rows of potatoes dug and one more to go

On Tuesday we drove to the airport and Ian flew to the UK. He's seeing the kids and grandkids first and then heading to an alpaca course. So now I'm in charge of all the animals as well as my usual jobs. There's been plenty to do. The weather was fine but the forecast for the weekend was for it to turn wet. I was worried about the potatoes still in the ground that they might get blighted, especially since we've already had some wet weather. First of all I went to the camp where we've been helping with the garden and with help from some others we dug up the carrots, beets and potatoes. The next day it was turn for our own potatoes. We had made a start but the majority still needed digging. I was quite surprised that I wasn't aching after 5 wheelbarrow loads of potatoes. I think walking backwards and forward to sort the animals out helped.

The soil is beautiful. Ian dumps alpaca
manure directly on the beds over the
winter and then I plant the potatoes
into them in spring. No digging. I just
used my hands to get the potatoes, so
no fork marks either. The soil is so
friable, it just falls away and easy to
move.

Some potatoes got rather large

White potatoes in the foreground and
beans on the rack behind

On Saturday there was rain forecast for the afternoon. I continued digging potatoes and just dumping them in the greenhouse to dry off. Another 2 wheelbarrow loads. I also carted in beans still attached to their supports, chickpeas and dried out broad beans. All just propped up or dumped in the greenhouse - I planned to deal with them later. The main focus was to get everything inside. I also cleaned out the chickens, as well as the usual poo clearing for the alpacas, which has to be done every day. While I was doing all that I noticed a Lada Riva pull onto the land and sighed! Visitors! They were a lovely couple, the travelling hippy type. She was from Norway and he was Latvian. They are planning on moving to Spain to build a house and were first just introducing the newest addition to the family to his father later on that day.

Red potatoes and the beans shrouded in fleece straight from
the garden behind

The beans under cover in the garden before being taken into
the greenhouse.

Looks like Herk enjoyed seeing visitors
too. 

I enjoyed their visit even though the eldest daughter was scared of the alpacas. They took it in turns to stay with her while the other one met the alpacas. The little girl did say goodbye to the alpacas - from a distance sat on her dad's shoulders. It was safe up there! It put extra pressure on me tough to get the jobs done, so I missed morning coffee and snacked on some cracker things that someone had given us a while ago for lunch. I sat down to eat a meal and have a drink about 4pm, after another set of visitors had gone and I had finished cleaning out the chickens. These vistors were more interested in taking selfies with the alpacas than anything else and couldn't speak much English anyway.  The good news is I made it! Just in time! As I was eating the rain started. I was tired, not aching but glad it was over - apart from the fact that now everything needed to be sorted out in the greenhouse and I had some computer work to catch up on.

The same view on different days. A bright crisp morning

A foggy morning

A dull day. The change within just a week is amazing though.
The conifers are beginning to stand out now that the trees
behind are changing colour

I had my haircut too. It's a bit
shorter than normal but that is so
that I can go longer between hair
cuts. I have a lot of travelling to
do.

Sunday I started catching up on work and in between in the breaks sorting out in the greenhouse. About lunchtime a guy turned up to see if he and his parents could see the alpacas. His mum, who lives locally, had been wanting to see them for a while but she doesn't speak English, He had been working in Denmark for 8 years and so his English was pretty good. His Mum was very inquisitive about the alpacas and he was amazed at how much there was to learn about them. I have obviously paid enough attention to what Ian says to be able to regurgitate some of the information. They must have been looking on our website because he knew we had knitted socks and was going to buy some but his Mum decided on buying a skein of Veronica's wool instead. They even had to go back into the village to get enough cash to buy it, but were quite happy to do so. Ian is going to have to get cracking with spinning some more, stocks are quite low now.

There are still mushrooms about.
This one I think is the dull cousin of the
Fly Argaric - the pretty red one with
white spots. This one is called the
panther cap. It's a bit old now.

With glove to give you an idea of
size. Not edible anyway or at
least I'm not eating it.

A rather nibbled tree. I hope it will
be okay

The lady commented on the fact the boys were eating the bark of the oak tree. She said that it is something that is eaten to cure diarrhoea. I explained they shouldn't be eating the bark anyway and had only just started. Today I sorted the fence out so that they can't go near the tree. Ian can sort it out when he gets back. There wasn't a huge amount of grass anyway and so they needed moving. She also asked why all our potatoes were in the light in the greenhouse - I think at this point her son was getting a little exasperated with all her questions and he laughed when I said it was because I had only dug them up yesterday and that was a job for today to bag them up. I think she thought I was just storing them in the greenhouse. Oh well!

The same tree in the morning with the sun rising behind it.
Looks like a burning bush with the contra trail behind

Morning coffee. At least I got a
morning coffee this morning.

Today I started steaming grapes for the juice. They are a bit squishy for eating because they got frosted, so I just popped them into the steamer and I'm in the process of draining the juice directly into a demijohn. Once it's full I shall then take it back to the apartment and add some yeast and see what happens. If it's no good it will make vinegar and if its not that palatable it will be made into a mulled wine. I will make it work one way or another. Nothing wasted in our house. Well I must be toddling along now, still some work to do.

These pansies are still going strong
despite neglect.

The gem sweetcorn has grown well.
I can't eat much and so will probably
dry these for popcorn for when Ian
gets back

I hope the rose bud opens before the
frosts due next week

Silly Silla sitting out in the rain again. Actually so
was Mari

The trees are definitely turning now

And the rain has left puddles
everywhere

The forest floor is becoming more colourful

I think this is some viburnum

Looking out to the field from the forest

An edible mushroom but probably past its
best

Tomorrow's lunch? 

Vanessa and crew - a view from the forest

Veronica and her crew. 

This is the snooty look I often get
from Aggie

Yarrow still flowering.