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

451 and still counting

Mushroom in our forest. Not sure what sort,
so if you know I would be happy if you send
me a message or post a comment.

Well 451is how many pig holes or areas of damage that I have counted so far. I have at least finished covering four of the five areas of land, but the biggest area is still to do and I have only covered a small portion of it. At least in our area the hunt has been in the vicinity and so the wild boar have decided to take a vacation for a couple of weeks - well we hope it is at least a couple of weeks. The weather is definitely against me at the moment though, as the temperatures have plummeted and it has been drizzling. Drizzle is okay for just traipsing around fields looking at the damage done by the wild boar, but trying to measure the holes means I get a muddy wet tape measure that sticks after a while, the notebook gets covered in mud too as well as wet and I can't imagine it would do much good for Ian's camera that I am borrowing to take the photos as evidence. I think the next time I am out measuring the holes it will be woolly hat and gloves time, and that won't make things any easier.

Will post a picture in situ next week. Hope
it looks less of a mess where it is though by
then. Things are starting to pile up out there
on our land and look untidy.

We did get the horse box that Ian went to look at and it matches the caravan beautifully as both are in Latvian red and white, and guess what! I forgot to take a photo of it (so you will have to make do with the advertisement picture of it). Next week perhaps! I did get some photos of our cute new kittens though, so yes we did succumb. They are giving us hours of entertainment as they go hurtling around our laminate floors chasing old bean pods, toilet rolls, screwed up tissues, a stuffed old sock and the light from a laser pen. They are also causing us great consternation due to the fleas they both have, but they are getting better now that we found a flea comb.

This is Bella, but don't be fooled by that innocent look.

Bella is the first kitten we got and she is completely hyper. She charges around the house like a cat on a hot tin roof. She was thankfully toilet trained when we got her, but as many kittens do she often bites - gently but still! We have been gradually training her that this is an anti-social habit and she had better desist. She is also the first one into any trouble, most of the time and spends most of the time picking a fight with our other kitten. It is funny how she sort of chirrups when she has been caught doing something she knows she shouldn't.

Sofia, the quieter kitten

Sofia, Sofie or Sofs for short, is a far calmer character. She seemed pretty timid when we brought her home, but that could be because she is a barnyard kitten and not as used to people as Bella was. I first saw her when I was walking around the farm for my wild boar project with the owner of the farm. She was sitting watching two other kittens playing and looked so cute and I guess you could say she was the reason for giving in. We were worried that being a barnyard kitten she might be a bit wild but she is far from it. A gentle creature - unless provoked by guess who! - and perhaps deaf, either that or she has a high tolerance for all sorts of strange noises that freak Bella out. They have adapted now to each others company and show no jealousy over food bowls but definitely both jealous of people's laps. It is not a kitten each but usually they are both sat on Ian's lap (or mine now as I try and type this). Not sure what they will think of us tomorrow though as they will be off to the vets for check ups and injections. Sofia is the smaller of the two kittens but maybe actually quite a bit older than Bella, so not sure if she was just underfed or just a small cat, so we will see what the vet says about that.

One on your lap, both on your lap

Another milestone this week was our Wedding Anniversary. We have now been married 27 years and we have known each other for 29 years. We met the first week of the first term while at uni and got married between our second and third year and so the anniversary of our meeting was two days before our wedding anniversary. It has been an amazing time and if you had told either of us what we would be doing, where we would be and where we go in that time, I am not sure we would have believed you. It has been a great journey and I pray that our kids enjoy the journeys in their married lives as much as we have. Now I wouldn't like to give you the impression it has all been plain sailing because it hasn't. We still have adjustments to make to our new lifestyle and having each other around so much, we have had our ups and downs too, but thankfully not many arguments. Early on I took to writing letters to Ian to tell him about how I felt about certain situations and this allowed me to put my thoughts down in a more considered way, especially as the first draft usually got thrown away.

The village lake has been returned to full
capacity now as the work continues on
the new hydro-electric plant

You can tell it is winding down time as we even found time to go to the bakery for a cup of tea and a pastry, which we haven't done in a while. We have made it to the bakery to get a pastry to sustain us through the day, well a pastry or two if the truth be told, but not had the time to go and walk there. We probably didn't really have the time as it was one of the few dry days this week and I guess there was plenty we could have done, but life doesn't seem quite so urgent as it has been, as we have got done a lot of what we need to do to be prepared for the winter, or at least what we have been able to do. Must mention the fact we needed to go to Jekabpils for some supplies we couldn't get locally and well since we were there we had to have some English style fish and chips at the local Tomato Pica place (thought it might become a regular feature). Despite our times of relaxation there needs to be a final push though to get wild boar holes logged, the last of the veg dug up and then next month it will be putting plants to bed before the real snow and cold arrives. We may get some soon (none forecast yet but you never know) but that usually melts to leave us with a muddy mess.

We were surprised to find our heating came on today. It hasn't been that cold recently, although it was today and it isn't October 15th yet either. The regulations are less than 8C during the day for three days or below freezing at night for three days. This usually means a cold September early October, but the unseasonably high temperatures we have had meant it was just not cold enough for heating and we have only had our wood burning stove on a couple of times. We had planned on lighting it tonight  as it was around 4C most of the day and only got up to 6C at its warmest, but there is no need now.

Our barn is now finished, they added the locks today. The
concreting has to wait until next year now though

Our neighbours on the allotment are a bit bewildered as to why we are not out digging the garden over, in fact we put clover seed down as a winter cover crop. Most Latvians have pristine dug plots over winter and then dig it all over again in the spring which destroys the soil structure, it also leaves the soil open to leaching of all the nutrients from it over the winter. By leaving plants intact we risk the pests not being disturbed but then we rotate our crops and so is not as much of a problem and I remain to be convinced that digging brings all the harmful bugs to the surface to be eaten. Another factor for leaving the site covered with vegetation is that we have a sloped site which is sandy and that means that it is more prone to leaching. We are trying a bit of the technique used in the link (Garden of Eden film) I shared the other week of using wood chippings, unfortunately we can't get the chippings with the leaves on our plot (we can do that on our land though), but we can mix it in with compost and manure for a more nutritious topping. We have sourced the wood waste from a local wood mill, which means there is a lot of bigger pieces of wood in, but they will rot down eventually and they had a pile of well rotted stuff as well which we can mix together with the drier stuff. We can also rake up leaves from nearby trees to add to the mixture too. Now we just need to find time to do this and the right weather, although spring time will also work if necessary.

The new hydro-electric station, still
under construction

It has left the river with a lot of sediment. One friend of ours
has lost a swimming area to the silt but has been assured
that it will wash away in the spring floods - we shall see.

A neat little water works station (well at least that is what I
think it is).  Beats the dilapidated old building that it replaced

The newly tarmacked road up to the technical
school, it was just a dirt road before which we
have many of.

The new skate park