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

Uggghh!

Our old oak tree covered in snow and lit by the sun looks so
pretty

After a week of Narniaresque type weather with beautiful snow covered trees, it rained. The snow is still here but it looks rather drab and dreary now. Such a shame as it all looked rather festive, although it did keep Ian busy clearing paths with the snowblower. Of course there is still plenty of time for snow to return before winter has finished, but for now the dark days are back.

Chanel with a bit of festive frosting

A path made with the snowblower

This time of the year is one of beginnings and ends. It is the end of the milk season for one of our milk suppliers. We have two sources for our lovely, thick and creamy unpasteurised milk. One has milk all the year round, presumably by staggering her cows delivery dates and the other opts for time off in the winter. I can understand that, as milking animals is quite demanding. Our friend the goat farmer looks forward to the rest she gets at this time of the year as she prepares for her goats to start kidding.

Mr. P shows up much better against the snow

The ponds are frozen but our well was still filling up until
a few days ago

The lighter days with the snow has meant some of our hens have started laying again and they seem to have got over their autumn moult. When the cold weather really kicks in the number of eggs usually drops off but come February time they should be starting to lay more consistently. We are going to buy some eggs this next year to raise more stock. We have managed to breed out consistent egg laying out of them, but some of them are a decent size for meat birds, so not all bad.

Eyre or Floss as we usually call her has got a good long coat on
now. So long it is starting to get all matted again. She isn't so
patient as Sofie but she let Ian comb out a huge chunk of matted
fur with the new super duper combs that have rotating teeth.

Lady V checking out the weather before heading out ....

We have our first booking for next year, on the first of January from a Russian family. We subscribed to a site that advertises rural holidays and activities but also puts tours together for individuals and groups. It will be interesting to see what else comes of this. We really do need a shop building for our products rather than bring them backwards and forwards from home though.

... for a roll around in the snow. I mean! At her age too

Investigating the old jar of oil 

On the subject of buildings, we were discussing our wish list and besides a shop we would like a purpose built workshop. I would love to have a round building that looks out over the alpaca paddocks with an offshot kitchen. The shop would be next door to that and then a barn at the end nearest the greenhouse. We were thinking of putting the barn nearer the alpacas but I think it would be nicer for people to have the possibility of seeing the alpacas better whilst doing some felting and not just when Ian brings them on a walk or far away in the distance. We would need to find funding for this though and so will have to submit proper plans, which is not too much of a problem, but we have to get organised and although we are getting there, we are getting there slowly.

Sunbathing father (standing) and son (sitting down). Brencis
is getting huge, he looks like he might be bigger than his
father. Let's just hope he remains a laid back sort of guy like
his dad.

I thought of decorating this tree for
Christmas, but I think the snow did a
better job of it

Last year we made some wine from our grapes. It was not a stunning success and the wine was at best palatable, however, it does make some rather nice gluwein. Well we like it and since we have plenty of bottles of the red stuff, we have been having a cup of gluwein on a rather regular basis. If we haven't had gluwein, we have had a hot juice drink with similar spices. We have plenty of juice from all our berries to get through but we are not big juice drinkers. We go through phases. I would rather have a hot drink though and so this makes a good alternative.

It was nice to see the sun this week

A bit cold for using the outside loo these
days

I noticed that a friend of ours had what looked like a turkey one mealtime and I asked her where she got it from. It turned out to be a goose and she got it from a friend of hers. I thought that would make an interesting change for Christmas and asked if she could help us get one. She gave me a number for someone called Martinš. We know of someone with same name and it sounded like they were in the same direction and so wondered if it was the same person. The name was on the noticeboard in our caravan with the number, so Ian checked and no it was not the same Martinš. A few days later I asked Ian to phone to arrange for the goose for Christmas, because I wouldn't be home. Eventually he remembered to phone, but the person who answered was not Martinš and neither did they speak English as we expected. Whoops! Turns out Ian had phoned the number on the board, it may have been Martinš' number before but not now and it wasn't the one I asked him to ring. Finally he got the right number and the right Martinš and so we are definitely having goose for Christmas now.

I would think the chickens are grateful to be inside these days.
This was meant to be removed and put under cover

Blackcurrant bushes forming snow sculptures

I have been busy trying to process some apples that were a bit past their best and squashes that were not going to last long. We had run short of jars but after a sort out of various jars with small amounts of jam or chutney in them I managed to free some up, a friend gave us some more and after sorting out the boxes of empty jars I managed to find some the right size. Amazing what a little sorting out will do while procrastinating a writing project. So there is blackcurrant and apple jam, wild strawberry and apple jam, there is spiced squash and dried fruit marinating waiting to be turned into christmas puddings and some orange peel being turned into candied peel. There is also dried squash and dried spiced squash.

You can just about see the sign

Tree and snow art

Another reason for the sort out was that we need to free up freezer space for lamb. We cannot keep the male lamb as his mother was the best mother of all our ewes, she gave birth unaided and took good care of the lamb, hence his good size. The other two were rotten mothers, one didn't even attempt to feed her lambs and the other was not much better and her lambs didn't really thrive. We hope it is just inexperience and next year they should be better. I say next year, they are all pregnant again and we don't know when they are due. Whoops! If the lambs from this round survive then we will cull the ram, if they don't they have one last chance before the ram has to go.

I thought I might try to cover the Brussel Sprouts, they are about
pea size now

Aggie with her dusting of snow

Such is the farming life and trying to at least maintain some genetic integrity and not inbreeding them. Next year we plan on making a better shelter for the sheep at the top of the land for routine husbandry and hopefully what was the old alpaca house will be strengthened and repaired or replaced for winter quarters. We'll see what we actually manage. It is a problem when the alpacas are our focus but the sheep do a valuable job of providing us with mowing services on rough ground and provide us with some meat. The idea is also that the fleeces we get from them will help with making felted or knitted items. A little bit of sheep's wool helps alpaca fibres to felt or hold its shape.

A bit more obvious on Chanel and looks like that fungus that
kills bats. Fortunately this will not do any damage

Digging for Jerusalem artichokes

At least this week I managed to get some skiing done. Last winter season I managed to get my skis out only once in the whole season. I hope this year to get more opportunities than that. It is always with a bit of trepidation that I get back on my skis and I always practice out of sight, well mainly out of sight. Of course the bit where I started to wobble was in sight of the road, just as a car was going past. Despite the snow, the ground is not frozen and so I also managed to dig up another bucket load of Jerusalem artichokes, so the chickens will be happy and I brought some home for us to eat. There is not much else I can do on a winters day out on our land, Ian had made all the paths necessary.

A full bucket and deep snow. Good job I had ski trousers on

The lines across are my ski track, honest!

A slow process

Two small hay stores, each holding about 30 small hay bales

This week we have mainly been focussed on getting the harvest in. Ian has continued to bale hay and he managed to bale another 23 off the ski hill. The number of bales was just under half what we got in mid-summer from an area about three times bigger. Just shows how little grass there was after the drought in summer. We wouldn't have cut then but there were a lot of weed plants starting to flower and we didn't want them to set seed, but it is a good job we did. Little did we realise we would still be trying to get hay in two and a half months later. He also cut some grass around an area we call the lake, it often floods in spring and hasn't been dry enough to cut until now. The type of grass that grows there is not good for feed but good for bedding and dries quickly and that was a big bonus.

No the barn is not on fire, just the sun shining through.
Perhaps it was just a little dusty. 

Despite all the cutting and baling we still are not sure we have enough and so when a friend offered to sell us some we decided to buy some in. It was meant to arrive on Sunday, but unfortunately there was a problem with the tractor. It isn't a big issue as they are large bales and can stand being outside anyway. Not like our smaller and more manageable hay bales that will need covering when the rains come again. There was a set of bales that hadn't dried well and were put in the barn, so we have taken them out and put them in the new hay store where they will get more air circulation. We had to ditch a few of them though, unfortunately. We then put the dry bales from near the lake in the barn.

Heave ho! The things you do on the farm

Nibbling on the willow trees. The sheep had already nibbled
on these but the alpacas can get higher up. It makes the place
look more like a park. I think we have a bit to go before we
look like Capability Brown has designed it though.

We have an apple tree on our land that is probably the result of a bird or wild animal dropping seeds, as it is in a really random place for an apple tree. This year it was actually covered in apples, are are many apple trees this year. The taste and texture is unusual, it reminds me a bit of a pear but it is definitely an apple in shape. The skin had started to turn blotchy and so we decided to harvest them. I took a couple of buckets down with me, but quickly filled them and still couldn't reach many of the apples. Ian conveniently drove past in the tractor at this point and so he helped me out by using the front loader to lift me up so I could reach the apples, as you do!

We were a little concerned that the sheep had been nibbling
on this bush/tree, as we were not sure what it was. A few of
my friends though are quite good at identifying plants and so
I asked on facebook. We think it is some sort of viburnum
and so we think the sheep are safe with it. Some types are often
used as a hedging plant around fields of livestock anyway. 

The only problem with collecting lots of apples is that they may then need processing and these certainly did, so that meant one day back at the apartment sorting those out along with a batch of tomato sauce to be oven roasted in jars. The freezers are quite full, mainly with berries though, and so I am trying to jar up as much as possible or dehydrate food from this years harvest. Processing food though takes such a long time and probably the reason many people do not do it. However, when it comes to the winter, we then have a lot of food ready prepared for meals and we still have the advantage of knowing exactly where our food comes from.

Our eerie greenhouse one moonlit night

I have also been processing the amaranth and hemp seeds. The amaranth self-seeded in the greenhouse and is everywhere - I'm not a very tidy gardener. The advantage though is something will grow that we can eat and these have large heads of seeds. Actually the hemp plants this year were also self-seeded and since many of our sown seeds did not germinate well in the drought, the fact the hemp plants got a head start before the real dry season set in, meant they took over. Good job hemp seeds are really healthy and I have been looking at how the dried leaves are good in cooking and tea, so that is another source of nutrition over the winter. Both amaranth and hemp seeds can be used for making flour and added to breads whole for an added crunch, which will help with the variety in our diet.

Looks like an early morning scene but it is a long exposure
shot in the moonlight

Our very sweet grapes are just about all gone now and I think we must have eaten most of them ourselves. It was so tempting walking past to have a few. One of the other grapevines, a blue one, has taken time to ripen and has too many seeds in to be worth snacking on although they do taste nice now, so they were harvested this week for wine. I harvested about 2/3rds of them and then decided to see if some friends of ours, who make alcoholic drinks for sale, would like to try and see what they can make with them. We can then compare our different approaches. If their's works well then we thought that maybe we could extend the grapvine further. It will provide some shade and we or our friends can sell the exclusive little vintage. People who visit are often fascinated by the fact we have vines in our greenhouse anyway.

Cranes flying south for winter. They are noisy birds, which in
this case was a good job, otherwise I would have missed them.

Ian wired in another socket in our caravan so we have a separate socket for the heater and can still plug in my computer and phone - unfortunately a sign that winter's coming and it has definitely been getting a bit nippy in the caravan. I even covered up the peppers tonight with some garden fleece in the greenhouse. We have been having to put the animals away earlier and earlier and it is difficult to know what is the best way round to do things, put them away or eat first. Today I was digging up the potatoes out on the land (there is still a load to dig up at our other apartment plot) and I finished a bit late in the evening to start cooking. Fortunately Ian had already got the food under way, but by the time I had finished we had to rush to eat it so that we could put the animals away.

The leaves are just starting to turn in the moss covered oak tree

I think this lamb is starting to put weight on now she has had
the worming medication. She is also getting the hang of sheep
grain and moving with the rest of the herd. It makes moving
the sheep between plots a lot simpler now.

We found out this week we had miscalculated last week about the rate of filling of our well by a factor of ten. So the well was filling at about 100 litres a day, which was more respectable. This week though it was down to about 50 litres a day with a drop on a couple of days to about 25 litres. We reckoned that on a hot day we would need about 60 litres a day for our basic needs and for the animals to drink, so it will be interesting to find out how it does over the next summer. It possibly still needs a good flush through though to get the water flowing properly after being disturbed by the digging.

Mr. B and Mr. P are often fighting but we think they are just
playing, it doesn't seem to be very serious. Mr. P is hopefully
going to be a father for the first time next year. I wonder what
colour the cria (baby alpaca) will be?

Aggie has been acting very strange just lately. We wonder if she is being over sensitive about being pregnant. She will let me deal with her front legs when she needs some anti-mite spray, but she was very difficult to handle and get the medication on the back legs. Even Ian was having difficulty holding her. Not sure how she will be when it comes to toe nail cutting, we might have to pin her down. Ian decided to take her for a walk to see if they could make friends again. At first she was a bit antsy, but eventually she calmed down and they went for a nice long walk. He decided to take her up what used to be a ski hill in Soviet times, but this meant crossing the dirt road. He was crossing the road with her on a long leash when he realised that she had sat down and seemed very comfortable. We wonder if she wanted to roll in the sandy road. Not useful when sometimes cars and trucks go hurtling along there. Ian had to get his hands under her belly to get her moving. I somehow think she hasn't got a clue about traffic and why should she!

Turbjørn debating whether to eat the bark on the tree

Boo!

We had a return visit from a lovely young couple who have now moved into the village for about six months while they train at the local technical college. He is learning about log house building and she is learning sewing and clothing construction. They would love to live in the countryside, but realise they need to do some planning and training to help them earn enough money to live on at the same time. It was great talking about life, faith and future dreams.

The song Liverpool Lullaby by Cilla Black comes to mind
when I see this photo, with the lyrics "Oh you are a
mucky kid"

So I think that is about it for this week. I have crossed a few things off my to-do list but there is still a few to go yet and a few that had better be done in the next day or two before we get some rain. There are times I wish it didn't take so long as it doesn't help when I also have some other jobs to do like writing papers and finishing off writing up lesson plans - at least it doesn't matter about them if it rains but digging potatoes does.