Catching up slowly!

Some very intrigued alpacas. The boys are 
rather interested in something.

Last month I received a request to meet a Polish professor who was visiting our university. I was intrigued. Apparently, our research overlapped, which kind of felt odd when our academic disciplines are different. Then again, my kind of research in rural landscapes does cover various aspects from rural out-migration to place attachment, from agriculture to tourism, and from landscape types to practical realities of living in sparsely populated areas. It's diverse and I like it that way, I find it much more interesting than being a specialist in a narrow field. 

Our place is looking very autumnal now

Not sure what Rocket Ron is staring at, or 
maybe he's just sleepy.

Our overlap apparently comes from her focus on the market branding of regional areas to my focus on the place attachment that can be branded or rather the specific identity of a place that people feel connected to. It kind of reminds me of the attachment of Sheffielders (from South Yorkshire, UK), where Ian and I used to live, to Henderson's relish (you might have to look that up) but that all comes from a sense of belonging connected by something you put on your food. Something very regional and distinctive to a place. Anyway, the meeting with the Polish professor went well and we will explore ways to apply for funding for a joint project. That would, if all the funding comes together, make three projects on the go at once - common enough in academic circles, none are full-time but should add up to a full-time job. Now it is just a case of waiting to see what happens. 

Our neighbour's trees

So peaceful

I went in the car to the university because I didn't want to spend too long travelling - 3 1/2 hours compared to one day on public transport. Well, it would have taken me 3 1/2 hours, but I stopped on the way to take a meeting, which of course is possible in the car these days. I didn't use the video to save energy, but I don't think I really needed to do that. Despite being in the middle of nowhere the coverage was adequate to have a problem free meeting. In fact, a meeting later on in the week suffered more problems with the internet connection from someone's house in Cambridge than it did from my car in the heart of rural Estonia. The joys of being in digitally well-connected countries. Apart from the fact ours is going through a naff phase.

The plan was to put the caravan in the greenhouse,
but we didn't. It's fun to see the boys while working
though. 

Just looking!

I also should mention that I took the advantage to go and visit a woollen mill that spins alpaca wool on the way up, as it was only a short detour of about 5 minutes. I wanted to see what they can do and what was needed to prepare the fibre for spinning our end. It was a very interesting visit and I got to see quite a few possibilities to use our wool and to understand some of the challenges of the fibre. The woollen spinning mill is only a small building on a huge farm, but the mill has customers from all over Estonia, Latvia and Finland. The lady herself used to hand spin yarn from her own small flock of Wensleydale sheep but now it is all processed by machine, albeit still small-scale. The long locks of the Wensleydale sheep are gorgeous though, so silky and curly. 

So that's what you're staring at Mr. P.

The weather has been largely dry for the last week.
That's been a lovely change from the endless 
days of rain.

Ian fixed the brake cables on the horse box this
weekend and glad to say it passed the technical.
Now we can fill the horse box up with wood and
take it to the apartment while it's still dry. Next
weekend's job I think.

This last weekend I've been trying to finish off as many garden jobs as possible, especially since we've been seeing more geese fly over in big, noisy flocks. It has a way of lending some urgency to the jobs, as we know the season is coming to an end and winter will slowly creep across the land - or race in, it depends. I finished off digging all the potatoes the weekend before and finally got around to bagging them up this weekend. They are now stored in our basement. There weren't as many as last year, but I think there will be enough. I stuck the tail end of last year's bags that we didn't get a chance to use on the ground under some hay and Ian will cover them over with manure over the winter. Saves a job next year if they come through, otherwise they will feed the local mice and shrew population, which in turn will feed the cats. I will also plant some little potatoes and see what happens. There will then be one row of white and one row of red to plant in the spring. So, let's see how many will be eaten by mice and how many will come through. 

One of our visitors was really concerned about
our poor Turbjørn. I thought he looked a bit 
brighter today, but lately he has looked rather down.
The other younger boys have been doing rather
a lot of play fighting that's led to some proper fights
and we wonder if Turbjørn is either getting 
knocked about or he's just trying to stay out of
the way and not relaxing. 

A cheeky look

Another job finished this weekend was taking up the last lot of beans. I've been in the process of de-podding them while I wait for the kettle to boil for coffee breaks, or while waiting for the evening meal to cook. There is still plenty of veg in the garden, but they are all plants that will take at least a light frost. So, we still have radishes (much better at this time of the year with fewer pests), beetroot, carrots, parsnips, kale, a few leeks (those that survived being dug up by the cats), savoy cabbage, turnips (still small, but we'll see how they do), broccoli and one squash. We also still have some tomatoes ripening in a box under fleece in the greenhouse, waiting for another day to make green tomato chutney. If I don't get around to it soon, it will be red/brown/yellow tomato chutney. I'm not fussy! Either will do.

Some serious eating going on in the fresh field.
They know too that the winter is on its way.

There were lots of visitors in one group and so 
they have to stay out of the paddock. Aggie
came and sat next to the fence though, so they
could all stroke her. Her eye is still 
giving me cause for concern. She will stand
while I irrigate it, but it didn't seem to make much
difference unfortunately. The vet has now been 
and she's on antibiotics. Sigh!

We are still getting visitors and one of those things occurred that just had to happen one day. Ian always talks about the reason we are in Latvia and one of those reasons is that he suspected he would be relocated to Miami if we had stayed in the US. And as he says, "Colorado, nice. Miami, no way". Latvia looked much more appealing to us. One guy piped up, "I'm from Miami (pause) and that's why I'm here now and so I understand what you're saying", or words to that effect. Phew! Good job he didn't take it as an insult. Ian does explain though that we are not city people and even the thought of living in Riga doesn't fill us with joy, we are happy enough in our rural retreat.

Karla is going to be a very fluffy alpaca by next year

And Lolly is going to be a tall alpaca we think

This particular tour guide always seems to make sure we sell something and this time I sold a hank of wool (only one left and Ian still has orders to fulfil for more), lots of felt balls and now we only have about two or three of them and I also sold an experimental piece of felt I made quite a while ago. I was intrigued by what the lady wanted to do with it and she said she was going to paint a design to match, then place the felt on it and frame it. I really should do something similar but haven't had the time to do that. Oh well! Nice to be part of someone else's creativity too. 

Oooh! That sun feels good

Mrs. Bossy boots though does have a nice smile

I was rather taken aback, though, by the young whipper snapper who cheekily suggested that because I'm old I don't know how to use the internet properly. Whaaaat! There are differences sometimes between the way I handle the internet and those of younger generations, that's inevitable and I most certainly use the internet differently to many within my own generation, but to suggest I'm old and so don't use the internet properly was a bit staggering. I think the gist of his argument was that he had grown up using it and I hadn't, which is true, but I'd certainly been using it longer than he'd been alive and errrrhmmm! I use it for my job and can effectively research a topic pretty quickly, even if I have to resort to "just googling it". I know it's limitations and the techniques you have to use not to get misinformation only. 

Lolly has a sweet smile too

Chanel can smile sweetly too, but she can also
be quite grumpy and spitty. She's loss the fleece 
off her legs again. We thought that after the
summer of spraying her with a mix of clove
infused oil and vodka, she was doing really well
and didn't need to continue. Apparently not! The
problem is that she is so uncooperative about it
and stressy, that's its not easy to spray her
regularly and not where we really want the spray
to go. We will persevere.

I've been doing another peer review for an article. I haven't done one for a while, but it didn't help that the notifications were landing in my spam box. I thought I had better send a message to one editor rather than let them think I was ignoring their messages - not a good look really, especially as it was a reasonable journal to review for. My. colleague has also resubmitted a paper yesterday that has been ongoing for aggggggesss. I do hope that is the last time ever with that article. 

I think Jakobs is wondering what Ian is doing!

As things are winding down a bit, I've actually had a little bit of time to do some reading of papers for myself and one I was reading was discussing the response to the Covid 19 crisis and whether there has any opportunity for progress on sustainable development. It reminded me of how nature didn't take long to take advantage of the pause in modern life. We need nature to recover more long-term for the sake of life on this planet, but it did show what can be achieved if we stop and slow down. Of course, there is the drive to "get the economy back on its feet". Pity! The economy they have in mind is endless growth and that is not a pleasant thought. 

A false morel. Not one we'll be 
eating any time soon, but an interesting
looking mushroom and quite large.

The boys in their field. They are now not far
from our caravan, so I can look out and be 
distracted by alpacas.

We really need to buy less and buy better. Buy local and if not local, then fair trade and based on ecological principles. With this in mind we were quite pleased to have found someone to do a zip repair on Ian's trousers. I don't mind repairing things, but I'm not a fan of replacing zips. He had two pairs done for €6 and the zips look sturdy enough, so that's good enough for me. How many other small businesses can we support? We buy locally raised meat when we need it, we buy from our local bakery once a week and we use the local small supermarket for our regular stuff. We top up using online shopping for things like flour from a Latvian company that sell organic flour and we buy milk from our neighbour. We can afford to do that partly because I'm earning now, partly because we don't have loans and mortgages and partly because we don't spend our money on a whole lot else. Retail therapy is a thing of horror to me. 

And now for some rather autumnal tree photos

I love the clouds in this one

There is also a lot of talk about getting back to normal by sending children back into school with face-to-face learning for the benefit of their mental health. This has been strongly argued but the premises are still a problem. We have to recognise that not all children were thriving in the school environment either. They need interaction with others that is true- but not just with children but other people of all ages, we all do to greater or lesser degrees. Some thrive in a noisy, vibrant environments and some don't. How to thrive in different environments is an important part of education, but we have to manage that depending upon the child. 

More of those clouds from a different angle

They don't look like that today as the wind has
been blowing for the last two days and the 
trees are starting to look quite bare.

How many have realised that a lot of work gets done without the endless rounds of meetings and people popping in and out of the office? Quiet spaces are important, a topical question at my workplace. So why is that not the same with children too - again some more than others. Often children need supervising, but not all the time. There is evidence that boredom is good for children as long as they have access to relieve that boredom. Access to the outdoors is important for that. Learning how to navigate barriers, creating stories in their heads and acting them out are essential for development of young brains. Plastic toys and structured activities may have their place but are not the answer to a child connecting to the natural and social environment around them. 

That is the highlight of laziness young lady! 

Brencis!

A push to reconnect both in schools and work needs to be balanced with working out how to do that safely and not pushing us into yet another round of unnecessary lockdowns or sending vulnerable people into hospital. It is also about creating a safer environment for the future - not one that removes all risks but manages them for the health and well-being of all inhabitants of this planet. Let's put health and well-being first and not the economy. The economy should serve the people, not the people serve the economy. If it isn't working, then fix it and it sure is broken at the moment. That's a whole other topic!

Time flies

Off to sunnier climes no doubt!

It's been nearly a month since I've last posted. Perfect life? There were a few comments after my last blog that were really nice and encouraging but I did wonder if I'm giving the wrong impression at times. I'm struggling to balance too many things and some plates drop like this blog just lately. It's not just for reading by others but also a public diary of our time here on our land, so when I get out of sync I lose our thread of what we've done. I don't often go back and read through the blogs myself, but Ian does and tells me what we were doing this time so many years ago. It's also a great record of the weather and the changes through the years. 

It was Ian's birthday on Monday 
and our daughter organised a cake
as a surprise. This was made by the
local bakery that is only open
Fridays and Saturday mornings but
we visit every week. 

Lolly is beginning to lose her new baby looks.
She's still being fed by bottle lots of times during
the day, but we have to start planning what 
happens when it comes to us going back to the
apartment as she still has a 6:30am feed and a
10:30pm feed at the moment.

The problem though is trying to work full time or at least nearly, help out on the land, grow our own veg, do a bit of extra work for an educational organisation that serves missionary schools and home educators and last but not least try to learn Latvian. Something has to give and this blog has been one of those things. It's a busy season, but the season should start to wind down soon, the frosts are coming and Ian even heard some geese flying over - never a good sign. Once they go the wintry weather often begins about two weeks later. 

I never knew how many different types of spiders
there are on our land until I started collecting 
pictures of flora and fauna on our land. This is a 
crab spider.

The many moods of the grasslands. This has been
brown since it went to seed but gradually as it 
dies back it is getting a more autumnal hue 

I'm still yearning for a cabin on the land, the trials of using a kitchen set up in a greenhouse have been a pain that doesn't get any easier. Nothing seems to be in the right place at the right time and my food preparation area is a magnet for anything that isn't food. It's a wonder we get fed at times and sometimes we do eat rather late. I don't have to go shopping very often but making our evening meal might involve going to find what can be harvested first. I like the feeling of looking at a plate and thinking that most of it is from our own land and then there are days I couldn't care less and just want to eat whatever is in front of me. 

Little miss stubborn is also getting bigger. She is
one cool customer. She will just sit in a doorway
and not bother to move for us. 

The alpacas ate what they could from this and 
then Ian went over and mowed down the 
saplings that had sprouted

All sorts of things have happened in the world since I last posted but in our own rural bubble nothing much has changed apart from the turning of the year that happens every year. Sometimes early and sometimes later. We've had a few just frosty mornings but nothing severe. I took in the squashes as a precaution and harvested the beans now, although Ian did find a few more squashes that have either grown in the meantime or I missed. The squashes are curing on the windowsills of our apartment and the beans have been drying in the electric dryer. The beans that were still green are now either in the freezer or in jars with other veg and a tomato sauce. All the tomato plants have been uprooted to put the chicks inside the greenhouse or rather the remaining chicks. 

The chicks inside the greenhouse and our monstrous
cucamelons that are taking over the greenhouse

Wasps have been trying to build in this birdhouse
for a while. Ian started spraying water at it and
ended up with a sting just above the eye. It 
looked like he'd been slapped on the face it was
rather swollen at one point.

One day I found a dead chick and thought it must have died over night and the others had pecked at it. Chickens can be horrid that way. I did wonder if anything had got in because I thought it was odd as all the chicks seemed healthy enough the night before. I dismissed that idea as there was only one dead one and anything that got in usually seems to dispatch them all as we've found out over the last few years. The next morning I let out the chickens and only 8 of the now 13 chicks appeared. 

These nettles aren't turning, they've been this 
colour for ages. Rather pretty really.

Oak leaves turning

When I looked in the ark I found that the rest had been killed, not a pleasant sight first thing in the morning. It was the darker ones mainly that survived although there were also two white ones remaining. One of the white ones though must have been attacked. I did think of dispatching it but we gave it a chance. It had a wound on its back that I covered with blue spray and we put it in a cat basket with food and water. It was hungry - a good sign. It also seemed to have a broken foot as it was not putting it down flat, but chickens can often adapt with a broken foot. After a bit of a rest I put it back with the others and a few days later it was almost back to normal, just a slight limp. Anyway they are now safer in the small greenhouse and seem none the worse for their ordeal. Obviously modifications will be needed on the arks for next year. Sigh!

Our alpaca created parkland

A view from the hill

All trimmed to a perfect height

I love the look of moss covered rocks

The academic paper that I've been in the process of writing for what seems like aaaaaaaaggggggesssss I thought was finally finished. There was the smallest of alterations needed, which we took as a good sign, but then a rather serious sounding email that said there were still issues and if we didn't sort them out then it would be rejected. Very annoying as some of it should have been highlighted before as it is pretty much the same as it was in the first submission. The technical details of this paper has nearly driven me potty, as if I wasn't potty enough. I prefer the more qualitative story-telling type of approach, where the stories of the land are told and people's connection to it. The systematic mapping process can be very tedious but also very necessary. There is so much fascinating work out there that has been done by some hardworking scientists that needs to be accessed and understood. I am now into my third mapping project and sometimes I wonder why when we get such grief from a journal editor. 

An inquisitive Valeria

A pensive looking Mari

Systematic mapping is a very precise technique and it is nice for this third project to be working with someone with more experience than I have. So I'm looking forward to seeing how this process can be speeded up to get the information out on time next year. It is also intriguing to be working with someone whose work I've read in the first project - super guy to work with too. So from no career to a very active career is a bit of a jolt. I've been thrown into the middle of another grant application for funding and if we get it I will be leading a small team on a project looking at the management of protected grasslands. 

Waterlillies

Meet the Herk bird. Well that's what we used to
call it. It has a call that has us running to see what
the matter is as it sounds to us like an alpaca 
warning call. Herkules our old man used to 
make that call and so we called it the Herk bird. 
We never knew what kind of bird it is though. 
When the grassland expert was with us, we saw it 
fly past and make the call for the first time ever 
and she was able to tell us what it is. At last! We
now know it is a Black Woodpecker.

We had a consultant come out to see our grassland and also discuss the project. It was fascinating walking around to see the place from her perspective. There were things I have never noticed before and somethings I had but hadn't understood what they meant, for instance some plants that indicated a change from a dry meadow to a wet one. She was very supportive of letting some of the the trees grow but we know there is a need to remove some as it has got a bit dense in places, however, she said the mix was good for biodiversity and this will only improve with clearing out the dense patches. She also explained the difference in approach of agroforestry between Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. So interesting to learn more about a landscape, particularly one we call ours. 

Freddie looking very elegant. He doesn't look this
elegant after finishing fighting with the others. The  young boys are still fighting regularly, sometimes
just playing and sometimes more serious. We
removed their fighting teeth this last month though
and so now Ian is not so worried about them injuring each other. The older boys rarely join in and so we
are hoping they all settle down soon. 

This is Tellus putting Jakobs in his place without
the fighting, "Just a warning lad! No messing
with me. Got it?"

Needless to say with all that has been going on I only managed the harvesting by taking a week off work. I had planned on an October holiday but then my daughter-in-law and grandkids planned to come out. Unfortunately a passport didn't arrive in time and so the trip got cancelled. I took the week off anyway as I realised it was the best opportunity of getting things straight out on the land. Having said that due to a conference at the beginning of the week, I still managed to work my normal hours. 

George doesn't join in as often in the fighting but
we think he's established himself as the boss 
among the younger ones.

Poor Turbjørn though is struggling again. Not
sure if the antics of the young ones has ended
up with him jarring his neck again or just the
colder weather making him feel worse. We'll
see what the vet says.

Another reason for taking advantage of the time off is that it is the first time in ages it's been dry for more than a few days at a time since the weather broke. Ian finally got some more cutting and baling done before the weather turned wet again and so some of the hay has just had to be thrown away and the hay on a neighbour's field is sat in rows and will be rotten by now. It's a good job we just about got enough from this year and plenty left over from last year to see us through. I managed to dig out half of the potatoes - I say dig, we don't dig exactly, I just use a small hand rake to find the potatoes. No digging is required due to our alpaca manure beds that Ian prepares over winter by dumping the clear outs from the daily clean of the alpaca sheds and fields. 

That juicy leaf just on the other side of the fence.
At least he isn't leaning through the fence like
his half-brother George. George has broken a
few fence posts in the process.

The boys in their field

We've had a few of the irritating things in life and Ian has had to deal with these as I've just not had the time. Some of them are the kinds of things I used to do but we've had to switch roles. He's been trying to find out why our eID cards do not work to sign in online. We suspect it is the latest version of software on our computers but that is still a job in progress to work through the issues with some techies. He's also had to try and sort out the scanner as that stopped working when we updated our software. He's also had to sort out brake cables for our horse box as it failed its technical. Horse boxes, trailers and cars tend to be Ian's job to sort out. I think I might have taken the car once to get a re-test when he was away but that's about it. Unfortunately that hasn't been easy either and we had a delivery fail because of a problem with the address. Anyway, they should come soon, so they say.

Some mushrooms in our forest

Chanterelles

Not sure what this one is even with the help of 
iNaturalist

Nor this one

Hopefully right on this one, 
golden pholiota but the blurb 
says found in New Zealand and
the US and yet there are dots 
to say it has been found in Europe. 
This is where iNaturalist might
come unstuck as it seems to 
possibly perpetuate inaccuracies.

I love the name that comes up for this one, 
Trooping Crumble Cap. 
They look like a forest of little parasols.

Storm damage, not that it was that windy but we don't have a lot of wind to strengthen the trees and so when it does blow it leaves more damage.

I'm always amazed when a tree goes at what
can happen to it. Such strength and yet it can
be twisted by the wind.

I guess this one had significant decay in it.