And other things

I got this look today when she turned to face me.
Fortunately she decided to do as she was told
and not spit at me in the process.

Not a plain sailing kind of week. Chanel had an eye infection, which meant putting eye cream in every night for about a week. I tried irrigating the eye at first, as that normally helps as it did with Freddie not so long ago, but after two days and no improvement we went to get a prescription from the vet. It was kind of tricky getting eye cream into Aggie recently but even worse with Chanel, who is our rather spitty alpaca. Chanel also sits down as soon as we try to do anything to her and she will often sit down near the door; so that meant straddling her to put the cream in and praying she didn't stand up in the meantime. Fortunately she decided to stay down on the floor. 

Sunrise! It really does exist

Personally if I was going to zone out on a 
frosty morning, I would choose a sunnier spot.

One night I noticed that Aggie was stamping her foot a lot and she seemed rather agitated. I thought she looked like the mites were bothering her again and so she has had oil sprayed onto her feet. It might also be the issue with her eye that is beginning to swell a little again. It's not an eye infection like Chanel's as Aggies' eye issues responded to steroid cream and not the antibiotic. It's most probably her overactive immune response to mites. The warmish (for November) weather is probably not helping. Those aren't the only alpacas we've had to deal with either. Mari has had a cough for a while, so she's on her second course of antibiotics. 

Mari seems to look fine but that cough has lingered.

The frost doesn't seem to bother them.

I wish I could say they were the only issues this week, oh no! I'd just had one of those hectic moments where I'd taken a phone call and then had a few minutes to put the chickens away before a staff meeting. I'd let the older ones out in the morning to roam around the greenhouse and eat the weeds that had been growing up. After lunchtime they are usually ready to settle down a bit so it is a good time to get them back in the ark ready for putting away for the night. Most of the chickens were already in and two of them jumped in after the grain I threw in, but of course there was one I ended up catching in the net to put her away. We had moved this last ark into the greenhouse as the weather has been awful and they were just creating mud patches on the grass where we moved them too each day. 

In more peaceful times

After that little performance I just sat down to listen to the staff meeting online and we were a few minutes in when Ian phoned. Ian knew I was in a staff meeting, so I guessed it was urgent. "The boys are out again!" Oh good grief! I tried to write something hurriedly but realised there wasn't time so slung on my boots and coat and ran out the door. "Get the poles," he yelled! So back in the greenhouse, grabbed the poles and headed up towards Ian, just as Mr. P went through the fence. "Drive them all down to the paddocks, we'll sort them out there," shouted Ian. 

I always get nervous when the little ones are
in the middle of the mayhem. 

Well that was easier said than done. There were alpacas going in all directions. Eventually I managed to separate off the little ones and two females and herded them into a paddock. Four more females were standing around wondering whether to go back to the boys. Nope! No way girls, even spitty Chanel took the hint that I was not messing around and they'd better move themselves. Eight down, three to go. I managed to get Silla up as she will sit down for the boys, although she was being harassed by Jakobs I managed to get her almost to the gate when she sat down again. She was not going to move this time, even when he sat on her head in the mud.  Ian was struggling with Brencis and a harness, so was not able to help me. 

It was rather cold that morning but so good to 
see the sunshine.

I managed to get Jakobs off but he was being too persistent and I was slipping and sliding around In the end I wrestled him to the fence (seem to have been here before). I held onto him tightly with him bucking and trying to free himself. Ian eventually came over with a couple of harnesses, one for Jakobs and one for George who had come over to join in the fun. Ian got Jakobs harnessed up and I took Jakobs back to the paddock. Ian had managed to get most of the other boys back in the meantime, while I'd been fending Jakobs off. Ian got hold of George and followed me. 

Silla looking a lot whiter here than she did 
by the end of the escapade.

Well that just left Freddie, Silla, Antonia and Vanessa. Freddie seems to be the initiator of much of the fighting with the boys, but I'm not sure he really knows what to do with the girls - fortunately in this case, because he's not breeding quality, with poor fibre and a slightly dodgy leg that is probably genetic. He showed no interest in Antonia and Vanessa and they were showing they were not taking any messing around from any males, especially a young whippersnapper like Freddie. Silla, who was by now black from sitting in the mud was wandering around. This would have been an ideal time for her to sit down as Freddie may have been easy to catch then, but no. Still we managed to get in between the two of them and headed Freddieoff back to the boys paddock. Next job was to herd the remaining three girls into their paddock. 

Surely a bit early for a bulging tummy Ilvija?

Amanda is still feeding Karla but she seems to
be starting the weaning process. Lolly is also 
taking less milk from her bottle feeds. We've
managed to drop the late night and early morning
feeds. 

Wheezing away I headed back to my staff meeting. I wrote a note in the chat box apologising for my absence with a short explanation. Not sure if the other staff who were meeting face to face saw it but I noticed smiles on the faces of those online. At one point I had some comments to make and had to wheeze through what I wanted to say. My colleagues laughed. I'm glad it's something they can understand and not frown upon. I was meant to be chairing this week's meeting but my internet has been so bad that I asked if someone else could do it fortunately.

Chanel at the front. You can see she still has skin
issues but she is so difficult to treat. She gets all 
stressed that will only make things worse. Still we
try to do what we can.

It wasn't the only event recently. The excitement in the caravan was palpable, when Ian laughed and said, "Only two more sleeps till bakery day!" We've had to manage without our usual pastries and bakery bread for over three weeks and last Friday was the first time the bakery reopened. Do you know how difficult that is for Ian? Yes I can bake but it's more of a faff at this time of the year and I'm kind of busy with work until it's dark. Not easy with a kitchen in the greenhouse that gets cold. Ian could bake his own cakes too, he's done it before, but... well the bakery is nice and of course we are supporting a local business. 

Morning on the land

Mari

I haven't followed all of COP26 but been aware of the issues. I know there will be a lot of background deals and nothing will really be done until the last moment, which is why I haven't been following it so much. I haven't been filled with a lot of hope either despite the rhetoric. I'm having trouble believing that Johnson can be serious about his proclamations. My concerns though are for the future generations. I've heard that mention of climate change is just "Project fear" and we shouldn't scare the children! But why should the children not be scared when it seems that the adults are ignoring the tsunami of change that awaits if efforts to address climate change and biodiversity loss are not taken. The children seem to understand the consequences and just want the adults in the room to actually do something instead of ignoring the data or even ridiculing it. They want the adults in the room to lead the children up the hill basically. In a tsunami, as many of us now know, the sea first retreats and uncovers all sorts of interesting things on the beach, the changes are amazing, but we need to read the signs that all is not well and retreat up the mountain. 

Blue sky! The lack of it just lately means that Ian
hasn't been out with his camera so much.

Aggie's eye is starting to look a bit swollen 
again. It will be time to get more cream I think.

So what does retreating up the mountain look like in this scenario? First reduce consumption. Buy only what you need to and make sure it is fairly made, ecologically sound and what you need - yes I did repeat that twice. In planning there is something called the mitigation hierarchy that means we should first try to avoid damage to biodiversity, if we cannot do that we should mitigate the effects (ensure they are not as bad as they could be) by restoration or rehabilitation to give it a new lease of life after the disturbance and finally offset by compensating for biodiversity loss through creating an alternative elsewhere. We can use that principle in life, by first avoiding buying something new. But if we have to buy something new and cannot reuse what we already have, then do as little damage as possible and make amends afterwards - buy locally, buy fairly traded items, buy long lasting items. Or lastly we compensate by tapping into the ecological restoration projects.

Silla

Next is to deal with our surroundings, like skimming pebbles in the lake where the ripples reach out further and further. Make our gardens productive, not primarily low maintenance. Plant useful plants, plants that feed you and the wildlife, plants that add tastes to our foods like herbs, plants that do not need to be re-seeded each year, bushes with berries, trees with fruit. Get involved in rehabilitation projects near you or find out how to start one. Let's show the kids we are doing something. 

Enjoying the sun. There has been precious little
of it just lately.

Now that will get us so far, but not far enough. There are bigger polluters of our environment and we have to remember they are stealing resources from children and grandchildren. Why do you think the kids are angry too, as well as afraid? They see their future slipping away. Do we want to pass on a dying planet or a living, breathing planet? Simple! We have enough resources to be able to rehabilitate this planet, we have the knowledge, but it is going to take an extraordinary effort to get us there. Not business as usual with greenwashing as I said in a recent meeting. Let's stop ignoring the issues that trashing our planet has done and start to restore and rehabilitate, while we still can . We need to insist that our politicians are onboard, by objecting to the companies that steal our futures and the futures of our kids and those are just for starters. Come on! We can do it! We have to do it! Acknowledge the kids are right, but we are going to have to work hard to give them a better future and not a dying one. 

And so it continues

New tyres

On Thursday of last week, Ian went off to the garage to get some new tyres for the car and I had my Latvian lesson. I happily told my Latvian teacher, in Latvian, that the boys had been peaceful since the last incident. After the lesson, I needed a coffee before starting work, so I switched on the kettle and then went out of the back door of the greenhouse to the outside office (aka the loo). As I went back to finish off making my coffee, I saw a row of faces staring intently at me over the fence. I thought that was a little odd but waved merrily at the alpaca boys. 

It's not completely unusual to be stared at by the
alpaca boys just perhaps not a row of them.

Life has also been a little wet just lately. Our
well is rather full.

Life is a little complicated in some ways and could do with a little bit of a reorganisation, so while the kettle and coffee are in the greenhouse, the milk is down in the coolness of the barn, as it is a better location for the fridge. I set off out of the front door of the greenhouse and saw the girls were not heads down gently grazing the grass, instead they were all gathered together with their heads up and postures that suggested they were on their guard. My level of alertness went up the scale, scanning for the cause of their behaviour. 

This is how they should have been, quietly
and peacefully grazing.

Josefs does tend to stand out for his
distinctive markings

I spotted Josefs first, his distinct brown and white colouring standing out against the mainly solid colouring of the girls. Then I spotted little Jakobs too. My heart sank. I was home alone and needed to act. I plonked my coffee down and ran, meanwhile mentally calculating if there were any more loose alpacas. Nope, just the two young ones. I knew they had tried to join in the mating game at the weekend and so not likely to be able to just head them off. 

On a more peaceful, sunny day.

Really, this is how they are most of the time.
Just peaceful grazing away. 

I enacted plan A: I went to close the gate to stop the girls getting into the paddock and went back to try and drive the two boys in, since at least they were still on the outside of the girl's electric fence. As I got closer though, they crashed/leapt through the fence into the girls area. 

At least Freddie wasn't involved..... this time! He
is often mixed up with the fighting just lately and
is perhaps the most persistent. The others often
give up before he does. You wouldn't think it
from that sweet face would you?
Don't be fooled!

Lolly has such a sweet face and is looking more
and more like a little female version of
Mr. Tellus, her father

Plan B: (Plan A didn't last long then) I went back to open the gate and try to drive as many girls as I could into the paddock. I ended up driving in Jakobs too. I gathered the herding sticks and managed to capture him in a corner and man-handled him along the fence and out of the gate. There was nothing I could do about Josefs and so herded Jakobs back to the boys paddock and grabbed a harness for Josefs. 

It will be interesting to see what colour she is at shearing time.

Still soaking up that sun.

Plan C: Get as many of the girls into the paddock as possible as Josefs was intent on mating with Mari. He would be busy for a while. I did notice he was definitely a rooky suitor as he wasn't positioned correctly. At least that was what I hoped! I was surprised though that Mari was sitting down for him, she doesn't like Josefs. I managed to get all except Mari through the gate and could now concentrate on getting Josefs. 

I'm surprised that Mr. P wasn't there too with
 Josefs and Jakobs. He so wants to visit the girls.
He is often stood by the fence
staring in their direction.

Hopefully Mari is not pregnant, but interesting
that she sat down for Josefs. She would normally
spit him off as soon as she saw him.

Mari had stood up by then and was moving around a bit, which made it more difficult to get him. He wasn't giving up easily though and so I was able to walk up to him and get the harness strap around his neck. With the strap around him he wasn't able to run off and so I was able to get hold of him properly to put his harness. After that he wasn't too much bother to lead him back to the other boys. I secured their paddock gate and went back for my coffee and cake. I needed cake!

Turbjørn was not involved either, but no
surprise there.

Antonia.

I rang Ian who was still at the garage and told him the news. All was calm by now. Everyone was in the right paddock and I would let Ian deal with them all later. A few minutes went by and Ian rang me. "I have a problem," he said, "I'm nearly back but the wheel is nearly off". Oh my goodness! The garage guys were on their way pronto and soon sorted him out. They had no idea how it happened, as they checked the required torque wrench settings when putting the wheels back on. Fortunately though, due to Ian's prompt action in stopping when things didn't feel right, nothing was damaged and he managed to find all the nuts from the wheel.

Another issue we have is the
caused by the moles.
We must be mole city by now as they
are popping up molehills all over the place.
This is on the path up
to the girls' houses.

This is just outside Vanessa's house and there are plenty 
around our large greenhouse and even some just inside. 
There are also mounds and holes appearing in the little 
greenhouse and outside of that. There are some around
the boys' house and in their field as well. Just about everywhere.

Just a little scratch

In an attempt to return to get back to normal I then spent some time reading a PhD thesis for one of our students and doing a little editing, followed by some lunch and a bit more editing. At one point I suddenly realised that I needed to do some work on the final proofs for the article that had been accepted recently and it needed doing before the next day. Phew! That left me just time to grab a quick cup of coffee before an online meeting.

Oh that is so much better!

Ilvija and Lolly searching for grass amongst
the leaves.

I listened to the presentation on the position of the bioeconomy in EU policy by someone from the European Commission, then we were assigned to work groups. Our internet hasn't been great and so I didn't immedieately volunteer for the rapporteur's job, but after waiting for several minutes for someone else to volunteer, I realised we were not getting anywhere fast, so agreed to do the job. So that is how I finished the day by giving a five minute report for our group from our caravan in the middle of rural Latvia, on a by now dodgy internet, to the folks from the European Commission - as you do! It was an odd kind of a day. They're not all like that though, thank goodness.

Karla also looks just like her father, Brencis

She looks like she will have more fleece than her father though

This is wool that has been spun for our neighbour.
It is a combination of Josefs and George.

Just as a side note, the new tyres came in useful to help Ian pull our neighbour's car out of the mud (twice) at the weekend. 

I think Josefs approves

Wheeeeeee! A little roll on the bank.

Do you mind, I'm eating!

Me too!

You don't mess with me!

Someone else you do not mess with, Chanel. She might be
low down in the hierarchy but she doesn't like to be messed
with. Often we just ignore her and let her do her own
thing, knowing she will eventually follow the others. 
Cross her and spit happens!

Some of you may already be aware of the errrrmmmm, incident we had over the weekend. We'd just finished our morning coffee and I went to the loo. As I sat there, Ian shouted, "Come quick, the boys are out!" "I can't" I shouted back, feeling a bit helpless. There was something though about the urgency in Ian's voice and the fact he said the boys were out that suggested something was very, very wrong. The boys are out, usually means Ian wanders over and shouts for them or slowly drives them back to where they should be, it doesn't demand that I come as quickly as possible. So as soon as I could, I slipped on my wellies and pulled on my coat as fast as possible and I sped out of the caravan door. 

Lolly is getting tall these days

Turbjørn's neck has been a bit better just lately, but at least
it means he keeps well out of the way when there's an 
incident.

As I looked out of the greenhouse where our caravan now is, I could see what the problem was! It was complete and utter mayhem. The girls were running about and errrrrr so were the boys, all eight, no severn of them. Turbjørn, bless him is not up to any running about and any sign of trouble, he is out of there. So he was grazing quietly on the grass just outside the boys paddock area. Not where he should be but certainly not in any trouble. Meanwhile I could see Ian dragging alpacas by the neck, into or out of the girls paddock area. Separating, whoever he could. Not the best way to move them but all he could do under the circumstances.

Silla, did you have to sit down? You were awfully difficult 
to move

I ran over to Silla, who was obligingly sitting down for a male. She's supposed to be pregnant but this makes us think she's not. Anyway, there were three randy male alpacas intermittently trying to fight with each other and mate with her. Every time one tried to mount her I would push him into the others, over and over and over again. I was starting to wheeze when Ian eventually managed to get to me, having removed one male alpaca from the girls paddock and get as many of the females into the paddock area as possible, or something like that anyway. I was too busy fending off Brencis, Mr. P and Jakobs to take in all the details. We manhandled Silla into the other paddock meanwhile continuing to fend off Brencis and Mr. P. 

Mr. P. can be rather persistent when he's after the girls

Poor little lass, she looked so small surrounded by the boys.
No harm done anyway.

Looking around we saw Karla suddenly surrounded by quite a few of the boys. We hurtled up to her and managed to get between her and boys and shoved her through the gate, then Mari, who was also still on the outside. I can't remember the order of getting the girls inside the paddock areas but we managed to get all in, bar one. Antonia was the last one, but she was not having any male near her and somehow most of the boys realised that and didn't seem particularly interested. We don't think she's pregnant as she has a way of throwing off any male that tries that is really quite sneaky, but she was still fending off all advances anyway. 

Mr. Tellus was not going to miss out either!

I mentioned that Silla was sitting down, so was Aggie and Chanel. At least we know Aggie and Chanel are not pregnant as we decided not to mate them, so that was okay - sort of. Fortunately alpaca mating is a long affair and with all the mayhem we don't think they've had a chance to get any pregnant. We certainly don't want babies born at this time of year, although we will have to make sure sometime, I guess. Amanda and Ilvija were definitely resistant, so that is good news, but not quite the confirmation of pregnancy we would like. We would rather wait for the scan, which should be happening next month. Much less stressful that way.

At least you are where you're supposed to be

Come on guys! Pack it in! Stop fighting!

I don't care who started it!

He might be young, but he had more of an idea of what to
do than George did! I would rather have found that out
when he was supposed to be on mating duty, not before.

Next job! The boys. Surprisingly they didn't seem that interested in heading back to their own paddock. Ian tried to encourage them with food leading them away and I came up behind waving the herding sticks to keep them concentrated on Ian and not on Antonia who was still wandering around. Nope that didn't work. Instead we managed to get Antonia in with the other girls. Phew! Boys on the outside, girls on the inside. Turbjørn meanwhile sneakily helped himself to the food in the trays that Ian had to put down while we put Antonia away - smart lad that one!

Safely out of sight or are they? The boys are now in a field 
on the opposite side of the hill to the girls

Yes Mari! Eating through the fence hasn't been helpful!

So we caught our breath and tried to decide what was next. The fences aren't absolutely secure as the ground is so soft due to all the wet weather we've had just lately and some of the posts are in need of replacing due to Mari eating through the fence wire. We were worried that the boys might try to break through. While I paced backwards and forwards with the herding poles, Ian went to get some food to get the girls into the alpaca houses, at least there they would be secure. At one point I yelled to Ian to hurry up as Brencis was leaning on one part of the fence that was ominously toppling inwards. I managed to move Brencis away from the fence, or rather shoved him away, and Ian came as fast as he could. I helped Ian encourage first one group of girls and then the other group into the alpaca houses. They were on edge and so a bit reluctant. At least the girls were now safe. 

No girls in sight, right!

Yes! George still had the "right" idea, just the wrong timing!

Back to the boys. We gave them a few minutes to calm down and then tried to encourage them back. They still weren't convinced that they should go back. We'd just get some of them heading in one direction and then some would turn around. Eventually, all but Mr. P grouped together and slowly, slowly we moved them towards their paddock area. Some were standing their ground a little more than normal to me, but eventually they went through the gate. Ian sorted them out while I went to look for Mr. P. 

Peace and calm! Well when the wind doesn't blow over
the hunting tower.

Mr. P saw me coming and decided to go around the fence in the opposite direction. I was going to drive him back when I realised if I followed him around, I stood a chance of herding him into an area where I could catch him. Once again, slowly, slowly with the herding poles, ........into the corner and ....caught him, at the same time I discarded the poles. He was a bit resistant but I hung on. I had seen Ian was heading in my direction while I was herding Mr. P. and then go back, I assumed he'd gone to get a harness. I was so relieved to see Ian harness Mr.P. up and them both of them toddling off back to where he should be. 

Just like I said boys! No one messes with me! Got it?

We normally only have two cups of coffee in one day, but this was a three cup of coffee kind of a day. As I sat there, wheezing like I had been smoking a packet of cigarettes a day all my life, I smirked to myself, as I thought about what I had just been doing. "Ha!" I thought! "No one messes with me! I can fight off three and at one point, four randy male alpacas trying to mate with a receptive female." Not quite sure that works on a CV, but you know, it makes me feel I can take on the world! For a while anyway!