A Gentle Day

Josefs and Jakobs charging around. A little different to last
week when we were so worried about Josefs. We are not
feeding him at all now, so Aggie's milk must be good stuff

Well it was kind of a gentle day, if you discount the group of 15, 5 adults and 10 children who joined us today. Before they came we had to spend some time trying to get the greenhouse in some sort of order after our felting course at the weekend. We only managed half our lunch before they turned up, but thanks to our friend who stayed on after the felting course it was packed away from our marauding cats, while we greeted the visitors.

Josefs feeding from Aggie

Our regular evening visitor

The group today were mainly Russian speaking children on an an upmarket sports camp with extra activities. They were superbly organised and even had people turn up beforehand to make sure everything was in order. They also made sure the children were listening, which was really nice. At one point they let one of the youngsters do the translating because he wanted to have a go. He did quite well. We took them on the usual tour and then all the children had a go at making a felt ball from the alpaca wool. Sometimes groups can be a bit of a nightmare to handle, especially when they keep trying to feed the little cria (alpaca babies) - who are not up to eating the grain and really do not interact much with people yet, but this group weren't too bad at all. To be honest, Josefs seems to be a very inquisitive kind of alpaca anyway, so he maybe okay. We are still wary of over socialising male cria with humans though to prevent problems in the future.

Josefs and Jakobs have bonded well together. We had a surprise
message via Facebook asking if we would ever think of
selling Josefs

Our visitors even brought flowers

We've had other visitors as well. There was a group who were a mix of our apartment neighbours, their children and their grandchildren. The children speak very good English as one works as a translator in Luxembourg and the other works in Sweden. The couple from Luxembourg were some of the first visitors we had to see our alpacas, shortly after we got them over six years ago (link here). It was nice to be able to show them the changes we have made over the years. Slowly but surely we are getting more organised. We still have a long way to go though.

Listening to Galina talking about dyeing in the shade
of the barn (Photo by Edith Chenault)

It has been quite an international week really, as our visitors have been Latvian (of course), French, Swedish, an American living in Estonia, Belarusian and Polish . The last few were the participants and tutor on the dyeing and felting course that we held over the weekend. We didn't have as many participants as we would like, but it didn't stop us enjoying ourselves. It was Galina's, the tutor, third visit and she always loves coming as she likes the atmosphere at our workshops on the farm. Even though it was hot we were able to sit in the cool shade of the barn to eat and watch the cria racing around. It is always good to see her friend who she brings with her too.

Picking leaves  (Photo by Edith Chenault)

Our wonderful helper modelling some
flowers made during the weekend course

Her friend helped us sort through some wool to remove the vegetable matter, as well as helping Galina collect leaves for the dyeing process. If an extra pair of hands were needed, she was there. Even though we couldn't communicate directly as she only spoke Russian, that didn't matter so much. She understood what was needed and helped. She has certainly been a big blessing to us and we are pleased that she also enjoys coming to visit us, as this is her second visit.

Preparing the table for the laying out of the silk and leaves
 (Photo by Edith Chenault)

Leaves on silk
 (Photo by Edith Chenault)

People have been popping in all week really. Another group made a return visit after two years to see what had changed over the time. This was mainly a group of young men and women in their twenties or early thirties. One guy with a hipster beard turned up with his wife and two children and finally two ladies who were looking to see if we were suitable as a visit for schoolchildren later on in the year. One lady remembered me from a meeting a few years ago - I thought she looked familiar but I have met so many people in very different circumstances I forget where or who people are, especially if they are in a different context when I meet them again. I do wonder if the rating on the Latvian news site has anything to do with the upsurge of visitors. Although I think August does tend to be a more popular month.

Laying on the dye cloths
 (Photo by Edith Chenault)

Dyed t-shirt
 (Photo by Edith Chenault)

We still haven't had much rain, although we did get a much needed shower yesterday that at least freshened the garden. I was rather despondent at one point though as I could just see my garden dying. Plants that had hung on in through the heat were really beginning to struggle and wilt, the caterpillars were having a field day eating anything remotely cabbagey and what the caterpillars didn't eat the woolly aphids were starting on. I have been tied up with preparing food for the participants and so the garden has been quite neglected as usual. Normally though, the plants are fending for themselves amongst the weeds, this time even the weeds are sometimes giving up. I had planned quite a few salad type plants to be growing during the course and although I have managed to produce some different types of salads, particularly pickled cucumbers, there hasn't been much in the way of salad leaves. Many lettuces just didn't bother to germinate and the early crops were a bit strong. The potatoes though! Oh my gosh! They are huge already - well at least those that have grown where they shouldn't have. We will see what the main crops look like later on in the year.

The great reveal. Dyed silk
 (Photo by Edith Chenault)

Hanging on my line in the forest
 (Photo by Edith Chenault)

There was five reasonable sized carp in there. Now relocated

Another issue we've had is the ponds have almost disappeared and we got quite worried about the fish in the small pond. Ian caught them and relocated them to one of our other ponds that at least still has a reasonable amount of water in. We laughed though at finally using the net for actually catching fish. We usually use it to catch escaped chickens and had to do that one day this week. One of the chickens had managed to dig its way out underneath the fence.

Ian was showing one of our visitors the
poo sample under the microscope, as
you do
 (Photo by Edith Chenault)

Sewing silk pieces together

It has been a bit of a busy week for Ian too. besides relocating fish, helping where necessary on the course, he has also been baling hay, having to move it by himself and attending to an emergency call out. We had a call from our neighbour's daughter to ask if Ian could take them to a repair place for their new milking machine. As you can imagine it was necessary to get it done as fast as possible so the cows could be milked that evening. Glad to say it was all done in time and we got our milk the next morning too.

When an alpaca comes for tea
 (Photo by Edith Chenault)

It got a tad hot. A heatwave is not helpful

Rolling outside in the shade of the greenhouse is much better

Always helpful

Hanging quilts for some shade and t-shirts drying in the
greenhouse

Sewing felted flowers

Rolling felt

Nuno felted jacket with dyed silk made from leaves from our land

Mittens made with merino wool and Aggie's fleece

Eco-printed silk scarf on my new display
stand that Ian made from hazel with some
home-made bread that I made.

Taking photos of the photographer taking a photo.

Group photo with Brencis

Waiting over

Josefs and Aggie

The waiting game was over and done with very suddenly in one day and within two hours. Aggie, poor girl, was looking very tired and fed up one evening and the next day Ian noticed she was distinctly uncomfortable. She went into labour but struggled a bit and Ian helped her to give birth, by making sure the baby did not go back in and easing the head out so it could continue to breathe. At least this was a better scenario than last year when he was on his own and she lost the baby. The vet gave us an injection to give her to relax her muscles if she needed it and we decided that it was prudent to use it as it looked like she was having another big baby. Indeed when we weighed Josefs , he was massive at 8.3kg. Aggie bonded quickly with Josefs, licking him and fussing over him. We then left them alone to carry on and went for lunch.

Still a bit groggy

Mum and baby doing well as we went for lunch

As we were sat having lunch, I noticed Mari went into the alpaca house and I jokingly said to Ian that perhaps she was just waiting for us to get out of the way and so she could have her baby in peace. There were several times this last week we thought that Mari was going to go into labour and didn't. When we got back to the alpaca house though, there she was half way through labour. Ian just helped a bit as the baby was half in and half out and she was laid down. It seemed to take it's time to breathe and Ian held it upside down a bit to help it drain out any fluid. Mari bonded quickly with Jakobs and she had obviously learnt what to do from last year and was quickly in the swing of feeding, at least once the placenta was passed.

Jakobs arrives on the scene

Josefs doing well

Mari and Jakobs bonding

Meanwhile Aggie seemed to have unbonded with her baby. We are not sure what happened, although we have read of another case of two mothers giving birth at about the same time resulting in confusion for one of the mothers and I wonder if that happened here too. Who knows. We were concerned though as the baby needed feeding and Aggie was not impressed. All through the first night we would go in every two hours, pin Aggie up against the wall and let the baby feed. This was not doing Aggie's mood much good and she started to even get aggressive with Josefs. The next day we commenced bottle feeding. It was heartbreaking as the poor little fella seemed to be all on his own as if nobody loved him.

Josefs was up and about quite quickly

Feeling lonely and tired

We couldn't give hm a cuddle as we knew that if we did that, we were setting ourselves up for even greater heartbreak later on as it would probably result in an aggressive alpaca. We often wonder about the cute alpaca videos that show one alpaca becoming part of the family and even going upstairs to sleep. After two years these little alpacas are moody teenagers and can reach around 50kg and it is at this point they could quite likely start trying to throw their weight around and try to dominate. It is called Berserk Male Syndrome or Novice Handler Syndrome. It is not funny and not curable. It often results in the animal having to be put down. Not nice when you have spent so much time with the animal.

Jakobs is getting plenty of sustenance as he is putting on
plenty of weight

Sunbathing

We carried on feeding Josefs the next day, being careful to make sure we left him alone after feeding. Eventually though he started bonding with Veronica. It seems she is being super tolerant of the little ones again. It could also be because she isn't too bothered about anything at the moment as it is just far too hot for her. She is sitting around peacefully in the shade, just what a poor lonely little fella needed. She looked a bit stiff this evening as if she needed to move about more though. We were so pleased that Josefs started to be accepted in the herd and he started to play with Jakobs. Mind you, it seemed to freak Mari out and the two young ones would run after Mari as if it was a game.

Jakobs is doing well and running around. He has spent a lot
of time with his mother and she seems more concerned about
him than she was with George

Aggie running away from Josefs

Eventually a miracle occurred. Josefs was running around looking for someone to feed him when Aggie stood up and Josefs went up to her and started feeding. She just stood there. She had been spitting him off for two days and wouldn't let him anywhere near. As soon as he had finished though, she made it clear that he was to go away. This carried on for a bit, but gradually he is spending more and more time with her and not being sent packing. She is still not the most motherly of mothers, but at least he isn't on his own and he is getting alpaca milk. We will monitor his weight carefully to make sure he is getting enough food, but even if we have to supplement, he is still part of the alpaca herd now and not so dependent on us. The timing of the births was a bit inconvenient though, it was the weekend of the local festival and so we managed to miss all of that. Oh well! There is always another year.

A buzzard

Getting stronger

It wasn't the only excitement. A little bit earlier in the week Ian was flail mowing with the two wheel tractor  and managed to get it stuck in the mud at the edge of the pond. If it hadn't been such a dry year, it would have been in the pond itself. I wished I'd taken a photograph, but I was too busy doing what I could to help or just observe. I was also thinking that I was pleased it was him and not me. I think he would have been a touch upset with me if I'd done it. The grass had got a bit long and he was trying to avoid some stones that he knew were there and got too close to the pond edge. The flail mower is very heavy and once it started to slide away, there was no stopping it. In the end he used the big tractor to lift it out after failing to be able to winch it out.

Playing games

Night time trips to the greenhouse kitchen

With baby feeding every two hours day and night the first night, four hours on the second, a couple of times on the third, we are both rather tired. The heat isn't helping. It is a good job I haven't too much academic work to do, especially as the waiting game is kind of coming to the end with one paper. In a rather peculiar way I have heard that it has been accepted, although it still says under review on the system. That will have to do for now, but then I have to get something more official I think for the thesis. At least it is a step nearer. I also have had word back from my supervisor to say that another paper is good enough to be submitted, so it will just need proofreading now. Two more papers need finishing off soon too, but first I need to get the felting course and English workshops out of the way. Then it is sit down in earnest to write, write, write.

Lady V our hero for her acceptance of the little ones

Jakobs gets fluffier by the day

We did have another surprise as a friend of ours alerted us to an article about ten places to see animals in Latvia and we were there as number 10. There was a picture of an alpaca, but it wasn't one of ours. I think we shall send them a few of the new ones, just to make it more relevant.

Mari looking good

Jakobs resting in the shade, although I did find him out on his own
in the sun earlier on today and had to reunite him with his mum,
who had sensibly gone in the alpaca house

Although it is still hot in the alpaca house too. It is strange to
think that we have seen -32C one winter and here it is +32C