Slowing down?

Mari enjoying the wooded area on the hill

Slowing down? No not really, as you may have guessed, if you follow the blog. It is just over two months since I last blogged. I only wrote this blog because it was raining and had been since the early hours of the night. It was also forecast to rain for much of the day as a slow moving depression passed over. An ideal time to sit and write some reflections over the last couple of months. Unfortunately it wasn't enough time to add pictures due to our terribly slow internet and so a week later I am adding photos.

Hard to believe the alpacas were still fluffy less 
than two months ago. Shearing seems such a long
time ago now. Josefs has been on mating duty with
Mari and Vanessa. Vanessa maybe pregnant. 

A cloudy summery sky. Sometimes we need rain
and sometimes we don't. At the moment we don't
no matter how gentle it is. 

In early July we went to collect a Ukrainian family from the nearest train station. There were lots of young people waiting to board and it seemed unbelievable to us that they were mainly in shorts. It was far too chilly for that, but that was before a heatwave. Unfortunately for our Ukrainian guests they thought the same about the weather on their arrival as they had travelled from southern Ukraine, where temperatures were already much, much higher. They came from a desert region (no I didn't know there were deserts in Ukraine either) so humidity was also lower there. They were feeling distinctly chilly. They are still with us while they wait for UK visas and so they've had much sorting out of documentation, but apart from that, they've been resting from their arduous journey. The parents now have their visas but they are still waiting for their son's, which seems to happen on an all too regular basis, i.e., some family members get their's quickly and then they have to wait for others. They have also been occasionally helping us with some of the farm work, from helping to move the winter wood into the cellar, stacking hay, building a construction for an outdoor vine and picking our berries. They've also fed us with Ukrainian borscht, plovs, perogies and pastries.

We spend our late evenings after putting the animals
away in our old caravan and sleep in our new one.
How decadent is that? At least we don't have to
put the bed away each day and Ian can get up 
early and get his breakfast. I get to lie in!

The chicks were doing well in the cage and got
transferred to the bigger ark. 

Whatever troubles we face pale into comparison to the journey of the Ukrainian family. They went via Crimea, through Russia, to St. Petersburg, then through Estonia and into Latvia. A journey of around 3000km. A journey filled with uncertainty and aided by volunteers along the way - brave people helping, and risking much. The family carrying their life in a single bag each. What do you take? What do you leave? They are just a regular family, like many here in Latvia. An apartment, a summer home in the countryside (nothing grand, just somewhere to relax, built by a parent), working more than one job to make ends meet in the unstable economy of Ukraine since the first invasions, but doing the best they can. Warm, thoughtful people. Not Nazis, not political, not anything really out of the ordinary, but now with their lives in tatters, dependent and grateful for the help they've been given along the way. Whatever they had worked for, taken away on the whim of what and by whom?

These are all the older hens. We put 
them together and the bigger grey hens
proceeded to attack the black ones and 
the white one. It was pitiful. Since
they black ones and the white one were so
small comparatively and timid I thought
they would be fine with the little ones,
so we put the little ones in and moved the
big grey ones out. Bad move! The bigger
ones picked off one chick - the one that
Ian helped out and had thrived. I thought it 
might have been got by an animal after
putting its head through the netting. The 
next day I found the older hens in the process
of eating another one. Not a pleasant experience.
The older ones are now back together 
and they are beginning to settle down
- a bit. 

At least the chicks are safer on their own now. 
Although, one of them was picking on another.
Sigh!

Karla in the foreground is growing. She is the
spitting image of her dad Brencis at the same
age, although he was much taller.

Encountering such problems sometimes makes writing about everyday life on our farm seem irrelevant and yet the continuity of life has to go on, albeit in a different way maybe. Like the farmers in the Ukraine who still go out and plough their fields and tend to their animals for as long as they are able. I sometimes wonder if people think they can do without farmers and are happy for everything to grow in a resource intensive lab. Okay that might replace some of the resource intensive agriculture that is not good for the environment but replacing it with something else that might not be good for the environment or our bodies. Not all agriculture is like that though and many farmers are looking for ways to farm more in keeping with environmental practices if they can. Agricultural practices though go on and the seasons follow a regular pattern the same as every year, except they are also changing. Our seasons are more unpredictable, we have a longer growing season here in the north of Europe - sort of! If the rain and dark don't cause everything to rot later on in the year that is. Sometimes life just feels very complicated!

First time I had seen such a strange
colouration on a frog. Apparently
normal though for a common frog.

More glorious sunsets. Now it is dark when we
go between the two caravans.

I sometimes feel paralysed by the list of choices to make to face a future of change. I'm sure I'm not the only one and sometimes it is easier to bury our heads in the sand and pretend it is not happening. I'm supposed to go to Spain for a conference in September - do I fly? Trains across Europe are still not connected but at least they are thinking about that - however that is too late for a conference in September. For now I think I will focus on the remaining time I have on holiday from the university. Focus on getting on with farm and garden chores and think about travel later. At least I would do but I have an email from the conference organisers sitting in my inbox waiting to know if I need a connection from a larger town to the smaller one where the conference is located. Heh ho!

Intriguing cloud formations

So what's new and what's the same?

So strong!! Our intern helping direct
the delivery of our summer house
to the right spot.

New: We have a tourism intern who is an absolute godsend. She can speak three languages, Latvian (of course), Russian and English, even a little Ukrainian. She is used to farm chores and is interested in rural tourism, so she mucks in with the various farm jobs that are not so pleasant, as well as the interesting ones. As she says, the alpacas are cleaner than cows and so mucking out isn't such a problem to her. She has also rapidly adjusted to our British style sense of humour and usually gets it. We've had many discussions on Slow Tourism and what that might look like, as well as some felting of a scarf and some alpacas - a talented lady.

The base and foundations for our summer house. The last picture shows our attempt at trying to 
organise the planks in the right places to make assembly quicker. It worked to a point.

Ian on the other end of the package

Our new summerhouse was delivered and built up to gable height. It has mainly been quite good fun, rather like a giant lego set. It has gone up quite rapidly after Ian dug out and flattened an area for it and then guys from the company laid the foundation.  Ian, our intern and I have spent most of one week on the rest of it, in between our regular jobs of course. The first rows were simple but later there was one point Ian had to get the tractor out to give a gentle push to the side so a long piece would slot in. On another occasion ratchet straps were used to pull another section a bit closer together due to being a couple of centimetres out for a roof beam. Sometimes more than a gentle tap was needed but nothing major and nothing we (or rather Ian) couldn't deal with. 

What every tourism intern should learn! How to build a summer house. The first few rows were
easy but then it started to get more difficult. The tarp is to cover the house during rainy days.

A beautiful mutant campanula

Rain stopped play of course and one evening was spent covering the roof as best we could with a tarp for the main part and bits of plastic for where it wouldn't reach in preparation for the expected deluge. The bits of plastic have blown loose a few times and had to be reattached as the winds picked up a little, but fortunately it has just been mainly rainy rather than gusty weather. The tarp was covering a trailer load of hay, as we didn't have plastic large enough to cover the roof, so the trailer ended up being parked in the barn along with the tractor. However, the tractor would only go in with the front loader raised so it would fit in, which is not ideal. The bales have now been stacked under cover and the trailer out of the barn, ready for the next baling session - just as soon as everything dries out again.

Lolly will you get off the roof of the alpaca house!

Alpacas down! Or sunbathing?

Marvin

We also have two new cria (baby alpacas), Marvin and Norman. Marvin's birth was super fast but later on we realised he had a crick in his neck - not sure if that was due to the birth or due to him staggering around in the alpaca house finding his feet after the birth and crashing into a wall. Our neighbour came and looked at him and she put a neck brace on him. After a couple of days, we took it off when he seemed to be struggling a bit with feeding and making some weird noises in the process. The neck seemed to have righted itself though, so we decided it wasn't needed. He needed the attention of the vet later on too as he got constipated. This might have been due to the issues with feeding on a hot day and possibly getting a bit dehydrated. Anyway, that was sorted. I'll not go into too many details, but oil, a squeezy bulb thingy and some calcium and phosphorous fluid was also involved. After that problematic start, he's been fine since and running around and putting on weight.

Marvin just after birth and then with his neck brace and coated up against the cold. Marvin has put
on plenty of weight and is getting pretty strong.

Norman looks a lot like his dad, George
at the same age.

Norman's birth wasn't so straightforward. It was Ilvija's first and she has an overprotective mother (even though Ilvija is now three years old). At first everything was going fine and then Ilvija started to panic at this strange thing emerging from her behind, at this point pandemonium ensued. Ilvija was dashing around the alpaca house and there was a serious danger of her banging the head of the baby on the wall, so Ian got hold of the baby and followed her around. Meanwhile Chanel, her mother, decided that she needed to step in to protect her baby (Ilvija) and started spitting and trying to stand between her and the perceived danger.

This is a very large block of chocolate. Ian left
a bulk bag of chocolate in the car. He had to slice
some off to eat it.

Such a sweet face, but such a pain to deal with
at times.

At this point it was decided that Chanel had to go outside but she sat down in the doorway. So our intern was trying to hold onto Ilvija, Ian was hanging onto the baby and I was pinning Chanel down so she couldn't get in the way. We then realised that the birth was not progressing properly and the baby seemed to be stuck at the hips. The intern and I managed to slide Chanel out of the door and I then went to get our neighbour, again! Fortunately she was able to help and the baby was born. Mother and baby bonded well and now the poor little soul has got two over-protective adults in his life. 

Freddie, although sweet in character, will not
be joining the mating programme since he was
castrated earlier this year. Too many skin,
joint and fibre issues. His sweet character has 
returned and he's not in the midst of the fights so
often - just occasionally he joins in or is caught
up in a fight.

Have you been spitting Brencis?

Unfortunately Norman seemed to have problems with one of his legs and he was limping. The limping got worse and so we took him to the vets. There were several startled customers before we actually got to see the vet. Nothing seemed to be broken though and after three lots of daily painkiller injections he's started using his foot more and his tendons seemed to be tightening. Although he can run pretty quick on three legs it is good to see him starting to use his fourth leg more. Not sure if he gets tired more quickly or not, as we are still not sure if his leg is better or not. We have so much work to do with haymaking and the like there isn't time to stand and watch for long. Sometimes he seems fine and then other times he seems to be limping.

Norman after his birth and in the first few hours. Pleased to say his back leg is starting to get
stronger now and he can run well anyway.

Vanessa looks more and more like her mother
and might be pregnant - we hope so anyway.

The shearing season is finished with Ian doing lots of travelling without me and the mating season is drawing to a close soon too. The younger boys are now being used and we found out that Jakobs has a very distinctive orgling sound whilst mating. It's hilarious but at least seems to have had a very positive effect on the matriarch of the herd. Instead of spitting at him through the wire fence as he mated with another female, she sat down - a sign she is receptive. Two of the other older females have been given hormone injections to see if they will let a male mate with them. It seems to have worked - so first stage over - now they just need to get pregnant. 

Jakobs - our orgling wonder boy!

After the hay is in we will start back on the 
washing programme for Chanel to deal with
this skin before winter.

Chanel our over protective alpaca has bad skin issues and so this year we have tried washing her to get rid of the crusty skin. It was working quite well but then with haymaking, birthing and building work we haven't been able to do so much. We will resume later before applying cream. It would be a much simpler job though if she wouldn't insist on sitting down where some of the worst bits are.

Ian hard at work! Well the guy does
need a rest from time to time

As usual Ian has to do quite a bit of fixing. He's managed to fix the compressor and the two wheel-tractor - well at least they seem to be working properly now. Unfortunately he wasn't able to fix Robbie, aka the halogen oven. Ian thought it was the bulbs at first and so he got some more, only it turned out that parts had gone rusty. I think a new solution is needed, but that will have to wait until we get the summer house completed and we set up a kitchen in there

Norman and Ian in the car on the way to the vets. Ian building the summer house. Ian making sure
that Marvin is feeding, despite his neck brace.

The swallows are finally nesting in one of the
alpaca houses. We hope to see the chicks soon.

So what's the same? There has been less student work and more gardening, although my garden is a mess again. There's not been enough time for Ian to mow the paths and me to keep the weeds under control. However, fat hen - a prolific weed in my garden is tasty and so declared a vegetable - maybe it isn't such a mess then? Looks it though. I finally got some beans planted out and spent part of a day finally constructing something for them to climb up. I've also planted up the cabbages about a month ago, along with the squashes, at least they didn't cook rather than grow in the short heatwave we had. We had gone from cool northerly breezes to hot southerly ones and the temperatures climbed quickly. No longer sweatshirt weather, or even coat weather, but t-shirt weather and even then I was absolutely dripping like a tap. However, it didn't last long and we've been swinging between some hot sticky days and some cooler sweatshirt days to coat-weather kind of days.

Fortunately, Ilvija doesn't seem quite so possessive
as Chanel now and hopefully we won't have such
strong separation anxiety when we have to separate them
in several months time. Some people think it is cruel
to separate, but if we don't then it is possible he would
try and mate with his mum and that is not a good idea.

I have yellow day lillies and so no 
idea where this bright, reddy-orange
one came from

At least my cabbages are finally growing but they are so slow this year and the cabbage whites found them. I've removed loads of eggs. However, it has been too cold, too hot, sometimes just about right. Squashes are finally beginning to take off and I hope they produce in time before the cold weather sets in, at least we might get some squash flowers to eat. I had to take up the peas as the grubs had started eating them. I will try another batch as they might provide pea flavoured greens if nothing else. Cooler weather also suits them. Potatoes are coming up all over the place and becoming a bit of a nuisance really, but at least they provide tasty new potatoes when I weed them out. I have managed to keep on top of the Colorado beetle who are intent on demolishing my potatoes although there have been times when I wondered if I would. Now I see that blight is beginning to set in and so that will mean I will need to remove all the potato leafy bits this next week while we wait for the main crop potatoes to swell. 

Morning Latvian lesson and morning coffee.

Turned hay

We now have half the hay bales we need in and we hope this week to get the rest done. So there is still a lot of weather watching to do before we get the hay in and the roof on our summerhouse done. This is one of the most stressful parts of the year, especially when there is a chance of rain but not a certainty.  As mentioned the Ukrainian family helped in collecting and stacking the hay but so did my pregnant work colleague who was staying overnight. She was warned that we might be haymaking when she arranged the visit but said she was still welcome. It had been going fine and we would have finished in time but Norman's appearance that morning meant we got a late start to collecting the hay. Mind you she and her boyfriend also got to do some alpaca babysitting as we needed someone to watch the baby when we let him out for the first time while we finished the collecting and stacking.

Baling

Poor GT! Such a sweetie.

So apart from dipping into a project that is still ongoing and doing what is needed there and some proofreading for a media organisation, selling hay bales for decoration, showing visitors around, culling the cockerels, that about sums up the last couple of months, apart from some sad news. Ginger Tom has disappeared. We haven't seen him for a few weeks now. He was quite nervous just before he disappeared. We weren't sure if something had frightened him, like a large tabby that has been seen around here, or whether he had picked up a virus or a bug - possibly from tic bites, or something else. Maybe he's found somewhere else, but unlikely as he was quite a timid cat, or he was sick, frightened off or worse, since there are plenty of wild animals around here of course. Rather sad as he was a lovely cat. 

Time flies again!

Yes! Some of our grandkids visited
us in Latvia. This is our youngest on 
our trip to Riga, with the travel bear.
a Latvian flag that she wanted to buy
and Riga in the background.

Oh my goodness, time flies. Life has just got so busy and then our son and his family came to stay too. It was wonderful having the youngsters around and showing them different things on the land and a bit of Latvia. They learnt about new life, death and foraging and of course about alpacas. I've been pretty busy after the family left too, trying to sort out a report and mark students' work but I can see a hazy light at the end of the tunnel, as students finish off for the academic year.

Watching chicks hatch, but also finding the ones
that didn't make it. It did give us the opportunity
though to find out how a chick fits into an egg. A
marvel of packaging. Unfortunately, the hatch rate
was not so great but wonder if some of the eggs 
got a bit too cold when collecting them at a time
when they would be ready to hatch when the kids
arrived.

This caravan has an awning which is useful as a
conference room and a bit brighter than the
80s orange background of the curtains
in our original caravan.

 I forgot to mention in the last blog that the caravan had come out of the greenhouse, where we store it over winter. However, now we have two caravans as our son drove their caravan over on an epic journey with his family so we can use it. It was really exciting watching the journey as they ticked off countries, France Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Lithuania - if I remember correctly. No "Lost in France without a telephone" these days and I was even able to talk with the grandkids while they were on the move from time to time. Anyway, we now have one caravan as our office and living space and one to sleep in. It saves having to set the bed up every night and Ian can get up as early as he likes (or not like). I get to sleep in or procrastinate until about 7am or maybe a bit later. Eventually they will be used for visitors or one for an office and the other for visitors - we have to decide yet and I'm sure it will be a process as we get the cabin built.

So the demised chicks had to be named
and properly buried of course!

Karla one of our younger alpacas will not back
down. A feisty madame methinks

We are behind on so many tasks as the weather has been so cold, It is like spring couldn't seem to quite get going properly. We were still having frosts (just) and the geese were still flying over until fairly recently. Everything just feels really weird at the moment and the weather seems to be taking its cue from world events. At least the swallows have returned now, as well as the cuckoo and the golden biscuit errrr I mean the golden oriole. So all migrants back and checked in, albeit rather late. Now we are just waiting to see if the swallows are actually going to take up residence in any of the alpaca houses, although they seem more interested in the barn at the moment.

What more do you need to play with than a few
bits of wood and some space?

The grapes are late getting going this year too

The cold weather has been playing havoc with the shearing schedule. Ian has to do the shearing by himself these days with help from the alpaca owners. I generally don't have time to help him out, unless they are more local and even so someone needs to be at home to look after the alpacas anyway. If we had help, either they could go with Ian or stay here and I would work in the car. I used to enjoy helping Ian out, but I can't be everywhere at once amazingly. There is a chance we might get someone to help over the summer, so watch this space.

Of course there was a walk with the alpacas

A sun halo

We haven't had many requests for visits and to be honest that suits us at the moment. It's hard enough trying to fit in the shearing schedule and my visits to Estonia for work.... never mind the garden jobs and taking care of the animals. We did have a large group though from the regional tourist office and Ian was even on regional telly and in the regional papers. We had two groups this Saturday, one group Ian gave a free tour as they had Ukrainian guests. It's a little bit we can do. Once we get sorted with the cabin and such, then maybe we can think about doing more advertising, but for now we will just keep a bit of a low profile. 

Our road maintenance crew on the job.

The boys have been fighting again

At least we got started on our shearing schedule and we got the two pregnant ones sheared and Chanel, our spitty, awkward, highly protective mother of an alpaca. She's sweet really but we have always to be prepared. She doesn't like being separated from her daughter, so shearing is a bit of nightmare and she can spit over the gate at us while we shear. We got around this by constructing a small enclosure just outside the door. At least we could shear Ilvija in peace. Poor Chanel is a complete mess and we have now started the process of dealing with her skin issues. In the temperatures we get over winter, it is not possible to wash the dry, crusty skin or put cream on. It would freeze. So now she's sheared it was a good opportunity to start by using some medicated shampoo on her. It will be a process (photos probably next time of the sheared ones).

A visit to our friend's goat farm, in the rain but 
the cheese tasting was a hit. The kids do like their 
cheese 

Rocket Ron on the prowl. Mind you, it took him
a week to not run off every time the youngsters
appeared. Rocket Ron was an appropriate name
under the circumstances

Out here in rural Latvia we don't see much disturbance from the war in Ukraine, but we do notice it in odd ways such as the lack of planes that fly over, it is only Chinese ones now that fly East/West, whereas before we were on a major flight path. There are still those flying North/South of course and we also see a lot more military aircraft on exercise. On my way up to the university in Estonia in my car recently, I passed quite a few military trucks and even saw a tank on my way back. We've seen whole exercises before but not so often.

At least we did have some sunshine! Just helping!

Just chilling! And it has been. There wasn't much
rain, until the kids arrived but oh those winds were
lazy! Straight through not around you.

Another odd things is there is a lack of radar on the weather maps, as they no longer access the Russian and Belarus ones. We can see rain arriving from all directions except the East. Fortunately there are also the satellite cloud maps and most rain comes from the West anyway, so not too bad - just weird. 

A ride in the tractor.

At least the grass is now starting to grow faster
and we are not so worried about the alpacas 
overgrazing it. 

I think the weirdness of the current situation in Ukraine and being busy with work are a couple of the reasons I don't blog so often. It's hard to write about ordinary life when you know that some are having their lives destroyed in situations that don't seem so far away, where housing looks vaguely familiar. It is also hard because the actions of the Russian army is so reminiscent of aggressive acts during the Soviet era. How on earth they ever thought that the Ukraine people would welcome them with flowers I will never know. 

Pops (Grandad) with one of his 4 boxes of broken
biscuits. A box of surprises and a loooot of biscuits

Lolly has got very fluffy

Russia, like too many imperialist nations (including the UK worryingly), seem to have an amnesia about the hardships they have already inflicted on countries they once occupied and that includes the hardships on the Ukraine people within living memory. It is shocking to hear of people dying in old people's homes who have survived the holocaust or holdomor (the starvation of the Ukrainian people during the collectivisation era under Stalin). It is also shocking to hear of the filtration camps that are so reminiscent of the deportations to Siberia during the 1940s. The reason there are so many of Russian origins in such countries like Ukraine and Latvia where I live is the Russification during the Soviet era, people brought in sometimes to replace deported families. History is complicated and there are no straight lines but much of this I had thought would stay in history, not be revisited.

Too soon it was time to set off. We arranged to meet
someone who wanted to thank our grandson for his
super fundraising initiative for Ukrainian refugees at
a cafe for breakfast. After this our world, once more
returned to quiet, without the cheery chatter of little
ones, or the knock on the door in the early morning
as our grandson came in for breakfast before going
to help Pops with clearing out the alpacas.

Well these guys are staying in for a change.

I know early on we were asked if we would stay or go if Russia got more expansionist ideas in our direction. Although there have been murmurings, they seem pretty tied up in Ukraine right now and it is why the Baltic States are so keen to support the Ukraines. They do know if they do fall then they could be next in line. It is hard but for now we feel as safe as anywhere, so not the uppermost in our minds. Instead we kind of carry on in our own little bubble, much as we did during Covid times, much as many probably did in times before the internet and such hyper-connectivity. 

Finally spring is here, should be summer by now,
but better than more winter.

My peonies took a while to appear and now almost 
ready for flowering. I'm sure there will be an update
on that

These took their time to appear too but the first 
rhubarb meal we had was in a savoury meal. I now 
need to get some frozen or jarred up for later in 
the year.

A water container set up ready for watering
the greenhouse, but my tomatoes are still so
small they are not planted in the ground of 
the greenhouse yet and the chickens have only
just been moved out of there.

GT was much happier to be around the grandkids,
than Rocket Ron, which is surprising as he's often shy.

Silla looking silly in the wet and very dirty

Marie and Karla also looking rather damp

Such hippy style their Josefs

Karla looking fluffy again

A bee on a dandelion. We have a lot of dandelions
but not so many bees - where have they all gone?

I said we had a lot of dandelions. Fortunately the
alpacas like this nutritious spring-time feast

Blackbird nest

Platystomos albinus - apparently!

Clouded border moth

Common or dwarf milkwort, not sure
which.

Wild strawberries

A very large Roman snail, aka escargot