You're supposed to fly south!

A glorious autumnal day

Have we missed winter? Did we fall asleep and not wake up for months? It felt like that on Sunday when a small flock of large geese flew north east. After a few minutes one lone goose flew south west. It was honking away as if to say, "I told you all, you're flying the wrong way, but would you listen? No!" I knew how it was feeling. There are times I feel like I'm just flying the opposite way to everyone else, but I think we all feel like that from time to time. 

....but winter is on its way. The photo looks 
greener than it did that morning

...to prove my point

Well, Latvia is in a state of emergency again for the next three months. People are simply not getting vaccinated in enough numbers. The government are organising mobile vaccination clinics and hopefully that will help in the more rural areas. There are also more restrictions on non-vaccinated people, which seems to be providing an incentive to get in line to get the jab. Meanwhile Sweden, Norway and Denmark have reopened after they have vaccinated a high proportion of their population. It's not rocket science. Vaccines work. It brings down the incidence. It reduces the severity of the disease even if you do get the virus. But as long as people are not getting vaccinated in enough numbers this whole stupid situation continues and the virus goes round and round and round.

Mari. Ian mulched this long, dry grass today

Two trailers! There's a kids story in there 
somewhere. 

Not sure if ivermectin is a thing in Latvia but I understand that it is elsewhere in the world. Marvellous! So not only do we have a virus circulating around due to a lack of vaccinated people we are storing up problems for resistant parasites, as people take ivermectin as a precaution against Covid19. There is already a huge problem in the livestock industry of resistant parasites. So mange anyone? And yes people can get it too and it's called scabies. Or maybe a nice intestinal parasite like roundworm or a wonderful case of lice. Oh life will be fun when we can't get rid of these things because they are resistant. It will add to our woes with failing antibiotics due to overuse. 

The girls enjoying the sunny spots these days, 
after spending the summer seeking the shade.

Silla!

Well life for us does carry on in our little rural bubble, especially as we've closed the farm to visitors for the winter, so I don't think we slept the winter away. Our caravan is now back in the greenhouse. It didn't seem to go in very easily and it took a bit of too-ing and fro-ing to get it up the ramp and in but at least there were no disasters - close but not disasters. It's a good job that this autumn hasn't been as wet as last year, because it was mid-November before we got the caravan in the greenhouse that year. The weather this October though has been mainly dry and over the weekend it has been glorious, if a little cool. This last week we had a couple of hard frosts that finished off any tender plants, but we still have plenty of hardy stuff in the garden.  

Spot the babies! They're getting big now

Not long before Ilvija will be scanned to see if
she's pregnant.

The dark blue grapes have now been cut back, a bucketful of them steamed and some of the remains sieved. I did give up after the third attempt at unjamming the hand food strainer though. This was despite using the right insert in the strainer that is supposed to handle grape pips. Oh well! The tub full of pulp was added to what might be the last of the autumn raspberries and steamed in the pressure cooker to add to porridge over the winter. Another job done. We still have other grapes and they will have to be cut soon, but they've held up under the frosts. 

Aggie. She's a funny one. She seems like she's
almost getting motherly with Lolly. A bit late now.

Aggie's eye is slowly getting better now. She's
had more antibiotics and now on a steroid
cream as well. It might be caused by ingrowing
eyelashes but we will check again, once all
the swelling has gone down.

Today was glorious again and so I took half a day off to stack wood in the horse box with Ian. That's another job that needed to be done before winter rains set in. That was enough for Ian's back and so I will take another half day off to help him stack it in the basement. It felt a bit of an odd day, frosty first thing but then a relatively warm wind from the south. No wonder those geese were confused. It felt like something was in the air, a wind of change. I'm basically an optimist, despite the rant above, my optimism keeps me going, pushing forwards for change. It's six years since the song, "Winds of change" hammered into my brain (link). Six years ago seems like a lifetime away and so many situations have taken a turn for the worse. More countries feel precarious or on the edge. 

Lolly has grown well on grass and bottles of milk
from the neighbour's cows. Ian has dropped one 
of her feeds in preparation for weaning and also
to ensure she is ready for when we do go back
to the apartment and cannot give her late night 
feeds.

Karla looking dreamy

But it is times like these when change happens. A generation has gone since the Scorpions sang their song and now it is time for a new generation to rise up and step away from the path that others have trod towards destroying the planet on which we live. Change scares us, but staying the same scares me more. I want to pass on a living, breathing planet to my children and grandchildren. Not a shrivelled up wasteland that we are preparing for them at the moment. We've seen in the last couple of years that if nature is given space it can grow in abundance. It can fill the gap. If we don't! It's not even worth contemplating. So I will continue on my path of looking towards the landscape changes that will be needed to give nature and people space to breathe. The paths that involve political change, individual change, system change, the lot. That path will also continue on our own land, as I give myself room to breathe and space to think. It's been awhile!

Vanessa soaking up the sun again

Sometimes there two are the best of pals and
sometimes they're not. Like kids really!

Chanel is still giving us cause for concern. She
might be having a course of ivermectin. At least
in this case it will be used for what it is intended 
to be used for as an anti-parasite medicine to treat
mites. 

The year is turning

Autumnal looking

The leaves are turning yellow and the geese are flying south. Summer has just about gone and we even had a mild frost this week. Not enough to kill off my plants yet, but it speaks of autumn days and the rapid slide into winter. Well if feels like a rapid slide at times. The geese heading south often means that snow might not be far away, even if we are having some almost summery temperatures at the moment. We are not beguiled, we know too well how rapidly the temperatures can drop in these parts. The rather blustery northerly winds we had a few days ago reminded us of that fact. The plastic over our hay bales needed rearranging one night, which was not a fun job in the pitch dark. The plastic stayed on during the few light showers we had but one section blew off the following night - thankfully it didn't rain that night. We seemed to escape the worst of it, as the coast bore the brunt of it and the very heavy rain passed to the north of us.  

Definitely a hint of autumn here

My garden was looking a bit battered before the
latest storm, now it looks worse. Maybe next weekend
I'll get around to dealing with this.

The girls fence was moved today and George was
very interested. Normally he's quite curious anyway, 
but this time it looked a little different. 

Josefs is turning out to be such a super alpaca with 
visitors

Our quiet time with no visitors ended this week, as we had two groups. One group had a child with special needs and our alpacas were very good with him. It's nice how the alpacas can be a calming influence on some children. The more active children often soon learn that they have to be quiet and stand still and then the alpacas will come to them. If they go after the alpacas, they just run away. Josefs stood still while he draped himself over his back. He's like his mum Aggie, as she will also let people gather round and stroke her. Not all alpacas will do that. 

Some cheerful nastursiums 

Aggie in relatively good mood here.

Mind you, Aggie won't do that at the moment generally, it depends upon what mood she's in, now that she's pregnant. She's not in a particularly good mood now as her foot is sore and cracked. I had just about got her leg healed from the problems with flies and noticed that her foot was cracked, when I looked more closely I saw that it was worse than I thought. She will let me touch the leg that I've nearly finished treating but she gets very antsy when I try to get cream on her sore foot. Sigh! And I thought we were getting somewhere now the flies have died down. At least Herkules is slowly improving. I would prefer it if the sore leg would heal quicker but at least I don't have to put bandages on it now and can let the air dry it out. I think the bandages were making it worse to some extent but had to try and keep it covered due to the flies. 

Aggie and her poorly foot

Herkules looking quite sprightly for his 16 years

Then he has his moments like this, just resting
his weary head. Then again, he's done this for
quite a few years. He just likes to lie about.

Turbjørn struggling with his neck

We finally got a visit from the vet with a mobile x-ray this week to x-ray Turbjørn's neck. We are still waiting for the x-rays but at least got to see what the problem was. He has slightly dislocated one of the vertebrae in the lower part of his neck. The upper part of his neck is either ligament damage or over-compensating for the lower problem. Poor guy, it's been so long in getting an answer to the problem and he is struggling a bit again. Maybe the cold, maybe just jarred it again. Who knows. At least it is not as severe as we thought it could be. We now just need those x-rays to work out some treatment plan. We helped the vet with taking the x-rays and got all kitted up in lead overalls. I could just about move, because of course they are made for someone taller than me. Ian held Turbjørn still while I held the x-ray plate. While the vet was there, we had him x-ray Herkules' back leg, because he had started limping quite badly and we knew that if we didn't take advantage of the x-ray there and then, it could be worse and need to have him come out again. As it was we found out it is just an age related issue and it will be sore until two bones have fused, then he should be fine. 

We had 13 chicks hatched but a couple of them 
died. Hatching is such a stressful time for them.
At least these look healthy enough and the heater
is keeping them warm enough at night.

The shed is beginning to be filled
with the stuff that has been in the
greenhouse. I now even have a 
recycling point - second shelf up!

Working from home has its advantages, but there are downsides to having flexible working times. I guess it's partly laziness and not getting up so early, but now it's dark when we get up and so it's getting later and later when we see to the animals, especially with their various ailments. I then end up working later to compensate, and as a consequence our evening meal is later. We end up juggling putting the animals away with the timing of sitting down to eat. It doesn't help when I get into the garden to pick a few beans, then spot a caterpillar or two, then a few weeds and before I know it that's 20 minutes gone. When Ian was working, we used to have regular mealtimes, but since we've had the animals, our mealtimes varies with the seasons. In the summer we eat before we put the animals away, by winter it is the other way around, but spring and autumn it depends on the day and what we are doing. The light and the weather determines the routine of our days. 

Jakobs 

The tomato monsters before taming

The pleasant weather over the weekend meant I got the chance to finish off digging up the potatoes in the area where I planted them. I know there are still some more to dig up, but in areas where they weren't deliberately planted. That will be next weekend's job. It's good to look at a large section of the garden and think that is done. I also started to tackle the tomato monsters in the new greenhouse. I gave them a good hacking back a while ago and didn't really expect them to put much growth on since then, but they did. It won't be long before we start pulling the tomatoes up and preparing the beds for the chickens to overwinter in there. But for now we make the most of the warm days to ripen what we can. 

It's getting neater bit by bit

Autumn raspberries are doing well. There are lots
to come. Let's hope they ripen before any major
frosts

Don't you mess with us little one!

Our two little kittens are being allowed out more and more. They know the rattle of the cupboard doors and that it means food. Today Ian went to feed the older cats and the two little ones were straight in there and muscled in on Eyre's food. She wasn't sure what to do. Ian ended up taking them both by the scruff of the neck to their own tray. Eyre doesn't really like them at all, but they largely ignore her. I do wonder if our older two cats have decided they need to up their game to compete. Eyre has been out of the greenhouse more and is less likely to be under my feet, now it's more likely to be a kitten. Sofie on the other hand has excelled herself as a hunter. One evening we watched her bouncing up towards us with something in her mouth. It looked on the large size and I wondered if she had caught another rat. No.... not at all. Our little cat (not compared to the kittens of course but to other cats) had caught a small hare. The hare was the same size as Sofie. How far she had carried it we have no idea. We tried to have a look and she immediately took it into an old chicken ark that was lying around and stood guard over it. Over two days she then ate it. Today she had the look of a cat whose had a heavy night out on the town. She must be absolutely stuffed. 

Sofie with her hare

Have they gone yet?

Morning coffee with the Kelly Kettle

It was Ian's birthday on Sunday. We didn't do anything special but I did get in some special treats. I bought some beef from the local organic farm and so we've had beefburgers for lunch and I slow cooked a joint of beef for Sunday's evening meal, only we didn't end up eating it on Sunday due to the timing of the visitors we had. We had a quick, light, early lunch before they came and then finished off with more burgers mid-afternoon after they went. The problem is that I was so stuffed after the mid-afternoon meal that I wasn't really ready for a roast for evening meal, so we just had a few small jacket potatoes, cheese and salad. Still the roast meal was nice this evening. I also surprised Ian with a Kelly Kettle. It is a rocket stove kettle that boils water with just a small amount of fuel. It's been nice to sit outside and boil the kettle, although today it was a bit smoky before it got going. I think we need to work on the fuel mix a bit first. I told Ian that I went into the village to get a better internet signal for a meeting, which was sort of true, but it was also so that I could be at the apartment to get the package and then it could sit in the car for a few days without him knowing I had got it. It worked! It's not often I can surprise Ian, he's usually quite observant of that sort of thing.

Ginger Tom in the chicken ark where they were 
living while they got more used to us and our routine

Rocket Ron 

The waterlily is still going strong

Black tail is one of our original chickens. She's 
about nine years old now and still sprightly

A fine comb on this cockerel.

Bee balm has such an out of this world look about it

Rocket Ron also has an out of this world look 
about him much of the time. Here he is hiding
in a ditch

Ginger Tom is definitely the quieter of the two

Always on the alert for something to go toddling into

Spot the kitten who had followed Ian all
the way up to the alpaca house. They both
went at one point and Ian had to rescue them
from the alpacas as they tend to chase the 
cats.

Yes there is still a lot to explore in the greenhouse 
and to climb and to hide in. Great fun for a kitten

Shorter days

Jakobs scratching an itch probably but he does
do it so gracefully.

The days are getting shorter so quickly, it takes us by surprise most days, especially if it is overcast and miserable like today. Last week we were putting the animals away starting about 8pm, this week they are all shut up by then and it is so dark. The days are still warm though and I got a lot done in the garden this weekend. It would have been nice just to potter around the garden, but instead I had to get going with the tasks. We noticed that the forecasts are for quite a drop in temperature next weekend and there is a possibility of frosts. I was thinking about the sort of jobs that need doing before that, such as getting the squashes in, sorting out the beans etc. and then the realisation dawned on me....I'm working full-time. How do I get all those jobs done before the frosts? 

Is Brencis looking out for me?

Coming back from mushroom picking with a full
bucket. Chanterelles and boletes.

I made mental lists and tried to prioritise what I was going to do. Outdoor gherkins were pulled up as they had suffered in the cold - maybe I should have covered them, but didn't think about it until too late. Next year I will. I dug up the carrots, but as I feared, not many germinated in the drought earlier on this year. I read a tip that might help with that and that is to water them in well and cover with a plank - I'm guessing that plastic will do just the same job or perhaps use the fleece instead. At least next year I should be able to get to the fleece. Before it's stored away, I think it might be an idea to cut it up into veg bed sized pieces, then they should be easy to cover in the spring. The bed I dug over might not have grown many carrots but at least the hemp crop from there was good and it makes an acceptable tea substitute. I've also cleared more beds of potatoes, both those where the potatoes were supposed to be growing and those where they were not. 

Not all mushrooms are edible but they sure look
pretty. I stay clear of white gilled mushrooms as
they tend to be the more poisonous ones and the 
most easily confused ones.

More of the same kind

These may or may not be edible. I
need to check them out to make
certain of what they are. Even if a 
mushroom is edible, we will not 
eat them if there is something they
can be easily confused with.

I planted garlic too in one of the empty potato beds. This is earlier than normal for me but they are mainly the bulblets that grew from garlic seed last year so it might do them good to get an early start. It was also a way of emptying some buckets in the greenhouse. I sowed more carrot seeds recently to see what happens, since the weather is wetter now and sure enough there was no problem with germination this time, they seem to have enjoyed the damp weather. We'll see how big they get over this autumn and into early winter. I will be covering these before the cold weather sets in, but the soil was still a bit dry in that area and so letting the rain get to them first helps. Carrots can take quite a bit of cold if they are wrapped up well and the mice don't get to them first.

It would be nice if these were edible
as there were lots of them, as you can
see.

Rocket Ron and Ginger Tom in the
hamster cage. They have since been
upgraded to an old chicken ark. At
least they have more space to play
in there. 

There is also a greenhouse to sort out, so we can let the kittens run around more. This is especially important as Rocket Ron escaped twice this evening from the chicken ark until I found out where he was escaping from. Eyre was not happy with him and went for him both times, so until they are used to each other, exploring time will have to be under supervision. They have learnt to associate the rattle of the feed tray anyway, so that will be helpful in rounding them up. Today was a damp miserable day and so perfect for being in the greenhouse to sort through the accumulated junk... I mean useful items in preparation for letting them out. Ian has been making shelves in the shed this week and so the stuff can be stored away and more importantly found easily. Slowly we are getting sorted and it is a good activity to do after an hour or so on the computer. 

Ilvija and Chanel. It is going to be hard to tell these
two apart. Ilvija is now as tall as Chanel. 

The cooler weather has finally given us some respite from flies that are causing havoc with some of our animals. I've even been able to leave bandages off so that wounds can dry out. I been putting cream on the sores each morning to give them a layer of protection from any flies and to protect them from dirt and that seems to be doing the trick. Chanel had to be restrained again to give her fleece another wash and put more lotion onto her legs. She screamed and spat and made it more difficult to restrain her by sitting down straightaway, but I don't think she was quite as bad as last time. She does sound very dramatic though. I was a bit shocked when I started gently scrubbing her skin and stuff seemed to be coming off in clumps. On closer examination, it seemed like the treatment was actually working and it was the dry crusty stuff that was coming off. The gunk also seemed to be coming out of her fleece as well. This is good news, but I really wish we didn't have to restrain her so much to treat her skin issues. She is the stressiest of all of them. Aggie isn't much better but at least I can get close enough to put something on her, even if she does spit to show her displeasure. 

Herkules does look a bit tatty but he is 16 and has
8 boys to put up with and keep in order. At least his
wound is healing nicely now. 

Ian noticed today that the fleece is growing back on
Herkules nose. Wish he could put some more weight
on though. It's not like he isn't getting enough to eat
he gets more extras than all the other alpacas and
Ian makes sure that Tellus doesn't steal it. 

Mari is very little trouble. She doesn't often have
skin issues, she's a good mum but not overly 
fussy or protective and she's intelligent. She does
have some bad habits though and eating through
the fence and using the fence to have a good scratch
are two of them. She's also passed those traits onto
her sons. I hope she passes on some good habits 
like her easy going nature like she did to her son
George to the next baby.

Sadly our municipality lost its no Covid19 status this last week. It is probably just one person, but certainly under 5. The incidence generally in Latvia is still low and is lowest in Europe and compares well with the rest of the world. There was talk this week of increasing the point at which people coming into the country have to self-isolate from 16 per 100,000 to 25 per 100,000. I'm pleased to say they did not change the rules just because the countries nearby, and part of the Baltic bubble, are struggling to keep their numbers down. Both Lithuania and Estonia have seen recent spikes in cases of the virus. So has Latvia, some due to contact with other known cases and some due to coming from different countries. Not all are known cases though. 

A caterpillar of some sort. As you can
tell, I haven't identified it yet.

Just a little bit further to get that tasty piece of grass.
Veronica is our oldest alpaca at 17. Not very old
for an alpaca but she is showing her age.

I've had different discussions with different people about the various approaches to the virus. Sweden is held up as an example of a sensible approach to take. Not everyone in Sweden agrees that it is a sensible approach and to compare another country with Sweden is not generally appropriate. Sweden is a large country with a small population that is mainly concentrated in the south of the country. There are often pictures in the media of Swedes not practising social distancing, but this does not show the many numbers who stay home or have gone to their summer home in the country, far away from the city. Having a country home is not the elitist thing that it can be in other countries, like the UK, so it is available as an option to more people. Swedes generally have adopted different behaviour by reducing their contact with others and they are not supposed to gather in groups of more than 50 and so on... (link here). So not quite so lax as people make out. 

Mr. P looking dapper again.

In discussion

So what is a sensible approach that some people seem to advocate? Wash hands and social distancing and all will be fine? That works great here where the numbers are still low. Keeping the viral load down (in other words not being in places where you breathe in a lot of virus), practising healthy habits such as eating the right food, making sure your Vitamin D, zinc, etc. levels are fine. Great! Wonderful! That will all help, but it does not necessarily make people immune from the disease it may reduce the severity - maybe. How long do vulnerable people have to self-isolate so that the rest of the country can get on back to normal? If getting back to "normal" results in spikes where hospitals are overwhelmed that will not help those who are vulnerable. It puts them at greater risk. I haven't got all the answers, I'm not an epidemiologist. What I do know is that a pandemic like this was expected for a long time. They will happen again and we shouldn't be complacent. We have to find a healthier way to live that respects the limits imposed by nature. Going back to "normal" is not an option and we have to think about a different future. Not one that condemns the vulnerable to what must feel like an eternity of isolation, just because others want to get back to normal, but one that is inclusive and people feel safe again.

Josefs and Freddie, our two sweetest alpacas have
been having some fights just lately. They are 
probably sorting out hierarchies as they are at
the bottom. However, it seems like little Jakobs
is usually the one that sets off the disagreements.

Yes this cute little alpaca does like to stir things
up a bit. He also likes to rub on fences like his mum.