Not very regular!

If my Nan took selfies, this
is what she would have 
looked like. But I can
see my mother and my
grandparents staring
back at me in this photo.

As I mentioned, I'm kind of busy but there's also less to write about. Well that was until this weekend when both Mari and Turbjørn were causing us some worries. Ian found Turbjørn on his side one morning early last week. He wasn't sure if he had been knocked over, fallen over, or just got stuck and couldn't get up due to his neck problems. Ian got him up and he seemed okay. He started feeding him more food and coated him up and he seemed to recover somewhat. Over the weekend though he started to struggle again. We couldn't work out what the issue was. We suspected colic, maybe from a small change in his food. We gave him some drops a neighbour had given us before and he seemed to perk up. 

Winter has its challenges but also its beauty

RIP Mr. Turbjørn. You were a unique alpaca
with all your quirks, but we loved you anyway.

Monday morning I got one of those dreaded phone calls. Turbjørn was on the floor, Ian had got him up as he had been doing most mornings recently but he didn't seem well. Ian went on to do his chores and then went back to check on him. He was back on the floor but on his side and unresponsive. Not sure of the exact sequence of events but Ian came back to get me and we both went to see him, we knew the look and realised that he was going, there was nothing we could do. He finally passed away just before lunch.The vet came out that evening and she did an autopsy. He seemed to have had a bleed and Ian has taken some samples to be tested. At least he didn't seem to have worms, liver issues, ulcers or anything that could be treatable, so in that respect a relief. It is always a worry if there is something we've missed that could have been dealt with.

You took your time to trust us, but you did towards
the end.

The route back from burying
Turbjørn. It was a lot of work
with the tractor to dig a path
to get him to his final resting
place under the elder tree. We
had rather a lot of snow over
the weekend.

It took Ian two days to dig the path to where
Turbjørn was buried. This was the start of the 
path. We had to slide him down on plastic to
the barn as there was no path up from the alpaca
house to the barn at the time.

A serious looking Mari. At least we think she 
might just have had a virus. 

Fortunately there was a happier ending to Mari's saga. She staggered one morning, not a good sign. Ian came back to the apartment to get some vitamin B1 as a lack can cause similar issues and so I went back out to the land with him. Ian had also arranged to pick up our neighbour who often helps us when an animal is sick. It turned out that Mari's temperature was high and so she was given some peppermint drops and paracetamol. We had to go back late at night to give her another tablet and then see what she was like in the morning. Fortunately by morning her temperature was back down, not quite normal but at least heading in the right direction. She is much perkier now and eating her food again, so we think and hope all is well now.

After the sad news a smiley alpaca picture is 
needed I think. Thanks George.

Spring is coming, you can see it in the longer
days and the intense colours of the trees

I was meant to drive up in my new car to Tartu the other week but it didn't happen. Several of my colleagues contracted Covid and many of the others decided that it wasn't appropriate to gather together, so staff training went online. I was actually quite relieved, as the roads were awful, so icy. Global warming! Yes! This winter has been warmer than in previous winters and weird. We had an unusual cold spell in early December and then it seems to have snowed on and off all winter since then. More often here in Latvia the snow comes, stops and the days become crisp and clear. This year the temperatures have hovered around zero and so the snow is generally wet and heavy and now everyone is running out of spaces to put it. Pathways are narrow and have snowbanks, which I guess stops the cars sliding into pedestrians at least. The big industrial scale tractor has been out several times this year to clear the roads right back so the usual snow ploughs can do their job. 

Mind you, there are days it is hard to imagine that
spring is just around the corner

I guess we need another smiley alpaca picture.
Thank you Vanessa. Someone else who looks
like their mother!

I'm planning on going to the UK soon to see the kids and grandkids but the situation today makes such plans so much more complicated, especially when I'm working nearly full-time. Gone are the days when you can just book time off and go. I was chatting to a colleague in the UK and she was worried she wasn't going to get to see family in another country due to Covid going round the school and sure enough her kids got it. It has meant I'm kind of nervous of going out, as I don't want to jeopardise getting to the UK to see my family. I'm not worried exactly about getting it, I just don't want it and I sure don't want it to mess with my plans, especially when I've heard of other colleagues having to change plans right before they were due to travel. It just makes life far too complicated to keep chopping and changing when I'm supposed to be teaching too. 

An interesting visitor to the 
boys paddock. Lynx tracks

Funnily enough though, her daughter doesn't
resembler her as much.

In preparation for going to the UK, I had booked in for a flu jab, along with Ian (who will be home-alone to look after the alpacas) but I didn't get one as the doctor and nurses are all in quarantine. The numbers of Covid are incredibly high here but they are hoping it peaks soon. It might not seem a lot to have 11,000 cases a day but the country only has around 1.8m population and they are not sure how many of them are actually in the country. Some say it is actually around 1.3m. Being a hermit can have its advantages sometimes but I know I shouldn't remain a hermit. 

So this winter has been mainly about clearing snow
for Ian. Also for our upstairs neighbour at our apartment, as he has usually cleared the road by the time I get a few spare minutes. He even helped me clear the snow around my car so I could get out, although Ian had to come and drag my car out in the end. The plan had been that he would clear the roadway onto our land and then I drive out to help him bury Turbjørn. Well that was the plan.

Anyway, as you can see from the picture above, 
Ian has been busy clearing the snow from the side
of the greenhouse. Good job as it was getting a bit 
high. Then it snowed again!

And again! Not quite back to square one, as
you can see the pile on the left... well there
isn't so much space to throw the new snow now.
We are just hoping there isn't any more.

Think we need another smiley alpaca. Thanks
Karla.

Thinking into the future, I wonder how safer communities can be encouraged or even created. It is something that occupies my mind a lot as I teach the students to think strategically and to incorporate people into their plans. What would communities look like that are small enough to be able to provide the level of care needed for all and yet still be open enough to not stifle people, the young folk in particular. How would these kinds of communities operate? There certainly will not be one solution but a myriad of solutions but then how do they fit together? Yes those are the types of questions that buzz around my brain.

Karla is a bit easier to photograph than Ilvija
against the snow. 

Freddie! Just not appropriate! 

Other news for this week - like buses they all come at once - I got elected to a board of an organisation. It wasn't hard, I just needed to volunteer and since I've been involved so much in their meetings over the last year, it seemed like I should put myself forward. I also found out that a consortium (a group of organisations, usually universities) that I had joined for a potential project has got the funding and so that's me sorted with some work for the next four years. It doesn't pay for a full-time post but it contributes to the overall mix of my employment, so that's good. 

I'll pass on the kisses!

It's warm up here

I guess I get too busy and at times I feel I'm getting too disorganised. Computer alerts are not enough and I needed something to simplify my life. The problem is that this takes time to sort that out. I've spent a few evenings looking at management software. I'm finding it a bit annoying as it is time I could be doing some Latvian, which I also need to progress on. Sigh! 

Paths, paths and more paths. Ian is ready for 
spring. Can't think why!

The path to the 
greenhouse where the 
chickens are

Have you got my milk or some food!

I found one programme that was recommended the most but it seems to have so many options that it is difficult to know where to start. I need to integrate it with the plethora (lots) of different programmes that we all seem to use these days and the programme suggests that possible, but how? What do I integrate and where? Gmail, outlook, calendars, slack, teams, zoom, you name it and I've probably used it, or so it feels like. I'm sure that's not true as there always seems to be yet another platform, format whatever to get to grips with. It kind of feels exhausting just trying to set it up but I do need to be able to get more organised there will always be a variety of projects, it's the nature of the job and I want to make them work well, so I will get there in the end. I will find a solution as I'm determined to do it.

Food delivered by sledge
these days. Rather a trek.

Our lively and uncooperative Jakobs

At least having the experience of all these different platforms means that I could show Ian how to use Zoom because he's using it for an alpaca course. I was able to work out how to get him on it, even if it didn't seem to work the way it normally should. I usually find a way. At least the courses he's been on seem to be paying off. We did the toe nail cutting recently and it seemed so much easier. Only little Jakobs was particularly awkward and Brencis tried to bite his ear in the process - we still think Brencis is trying to protect us but we really wish he'd stay out of it. Brencis was sent outside for bad behaviour - no not really, he was sent outside so we could carry on with the job safely. Good job it was only snowing lightly at the time and he has a nice thick winter coat.

Yum! Christmas tree

Tasty

The hay bales are under that mound. I guess
Ian will be digging it out tomorrow as the boys
will need more hay.

Remind me again where my
herb bed is!

The road to our land

A blanket of snow to keep the alpaca house warm

But how long will it last? 

How much more snow will our poor greenhouse take?

And that was the week that was...

Well can you see them? The wild boar. They are the black
specks in the very distance on the road. The road is
the white trail between the trees ie under the snow.

Picture the scene, we are travelling along a snowy track, going to observe feeding sites for wild boar in the forest. Suddenly in the distance a group of wild boar cross the road. Stop! Stop! Says the hunter sitting in the back. So we come to a stop and I take out my camera to take a photo, but of course they are too far away to get a good picture. They cross the road and disappear into the forest and the hunter tells us to move on slowly. At the point where they crossed the road he tells us to stop, and he tells us to get out of the car very quietly and not to make a noise with the doors. We change the lens of the camera for a long lens, and creep out of the car. It is at this point I was wishing I wasn't wearing red - well how did I know we would actually see some wild boar at 3pm in the afternoon? I also wished I wasn't wearing a waterproof coat and waterproof trousers, as we cautiously and as quietly as possible followed the hunter. Suddenly he motioned us to crouch down and to look through the trees, the wild boar were in there snacking on the beets and potatoes. Gradually we stood up and moved a little closer, one juvenile who thought he knew better than to listen to mum was still hanging around. Ian being taller than me started to take photos, but it was difficult to get a good picture due to the trees. The hunter made a noise, the wild boar looked up and Ian got his photo!

And there's the youngster who wouldn't listen to Mum

Well that was the start of a very interesting week. I have met some amazingly brave people this week, who are working hard for the good of Latvia. It was a real privilege to meet them and talk to them. I wish I could share more, but sorry I can't; just to say if you are the praying sort then pray for those who love their land and long for a better place for their children and their children's children and are willing to fight to get that. Also pray for our translator, he has been doing a brilliant job and has really caught the enthusiasm for what I'm doing with my research project, which makes the job a lot easier. I have seen people with passion from all sides of the debate over wild boar management and heard tales to inspire and sadden. It has been the most incredible month but now the hardest part begins, to condense all that I have discovered into less than 15,000 words that will help the debate as best I can. Not much to do then! I had to smile when I read this somewhere this week (sorry I can't remember where)

"To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects ... is to succumb to violence. The frenzy of our activism ... kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful." Thomas Merton

Because it was Valentine's day when we went
to the hotel for our weekly meal

I long to see communities flourish and be transformed from hopelessness and despair to one of hope and optimism and it would be too easy to get side-tracked along the way by all things that could benefit from change. Every time I contact my tutor he reminds me to stay focussed. So let's hope that I don't kill the root of inner wisdom, but rely on God to help me stay focussed and on track to see transformation in one area of life here in Latvia, or at the very least be a small part of that transformation - I am not sure that I can play an important part, but if all I can do is offer a word of encouragement here and there to keep things moving I will be very happy.

Who are you looking at?

It has been a week of highs and lows - aren't such week's like that. Poor Ian has been on the brunt of most of the lows. Early on one day Ian was in the car and made a right turn, he glanced away to check traffic and when he looked back the old lady he had seen crossing the road had disappeared from sight. He suddenly realised she was lying on the road having slipped on the ice, he stopped the car in plenty of time and got out and using the international work "okay" he helped her up and she was laughing "normal" she said. Phew!  Well that wasn't too bad but later on in the day we were in the nearest large town and we had been to the supermarket and needed some diesel to get us home. The petrol station is right opposite the supermarket and so Ian just pulled straight across the road - bad move apparently. A few seconds after getting out of the car a policeman approached. None of us had seen the "turn right" notice and now Ian has a 20 Lat fine I'm afraid. Now we know why the police sit in that particular position on a frequent basis, a bit of a moneyspinner place to sit methinks.

A fine set of antlers on this one, although apparently
it won't be long before they lose them for this year.

Wouldn't have minded quite so much but the trip to the supermarket was a bit of a waste of time anyway as I managed to make a right hash of picking up some chicken for a quick meal. What I thought looked like some chicken breasts turned out to be the carcass of a chicken for soup. Here they often sell bones for cooking, you can get salmon scraps for soup stock, chicken bones for soup stock and pork bones for soup stock. I must, I must concentrate more when I'm buying food. We had a tasty meal, just not a lot of meat in it. Oh boy! I was in trouble because Ian hadn't eaten much that day and it being the night of the incident with the police it was not the best of nights to make a catastrophic failure in the purchasing department. Good job we can laugh about these things but it was close!

A hunting tower where they can watch
and wait for the wild boar to come

It was not the only incident with cars that week either. Ian had gone out to the land to do some work and I rang him to see what he was doing, and when he would be back for lunch, only to be informed that he was on his way to help someone out as they had crashed their truck. The truck had been on the way to make some deliveries of humanitarian aid around the village when another car misjudged a slippery road and the two vehicles collided. Ian had to take the driver back to his land to collect a tractor so that he could remove the vehicle from the road. So added to all that excitement one of our cats has managed to pee on our plinth under our woodstove. Not too bad you would think but it is a glass plinth inset into a wood surround and the pee managed to get under the glass and we can't move it to get to it. And finally to cap the week the motor that Ian bought for our Dyson vacuum cleaner to get it to run on a 240V instead of the 110V it ran on, was bigger than the one removed and took a little more fiddling around to get it to work than anticipated - to Ian's credit he got it in and working so we no longer have to plug it into a transformer, but what a palaver.

A winter feeding station for wild deer. 

Despite all the excitement of the week, I have managed to get some preparations for the year ahead done. First of all I have ordered an egg incubator and brooder so that we can raise our own chickens for meat this year. Not a bad idea after the supermarket fiasco earlier, also not a bad idea anyway, as the supermarket broiler chickens, as they call them, are not exactly the tastiest meat around. If there is one thing we are getting used to is tasty meat around here, even if it is a bit different to what we would have normally consumed in the UK. So this year it's looking like we will add quite a few animals to our two cats as we won't raise all the chickens for consumption and some will be for eggs. The other bit of preparation is to get our seed order in. We have ordered different kinds of chilli seeds although they are all relatively mild, but lots of different colours, some purple, some deep red, one brown, some orange and some a more normal red. There are also more of those squash plants that we have grown to love this year and we expanding the range of those we are going to grow too. One squash has what they called naked seed, so we can just go right ahead and roast them and not break our teeth on the husks in the process of eating them once they are cooked. Once we build up a big enough bank of seeds from the naked seeds, it might be possible to get oil out of them (and just in case you have absolutely no idea of what I am going on about, this link will show you what I mean). Another squash will be like baby orange pumpkins, just right for the two of us, so that we are not wondering every time we go to open up a pumpkin, how many different things can we do with pumpkin this time. Although at the moment they are starting to go over and so we are having to cut them up quick and freeze them - which is fine because it is much easier at this time of the year than in the middle of harvesting everything else, and they do make a great pumpkin cake.

A pile of tasty beets and potatoes for the
wild boar! 

So what have I also unearthed on the internet this week? One article was a fairly sobering article for my generation up to my parents generation - a span of 20 years. We are apparently the stumbling blocks for todays youngsters and not the stepping stones on which they build. For those about to retire, the times maybe good, especially if they have been employed all their lives, but for those who are younger, who have experienced unemployment the times are grim, and even if they have employment those jobs may not be the best with good working conditions and favourable pay. What legacies are we leaving our children? What future are we releasing to them? By the time I get to retirement age (goodness only knows when that will be in 20 years time or so) will things have balanced out again and brought a release of opportunity to the younger generation? Will they live in a fairer society? I do hope so, but if I have to spend all my energy to see that into existence then so be it. I want a future for my children, not a nice cosy life just for me.

Mineral licks for the deer too, to keep them
healthy

Many of you may have seen the news that the Latvians have sent a resounding no message to introducing Russian as a second language. I wonder though was this effective democracy in action? After all the last referendum ousted the last Government and sent a clear message that people are tired of corruption in Latvia, but referendums are costly and I am not sure the majority of people really wanted the country spending money on the latest referendum, when schools and hospitals are closing or barely surviving. At least that didn't stop them turning out to register their votes, 69% bothered to vote. That in itself was a good thing.