Move it or clean it

The weather was horrible first thing this morning, it had obviously been pouring with rain during the night as there were streams everywhere again.

Typically shortly after we headed back in for a cup of tea having fed the herd and spent a bit of time watching and talking to everyone the rain stopped!

No rest for the wicked, after we had supped up Paul was out re-arranging the garage so the car could fit in as well as all the feed, hay, quad, muck truck and other paraphernalia we have collected.

Whilst he was doing this I cleaned the rather dirty trailer. Bio security is something that has to be treated very seriously and after every single use the trailer gets thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. To say we had only had two boys in there fore a 20 minute drive it was far from pleasant.

Hughie and Loki did not go to the toilet all the time we were at the farmers market and boy did they make up for it the minute they got in the trailer. Loki, bless him is always funny about relieving himself anywhere other than at home. He will moan for hours at a show before he finally gives in and goes.

I've also repacked the stock we bought home from the market so it is all nice and tidy and ready for my next outing in three weeks time. This is one of the new ranges we have that hasn't made it into the online shop yet.

Morpeth Farmers Market

It was another early start this morning, we had to check and feed everyone before we headed off to the farmers market to sell our knitwear.

Hughie and Loki were having a race to see who could get in the trailer first. Hughie loves going out and about meeting the public but even Loki was in a hurry this morning. Thankfully I'd already loaded the car yesterday so that was one less job to do this morning.

We had a good day selling, and received lots of lovely comments about our products. It is so nice when people appreciate the efforts you go to and the quality of our items. We will be back there again for the Christmas market at the beginning of December.

You can never quite tell what you are going to sell, gloves were definitely the hot favourite today. It's usually the fingerless type that are most popular but today it was fingers, in fact I sold out of ladies full fingered gloves. Best get knitting gloves with fingers; I've already set mum on it!

I have taken a few orders again so it looks like I'm going to be burning the candle at both ends for the next few weeks (no change there then!)

All loaded up and ready for the off

I have spent the day getting ready for the 10th Anniversary Morpeth Farmers Market tomorrow. Everything is priced, labeled and tagged and most of it is in the car ready to go.

The trailer is ready for the boys, Hughie and Loki are coming along to show the public where all our knitwear, felting and poo bricks come from!

I will soon need a trailer for the trailer, each time I seem to set up somewhere I have more things to take along. This time I have additional stock, display heads and all the poo bricks (they only come out in the run up to Christmas).

The girls got very excited this morning when they saw me moving round hurdles; I need them to make Hughie and Loki's pen for tomorrow - you can never have enough hurdles. Guinea also got rather excited, I think he thought I was making him a mating pen. Sorry Mr Guinea you have got to wait until spring until your next conquest; Barnacre Sienna is looking forward to it as much as he is I think.

I was going to have a night off knitting, but I can't. It's time for Autumn Watch so I'll do a spot of knitting whilst I watch it!!

Camelibra feed delivered

I took delivery of a tonne of alpaca feed this morning. Thankfully the delivery driver rang me from, in his words 'a dirt track' his sat nav was trying to send him down to check he was heading in the right direction.

He wasn't, for some reason TomToms always try and send you down this track and through a ford which is impassible by even the tractor most of the time. Alan, our farmer friend has has to rescue many a visitor who has carried on down the track and got stuck.

When said lorry arrived with a rather large pallet of feed I was slightly worried that I would be unloading it; all 60 sacks (I had some Fibregest as well) by hand. I managed to get one of the neighbours with a manatu to unload it for me - phew! If anyone locally is interest in buying any at cost price let me know.

Long term blog readers may recall I was lucky enough to obtain a weaving loom on freecycle in exchange for some alpaca manure and half a dozen eggs. Well the very kind elderly gentleman that made the loom (and delivered it) popped round for some more manure today.

He came with his camera so the boys took full advantage of the situation and Hughie got his photo taken exchanging kisses.

Mud, mud and more mud

I thought I would get an early blog in this evening before Paul gets home from work. He is doing some very long days at the minute, most annoying.

We have had another day of sunshine and showers today and the fields are horrible and muddy, particularly in the girls feeding pen.

It is only the first week in November and we are already paddling in mud, I dread to think what it is going to be like by the end of winter.

The girls are funny to watch in said mud. There are a few, like the recently sold Aria and our black girl Geena that will walk round the edge trying to avoid walking through it and then there are the girls who Paul would say take after me!

If there is mud to be found I always managed to find it. Willow and Angelus have to be the main two that seem totally oblivious to mud and go trampling through it and manage to get it everywhere. This afternoon Molly did the most revolting thing and slid neck first into the mud at the entrance to the feeding pen and rolled in it. I think I may have to change her description on alpaca seller to brown! Typically I didn't have the camera with me.

Exciting stuff

What another delightful morning it was this morning. I was already in my second set of clothes by 9am! To add insult to injury, shortly after I had finished my early morning chores there was a break in the torrential rain; typical.

For those of you who read my blog on a regular basis, you may recall last week I mentioned some very tantalising offers that we had on our 'sales' girls. Well as I suspected, in view of the stunning value of these girls we have sold three.

Yes, that was the exciting news I made mention of yesterday. Heidi, along with her mum Aria and Milly have been sold and will be off to their new home soon. These girls are fantastic, I will miss them all dearly, particularly Heidi.

This leaves only four pregnant females left for sale, one with a female cria at foot. It wont be long before we are weaning Palm-Olive from her mum Molly, so there is a limited time to obtain a super value for money purchase there. Molly is currently pregnant to our elite white stud Gianmarco's Masterpiece and Palm-Olive is from Accoyo Remarque who has sired may show winning progeny.

More exciting news, I have been over to see Carol (original CKD sufferer) this evening to pick up her latest stash of knitting. In a week she has knitted 3 hats and two pairs of gloves; she puts me to shame. Thank you Carol if you are reading this.

I am still waiting for Paul to put the last batch of knitwear in the shop, but this is one of her wonderful creations!

Cria comparison

Thankfully the weather has been much better today, the wind has picked up but at least it has been dry.

The herd had almost dried out by tea time, just in time for the rain we have forecast for tomorrow; poor things.

Our last cria of the year Kealani, who is two months old today, seems to have had a growth spurt the last few days. She is such a live wire always jumping on the boys and neck wrestling with them.

I find it fascinating comparing how the cria develop. Palm-Olive our first born cria of the year (born in April) is very grown up both physically and mentally. She no longer plays with the other youngsters, she is far to mature for all those silly games. I think at the rate she is growing she will be ready for mating next year.

Star is another big girl, she is five months old now and her mum, Kate, is beginning to ration her milk supplies. I am hoping to wean 4 of the 7 youngsters together so it will be a little longer before I separate them. Star doesn't seem to realise that she is supposed to respect the adults within the herd and has regular spit off with them. She has obviously learnt that off her mum!

Then there is Duke and Tenzing, these two boys are very laid back. Duke is very affectionate and likes to come and say hello; especially if you have Heidi's bottle in your hand. Tenzing on the other hand prefers to roll round the feed bucket for some reason.

Heidi, Sandstorm and Kealani play together most of the time. Kealani never knows when to stop though so the other two get fed up of her occasionally and send her on her way.

I hope to have more very exciting news on Heidi tomorrow........ watch this space.

A wash out

It has been a horribly wet day today, we had so much rain that at lunchtime when I went to give Heidi her bottle and the girls their sugerbeet most of the fields were under water, as was our courtyard and drive.

Needless to say the alpacas refused point blank to move for lunch, even when I waded through to Heidi she didn't want her bottle. It must have been bad because not even Duke wanted to come and he's usually hanging round for a free meal!

We had a family coming this morning to pick up a knitting order and meet the girls who had donated their fleeces to make these stunning garments. Sadly the weather put paid to wandering round the fields, so a chat and a cup of tea were called for instead. They were delighted with their new knitwear and I am sure it will keep mum a daughter cosy over winter.

When the rain finally stopped we hurried out to give everyone an early tea. There was no chance of anyone missing tea, as soon as they saw us they were waiting at the gate. After their feed supplement was polished off it was over to the hay mangers for dessert, then all of a sudden there was a sprint off to the trees. This was our cue to leave, the animals always know when then rain is going to arrive. We just made it back to the house in time!!