Staying in from the cold

It has been freezing cold today with sleet and snow showers, I was planning on doing some paddock cleaning but decided against it. The channel between the paddocks was so wet it would have caused damage.

Instead I have been doing some paperwork and updating alpaca seller. Now that Palm-Olive is a big girl she is for sale. She is sired by Accoyo Remarque, who has sired a number of show winning progeny. She is also available as a package with her mum Molly who is due to give birth in early May.

Talking of giving birth Mary is looking rather swell at the minute, Mary is one of those alpacas who goes from looking normal to extremely pregnant all of a sudden. The stays looking very wide for what feels like months. She's still got three months to go (she's 245 days) so she still has a way to go yet.

This afternoon Melanie from Fallowfield has been over to pick up some sacks of Camelibra and give me some advice regarding Kelso Show. It was nice to chat and catch up over a cup of tea, I don't seem to do this often enough!

I'm back

I am pleased to report I have returned safe and well from my trip down south to the BAS Shows Committee meeting. My word was it a long meeting at over 6 hours and a long lonely drive back but definitely worth while. Well we did all say we wanted a voice!

In these challenging times it is good to be able to gather thoughts and idea's from across the BAS membership to help protect, further and enhance the alpaca industry.

I am pleased to say that Paul coped with all the animals and himself in my absence. Oonagh was however very pleased to see me this morning, she obviously didn't feel that Paul's service was up to standard.

The weanlings were also trying to imply that they hadn't been fed, they were starving this morning. By all accounts they did very well on the food front as Paul used the wrong measuring tub for one feed which meant they had extra rations.

Whilst I was in Nottingham on Saturday night I nipped to see my neice, and my brother and his wife. After we'd had a bit of a play and a bath she did a spot of modeling for me of the two latest hats.
It was funny you know!

Safe to send a girl down South ?

With all the things you read, I'm just not sure.

The North seems to be safe and so why head South?

I wonder if the warmer temperatures are a boon or an issue?

Will it be worth the journey?

Is the risk acceptable?

Should expert advice be sought before travelling?

What makes it even worse is that she will be travelling alone. I've read that isn't so clever. The stress of travelling alone isn't good, everyone knows that.

Perhaps a mitigant will be good quality food for the journey and fresh water?

Risk assessment seems to be the buzz phrase of the moment - but it's easy to say and less easy to do - where do you start?

Then there's the cost - fuel is so expensive - surely it's better to stay up North?

It's not that were against the South, it can be quite sunny down there.

Decisions, decisions. To send the girl down there or not.

Well to be honest it's too late to take your advice, she's gone, earlier today in fact.

I do hope she will be O.K.

Good luck at the BAS National Showing Committee in Stoneleigh tomorrow dear!

Paul ;-)
xxx

A tree through the fence

It has been a really miserable day today, misty and that horrible drizzle that soaks you without you realising it.

Somehow this morning Kealani managed to take her own coat off! It was on at breakfast but then when I went back into the field a couple of hours later she met me at the gate coatless! How odd, not sure how she managed that one, she obviously didn't like standing out in the crowd.

This afternoon when I went to feed the boys there had been an incident. A huge branch had fallen off one of the neighbours trees and gone through the fence; marvellous, another job.

Thankfully the boys were ok and no one had been hit or decided to explore the other side of the fence. This was lucky as the fence was put up to stop the animals being able to reach laurel and rhododendrons.

The branch is so big I couldn't move it on my own, I didn't want to get the quad to pull it as it was likely to bring the whole lot down. So off I toddled to fetch the hurdles to block it off until tomorrow when it will need some chain saw attention.

David Bailey

Thankfully last nights snow pretty much gone other than from the sheltered spots. It has been a very dull grey day thought.

With nothing much to report I thought I would take the camera out. Firstly, here we have Kealani in her new multi coloured adapted coat.
I also managed to get a couple of shots of Hughie's new teeth growth. Just look at his fangs.

Two lots of excitement

Kealani has a new coat, I've adapted one of the existing coats to fit as her current one was too small. She is now fluorescent yellow which caused great excitement this evening. Kealani was after a drink from Oonagh who was not amused with her daughters new fan club.

The other bit of excitement today was the wood lorry toppling over. As I've mentioned in an early post the woodland behind one of our fields is currently being harvested. As the vehicle was making it's way to the road the trailer over turned spreading the 3 meter lengths of wood everywhere.

Alan came to the rescue with one of his tractors to put the trailer back on all 10 wheels. Shortly after the workers left leaving the wood where it had fell - I think they had had enough for one day.

Finally I must report that the weathermen were correct, it has snowed again this evening - grhhhhhh!

You're a day early

I'm with Jayne at Zanzibah; when will it end!

After rain during the night it started snowing just before 8am and by the time I'd finished my morning feeding routine the road and fields were white. Paul had taken the big car so no shopping for me today, the snow wasn't supposed to arrive until tomorrow so I thought I go before it came.

Thankfully by lunchtime the snow had stopped (and we didn't have as much as you Jayne), by tea time most of it had thawed. Hopefully we won't get the four inches that were forecast for tomorrow.

Lets change the record.....

For obvious reasons it has been inside jobs today, I had a long list but don't seem to have managed to get very far down it. I have been concentrating on the shop stock. I had garment labels to sew in, information tags to print off and the shop to update.

The shop takes ages, Paul showed me last night how to alter the picture sizes to make everything line up. I can now see why he hates that job and appears to have passed responsibility over; it took all afternoon and I still have a few things to put on.

Full bellies and half teeth

The girls certainly seemed to have enjoyed their first night on fresh grass, I bet they hardly slept a wink; too busy filling their bellies.

Aria was in trouble this morning though, when I arrived I watched her go into the extremely clean shelter to go the the loo and come straight back out again. When I shouted her she blatantly turned her head as if to say if I can't see you I can't hear you. Pesky monkey!

They are obviously enjoying the grass as some of them never even bothered to come for their sugar beet at lunchtime and Sienna wasn't interested in carrot and she would usually kill for carrot.

We had visitors this afternoon, Anna, George and baby Harry came to collect some ridge booties that they'd ordered for little Harry. They went down a treat and will certainly keep his little toes warm and cosy.

Hughie is teething! He is getting his big boy front teeth so appears to have to fangs at the minute as his new teeth are only about half way up. In fact it felt like he had razor sharp fangs when he ate from my hand tonight and scraped his teeth on me.