Debbies alpaca blog

Only visiting honest!

2011-12-28T18:49:00.000Z

Christmas has been a bit of a none event for us for one reason and another, none of which I really want to go into on here, but after blood, sweat and tears things are starting to take shape on the hill.

I thought I'd share a quick blog with you as we've called in to Carol and Dave's this evening to have a bath; just when she thought she'd got rid of us! We still have no hot water on the hill and you can only cope with so many cold wash downs.

Life on the hill has certainly been blowy the last few days, the alpacas have had a wash and blow dry and on occasions have actually looked quite clean. I've not bought the camera with me so can't share the proof.

The littlies (alpaca weanlings) have christened the barn. I took pity on them on Christmas night as it was wet and windy and they were looking rather wet so in they came. They seemed to like it especially Nadia who is a real people paca. Each time she saw movement in the caravan we heard her shout us.

The boys are all getting on well (she says with fingers crossed), even Golden Guinea seems happy enough sharing a field with everyone else.

As for the girls, they are stuffing their necks as quick as their little mouths will let them. Poor Willow has had an abscess on her face which has needed some attention but it is now drying up nicely.

Alive alive-o (Paul)

2011-12-22T22:42:00.000Z

Hello all - just a very quick blog as we pass through a wi-fi hotspot! The great alpaca migration was completed with support from Trigger and Dave. All 51 of the Barnare Alpaca herd are now on the hill (doing their best to eat all the grass as quickly as possible of course!) to keep the 138 black face sheep company - just the chickens to go (thanks Colin for feeding them this week)...

As for the house...don't go there or we might just explode!

Happy Christmas all

Movement complete

2011-12-18T18:49:00.000Z

We have had a major movement operation on today. All the alpacas are now on the hill and we are in caravan mark 2; for hopefully only a few days before the house is habitable.

The weanlings were very well behaved and were so much better than I was expecting. They aren't haltered trained but because we are in the process of fencing they needed to be lead up to their new paddock.

They were all fantastic and despite the snow and ice walked well, the star of the class had to be Emery, our grey girl who we expected to be a nightmare. You may recall we once failed to halter train a cria, that was Midnight Star, who is Emery's sister.

We can never begin to thank Carol and Dave for everything they have done for us, particularly in the last two months. Dave has been helping us all weekend again with Carol keeping us supplied with food, drink and still knitting!

It just leaves me to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year as until BT get their act together we are without a phone or broadband connection so hill updates will be by twitter only (see the left hand panel on the blog).

Snowmen, where's the carrots?

2011-12-16T23:02:00.000Z

What a day we have had today. We woke to a sprinkling of snow at Scots Gap, over at Angerton there was just frost, then up on the hill there was a covering of snow.

We were busy fencing again ready for the arrival of the alpacas on the hill. As the morning progressed so did the snowfall, it got heavier and heavier. By lunchtime fencing was proving rather difficult, the builders had left and we were resembling snowmen.

Then we had a visit from Animal Health, they were a really nice couple of chaps who actually came to look at the sheep but were very interested in what we do with our alpacas and were fascinated by our shed and the way we follow the whole process through with our alpaca business.

Aga sneak preview (Paul)

2011-12-15T21:54:00.000Z

It has been a rather challenging day at the hill today.

Progress on the paddock fencing was steady but not great as Trigger and I did a great days quarrying (digging out stones) and not a huge amount of fencing. As he said to me, if it wasn't for the stones, bumps and trees fencing would be easy - wise words indeed!

There are tradesmen all over the house (but not the shed which still remains unfinished) and some working through the night - can't fault the commitment of some of them.

The blue submarine (our new water tank) was 'sunk' late yesterday and to everyone's amazement actually filled up overnight - 10,000 litres filled up overnight - blimey! No wonder the land is wet as this comes from just one of the 3 springs (that we know about) on our land. I'm sure there must be an opportunity for a commercial spring water facility (Peckham Spring?!) - I'll have to Google that one and have a word with the farm diversification people...

Right picture time and something vaguely to do with the title. Remember the Aga arrival picture from a few days ago?

Well just for you, here's a sneak preview of what it looked like less than a day after it arrived and the super Aga people at Walter Dix waved their magic wand:

What do you mean you want to see more? Stay tuned for the grand unveiling!

Paul

Green nudgy smoke (Paul)

2011-12-14T22:48:00.000Z

Hi all. Yes, Debbie is still about, I'm blogging for a couple of days whilst she writes Christmas cards and is currently having a sneaky little snooze - I just nudged her so she is awake again...she is complaining that she is tired because she has been moving fence posts and rails around all day and I have been "in my cosy tractor" - well my tractor doesn't have heated handle bars does it!

Any way, it was great to see and read all the comments yesterday about the solar pv - I did wonder if the blog posting would prompt any interest and clearly it did! Di (at Llama Karma) I wouldn't mind details of the bluetooth thingy if you don't mind? There are so many green energy options to choose from and as ever the devil is in the detail. If anyone out there is considering ground source heat pump or solar pv just drop us an email or give us a call and we will happily share our experiences.

(just nudged her again)

We spent all day at the hill (again) today fencing with Trigger and (carding) Dave. We now have one paddock totally fenced and gated, with number two not far behind - I'm sure that will be tomorrows reported success! On the flip side the poorly maintained land drainage systems are showing their age and sections of the land are really wet and muddy - Trigger tells me that is a summer job, but to remember where the winter water was - not sure my memory is that good!

(nudge)

Yesterday I mentioned a few of our planned heating components, like our stove (multi fuel fire) and today we were met by Steve, our lead builder who wanted to show us what the stonemasons had done with some of the stone Debbie and I had collected of our land. We were absolutely delighted with the fireplace so far - what do you think?

(nudge)

Paul

1.7 ton picture (Paul)

2011-12-13T22:01:00.000Z

After the 'very' easy clues yesterday, I'm sure eveyone (except Jayne) knows what Barnacre Alpacas latest venture is? To be fair, Jayne is more used to wind, rain and snow - so guessing that we now have a solar photovoltaic (solar pv) system was probably a little tough!

Debbie and I had many 'debates' about this, although it was something I really wanted us to do. We are not green nuts or anything, it should give us energy security, avoid crazy oil and heating bills and (unsurprisingly) should be a great investment. All was going well until the Government kindly made changes to the Feed in Tariff part way through our project - requiring me to spend the last month pushing and organising about 6 different companies to do their bit (including installing new power lines!) as it happens we got everything done with a couple of days to spare - good job as the new Feed in Tariffs are some 60% lower and they last for 25 years!

For anyone that doesn't know, there are a couple of types of solar installation. There is solar thermal which is usually a couple of panels on the house roof - these warm up the water passing underneath to give you warm/hot water. Solar pv, which we have invested in, is different. Solar pv or solar photovoltaic is a number of panels - in our case 40 of them in two arrays 21 metres (70 feet) long and 3.5 metres (11.5 feet) high. They sit on the south side of our new shed which stands nearly 5 metres high at the apex. The solar pv cells on the panels capture sunlight and the silicon they are made of then create an electrical field which produces electricity.

The system should produce around 8,000 Kilowatts of electricity and we should only use around 3,000 so we will be putting lots of 'green' elecricity back into the grid. We will also save over 4.5 tonnes of CO2 (carbon dioxide) - very green! On the financial side, we get paid by the electricity company for every kilowatt of electric we generate - we will be smiling when the sun is shining!

As a result we do not have any gas or even an oil tank on the farm and the only electric we will 'buy' will be some cheap rate night time electricity. Combined with our new house build insulation, ground source heat pump, electric Aga and stove (maybe I'll save those for another day) even Debbie should be warm enough!

Anyway, enough words, here's the picture that reveals all:

Paul

1.7 ton quiz night (Paul)

2011-12-12T23:08:00.000Z

Thanks Dave for your guesses of the 1.7 ton new purchase for the farm - unfortunately both are wrong!

Here's a few 'helpful' clues for you and the other blog readers:

1. I love it - Debbie hates it
2. It is nearly 5 metres high
3. Mad dogs like it
4. It keeps me fit
5. It is nearly 21 metres wide
6. When I'm asleep it is useless
7. You might think it is lazy because it doesn't even move when it's working
8. Although it is green, it is so shiny you can see your face in it

How easy! More guesses please - picture to follow...
Paul

A day of rest???

2011-12-11T23:07:00.000Z

I'm not quite sure where the day has gone today, Paul had added an sneaky extra 15 minutes onto the alarm this morning so that's where 15 minutes went but as for the rest of it I have no idea.

After the morning feed round, which for the first time in about a week was actually in daylight we headed off up to the hill.

There were a few jobs that needed doing and we wanted to round up the sheep again for the tups, although looking at the colour of the sheep's rear ends the tups have been doing a fantastic job - lets hope they are all pregnant; scanning early in the new year will reveal whats going on there.

This afternoon I had a scarf to deliver to a lady in Morpeth and I have packaged up a couple of other items for posting tomorrow. The stock levels are looking rather depleted now so any last minute shoppers better get in there quick!

Talking of shoppers, Paul's latest purchase for the farms weighs a staggering 1.7tons; any guesses?!

Mud and miles of fencing

2011-12-10T22:48:00.000Z

I failed to blog last night due to exhaustion; we'd spent the day on the hill and not only were Paul & I struggling to stay awake so was Dave who'd come along to help too. I did try to convince Paul it was his turn to blog but it didn't work!

The house is coming along nicely, we have electric (mostly) and nearly have water, the ensuite is almost tiled and the bathroom has been started, the cooker has been built..........

The fencing is growing too, Dave and I were moving the posts and rails whilst Paul & Trigger were knocking in posts. There was one incident; Dave decided to have a mud bath at one point and I got the blame. It wasn't my fault honest, I was just trying to unstick myself and I didn't know what was happening behind me; I didn't mean to laugh!

Today we have been at Seaton Delaval Hall with the alpacas and our knitwear. The alpacas drew a huge crowd as usual and the knitwear was going down very well. There was a mix of people buying Christmas presents and treats from themselves.

You need to get in quick if you have your eye on something before it's gone.

Damaging gusts

2011-12-08T23:15:00.000Z

The weather has been and still is terrible, the rain was battering the windows during the night and it was still pouring when it was time to get up.

Many of the girls were in the shelter this morning waiting for me to arrive to provide breakfast. By the time we'd finished feeding we were already soaked.

Unfortunately the weather meant that the fencing had to be postponed today, in fact most of the action on the hill had to be postponed. At one point a big plank of wood flew up from the ground almost decapitating one of the builders.

My cooker has arrived though, well this is supposed to be my cooker!

By tea time the wind had gathered even more speed, the troughs were blowing all over the place and some of the littlies were struggling to stay one their feet. As for the chickens, they decided the safest option was to go too bed early.

Maybe I should follow their lead and go to bed myself.

Work or play, you decide

2011-12-07T23:12:00.000Z

We have been on the hill again fencing today, whilst I was moving posts and rails from the bottom of the hill to the top Paul and Trigger were knocking in posts. Here is Paul moving one of the telegraph poles yesterday which we later cut into a gate post!

Whilst we were busy at the top of the hill the builders were busy at the bottom working out how to move our blue submarine. It's our water tank, , it's rather large don't you think, we will be using spring water off our own land.

This water will come in very handy for our partly tiled en-suite wet room. The tiler has done a great job today.

The post office queue

2011-12-06T22:59:00.000Z

Its been another full on day today, we could do with a few extra hours of daylight as there is still loads to do.

After the morning routine we headed up to the hill as we needed to see the electrician and clarify a few other points with the builders. By the time that was all done it was back to Carol and Dave's to warm up the girls sugarbeet on the way to Morpeth to post another online knitwear purchase.

You would not believe the size of the queue in the post office, it's only the 6th of December, imagine what it will be like next week!

Once we were back from Morpeth it was fence dismantling at Angerton in readiness for more fence erecting tomorrow on the hill. Then this evening I've been knitting away as I need to get a pair of flip top mittens finished for Saturday to take to Seaton Delaval Hall Christmas Fair.

It's all go here!!!

Divven dunch the tractor

2011-12-05T22:32:00.000Z

We have spent the day on the hill today and are bushwhacked! We had arranged to get some help with the fencing, Trigger who works for Alan amongst others was coming to sort out the poorly tractor and show us how to use the post knocker.

Typical, we woke to snow; not a good start to the day as we were going to pick up caravan mark two which Ken and Sue Bell had kindly been storing for us (thanks Ken and Sue if you are reading this)!

Despite the snow we did manage to get the van to the hill, albeit a rather slow journey slipping and sliding and dodging a car which had bounced off the crash barrier protecting our fence before going through our neighbours fence and ending up in his field.

We did need Trigger to pull the caravan up the last bit of our 'drive', but it is now in situe and almost ready for occupation. With the caravan tucked up we moved onto fencing. I think Paul was having a great time 'playing' with his tractor and new post knocker. I did take a photo on my phone but for some reason I can't download it.

Instead I took a photo of our new power line, not the nicest view I know but it's very important so we keep admiring it. I'm sure the novelty will soon wear off!

And this one is looking to the west

We came away with a number of fence posts and cross bars put up and a few strainers in so things are starting to take shape.

Whilst Paul and trigger were post knocking Dave and I were traipsing up and down the hill with posts and cross bars. At one point Dave said to me 'Divven dunch the tractor' I think the cold must have gone to his head and he'd switched to some foreign language.

The house is also taking shape, this is the kitchen which has now been painted; things are starting to get exciting now.

First snow of the year

2011-12-04T23:08:00.000Z

It has been a busy day again today, this morning we were moving some hay that we manged to buy in the summer but had nowhere to store. Now we have an almost finished shed we have put it in there. It looks rather lost in the huge space, we are used to having to squeeze things in.

The mezzanine is now up in the shed and looks huge (photo below). Hopefully it will be used for hay storage amongst other things. I think we need some steps though as it's a long way up and the ladders I found didn't feel very secure.

When we arrived up at the hill there was an army of NEDL (Northern Electric) workmen, vans and machines sorting out our electricity line. All being well we will have electric to the house in a few days.

Whilst I was moving and stacking the bales of hay the boys were getting the fencing materials ready for the morning. As is always the case Paul was sat on the quad whilst poor Dave was having to run behind; at least it's not just me he treats like that!

Whilst we were up on the hill we had the first snow of the season. It was absolutely freezing, all I can say is I hope our heating is good because it is going to be a cold up there.

Frozen to the bone

2011-12-03T22:32:00.000Z

It was a freezing cold day today at Morpeth Farmers Market. We were up and out in the dark so the girls were still in bed when we arrived, it didn't take them more than a few seconds to jump up and beat me to the feed troughs though!

Then we went down to the boys field to feed and pick up three volunteers for the day at the market. As usual there were plenty of boys wanting to run into the trailer, they do like a day out, probably due to the fact they get the best hay, carrot treats and lots of attention.

With Ochre, Pearson and Minimus loaded Paul tried to reverse the car up the channel to the trailer, however the car had other ideas, it was slipping and sliding all over the place. With the help of some wood and lots of welly he made it.

It was a well worthwhile outing, we sold lots of knitwear, educated lots of people and created lots of interest.

The only downer on the day was that I have lost my mobile! I'm hoping that in daylight tomorrow I will be able to find it in the field somewhere.

Seeing as we still haven't thawed out yet I think we deserve an early night, I might even have to take my (alpaca) hot water bottle to bed with me.

Jack frost pays a visit

2011-12-02T23:03:00.000Z

We woke to a very frosty start this morning, here are some of the girls (and Brinley) waiting for their breakfast. From left to right we have Palm-Olive, Piccolina, Chiquita, Lucia, Kate, Brinley and Geena.

Briney did have a coat on when I left him last night, but if you look closely in the next photo you may see it keeping the wheel on the hay heck warm!

Progress on the hill is coming on nicely, with the exception of the fencing and we have a poorly tractor (again) today.

Tomorrow we are at Morpeth Farmers Market with our knitwear and some of the alpacas. Hopefully it will prove to be a very successful and enjoyable day.

Fence or foe

2011-12-01T22:53:00.001Z

After collecting our post knocker this morning Paul had the slow job of driving the tractor over to the hill in readiness for the arrival of our fencing materials. Which is the next job.

The fencing arrived, or should I say some of it did, the rest is now arriving next week. Don't ask!

As you can see there is rather a lot of it, we were expecting it to arrive on pallets so we could use the forks on the tractor to unload it. Unfortunately it wasn't on pallets so we had to resort to tipping it off the waggon. There was at least one crack and snap.

We then planned to move to to where it is going to be erected. After dropping one bundle of cross bars onto Paul's foot, breaking the pallet we tried to load them on, loosing a pin off the post knocker, wading through mud, mud and more mud we decided to call it a day and return to the alpacas to feed them and remind ourselves why on earth we are doing what we are.

We are now planning an early night in the hope that tomorrow will be a better day!

Major operation

2011-11-30T23:09:00.001Z

It has been another busy day today, when you have your possesions scattered all over the place and have no place to call home, even the simplist thing become a major operation.

Todays 'major operation' was trailer cleaning, we have no water, no electricity and the pressure washer is in completely different place to the trailer. I know one thing, I'll certainly not take anything for granted for a long time once we get everything and everyone on to the hill!

We also needed to get the tractor jump started as it had a flat battery, Trigger came to the rescue as I'm not sure the Honda would have the power to sort it. We now have a working tractor again ready for unloading a few pallets of fencing we have on order.

At lunchtime I managed to get a few photo's of the latest knitwear ready to go into our online shop, assuming it doesn't all sell at Morpeth Farmers Market this Saturday. If you are in the area do pop by to say hello to the boys, Paul and I.

Hay theives

2011-11-29T22:29:00.000Z

The winds have returned today, thankfully the hay hecks stayed put this time. The tarpaulin covering the hay bale blew off during the day and we returned this afternoon to find most of the girls camped out at the bale munching away!

I can't wait to get the hay in the shed out of the elements and away from theiving mouths. Why they prefer stealing it from the bale to eating it from their hay hecks is beyond me.

Rosemary at Westhill Alpacas will be keen to see the latest concrete which has been poured at the hill. The builders, New Forest Developement have sent some updated photo's over this evening.

We are really looking forward to having some great handling facilities, it has been a long hard road to get where we are but it will certainly be worth it in the long run.

In trouble again

2011-11-28T22:21:00.000Z

Thank you for your kind comments on last nights blog; I am grateful that not everyone agrees with Paul.

Today we have been doing a spot of dismantling. All the fencing and shelters will need to be removed from our rented land and as we need to get the animals moved pretty soon we thought today would be a good day to make a start on things.

After the morning feeding we took down the 'bus stop' field shelter in the empty stud strip. As is always the case there were a few screws that didn't want to budge but we got there in the end so that is now stacked on a pallet ready for resurrection on the hill.

This afternoon we started loosening a few of the screws on the cross bars in the channel but I ended up in bad books again. I didn't know my own strength and managed to break Paul's screwdriver bit for his battery drill. It just snapped honest!

As the boys have hardly anything left to eat in their field we let them in the channel to munch whilst we were working. Hughie and Loki kept sneaking through the gate into the empty field next to Golden Guinea every time Paul's back was turned. I thought it was quite funny although Paul wasn't so impressed because getting them out wasn't always easy.

The next lot of fencing materials have been ordered for up at the hill so we will soon be erecting and demolishing at the same time.

Dirty alpacas

2011-11-27T22:10:00.000Z

Paul kindly informed me today that, along with a long list of other things I'm rubbish at, I am no good at writing the blog. Needless to say I am now reluctant to do it!

So not wanting to bore anyone, I thought I couldn't go wrong with sharing a few photos that I took of the rather dirty alpacas today.

Here we have Oonagh, the first cria we had born on farm.

This is her sister Lualeni.

Here we have Casiphia our Supreme Champion daughter of Legend of Spartacus and Veruschka

and her brother Cazanova, who just like his sister loves dirt!

Night on the tiles

2011-11-26T22:12:00.000Z

It has been exceptionally windy here today, in fact the wind has knocked the electricity out a few times at Carol & Dave's, so that's before we move up onto the hill.

The alpacas are all looking very dirty at the minute, hence the lack of alpaca photo's, they are a disgrace.

Instead I will share with you pictures of the tiles we are thinking of using for the bathrooms at the hill. Its the first ones we've actually agreed on so I think we should order them quick before one of us change our minds!

The plan for the kitchen and utility is muddy boots style tile. You can hardly tell the difference between the dirty concrete and the tile - maybe we should stick to the concrete and save some money!

Whilst I'm on the subject of my kitchen, I think I need a new towel, the builders seems to have found a towel and are using it as a flag. It looks like it's past the point of retrieval.

Counting sheep

2011-11-25T23:25:00.000Z

The alpacas have had another another delivery of Mr Thompson hay today. I really don't know what I am going to do when Alan is not on my doorstep. The herds intake of hay has certainly increased over the last few days.

We have been up to the hill again today, we wanted to round all the sheep up again for the tups. Dave (carding Dave) came along for some fresh air and to help. He wanted to go and explore the very top of the hill as he's not made it that far before.

It seems to be working as there are lots of coloured bums up there now. Once the sheep were gathered the plan was to count them, so off you go - how many can you see?

The shed is coming along nicely now, most of the cladding is now on, it has one door and most of the concrete floor is down.

I can see a nice little spot for the caravan in that back corner.

It's a pink job

2011-11-24T22:33:00.000Z

After the morning feeding routine I needed to collect some poo samples from the big boys. Anyone who follows our tweets will know that Paul will use any excuse not to collect them.

The first volunteer to offer a sample was Hughie, Paul was in the boys field when I spotted Hughie was about to go. Paul tried being deaf when I yelled 'quick get the bag and catch it'. To cut a long story short I was able to get in the field and catch the sample before it hit the ground whilst Paul found something else to do.

Gianmarco's Masterpiece and Loki needed a little help to part with their samples, I will say no more than that!! The boys then had a vitamin injection, poor things haven't had a good day really.

Things are progressing on the hill, early this morning the place resembled Piccadilly Circus, hopefully tonight half of the barn floor has nice concrete drying. The other half should be poured tomorrow.

Whilst we are on the subject of the hill, last nights pictures of Wesley loving were taken by my own fair hands Dave, glad you liked them. It took me a while to get him to face me, initially he was a little camera shy.

We are all yawning this evening, so I think it will be early nights all round!

Whispering sweet nothings

2011-11-23T22:27:00.000Z

Yesterdays sheep activities were interesting to say the least. As you may recall at the weekend we put raddles on the three tups so we could keep track on who is doing what with the ladies.

The sheep are on the 'top field' a 120 acre Northumberland hillside, so as we walked up we were guessing where the boys would be and how many of the ewes would be marked (from the coloured crayons they are wearing).

The first batch of 20 or so ewes we came to had one of the tup lambs with them. It was Black Out, however there were 9 ewes marked with red chalk and 1 in green. Umm very strange, surely there should have been at least one black bum. I'm worried that his raddle isn't on properly.

Wesley was at the very top of the hill, he couldn't have been further away if he'd tried. He to had a hareem of ladies. The biggest group of ewes were with Red In, which probably explains why the biggest concentration of markings are red.

We walked Wesley and his ladies down the hill to gather everyone back up again to give the tups a better chance of getting the ladies. Wesley soon spotted a lady interested in some loving.

Unlike the young tup lambs, who like the younger generation seem to like the 'wham bam thank you mam' approach Wesley seems to like to have a bit of a smooch and loving before taking the opportunity to do the deed.

After a little sniff, lick whispering sweet nothings in her ear he shows his true colours..

Eye in the sky

2011-11-22T22:36:00.000Z

We have been up on the hill most of the day today, meetings with the builders, checking on shed progress and rounding up the sheep for the tups. Yes it did take nearly all day!! Details of the sheep activities to follow tomorrow with more photos.

Paul managed to take some fabulous birds eyes photo's today which we thought you might like to see.

This one is a different shot showing our drive, if you look in the distance (top left) you can see the builders' vehicles. Any volunteers to sweep the drive speak now!

And these two are especially for my mum; here's your bedroom!

Bathroom fit for an alpaca maybe

2011-11-21T22:01:00.000Z

I'm a little concerned about Gianmarco today, he's not his usual self, in fact he was rather grumpy tonight. He is eating, but I can tell this is just something not quite right, I will see how he is in the morning. Hopefully he will be back to his normal self tomorrow.

Paul and I are still trying to sort out the bathrooms for the hill. You would not believe the time we have spent on them and we are still not sure we have got it right. How can it be so difficult.

We know that after a long and muddy day on the farm we want to have a nice bath and shower to relax in but other than that we are struggling! I think the main problem is we are more bothered about the alpaca facilities than our own.

I've just noticed that all the pictures of the house that we've posted on the blog have been taken from the south or the east side so I thought you might like to see one from the opposite end..

We have another meeting with the builder tomorrow so hopefully there will be more exciting developments to reveal on the blog tomorrow night.

Kirkley Hall Christmas Fair

2011-11-20T23:16:00.000Z

Another busy day at Barnacre today, the alarm was set for 5am as I'd not got all my wears ready for the Kirkley Hall Christmas Fair. Luckily it's only round the corner so we were able to feed everyone before.

The photo quality isn't great but here is the stall.

While we were up at the hill yesterday we took some more photo's. Things are really progressing with the house, it is now partially plaster boarded and looking good. I think the builder is worried that we will carry out our threat of having Christmas dinner with his family if the house isn't finished!

The shed is finally looking like it will soon be finished, I'm not holding my breath mind you!

Shake, raddle and roll (Paul)

2011-11-20T00:10:00.000Z

It's a sheepy one tonight! So if you're having trouble sleeping, keep reading the blog and there's that many sheep in it you will be off to the land of nod before you know it.

Today it was time to set our tups (or rams depending on where you are from) on to the 'ladies' at the hill. We now have 115 Blackface ewes and they need a boyfriend if we are to be lambing in the spring!

Regular blog followers will know all about Wesley, so no need to introduce him. However, despite him only being one and a half years old (or a shearling), he already has some young pretenders!

A friendly nearby farmer, Jeff Paxton of Greenleighton Farm near Morpeth has lent us a couple of tup lambs to add reinforcements to Wesley - why you might ask? First of all genetic diversity, secondly practical! Dave and I shepherded (well, he ran a lot and I was on the the quad) all the sheep to the 'top' field yesterday and it is 120 acres in that field alone so we need more than Wesley to track down the ladies!

Here are the two (very) young boys:s

Given their horn directions I have called them In (of the left) and Out (on the right). You can see some of the big alpaca boys behind them: Loki (black and far left), then Hughie looking at the camera and Tenzing behind him. I'm not sure who's the bum is!

So with our 3 tups we secured their raddle or harness with a block of colour under each so we can see who mates the most ladies. Out of course has black - making him Black Out. In has red and Wesley has green. Place your bets!

With harnesses secure we then shepherded them up the hill. With Dave still resting I needed a new runner - queue Debbie - come by lass!

The boys were soon up in the 'top' field and mixing it with the ladies - scores on the doors (or ewe's backs) to follow later in the week...

Whilst we at the hill we checked on our latest additions to the flock - an investment for next year, some Black faced ewe lambs (you mate them in their second year, not the first).

If you count how many there are you can either let me know the answer or you will be now fast asleep zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Paul

late oooh-key (Paul)

2011-11-18T00:18:00.000Z

Hello all you night owls - shouldn't you be in bed asleep by now?!

It's been a busy old day today, for a change! Debbie and I recieved a nice and empathetic email about our farm build (i.e. the house and shed on the hill) experience. I agreed with all of the email except the bit about pulling your hair out from time to time - it's all gone! Thanks for the email guys - you know who you are!

No doubt you are wanting to know what the blog title is all about - and even if you don't know I'm going to tell you anyway! First the oooh:

Here's my mate Brinley (sire: Golden Guinea, dam: Geena) taking a bit of hay for a walk. He has been enjoying the sun on his back for the last two days although I will be in trouble when Debbie is back because she wanted me to put his coat on at night - he's a big boy - nearly!

Now the key:

Now then what is this for? Well here's the clue, I was given it today although I won't be using it in earnest for a little while yet. Can you guess what it is yet?!

Paul

Eggcellent birthday (and pictures are back - Paul)

2011-11-16T21:01:00.001Z

Firstly, thank you to Judi for the great suggestion on Carol's giant baby booty - an alpaca stocking ready for santa to fill up! The only problem is that Rudolph wouldn't get any carrot as the Barnacre herd loves them and the temptation would be too great! Any more suggestions please?!

For those of you who follow us on Twitter (@BarnacreAlpacas) you will know that I trailed a massive story earlier today and here's a repeat of the first clue:

Obvious really, it's Legend's 5th birthday! And I made him a carrot cake:

Debbie and I were really lucky to have the opportunity to secure Legend from Rob and Les at Wellground. He has brilliant genetics from two of the biggest Australian alpaca studs: EP Cambridge Peruvian Spartacus (his sire) and Jolimont Commisario. His fleece is beautiful and has cut 5.5 kilos for the last two years, you can check him out on his stud page of our website.

As well as winning supreme champion at the 2009 Scottish National Fleece show (record 152 entries) he has produced prize winning progeny. His first son, Ivory Star who is at Wheelhouse Alpacas in Yorkshire has been reserve champion twice. His first daughter, Barnacre Casiphia swept the board at the 2011 Border Union Show, Kelso taking: 1st intermediate white female, white champion, Best of British and supreme champion - how proud were we!

Waiting in the wings we have more of his progeny, Barnacre Wynfor ("Win-vor") is excited about his new home because he has some new owners who are building him a special field shelter; then we have Barnacre Niveous from one of our elite breeding females (Little Miss Irraquoy who has the amazing NWA Ltd Ruffo in her pedigree) he looks amazing and is such obvious stud material you wouldn't believe it. And then there is Lavender-Bee Sebastian owned by John and Juliet Miller (of Border Mill fame), we met Sebastian last week in the fading light after the fleece show when John showed us his fleece. I asked if it was worth opening the fleece in the poor light conditions, and when we did it was like turning on a torch! Such crimp, density and brightness, that boy is destined for great things I have no doubt!

Anyway on with Legend's birthday celebrations. After singing him 'Happy Birthday' (under strict instructions from Debbie who is still away and sings happy birthday to all our alpacas - on their birthday of course, she isn't that mad) I fed Legend some of his carrot cake, which went down very well indeed. In fact he was that pleased with his special day that he even did a little pose for us:

He's the man!

Oh yes, issues and fallings out to report at the Pearson household (where Debbie and I are staying whilst our shed gets built at the hill). The chickens haven't laid any eggs for the last couple of days and so we were down to our last egg which Carol was going to use for 'sponge pudding' tonight. Unfortunately I accidentally ate it at lunchtime - oops!

I think Dave then got it 'in the ear' when he came home from work - sorry Dave! To make you feel better, and in true Paul style when Debbie is away can you guess what happened to the egg?...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...

Yum, yum in my tum - sorry Dave and Carol - it was eggcellent! Happy 5th birthday Legend !!!!!

Paul

Freddie Starr ate my...

2011-11-15T22:31:00.000Z

...hamster, alpaca, chicken, lamb, Wesley??!! Maybe the jungle is the best place for him after all.

It has been a busy old day today proof indeed that Debbie needs to work much faster to keep up with my farming and general organisational skills. The alpacas got 2 boxes of chopped carrots today - much to the delight of Meketaten, our multiple brown champion and her full brother Spadicious - one of our super brown male crias from this year. They are both the product of the union of Golden Guinea and Nefertiti, both here at Barnacre.

It was then time for a drive up to our hill to meet the builders and a couple of other people to discuss a few things that need sorting out. Our builder, Dave Charlton is really good and if anyone in the North East needs a sensible, organised builder then let me know and I'll put you in touch. Unfortunately, my camera batteries were flat so no house and shed piccies today. The shed had some signs of activity with the sides now going on - we really need to crack on!

Lots of phone calls were taken and received during the day and I'll let you know more about one of resulting jobs later this week - and I'll remember to take the camera to share the evidence. Suffice to say the tools for this particular job involve 2 walking sticks, a sidekick (or two) and a lot of shouting and swearing...can you guess what it is yet - oh that's Rolf Harris not Freddie Starr isn't it.

Carol has still not found a (sensible) use for her giant baby bootie (see yesterday's blog) and is threatening to pull it down (in a sulk methinks). So if anyone can think of a good use for it and/or wants to buy it (and maybe a matching one) you had better let me know in the next 24 hours!

'home' alone (Paul)

2011-11-14T22:16:00.000Z

Thanks everyone for your kind words for our Scottish National fleece show success - it is a fantastic feeling when your alpacas and their fleeces get placed, even win, and get really high scores as well. What is really exciting for Debbie and I is that our own breeding programme is starting to come good and we have a few more special boys and girls to cross over each other yet! Legend of Spartacus is doing really well for us and it is great that our brown boy, Golden Guinea has produced us some super solid colour fleeces (mostly brown with some fawns), also without exception every one of his cria have a super friendly personality - how does he do it?!

Debbie has headed back to Nottingham for a few days to sort out a few things and so I am 'home' alone - that song 'wherever I lay my hat' feels kind of familiar these days! If you follow us on Twitter (@BarnacreAlpacas) you will know that I have been left my list of jobs to sort out - wherever I put it! What with that and Carol chaining me to the cooker I could be a broken man by the end of the week...how I empathise with poor Cinderella!

Dave has come to the rescue (again) by allowing me to 'plug in' to his office wires with my pc tower so the Barnacre Alpacas knitwear shop could be updated - the files clearly didn't transfer across to the laptop. Carol, Debbie, Janet (Debbie's mum) and Joan have been knitting like troopers this year. In fact as I sit hear Carol is knitting, Dave is carding and I bet Debbie is having a cup of tea and biscuit with Janet!!! This year we have had new online customers, and 'regulars' coming back for new items for their alpaca knitwear sets - once you've tried alpaca there's no going back! Debbie always gets lots of compliments from customers about the softness and feel of our alpaca knitwear, she uses bespoke contemporary pattens and then of course there is the fact that we only use the fleeces from our own alpacas and we trace every one of them through to the end product. We know exactly which of our 51 alpacas are in every piece of knitwear and many customers really appreciate this dedication and passion we have.

Of course it's not all plain sailing - I have just noticed that Carol has been that busy watching and laughing at Freddie Star on I'm a celebrity that she got a bit carried away with the 'baby' booty she was knitting!

The measurement is in inches not centimetres! So if anyone has any young babies or small children with size 12 feet Barnacre Alpaca knitwear can come to your rescue!!!! Of course if Carol reads this blog I might be the one that needs rescuing - ha ha!

Any way, time to go because I have some preparation to do for a meeting tomorrow that could have some positive or negative results depending on the outcome - bit cryptic that and anyone would think that I'm leading you on to guess what I'm up to - as if I would!

Paul

Scottish National fleece show de brief

2011-11-13T23:04:00.000Z

After a busy three days up at the Border Mill for the Scottish National Fleece Show, a rather late night last night and Paul drinking rather a lot of wine, neither of us were too keen on getting up this morning. It didn't help that it was drizzling and very misty again.

We had a very successful show, there were 152 fleeces from across the UK and we had entered 5 fleeces and came home with 5 rosettes. Our judge, Rob Bettinson started with the greys and worked his way through to white, so our first fleece to be judged was our multi-champion Meketaten (sire Golden Guinea), she was awarded 1st junior brown with 75.5, a higher score than many good white fleeces, very impressive for a dark brown! Meketaten's full brother, Spadicious, is in our weaning field now and we have high hopes for him too!

We had four whites entered in three different classes, Casiphia was the first one out and scored an impressive 80.5 and was placed 2nd junior white from the biggest class of the show with 25 entries. Casisphia is from our supreme champion Legend of Spartacus and is a very impressive young girl.
In the adult white class we had two entries, Lualeni and Tenzing from our 2008 and 2009 crias respectively. I couldn't believe it when I saw the results, two rosettes! Lualeni came 1st with a cracking 83.5 points and Tenzing was 5th on 79.5 points. She scored 19.5 out of 20 for fineness and handle and Rob was very complimentary about Tenzing's fleece in particular his very impressive staple length.

Our final entry was Veruschka in the senior white class where she was placed 4th (74.5 points). Veruschka is mum to Casiphia and Tenzing and this year she has had another white boy called Cazenova from one of our other elite studs, Gianmarco's Masterpiece so we will see what he does in the show ring next year.

Having looked at all the results we are obviously doing something right as we had 3 fleeces in the top 15 overall scores and all 5 of our fleeces scored over 74. Rob Bettinson in his summing up of the show said that any fleeces scoring over 70 are excellent so you can imagine how pleased we are with our breeding programme. Here is our haul of rosettes:

Judging the judges judging (Paul)

2011-11-11T23:07:00.000Z

Day 2 at the Border Mill in Coldstream and as we continue to work our way through 152 fleeces, madness is starting to set in - or at least become rather more noticeable:

Rob has now used up his repertoire of UK accents (and beyond),
Shirley has cycled to Aberdeen and back,
I have created all the anagrams possible from the word 'fleece' and nearly convinced Rob that Twitter is quite fun (follow us @barnacrealpacas)
Debbie has counted all the 'contaminated' fawn fibres in the white fleeces,
John has worked out how many calories come from eating a biscuit after each fleece (and then wrecked the calculation by sneaking a blueberry muffin),
Melanie has used up all her band-aid and neurofen to keep her finger working,
and Juliet - has kept the mill spotless, the fleeces (and children) all in order (on the neat matching shelving - the fleeces are on here, not the children) and has nearly worked out what the 3 poles are protruding from the window - you really need to visit the mill to follow me on that one.

Anyway, how about I shut up and show you some pictures.

Scottish National Fleece Show judging

2011-11-10T22:28:00.000Z

It has been another busy day, this morning after the morning feed rounds we headed up to The Border Mill as we are helping out at the Scottish National Fleece show again this year.

After a slow start with the suri's we are now getting on well with the Huacaya fleeces. Judge Rob Bettinson is doing a fab job and called it a night after we finished the junior browns. Hopefully judging will be completed by the end of the day tomorrow ready for the results and fleece day being held on Saturday. So if you are at a loose end at the weekend do come and say hello and have a look at what you can do with the fleece of these fabulous animals.

By the time we got back tonight, after a very foggy drive home all the chickens had taken themselves off to bed and the main alpaca herd were wondering what on earth we were doing turning up at 8.30pm with torches.

Oonagh, our herd matriarch was soon over to see what we were up to, and letting everyone else know all was OK.

Following our day at the hill yesterday here is the latest update photo. Our builder is still hopeful that we could be in for Christmas!

Hunter gathers

2011-11-09T23:20:00.000Z

I really do wonder sometimes where all the daylight hours go and we haven't even got to the shortest day of the year yet!

After the routine feed run this morning we went straight up to the hill as we had a couple of meeting booked in. I think both went quite well and hopefully we will hear the outcome of the most important one in the next few days. Sorry for all the cloak and dagger but I can't tell the world everything.

The house is coming along nicely, unfortunately the shed seems to be taking forever. At this rate we will have the house finished before the shed, which is where we are supposed to be living now in caravan number two!

Whilst we were up on the hill we needed to gather some of the fallen stone that is scattered all over the place. We want to make a bit of a feature with some of it in our inglenook fireplace. Some of the pieces looked somewhat bigger when we got them back to the house, I'm not sure we will be very popular with the builder when he sees it.

Talking of builders, they have been given strict instructions not to use our fire place material as hardcore for the drive.

I'm in trouble

2011-11-08T23:20:00.000Z

The poor little weanlings are still humming away. In fact I think these the most vocal batch of weanlings we've had. I'm not sure if it has anything to do with age as some of this group, despite being big are younger than I have generally weaned in the past.

Geena has developed a bit of a limp today, I'm not sure what she's been up to but I'm keeping a close eye on her.

I'm in trouble with my niece Faith for not announcing what our tup will be called. Sorry Faith, blame Uncle Paul he told me I had to keep you all guessing for an extra night, then I forgot!

Well remind me never to listen to Carol's suggestions again because her choice of Wesley won. I wanted to call him Tonka as he's built like a Tonka toy, however that will have to be reserved for another tup in the future.

I'd best get back to my knitting, I'm not allowing myself to bed tonight until I've finished the mans hat I'm currently knitting as I need to get on with some orders.

All present and correct

2011-11-07T21:02:00.002Z

I'm pleased to report that the newly weaned cria were all present and correct this morning. They were humming away and very pleased to see us though. Their mums on the other hand, with the exception of Lualeni don't seem to have noticed anything is missing!

We had a meeting up on the hill this morning with the kitchen designer amongst others, I've been having difficulty deciding on the kitchen. As long as it has an aga and a Belfast sink I'm pretty easy to please. Hopefully we have now agreed on the design and layout.

When we arrived on the hill there was a batch of sheep exploring our ancient earthworks at the bottom of the hill. Initially I only saw three, but 3 turned out to be 32!

Back to the alpacas I'm pleased to say that Kate is now back to her old self and gaining condition again. All this makes the vet bill I received at the weekend worthwhile. Loki's ear is also looking better which is good.

Today is been a fantastic day for knitwear sales, Carol, Mum and I are already working on a number of special orders and today we have received 5 more plus an online sale - looks like sleep is a thing of the past for Barnacre knitters!

A nasty but necessary job

2011-11-06T22:19:00.000Z

Today was one of those days when we had to do one of those jobs you just hate; weaning. The oldest eight youngsters, Neelie, Sahara, Ellie May, Emery, Celestial, Seymour, Spadicious and Angelica have been weaned from their mums.

Half of the group are way over our usual weight target of about 35kg, and only the oldest two are over six months. Three of the mums are looking rather thin, Willow, Mary and Kate were definitely in need of a break.

Sahara was rather stressed by the initial seperation however the nice lush green grass took everyone's mind of their missing mums.

This evening the new grass had lost it's appeal and there was lots of crying for mum from everyone. Spadicious tried to see if Emery had any milk on offer but he was soon put right! Hopefully they will soon settle.

This afternoon we were up at the hill, it was a lovely afternoon up there. The sheep were well and truly spread round, our new tup, who incidently won't be called Curly (sorry Faith) is going to have his work cut out serving the girls.

Here is the current view from almost the top of the hill, you can just about work out where the house and shed is (in the middle of the picture at the bottom of the hill).

Morpeth Farmers Market

2011-11-05T22:45:00.000Z

We have been at Morpeth Farmers Market today with our range of knitwear and three of the boys. Minimus, Ochre and Pearson were enjoying their outing and pleasing the public.

It was a slow start to the day but once the nice folk of Morpeth got up things got busy, I've now sold out of ladies and men's gloves for the time being. As well as requesting more gloves from mum I took orders for mum, Carol and I, so no sleep for anyone round here for a while.

In fact Carol was threatening to lock Paul & I out if her knitting list was too long. Luckily she is too nice to lock us out or we may have been living in one of the field shelters with the alpacas or worse still moving into the hen house Dave is building!

Well on that note I'd better get back to my knitting.

Just one last thing, don't forget to vote on a tup name if you've not already done it. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SG27MFW Voting closes at midnight tonight.

What a difference 6 weeks makes

2011-11-04T22:34:00.001Z

I've been up to the hill today, I can't believe how much has changed in 6 weeks (click on the photo below to see all 3 shots in one go):

The sheep have settled on the hill and are exploring every bit of the place (well the sheep half anyway), I'm sure by now they know the place better than me!

On the alpaca front Loki's ear is looking a bit better, I will be keeping a close eye on it.

The girls are desperate for fresh grass, they are munching hay at a rapid rate. Hopefully it won't be long before they are up at the hill where there is no shortage of grass, why is it always in the wrong place?!

At lunchtime when the girls got their sugarbeet I took the camera. Here is a lovely family shot, first up is the super-friendly and adorable Lady Godiva (sire Golden Guinea)...

Followed by her mum Gabby and full sister Nadia pinching a quick drink.

The alarm is set for very early Saturday morning as we are at the Morpeth farmers market with the knitwear and some of the alpacas. We will be there until 2pm so please call by and say "hello"!

Puss in ear not boots

2011-11-03T23:04:00.000Z

Loki has an abscess in his ear, today I have been removing the puss and bathing it and he has a rather fetching blue ear. I think one of the other boys has bit it as there has been a fair bit of argy bargey between them lately.

Do you think an alpaca can be prone to abscesses? Loki has a big abscess on his side about this time last year that took ages to heal.

The tup (who you can still vote to name at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SG27MFW) continues to wander, he seems to want to be friends with Golden Guinea, they are both a pair of posers so make a good pair, Guinea is now in a sheep proof field though.

Name that ram (Paul)

2011-11-02T21:05:00.000Z

Evening all - just in case you were wondering, we are still mad about alpacas and I can't see anything changing that!

However, we are also very excited about our new farm and our (growing) flock of Blackface sheep. We are now up to 115 ewes and of course our cracking new shearling tup or ram depending on where you live in the country!

We have received some great suggestions for his name and we need the help of new and regular blog readers to name him please! All you need to do is pick one of the options by clicking on the link below:
Click here to help name our tup (ram)

As a reminder, here is his picture again and we will announce the results on Saturday night. Thanks for your help!

What fence?

2011-11-01T22:29:00.000Z

Whilst we were up at the hill this morning I took a couple of pictures of the progress being made. Things are looking good.

There were lots of men working on site, the big job of the day seemed to be installing the Klargester. So we will have somewhere for the dirty water to go; we just need water and electric to try it out!

Our new tup seems to have settled in today, in fact he seemed to have become friends with Golden Guinea, he seems to have a thing about making friends with sheep. The two of them had been posing to each other.

This afternoon the tup had gone through the fence and was sharing Guinea's paddock! With those horns there was no way I wanted these two sharing a stud strip so some quick movement was required.

The three you girls have been returned to the main herd, Guinea has moved to another strip next to where the girls were and the tup (who still needs a name) is in Guinea's field. Hopefully everyone will be where I left them in the morning.

New boy on the block

2011-10-31T21:50:00.000Z

I'm not sure how much higher my stress levels can raise to before I explode.

I think Mondays should be banned, the last three have been a nighmare and today the trailer brakes seem to have seazed up. Rocking the trailer, kicking it and cursing it seemed to have no effect what so ever!

Can you believe it, this morning I was heading over to Hexham Mart to buy a couple of tups for the blackie (sheep) girls on the hill. As if I'm not stressed enough I had to choose and buy the tups on my own.

My first choice went for well over my budget but I am pleased with the shearling (one and a half years old) that I did purchase. He needs a name so all suggestions gratefully received. This isn't the best picture but it was getting dark when we got him home.

It was really funny when he got home, he came running out the trailer and was greeted by Golden Guinea, one of our stud boys who was already posing at the fence, which he always does when he sees a trailer, just incase it is full of ladies. Not only that, at the other side were the six big boys who came running over to see who was arriving.

I'm not sure who was more shocked by their neighbours, the alpacas wondering what on earth this yellow thing with twirly horns was, or the tup who what wondering what on earth he was supposed to do with these long necked creatures.

Visitors for the alpacas

2011-10-30T20:56:00.000Z

I've just read Paul's blog from last night, the cheek of him. I was actually busy knitting a hat that has been ordered not snoozing; although I felt like snoozing from about 8pm for some reason.

This morning we, or rather the alpacas have had visitors. A lovely family wanting to see if alpacas were for them. I forgot to ask permission to name them, so I'd better not. I think the alpacas enjoyed the attention and they certainly enjoyed the apple treat.

The girls headed home with a little alpaca gift, one pair of Barnacre fingerless gloves knitted in Oonagh & Kealani and another ordered (they both wanted the same pair so a smaller version is required). They also took home a freshly laid egg each which they collected from our hens.

I'm in trouble with Carol for taking more orders and selling things that she knits. Our bramble bobble range is her department and it proves very popular. Looks like she is not allowed out gallivanting this week!

Paul's lines and Debbie's hour (Paul)

2011-10-29T23:14:00.000+01:00

Hi all, our blog viewings are at record high numbers which is very nice although that means the pressure is on for new content - or maybe more of the same?! Debbie has decided to take advantage of the extra hour when the clocks go back tonight and is having a little snooze so like many of the jobs round here that means I have to pick up the slack...;-)

For a change it's been a busy old day. We started off with a nice cooked breakfast and then headed up to the hill to speak with the new neighbours about a 'situation' and also to check on progress. Although conditions up there are very muddy the various tradesmen are doing a great job and we have lots more progress to report on. A picture paints a thousand words though and here's two. First up is the house - nearly ready to move in don't you think?

Can you see the vase of flowers on the kitchen window?

Next up and not to be outdone is the shed - coming along nicely I think:

I noticed the comments on recent blogs have been envious of the various machines in our pictures - they aren't ours you know!

Next up are the sheep. Now it seems that every time I go to work that Debbie has 'invested' in some more sheep with her farmer friend Alan (who says that you can never have enough sheep). However, I believe they are a good investment (I'll explain why in a future blog) and also they are very funny and respond to voice-commands - they do honest!

What do you mean you don't believe me??!! Right, you want proof do you? Gimmer squadron - shortest on the left, tallest on the right, by single rank - size:

You see - perfect horizontal linear formation. Right, draught ewe squadron, form a vertical line....now:

Nearly girls - well they are older and a little hard of hearing in the wind up at the hill you know.

Right - main herd, evasive manoeuvres - scramble now:

Good girls - they you have it proof that the Barnacre sheep are as friendly and sociable as the Barnacre Alpacas. Night all! Paul.

Steaming and sunbathing

2011-10-28T22:37:00.000+01:00

It has been a lovely autumnal day today, a very frosty start with the sun soon burning it off and causing the alpacas to steam.

I am pleased to report that Kate continues to improve, and other than looking very thin and having a shaved path on her neck you wouldn't really know anything had occurred. Here she is having a good munch at lunchtime.

Whilst Kate was filling her belly some of the younger girls were stretched out sunbathing.

Knitwear is flying off the stock list

2011-10-27T22:57:00.000+01:00

Just a quick blog tonight as my knitting needles are steaming, I have three hats on order, I'm not sure how I ended up with the biggest list! Carol has one to knit and so does my mum. So it's busy, busy, busy all round.

I have sold another couple of pieces of knitwear today, that's five items in three days and it isn't even winter yet. These sales have all been to returning customers which just shows how pleased they were with their initial purchases which is always a nice feeling.

I have a slight issue in that just like Rosemary all our possessions are packed up and this included the shop passwords so I am struggling to update the on-line shop.

I have spent most of the day at the computer today updating the stock lists and getting things ready for Paul doing the VAT return this weekend. I'd much rather be out in the fields but needs must I'm afraid.

Hump day progress

2011-10-26T23:09:00.000+01:00

The building on hill is coming along nicely, however we still have a lot to do which I can't or rather don't want to go into on here; maybe one day!

I have been to pickup the sheep I bought on Monday, another 20 ewes on the hill. That brings the total to 115, although Dave and I only managed to count 112 so I'm not sure where the other three were hiding.

Whilst I was there I took some more photo's of progress, it's coming alone nicely don't you think.

I am sure the girls will be very grateful of their new shed in the depths of winter. They are certainly looking forward to the new grass up there, they have striped their current field bare!

Turn up the volume

2011-10-25T22:49:00.000+01:00

Kate is continuing to improve slowly, she was wary of me this morning just in case she had to have more medicine. She is definitely getting back to more her old self, I very much doubt she has held on to her pregnancy so she may remain slightly more chilled out over winter; time will tell.
The chickens are in bad books with Carol today, she has been cutting them lots of greens from the veggie plot and their egg production has been very poor this week. Two eggs from 24 hens is not good. Dave is busy making them a new house which he is sure will increase the egg laying.

Tonight it is very productive in the Pearson lounge, I am spinning, Carol is knitting and Dave is carding. What with the carder noise and my spinning wheel squeak the volume on the TV keeps going up.

Ground source

2011-10-24T22:24:00.000+01:00

Today Kate has had her last medicine drench, eventually! She is obviously feeling much better in her self because this morning I failed miserably to catch her. She knew I wanted her so wouldn't come anywhere near me, not even for her breakfast or the new hay.

I manged to get one hand on her but failed to keep hold, but this afternoon Dave came along at feed time and offered reinforcements which meant we were able to catch her. It is the first time she has been a pain and not wanted to take it so I ended up wearing some of it!

Up on the hill the slinky's have been laid today in readiness for our ground source heat pump. I think the chaps would be rather muddy by the end of the day. It's a good job mud is good for the skin.

I nipped out with Alan this morning and somehow managed to buy more sheep, oh well I did sell my beloved MG yesterday so that can contribute towards their cost; it was supposed to be going towards the bathrooms!

Sheep dog required

2011-10-23T22:35:00.001+01:00

We have been up to the hill today, Paul and Dave have been doing some fencing whilst I organised the container so you can actually find things.

Things are progressing nicely, you can now see how the house is going to work now all the partitions are up for the stud walling. I was hoping to see all the steels up for the shed, but that was obviously wishful thinking on my part, but that two is growing.

All the sheep seem to have settled nicely. I wanted to try and get them up onto the top of the hill but with just me and leg power I wasn't getting on very far. Initially I could only see 12 sheep! Where the other 83 had gone I don't know!

I think we will have to consider a sheep dog or something as the land isn't very level where the sheep are so rounding them up with the quad won't be easier either.

After an hour of me walking round trying to gather them up I gave up as a bad job only to see the following line heading in the right direction by the time I had reached the container.

Cooked breakfast for the workers

2011-10-22T23:32:00.000+01:00

It has been a very productive day today, this morning after the morning feed run and coming back to a very nice cooked breakfast from Carol we headed off to look at bathrooms for the new cottage. It's a bit different to buying sheep at the mart!

This afternoon's job was to dose the whole herd, everyone has been wormed (sheep included) and toe nails trimmed where necessary. The girls were also body scored which is an important part of herd husbandry. There are a couple of girls who are really showing the effects of feeding very greedy cria. I think we will have a few early weaned littlies this year.

I used my new strives needle today and it certainly helped speed things up. I have used them before when I've been dosing Alan's sheep but as our alpaca numbers have increased I thought it was about time I invested in one for the alpaca.

Tonight it has been a hive of activity, Carol and mum are knitting, Dave has been carding and I have been spinning. I just need to find Paul a job!

Tomorrow we are off us to the hill to do some fencing and check on progress.

Hill update

2011-10-21T22:43:00.000+01:00

I thought seeing as it's Friday you might be interested in seeing an update on the hill.

The steels for the shed have finally arrived, however this wasn't without incident. The artic delivering it got stuck on the way up the track, the driver was far from happy - luckily I wasn't there at the time. I was there though when a nice local farmer came to the rescue and did a couple of trips up with his tractor and trailer.

The house is also progressing nicely, the timber frame is now up and the roof trusses are almost complete. Next week the roofer is set to arrive as is the stone so hopefully the house will be ready for Christmas.

We have been over to Hexham mart today and bought some more sheep. We got some 5 year olds and some gimmers so I think that will be it now, other than a couple of tups or rams depending on where you live.

Home sweet home

2011-10-20T22:15:00.000+01:00

I have been up on the hill today, I needed to gather up some of the bits of caravan and find some other bits that were already in there which I needed. Whilst I was there I thought I would take a photo of the caravan to show you.

It didn't look too bad from that side but look at the front! It's a good job we weren't in there when it went over.

This afternoon the sheep have arrived, they are blackface ewes Rosemary. They came on a big waggon straight from the mart. As the road was busy today with the steels, a crane and lots of work men and is very muddy I decided the best option was to let them off at the bottom of the hill. Here they are pleased to get out.

Lucky for me they all headed off in the right direction up the hill.

and soon had their heads down munching.

Dosing sheep

2011-10-19T22:48:00.000+01:00

I think the realisation of the rolling caravan has now sunk in. So this morning we put our minds to finding a replacement, hopefully the next one will last a bit longer.

Kate is continuing to have her drench and today she has actually had some camelibra which is good. By this evening she was thinking that she was entitled to her own trough again.

This afternoon I have been over to the mart to dose my new sheep which are arriving tomorrow. They are going straight up to the hill so I wanted to get them done before they went on the land. I'm quite looking forward to them arriving.

I will be able to check to make sure the steels for the shed have arrived, they have supposedly been on the waggon for two weeks now but they never seem to quite make it up there.

Three sides

2011-10-18T23:22:00.000+01:00

I'm afraid the events of yesterday were not a bad dream that I woke up from this morning, it did all happen, but at least we are all safe so that is the main thing. Thank you for the kind words and messages of support and offers of help, it is fantastic that we have such good friends.

I drove down to meet my parents this morning to take them mum the cats to look after, the three girls were shut in one room at Carol's last night out of the way of their cat. At least at mums they will have more space than they would have done in the caravan. Hopefully we will be able to get them back soon as I'm already missing them.

We had to go up to the hill today to talk kitchens and sanitary wear the the men have certainly got on with the timber frame, it almost has four sides! The photo's aren't great as I cant locate the camera at the minute (can't imagine why) so I used my phone, but it shows how well they have got on today.

And if you look closely at this one you can see the remains of the caravan in the background.

Kate is continuing to improve, not only is she looking happier in herself she is taking longer and longer to catch eat time it is medicine time. I'm not sure why she scarpers though as she seems to like the taste of it.

We are still at Carol and Dave's whilst we try and plan what to do next.

Blog and roll

2011-10-17T22:58:00.000+01:00

I don't know where to start. Having just read all the comments and good wishes on last nights blog Jayne's grin and bare it made me smile; and boy do we need a smile!

After a very late night, or more like early morning when we went to bed we were up extremely early this morning to continue the packing and move.

First job of the day was alpaca feeding and Kate needed her medicine before I let her out. She is looking slightly better again today, she is now down to twice daily drench. She is still sitting more than normal but she is eating and looking brighter in herself.

The rest of the day has been taken up moving out of the mouse house. Dave has been helping all day I'm not sure we would have managed without him. We were already an hour and a half late moving out.

We did a couple of runs to the original container, a trailer load to Carol and Dave's (which was supposed to be temporary) then it was off up to the hill. Paul and Dave went in the car with the big trailer and I was on the quad with the little trailer.

Less than half way there the wind started to blow a hooley and rain, and I mean really rain. Luckily Paul had given me his waterproof coat to wear or I would have been even wetter.

We all got absolutely soaked, with the trailer unloaded it was time to take the stuff and cats to our new home, the cosy caravan. At this point we noticed a major problem, it looked like there had been an explosion at the front of the caravan or a plane had crashed!

Oh no; we are now officially homeless, the caravan has rolled. Luckily Carol & Dave have come to the rescue. Not only do they now have a garage full of our possessions, we are also in situe along with Smudge, Tilly & Izzie. Lucky for them the chickens are still with the alpacas.

We are now working on what to do next, after crying that is!

Last night in a proper bed

2011-10-17T00:26:00.000+01:00

An even busier day than normal today as it is the last in the mouse house and I still haven't finished the packing, we were back at Wallington with the alpacas and knitwear and Kate is needing medication three times a day.

We had another fantastic day at Wallington, our alpacas are such a draw to the crowd. It is lovely to hear all the complements they receive, so many people have never seen such friendly and approachable alpacas. The knitwear also went down very well, at this rate I will have no stock left for Christmas.

Kate is looking better, after giving her her medication this morning I decided that I would let her out to see if that made her feel a bit better. Emery, her daughter was waiting the other side of the hurdles for her and off they toddled. Kate went straight to pick at some fallen leaves.

Carol and Dave had kindly agreed to check on her for us and Alan was keeping an eye on her too. By this evening she was looking better, we even had trouble trying to catch her to give her her medication and shut her in for the night. She even attempted to spit at me, which for once was almost a pleasant occurrence!

Thankfully Carol had offered to feed us tonight so off we went with a car full of stuff to store at theirs for a little while and tea. Very nice it was too, we even got pudding; we now know of a good place to eat if things get bad in the caravan!!

Talking of the caravan, we move in there tomorrow so I am unsure if blogging will be possible for a while. I will continue to use twitter which feeds along the right hand side of my blog so you will be able to keep up with snippets that way if all else fails.

Back to my boxes now then hopefully I will get a couple of hours sleep.

Tucked up in her own bed

2011-10-15T22:52:00.000+01:00

We have had another very busy day today, we are at Wallington Food and Craft fair all weekend. So what with that, moving and Monday and a poorly paca you can imagine what it's like.

Dark morning make loading the car with all our knitwear and 'stuff' very difficult but with that completed and mums job list given (She was planning on going home two days ago but stayed longer to help with everything), we headed off to pick up the boys and get to Wallington.

As is always the case the alpacas proved a very big attraction, I managed to snap this shot in one of the brief moments that I managed to get away from the stall.

Carol and Dave popped down for ten minutes and ended up staging for a few hours which was definately appreciated, thank you again!

The stanged question of the day was a new one; "do you mind if I take a photo of the heads in your car"! What on earth the chap wanted that for I don't know. but here he is.

I had a phone call from the vets this morning saying that Kate was still a poorly girl but looking slightly brighter, which was great news. She was picking at the hay but not not eating much, but was now rehydrated and able to stand.

As the day has progressed she has improved and was able to come home this evening, in the hope that that would cheer her up more and encourage her to eat. As soon as we'd finished at Wallington we headed over to pick her up. She looked so much better than she did last night.

She is now tucked up in her own bed and all being well if the weather is nice tomorrow I will let her out and see how we get on. She is still on medication three times a day but she seems to like the taste of the drench so that helps. Hopefully she is now on the mend.

When we got back home mum has been doing some cleaning and ironing which is a massive help, thank you mum.

Worry and too much work

2011-10-15T00:00:00.000+01:00

Just a quick one tonight as things are absolutely manic here. Thank you for all the messages, texts, tweets and emails, it is nice to know that poor Kate has lots of people willing her on.

She has however took a turn for the worse today and to cut a long story short is now in the vet hospital on a drip and not a well girl. So far her blood tests have failed to give much away but my vet Sam Prescott is working very hard to do what he can for her so please keep everything crossed for us.

I went down to see her tonight just to see how she was and see if |I could get her to eat anything, I'm affraid I failed she wouldn't even touch some nice warm speedibeat.

Today I was supposed to be moving furniture etc up to the hill as we have to be out of the mouse house on Monday morning ans this weekend we are at the Wallington Food and Craft fair, but that obviously didn't happen as Kate obviously took priority.

I'm not quite sure how I am going to pack, move, look after the animals and attend Wallington this weekend - it's a good job I can survive on not much sleep isn't it!

Kicking Kate

2011-10-13T23:59:00.000+01:00

You know what it's like going into the field the morning after a worrying night, I was worried this morning what I might find when I went to check on Kate. Thankfully she seemed a little better, had a temperature of 100 and she ate a few crumbs of feed but she was still far from right.

Thankfully after the emergency on call vet yesterday, Sam Prescott my usual vet was able to come out this morning. He is well aware of Kate's usual temperament so knew without even touching her that she was far from happy.

After a thorough going over from Sam, he has confirmed that she has a chest infection which is making her breathing harsh. She obviously felt poorly during yesterday afternoon as sat down, got very wet and cold and maybe stuck. He thinks that the temporary paralysis on the left side of her face was caused by her laying on the cold wet ground.

She has had another antibiotic injection and I need to keep trying to get her to eat. He has also suggested I wean her enormous cria Emery sooner rather than later even though she is still a way off 5 months she beginning to drain Kate and whilst she is ill that is not good.

I've just come back from checking on her, she has had a little hay but didn't want anything else but I will keep trying. I maight actually let her out tomorrow (as long as it's not raining), and see if that lifts her spirits any as she hated being shut in.

She did actually try and kick out at me earlier today when I went to put her coat back on after the vet had left so she must be feeling a little better. No sign of any spits yet though so we still have a long way to go.

Poorly paca

2011-10-12T22:48:00.000+01:00

Just a quick blog tonight as I have a poorly alpaca and am heading back out to check on her again. It's poor Kate our grey girl who is usually pretty wild.

She was down this evening and very flat, shivering and had a crackle on her left side. She was perfectly fine this morning and her usual self; Spit in one trough, move to the next eat that and then return to the original trough that no-one else would touch after she's spat it in.

The vet has been out and administered some drugs and she is now shut in with her daughter Emery on a nice deep bed of straw. I have manged to get her to have a tiny bit of warm sugar beet but she is still sat down and her breathing isn't right. So wish us luck.

On a much brighter note I have purchased some sheep. More on that another night as I'm back off to the field.

Open gate or hay?

2011-10-11T21:59:00.000+01:00

Alan kindly dropped off a new bale of hay this morning for the girls and babies. I left the gate open whilst I moved the straps and cover. It was quite funny Ursula and Imala noticed the gate was open and the new bale, both are usually in a rush to be the first through an open gate but they were torn; gate or hay, hay or gate. I soon shut the gate to make up their mind.

My parents have arrived today for a couple of days, mum has kindly offered to help pack a few boxes or do anything else I might need. She might live to regret it!

This afternoon we had a meeting up on the hill with the builder, architect and green energy man. Progress is being made on the house, unfortunately the same can't be said for the shed which is still just a few holes - not happy as this is supposed to be home for the caravan as soon as possible to give us a bit of protection!

Hexham Tup Sale

2011-10-10T23:09:00.000+01:00

It really did look and feel like a typical Monday morning this morning, Paul & I didn't want to get up and even the cats were still toasty snug when the alarm went off - this could have been because Paul had forgotten to change it from the very early starts at the weekend!

The weather was really damp and horrible, it was that drizzle that gets you very wet without you really noticing. The alpacas were all looking rather dirty as they'd obviously been rolling in damp mole hills - great.

With the morning routine complete I headed over to Hexham Mart again to see how the Tup sale went. I was only looking as we don't have any ladies for a tup to service yet but I wanted to get the feel for things.

There were some very fine looking boys there, of the four legged variety obviously! The horns of some of them were fantastic, I've decided I think I have a bit of a thing for the big curly horns, I'm not sure if that did or didn't seem important to the bidders.

In fact I found it rather difficult to differentiate between and good and exceptional tup. There were some selling for a couple of thousand that looked nice to me then the champion went for 20,000 Guineas and I couldn't work out why he was worth ten times that of some of the previous ones - more home work required I think!!

Seaside and no boxes

2011-10-09T22:35:00.000+01:00

Much to Paul's disgust it was another early start this morning, and no time to watch the Grand Prix. We were heading over to a makers market in Seaburn with the Barnacre knitwear range and the boys. I'd decided only to take a couple of boys today.

First in the trailer were Ochre (no shock there then) closely followed by Minimus and Pearson. As we were only taking two I decided that Minimus could go for the 'ahhhhhhhh' factor. As always the boys went down a treat causing lots of interest on the seafront.

I think the knitwear was equally as stroked, it always amazes me how surprised people are at the soft feel of our garments. There some lucky new customers with cosy heads and fingers this evening following their purchases.

This evening I have managed to ply the bit of yarn I'd spun over the last few days, I'm hoping Carol isn't too disappointed as there isn't much. I've made a couple of requests from the hand spun yarn before our trip to Wallington Food and Craft Fair at the weekend so I'm hoping there is enough.

All this has meant I have had a day of box packing, there is still plenty to do and only 8 more nights in a proper bed.

Karin Muller vet talk

2011-10-08T22:49:00.000+01:00

It was an early start this morning as we needed everyone fed and sorted pronto so we could head down to Wetherby for a vet talk by Karin Muller.

I actually got up extra early to watch the F1 qualifying, I have a pile of ironing that must be done before we move into the caravan next week so I thought a 5am start wouldn't do any harm.

As soon as it got light (and I had managed to kick Paul out of bed!) we headed over to feed and check everyone. Paul did the boys whilst I did the girls and the chickens and checked on a couple of rabbits I'm looking after this weekend.

The girls were gathered in a circle in the middle of the filed staring at something. Things like that always means something is going on. In the middle of the gathering with the largest rat I have ever seen; dead! I'm not sure if it had been stamped on or met another end. Once I had moved it and fed everyone we headed off.

I usually knit when in the car and currently have a pair of booties on the go in the car. Unfortunately one of my bamboo needles had snapped, but luckily it was long enough for me to finish my little project.

The vet talk was very good and well worth the early start and the drive, if anyone ever gets the opportunity to attend one of Karin's talks I would recommend you go.

This evening after packing a couple more boxes I did an hour's spinning. I'm in trouble with Carol for not providing her with any hand spun yarn lately so I am trying to get some done so I can drop it off on Monday then I can complain if she hasn't used it by the end of the week. Tee hee

Not enough hours in the day

2011-10-07T23:02:00.000+01:00

Things are pretty hectic here at the minute hence the lack of blog last night, I was far too tired.

I spent yesterday at a Lady's Day in Jesmond with our knitwear, it has to be said it wasn't the most organised of events and I won't be rushing back there but it was interesting.

In between animals duties and box packing today we have been to see some Blackface sheep for the top of the hill. We had a guided tour and some really useful advice from a very experienced hill farmer. Lots to think about now.

Tomorrow we are off to a vet talk so it will be another full day, the knitting is already in the car for the journey down, no time for sitting idle in my life.

Bits and bobs

2011-10-05T21:59:00.000+01:00

I have been busy sorting and packing again today, I can't believe how difficult it is to pack everything when you know that you are going to have to dig to find bits and bobs over the next few months that are stored in one of two sea containers or at my parents or at Carols - nightmare! I have been rather organised and every box in numbered with detail of it's contents.

I have a big bag of stuff for the charity shop and there is some other 'stuff' destined for the local tip unless it is wanted on freecycle.

Mia (my pet sheep, the one who won the sheep racing and thinks she's a short alpaca) is back to her old self again. I've got to be honest I was getting rather worried about her.

I had a nice satisfied feeling this afternoon when I spotted a pair of my bramble bobble knitted wrist warmers walking past; on someones' hands obviously! Tomorrow I'm off the Jesmond for a Ladies Day with all the Barnacre Knitwear so hopefully there will be lots more satisfied customers heading home with some of our luxury knitwear. I must go and get it all ready.

Eating and snoring

2011-10-04T22:09:00.000+01:00

Brinley seems to have decided that he is a big boy now and no longer wants his bottle, two sucks and he's had enough. Geena has more milk this year than she's ever had, he's eating hard feed and gaining weight, albeit slowly so I am not too worried. Here he is tucking into the Camelibra this morning.

I have been busy packing today it seems to be an endless task and one that is proving even more difficult knowing that we will have no space for anything in our tiny caravan so it may well stay packed for quite some time.

Whilst I was hard at work I heard snoring from the bedroom, for once it wasn't Paul, it was the cats.

Izzie fast off

Smudge having a wash before her next power nap.

Worst of all Tilly in the bed keeping my pj's warm. It's a good job Paul wasn't about, and she was on my half (more like quarter) of the bed!

Post office farse

2011-10-03T22:39:00.000+01:00

The weather has really turned quite autumnal today, still quite warm though. The trees are dropping their leaves and the alpacas are enjoying chasing them, some to eat and some to roll in!

Having spent yesterday moving furniture from the mouse house I was slightly disturbed this morning when I got up to the realisation that there was still lots, and I mean lots, of 'stuff' still to be packed and moved. In fact it hardly looks like anything is missing. Where all our things are going to go eventually in our new little cottage I don't know.

I had the most ridiculous conversation in the post office this afternoon. I had a specially ordered Barnacre Alpaca hat to post, and the lady behind the counter asked me if I wanted to send it as a large letter or a parcel. At this point I said I didn't know which size it was which was why I had gone in.

She proceeded to tell me that it could be a large letter if she squashed it but it may turn on to a parcel so what did I want to do. Surely wasn't she supposed to tell me! As it was for a customer I went for the parcel option and thanked her for her lack of help.

Alpaca visitors

2011-10-02T21:51:00.000+01:00

We have had a busy day again today. This morning a lovely couple came over to see the alpacas, they saw us at a show recently and are exploring alpaca ownership.

They seemed to enjoy the experience and loved Lady Godiva and Meketaten who as usual stole the show. We really enjoy sharing our alpaca experiences with others and it is great to see how alpacas can capture peoples hearts. It's hard to believe we ever had a life before alpacas, we could never go back now.

This afternoon we have been moving things up to the hill, thankfully Dave had offered his services which was good because even with my muscles I struggled to move some of our furniture. We have spent all afternoon moving things yet the mouse house doesn't seem much emptier; I'm not sure how that has happened.

I forgot to take the camera with me up to the hill today but here is a picture I captured of Paul and Dave having took some wood up to the caravan to level it off. It was getting dark so the quality isn't very good.

Thanks as always for the help Dave, and the tea and scone on our return Carol. Sorry for the footprints too!!!

Progress pictures

2011-10-01T22:50:00.000+01:00

Well we haven't achieved many of the jobs on the To Do list today, there just aren't enough daylight hours anymore.

We have been up to the hill and checked on progress. Here is Paul stood in what will be the lounge.

Looking down on the cottage and shed, not to mention the latest container for more storage.

We did manage to get the caravan up on site having checked that we could work everything this morning. I was slightly concerned at one point when Paul had to take a bit of a run at getting up the hill and the van seemed to lean far too far one way for my liking. Then we couldn't unhook the flipping thing from the car!

Anyway here is home, I took this photo from the car as we were going past!

Hopefully we will move some of the heavy furniture tomorrow as Dave has offered some assistance.

The Gobi dessert

2011-09-30T23:02:00.001+01:00

Friday's come round so quickly. This morning Carol popped in with her holiday knitting, Carol and Dave have been on holiday for a couple of weeks to celebrate Dave's 60th birthday. Foreign holidays are no excuse to not knit she took lots of wool with her.

Not only had she done plenty of knitting she has also washed and dried it. All I need to do now is label it and get it photographed for the online shop. Paul has just updated our online shop this evening too!

The hill is progressing nicely, the builder rang with updates this afternoon and said it was so hot and dry it now resembled the Gobi dessert, living in a caravan in the dessert sounds like it could be quite acceptable. We are off up there in the morning so I will make sure I take the camera so I can share progress with you.

Trip to Hexham Mart

2011-09-29T22:31:00.000+01:00

I had planned to go to go to Hexham Mart this morning as it was the hill sheep sale and we will be needing some hill sheep for the top of the hill. I was hoping to have someone to go with for a spot of moral support even if they wouldn't or couldn't give advice.

Unfortunately Alan, my farmer friend was too busy cutting beans and I couldn't find anyone else to accompany me so off I went on my own with advice, pen, paper and cheque book (just in case).

First job set up an account for the new farm; check.
Pick up auction catalogue; check.
View a few pens; check.
Find a good seat and observe.......

When I walked into the ring I felt rather out of place and checked to make sure I did only have one head! A strange woman walking into a male dominated room obviously doesn't happen very often.

Anyway to cut a long story short I did sit on my hands for the bulk of the sale but did bid on a few lots. All went for more than I dared to pay, all I kept thinking I could buy a nice alpaca for that!

When the sale came to an end I wished I'd been braver and come away with some, so note to self, be braver next time.

It only takes a minute girl

2011-09-28T21:57:00.000+01:00

I've had a major incident today, don't worry all the animals are fine, it was me!

I got locked out, no key's, no phone, no shoes and no neighbours to call on - not a good place to be. I'd nipped out of the back door to check on my knitwear which was drying flat on a drying net (yes I know I should have put some shoes on).

I'd left the door pulled too, but not closed, because I've not let the cats out at the mouse house because of the busy road and I didn't want them escaping. The a lorry or tractor went past the the draft blew the door shut which has a Yale lock on it.

Umm, after a few choice words I needed to think of a plan. My neighbour who is moving out in a day or two had left early in a taxi so I wasn't sure if they would even be coming back. I had no phone or car keys so couldn't drive to get help and with no shoes on I didn't fancy walking down the farm track opposite in the hope that someone might be in.

Luckily the farmer who farms the field behind us was rolling his freshly ploughed field so I asked if he was any good at picking locks. He wasn't but offered to ring Mitford Estates who we rent the cottage off only to find he had lost his phone, great!

Being the typical helpful sort of chap you get round here he drove in his tractor (without the roller which he unhitched) to a field down the road where his brother was working to use his phone for me, 15 minutes later the nice man from Mitford Estate came to let me in.

I wouldn't mind but normally every time we step foot out the house no matter how far we are venturing I always insist we have a key.

The foundations start

2011-09-27T22:49:00.000+01:00

Ooooh exciting times. I had a meeting on the hill this morning with the builder to talk a few things through and whilst I was there the shed foundations were being dug. At last it feels as though things are starting to happen.

This was position at the weekend when we were up there.

Hopefully by next weekend we will have the house foundations poured and the shed foundations in, then things should start moving much quicker; she says in hope!

There is so much for me to sort out before we move into the caravan, not to mention all the packing again....

Canadian visitor for breakfast

2011-09-26T22:36:00.000+01:00

The sun has been shining, the alpacas are happy and I have been talking alpacas all day so I am happy.

This morning we had a visit from Jane Orrom from Laurentian alpacas in Canada, we had a lovely chat over the morning alpaca feeding routine. It was really interesting to compare the routine things we do and talk about how show differ across the pond.

The alpacas were rather damp but a little fleece fondling was a must and as usual Minimus was a firm favourite, he is such a cutie in every sense of the word.

After spending a couple of hours with the alpacas we came back to the house to look at what I do with our fleece and give Jane even more determined to learn to spin and knit - I'll be keeping my eye on your website Jane so you better stick to your word!

This evening I had a lovely lady who we'd met at a recent show who is thinking about keeping alpacas. Hopefully I didn't talk too much, sorry once I start you can't shut me up, alpacas just have that effect on people.

One thing I forgot to mention last night, after all the hard work over the weekend my brother got to have a little play in the tractor, it looks like they were playing hook a wheelbarrow!!

A womans work is never done

2011-09-25T21:23:00.000+01:00

A womans work is never done so I suppose you're best off learning at an early age!

First job feed the girls, here is Faith feeding Meketaten and Casiphia.

Next it is Golden Guinea's turn.

Once everyone is fed we need to survey the new land to work out how much fencing is required.

Oh yes and the pink pipe cleaner, perfect size for the job!!!!

After all that hard work there is a quick break for a picnic to build up your energy for a spot of....

Fence building, just to prove Sarah does work I captured the evidence today!

Nearly done one side.

We have had a lovely weekend with Faith (and Colin and Sarah obviously), I think she has enjoyed herself too, especially when I showed her where her new bedroom will be. She was so keen she was happy to sleep there tonight on the clay with no walls or roof.

Thanks for your help all three of you it was nice to see you again, see you for your next stint of fencing soon.

Fencing begins, slave labour?

2011-09-24T22:33:00.001+01:00

With help on hand this weekend from my brother Colin, his wife Sarah and my niece Faith we have made a start on some fencing in the hay field as this is where the girls will begin. Here it is, can you see us?

It is currently fenced to three sides and has a stone wall on the fourth. We want to ring fence all the way round and there is a burn running along the East side so this is where we began.

First job, move the poles that we incorrectly left on the south side of the field. I got the easy job of loading up the boys arms, why is the tractor or quad never where you want it. I can't wait to get all our belongs back in one place!

No one escaped a job, even Faith managed to help.

I'm not sure the same can be said for Sarah!! Only kidding Sarah I just don't have any photographic evidence of you drilling etc.

Minimus

2011-09-23T22:31:00.000+01:00

When we were at the Whalton Show last weekend a lady I'd met at a show in Rothbury earlier in the summer (yes we have had one) who took a shine to Minimus came over to say hello. She had a rather exciting gift for us.

Irene Hilson is a fantastic artist and she has painted the most magnificent picture of Minimus from a photo she'd taken at the show. He'd recently been shorn, had his head collar on and was rather damp. I'm sure you will agree she has done a superb job and this will take pride of place in our new house when (!!) it is built.

I'm sure you will agree the likeness is fantastic, this is a photo I took of him about the same sort of time.

Hopefully we will soon be stocking some of these prints.

Taxed

2011-09-22T22:32:00.000+01:00

I seem to have been to Morpeth nearly every day this week, today I had to nip to the post office again to post another online purchase. I thought whilst I was there I would try and tax the tractor. Having had a major issues trying to tax the quad there a few months ago I was expecting it to be rather difficult.

The previous owner had never taxed it as it didn't go on the road so the last tax disc in it show nineteen ninety something! I went armed with the V5 and my insurance certificate and guess what - they did it no questions asked. So why I wonder was the quad so hard to do when I even had the renewal notice for that?!

This afternoon we have purchased our temporary accommodation which we will be moving into in the next few weeks. Another container is required as there isn't much room in a tiny four birth caravan with two adults 3 cats and all my knitting and spinning 'stuff'. Wish us luck I think we may need it.

Living without electricity

2011-09-21T21:52:00.000+01:00

I am still waiting for Paul to update the on-line shop, there just aren't enough hours in the day. He needs to get on with it quickly as I have sold three items again today and we're still months away from the Christmas rush. At this rate we will sell out well before the end of the year.

I am busy knitting an ordered hat at the minute, then I have a matching his and hers hat on order and a pair of leg warmers so not much chance of me knitting new stock for the shop for a little while. Mum is busy knitting gloves like crazy for the shop. I also need to get some spinning done and some more felted jewellery. I think I need to give up sleeping.

There have been a couple of issues on the hill today, the main one being an issue with NEDL. Hopefully it will be resolved or we may be living without electricity long term!!

I can't believe how cold it has turned tonight, this time next month we will be living in our caravan (if all goes according to plan) so I suppose I'd better hurry up and get used to the cold!

A sneak preview

2011-09-20T22:25:00.000+01:00

Having spent most of the afternoon drafting out numerous shop updates, due to lack of hours in the day Paul has failed to upload them into the shop, so here's a sneak preview of a few of the new items.

Not much else to report today, except we have also placed an order for a rather large and very expensive duck egg!

It wasn't me!

2011-09-19T23:01:00.000+01:00

Cria are great aren't they, we have some real characters again this year. Emery our biggest baby of the year weighing in at over 12kg at birth to the only miserable alpaca of the Barnacre herd Kate, thankfully hasn't inherited her mums avoidance of humans.

As you can she here she is this morning sneaking up on my mum about to try and pinch her coat.

Her friends (from front left round to the right, Nadia, Spadicious, Seymour, Brinley, Cazanova and Piccolina) were observing from a safe distance.

Emery retreated to the safety of her mum's side admitting nothing!

Sunday hill update

2011-09-18T22:49:00.000+01:00

Following the vet visit in the week and Palm-Olive being estrumated I wanted to mate her today. It seems to have have done the trick, she sat much better today and it is the best mating she's had so hopefully it will take this time. All the other girls spat off which is good.

This afternoon we have been up on to the hill, it has certainly made a difference where we have cut so we wanted to get more cut before the weather turns.

Here is my dad surveying the grass having been driven up on the quad; he doesn't walk well. Talking of not walking well I fell in one of the streams, lucky for me I didn't get to dirty and I had hold of the camera so no one could take a photo!

Paul hard at work going round and round and round and round.

And here was have the levels for the house, and Jayne thought she had a puddle!!!!!

Whalton Show and Sheep Race

2011-09-17T22:24:00.000+01:00

We woke to rain this morning but thankfully it soon brightened up as we headed over to the Whalton Village Show.

It was going to be a very busy day as not only did we have our alpacas and knitwear there I was also racing my sheep again. I had high hopes for the sheep as we won three of the four races last year and went on to win the championship race with Mocha.

Mocha was first out for the Barnacre stable today, and here she is leading the field!

First past the the finishing post was the defending champion Mocha.

Next up was the turn of Mia, my extremely overweight pet lamb from many years ago who thinks she is a short alpaca. She was the only one of last years team that didn't win her race so I wasn't sure how she would do. I needn't have worried, she did us proud, another first place.

In the third race I had one of my lambs running, this race was so funny as the sheep didn't want to run. They kept going the wrong way, going back to the start and generally not doing what they were supposed to which the crowd thought was hilarious. Eventually with a little encouragement (called a feed bucket!) my little lamb was on the move and and winning, until the last 10 feet that is! He ended up second.

The final race was easily won by one of the vet Dick Thompson's (Alan my farmer friend's cousin) sheep. So the championship race was between two of mine and two of Dicks'.

This race didn't quite go according to plan, both my sheep and Dicks are very friendly and used to being round people and none of them wanted to leave us, or then again it could have been the feed bucket they had spied just over the fence at the start line.

Eventually I managed to get Mia moving and then she spotted a feed bucket heading to the finish line so she set off, excess weight, wonky legs and all and won by a complete lap!!!!!! Here she is proudly posing after securing Barnacre the winning cup for another 12 months.

Thankfully my parents are still here at the minute so they were able to help out with the alpacas who as always proved super popular. We also saw a very clever lady Irene who came laden with the best gift ever, more on that tomorrow.

The night before the races

2011-09-16T22:57:00.000+01:00

Just a quick blog tonight as nothing much to report.

The weather couldn't have been more different today than yesterday. It has been dull and grey most of the day, then at tea time the rain arrived. Not good as we had the sheep racing team to move in readiness for tomorrows sheep racing at Whalton Show.

We have had to make a late substitution as Ebony was looking a little lame this morning - typical. She was probably putting it on because she didn't want to go racing. Ready and looking for bets tomorrow is Mia, Mocha and her two lambs.

The alpacas are also going to the show, we promised Rory he could go this week seeing as he was so keen last week and got left at home.

Pregnancy scanning

2011-09-15T22:26:00.000+01:00

It's been another busy day, I've been cracking the whip with mum and her knitting. It's working well that's three pairs of gloves finished in one week!

This afternoon I'd booked for the vet to come out to scan four of the girls. Ursula who has been a pest with spit offs in the past, then three maidens, Lucia (Ursula's half sister, same dam), Palm-Olive and Kealani.

The first volunteer was Lucia, a lovely black girl who had had one mating with Loki. She has spat off once and on the other occassions I've tried to do a spit off she's either escaped or refused to come in. Great news, she's pregnant, we could see a feotus very clearly.

Second up was the turn of Palm-Olive, she has had two matings but neither of which she has been keen on so I had no idea on this one. There was a slight hitch during this scan, the vets scanner battery was not holding its charge and we couldn't get our generator started!

Thankfully I didn't upset the people who bought West Barn (our previous house), so having had a quick word with Brian we walking the girls into his garage so we could borrow his electric.

Unfortunately both the rectal and transabdominal scans proved negative for Palm-Olive, as you can see she was very well behaved. Having checked her over she has been given some estrumate and we will try again to mate her in the next few days.

Ursula who spat off all last year and never produced a cria has been scanned pregnant this year which is good.

Finally it was the turn of Kealani, she is a very submissive girl who has been mated three times, we weren't sure if she was sitting just because she is so submissive or because she wasn't holding a pregnancy, it was the latter, no baby in there.

Proving popular

2011-09-14T22:44:00.000+01:00

I thought I would share a few photo's with you tonight taken this morning. Here is my mum proving very popular with the girls and their cria. Gabby and Imala are checking out to see what if anything mum has in her hands!

And here especially for Cristina and Dave here we have the gorgeous Jam-Packed, son of Imala and Gianmarco's Masterpiece.

Here we have double trouble Seymour (black) and Spadicious (brown), who is the full brother of our double brown champion Meketaten.

The cria are already growing fast and before we know it it will be time to start weaning the oldest girls - I never like that bit!

Knitting stash

2011-09-13T22:34:00.001+01:00

I was slightly concerned about what might greet me in the field this morning after the terrible winds overnight. Thankfully other than an over turned hay heck and bench and having to gather a few feed toughs all was well. The girls had decided that it wasn't a good idea to sleep under the trees last night and had settled in the middle of the field.

I thought they'd said that the winds were supposed to be dropping this afternoon; I think someone forgot to tell the wind.

Mum and I nipped over to see Carol this afternoon and pick up her knitting, and my word was it worth the visit, she has knitted loads, 3 baby hats, one lady's hat, 3 pairs of fingerless mitts to mention just a few. Mum is also doing a cracking job knitting this week, having already done two pairs of gloves and she is now on the fingers on the second glove of the third pair.

We are at the Whalton Show this weekend with the alpacas and four of our sheep for the sheep race. It is well worth a visit if you are in the area, fingers crossed for a calmer weekend.

Exhausted Minimus

2011-09-12T23:16:00.000+01:00

We have had a very busy weekend at the Berwick Slow Food Festival, they loved the alpacas last year and had invited us back with our knitwear again.

I'd invited my parents up to stay and animal sit as we'd decided to stay up at Berwick over night on Saturday. We were set up and ready to go when the gates opened and as usual with Paul on the microphone the public flocked over to see and hear all about the alpacas.

It was a long, busy two days and exhausting weekend and as you can see even little Minimus found all the attention exhausting, he was fast asleep in the pen at one point.

Anyone who follows our tweets will know we did have an evening off and paid a visit to the beer festival Saturday night with a couple of fellow traders.

Today I've been sorting out all the knitwear as we packed up in a hurry as the wind was really picking up so I hadn't put everything in it's rightful place. I now have a lot of updating to do in our online shop before I sell something that was sold at the weekend.

I have also taken a couple of orders that I need to get on with, there is never a moments rest her. I'm cracking my whip at mum to and am off to see Carol tomorrow to see what she has been knitting from my constantly growing list of requirements from her.

I also have a reqest for Joan (mums neighbour) who knits me some lovely baby cardigans and jumpers, the lastest heart hoody sold in minutes Joan; please can I request another one.

Photo's from Westmorland

2011-09-10T00:25:00.000+01:00

Following on from last nights blog, as promised I now have some photo's to share with you.

First out was the gorgeous Meketaten...

Wearing her sash with pride...

Next it was the turn of Lady Godiva who Dave took in to the ring, I think they were both enjoying the experience.

Then it was Casiphia's turn...

Finally it was the turn of Niveous who as you can see wanted to aviod the mud!

And finally the Westmorland County Show team and their haul of rosettes and sash.

Well done team I am very proud of you all.

Four alpacas, five rosettes and a championship sash!

2011-09-08T22:40:00.000+01:00

It was a very early start today, the alarm was set for 4am as we were heading off to the Wesmorland County Show.

Paul has been working in London today but thankfully Carol and Dave were on hand to give me a hand. Everyone should have a Carol & Dave, they are great!

The weather was not pleasant, by the time we arrived at the showground it was pouring down and there was mud everywhere. Carol passed comment that it was the first time she had witnessed me panicking - I was worried about getting stuck in the mud with the trailer.

With the animals unloaded and the car safely parked (without getting stuck) and facing the direction for the messy exit it was time for the show.

Being a colour championship the running order was from Black to white so first up for us was Barnacre Meketaten in the Intermediate Brown Female class. She has fabulous presence, a stunning fleece, good conformation and substance of bone with an impressive fleece length, in the words of the judge, Liz Barlow. The judge was clearly impressed as Meketaten was awarded first place, and subsequently went on to win the Brown Champion (again! if you remember she was also brown champion at the 2011 Border Union Show).

Next up was the super friendly Lady Godiva, Dave was taking her into the ring and she behaved very well for him, other than sitting down bored at one point waiting for her turn to be judged! This was another big class and we were very pleased to be awarded a second place rosette, I know this will be particularly pleasing for one very pleased couple???...

After lunch it was the turn of the whites, Casiphia was in the largest class of the day, Intermediate White female. This was a very tightly contested class and there was lots of to ing and fro ing of judge Liz and apprentice judge Shirley Bettinson. Casiphia was awarded second place, as was Niveous who was pipped to first place by the alpaca who went on to win supreme champion.

On the subject of champions, Meketaten was in close contention for Reserve Champion and being dark brown again a light fawn this is very impressive. The judge said it was so close and they were so impressed she awarded a 'special award' of the show (the only one!) to Meketaten - what a superstar! The judge described the feel of her fleece as running your hand through a silk carpet and suggested that breeders and public alike should check her out, which they duly did!

Hopefully (if Dave managed to work my camera) I will have some photo's to share with you tomorrow night, my bed is calling me now!

Pairing bales

2011-09-07T21:45:00.000+01:00

Paul and I have been having a bit of practice using the forks on the front of the tractor. We have been moving bales of straw for Alan. We were gathering and placing them side by side to speed up his collection and stacking.

Paul shouldn't have taken a photo of the one bale we had an incident with! I say we, I actually mean Paul!

After driving over to the alpacas on the quad this morning, luckily for me it was dry, I got my car back, it now feels much better although the handbrake now feels like it needs taking up a bit.

The alpacas heading off to Westmorland Show tomorrow have been shut in, the girls have been in most of the afternoon but I decided to leave Niveous out and when I was back at the house it absolutely threw it down with rain so he is now shut in but very damp. Hopefully he will dry off a bit.

Well as I have a very early start I think it's time for a shower then bed. Keep posted to the tweets for updates tomorrow.

No wheels on my wagon

2011-09-06T22:38:00.000+01:00

I had arranged to take my car in today to have some new brakes as they are in need of attention.

Living out in the middle of nowhere always makes things like this become a bit of a major job. I had enlisted the help of Carol to pick me up from the garage and take me back later to pick it up. The plan was I'd spend a couple of hours with Carol doing some knitting (flip top mittens as I've sold out!) and then we could go back to get my car.

However shortly after lunch I received a call to say they had been sent the wrong parts so the car wouldn't be ready until tomorrow. Thankfully Carol agreed to take me back home, via the field to feed everyone.

My mode of transport tomorrow morning will be the quad so please pray for a dry morning. Just to make it even worse my wellies and waterproofs are in the boot of the car!

On the plus side I did pick up 5 pairs of baby socks, as scarf and a pair of fingerless mitts from Carol and added a couple more things to her 'To Knit' list.

I have been chatting to a lovely lady again today, in a moment of madness I did something yesterday which I know is going to end up in tears.......

Alpaca chatter

2011-09-05T22:57:00.000+01:00

I have had a lovely day today chatting with four completely different people interested in four different alpaca related matters

The first was a lovely lady interested in some of our Barnacre wool which she is going to come and fetch. I don't sell much wool as I like to turn everything into end garments so I can follow each animal from star to finish.

Another lady called round to pick up a lovely scarf that she'd ordered knitted in Ursula and Nefertiti. Whilst she was here she had her eye on some of my yarn which was on the table!

I have also been speaking to a lovely lady about some alpacas we have for sale and a couple that will be released soon. Anyone that knows me knows I'm not very good at the parting with them bit so it takes Paul a while to get me to agree.

I have also been chatting to a fellow blogger/tweeter about fleece processing, it is always good to talk to other about your experiences, it benefits everyone in the long run.

Just incase you read this Paul I have also been very busy working on the job list, honest!!!!