Horatio pushes his boundaries

The morning started off with a bit of a scare, our resident mischief (well one of them), Horatio had managed to get himself stuck in the fence. He has been sticking his head where he shouldn't since the day he was born, but this time it was a place too far.

He had pushed his head through the wire into Golden Guinea's paddock and got stuck. It looked like he had been there a while, thankfully Guinea hadn't been bothered by the 'visitor'. After a bit of pushing and pulling we managed to free him without causing him any distress.

Poor little chap has a sore ear for his trouble and now has a blue tinge to his rather nice black fleeced ear!! Has he learnt his lesson; no he was sticking his head through the bars by this evening. So the weanlings now have a hurdle lined fence.

The weather has warmed up today so little Palm-Olive (incidentally I now have everyone else calling her Palm-Olive!) is back to just the one coat. I think tomorrow she may have to move up to the next size, made especially today by my own fair hands!

Double wrapped for extra warmth

My word was it cold and blowy this morning, so much so I put an extra coat on little Palm-Olive. She seemed very happy with two coats on and when we weighed her tonight she had put on over 300gm in 24 hours so she's doing just fine.

Here she is getting acquainted with my mum.

The wind was so strong at one point she was almost being blown off her feet. Thankfully by tea time the sun was shining and it was lovely.

Willow and Aria are quite rightly hanging on to their babies until the weather improves.

In preparation for the new arrivals I have been making another cria coat today, I thought I'd better make a couple more if the weather is going to be bad and I have more babies due.

A little confused

The weatherman this morning forecast a 'good growing day' with sunshine and showers and he was right. One minute glorious sunshine the next strong winds and showers, even hail very briefly at one point.

Little Palm-Olive is looking good, she is modeling a very fetching alpaca coat to keep her warm and dry. I had to laugh at her at lunch, she had been whizzing round the field like a mad thing possessed and got all confused about who her mum was.

She approached the first white one, Oonagh who very gently pointed out she didn't have any milk and wasn't her mum. Next she tried Little Miss Irraquoy, who since being pregnant is having a bit of a hormone overload and can be very very touchy who sent her packing immediately.

The she moved on to Katia, who is one of the girls we have for sale, due to birth next month. Palm-Olive was sure this was her mum, she was humming to her, trying to get milk and determined not to give up. Katia was blowing air (not actually spitting) at her, pushing her away and running off but still Palm-Olive followed her. In the end I had to go and get her and show her where mummy was and she was straight at the milk bar.

Willow is still looking like she is really struggling with her baby bump, whilst Aria is running to the feed troughs and happily going about life. My vet has always said that Willow is a drama queen. She now has a bag of milk so I don't think she will be much longer, she's at 333 days gestation.

Mum arrives with more knitted stock

Having had baby lambs last week and then Molly birthing yesterday my parents have arrived. Mum loves to see the babies, she's hoping that Aria or Willow will birth whilst she is here, but having just seen the weather forecast for the next few days I'm not sure she will be lucky there.

Mum has been busy knitting since she was last up so there is some new stock to go into the shop as soon as I can get some nice photos.

Molly's little girl, who I have nick named Palm-Olive (as she was born on Palm Sunday and is so bright white and clean) has been charging round the field today causing Molly great concern. New mums are so protective of their babies but babes have so much confidence they want to explore.

Gaussian has been very intrigued by this new 'little' paca. This evening the were exchanging hums now Molly will let him close.

It's a girl !!!!!!

Wahoo, Molly has given birth today to a lovely little girl - Someone missed out on a bargain there.

You won't believe it either, how much time have I spent in the field this week waiting for this moment and I left the field for half an hour at lunch time and she had her!

I'll fill you in with more photos and details over the coming days as it's getting late and I've had a really busy weekend and my bed is calling.

Our broadband was playing up again last night hence the lack of blogging. Both Paul & I spent all day raking leaves and cleaning resting paddocks of 'bits and bobs' that seem to appear in the winds. I also gave the field shelter a very thorough clean. I've decided my next shelter will have a concrete floor so it is easier to clean.

Today has been another busy one, the weanlings have had their toe nails cut and have moved paddocks onto some nice green grass which went down a treat. Their old field has therefore been cleaned and harrowed and will hopefully start to grow again real soon.

The lambs from last year have been tagged today. It's not a job I like doing so I usually get Paul to do it hence it's a weekend job. Thankfully they don't seem too bothered after the initial flinch.

The evening finished off herding three escaped cows of Alan Thompson (my farmer friend) which had escaped and were wondering up the road. Thankfully they were quite well behaved for escapees.

Incidentally Paul is returning to work with a war wound; he has a blister!!

It's the weekend!!

Paul is very pleased it's the weekend, two whole days from the day job and he can spend some time with the alpacas.

It started off very foggy but once the mist lifted it was another glorious day, just the right weather for observing!!! And no, still no babies. I made a few more fire bricks this morning which are now drying nicely.

On the birthing front, Willow had started to bag up nicely now, in fact I think she may well be the first of the alpacas to give birth. She had gotten used to me laying on the floor to check out her under carriage so today kindly laid next to me and rolled to show off her developing bag.

Maybe this weekend..................................

Should have placed that bet

Well at least I can predict one birth, Pepper my other sheep produced two lovely little lambs first thing. I just managed to see the second one popping out.

Two little girls, one black and one white. The black one is almost identical to Mocha's daughter so that is going to get confusing!

The alpacas continue to enjoy the sunshine and dust baths with no new additions - I am trying to be patient Mark but I'm not very good at it. Having had one enormous baby last year from a girl who hung on I am also slightly paranoid!

Yet again I have spent all day in the fields and have cleaned up again, you could eat your dinner off our grass at the minute. It's good timing actually as the manure collectors are obviously busy readying their grounds for veggies and the like because as soon as I replenish the supply someone comes to collect it.

And still we wait

It has been a glorious day today so what Molly is waiting for I have no idea. For anyone new to my blog, I have been waiting for Molly to give birth for a little while now!


She will be 349 days tomorrow and still happily ran for her tea this evening unlike Willow (who is 327 days) who is finding the late stages of pregnancy all very tiring.


Aria who is due on Easter Monday is having frequent bulges at her rear end and is looking like she is starting to think about it. If I had to put money on who would be next though I think I will go for Pepper, the other sheep!


I have spent most of the day in the field again, I've had the paddock cleaner out scrapped up all the hay from the mangers, cleaned out the weanlings shelter and the boys shelter and took a few more photos.
Above is Ursula and below Oonagh.

And this is Millie, who always puts her ears back the minute you get the camera out!