Monday 24 September 2012

Weekend update

Tut tut, no blog for two nights, what am I playing at! 

Saturday was a very busy day, we were at Whalton Show with the alpacas and our pet sheep for the sheep racing.  It's always a full on day when you have two lots of animals and the knitwear to look after, not to mention the alpaca demonstrations which are always very popular.

The sheep racing is hilarious, and three of my four pet sheep love it, the fourth this year was Ruby who won her race but wasn't sure about the jockey she had to wear!  Mocha, our old girls was my best chance at winning, or so Paul and I thought.  She turned out to be last in her race, but good old Mia won hers whilst Ebony came a very close second in her race.

So with two out of the four finalist we stood a good chance of retaining our title for the third year running, but sadly it wasn't to be, the Ponteland young farmers won with a Shetland ewe - maybe I need to get training my Shetlands for next year!

By the time we got home as two trips were needed as you can't mix the alpacas and sheep in the trailer we were both kick knacked hence the lack of blog!

Sunday was another nice sunny day, Gill, Ross and Taylor came up which was nice, Paul and Ross has planned to cut and move a huge concrete slab to make a bridge which worked perfectly.

We also decided to let the goaties have an explore round our ancient earthworks field, they are all finally sound on their feet, not a single limp or lame foot in sight.  We have been working on them constantly for what seems like forever, but it's worth it when it works.  Here's Paul showing them the way.

The new Shetland sheep are mingling well with the pet sheep, they are used to being fed so come running as soon as they see you with a bucket.

I'm no expert on Shetland colours yet so we are trying to work out what sort of ram we want, do we go for a certain colour, the finest fleece or the one I like the look of (that's how I chose Wesley!).  Our girls are all slightly different colours, the older girls are fawn.

This one is darker and the four lambs (two ewe lambs) are darker still.

Not as dark as Mocha's texel cross ewe lamb though!  Aren't these two sweet...

2 comments:

Zanzibah Alpacas said...

Sounds like a busy weekend...hopeyou have battened down the hatches...we are being battered as I type ....lets hope the wind is gone by tomorrow with noi damage....lovely photos of the lambs, sheep and the goats ..Jayne

Patou Alpacas said...

'Kick knacked'? What are you northerners on about?3