The Border Mill

Firstly, a little well done to Sam as he passed his driving theory test yesterday!  Sadly someone who arrived and deposited someone just before he came out managed to drive into the side of my car when getting our the car park - but as she merely loosened the bumper we just shrugged and left it at that!

And I also want to say how good the Border Mill are - what a lovely lady Juliet is!  Really fair and willing to have a go at my weird requests!  We are not quite there with my latest trials - involving the suri - but she is a wonderful woman!!

Just a quick blog tonight as we are off early tomorrow to look at a tractor Sam wants - he has a very rare day off - at least it will be a break from house hunting.

Tomorrow I shall do my Fleece Shots Part two if we get back early enough - if not it will be update on alpacas time!

A new foundation garment

So!  My hands look like winter hands do they!  And the dirty nail was noticed!

I have had a respite from fleece today as I went to Dorchester this morning to assist Mother in finding an outfit for a wedding.  Stuck in Goulds for several hours I ended up browsing the underwear department where a glamorous green lady asked fairly pointedly if I required assistance as I rummaged through some very lacy bras.  (Not a blog for my Gentlemen readers tonight - they may like to switch off now).  I decided I might like a bra but confessed to not knowing my size or having bought a bra in the last 7 years.  I have come away with a true monster of a bra, a bra you could trek through the Andes in and use as a handy emergency hammock!  The uplift is truly amazing and not a sight for the faint hearted.  It has strengthened my resolve to go to the Futurity.  I feel me and my new bra can go anywhere and achieve anything!!  NO photos tonight or it might turn into an episode of Readers' wives!

Fleece shots part1

Time to reveal one lot of fleece shots!  Someone said to me (Tip 1) it is better not to post any fleece shots unless they are good - in fact only to post alpaca shots which are good and show lovely clean, bright, well behaved and perfectly conformed alpacas.  However, here at Westhill, we are not following that advice!  So, I am not trying to pretend these are any good but things are what things are and I am going to show you my fleece shots whatever!!!  Yossarian, my little suri boy is my subject for this evening.  The second tip I was given were to have a handler, one to part the fleece and one to take the photographer.  I abandoned this tip as Yossarian immediately dropped to the floor and played dead so no handler required!  This is the only point in the whole proceedings where he was standing!

Tip 3 was to have a bit of a manicure and wear a flashy ring - I forgot about this one until it was too late.
Tip 4 avoid shadows - we remembered this one and the photographer managed with some contortions to get this one right.
Tip 5 don't put them in PIXresizer and make them smaller files - had to ignore this as no one would have bothered to wait long enough to see them otherwise.

Tip 6 Know the photographic equipment you are using and use it properly.  Luckily, this was down to my brother and he wielded his Canon EOS 400D Digital with 1/500 sec exposure and a focal length of 70mm (35mm lens) with aplomb!

So there you have it - I can do no better!

Are these acceptable fleece photos?

To be honest you will not be able to answer that question until next week!  We did make an attempt at fleece shots yesterday.  It was a bit of a rush as my brother was on his way to a Graham Kendrick event but we made a start.  Sadly, once I got home I realised we had a slight technical issue - his memory card needs a big slot and my computer only has a little slot!  By taking my monitor off and resurrecting an old computer tower Sam appears to be overcoming the problem but we are not there yet!  And, Jeff, when I say a special camera I mean one where you change lenses and other complicated things.  I think it is a posh Canon with a 35mm lens but will confirm (if anyone is in the least bit interested) that once I have managed to retrieve the pictures.  In the meantime, to enliven the blog, here is a picture of Dude.

A wet, cold day today where I did not achieve that much.  The two colour glove went wrong, the Mule developed a fault which involved much mud and a sad lack of 4 wheel drive - - - sausage casserole and a bath is called for as I cannot even have a cheering bar of chocolate due to Lent!

Grace

No alpaca pictures tonight I am afraid but tomorrow my brother is coming over with his special camera and we are going to have a go with fleece shots.  If this does not materialise tomorrow it means we have failed!

Tonight it is a Grace night.  Grace is my little Southdown who arrived with very bad legs and later had fly strike.  She is much improved but does get a bit bullied by the others.  She is also rather portly!  I keep looking at her rear and wondering how on earth a lamb is going to get out - assuming she is in lamb and not just a tub!

And, to show you how little she is - in height anyway - here she is with Two Tone next to her (Stumpy is just about to walk across the front of the shot and head butt her on the way through!

This year I am going to get some oral antibiotics and give the new lambs a drop on their tongues as soon as they are born as last year I lost one of the triplets to Rattle Belly and I don't want that again.  I am also blocking off their shelter in the lambing paddock as the Shepherd says the build up of cocci in there where they kept going in to have their lambs would not have helped.

And talking of the Shepherd, I was in the village taking to the Aunt and her daughter about their lambing when The Shepherd drove past with a Topper on the back of his tractor.  Is he showing off as he has so much grass it needs to be topped - or is he simple topping for the electric fence?!

A worrying moment

My heart nearly stopped this morning as I drove through the field gate.  I could see Little Star flat out with no other alpaca anywhere near her.  I had the camera out as I had been trying to catch a nice morning view over the valley so for some daft reason I wasted a minute taking a photo of her before charging across.

From the photo you can see her ears are pricked and she is simply asleep - but my eyes aren't that good!  Anyway all was well and after sorting everyone out it was a trip to the library van where I found a very exciting book - how to knit two socks at the same time on one circular needle!  Yes, I know, how can you write a whole book about that?!  However, it is something I have not been able to master and I feel sure I can adapt it to knitting two gloves at one which will save having to try to work out what I wrote on old scraps of paper whilst knitting the first glove!

I then went up with Mum to clean the church for the last time this year - someone else's go next month.  This took a while as we had to get the bird mess of the chairs!

Now Sam should be back a little earlier tonight as he is at college today.  I had been getting a bit worried about all the hours he was working and even thought of having a word with his tutor but then yesterday afternoon Carl got a phone call from him.  "Dad is it alright if I am late back tonight?  I've asked if I can work late."  He was driving a mini digger, removing tree roots and making holes - so exciting he didn't even require paying!!

A little excitable

Fairly busy couple of days - and lovely weather yesterday so we are full of the joys of spring.  The alpacas are very grumpy and fighting over food, hay, water, the best place to sleep - looks like a fair few are well and truly pregnant!  Brilliant!  Lambs are due first - 5 weeks to go for them.  I am trying desperately not to think about the cria due or I will start wishing my life away again.  It is impossible, though, for me not to start crawling around checking for udders and swollen back ends - just can't stop myself!
Zara is one of the first due and I am really hoping she is as I would love a black cria.

Crispie is due in June which seems ages away but I am sure time will fly!

I seem to be using a lot of exclamation marks tonight but that is because I am a little hopeful about a visit we are making tonight.  Fingers crossed we may have news sometime soon!!