A bit of a day!

Today started with Carl taking Sam into Blandford to get his hair cut while I pottered about with the animals and set things up ready for the tasks we had for today - a few injections, spit offs and a possible mating.  I was a bit unsure about whether Little Star was ready for mating and had decided not until next year but then she started showing a lot of interest in Dude.  After talking about it we thought we might as well put her in and see what happened and, at first, it looked as if she might sit but then she seemed to change her mind so we left it at that for today!

This afternoon was time to get the fleece ready for the Great Western Region Alpaca Fleece Show and what a fiasco that turned into!  We have never shown a fleece before and these were the first alpacas Carl had sheared - a combination which was never going to go smoothly!  We ended up thoroughly depressed and ready to hurl the whole lot own the hill!  It all began to go pear shaped when I pulled one of my hairs out of the fleece and went further downhill when we realised why some people take off the tips of the cria fleece.  Following this a beetle flew into fleece on the table and needed some extracting (I am sure he left a leg behind) and then a strong wind blew up across the valley.  I had already memorised the fleece tips on Irene of Ashdale's Face Book page and we started looking for uniformity of staple length as we continued to skirt - we began to wonder if we had any sandwich bags in the cupboard to take our show fleeces in - sacks seemed a bit wasteful!  If any one out there has even the slightest concerns about sorting their fleece for the show - forget the worries, you cannot possibly do any worse than us!!  Carl kept telling me that it is the taking part that matters and I replied B.............
We then gave up and decided to do the rest tomorrow.  Here is the abandoned fleece sorting table.

And here is Cruella trying to remove fleece from her mouth.

Carl went off to fence while I did battle with a particularly truculent glove I have invented.

Sam is getting a barrage of  post lately - all offering him insurance for his house, car, health and even pets.  Saga is the worst offender but today they offered him a free pen.  He rarely reads anything but must be the only person around who diligently reads every word in these mail shots.  He said in 35 years when he is eligible he might take up the free pen offer!