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This morning there was ice on the troughs - first time this year.  It was only thin ice but shows it is getting a bit colder.  Of course back at the rental house it was much milder and there wasn't the strong wind that I had on the hill.

Yesterday we did a bit of sorting out of alpacas and I have now split the girls into the skinny ones and the fatties.  The skinnies are on the best grass with extra rations and the fatties are sulking!  Bianca is particularly annoyed about having a little less food and having to walk up hill to get it - in fact her double chin  went into serious wobble and her gigantic thighs trembled as she shook the earth pounding her way up hill!

Dude is seriously happy as he is now at the top of the hill with girls in whichever direction he looks!

I caught myself this morning planning who to mate to next year - not even got these babies out yet!  Trouble is I am longing to try out Greeves - even if he does need a step ladder!

A Whirlwind of a Weekend

To be honest, I am not sure how we have survived the last few days.  So much has happened, some good, some bad.  Since the last blog we have sold little Barry and Barnaby, delivered them and organised follow up  visits to assist with husbandry and handling.  We have returned Jed to the Isle of Wight, sad to see him go but he has done his work and done well.  I think Dude misses glaring at him!

There is a lot more to say about our trip to Warrenfield Alpacas but I am saving that for another day!!  We have also trimmed all toe nails, body scored everyone and started our halter training amongst feeding Trouble.  She is lovely and is already eating a fair bit of grass which is very good. 

Tilbo's leg is doing okay - it does not slow him down in the least and he has an amazing trick of whacking the other cria round the head with his splinted leg.  At first I thought it was accidental but now I am not so sure!  The Mule has now been fixed properly so the Jalopy can be retired again.

Sam  is the one with the most exciting news as he has just started his own alpaca herd!  I can say no more at the moment as he is in the middle of debating his herd name and logo and devising a breeding plan  - all will be revealed when he says so!  In between all of this, Sam has made a hay rack for his lambs.  They seem to enjoy climbing on it as well as eating out of it.  Here is Sammy Davis Jnr at the front!

Let me in!

Bert discovered the Mule held a bucket of food this morning.  Here she is leading Belinda astray!

After this she was desperate to get in the Mule for the rest of the day - despite the bucket being moved.

She even tried her, I'm so cute, look!

Dude ignored everything and just lay around.

Cassie has spent most of the day all on her own by the poo pile - maybe soon!

Bad news followed by good

The weather has been a trifle miserable today and some sad news this morning did not improve things.  However, these things happen and all turns out for the best in the end.
The Westhill herd is looking good, if rather wet and dirty, but Greeves' neck is beyond help!  It is now so full of hay he looks like a walking compost heap and I do not have a clue of what to do about it!  I think we will have to just wait until the weather dries up a bit and hope some of the vegetation drops out.
Dude continues to look as if he is busting for a punch up and it has been suggested that he could be particularly annoyed because he is at the bottom of the hill and Harry is at the top.  I have a feeling that there could be some truth in it but he cannot move yet as I have to alter some of the badger protection first or he is liable to cut himself to ribbons.  I also have to break it to Carl that he now needs to put a top rail on another paddock!
This afternoon I has some very good news from the vet - Greeves is now clear of all parasites including coccidia.  HOORAY!!

The morning after

Harry was very settled this morning.

Dude was not!  I am very unsure whether he wants to make friends with the interloper, or beat him up!  He is a field away but follows Harry's every move.  Dude is filthy - and I know I should wait for him to be clean to photograph him, but that could be a long wait!

So, today - - -
Poo picking completed,
Several little chats with Harry,
Water containers cleaned and filled,
Hay delivered to feeders -
I had to keep moving today as it felt very cold due to the nasty wind which blew up.  Sam reorganised the barn last night which has actually made a lot more room, despite having made a little area for himself and his bits, as he has restacked my hay.  His sheep hay is now in a very tidy pile.  It made getting the hay this morning very much easier as I usually have to climb under a tarpaulin and through a maze of bailer twine.

I am now settling down for an evening of inputting data into the new herd software which actually sounds quite good - particularly as, now it is registered the import animal bit works - plus it makes graphs of the body scoring (or I think it does!).

Nothing runs like a . . .

No day of rest today - but, brilliant!

Greeves has been on one of his weight putting on days - not lively and he still looks a bit wasted at the back end.  I think this is because he is not moving around too much and not building his muscles up - I am hoping that, as the weight starts to go on, he will move around more and get stronger.

We also have a new acquisition - and it is . . . a John Deere!  Actually it is Dad's old garden tractor but Sam loves it and will not leave it alone.  He has already constructed something so he can fix the garden roller on the back to roll things. At the moment the cutting deck doesn't work as it needs a new drive belt or some such thing but once Carl has sorted that out the nettles will be history!  The great thing is, I no longer have to keep shrieking at Sam to slow down on his quad as this is lovely and slow - even when you have got it on 'hare' which is top speed -  'tortoise' is nice and steady and you can drink a cup of tea whilst driving.  It is not as good a the Mule but still very handy.  Thank you Dad!

 In the background you can see we have finally cut the rest of the hay.  The weather forecast is a little dodgy for Tuesday but The Shepherd was round this morning and said we should be getting on with it and Carl didn't need telling twice!  We also got all the lambivac and the rest of the wormer up to date - plus a few feet trimmed so it was fairly hectic.

The really brilliant bit of today, though, was a very special encounter for Cool Dude.  Readers of the old blog may remember Islay's mating last year which was most unpleasant as she really did not want to get involved and looked at me very accusingly throughout.  She was scanned pregnant but didn't present anything.  The year before was the same.   This year we tried her with Dude a couple of times and she wasn't interested so we decided to let her in once more along with Belinda to do a spit off for Belinda - and Islay sat!  She had her ears pricked up the whole time and even gave Dude a little romantic nuzzle.  At one point she nodded off a bit and Dude, not being that experience d slipped out and went a bit frantic.  She just waited for Carl to reposition and they merrily carried on.  Better just make that last bit clear - Carl repositioned Dude on Islay, not himself obviously - he has to be very hands on at moments but I don't think he is replacing me with an alpaca yet!  Whether anything will come of it we will have to wait until next year to see but it was really lovely to see - and I didn't have the camera!

Then we had a pea incident.  We had some micronised peas to try with the alpacas to go with their Camelibra.  The only one who didn't like them was Sam.  He asked if you could eat them and I told him Les had tried them so the silly child put a handful in his mouth.  He has been coughing and spluttering ever since.