Tumbling down the bank

Wet and windy here today with a mammoth fall for me whilst climbing the bank into second carrying a barrel of water for the sheep.  As usual, I had omitted to put the lid on the full barrel of water so not only was I damaged and bleeding but I was also plastered in mud and wringing wet.  Needless to say I could find no plasters but luckily I was going to the shops anyway - so after a quick change and rub down, plasters were added to the list.

Well, one trip leads to another and at the weekend we are off on a spinning course (Sam is coming as well as he is so keen on carding!).  Hope he is better by then as he has another nasty cold and he seems unable to remember how to use a handkerchief!

Don't think anything is wrong if there is no more blog until into next week - it is only because we are spinning!  -spinning yarn as well as Grasstrac so yes, Rob, more You Tube moments!!

Should we - or shouldn't we?

We wanted rain, we have had rain - I'm not convinced it was 'warm rain'!

Today did not go as planned.  I was supposed to be going to Irene's to take knitting and see Mrs Humphrey's cria.  As I was about to set off the Grasstrac delivery arrived.  Great, but I then needed to get it down to the barn and under cover so the trip to Ashdale had to be postponed. 

The blog title refers to one of our current big decisions we are trying to make at the moment - Should we, or should we not, offer Emily for sale?  Emily is one of my favourites, daughter of Carolyn one of our foundation alpacas - and one of our 1st place fleece winners at the GWR Fleece Show.  She is not pregnant yet (that is another decision - who to mate her to?).  On the one hand I want to keep her as a) She is a favourite b) She is the easiest alpaca to trim toenails, inject and to do anything else you might want to c) I am sure she will have a fine cria with her background on both sides - but - you can't keep them all!!

This evening the sun came out so it was on to the Westhill version of a fertiliser spinner.  Sadly, when I uploaded the photos of the automated spinner (a garden fertiliser spreader with a bit of wood for the handle and me running with it as fast as possible with Sam shouting at me to go faster in order to reach the required 11mph) I accidentally deleted everything so this is just the basic model - Carl throwing by hand whilst running!

A Lame Excuse

Last night ended on a slightly sour note.  Sam had been told to be in by 7pm to get ready for college.  I lay in the bath fuming as 7 turned to half past, then knitted and fumed as 7.30pm turned to 8pm,.  I was just about to storm across the fields in my bed time T shirt and wellingtons when he returned, "Sorry, Mum, Dad locked me in the tractor!"  They had been doing something and Carl shut the tractor door with Sam inside, it locked itself and they couldn't unlock it - this was a daft excuse as he could have climbed out the window quite easily.

Today I had a trip out to take Mum to the dentist and then I had broad beans to plant, given to me by the Keeper of the Graveyard.  Having cleaned the car, in preparation for another little adventure, poo picked a field, ordered some Grasstrac for the fields and had a jolly good feel of the sheep's udders I have reached the stage of blogging.  A bit later than usual due to a good deal of studying of photographs sent by our undercover agents - The Bond Girls!

Sammy and the Same!

Life is getting very exciting at the moment!
With the clocks changing I set the alarm for 6 .30 to check Sam had remembered about time changes for getting to work - he had and was already gone! 
Carl was also up early as he had a new motor bike stand (thank you ALF) which he was very keen to try out.  And I know, Carl's shed is like an Aladdin's Cave!

Then  it was down to Landrover Man's to collect a new tractor!  Sam was almost bursting with excitement and I think The Shepherd was glad to see the back of him - he could not stop talking and beaming - Sam that is, mind you the Shepherd was pretty smiley as well!
Here it is The Same - not much to look at maybe but it has a radio cassette player, proper air conditioning not just a window that sometimes opens and it is BIG - 4WD, 90hp, Quike loader, guide thingies and you can up and down the hydraulics from the cab!  They have already fitted something called a Speed Knob (or something like that - not really sure).

Sam is cleaning it with a small brush!  . . . and it came with a bale trailer (needs a little work).

Sam and Carl are out there now cleaning the windows and preparing to pressure wash it.  They did have a minor fire and a smoke filled cab at one point as some of the oil on the engine ignited but apparently this is no big deal and will soon be sorted.

We then had a visit from The Chippendales who roamed the hills with the dog, collected eggs and brought a very nice cheese and biscuit lunch.

Carl and I finished off the toe nail trimming, gave a few injections and then prepared ourselves for a few more spit offs - no luck for Dude!  Bert spat ferociously which was brilliant, so did Crispie, Flemenco, Belinda, Cassie (and that is the first time I have ever seen Cassie spit), even Islay spat.  Excellent!
The only mini drama was Greeves getting a bit peturbed when we did Islay's feet (his Aunty).  We have to do her feet on the ground as she gets very anxious if we try to touch her legs and Greeves got very anxious when she went away from him!

We then moved on to the boys and did a bit more halter training with Spike, Barry and Barnaby.  Spike is very good now and so is Barry but Barnaby is still a bit scared of the halter so he is still not at the leading stage.  We used Dylan as a companion for him and he was very good, as usual.  It was then time for a quick cuddle with Two Tone whilst Stumpy got jealous

They are very friendly with me but a little more wary of Carl.

Now I have to attack a few Lords and Ladies I found growing along the bank at the side of the sheep field - nasty, poisonous things.

Pretty Busy!

Sorry there has been no blog - no problems, just Carl has been working in Cornwall and I have been chasing my tail trying to keep up with carding, spinning, knitting, sheep and poo!  All going well apart from the spinning but I am hoping to get another spinning lesson soon (quite a long way to go for it but worthwhile!).  The daffodils are out and summer does not seem quite so far away.

Sam has also been busy - gardening first and then rolling for the Shepherd this morning.  Not using the Wellground roller (though that has now been all welded up and is ready to go - see picture below!) but the Shepherd's big roller - once it was located as it had disappeared this morning much to the Shepherd's annoyance.

Carl did a bit of motorbike hauling and garden tractor maintenance first thing (not my garden tractor - that is running smoothly and is my second best thing to drive - after the Mule of course).  We then did a bit of toe nail trimming and body scoring.  I had been talking to Viv at Reddingvale earlier and had said that we were not going to start checking pregnancies yet as we will not be doing any rematings until May but once one group of girls was down I could not resist it.  Some good news as Lina spat like a demon.  I had doubts about her as she still likes me to rub her neck sometimes but it looks good.  Carolyn and Lily also spat with gusto so looking good for them.  The disappointment was Zara who rushed in to Dude and sat straight down!  Poor Dude, we had to haul him away pretty quickly.  Although it was a bit disappointing I have to say it was not really a surprise as she is far too pronky to be pregnant!  Never mind.  We have now decided to spit off with everyone else tomorrow just to see how things are going - no rematings yet though!  Looking forward to Bert's spit off!

The weather has been so nice that all the alpacas have spent a lot of time sunbathing or just lazing around -  mind you, Cassie jumps up every time she sees me in case I have food!



The Shepherd brought Sam back and had a quick look at my three sheep - George is well bagged up so he thinks she will be first, Angelina is starting to bag up but Stumpy is still three weeks away - he also things George has twins!  It will be very exciting seeing if he is right - I think he is!!  We are just going to get Sam's sheep moved now before it gets too dark.

. . . An somehow it looks as if we may have acquired another tractor - maybe more news on that tomorrow.

Fighting and Eating

No blog last night as we were trying to make a decision.  Decision made, it is back to the blog - already not sure we made the right decision!

It has been lovely weather today and part of the time I was down to a t-shirt for the first time this year.  For some reason this, the sun - not my t-shirt, drove Spike and Alf mad and they spent a great deal of the day fighting.

I am surprised they have the energy with the heat and the lack of grass in their paddock!  Everyone else was either eating frantically or sunbathing

Hoping these two, Islay on the left and Flamenco on the right are pregnant!

Long necked sheep dogs!

A really quite remarkable evening yesterday.  Dobby and Caedmon went off on their sheep guarding duties last night, as the Shepherd's lambs are almost due.  Dobby and Caedmon don't live with the other alpacas in first field - they live with the sheep up in second.  They were our first two alpacas, they are the ones on the banner at the top of the page.  They like sheep and will put up with anything from their little flock, including Two Tone jumping up against them and Stumpy having a rub on their backs.  In fact I have only ever seen Caedmon spit at the sheep once and that was when he thought it was Dobby pushing against him and not Pugsly!  We took the two of them up to the sheep last night and I wish I had taken the camera.  Sam had his phone so these pictures are not that good.  They got straight in the stock trailer and lay down before we had even shut the tail gate.  As soon as we let them out they ran around and got the sheep in a big group - like sheep dogs, I'm not kidding!  Then the two of them stood facing this big flock of sheep and all the sheep looked at them, silently, it was as if Cadders was saying, "Now, listen up, you girls - stick with us and you'll be okay!"  Then Cadders turned round and walked away with Dobby following - - - and all the sheep followed in a long line!  I have loaded up the photos from Sam's phone, they don't really do the moment justice - it was hysterically funny and worthy of You Tube!

Rounding up sheep!




Follow on now!

This morning Caedmon looked shattered, I think he is already worrying about his sheep!  Dobby was watching one way and Caedmon the other - hope they do a good job!!