Lumps and Bumps

It's okay, I have stopped muttering (well, actually it was screeching)!  Good news and bad today.  First the good, Jayne from Zanzibar is winging her way over for a visit on Friday.  Lovely to hear her voice on the phone today, now I just have to get the house looking presentable - she has a very clean house, create food - she makes a very good cake and have a long chat with the animals to tell them all to behave themselves, some hope!  One of the Owls is flying over with her under their wing - roll on Friday!

On the bad side shearing has revealed a problem - poor Spike (the wether) appears to have an abscess.  It is a round lump, squidgy but does not appear to be painful.  If it is an  abscess it must be my fault and made doubly bad because it is really not where I should have been injecting.  I  am not happy with myself and phoned the vet.  The vet says just to monitor it for now so we'll give it a daily check.  Next I discovered poor Barry has a little cut on his shoulder which was not there yesterday.  Alf is starting to fight a bit and I hope it wasn't him that did it.  Now Alf has been sheared, he looks even bigger and the little ones look even smaller so I think I might have to take the two little ones out. 
The two bottle fed lambs - Limpit and Nonlimpit - are doing very well and no longer limp.  After a couple of days I ran out of the original antibiotic so used Excenell in desperation and that seemed to do the trick.  It also finally cleared Mum's mastitis.  Dobby seems very happy to have black lambs in with him (he is black) and he and Caedmon are back with my white Texel cross sheep but Limpit and Nonlimpit are in with them with their Mum (they are destined to become pets!).  This afternoon The Limpits were jumping all over Dobby while he tried to sleep - Caedmon (white) was on the other side of the field with Stumpy's baby (white) jumping on him.  I know I have said it before but it is fascinating how alpacas seem to react to different coloured animals.

Greeves surprised me just now.  I went over to give Bert her evening tickle (she is particularly fond of a rub under the chin and at the top of her leg) and Little Greeves came over for a kiss - he hasn't done that for several weeks.  He then surprised me even more by charging around and trying to mount every one of the girls - very unsuccessful as he is too small!  He does look rather odd at the moment as we tried not to shear him too short and it has made him look as if he has a very fat tummy!  Having said that he is actually getting much better, not really skinny at all now.

Little Wee has totally recovered from being spayed and, thank goodness, no longer roams around calling all the wild cats. 

She gets on very well with Smudge but Cruella is still wary of her.  The ladder is there as Carl is painting the outside of the house!

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!

The sun has got his hat on - sadly, so have I!

Excellent news last night from Irene at Ashdale.  I will let her tell you more but just to say she took our knitting to a show and has sold a phenomenal amount.  After my saying things had gone flat after Christmas - well, they have picked up now!!

It has been a busy day today - and lovely weather.  Carl and a friend have been fencing.

Spring has definitely been in the air - buds are bursting!

After lots of poo collecting for me and lots of moaning about his bad back from Sam, we did a bit of halter training.  My poo collecting was quick due to the Mule and his new tyres - not once did I get stuck or slide!

Halter training also went remarkably smoothly.  Barnaby Rudge is still a little nervous of his halter but Barry Norton had got to the stage where a little walk was called for - but who to take with us?  Harry and Dylan are already well halter trained so it should have been one of them but Spike, the blood giving wether, was desperate to come out.  We have never halter trained him but Sam was keen!  So Sam put his halter on - no fussing - and he was ready to be off!  I can't say he walked perfectly but he was not bad.  Little Barry was not that keen on going out but walked well coming back!  We have had a long debate over whether to show the next photo due to the state of my trousers, the fact that Barry's lead rein is a bit of old rope, and me looking enormous (I was wearing 4 jumpers as, despite the sun, it was cold).  In the end the photo stays in but the hat is to be replaced and the trousers are supposed to be in the bin tonight!