Black Day tomorrow!

Up and off early this morning to help with a bit of alpaca handling and checking.  It is lovely to return to see alpacas and find them so calm and easy to handle.  A good morning and the rain held off which was a big bonus.  It was then back to our herd and a final push to get the field shelter roof on.  All is now ready for our special delivery tomorrow - sadly, I can do nothing about the mud!  His two new companions are waiting for him, another new friend will be coming soon.  Tomorrow there really will be photos - rain or not!

Excitement Mounting!

Today was wet - not much more to say about it really!  I kept my eyes on the skies; partly looking for a vague clearing so I could get Poo  Collecting but also on the look out for rogue helicopters as I hear the Scrap Man now has acquired one!

We have a busy weekend ahead of us with a special delivery on Sunday to look forward to so I am going to be watching the telivision whilst knitting in order to prepare myself.  I had my hair dne this morning in preparation and Carl keeps giving me sidlong looks and calling me slick for some reason (I am not sure he totally approves.

No alpaca photos due to the rain but one of Mitzy (or Little Wee as she is now known).

Would you like to swing on a star. . . .

I needed Willie's pink umbrella today - it was miserable weather!  I had a slight Mule catastrophe this morning when negotiating the track as I slid sideways and entangled myself with the new fence.  The bar thing at the front got stuck in the stock fencing and nearly pulled it off the posts as I attempted a reversing manoeuvre.  This was strange as the Mule has never been so badly behaved before.  However, I have since found that it is, as usual, not my fault!!  SOMEONE put the Mule in 2 wheel drive so no wonder it could not negotiate the track - I shall be very glad when that someone gets his own vehicle and leaves mine alone!!  I did a very small Poo collection today, which I will no doubt regret tomorrow but I did manage to have a quick hoover in the church and take the window decoration down.

Sorry no pictures today as it has just been too wet.

Raindrops keep falling on my head!

Thank you for your kind wishes for Sam's birthday - he used black ink for his tractor driving application, enjoyed his birthday tea of fish and chips and had lots of cards!  We also watched a DVD  we had given him for Christmas - quite funny but a lot of violence and rather dodgy I felt.  It said it was rated a 15 but 15s are not what they were in my day!

Today was grey and drizzly and the mud is getting beyond a joke.  I had a good check on the new paddock this morning and went to stand in the field shelter, to check it for spaciousness, and was just thinking how good it all looked when I realised I was still getting wet - on looking up I saw why - no roof on the field shelter yet!  I had forgotten that was still to be done!  I spent the afternoon putting all the due dates in the new diary; already looking forward to these babies and wondering how much out they will be from the dates I put in the diary!

On my own again!

Despite the harsh weather, Greeves is coming along slowly. This is him with Lily.   Lina is still highly possessive although she is not keen on him feeding and I don't think there is much, if any, milk there.  He is a very good hay eater though!  Today has been my first day on my own since before Christmas as Carl had over a week off and Sam has been around in the afternoons.  Up until now I have been able to yell if the poo picker and the Mule got tangled up together or fuel ran out or I got stuck in the mud so I approached the field clearing with a little trepidation!  However, I am pleased to say all went well with all fields cleared, no animals escaping whilst I negotiated gateways and refueling accomplished with only a minor spillage.  There was one snag though - and I am convinced it is not my fault!  I could not unhitch the Poo Picker from the Mule and on close inspection I feel this is due to the length of the tow bar on the Mule; it is too short making unhitching awkward.  Tonight I shall ask Carl if he can make some sort of "Mule Extension"!

Now I have to go and create a birthday tea as it is Sam's 16th birthday (the highlight for him is filling in his application form for a provisional driving licence so he can take his tractor test!)

Field Shelter Number One (almost)

Today has seen th erection of one of the new mobile field shelters - and they are VERY heavy to manhandle!  We had a little slip up where the side went on in the wrong place but it is now almost complete (darkness has stopped the roof going on).

The second one is still on the trailer.  Hopefully, tomorrow, it will make it into position.

The old ones were a bit of a squash, even with only half the group in there!

Cleaning

A new year and I am on church cleaning duties for January and February.  I am taking this so seriously I was down there by 8am clutching the pledge and a feather duster.  However, who ever was on in December had taken things even more seriously and I could barely find a speck of dust to whisk away!
In fact, cleaning was the theme of today as the paddocks got a thorough poo pick with two now closed up and resting - a little late due to the snow.  Carl has almost finished fencing one new paddock - just the wire and field shelter to go!
We now have lots of mud here and some paddocks are very bare which means the girls are still very keen on the hay and dash down for their feed.  They are not getting their morning sugar beet since the snow has gone and are most unhappy about it.

The sheep and the boys are also still queuing for food!