Slight Snow

We woke this morning to a thin smattering of snow.  Last night we had several texts and phone calls from the SFS desperate for a bit of snowboarding!  Sadly, we have had to disappoint them and they were all ready packed up to come over - may be more on the way though!

The snow was pretty but it did mean a lot of hay delivering and cracking ice first thing.  This was done at speed as we were off to spend a lovely morning in Hampshire helping with a bit of toenail trimming and injections - great fun and delightful alpacas!  The roads were a bit slippy down to Winterborne Stickland but then it was all clear.

When we got back it was back over to our alpacas - a little snow was still there and they were all waiting at the gate!

Prue and Barnaby in the other paddock seemed to have lost the rest of the herd who had retreated back up the top where it was less icy.  Barnaby is sneaking a drink whenever he can!

I was pleased this evening as I  managed to get Greeves to have a couple of mouthfuls of Camelibra - it's a start.

Now, with Sam's room finished, Carl is furiously knocking down the dining room while I sit amongst the dust typing this - I am fearing for my keyboard as I do not want another Jelly Baby Incident!

No snow yet?

I spent a while on the internet last night researching Jayne's recommendation and had another email on the subject so, as there was no chance of getting to Mole Valley, I ordered some - looking forward to it arriving.

Very cold today, the ground at the bottom of the fields didn't defrost all day.  Mind you, I think it was warmer outside than in - the cats certainly thought so as they spent all afternoon down by the barn annoying the alpacas.  Cruella was fine just stalking things but Smudge kept creeping around by the fences.  As soon as Dude came down to look at him he dashed away causing Dude to become very frustrated.  I had lined up a lovely photo and then the batteries died.  I think I had left the camera in the Mule too long and the cold had deadened the batteries.

There seems to have been a lot of snow everywhere else and I was just about to type - No Snow Here! - BUT, little flecks are beginning to fall as I speak and looking out of Sam's new bedroom window there is a strange whiteness in the distance.  I have to admit none of that is obvious from the photo - batteries now replaced - (but I do now know where the watering can is!).

Carl and Sam are finishing off Sam's new room by putting up the blinds - the rather snazzy carpet has to stay for the time being.

The one with the best idea is Cruella!

A pronking finale!

A very cold day today - except for the brief moments when the sun was out when it was marginally less cold!  The body warmer remained firmly on - even in the house as oil has reached critical level.  Luckily, house restoration means we have lots of wood to burn - skirting boards and door frames tonight!  Alpacas all are well and the cows were out in force on the hill.

Sam has a day off tomorrow and is longing for snow - how he will feel about that when I tell him he has a bit of fence maintenance to do I don't know!  We let Lina's group of girls into a new bit of paddock this evening as they need everything they can get - Greeves is still very thin - and they went wild.  Crispie was the worst - pronking around from one paddock into the new bit and back again.  She was closely followed by Velocette and Sunbeam, very overexcited end to the day!

Interview Day

We are all pretty tired now - Sam's college interview turned into quite a long day!  He has been offered a place but it is, of course, conditional on him getting the right GCSE results and that is not going to be too easy for him.  Sadly, his dyslexia makes English a particular challenge and whether he will manage to get the grades is a bit in the balance.  I think he would really enjoy the course - lots of machinery, dairy and arable work.  He is just going to have to work very hard for the next few months and then we will see.  It was good to see the alpacas there that Carl sheared.  We only caught a glimpse as we were on a whistle stop tour of the campus.  I seemed to be a bit of a magnet to the cows in the dairy parlour; I had two licking my back as I was trying to look intelligent while the tutor did his talk!

On a quick aside though, it did show how far advanced we are in our biosecurity measures, as are all the alpaca farmers I have visited.  I was desperately looking around for a disinfectant point to dip my boots and I was itching to remove open feed sacks from the floor!

A highlight of the visit was meeting the blacksmith who had been on that history programme set in Shepton Mallet - he is one of the tutors and runs the blacksmith courses.

Before we went we had a long list of tasks to achieve but did not get very far as I ended up treating far more sheep eyes than anticipated.  Looks like the weekend will be busy!

All out feeding on the hill

Getting colder!  I have brought feeding time in the evening forward a bit as it takes me ages and if the chickens don't get theirs early enough they can't find their way back to their house.  It's all the ones who prefer hand feeding and then the picking up of all the troughs and water containers that is taking so long.  All good fun though and I am pleased to say that both Velocette and Sunbeam are beginning to show a little more interest in the hard feed.  Today, everyone was out feeding on the hill at the same time and it got quite noisy with all the cows, tractors, Land Rovers and sheep!

Tomorrow we have to finish off the micro chipping and eartags which didn't get done on Sunday - plus Little Star's Vitamin D as, when I wrote up the medical book, I realised I had forgotten her!  Also, one of Sam's sheep has Cloudy Eye (technical term that for us Shepherds!) - which apparently can spread like wild fire so she needs a drop of ointment.

All of that has to be achieved quickly as then we are off to Kingston Maurward for Sam's College course interview - a big day!

Winter on the way

Oh, it is getting cold!  Beginning to get a bit of frosty poo in the fields which is fun to collect (I am joking!).  I think the ram may be having a bit of success but the raddle is only leaving faint traces of colour.  I am beginning to suspect the raddle is not working too well.  I tried to catch the ram to check but he was having none of that and when he started glaring at me I backed away pretty quick - Sam will have to deal with that!

We have been gradually introducing some micronised peas into the girls' diet - some love them, some hate them.  Bert, Sherbert, Prudence, Crispie and Little Star hoover them up like there is no tomorrow.  Emily dislikes them so much she no longer bothers with tea, Lina eats everything else but spits the peas out and the rest enjoy them tentatively!  Flemenco will only eat from my hand anyway and the youngsters are still not really interested in anything but hay.

The Shepherd was on the hill removing his electric fence as now the sheep have gone down in the valley for the winter - I miss seeing them.  I used to go and talk to them over the gate!  The girls are always highly alert and interested whenever they hear his dogs.

Leaf Decorations

A very busy day today.  First thing, Sam and I were out cleaning field shelters and hay racks followed by a check of the boys and the sheep.  The ram still does not appear to have wooed any of his girls but he is not one to give up easily!  I like to body score all the alpacas once a month and the boys were all holding their scores nicely.  They will remain on just the hay and no supplement.  While we did this Carl was filling in  Sam's new bedroom and once he had finished he and Sam went to help the Shepherd move his sheep down the hill.  After that was done, and a little gossip was had whilst mooching around in the gateway, it was back to do vitamin D injections for the youngsters and body score the girls.  We then came a little unstuck as the toe nail clippers had disappeared.  That job has now had to be put off until Wednesday, by which time I hope to have located the clippers!  Everyone seems to be wearing strategically placed leaf decorations in their mouths today - Velocette has a catchy little number - as does Crispie, below!

 

After a quick lunch Sam was left building a new hay rack whilst Carl and I shot over to Ashdale Alpacas.  I knitted frantically all the way there and succeeded in casting off just as we pulled in!  I wanted to deliver my new selection of gloves for Irene to work her magic on and we both wanted to see barn progress - all looking very good but no cria yet from Rosie.  We had a quick gossip and bandied about some ideas but it was soon time to shoot back home to make sure Sam was sorted for college.