A Guy Called Colin!

Hi Folks,

Well after not much happening in the early part of the week, to a hectic morning today. It all started with Lily going to her grandma's for the morning, leaving myself and Lisa going down the farm to meet the farrier and to muck the stables out.

We tend to compare notes with the farrier to whats changed on the farm the last time he came, this time round it was the fact that we had moved house and are now in rented. Hopefully next time he comes we will be living on the farm!

It was then the turn of our 2 field shelters being delivered, this guy had been on the road since 4am this morning and its now 11.20, oh dear a big crash on the motorway held him up, but he was still in good spirits.

It doesn't look much, but it was heavy!

We had just about unloaded the trailer when my phone rang with a guy on the other end with a very strong Gordie accent asking for directions to our farm, it turned out he was just 30seconds up the road, but he insisted on staying on the phone and me directing him to the farm.

Here comes our sewage system

Now this guy could talk for England, a real nice guy but does he ever take a breath for air I ask myself. He insisted on telling me how he has put the world to rights on his journey down here and it sounds like he is going to tell me now.

Colin is his name I have established, not that I have got a word in yet, but that's what it says on the back of his hard hat!! Colin is still talking and I have taken to kicking his wheels while I listen some more.

Colin finally finds time to lift off the sewage plant and puts it in front of our barn, we are going to store it in the barn until we are ready to fit it, the green box to the bottom right of the picture is the housing for the air blower which was also supplied with the sewage system, Molly our collie dog is supervising the process.

So Colin was a fantastic character even if he did talk allot, he did inform me as he was leaving that he is actually 62 next week, now this guy was on and off the back of the truck like a yo yo at one point so bring it on for Colin.

Well that's our farm starting to come together, we are off down to EasterWood Alpaca Stud in the morning, so that's all for now.

Not Much To Report

Hi Folks,

Well not a great deal happening on the farm in the early part of this week, although we have had our first delivery of pipework to create the soak away for the sewage plant arrive, the main sewage plant arrives this Friday so that a opportunity for the camera and the start of documented progress on the farm.

We have finally got a provisional date for our electric to be connected, for something that I was told would hopefully be January, turns out to be the 24th March!! I'm sure if we owed them some money they would have been quicker to chase us. Anyway at least I have a date and a contact name and number now.

We are looking forwards to our trip down to Easter-Wood Alpaca Stud on Saturday, catching up with Jeff and Sheila to finalise our foundation herd.

The search for the static caravan still goes on and on and on, but we still have time to sort things out, we have until the 11th June, then we are out on the street!

A Day For Thank You's

Its a big thank you to Wellground Alpaca Stud, for helping us to be able to purchase our first Elite Alpacas. The three girls we have chosen are an absolute credit to Rob & Les and there commitment to breeding Quality Elite Alpacas with fantastic pedigrees, thank you guys.

We have had such a hard decision over the last few days as stated in yesterdays blog, unfortunately our goal posts got moved slightly which left us in a pickle with buying the amount of Alpacas we required with the budget available, we must mention Pipley Court Alpacas as they also came to our rescue knowing our situation aloud us to purchase another three girls within our budget, thank you also.

This now leads us on to Easter-Wood Alpaca Stud, who through out all of this have always been behind us, and believed in us. We are now looking forwards to going to Jeff & Sheila a week on Saturday, to finally agree and purchase our final six female Alpacas. Jeff & Sheila have a fantastic attitude towards the progress of Alpaca Breeding, and with having Cambridge Ice Cool Lad as there stud they will be breeding excellent genetics into there girls. So again guys we thank you for your help in setting up our foundation herd, we can't wait to come down and see you, and Gemma of course next week. Thank you both.

Well before you send the Oscar in the post, lets get back to the farm. How much more rain can we have, for the first time in a very very long time, we have had a little bit of flood, nothing to major but enough to make me curse! its only the fact that the council have not cleared the road side ditches, consequently the rain water that runs down the road, runs straight into our farm.......another phone call I feel.

Well that's it for today, more soon.

Back In The Saddle Again!

Well its only took over a month to sort out, but we have finally been reconnected back to civilization.......oh how I have missed you broadband.

Things have taken a slight change of direction, but only in the fact that we have realised that to stand any chance of making our Alpaca business succeed, we needed to up the number of Elite Alpacas in our core herd.

We have made some very hard and certainly not easy decisions over the last few days, but we feel that we have done our best to make sure that we purchased our Alpacas from reputable breeders, who certainly share our determination and importance of keeping strict Bio-security within the herds. So with this in mind we will only purchase from breeders with like minds, this reducing the risk of any disease brought onto our farm.

We can only hope that the decision we have made to start our Alpaca business are the correct ones, we only get one shot of doing this and we have to make some serious sacrifices to be able to have any chance in succeeding.

On a lighter note, does anyone know of a 3 berth, double glazed, central heating static caravan as you just can't seem to find them for love nor money, this is one sacrifice we don't really want to have to change as it would not be far on our daughter Lily who is 2!!

Take care folks.

Still No Internet

Hi All,

Well it's been a long time since we last blogged, we hope you have all been coping OK with the snow, Luckily we managed to escape the worst of the weather although my journey's to work have been a little challenging sometimes.

Since we moved house in the back end of Dec, I have been having to use a dongle to gain Internet access until our phone line was connected. well we finally got the line connected on Monday and I promptly contacted our Internet provider only to be told it will be yet another 10 working days until we go live again, what a complete nightmare this is turning out to be.

Anyway on a better note, we have been busy ordering sewage treatment plants, sorting the electric supply, arranging for our planner to visit and submit our plans to the local council he comes next Friday and also sourcing our Alpaca Herd, decision, decision, decisions.

On top of all this, we still need to start fencing our paddocks and make our farm completely sanitised before any Alpaca set foot onto our farm, we intend on keeping to the highest standards possible in keeping our herd free of any ailments.

So things are moving on nicely and I need to start getting the camera ready, so that we can document the progress of developing Alpaca Farm.

Take care all.

Happy New Year

Hi Folks,

Happy New Year to you all, we hope that 2010 brings all that you dream of.

We have settles into our rented accommodation, in fact it feels like we have always been here, its so nice to have a little more space.

We are still waiting for our phone line to be connected, so we are still having to use the dongle! so limited posts at the moment. Things are moving slowly until companies return back after the festive period, then we can really start the ball rolling with our business.

That's all for now.