We Have Water......

Hi Guys,

Well again we managed to dodge any major snow fall, although we are not out the woods yet, according to the Met Office we are still classed as "be prepared"

The horse manure has worked it's magic and we now have running water again. How excited can one person get knowing that the toilet will flush without having to fill the tank with water from a tub, little luxuries that we all take for granted until you haven't got it.

Yesterday's blog was telling you that Lily had got a new pet brought for her by her great grandma, well some interesting guesses were noted like "Lurky Turkey" well I did say that you might be disappointed and Rob you were nearly right with the big ears......have you guessed....

It's a rabbit.....Lily has decided to call her "Rabbit" after a little discussion that it needed to have a better name than that, Lily decided on "Rabbit Rabbit" I don't think she understood what we meant, we finally managed to get her to agree on "Rabbit Pebbles" the only thing now is that when the rabbit sits on her lap Lily likes to look through the rabbits fur checking for crimp!

I was having a look through some pictures and came across this one of Lily a bit excited about a cake.

She is a real cheeky monkey, but we love her to bits.

The alpacas are all snug in the barns now during the nights and have plenty of bedding to keep them warm during this cold weather, keeping there water from freezing is another story, but I won't go into frozen water as we are both on a high still for having running water again.

Back soon, take care in this cold weather.

Calling David Wright.....

Hi Folks

Well what a weekend.....it's day two for us with no water but at the minute we don't have that much snow, although I might have just spoke to soon.

We have been putting nice and warm manure on the pipework that comes out the ground to try and help thaw them out...now I don't mind the smell of manure but when your face down under the caravan pushing manure past your face and over the pipes it started to look like a bush tucker trail from "I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here" well that was a good job done, so lets hope the heat starts to thaw the pipework out.

Now for a public announcement....we had a lovely email Sunday afternoon from a gentleman called David Wright. Unfortunately David for some reason when trying to respond to your email it gets returned back to me with invalid address error, so if your reading this blog and you would like to call us we would be more than happy to call you back and have a chat.

Lily has got a new pet which her great grandma has brought her for Christmas, anyone wishing to guess what this is? Jayne get your psychic powers working!

Well that's all for tonight.

Playing Catch Up

Hi Folks,

Well we survived the high winds from last week, even if we did loose sleep wondering which way round we would be facing in the mornings, but all is well and we are still securely in place.

My week off came and went as if I had not even been off from work. The job list looks like it's not even taken a dent. Lisa really has got her work cut out on the farm but we are both determined to make a success of the business, that the hard work involved is part of the excitement in developing the business into a successful thriving Alpaca Farm. We are pleased to say that things are really working for us at the moment and potential sales of alpacas look set on the horizon.

Our top herdsire "Wellground Relentless" that we brought earlier in the year is really turning out to be a top buy, his presence in the paddocks is really noticeable and has been commented on by visitors to the farm. "Relentless" has the most amazing fleece and a fantastic pedigree to back it up. We are hoping that "Relentless" will be ready to work in the early part of 2011 and we are very keen to see his off-spring on the ground in 2012, there will be more information about "Relentless" on our website very soon, I am just finalising the pages that are hidden at the moment.

We have been selling eggs like they are going out of fashion and the egg side of things just goes from strength to strength, which is all very eggciting!!. We have also had our first batch of yarn back from the mill albeit a small batch this time round as we wanted to see what we can produce, and we are very excited indeed, this will be past onto our knitter so that we can have some garments knitted up....we cant wait to see the finished product.

Well that's all for tonight, back soon.

Windy Times....Rocking Caravan!

Hi Folks,

Well what a week off I'm having. Not only has my work phone not stopped ringing, the weather is horrendous. I'm so glad I finally managed to secure the caravan down, we are convinced that with this wind pounding against the caravan it would have certainly moved. Listening to the wind buffeting us about is not for the faint hearted. Lisa and I sit here and then just look at each other as the wind takes hold again and we secretly think I hope this wind stops soon. My philosophy behind it all is that if the field shelters are still standing then we should be OK.......fingers crossed!

Well that's enough about the weather. We have been bottle feeding one of our cria's for the last few weeks after it became apparent that he was just not getting enough from his mum, Lisa had been keeping an eye on him when feeding from his mum and noticed that he just didn't seem to be getting anything, so we decided that bottle feeding was the best solution. Well we are pleased to say that he his now looking more content and plays more with the other cria's causing mayhem in the paddocks.

We have now managed to organise our barns to allow us to bring all the alpacas in through bad weather and over the winter. Jayne we certainly have mud now so the nice green grass pictures are well and truly gone until next year! with the barns setup for the alpacas its given us the piece of mind knowing that all the alpacas can be tucked and allowed to dry out. A collection of hay and straw filled our gaps so we are now set for the winter.

Well that's all for now, we have another sleepless night ahead, as we listen to the wind rattling the caravan........

Boy's Will Be Boy's

Hi Folks,

Another week passes and I have finally managed to get a week off from my full time job. The job list for this following week has grown beyond belief. Well Saturday started of with an early start with Lisa's dad farm sitting for us we had to take a trip down south to drop off "Wellground Killawasi's Keepsake" back to his owners Roger and Pauline at Pipley Court Alpacas. We were made very welcome on our arrival, with cakes and coffee flowing. A look around the farm and at the alpacas was all very exciting but that excitement was to end as it was time for us to start heading home.

We couldn't drive home without calling into see Rob and Les at Wellground Alpacas, after all it is on the way home and I knew Rob would have given me grief if he knew that we had driven by without stopping. So this was a flying visit, which was started with Rob showing me his potential new toy......."The Run Away Tractor" I think you need allot more practice on the tractor.......if I was you Rob, keep the role hoop up and wear your crash helmet!

I have finally managed to anchor the caravan down to the ground now with some 4' spikes knocked into the ground and metal rope securing the caravan to the spikes.......that should do it.....well this week will soon show if it works, as the TV has given out severe weather warnings with gales and rain throughout the week, great!

Well with the caravan secured and the sun shinning, although it was cold, I couldn't resist getting the camera out and catching a couple of pictures of the babies play fighting.

These two are always up to mischief, they just cant walk a couple of feet without having a dig at each other, its all completely Innocent play but they are little sods, if you turn your back they are off back up to the barns to cause havoc while you are letting the rest of the gang out into the paddocks, if they were kids they would have "Asbo's" issued to them by now.

Flicker our unexpected foal is really growing into a big girl now, she has now been weaned of her mum and has been as good as gold about it. Flicker was born on the 1st May 2010 and has really settled into her new surrounding, even if she thinks she might be an alpaca as that is what she sees the most of.

Well that's all for tonight, batten down those hatches!