Not The Weekend We Wanted

Hi All

Well not much has been done on the farm, we had arranged to go and visit Rob & Les at Wellground Alpaca Stud today but unfortunately Lisa managed to put her back out quick badly on Thursday and is now currently on Strong pain killers which are helping slightly but Lisa is still in allot of pain. I am going to try and get some more fencing done this weekend and make the most of the peace and quite of Lisa being stuck at home!! only joking darling. The fencing is coming along and we can start to see what it will look like when its finished.

I have a fairly nice week coming up at work as I'm on an intensive firefighters training course in preparation for the runway that is being opened, myself and four others will be on standby every time a plane is due to land and have to meet the requirements set by the civil aviation authority, once I have passed this training and further training that is scheduled I would be allowed to work at any airport as a fully qualified airport firefighter, not that I intend to but its another bow to the belt as they say.

This next Friday my digger arrives, as the following week are electric supply is being installed, I have to dig the trenches on our side of the farm so that the electric guys can just lay the cable in the trench. I'm just hoping the weather stays dry so as not to cause to much of a mess.

That's all for now, but will update with pictures soon.

New Addition

Hi Folks,

Well its been a very hectic couple of weeks for me, my full time job has really kicked in now and I have been forced to do so some crazy hours, which unfortunately means the blog had to go on hold for a short while.

I have had chance though to finally select my new arrival to the family, everyone meet "Otto"

"Otto" is a pure bred German Shepherd, she is only 3 weeks old in this picture, so I have got to wait a few more weeks yet before she finally comes to live with us. "Otto" will be trained when old enough to the same standards as a police dog, as some of you may already know, I used to be in the police and spent some time assigned to the dog unit and enjoyed it thoroughly, this is also a fantastic way to keep "Otto" mentally fit as well as physically fit.

Lily & Otto

We have managed to get some more fencing done this morning, so that's ticking along nicely, if not a little slowly, but my hours should return to some kind of normality soon, so it will be action stations again, with the evening staying lighter I will have no excuse not to start fencing after work.

That's all for now back soon.

24 Hrs Later!

What a difference a day makes, we woke this morning to a surprise that we were not expecting, as you can see from the picture things looked a little different on the farm.

As you can see it's snowed

Although it had snowed we still decided to fix some of the stock fencing to the fencing that we have been doing, Lily was not so keen today, I think it was a bit to cold for her, I know my feet had started to get chilly so I guess Lily's feet must have been freezing.

We had some visitors in the adjoining field, which was lovely to see the hares running around playing with each other keeping warm, we managed to get a picture although they were some distance away, so apologies for the picture quality.

Well it's just a short blog for tonight, so more again soon.

New Gaffer In Town

Hi folks,

Well it's been a steady week this week with not a great deal happening on the farm although we have been doing some more fencing today and feel quite satisfied with the progress that we have made. I took a moment for a quick breather but only to be questioned by the "gaffer"

I gave her all the excuses in the book........but

I don't think Lily believed me and gave me one of her looks

After my telling off Lily went off happy to play with the dogs and is quite content trying to boss them around, If only we could hear the thoughts that go through the dogs minds.

Picture to the left is Lily with Molly The Collie who is getting on a bit now.

The picture below is Lily with Fat Jack our Norwegian Elk Hound, if he actually got off his backside more, he wouldn't be so fat! with all the space we have he insists on just sitting there and watching the world go by!

Well that all for now, more fencing tomorrow so Lily is in the bath getting ready for bed, then we are spoiling ourselves with a Chinese tonight. We will keep you "posted" pardon the pun!

Feeling The Pain!

We have finally started the fencing for our paddocks today, we have been wanting to start this job for so long now, but with one thing and another we never seemed to get started on it. We have finally managed to agree with each other exactly how are paddocks are going to look and the hard work began.

Thankfully with the ground being soft using the post bumper proved not to be as bad as I thought it might have been, although my fitness levels have changed for the worse since I last did any fencing and oh boy, did I know it! I was determined not to let my state of health stand in the way, so I battled on regardless of the pain and managed to get a decent amount done before rain stopped play, to be honest I was watching the dark clouds and was kind of using them as a countdown clock of when I could stop. Lisa also worked like a trooper fetching posts, rails at the same time as looking after our daughter Lily who loves being on the farm but gets bored and cold quickly.

We are hopefully going to get some more fencing done tomorrow depending on the weather condition or how stiff I am in the morning more likely but as the saying goes "no pain no gain" or something like that.

Anyway that's all for tonight, back again soon.

Answers On Postcards!

Hi Folks

Its been a bitterly cold day again with plenty of snow showers throughout the day. We have had a visit today from our business planner who was very enthusiastic about our ideas and plans for our Alpaca business, which was also very encouraging for us.

It was then time to get things down on paperwork and discuss the way to move our business on. Our ideas certainly got our business planner thinking of different angles that we wish to move the business forwards, one of which and I quote "That idea as far as I'm aware, has of yet not been explored in Alpaca businesses that I have dealt with, and you could have something unique" that was very encouraging for us and left us with many more thoughts. Its all a bit cryptic I know, but we are in the early stages of this idea, therefore we cannot comment at this moment in time.

Answers on a postcard if you think you might know what it could be.......not that I would tell you if you are right or wrong!!

Well that's all for tonight as I have an early start in the morning.

A Good End To The Week

Hi Folks,

Well the final decisions have been made to our foundation herd. After a long trip to Pipley Court Alpacas we were greeted by Pauline and Roger who like most breeders I'm sure, are just as enthusiastic as we are about Alpacas. We had a fantastic day walking around the paddocks selecting our final girls. Pauline and Roger have an amazing place and take allot of pride in the welfare of the animals, they are a real credit to them, well done they should be very proud. We also want to thank Rob and Lesley from Wellground Alpacas, as they to, like most of you know are a fantastic couple, full of knowledge and support just when you need them the most, regardless of what time it is they are always there, so a big thank you guys.

We are very pleased with our selection of breeding females. We have managed to achieve what we always set out to do, buying the very best elite genetics that we could afford.

We are really looking forwards to this years cria being born, as we should get some very exciting genetics being produced from our girls, more on than in the next few months. The picture below, although not the best picture I have ever taken, shows the fleece of one of our girls, she should produce something fantastic next year.

We are so excited now that are selection of girls are confirmed, we can concentrate now on getting other things into place. We have been busy trying to finalise our paddock layout, as we want to be sure we have the best layout possible to help reduce stress to any of our alpacas and to make our job that little bit easier. I couldn't resist another photo for you, the girl in the front of this picture is one of our selections, as is the picture below that.

Well what a fantastic end to our week, we have our business planner coming to see us next Tuesday and we have lots of plans and ideas to throw his way.

That's all for now, so enjoy the rest of the weekend.