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.

Information Overload

Just a short blog tonight, we had a visit today from our planner who covered all of what we need to know for our planning application, it made us glad that we have him dealing with our application as it certainly sounds like a mine field.

We are pleased with what we have be told and feel like it's another step closer to getting our dream. We have also discussed many ideas that we have, all of which can count towards our planning application and impressed our planner, so watch this space for further information.

Well that's all for tonight, its been a informative day and our minds are full of very interesting ideas.

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.