New blog on the block...

I took a lot of photos yesterday morning in the crisp sunshine, but was disappointed to find there was always one alpaca with its head in the hay manger, or underneath, or looking away - when you only have five, you try to get them all in the shot, but I'll need to take another approach.

I had a good afternoon of halter training, and managed to lead Pela', Autumn Gold and Ambrosia up the field across the top and back, one at a time of course - o.k, when I say lead, I mean that Ambrosia and I side stepped, or was it the Foxtrot or maybe a waltz?

This afternoon, I nipped out of the office and had a look at some horse boxes - has anybody got any particular tips- I notice some of you have what I would call a livestock trailer - I presume a horsebox carries a bit of a cost premium.

I need to plan the vaccinations coming up, but get distracted with all your blogs - the serious, the humerous, the wise, the bonkers, the helpful, the encouraging - keep them coming

I wa surprised to find I had a new 'follower' of my blog yesterday - upon inspection, it turned out to be a 'Mrs. Smallholder' - unbeknownst to me, Mrs. S had been working away at it assisted by all the other Smallholders: www.mrssmallholder.blogspot.com if you're interested.

Alpaca breeder wins rosette, then released without charge...

Yahoo, I've finished Jury Service!

What's that to do with alpacas? well it meant that I missed day 1 at the Futurity - I was on a quite dramatic, sensitive case, and we finished late on friday.

But saturday at the Futurity made up for that - such a well-run event, and with so many aspects of the industry represented, a good time is unavoidable. With the industry going through a difficult period, it was important to show resolve, and I think that came through from small breeeders to large breeders - if you can pull together in difficult times, then how much better will the good times be? I came away with a rosette for the photograph of Pela eating the snowmans carrot - trivial of course, and it cost money to enter, and I won nothing but the pleasure, as did many entrants, but that's the point - to use the cliche, it's the taking part that matters - my girls (and myself) weren't ready for showing at such an event (Jury Service made it impossible to consider), so we contributed in the best way we could - then we enjoyed the dinner etc. The only downside being the need to book a taxi back to Leamington Spa in advance, and not getting around to meeting more bloggers - we could have stayed and enjoyed the company of fellow bloggers, collecting the obligatory hangover on the way, or we could have brought the campervan and stayed onsite, but I couldn't let Mrs. Smallholder struggle into her gladrags under such circumstances (it's a small van), could I?

And so Mrs. Smallholder made an appearance that day, no-one saw her enter the 'phonebox, like Superman, and disappear into the night in her wellingtons and Marigolds...

Anyway, after monday morning and wednesday 'til 3.30 waiting to be called into Court, the Defendant hadn't turned up so we've finished - I sneeked home from work early on tuesday to be with my girls and got the halters on - work has been messed up anyway, so an early day didn't matter.

Now it's time to plan all the vaccinating, training, shows, matings etc.etc. -

Red sky at night...

Today has been one of those days when you just can't stop until it gets dark, and then drop in a heap, exhausted, carried away with the enthusiasm of perhaps the first spring-like day. The early cloud cleared leaving a clear blue sky with a slight cold edge to the breeze, but not enough to deter morning coffee outside with just a jumper on.

I'd begun the day draining the two water butts, and re-levelling their platforms as they had tilted slightly. That was followed by dismantling the two hen houses and moving them to the bonfire, as I'd installed the hen palace yesterday with the assistance of our neighbour Rich, and his muscular sons. Tonight we had to put all 16 hens into the palace by hand, one by one as they didn't realise it was for them! Sorry Jayne, we didn't use the sedan chair method, which was disappointing, firstly because it was more a case of brute force which I don't excel in, and secondly because I couldn't use the blog title that I'd already thought up yesterday, based on the early 90's hit by the group James: "oh sedan, oh sedan, sedan next to me..."

Then I took delivery of more hay bales and had to manhandle them up to the shed.

Sessions of halter training yesterday and today, with another attempt at Minnies toe-nails - she was having none of it, kicking like a mule. She spat away from me, into the wind, and I caught its return journey - but at least it had become a fine spray by that point! Last year I thought she had become tetchy due to pregnancy, but this year she's not taken so there's no excuse. I then spent a while just working her around the pen trying to earn her confidence - to be continued...

Then it was time to stack the recent delivery of logs - I've saved the roofs of the hen houses for re-cycling over the log stack - to be continued...

Then spotting a spectacular sunset, I ran up the field with my camera and noticed Pelachuta still wearing her head collar - oops.

Now it's back to the day job - I've been summoned for jury service, and being a self-employed one-man practice , have to finish off committments by the end of the week.

Chiropodists assistant kicked by client...

It's been quite a productive day today. First off, Vitamin ADE paste all round. Pela has decided she likes it and stood enviously as the others had theirs. Moira needed persuading, so I had to call in reinforcements in the shape of Mrs. Smallholder - I think I cricked my neck trying to hold Moiras head still and get the gun in her mouth - the trouble with the paste dispenser is that your trigger hand ends up so far away from the business end, that it's like holding a machine gun with one hand, and she ends up with at least one squirt on her face!

After a break for everyone to settle down, it was toenail time. Mostly well behaved, though Autumn Gold thought she should kush, which of course was no help, and Minnie was having none of it, the worst bit being Mrs. Smallholder taking a kick on the leg which swelled up and bruised. I'll have to have another go with Minnie another time.

In the afternoon it was halter training - I moved the hurdles up next to the 'orchard' paddock for haltering-up, and used the paddock as a small training ring - it's like a treat paddock, so they are 'happy' to go in on the lead rope.

Mrs. Smallholder has bought a hen 'palace', so we've been preparing a base for it, and now I need to rally three more strong men to carry it, like a sedan chair across the garden and into the alotment - we've had an assortment of home-made hen houses, so the deluxe model has been well-earned.

After yesterdays sunshine, it's been dull here all day, but at least it was dry - what the weather-forecasters call 'quiet' I think -

Futurity ON

Hooray, the Futurity is on! Far better to tackle the "issues" head on rather than shrivel within ourselves. Now to find some accommodation.

Much as I love rock music, currently enjoying Popstar Opera star - what voices!

Halter ego...

"Anyone for cricket? I didn't have a mirror handy when I put udder salve on my nose and may have smudged a bit".

Did a bit more halter training today. Both Autumn and Ambrosia were fairly accepting of the halter. Then I put a lead rope on, and let them follow their mums to show them it wasn't harmful. Funny thing was, in a bitter northerly wind with frost on the ground, it didn't seem the same experience as indicated in Marty McGee Bennetts' video, where shorts and a tee-shirt are required...if we waited 'til it was warm and sunny, we'd be too late.

I fixed up the weather recording station as you can see on the post behind the girls - and as if on cue, the wind started to blow.

One of our cria we had shorn at 5-weeks as the adults were being shorn, however, the other hadn't been born, so she now has her shaggy baby fleece above the later fleece - does anyone know whether show judges see through that, or is it normal to carry out a surface trim - it must be a common situation.

Tickly in the west...

Things are a bit quieter with the weather settling down for a while, and doing the quarterly accounts and VAT for the day job. I've set up the weather station mast so we can collect data on available wind on our site. Talking of weather, I've always been bemused by the TV weather presenters talk of the weather being "quieter" - they never tell us when it will be louder...and I like the idea of tickly weather, as in: "today there will be showers and rain - 'tickly in the west" - (particularly). Listen out for it on the next forecast - tickly weather can only brighten your day.

You'll see we've got a logo which we created for the advert in the SouthWest Alpaca Group Yearbook - watch out for the polo shirts, balloons, flags, banners etc. etc. ha ha. All in good time - concentrate on the alpacas first.

Have booked for various elements of the Futurity so hope to meet some of you there - running out of time to take a winning photograph for the competition - had to give up teaching them to juggle...and the chickens just refuse to sit on the pacas...

We were re-arranging the compost heaps, and while we do use most of what the girls produce, Mrs. Smallholder had the idea shown in the photograph - everyone wins.