Feed Me - Little Shop of Horrors

The title will be self-explanatory as the pics reveal the state of the alpacas and ground.  Trying to pull our feet out of the mud is so tiring and making the chores take so much longer; on top of all that it has been blowing a gale too.

 I managed to catch Biffy chewing on hay with his fleece being blown about.  I love the way his topknot looks, it's as though he had put a parting in it.  

Cooper was caught mid-stride.  Why do they always go and kush in the muddiest part of the paddock? Just look at the state of his legs.

Diamond and Desdemona came in early for their dinner and I just couldn't refuse those little faces.  It took so long to get them onto hard feed but alfalfa worked it's magic on them and they are first to the trough until Ms Humpreys sees them off.

Because the sun was shining Cherrybomb took the opportunity to roll in the mud.  Here's hoping it falls off when it's completely dry.

Just in case you thought I was exaggerating about the mud here is the chase near the barn.  The paddocks may look green but we have to wade through all of this to get to them.

The chickens have hardly been outside as they hate the wind, the farthest they seem to venture is the barn and then stay in there all day.  I must admit to trying to find more chores to do in there myself.

And now for something completely different ............

I'm not blogging about our alpacas tonight, they are an absolute disgrace with all the mud and I'm ashamed of them being seen in public.

On Xmas Day I got a surprise present of a book.  It was one of those that you can't put down but also don't want to reach the end of, yes, I really enjoyed it that much.

It is the adventure of a couple who gave up their life in England and went off to Spain to breed alpacas.  This is their story and although Xmas Day here was pretty miserable I could feel the heat of the Spanish sun as I immersed myself in their story.

It has raced up the ratings on Amazon and is now in the top ten animal and pet books already.  It is full of joy, heartbreak and excitement.  You will finish this and wish the couple all the luck in the world.  At the side of this blog (and scroll down a bit) there is a link to Lorna's Life in Spain, she is the wife in the story.  Her blog is a really witty tale of a Brit abroad so you will probably enjoy that too.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Even though it was still really cold today the sun was shining so we let the animals out to make the most of it. The rain on Tuesday morning cleared the snow, for about an hour and then the white stuff started to fall again, absolutely huge flakes of it.

The young chickens have a small area that was sheltered from the snow so they have all been trying to find something interesting to eat.

The older bantams weren't as lucky so Si had to clear an area for them. They don't seem to appreciate this view from our door though.

 Eringa Park Lionheart looking confused at just how far away everybody is from him, he has been used to being a lot closer to the other alpacas in the barn. He has also been able to find the mud that was buried.

Ashdale Cooper hardly moved and just stood almost all day waiting to get back inside again.  It's no fun walking around if you can't get to the grass.

We can't really complain too much about the weather as the snow hasn't been too deep and it does get cleared away pretty quickly with all the rain we get.

I have been reading an interesting article today about The Control of Internal Parasites in Ruminants, very informative.  I have added a link to it here if anybody is interested.

Long Time No See ...............................

I thought I would get around to blogging again.  The knitwear side of the business really took off and so the blog got put to one side, I was fed up with messing around trying to get photographs to upload and it was taking up valuable time.  We sold so much through the summer and had taken so many orders that by the time they were finished the Xmas orders had started to come in.  We sold our last items at 5pm on Xmas Eve.

It is really cold here tonight and we have a blanket of snow that makes everything look clean and tidy in the paddocks.  The poor animals have been closed in the barn for the past few days but they were allowed out this afternoon while we mucked out the barn.

 The first thing that the girls decided to do when they were allowed out was to go roughly where their dustbath/mudbath is and roll in the snow.

 Eleanor Rigby charged and jumped around the paddock making the most of her freedom.  

Cherrybomb had been pronking but looks as though she had had enough and was going back to the barn.

The boys are not enjoying being in the barn at all and whenever Si goes down to check on them they have a moan.  The girls are normally quite happy in there as long as they have a good supply of sweet hay.

At the moment all the water is frozen but as we have gone through this before we now know to collect as much as possible before it freezes.