Aberlour makes new friends

After being isolated with Boz Flag for 2 months the time came for Aberlour to meet the other boys . It was a slightly torturous morning , since he refused to leave the field where he has been for the last couple of months - Flag proved his value again , I put him on a halter and we spent the best part of an hour coaxing Aberlour , an inch at a time , out of his field and into a new one ! We walked back and forth endlessly , unitl Abe decided to pluck up all his courage and venture along the bridle path to meet his new friends .

Then , a complete change of tune , no longer the shrinking violet , he went into total domination mode . There then ensued an hour of squealing and chasing , where Abe tried valiantly to impress upon the other 7 boys that he was going to be boss . Surprisingly , Teifi Magic ( from whom I expected trouble ) stayed largely out of his way and was pretty calm about this new interloper. Suffice to say it has taken a couple of days for complete calm to be re-instated , and Abe is firmly part of the herd now , thank god!

Monday saw the second round of Vit injections . The boys behaved really nicely, except for Magic , and were all injected with the minimum of fuss . Not so the girls - plenty of spitting from Athena on her and everyone else's behave , screaming from Kirtsy , and an escape bid from Artemis which was frankly laughable - a huge suri trying to squeeze under a gate with only 6 inch gap ....

All this in a sea of mud , but we remained up right and largely unscathed.

The weather is calm for the moment , the rain and snow have been and gone , fingers crossed that tomorrow is not as bad as predicted

Announcing a new arrival!

I feel like it has been a long time since my last confession /blog, on one hand there is not so much to relate , the alpacas are all well , first Vit injections of the season have been done , no dramas ( I had my fingers crossed as I typed that so we should be ok) the chickens are fine , the baby chicks are now fully fledged but still minature , what more can I say ? Oh , the title !

Well , after much deliberation and searching I am pleased to announce that we are now the proud owners of a new stud male - he is a dark fawn , with dark tips , a fab pedigree and an even better name- introducing Andaw Czars Aberlour....

His father is Silverstream Czar, and he has a long and prestigious pedigree with a Jolimont and a pperuvian for grand parents and great grand parents . I hope he will do very well for us , with both a white and coloured background I am looking forward to some lovely fawns and who knows what else. Aberlour is still quite young , only just over 2 , but judging by the activity in the paddock he is very keen , poor old Bozedown Flag , who is his companion until quarantine finishes , is putting up with his amorous intentions in a resigned but fairly relaxed way!

He has been with us for about a month and is settling well , having come from a home with no children he is finding my youngest son hugely interesting , and a routine is developing - every day on his return from school Huw takes a short cut across Aberlours field in a bid to get to the cakes first and avoid the roosters! Aberlour loiters near the gate and follows him at fairly close quarters , its a bit like the keystone cops , Huw walks Aberlour walks , Huw gets nervous and trots Aberlour trots , Huw breaks into a flat out run so does Aberlour - its hilarious to watch , but both are secretly enjoying themselves. So far Aberlour has not vaulted over the fence at the end , but I'm sure the day will come !

Chickens are not as stupid..

as Turkeys! Our turkey is lovingly trying to hatch 15 plums that she has gathered on the compost heap! She is very protective of her plums and attacked DH when he picked her up to put her to bed . In theory if Turkeys could hatch plum jam I would be thrilled ( we have tons of plums this year) but what I can't get my head round is how she's going to get the jam into the jars ....?

A close shave ...

I was upstairs just getting changed ( isn't it always when you have your clothes off?) that the alpacas in the front field all suddenly stood up tall and faced the same direction . PANIC! I have been watching a couple of dogs chasing my neighbours sheep this evening , and despite his and our best efforts we have not been able to catch them or their owner , so I immediately thought that they were back . I yelled for DH and we both shot out of the house , him through one door me through the other , taking our dog with me , just in time to see a very large fox , turn tail and shoot off up the drive - the dozy chickens were all standing looking at him ! Close call!

Safe and dry!

Thats the hay - we finally got the hay made on Monday night and worked late into the evening getting it onto the tractor and away in the barn, we were expecting heavy rain over night on Monday so I was really pleased and slept well , knowing that the hay was safely away for the winter . Woke to on Tues to ..... blue skies and sunshine ! The week has been largely lovely ! which is a bit of a pain in a way , ' cos the predictions were not good , and if we'd known we'd have cut the other fields as well!! However , our friendly farmer is happy to have them as silage if nec so it will all be fine .

The alpacas are all looking fantastic , Cerys had her meeting with Magic and everyone else is showing all signs of being pregnant. Fingers crossed.

we have another broody hen , which after the recent disasters , when DH took the eggs at the last minute and gave them to friends ... yuk , I am hoping will get me a few more nice hens before the winter .

DS#3 is happily heading to Switzerland as we speak - what it is to have nice friends .... I can't really speak after my trip to Mustique , but he does seem to do rather well on the holiday front!

Fingers crossed

We have taken a chance and cut the first field of hay , well actually we cut it on Wed , but with 4 small children at home for the school holidays time is beginning to blur! So far the weather has held and I am quietly optimistic that we will be able to bale it on Sunday, which is supposed to be a very nice day! If not it will be silage and I will have to think again for the second field.

Th pacas are all enjoying a spot of the warmer weather , lots of sun bathing and general lounging around , everyone is looking very mellow! Today I tried the girls with some carrots , I know lots of people feed their alpacas carrots but I have always been slightly nervous of them choking ( yes i know that's slightly daft ) so today when the veggie box arrived with LOTS of carrots I tried feeding a few to the girls . I chopped them all up nicely and put them in the feeding trough , everyone came at a gallop and then skidded to a halt to look at these very strange things in their troughs. Lots of sniffing , and a fair amount of jumping about , finally only Bijou took the plunge and ate some , nobody else would brave it , so they all wandered off en masse to stand in the water trough! It's a little trick that Hermione has taught them all and I really wish she hadn't! Whilst it is very amusing to see all the alpacas taking turns to splash in the water troughs , at the moment , when the water supplies are very low it gives me a bit of headache trying to keep the water clean . I have tried buckets but Hermione tries to stand in those too and spills them all , fence buckets also get spilled but to a lesser degree .

Water is becoming a concern - two of my neighbours , one on either side have now run out of water , or more accurately their springs have dried up ! so we are being as careful as possible , flushing only when necessary - the beauty of small boys is that they are thrilled to be encouraged to wee on the compost heap- two birds with one stone so to speak!

ALLS WELL

The girls ( and the boys ) are all looking good despite the unseasonably cool weather . Tomorrow I have one more mating to do , Cerys has an appointment with Magic , last week when we did spit offs she was the only one to sit - great news for the rest , but she was mated a couple of months ago and I was hoping that she had taken , anyway , tomorrow is the day !
Still we are waiting for a good spell of weather to get some hay making done , every year its the same - the hay fields are not quite ready in June when the weather is hot , and by August the weather is too damp??
The hens are all beginning to get the hang of laying back in their houses , and the pigs are enjoying the glut of cob nuts - a last fling before the butchers on Thursday!