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!