Back in the saddle at last

I finally got a riding lesson in today ! I haven't had a lesson for nearly 4 weeks and I do miss it . I rode a different horse today and she was great , at my age , learning a new anything is not a very common occurrence , and I really enjoy the fact that I come away from a lesson with a real sense of achievement as well as having had at least an hour thinking about nothing except my horse and whether I am doing what I should be doing to the best of my ability . Sometimes that sort of time out is essential for healthy sane living ! It is a tribute to the skill of my teachers that I always end on a positive note , wondering where the hour has gone - I usually have a sneaky look at the time and they have never cut a lesson short ( quite the opposite ) but it goes so fast , I could do another lesson straight after!

Hens are still tickling out 1 or 2 eggs a day - we will never be rich at this rate ! and the alpacas are not showing any signs of illness after their jabs . Tomorrow I have the vet coming to microchip Athena - I really won't be flavour of the month after that . Then comes the task of halter training - the theory is good but sometimes the practice is hard , I hope that she will be a doddle since she is very calm and not too big yet - famous last words. Also the task of weaning Artemis and Acantha looms high on the horizon , really needs to be done before the really cold weather sets in , I wonder how it will be with Artemis who , being bottle fed, sees me as her major provider - harder than usual I suspect .

A little bit wiser ( but not much!)

Vaccinations went smoothly - too smoothly for Dh , who was seen to 'ski ' behind a couple of powerful girls before getting a good hold , luckily he skiied throu' the poo on his feet not his face as in all good vet shows , but nonetheless quite entertaining .



Took thee oppurtunity to do a couple of preg test and got one definte positive ( West is nursing a sore jaw after a particulaly well aimed kick from Cerys , she was such a nice baby) and one positively negative from Hermione who showed way to much interest in West and was very quick to sit for him when the time camr - littel hussey. However, seriously , that isa disappointment but not an unexpected one , she didn't hold a pregnancy last year and we put it down to being a maiden and possibley not too much effort at the stud . I am convinced that she has been pregnant at least twice this year and re-absorbed on both occassions , so next spring she will be back to her breeder for investigations and either a firm pregnancy or a swap for another alpaca . The breeders won't be too fazed by this , they are a big farm and it happens occassionaly , but may be simple problem easily fixed with a hormone jab ?!

Hermione

Vaccination day!

The weather is OK , and I cannot wait any longer - today we must vaccinate the alpaca. For the babies it will be their first injections and for the rest of the herd it will be annual boosters . Whilst in theory it is not a difficult thing to do , as always , the practice is usually harder.
The weather is better , but the ground is still slippery and undoubtedly DH will take several tumbles as he wrestles with 60 kg of unyielding alpaca . Not surprisingly he hates these jobs ! He has had a couple of black eyes in the past , but hopefully today will be calmer. I am slightly concerned , not with the procedure , but 2 of the animals we are going to vaccinate are pregnant - advice is split on this ( as always) , some say only vaccinate when they are open then no fear of pregnancy problems , others say it makes no difference. We have always vaccinated with this annual booster when the females are open , however, Blue Tongue vaccination took precedence this year and they were all vaccinated but this did clash with mating times and we had to stick to the schedule or next years cria would be born too late - now we shall see if either school of thought has precedence , but I am unhappy that we may loose 2 pregnancies......wait and see.

Yesterday the girls had the run of the garden all day , and thoroughly enjoyed mowing the grass and pruning anything they could reach . At bed time they decided that the patio looked like a good bet , and for a while they all sat and contemplated the view , all they needed was a gin and tonic and they would have been set. Since this was not forth coming , they did eventually amble back to their field , but it was a mild night and so they sat around all over the place instead of close to the hedges as has been the style recently.

at last!

My hens have started laying ! just an egg or two each day this week , but it is a start , and hopefully we will soon be hauling in a dozen a day.

The weather plays a crucial part in day to day life here, and recently it has been wetter rather than drier and this has slowed things down . The change in hour makes a real difference to me , I would prefer that we don't change the hour in October and have a bit more light to work with at the close of the day . Whilst as I have previously said , I do like dark nights when it is cool and crisp , there is something deeply depressing about getting soaked to the skin in the dark! Somehow , it doesn't feel half so bad being wet through when there is still daylight to do chores in. The dark evenings means that the hens are in bed earlier and earlier and we have to be more aware of the fox . So far , 5 lost this winter to date , we always loose more birds in the winter , partly because they go to bed at about the time that small children are being fed supper . Likewise , Artemis' days of bottle feeding are numbered for similar reasons.

Athena has settled to life away from mum at last , and seems quite content in a field with her newly formed herd mates . soon she will be joined by Artemis and Acantha who are fast approaching 6 months ( weaning age ) . On Wednesday the vet is coming to microchip Athena , not a job I have yet mastered , and then I will start her halter training .

My birthday this week was marked by a visit from my sister , who I haven't seen for far too long , so it was fab to catch up. I also haven't had a proper ride for 3 weeks and I am missing it badly .

Lets hope for some drier weather .

now I know how Noah felt...

well, it has rained and hailed and generally blown a hooley for the last 2 days .Yesterday evening we had thunder and lightening to cap it all off . I went out to feed Artemis at about 6 ish , and found a veritable torrent of water rushing past the front of the house past 2 main doors, within millimetres of getting into the house , so i set too with a stick and started to clear cattle grids that have become blocked and were passing the water straight on to the house , and the gulleys taking water from the fields were all running high , so they were cleared as well. DH came out to help and in the midst of the storm we worked hard to divert the water , and after 45 minutes the waters were receding from the house , and we were wet through to the skin !

The alpacas were all lying low to the ground against hedges and praying as much as we were that it would pass over us quickly , it did pass , but It reminded us all that we still have plenty of things to do before we are ' winter safe ' . All the garden furniture and boat are away in stables or garages , bikes and play equipment are taken apart or put away - anything that can be blown away is safely inside or tied down.Here 's hoping...

Now we need a couple of dry , windy days to dry the ground a bit , and allow the Rivers to drop and we will be happy - if not a little chilly . My new log burner is going great guns , luckily.

DH nearly killed me !

Yesterday started slowly and I got up with a touch of asthma . I was going to take it slowly since the boys were still off school , but DH had other ideas - he went off to work and within 30 seconds was back , yelling about alpacas escaping , nearly on the road - serious stuff . I shot out of the house at his instruction and dashed up the field parallel to their escape route , expecting DH to be taking a similar route up the other side of the driveway . I got to the gate onto the road , barely able to breathe , did a passable vault over ( more of a fall actually ) and jogged up the road to the drive way to cut off their access , all this in my PJ's ( shocking pink ) and crocs!

The alpaca were quite unconcerned by all this , I could barely stand , but was very relieved to have got to them before they got to the road . Slowly we all walked back down the drive to the yard and they ambled back into their field and I shut them in carefully . At this point DH STROLLED from the house with briefcase in hand , and proceeded to get into his car for work , muttering that maybe I would learn to shut gates more securely in future , if I had been able to speak you may be able to imagine what I might of said ! but as it was I couldn't speak , in fact I could hardly stand - but hey the alpacas are fine and DH lived to see another day .

I blame our adopted lamb for all this , the alpaca are being led astray ! they never behaved this badly before . The lamb appeared one day with its mother and stayed in our fields with the alpaca for several weeks . Mum decided to go home about 3 weeks ago , but lamby stayed and is now an honourary alpaca . I don't really like sheep much , so when she goes that will be fine , but currently she shows no inclination to go home and her owner shows a similar disinclination to reclaim her ....

I also got one egg today - the first for 2 weeks !

dark evenings

I am probably in a minority here , but I really love the dark evenings . I love the calm at the end of the day when I go out to put everyone to bed , I love the time by myself to put the chickens to bed , to chat with the alpacas as I feed Artemis her supper , to enjoy the crisp night air . The alpacas also seem to like cold and crisp , although we don't enjoy driving rain quite so much! The alpacas new shelter is looking good and they are getting used to it during daylight , none of them have tried it at night of course , preferring to sit under the trees . However , they are getting more adventurous during the day and eventually they will sit in their shelter at night too.

Athena has accepted her lot away from her mum and is now quite calm , unless she catches a glimpse of Bijou , and then she gets a bit anxious . Bijou on the other hand is more than happy not to have the extra responsibility! Mothers!

Like many people , we are also trying not to use our heating quite as much , and so far have heating for one hour a day - in the morning , so that it is not quite freezing when we get up , the rest of the day we have a log burner going when the children get back from school , and I have a portable gas heater which keeps me toasty as I do my indoor chores .Everyone has hot water bottles and extra fleeces at bedtime , and so far we are warm enough .But , when we have guests i do allow myself the luxury of putting on the AGA!!
Finally , the boys go back to school on Tuesday , and I can honestly say that the half term has gone really fast. Not that it hasn't sometimes descended into chaos , but I think the good bits have far out-weighed the bad . 3 boys have done sports activity days , we have been to Stratford on Avon and Warwick Castle ( highly recommended) #3 son has done his first day out on his horse to buy fish and chips with his riding class , all of us have ridden out with friends and had a thoroughly enjoyable hours' ride on a cold , crisp mountain; we have been to see 'Ghostbusters' at the local village hall ( how fantastically 80's ) and had friends for Sunday lunch - we have had a good time .