wahoo!

Yet again , Eliane to the rescue !

The snow has gone and for the moment spring is here - not counting my chicks just yet - the grass is showing signs of growing , did you know it has to reach 10 degrees before the grass grows properly , and we are all progressing nicely .
The changes are many and enormous , and eventually ( when BT gets its a*** in gear ) you will get to see them as well as read about them . DH has done a sterling job , building a new entrance into the field for me ( well the alpacas really ) which the builders have very kindly helped with and now we can drive a truck across the gully which used to be 6 ft deep and now contains drainage pipes and a beautifully cemented crossing point ( why we want to drive a truck across ...?) Dh has also repositioned a fence line and re-sited a satellite wire - telly in bed , yeah! If he could just resist the urge to ask my opinion and then disagree with it all would be well with the world .

The house marches steadily , well quite speedily actually , forward - today the foundations were poured I believe , cement is cement in my book but the builders are pleased and so is the building inspector , so, so am I . And my builders are very nice chaps , permanently cheerful , have their own tea and coffee facilities in their truck , politely refuse all offers of biscuits and put up with DH 's attempts to 'help' . The brickie arrives tomorrow for the first layer of bricks ???

Alpacas are loving the warm dry days and not eating quite so much hay , althou ' with first cria due in 6- 8 weeks Kirsty is still packing it away , but she is looking good and relatively relaxed ! Everything still crossed for a safe delivery . I would be happier if Woden could miss me with his customary dinner time spit - unfortunately I seem to have been in the firing line for the last few days althou' not the target I think , and it is getting rather dull and very smelly ! Veronica continues to take her pills without a problem , and the news on Athena is good ,with some room for backtracking , her knees are not as bad as I had feared in fact the degree of bend is within the acceptable limits for an alpaca . I believe that they may straighten as she grows , my vet , feels that he cant be sure ! Anyway all looks fine for the alpacas .

Hens are laying well , and I have a broody who is sitting on 7 eggs . I am slightly dubious about her hatching ability but so far she has stuck at it ...... 2 weeks to go . Tomorrow I am taking an incubator into school so that the children can hatch some eggs in class , shall let you know how that works out ! My lucky hens ad a lucky escape the other weekend - midday , we were all outside helping ( one way or another ) DH with his bridge building , when the gas lorry arrived and as it reversed down the drive it spooked the most enormous fox who had been hiding in the same gully on which DH and I were working , not 5 metres from us , waiting for the hens to mosey up the field in their foraging mode ! Foxy took off so fast that had I had a gun to hand I would not have got it together fast enough to shoot , b******!

Anyway enough for now , BT are promising connection for Thursday - dont bet any money on that one !

AHH!

This is a scary thing to admit but I have missed writing my blog! There has been a long gap since my last blog and lots has happened . In fact , I am only able to write now courtesy of Eliane who has kindly lent me her computer while she is out having a lovely dinner ( I hope ).

We have moved into our holiday cottage and the building work has started ! I have taken pictures but forgot to bring my camera so cannot load them - this is all thanks to British Telecom who may still be in the top 3 most useless utility companies in the country , possibly even the world ...... despite 2 weeks warning they took an extra 5 days to connect our telephone and are now quoting me another 3 weeks for broadband despite plenty of notice and me telling them of problems relating to broadband and living in the middle of the country . Suffice to say I am steaming not least because you never get to speak to the same person twice or get the same answer twice ! So .... please Eliane can I borrow your computer once a week for banking and blogging ?!

Well . with the builders came the snow and we have had lots !!! 3 days of school closures ( help ) and so far 6 days of being snow bound - in fact , this is my first outing since Monday and I had to use DH car - get a new car John , please . We still have about 6 inches and it has been melting steadily all day , at the height of the snow we had over a foot and we ( me and the animals ) are pretty sick of it now .

The alpaca have all been coming in to the stables every night , and hanging around them all day too, we are getting through hay and hard feed like it has gone out of fashion , and the chickens keep disappearing in the snowdrifts - pics to follow.

The builders have managed to demolish my study , the boys bedroom and the bathroom , leaving the kitchen for Monday . Some serious work is going to happen judging by the size of the digger delivered , ever so quietly , this morning , and the dumper truck that arrived yesterday . We also have a port a loo , which means we look just like a real building site!!

I must stop for now ,but be assured I will be back !

Further updates !!

It is ages since I found time to sit and blog , which means I have been really preoccupied 'cos I can always find time for my computer ( or in this case DH's laptop) above almost anything constructive on my 'to-do list '!

Partly busy with alpacas , who are all doing well , Athena is showing no ill effects from her trip to the vet and all those X-rays , the results of the blood tests show her phosphorous levels are normal , althou' my vet was quick to cover his **** by saying that they aren't all that accurate , meaning rickets is still a possibility , however , the X-rays showed that the growth plates at the end of the long bones have grown more on one side and caused the appearance of bent legs . I'm sure that I have read that this is a condition that will rectify itself over time - any views anyone ? , but am too busy to do the research on the net ! Repeat of the vitamin injections should help and certainly won't hurt , so you can guess what DH and are doing this weekend!

Veronica is till waiting for the super strength antibiotics to arrive , but is putting condition back on and seems perfectly happy and bright in her daily life .

Kirsty is only 2.5 - 3 months away from her baby being born , so I am being very careful with her - last year she aborted , and the year before the cria died , so I'm hoping for third time lucky . Of all my animals she is possibly the best quality , but she is nervous and not friendly as a result , and she also happens to be white ( my least favourite colour ) so she has less going for her in some ways than my coloured animals of slightly less good quality but great personalities . Still I am hoping for a great cria - fingers ( and everything else ) crossed .

Now for the cause of my distraction ...... we are about to undertake a major extension on our house! We are extremely lucky to be able to do this , 'cos it will give us a house which will be near perfect for our needs, how many people can say that ! However, we are having to move out for the next 7-8 months whilst the work is done . Second extremely lucky par t- we have a smallish holiday cottage next door where we can live ! However( is this getting repetitive ?) it is designed to sleep 4 people who are on holiday , not 6 who have a lifetimes ' stuff' to accommodate . Hence I am busy de-cluttering , re-homing and trying to bring calm to the ensuing chaos ! I am not normally very keen on house work ( as many can testify) so it is a job without much merit , and thus very slow because I can always find something better to do! DH is getting exasperated with the (lack) of speed , and I am getting stressed 'cos I know it has to be done and will all end horribly if I don't get my finger out SOON ! Simply can't transmit that urgency from brain to limbs - much happier to sit and admire my new tidy , uncluttered ( cos it 's all still next door ) living space .. que sera sera as Doris would say !

Update

Yesterday was the dreaded visit to the vet ! With a friend for moral support , the alpacas loaded easily and we set off for the vet , about 30 mins drive. In the event , reversing the trailer was not even attempted by me , and both Wendy and I were very impressed with the way in which the vet reversed straight into a gap we were dubious about , with no hesitation .

Athena was first out and she behaved absolutely perfectly. She stood patiently for nearly an hour whilst the vets ( at times we counted 5 ) played around with X-ray distances and other technical elements in order to get the perfect piccie which is being sent to various alpaca experts to determine whether her slightly bent legs are normal/rickets( my guess) / fixable etc . they also took blood and finally after much petting and admiration she returned to the trailer and out came

Veronica . Normally she can be a bit feisty and I expected trouble in strange surroundings , but I was completely wrong ( not something I often admit so savour that !) and she behaved beautifully . We did an X-ray of her jaw which showed up an abscess at the base of a tooth root . It was under control from the penicillin already administered , and she has already been eating and putting some weight back on , for which I am thankful. Even the vet agreed that she was doing well , phew! The choice is tricky , but we are going to try a new remedy , since nothing in the UK is actually licensed for alpacas it gives a greater degree of freedom in a strange way , some items are tried and tested and some are not . We are going to use a medicine usually prescribed to humans , for TB !! The rational is relatively simple - it will penetrate further into the bone than regular penicillin and hopefully negate the need for tooth removal . There is a slight risk , but my vet thinks it is worth taking and that the odds are in our favour hugely , so here goes !!!

The return journey was uneventful and everyone is back in their field s without too much stress. Thank you Wendy for standing around in the cold for 2 hours , and to the vets for their efforts . Lets hope we've got all the right solutions

Oh no , here we go....

I had the vet visit again yesterday, some might think I have a thing about my vet but let me assure you that since I see a different one nearly every time it's not true ! but they sure love me - I must keep them afloat recently.
Anyway , another visit , Athena is still a bit rickety in my view ( and no I haven't passed my vet exam yet ) so we had further discussion about her knees and eventually came to the conclusion that we couldn't be categorically sure either way , so she is off to the vet's on Wed to have an x-ray which might give us a clearer view and cost me £££'s!
Then we moved onto Veronica who has been sitting around a bit too much for my liking the last day or 2 , yesterday she started dribbling , this is not normal , and so vet visit! We did agree this time that the cause would be largely oral and came to the view that she had a definite tenderness in her lower jaw , possibly bone infection , and she is on penicillin for the next 2 weeks . I am worried about her , she has lost condition very quickly over the last week , and is now getting the royal treatment to try and get her to put weight back on - breakfast sugar beet( nice and soft and wet) lunch - micronized peas and alpha-a , dinner more sugar beet . I cannot do any more but it seems so little . The vet would like to see her on Wed too , but I will see about her strength before we try a sedative for x-ray.
That leads to the scariest thing - reversing a trailer into a stable from a main road with people WATCHING !!! Yuk ! will let you know how I do !

Ouch !

today was a riding lesson day , my instructor asked me what I'd like to do and foolishly I said ' I want to work hard and polish a skill ' !! So that 's what we did , we practiced jumping . Now jumping is pretty scary for me , it requires lots of elements at once and some I find quite hard , cantering in circles is my big nightmare , and of course I canter in a semi-circle to approach the jumps. Plus jumping position is soo uncomfortable - stand up , bottom out , heels down , shoulders back , breathe .....
Anyway, add to this a new outdoor school which is causing the horses a degree of excitement and skittishness , and you could almost predict disaster . Not quite disaster , but after 45 mins when I 'd done quite well , and jumped quite well and cantered in circles , a magnificent flying buck from Murphy and I landed firmly in the sand! having soared through the air with the greatest of ease ( nobody told me flying was part of the deal ) OUCH!

I did what you have to do , and got straight back on and started again - a little walking , a bit of trotting , a few circles and then a build to canter . First 'ask' we cantered OK , so we did it again with a circle in mind , and then it happened again - I fell off ! All my fault this time - I was slightly unbalanced and lost my nerve , panicked slightly and BANG I hit the dirt again . Double OUCH !

Repeat the above , except this time I stopped at a trot circle and no more accidents . But boy am I sore now - I didn't soak in the bath , that just makes it worse , but I shall be really sore by tomorrow !!

At last!

...the alpaca are using the stables ! Hooray!

We have had some snow and the last few days , almost weeks , the temperatures have been very low . The alpaca have got into the habit of coming down into the corral for supper and last night they CHOSE to spend the night in a stable , well 4 out of 5 did. Bijou , as head of the herd , slept across the doorway , not sure whether this was to protect the others or to prevent them getting out ! But it is much easier for me if they will use the stables voluntarily , since if they don't I have to confine them on really bad nights and that means mucking out in the morning , if they use the stables by themselves then I don't lock them in and they visit the dung heap freely - we are all much happier .

Tonight is predicted to be -9 !!! so the pregnant girls are in the stables , the boys are safely under the trees and the youngsters are cuddled up to the hedge near the house and should be fine . Whilst I love the cold weather , I would really like a let up in this cold spell - projected to be the coldest spell since 1997 - and hope for a bit of sunshine , and dare I say it , a drop of rain !