A laurel, laurel laffs.

A pleasant rain-free day today - last nights rain draining away slowly. Spent some time clearing nettles and levelling some uneven soil - the girls found the work intriguing, and as soon as I'd gone for lunch, they were taking advantage of the more-accessible hedge, with the nettles out of the way - this meant the Laurel was reachable, so with it being poisonous to alpacas, I had to be ruthless and sawed it off. Alpacas are very observant of changes in their surroundings - and of course, they always notice if a gate has been left open, even when they are a hundred yards away. It's interesting that they seem to avoid nettles, when they're used to spikey plants in their native habitat.

Gave the girls their ADE paste. Minnies face is growing fleece nicely.
An interesting piece on Countryfile about an alpaca herd in Suffolk tonight. A good advert for the industry, I thought.

I've heard of alpacas killing foxes, but has anyone heard of an alpaca killing a badger? I realise they're not as carniverous as foxes, but with the apparent upsurge in bTB, there'd be some kind of serendipity, if badgers do in fact spread it of course. I gave the girls a bit of halter familiarity this afternoon, but bTB precautions may restrict showing possibilities next year.

Now I know it's not on a par with breeders who also produce knitted garments from their herd, (and we are working on the spinning, knitting process), but we do have our first home-produced item - a felted brooch! hooray, I must get a picture posted.