Chip & pin

Mud management has been a phrase on my mind and I'm sure every farmer and smallholder in the country. I opened up the hay barn to allow the herd more room to spread out beyond the shelter in the wet nights, and they made the most of  it as you can see in the picture, where 9 of them have squeezed for a sit down or some new hay. Our village is approached via. Ford Lane, and as the name implies, there has been a ford - however, in 10 years living here, it has only risen over the road three times, until this autumn, when it has been flooded at least 6 times.

We had a visit from Colin Ottery to insert some micro-chips and ear-tags, and do some teeth trimming, which he did with his usual no-nonsense and very efficient approach - we had Bramley and Ambrosia scanned, and unfortunately Ambrosia is not pregnant - we had our doubts, as Bramley has turned very feisty, yet Ambrosia, hadn't changed behaviour noticeably - should have checked sooner, but there you go, coulda', shoulda', woulda'... 

It has been dry and sunny this weekend, as you can see from the misty cob-webby morning photo', we even had a thin sliver of ice on the water buckets, and with a couple more dry days forecast, a chance for the land to recover a bit.

We do have a very exciting development, which is so exciting that I daren't let on what is so exciting, but suffice to say, we are excited about it, and if it happens, I won't be able to contain my excitement and I may tell you about it...

If you've got an itch, scratch it!

Golden Delicious continues to gain weight steadily though the rate slowing down, probably converting her intake to energy for warmth rather than growth - we know we're giving her enough, as she has started leaving a little occasionally - this perhaps concurs with research that I read recently by Bozedown Alpacas I believe, who noted that cria born later in the year gained weight more slowly.

By the way, on Kevin McCloud's, Manmade Home tonight (C4 8.00, he makes a bathrobe from alpaca fleece - courtesy of Tai Wind Alpacas I believe.

In the absence of fluffy alpacas at the moment, I'll leave you with a picture of autumnal leaves on the house - Virginia Creeper last week, before the wind and the pruners got to it today.

Time to give baby her bottle.