Christmas stodge!

No, I've not started over-indulging, yet - the title relates to the state of the ground - our property has a rounded ridge, with a northerly slope and a southerly slope - after rain, it stands on the top and on the slopes - water is defying gravity now! Needless to say, we have no white alpacas for the time being. Since moving them to the new paddock, we've barely had a night when I've not brought them back to the shelter to avoid heavy rain. On the positive side, we are past the solstice, and the days are lengthening!

Mrs. Smallholder spent an evening explaining colour genetics to me - very worthwhile, and we looked into the BAS pedigree database to test the theory - there IS complete logic to colour genetics after all, it's the ancestry that can create uncertainty.

Cake by Mrs. Smallholder, Marzipan and Icing by yours truly.

Fortunately, my son took this picture today - the clean part of Autumn Gold:

"can we come in tonight?"

Wishing a Happy Christmas to you all, from Dave and Joy.

Ten, Tango and a Triangle.

We've been busy in the last few weeks using every spare daylight minute, and days off the day job, fencing one of our new paddocks to see us through the winter - yesterday, we released the herd into the paddock:

The charge of the light (and some browns) brigade.

Today we gave them all ADE injections.

They now have a south-facing hill.

 

"Race you to the top!"

Discovery galloped, pronked, and threw sideways 'shapes'

I collected Camelot from his agisting farm yesterday, and he met the herd from a distance - we're very pleased with his fleece too:

Camelot stays in his quarantine paddock, while Discovery checks him out.

...and the title? All ten of the herd are together again - the new paddock is a triangular because it suits the final layout of lanes and paddocks - and the tango? I'm 'Strictly' settling down for the dancing and Sports Personality!

Most fields in an agricultural holding have names which the farmers through history have evolved to identify them. When you divide a field, you then have to come up with new names - we currently have the Orchard Paddock and the Top and Bottom paddocks (creative aren't we?). The new field we will be dividing, but so far only has a triangular paddock, which we have ended up referring to, as 'the pi-angle'...have you some 'interesting'names for your paddocks?

'Movember' rain.

One of the roads out of the village lies under this water.

View towards the Quantock Hills & Exmoor beyond.

View towards the Blackdown Hills.

Fortunately we are located way above The Levels, so the flooding is just a picturesque inconvenience to us, but many others have suffered worse. We had Camelot castrated a couple of weeks ago on the wednesday when the flooding began to hit, and I couldn't get to the farm where he is agisted, due to flooding 2 miles from the farm - very frusttrating and disappointing not to be with him (the vet had to delay his trip until the afternoon, by which time I was 35 miles away). Then I was unable to get to the SWAG AGM on the following sunday, after more torrential rain the night before. We've put in the fence posts for the first paddock in our new field, and I've installed the gate connecting to the field - 3 more gates to fit, and then the badger-resistant fencing. Joy had seven ladies visit for a felting class on saturday, preceded by a couple of evening classes last week. I grew a 'mo' for Movember and before shaving it off, I offered it for spinning or felting but apparently it was too coarse, too short and with no crimp...

Fly-strike?

At the weekend, I noticed a damp patch on Bramleys' right shoulder - now with the recent weather it's been difficult to find a dry patch, so it wasn't surprising, but it wasn't the usual knee or elbow joints, so at first I thought it a bit odd, but perhaps she'd rubbed or rolled on 'something' wet - I caught hold of her, rubbed it and smelt it and there was no smell.

The following morning it was still there, so I knew it needed to be dealt with - she is pregnant, and has changed from being everyones favourite to 'cuddle', to a complete 'madam', and she wouldn't let the two of us look closely at it without a fight, so I got our neighbour (who has sheep) to hold the back end - with a lot of spitting and shrieking (not my neighbour) we concluded it was fly-strike, however we could find no sign of skin damage - now my understanding, is that a fly lays eggs on a wound or damaged skin to feed the larvae - I thoought it might be the ADE injection site, but that was done three and a half weeks ago, and I believe that the larvae hatch in a day or two, so it can't have been that - anyway, we sprayed it straight away, nothing emerged, but there were some small objects like hay seeds, so we thought we'd caught it at an early stage, but I'm still puzzled that there seemed to be no damaged skin.

I do know there have been a few cases in alpacas this year, so wondered if anyone has any clues?

Post post

Have gate post, will travel.

The poover trolley found a new use today...

As promised last night, Phase 1 of the new paddocks began today, by moving the fence and gate posts to the field - for reasons I won't bore you with, it was easier to manhandle them up our existing field into position - well alright, I'll explain: the delivery lorry wouldn't fit up the lane, so it was dropped off at the house, and until we've improved the lane and field access, our trailer wasn't practical, so we both had a good work-out!

Debbie, a photograph can be deceiving! including our current field, we'll have just 3 acres, so could probably fit into your new barn, but it has tripled our size - now for the herd!

Push-me-pull-you.

 Sorry, no pictures of alpacas today.....oh, alright then, some taken on a brighter day:

Golden Delicious

Discovery

Excitement bursts!

Wot, no alpacas? Looknig from our original field into the new field.

After three and a half years of waiting, we have completed the purchase of a large, south-facing field behind our property! as recently as July we were told that it wouldn't be sold, and we should make other arrangements for our herd, so we are delighted that events turned in our favour, and we can now look forward, make plans for the development of the herd, and feel assured in having adequate grazing to allow for resting, and our own supply of hay.

As I said in the previous post, we had a truck-load of fencing posts, gates and mesh delivered in anticipation for phase one, but I wouldn't announce the purpose until the ink was dry, and the wax seal had hardened!

We have been sketching various layouts of paddock and laneways, and have now settled on a plan.

We've been planning hedge trimming, tree-planting, forming a parking/turning area, shelters, water supply, soil testing and bio-security measures.

Paddock divisions might allow for quarantine, open males, whethers, pregnant females and a nursery.

Looking up to our original property, the alpacas are just visible to the left of the hedge on the brow.

For now, phase one is to form the link between our fields, with one paddock to see us through the winter - phase two to be steady development of the remainder. Phase one begins tomorrow!

Advantage, alpacas.

We finished fencing the old tennis court this morning, so it is ready for weaning or quarantine purposes, and we had a truck-load of fencing, posts and gates delivered for a future project, which we had to move

The herd have spent the weekend in an adjoining paddock of lush grass, and Golden Delicious found it so appetising, she refused her bottle both lunchtimes!

Today has been gloroius, and we've had two dry days, so I cleared the bedding out of the shelter, and the 'squelch' has gone from the paddocks.

"If I've got this wrong, I'm in the *#*#  !"