30/06/2009 by Rosemary.

I like the sun but I have to admit I was getting a little fed up with the heat today.  I have been trying to sort out the studs for the ones that are ready which has resulted in a very busy few days coming up.  On Friday we have Rob and Lesley from Wellground coming here with Buckingham for Flamenco - looking forward to that.  On  Saturday we are taking Crispie and Sherbert to Bozedown.  Sherbert is going to be mated to Caesar again and Crispie, after long deliberations, is going to be mated to Idaho.  Then on Monday we go to Wessex to take Isaly for a remating to Crusader.  Islay is my number one disappointment so I am not too sure how that will go.  In between all of that we have to make hay at some point!

I am also attempting to put in some wild flowers outside the field gate where devastation occurred recently - not by us I hasten to add!  The big tractors couldn’t get in safely but it does look a bit ravaged so I thought I would plant a few seeds.  I am not sure if they will take but if not I will try something else.

Tomorrow I pick up some shearing equipment and then we are going to have a go at shearing Emily.  I know she is only young but last year we did Spike at the same age and I fear if we do not she will overheat dreadfully if we have this predicted heat wave - she is already flagging.  It looks like a busy time up to next week.

P.S. Yoda is now 8.8kg!!

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29/06/2009 by Rosemary.

It’s so hot!  The lambs went into hiding in the community centre all day and the chickens collapsed in a big pile on top of each other by the gate.  The boys calmly ate the hedge while the girls grumbled at each other all day.  Yoda lay in the middle of the field and overheated - I ran around squirting tea tree oil at everyone to keep the flies at bay but Bert’s cut on her leg was really playing her up.  This evening we smothered it in horse udder cream with added aloe vera and tea tree (expensive but it is the only one that seems to last).  She actually seemed to appreciate it and didn’t make her normal fuss.  Now we are worrying about when to start the hay making.  Most people seem to have finished!

Meanwhile, mother is floating around in a balloon somewhere!  I keep looking up expecting to see her sailing past!

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28/06/2009 by Rosemary.

I was convinced Prudence would have her cria today - but of course she didn’t.  She kept wandering off on her own and softly humming to herself.  Several long, contemplative moments were spend over the dung pile and there was a lot of restless rolling - but, nothing!  Yoda now weighs 8.4kg and is continuing to develop a very naughty side.  Poor old Islay is jumped upon every time she tries to lie down and he seems to enjoy lying flat out with his eyes closed all on his own as if he was dead then jumping up suddenly when the others come over to see what is going on.  Emily now looks a monster she has grown so well.  Lily gets better looking every day - solid white and ringlets which seem to be developing a good twist.  Little Alfie started life looking a bit something and nothing but his fleece is beginning to look more organised.  He won’t set the alpaca world alight but looks more suri like than he did at first.

Carl’s Mum and Dad visited and we had a picnic in the caravan - all Greek food which reminded me of long past holidays - maybe one day?!!  We were able to keep an eye on Prudence all day which was useful.  Yesterday Sam had been given a submersible pump - this was a mistake.  He decided he could use it in conjunction with a car battery on his trolley to create a watering system to water my hanging baskets and tubs in the garden.  I would not be surprised if the village didn’t notice a sudden shower as the power in his invention made the water shoot at a great rate straight across the garden and down the hill.  My baskets appear to have suffered a tidal wave and I am sure one of the tubs has a hole in it that wasn’t there before!

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27/06/2009 by Rosemary.

Another busy day today!  This morning it was off to Kingston Maurward to meet the people running the agricultural course Sam is going on in September, two days a week.  I was stunned by the fantastic gardens, particularly the walled garden.  They had two alpacas who were not like real alpacas!  I went over in classic alpaca pose, hands neatly tucked in pockets - they were straight up wanting their necks rubbed!  There were also some lovely hebridean sheep and I shall be on the look out for a couple of them now!  After a quick check on the alpacas we were then back to the New Forest to look at the caravan.  I have to say I was not expecting much but it is beautiful.  Even the toilet doesn’t smell.It is just two berth but it will only be used when there is an emergency or full time observation is needed.  However, having said that, Sam now thinks we should go to the seaside for a night!  We can’t at the moment with births and things but maybe later.  We also saw the most wonderful holiday cottage.  It has attached stables and is fantastic inside with a beautiful, huge, Shaker kitchen and bedrooms with vaulted ceilings.  You can go to stay and take your horse and then ride out directly onto the forest.  The shower room had a tiled ceiling which was very tasteful.  I was quite envious.  The whole thing had an impressive entrance filled with antique farm machinery which Sam loved.  Very nice plum trees too with impressive large green plums already in evidence.

Unfortunately, we did not have time to pop back into Mum’s again but I had seen them Friday and Dad looked good.  Carl towed the caravan back and was full of praise for it and the anti snake bar.  I thought this was a bit over the top as you don’t get many snakes in Dorset and I have only ever seen one adder in the Forest.  However, after allowing me to make a fool of myself, Carl then explained that it was a contraption that prevents the caravan snaking all over the road as you get up speed in the wind.  All went fine until Cranborne Chase when Carl went through a muddy puddle and sprayed the front with mud - he’ll be cleaning that tonight - it was immaculate before.  He then managed to reverse into the bale sledge and break a rear light.  He will also be fixing that.

Back at home, Prudence has still not given birth but she is enormous.  She was mated to Costello so it will be interesting to see what she produces.  Roberta’s baby will be a bit of an experiment - some will say a daft one - as she is solid white but is mated to Sinbad, a solid black.  Should be interesting, just hope it is healthy - not premature - and that she is able to feed it herself!!

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26/06/2009 by Rosemary.

What a lot of rain!  The runner beans and the brussel sprouts are finally growing.  The rhubarb and onions have been doing quite well for a while but the runners have looked very spindly.  This year I decided to try a few brussels as I hadn’t grown them before and I put a few seeds in but they looked a bit weedy so I put some more back ups in - hoping for  a few for Christmas.  Well now they have all gone crazy and I have enough plants to feed an army (not a navy as I read that one navy ship has banned them as the devil’s vegetable).  Carl and Sam don’t really like brussels but I am sure I can invent a soup with them.

I slept very badly last night as the rain worried me and then the thunder started rumbling.  I checked the alpacas as often as I could but little Yoda could really have done with a little bit of cover.  This morning he was looking a little shell shocked and I left his coat on until late afternoon - by the evening he was charging about again.

The more I look at it, the more I am not sure I have spelt brussels right!  Sorry!

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25/06/2009 by Rosemary.

Crazy, busy at the moment!  Most of the time I seem to be chasing animals around.  Last night I was up and down the field trying to get the chickens, lambs and male alpacas into their right fields.  They all got mixed up and it was the lambs fault.  They tempted the boys into the resting paddock by doing their straight leg bouncing, which gets Dobby all excited, and led them in their whilst I was trying to feed the chickens.  Nearly an hour I was charging around and in the end I gave up.  The chickens finally went into their houses and the rest stayed in the wrong paddock with the lambs stamping on the mower which was all ready to start hay making.  Hay making has to wait a bit anyway as it appears we have missed that window of opportunity and it is now going to rain.

Yoda now weighs 7.4kg which is jolly good.  He has mad bursts of running and then collapses.  His eye looks a bit weepy but now he has a little cut on his nose.  It doesn’t trouble him much but it does attract the flies.

The bicycle pump bird has been going mad.  I don’t know what it really is but it makes a noise like a tyre being pumped up.  At first I though it was one of the neighbouring farmers pumping his tyres up in the hedge - although why he would be doing that I don’t know.  I have never seen any of them on bikes.

There has been a lot going on locally with a disaster at the bio plant.  I am not sure exactly what happened but it involved air ambulances, several fire engines, police and, I fear, there is talk of a fatality.

Today I have also been chasing Bert around trying to spray a cut on her back leg with a liquid plaster that arrived this morning.  You are supposed to spray it on and it plasticises leaving a fly and water proof coating.  There is more of it all over me than on Bert as the breeze got up every time I got within  reach.  I also fear I may have plasticised the whole of her bottom by mistake.

Probably made a bit of a fool of ourselves this evening as we went to report intruders stealing sheep on the hill but I think they were supposed to be there.

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24/06/2009 by Rosemary.

Yoda is a little darling!  7kg tonight so he is slowly gaining weight.  Unfortunately, he has little real idea of who his mum is and he goes round everyone trying to get a drink until he gets the right one!  Flamenco follows him round trying to give him a hint but he doesn’t quite make the connection and I try not to interfere but can’t stop myself guiding him in the right direction every now and again.  I am happy to report, however, that he did run away from me today when I went up to him.  His eye still has some blood and it seems to be coming from a little cut at the side so I don’t think it is a problem.  He is a very nice fawn colour but he will probably become a wether - and a very nice wether he should make.

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23/06/2009 by Rosemary.

One or two minor panics about Yoda today.  He will keep lying flat out on his side as if he has expired!  He has also got a little pale blood under one eye but I am not even sure it is from him.  His weight is still 6.8kg - same as yesterday - so he is not losing ground.  I put his little coat on as the sun goes down and take it off in the morning.  It is not a posh cria coat but a £4.99 dog coat from The Factory Outlet in Sturminster but it does the trick.

We are considering the purchase of a small touring caravan for emergencies such as this as the tent has taken it’s toll.  However, the last time we bought a caravan from this particular caravan salesperson it smelt.  Carl says it was us that made the caravan smell and it didn’t smell when we got it but I am not so sure.

Anyway, in the mean time things look steadily more rosy for young Yoda, as you can see!

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22/06/2009 by Rosemary.

Yoda (I must get that right!) is still doing well!  Here he looks a bit perkier - but still rather odd!

I spent all day managing waste and Yoda minding.  Flamenco started the day appearing to want me there when she fed Yoda.  I know that sounds like my imagination but she really did come over to me when he tried to drink and couldn’t quite manage.  By this evening, though, they were far more independent and Yoda actually had a few goes at running.  Tonight we topped the boys’ field as they can’t get through it all.  The lambs are doing a great job on the rough stuff at the bottom but that is about the only good thing you can say about them at the moment.  I caught Georgina red handed, trying to sneak back out of the Colonel’s House, no wonder I am only getting one egg now.

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22/06/2009 by Rosemary.

Well, Yodar survived another night and is not looking too bad.  I had to come away for awhile as someone, who shall remain nameless, is carting silage bales across the middle of our lovely field of hay almost ready to be cut.  Best say no more about that one.

Some photos today, taken with our camera which is not very good we will have to get some better ones done soon but my brother is white water rafting in the Canadian Rockies and Cadnam’s answer to first class photography has not been around for awhile possibly stuck up a bank on his bike.

This first one is Lily who is now very bossy and has become quite attached to Alfie Crispie’s little one.

This is little Alfie with his mum.  His mum is half Suri and half Huacaya and we are not quite sure what to make of him yet!

Finally, here is little Yodar!

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