11/03/2010 by Rosemary.

It came - - - - and now it has gone!  I have been waiting excitedly all day for the arrival of the John Deere demonstration vehicle.  Sam ran all the way up the hill after school to be here in time and met the man at the gate.  He got the first go in it as he jumped in as it was unloaded and drove it over to us with the man.  It is gorgeous with a tipper on the back.  You push a button and it empties everything where you want it.  It has a windscreen wiper and a little round box which they use to put the documents in but is just made for a pair of knitting needles and a ball of wool.  The alpacas found it very exciting and seem to approve of it.  It appears to have CVT (DAF variomatic drive!!!!!).  It also has a picture of an alligator on the side.  I did not want it to go.

It takes the hills with ease and zooms round at 30mph - well more like 2mph when I am driving!  It would hold mountains of poo and bales of hay and tow the bowser!  We didn’t even need to use 4wd going up the track where it is muddy.  I had to say goodbye in the end.

Here I am trying to ignore Carl telling me to get out and let the man go home!  Carl did like it very much and now is musing over it in his shed!

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10/03/2010 by Rosemary.

Carl survived the shock of the John Deere demonstration vehicle coming tomorrow.  He did quite a bit of muttering about, Priorities and, the urgent need to get a road vehicle to tow the livestock trailer which does not need it’s tyres pumped up constantly or sheds bits of itself periodically.  He kept asking me how much it was but I told him I didn’t know and anyway we are only looking.  He then spent all night on Ad Trader looking at 4×4s and shouting out things like, “Do you like the shape of the Nissan Navarra?” (I wouldn’t know what shape it was if it ran me over) and the last, before I threw a knitting needle at him was, “You know the old DAF variomatic drive system?”  As if I would!

I had a bit of a problem with feeding over the last couple of days.  The girls by the barn seemed to go off their Camelibra.  I washed their bowls and troughs thoroughly but they were still a bit sniffy and not eating it all.  Then suddenly it dawned on me; we hang the troughs off the gates to feed and we use one of the gates as part of a mini catch-pen to do their feet.  When we did Bert on Sunday she spat like a demon and it went all over the side of the gate.  I had forgotten to clean it away and it must have been so potent it was still putting them off.  This morning I gave it a thorough scrub and this evening we were fine again!

I am continuing to practise with the camera but am not good at making the pictures interesting.  This is an example - too much grass (well, what should be grass if it would start growing properly) and too many bottoms!

When I am in with the wethers, Mossop is constantly following me around and I am sure he was sniggering when he tripped me up!

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09/03/2010 by Rosemary.

Today I have been battling with a Westhill Alpacas Brochure.  Every photo I try to include seems to have some rear end horror in the background - a pile of poo, Emily lifting her tail to display all she has to the camera, Mossop about to head butt me from behind, even a shadow of my bottom.  The good news was that, in the middle of all this frustration, The Lady who Knits - wonderful woman - emailed to say when she has a spare couple of hours she is going to see what she can do with Flamenco’s yarn.  We are talking lacey scarf here - a couple of hours!!  It would take me a couple of years!

I have also been greatly disappointed by a quad company.  Why do they advertise on their website things that they do not actually stock?  I had my heart set on a Utility Vehicle with a dear little tipper on the back.  We have got  two quads but they are very old and temperamental and I can’t handle them.  It’s alright Carl telling me to just hit it with a spanner, use a block of wood for a brake and that the thing that was the brake is now something entirely different - that is no help when you are careering downhill.  With the quad, even if I can get it going, the bucket falls off the back rack and I am no good at reversing the trailer.  It always ends up facing the same way as the quad, often at a weird jack knifed angle and sometimes even in front of the quad.  It is quite impossible to extricate myself without unhitching it and dragging it round.  I have already got the nodding dog to go on the utility vehicle.  You can tell I got it sometime ago as it has a Woolworths price sticker on it!

Anyway, now I have gone and done something Carl is going to be SO cross about.  I have got a John Deere demonstration UTV coming on Thursday evening.  I can’t contain myself for excitement!  I’ve dug out the Nothing Runs Like a Deere hat and adjusted it to fit (Dad gave it to Sam when he got his garden tractor).  Just got to pick the moment to tell Carl now!

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08/03/2010 by Rosemary.

I ache tonight!  This morning, for reasons I won’t bother to go in to, I had to walk to Okeford and back.  It was mostly downhill but still a trek and took me a good 40 minutes.  Then I had to come back - uphill, 45 minutes at a pace as I had to get back quick.  Then managing waste in the new paddocks which are all seriously steep and the girls are pooing all over the place!  The sheep were creating a terrible din as they wanted to come in  second field with me and Mossop head butted the water off the stand - twice!  So that was more uphill to fetch water.  Everyone was drinking a lot today with the sun out but the wind was bitter.  Now I am going to relax in front of the log burner and consider Cotswold sheep.  Despite Mossop, I would like a couple more sheep and I originally wanted Rydale but I have just seen a Cotwsold and that looks rather good!

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07/03/2010 by Rosemary.

It has been a very productive couple of days.  The current fencing is now complete with gates up and water troughs installed.  Moving the mobile field shelters started swimmingly -

Continued well -

Until it failed to make it through a tricky gateway bend -

However, with the welcome help of the Chippendales, who were out for a relaxing afternoon -

and  lot of brute force, it made it round the bend and then easily into position!

We also managed to check everyone over, do all the feet and cut fringes.  The  suri fringes were easy but Dude’s was another matter entirely.  He stood still and didn’t mind me peering into his eyes but it was very hard to work out where to cut as there was just so much thick fleece.  Between us, Carl and I managed to cut out little peep holes but we didn’t show him the results in a mirror!  All alpacas behaved well but the sheep were a different matter.  They are escape experts and glory in charging round and round, jumping over everything in sight.  We were exhausted by the time they had been checked and foot trimmed.  It is now time for a bit of a relax but I am a trifle worried about Carl and Sam who have been glued to Top Gear, apparently absorbed in a feature about how any car can be made to go as fast as an EVO10.  I just heard them mention my Honda Civic, currently off the road.

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06/03/2010 by Rosemary.

Bit of a short blog tonight as we have new neighbours - again.  The travellers have returned.  No photos tonight and even the haircut didn’t get done but the good news is that the fencing is finished - until we start the next lot that is.  Now we have to go and review our security again.

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05/03/2010 by Rosemary.

More photos!

• I’m getting a bit obsessive!
• I’ll stop tomorrow!
• Well, maybe a couple more as I am going to attempt a fleece shot.

I’m not sure what happened last night with the uploading - Rolf couldn’t see the pictures, I hope they are there tonight!  It is a busy day tomorrow and one of the many priorities is Dude’s haircut, as Rob pointed out!  Lily and Alf, the young suris, also need fringes trimmed.  This will be interesting as I often do my haircuts myself and end up wearing a hat for a week until it calms down.  If Dude is wearing a sombrero in the next photo you will know why!

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04/03/2010 by Rosemary.

My new camera came today and so it is a photo night!  It is easy to use, once you have realised there is a lens cover and that is why you can’t see anything.  At first I thought it was no good as I couldn’t see very well through the little boxy hole at the top but then I read the manual and found there is a whole screen thing that flips out at the side and the picture comes up on that.  I took 762 pictures; the majority were of alpaca bottoms, grass or had someone relieving themselves in the background!  So here are some photos but remember the camera is only as good as the operator!

First is Little Star

And this is Emily saying hello to her mum, Carolyn.

Next is a very naughty Mossop!

Cool Dude, but I think the light was going a bit here.  Apparently you get best pictures early morning.

Here is a head shot of Dude.

Lina saying, “No! No!  This is my best side!”

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03/03/2010 by Rosemary.

Smudge, the kitten, was back when we got up this morning.I searched and searched for him last night so where he was I do not know.  He is not quite normal as he has a very faint meow - often it is just the mouth motion but no sound comes out.  He has also got a club foot and finds climbing a little difficult, also he runs very noisily and sneezes a lot so you would have thought I would have heard him.  Anyway, he is back and has spent all day asleep in his basket.

The library van was entertaining as always this morning.  We had lovely chocolate brownies and were graced with the presence of a cat and a Bay City Rollers scarf (not worn by the cat).  We were also given a survey to complete about the Library Van which was very strange as it asked what we thought of the exterior and the internal seating!  The talk turned to motorbikes and I was sent a link to a scary You Tube clip.  Carl watched it and is now trembling in the bath thinking about the Scottish 6 day!

http://biertijd.com/mediaplayer/?itemid=18882

We are feeling very jolly tonight as the money we have been waiting for has materialised.  It is not a lot but we were relying on it coming through at the beginning of last month (an insurance policy) in order to pay some things off.  Several forms disappeared in the post and led to a cash flow emergency.  We had temporarily plugged the gap by selling some unimportant items like the car and then it miraculously appeared!  Now we have got the rest of the fencing coming and I have treated myself to a new camera which should arrive tomorrow.  Sam is also getting some new wellingtons for college as his have a much mended hole and the last straw was a visit to the Watercress Farm yesterday - not the best place to go with a hole in your wellies.

I am now starting to turn my mind to births.  I know Carolyn and Belinda, the first, are not due until May but that is only two months and by then I need somewhere dry in case of problems.

There may be photos tomorrow!!!

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02/03/2010 by Rosemary.

Tonight we burnt a Poo Briquette!!  It was so exciting!  I had been quietly turning them every few days and tonight I felt they were ready.  They had gone very light and a much paler colour.  We decided to start with a little one and it burnt - well actually it is still burning and giving off plenty of heat!  There are a couple of logs in the wood burner with it, I got Carl to get it out so I could photograph it!

I left it at the side of the fire while Carl was lighting it and the dog got hold of it so they also make handy dog  chews.  Strangely, there is no smell.  Tomorrow I am going to make more Poo Briquettes because they are brilliant!!

It has been another glorious day today and I even had to remove my hat at one point.  My Lady who Knits is so inspiring I am really excited and have been in the field knitting.  I managed waste at a trot in order to get knitting again - I have done, almost, half a  hat.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have the right size needles it said to change to after I had knitted the band so I feel it may not turn out quite right but it is a prototype so I will soldier on.  Carolyn and Belinda, the most pregnant girls, have been very interested in the knitting but Bert just thinks it is food and keeps getting in the way.  I can’t wait for my wool to come back from the mill!

I also managed to get a photograph of a relatively clean, dry alpaca - Cool Dude!

One slightly worrying thing today, Smudge, the kitten has not come home.

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