First Day at Alpaca School

Yesterday was the day I took over care of the Alpacas, they now belong to us, so I was given a lesson on trimming there toe nails, that was fun, its defiantly a two person job and a little scary the first time you do it, no doubt in time it will be one of those jobs that becomes easier the more you do it.

I didn't draw blood so they seemed happy, although I think I will look for a better pair of clippers.

This morning I went over to check on them and they were happily grazing away, and gave me that look of who the hell are you and what are you doing here,

  Nicknack Oddjob

And of course there was poo duty to do, so a bucket of poo was collected and its going to be used in the garden,

there poo doesn't smell, it has an odour but its not an unpleasant nose holding job, so now I am off down the garden to get it dug in to this years onion bed. Alpaca droppings can be used as they are and don't need to be composted and left standing so that is another up side to having them 

New Family Members

Well we still haven't moved but plans are afoot to improve the chances of us moving before the summer, and the ideal property that we found has now been shelved until we are ready to progress, there is no shortage of property for sale in the area  we want to go to.

So life goes on its no good just sitting back and waiting, its time to make plans for the garden again, the little tunnel we have is going to be moved to a better site in the garden and I have been spending time preparing the site, its the area were all the dwarf fruit trees were, so I have been digging them up and re-planting them in containers so they will come with us when we go.  I have been digging up the raspberry canes as well some are coming with us again in containers and some are being distributed amongst friends. When you add up the cost of fruit trees and soft fruit bushes its surprising what you have spent a rough calculation brings mine in at approx. £1,000, so if I can take them with me I will. I have so many trees and bushes in containers around the garden now of course it will be extra work looking after them all, We have only insulated and heated one greenhouse this winter the other is being used as a cool storage area, as it is time to get peppers, chillies and aubergine on the go rather than crank up green house heating we are going to start them off in propagators on a south facing window sill.

The long term plan was always to have a small herd of Alpacas for there fleeces, I am not interested in the showing side of things, so the past couple of years I have been learning all about them, got a spinning wheel and learn how to spin all in preparation for the day we have our own Alpacas. That day has now arrived, I am so excited by it all, we have been offered the opportunity of taking on 2 young males from some-one in the village, of course we don't have the land for them so they agreed that we can keep them in there paddock until we move and they will be on hand to teach us and take us through the care of the alpacas, what a fantastic opportunity for us. So this Tuesday I am being taught how to trim there toe nails


 
They are so cute, they are half brothers and there names are Oddjob and Niknack they are roughly 2 years old, friendly curious and halter trained.
so now our little back yard farm consists of Chickens, Bees and Alpacas.