OUR SMALL HERD

Our original four boys came from Ardo Alpacas in Aberdeenshire. We are not alpaca breeders and have our boys purely as pets. Our experience is that you don't need to be a breeder and that a 'batchelor herd' can give much pleasure to the owner. We have 5 acres including our big garden and grazing for the boys, 15 miles north of Inverness, Scotland. I spin, knit, felt and crochet with the fleece from the boys.

Clicking!!

Just a reminder that clicking on (most) of the photos will show them greatly enlarged.

Sunday, 5 June 2011

Lazy bones

The boys are not the earliest of risers in a morning and are usually still lying in or near their shelters around 8.00am when we change their water and hay.  Occasionally they are up early for a spot of grazing, but they drift back, lie down and get on with cud chewing.  All our shelters face east with the back of the shelters against the prevailing westerly weather.  This means that on most mornings, especially sunny mornings the boys can be found in the shelters, lying down, facing the rising sun, eyes closed and slowly chewing the cud.  A peaceful picture but one not easily captured on camera because as soon as we appear, they get up and start moving around.  Here are some of the boys having an early scratch and stretch!  Only then do they get on with the serious business of grazing.
'Bonnie boy' Gaucho with his dark eye surrounds, gets up and is ready for another day.
Wee Eck can be slow to get going, and being deaf, he takes his lead from what the rest of the herd get up to.
Any opportunity to pose for the camera suits Fergus, with Fyta behind.
And finally.........even though this looks minuscule on the photo, it is actually adult size.  May was such an awful month for bad weather I spent some time knitting this waistcoat.  It is Fidget's fleece, chunky spun with a hand made birch button.  It knitted up quite quickly.

1 comment:

  1. I expect they slip out for a sneaky graze before you get up, and then pretend to be sleepy!

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