Heat n' hydro

Those of you with alpacas will know this heart-stopping scene, when you first look into the paddock and there are animals lying all over the place!  The boys are just testing our pace-makers of course because they are all actually sun bathing.  A scorching start to the week saw them all flat out in the sun, using the sand pit, the grass and the water trays to try to keep cool.  Good job they've been sheared recently.  The weather for the rest of the week went downhill rapidly and ended with localised flooding, thunder, lightening and torrential downpours.  Those golfers amongst you may have seen on TV the landslips and damage caused by the weather during the Scottish Open just along the road near Inverness.

We've had a busy weekend with friends Ken and Sandy visiting.  Ken is a great photographer and got shots of the local birdlife, including an Osprey, as well as some terrific head shots of the boys.  From the left, the boys in this photo are Fyta, Rufus, Gully, Gaucho and Fidget's rear end!

Sandy gets acquainted with Fergus and Wee Eck.

On Saturday we all piled into the car and drove the short distance to Dingwall to see friend John McKenzie who is  an alpaca owner - and much, much more!  John has worked hard over the past 5 years to establish his farm and set up a number of electricity generation projects using renewables.  He has a wind turbine on the hill, solar PV panels on the barn roof, planted a small wood for a future renewable wood source, and most impressively, built a dam and uses the water to create hydro electricity!  Over the years he has thoroughly researched these power sources and his farm has now become a source of knowledge and research into these energy uses for farms.  On the animal front John keeps cattle, including belted Galloways, Saddleback pigs, his four alpaca boys and Barclay the black Lab!  The informative plaque above is fixed to a huge  granite boulder near his hydro generation shed.  John is a mine of factual information on renewables for farmers - details on the plaque above.  A really interesting visit John - thanks again.

And finally..... it's getting bigger and the 'trumpets' are beginning to appear!