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, 29 January 2012

Frost and floods

Wee Eck this week covered with a dusting of early morning frost.  Gaucho is in the background.
Having been outside all night, all the boys are frosty but Eck's black fleece really shows up the frost.
Gaucho is a pretty laid back sort of Alpaca and this shot confirms it.  Whilst  most of the boys are feeding up on their feet, Gaucho is lying on his spot, a pile of haylage by his side,  just enjoying the early morning view.
Always on the lookout for food, Gully (front) and the boys are milling about in the hope that grub is on it's way! 
Having dug a 35m drainage trench at another part of our muddy land Robbie decided to start another  trench in front of the field shelters to try to redirect the water which build up in this area away to another part of the paddock.  This one will be 25m long, have a 4" coily pipe buried and covered with stones and end up in a 'sump' at the far end.  After that the bottom paddock shelters will need re-draining and the present pipe replaced with 6" piping in an effort to move the huge amount of water which builds up in that area.  We have found that over the years the rainfall has increased in this part of the world, showers of rain are now heavy downpours and flooding becomes a problem - especially for the animals.
Just as if to prove that all these guys do is eat, here they are this morning, tucking in again!
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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous29 January 2012 at 17:37

    Water control is such a pain in the butt. We had to put french drains at the upper end of our house and direct it far away too. We did that in 1991 and it has worked well. With increased rains, like you, the back part of the acreage is totally underwater for short periods of time. We had to put a drain down there a few years ago and hook it to a large 42' drain. Now the drive way is flooding and we had to make a drain there too....it's never ending!!! Why don't the boys go in the shed at night?? ...debbie

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  2. Bev29 January 2012 at 18:40

    I always find it strange that our boys like to sleep out on a frosty night, as long as it's not windy. I like to crunch their crispy coats in the morning.

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  3. Zanzibah Alpacas29 January 2012 at 19:50

    What a fantastic.....ditch !!..Robbie is doing a sterling job !! The boys are looking very happy with the room service and the menu obviously gets the seal o approval !!...its been very frosty here and very wet, also....I have a similar ditch to do....infront of my field shelter....some time !!.....Jayne

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  4. Unknown30 January 2012 at 08:26

    I think I will have to get my man on to ditch digging...very nest job Robbie...are you now going to do some ditch jumping training...that should be fun!

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