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 14 October 2012

'Drookit' or what?

This has been an interesting week for weather watchers - a mixture of some lovely days and some horrendous days of constant, heavy rain bringing flooding to this area.  The boys got a thorough soaking but they still stayed out grazing in most of it which was a surprise.  Here is Fergus enjoying his hay at the end of a day of rain.  We had a visit from two ladies, mum and daughter during the worst of the weather.  They had come all the way down from the Lairg area of Sutherland to see the alpacas, and after they had previously postponed a visit, it seemed a shame not to visit this time - regardless of the rain.  At the time of the visit we were experiencing some flooding near our house site so Robbie stayed there channeling the floods whilst the visitors went to the steading to see the 'drookit' boys.  Hope you enjoyed the soggy visit ladies!
Some of the boys disregarding the rain and getting on with the daily graze.  The house is coming on apace in the background, two walls now harled, garage built and felted and now waiting for the roof tiles.  We are hoping for better weather in the coming week so that work can continue.
It wasn't all bad weather, as this mid week sunset shows.  It heralded a lovely day to follow.
And on that day we had a visit from sister in law Sheila and brother in law Jim (right) with their friends Marie and Billy who were holidaying with them.  Definitely the best day of the week and even the boys were in fine form - having been fed some tit-bits of course!
An interesting, but typical photo as all of the herd look to see if there is food on offer - except Faro who is always suspicious of anyone pointing a camera.  Just look at how suspicious he looks compared to the other guys who are just thinking of their bellies!  And talking of 'bellies', they have all been having their Verm-X granules daily for the past week.
As all the other vegetation around them starts to die off, the Nerines come into their own and give a lovely splash of pink colour at this time of year when other plants are turning brown or yellow.
And finally..............Faro wants to thank everyone for their kind thoughts and suggestions when he was  unwell just over a week ago.  He appears to have fully recovered, he's back on full time 'sentry' duty and eating all his supplement which pleases us.  Thanks for your thoughts.

2 comments:

  1. Glad to hear Faro is on the mend .. its always a real worry when one is not well ....and when you know your animals so well its great that you spotted it so soon. The boys are looking well despite being soaked. Autumn always bring a glorious blanket of colours .....a reminder that winter is not far away. Hope things continue to improve for Faro .....Jayne

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes we were a little smug that us northerners were having better weather than those down south ( for a change) when that quickly changed to trying to keep the shelters from flooding!

    The house is looking good...what amazing views you must have.

    ReplyDelete