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 9 December 2012

A cold, sad week

Well, a bit of a wintry week here with not a lot going on except carrying haylage and hay for the boys!    The snow adds a lot more work to the normal day and we are always pleased to see it melting.  This is Fidget (front) with Gully behind tucking into their morning haylage.
Rufus is also enjoying his feed.
One afternoon earlier in the week for some unknown reason, the boys started to pronk,  an activity usually only seen here at dusk.   Gully as always was at the front with his tail straight up in the air as he skipped along, followed by all the other boys - including 'beefy' Fergus who does not usually 'do' exercise!  Not sure why they decided to have a pronk - possibly boredom in the snow and a chance to get the herd involved in a warming game.  Lovely to watch though but not the best shot for our ageing camera to take.
Now that the frosts have come, the parsnips are ready for the pot.  As always the sizes are not uniform and some of them are huge but these two smaller samples show just how much they enjoy the organic plot with loads of 'stuff' from the boys to help them along.  Not sure that these would impress the big supermarkets as they tend to like 'regulation size' veg - and sometimes with very little taste!
And finally.........we bade a sad farewell to our pussy cat 'Pansy Potter' earlier this week.   She was nearly 17 years of age and we've had her since she was a kitten but over the last couple of months her health and quality of life have been deteriorating.  She is now 'sleeping' in the garden next to our other cat, her old pal 'Flo-Jo' who died a couple of years ago.  The boys always took an interest in Pansy when she was hunting around the garden, but she was always reluctant to go near them.  She'll be missed a lot here at Tigh Mhor.

4 comments:

  1. Lovely photo of Pansy Potter. Sorry news. We lost Sam this year(whom we called the alpaca cat because he was always with the alpacas)and I still miss him about the farm.

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  2. Sorry to read about Pansy Potter. She had a long life but I think cats are about the hardest animals to lose as they're always around us. Big hugs.

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  3. So sorry to hear about Pansy Potter. It's so difficult when you lose a pet, especially so after such a long life.
    xx

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  4. What a beautiful photo of Pansy Potter - what fantastic memories you must have of her after 17 years. A lovely and well-loved friend that will live on in your heart :) Lisa

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