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, 6 January 2013

Drying out - at last.

 At last the boys have managed to dry out - thankfully we've had no heavy rain during the past week.  We did have to resort to deploying sandbags at the top of our track about a week ago when flooding from nearby land became a problem.  The grass is wearing a bit thin now though so the square bales of hay are not lasting too long.  This is Fidget in the bottom paddock with Tigh Mhor behind him.
This is Gully who is a real 'puddle-jumper' and does not like to walk through mud so will always try to avoid it or jump over it.  If he is forced to walk through mud he takes his time, watches the ground intently, placing his feet gently as if he doesn't trust that the ground is actually solid beneath him.
Faro (foreground) and Fyta, two old pals who were part of our first four boy herd.   Not a lot of grass here either but they do like to nibble at the tiniest blades of grass sometimes.
Rufus, with Gaucho behind and Wee Eck at the rear.  
The two white boys, Fergus (front) and Fidget who were the other two of our original four boys.   They have completely different characters, but then all eight of the boys have different characters from each other.
One characteristic they all have is that they appear to have great eyesight and can see animals (or humans) when they are hundreds of yards distant.  Wonder how Alpaca eyesight compares with that of other animals?  They will stand for ages watching a solitary crow or rook pecking at the ground several fields away.  Here they are watching some sheep moving in a far off field. 
And finally.............this is the third 1000 piece Christmas jigsaw to be completed.  Now we are all 'jigsawed out'  so the remaining puzzles will have to stay in a cupboard until the next spell of bad weather (or next Christmas perhaps?)  Yeah!  

2 comments:

  1. I'm with Gully on mud-avoidance - I spent hours yesterday filling buckets by hand with alpaca-friendly rubble and carrying it uphill to a soggy gateway! nice to see some clean 'pacas.

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  2. The boys must have been very glad for the break in the rain! Poor Gully, he must have had many puddles to jump recently :) Lisa

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