It's winter after all!

It never rains but it pours, if you get my drift.............!  After the hurricane like winds last week, Mon and Tue were very wet with lots of sleet and flooding all around.  Then Wed at 8.00 am it was all change for a dumping of snow. Once the footpaths were cleared it was time for the boys to get dug out.

They much prefer this sort of weather to the sleet and rain, and they know they will get extra feed because the grass is covered!

We always try to help a little by clearing snow from in front of their shelters.  The snow is also a great excuse for them to totally mess up the inside of their shelters.

Haylage goes down well with all the boys.  We clear a big circle on the ground and lay out 8 bundles of it which they scoff quite quickly.  At present they are getting haylage twice a day with hay being topped up when required.  They do need water too of course as it must be pretty hard eating just hay and haylage. 

And when there is snow on the ground the bowls of sugar beet are dispensed  at 1000am.  I wish we could have got a photo of all the boys with their black mouths after eating beet!  This is Fidget.

This is Fyta getting up to pranks again.  If he fancies another boy's food after his own, he doesn't argue or barge in - he just picks up the bowl and walks off with it!   Gaucho is the loser here.  Rufus and Fergus are in the background.

And finally..........we found our 'alpaca crossing' sign which has been hanging at the top of the drive for years.   Last week's wind put paid to it and this is all thats left. Unfortunately the grumpy gardener has been suffering from  a bad case of man flu sine Thursday so we're praying that we don't get too much more snow before he's better.  The forecast is for a very cold week ahead - so wrap up, keep warm.

Stormy weather.

Thursday night of this week will not be forgotten in a long time!   Howling gales, no electricity and no sleep as the whole of the north of Scotland wondered if their collective roofs were going to stay in place.  We lost our greenhouse, our main gate will never be the same again and the black polythene on the veg plots beloved by the grumpy gardener was draped around various hedges! Considering the amount of damage caused especially to local trees we've been lucky. We got our electricity back on Fri morning only to lose it again on Fri evening but as I type this there are still thousands of people who are without power, late on Sunday afternoon.  A major concern for us was how the boys would react to the extreme weather and the first four photos show that they were fine although they all looked a bit bewildered.  This is Gaucho with Faro and Fyta behind.

No chance of big boy Fergus getting blown away, should have used him to anchor the greenhouse!

Fidget always looks bewildered anyway!

Rufus was a little more anxious.  We know that he does not like being pushed by strong winds so what he must have thought of the Thursday night gales can only be guessed at.

Robbie's initial inspection by torchlight early on Fri morning did not reveal this large birch which had come down over our fences from our neighbour's field but it was discovered an hour or so later.  At this stage it was a tangled mass of branches and to the right, out of shot are another 4 large trees also uprooted but thankfully staying on our neighbour's side of the fence.  The initial work with the chain saw cut a path and got rid of the pressure on the fence.

By the end of the day only the main trunk remains to be felled, the chain saw is red hot and Robbie's arms are hanging from their sockets!  So still plenty of sawing to do but the consolation is that we now have next winter's log supply sorted.

And finally................this morning's scene with some overnight snow, as the boys come to greet us and tell us they are ready for their breakfast.  If you've been affected by the storms this week, hope you are OK and that you have suffered no damage to your property. 

Another week, another year!

Happy New Year everyone!  Is it just me or do the years really pass quicker the older one gets? The boys don't seem to bother about the passage of time - as long as their feed is there on time each day, there is plenty of hay in the buckets and the water is regularly changed then they are happy chappies.  Whilst the rest of the herd tucks in, Faro comes to check out what the photographer is up to.

Nothing better than seeing all the animals getting stuck into their feed.

Taken today in bright sunshine but a bitterly cold wind this is Gully asking if there are any more carrots. Fidget (rear, left) is chewing his carrot and Fergus is looking on.

Wee Eck just likes to show off and prove that he can get a lump of carrot into his mouth at the same time as he is chewing a lump of grass!

Over the past couple of weeks the Grumpy Gardener has been laying manure on all the veg plots and covering them with black polythene as he intends only using a couple in 2015 - running two gardens is a lot of work so priorities now exist........anyone want to buy a house this year by the way?!  This photo was taken when the overnight frost was still heavy on the ground.

And the second festive period job was to re-stack the compost bays.  The furthest away on the left and covered with polythene is the oldest, the contents of the right bay were shovelled into the middle bay and that is now covered in polythene.  The empty bay is now not so empty after several barrow-loads from the daily 'bean-run!'

And finally....................the last jigsaw of the festive period (honest!)  Colourful but a bit tricky ensuring cross eyes sorting out the shades of blue and purple.

Christmas week pics.

< Christmas week started with a visit from four lovely tourists from Singapore who had traced Tigh Mhor alpacas through the internet.  It was the first time that they had seen alpacas and the boys seemed to impress!  From here the group set off to travel north to Caithness and spend Christmas there before returning south. Nice to have met you all, hope you enjoyed your holiday in Scotland.   Haste ye back!

A few photos for you taken during Christmas week which turned out to be bright, sunny but quite frosty during the nights.  This is Gully (front) and Fyta behind checking out some crows marching across an adjoining paddock.

The hefty Fidget as always wearing his inquisitive face!  He's well pleased at present because he is getting his favourite haylage as well as hay.

Wee Eck.  With the ground frozen most mornings it is chilling to watch the boys pulling up lumps of frozen grass and chewing it.  Brrrrr!

Gully (left) and Fidget enjoying the bright, winter sunshine which helped to dry their fleeces which had been wet since the previous week.

Rufus (front) and Gaucho survey the bare paddock.

And finally..............it wouldn't be Christmas here without a couple of jig-saws being done.  This is the first, a pleasure to make with loads of details and colour.  I'm working on a very difficult one at present which I hope to complete before 2015!  Happy New Year to everyone when it comes.

Walkies and worms!

To all our blog readers!

We had  another welcome visit from friends Alison and Brendan this week, hoping to get a bit more practice in at alpaca handling.  First thing then is to get the herd into 'the alleyway' and direct them to the catch pen at the top.

As normal Gully has to drop a load of beans before he gets involved with any adventure training!  Fidget is standing next to him.

Now they are all in the catch pen, waiting and humming! From the left (front) Fyta, Fergus and Fidget with Gaucho and Gully at the rear.

Alison has an in depth conversation with Gully giving him very good reasons why he should be a good boy and "Walk on."   And it worked!

Wee Eck with the head collar sticking close to Gaucho and you can almost hear him saying, "Hey Gaucho big man, tell them I don't want to go walkies today!"

"He disnae wan tae go so he's no gonnae go! Beat it!"

And finally...........we had a visit yesterday from neighbours Kate and Derek with children Rebekah, Bella and Ben, all well wrapped up against a cold wind.  The boys appear more interested in Ben's hat but he got his own back and asked the question of the day as he held a wriggling specimen in his hand, "Do alpacas eat worms?!"  Nice one, well done Ben - hope you all enjoyed the 'paca experience.

A bit of white stuff

If the TV news is to be believed we've all had a bit of wild weather this week, some folks more so than others. We had a couple of days of gales mid-week followed by some of the white stuff and ending up with lashing rain and gales again today.  Gully here is unimpressed by snow because he can't get at his grass!  If you magnify the photo you will see his lovely long eyelashes.

Wee Eck also likes to get his nose into the snow.  With this wintry weather comes  the need to bulk up their rations and a square bale of hay soon disappears down eight long necks!

This photo was taken just after 8.00am when the boys are all at the gate waiting for the human to arrive and dish out the haylage.

"Mmmm, thats nice" appears to be Fidget's expression.  Not only are the boys quite wet but they are also still having a roll in what was the dust bath - now the mud bath, as demonstrated by Fidget!

There is always one fella wanting to have his breakfast in peace and quiet away from some of the more 'pushy' boys. Fergus likes the human to put his haylage into his tub away from the rabble - and of course the human obeys!

By 1100am the humans start to fret that the animals will be starving (!) and so the sugar beet is dished out.  We use the pelleted sort, either soaked overnight in cold water or over a shorter period in hot water.  Fergus (second left) can be seen looking towards the field shelter where he expects his bowl to be placed - and of course the human obeys!

And finally..............Robbie removed an old cupboard from the inside wall of the hay store and in doing so thought at first that these brown lumps were mould.  On closer inspection of course they turned out to be hibernating bats and magnifying the picture shows their wee leggies and feet gripping onto the chipboard.  By the time Robbie had organised something else to cover them the bats had shuffled off to another dark corner of the store to resume their snooze. Wonder if both bats woke together or one woke the other up, in any case they moved on.  The Grumpy Gardener now has a new name.....................Batman! 

Casting long shadows

A series of early morning photos of the boys with the low lying sun in the south east just about clearing the trees and casting long shadows.  Away to the west the dusting of snow on the hills has become a bit more pronounced as the week has gone on.  The boys prefer this type of clear, frosty weather to the recent mists - don't we all? 

Fidget with his hefty girth - not fleece, more like body mass!  Gaucho is behind him.

Fyta - always interested in whats going on and always on the look-out for food. Now that the much colder weather has arrived, breakfast for the boys is haylege which is a nice change from the drier hay which is always available in their buckets.

Quiet boy Rufus who is never pushy about anything. On the extreme left are Faro  (rear) and Gully.  You can tell by the 'heads up' stance that there is a slight argument going on!

Gully is always interested in the camera.  He's a tall, slender boy but does not put up with other alpacas invading his personal space, although he gets into their space frequently at feed time!  Standing behind him and looking more like Trigger the horse is actually Fyta the alpaca! 

Faro looks as if he is giving a seasonal rendition of 'Silent Night' here!  He's actually got something momentarily stuck in his teeth which he soon clears.

And finally...........the 'Corkscrew Hazel' (Corylus 'Contorta') has at last dropped most of it's leaves following an overnight frost.  Although catkins are not normally due to show until around February this one has lots of catkins already, probably as a result of the recent mild weather. This contorted tree is described in one of my gardening books as 'a curiosity rather than a thing of beauty.'  Thats a description that can be applied to a lot of things!