Neeps!

 'Neeps' (Swedes!) are usually associated with haggis for Burns' Suppers at this time of year.  Our boys enjoy their neeps, anytime, any place and the top photo shows Fergus (left) today getting stuck into his whilst Gaucho is thinking about it. Gully is in the background. The bottom photo shows Fyta enjoying his piece of neep.  The boys normally eat them off the ground but prefer them hand fed as they can nibble them easier.  Once they start, they leave nothing.  If you click on the picture Fergus's top plate can easily be seen
Its a misty day, cold and with lumps of snow still lying around.  It was raining earlier so the guys look a bit bedraggled.  They are beginnning to roll on the ground again after the snow, so you can imagine how they look covered in mud.

Some grass - at last!

We moved the boys today from the bottom paddocks to the top paddocks as grass is beginning to re-appear due to the snow melt.  It also gives us a chance to clean up the paddocks after weeks of frozen droppings.  These guys could poop for Scotland!  Top photo shows the boys enjoying their supplement feed just before dark with their two field shelters in the background. Lower photo shows the broken joists in our main steading in the lower paddock caused a couple of weeks ago by the weight of snow. This steading is where the hay and straw is stored so is well used.   We've had the joists supported with a number of upright posts and now that the snow is melting, the downward pressure is being relieved.  Fortunately we heard the joists cracking so were able to quickly place uprights in position so we did not suffer a total collapse.  We had to close off the steading, part of which is used as a shelter by the boys in case it collapsed on them, so they used their field shelter instead - quite happily.

Sno(w) joke!

The deep snow and frost have been with us since before Christmas, with no break.  The boys remain in good spirits, although seem to be bored with the white stuff.  Today they followed me around the outer paddock and started to chase each other, galloping through the snow with their tails held up.  The 'gallop' is more like a canter and is really funny to watch.  To give them a break from the hay and haylage, we have started giving them daily sugar beet pulp, soaked overnight, as a supplement.  They were wary of the beet on the first day, but now they scoff the lot and are looking for more!  Photo shows husband Robbie scraping away snow along the fence line and the boys eagerly eating the tufts of uncovered grass which remains unfrozen under the deep snow.  Also photographed is Horace our 8 years old cockerel, with his sister Tiddles being fed warm porridge.  Like the boys, Horace and his 7 hens are not spoiled (much!)   Horace in particular does not like to put his feet on the cold ground so he stays on his perch most of the day, giving the occasional 'cock -a-doodle-do' to let everyone know he is still in charge.  We keep the hens in separate enclosures from the boys because we are unsure of what bugs may be in the hens' droppings.

Happy Christmas

As the snow still lays thick all around we are obviously going to have a white Christmas tomorrow.  Temperatures were down to -9c this morning so were obviously colder during the night. At Aviemore, not many miles away,  the temperature dropped to -16c last night and the forecast is for it to be another cold night tonight.  The boys were covered in frost this morning but seem to be doing OK in the cold.  We cleared some snow to reveal the grass and they were delighted with this.  The top photo of me with some of the boys was taken just before the really heavy dump of snow.  Can't resist putting up another shot taken from the house looking up the drive, following the heavy snow. I'd like to wish all my blog followers (Debbie in USA, Joyce in France, Rolf in Norway and Iain and Ann on the Isle of Lewis), all family and friends, and alpaca lovers everywhere, a very happy Christmas.  Take care and have a lovely time.

White stuff

In my last post I showed a summer photo - now we are in the depths of winter!  Over the last two days we have had significant snowfalls - a real knee high dump which is likely to stay with us and give us a white Christmas.  Top photo is of Gaucho looking for more hay having already consumed one lot of haylage, and to examine the camera.  The other photo shows Gully in front, with Fidget behind and Faro the brown fella at the rear.  Several of the boys have been running around and jumping in the snow so they obviously like it.  Unfortunately there is no grass for them to graze and unlike sheep, we find that the boys do not scrape the ground to find any.  They are using their shelters a lot but still manage to look wet most of the time.  We change their drinking water daily, remove the ice and snow, and find that they do drink it probably because eating nothing but hay, haylage and their supplements, makes them thirsty.  The weather forecast indicates that this cold spell will last for several days.

Sand (s)pit

Its not that we pamper our boys (much!) but they have a sandpit in each of their paddocks.  During the winter they don't use them - but the rabbits do!  However, during the rest of the year they love to just lie in the sand or roll about in it.  Even on the hottest days the sand is cool, and after a feed they chill out.  The photo (above) was taken shortly after the boys were sheared and shows Fyta (left) and Fergus - both showing off their cool haircuts.  During the present freezing weather I think it is nice to see a summer photo.  We are often asked if the boys spit.  Alpacas do spit at each other, especially when there is food around.  Our guys are no exception to this and often we hear a spitting noise then a fine mist flies through the air in the direction of another alpaca.  Sometimes it is more than fine mist and lots of chewed up grass ends up on the back of an animal's head!  This spit smells awful, like a really bad case of halitosis and if a human gets in the way, then a good wash or shower is needed.  Unfortunately the animal which spits, and the spat upon animal end up being unable to eat anything for around 10 - 15 minutes.  Their lower lips droop, they often have a drip of green saliva falling from the lip and they look thoroughly miserable.  They look like the Donkey in the Shrek movies with their teeth bared and droopy lip!  A couple of the boys go and grab a mouthful of hay and stand there waiting for the taste and smell to disappear before their systems allow them to chew and swallow again.   Sometimes one of the boys will sneeze, and if it is close to one of the other boys, the same symptoms can appear.  First time we saw this was on Fergus, a couple of days after we got the boys in 2007 and we thought he had been stung by a bee!