Alpaca Madness

I see that someone has just paid  Mathew Lloyd of E P Cambridge $150000 Australian for an alpaca.   According to my converter that's about £96000!!   How big can the bubble get?








Flaming Dog!!   I have a Halogen heater under the desk in my office.   As it is upstairs in the barn we have not put in a proper heating system.   The dogs often accompany me when I have to spend some time at the desk.   Many years ago I lost my sense of smell and much of my taste (some say) as the result of quite a serious riding accident.

Our little old sixteen year old terrier feels the cold these day and crept under the desk without my noticing her.  Luckily Mike came up to speak to me and alerted me to the smell of burning and we rescued Sandy  just in time with only a burned/semi melted coat.   See picture.   She also singed her fur but luckily did not actually go up in flames.

The cat keeps pinching the dogs' beds and Mike's arm chair so we splashed out and bought her a really cosy bed.   She still prefers the dogs' beds but at least now we have somewhere definite to locate her.

The alpacas seem to be coping very well with the snow and ice.   Although they originate from South America and live on the Altiplano where it gets extremely cold, they do not usually experience so much dampness.   We no longer have to go and round the girls up.   We let them out in the mornings and they wander down to the winter paddocks where we have a couple of hay racks.   They seem to browse round the edges and devour any greenery that dares to stick its head above the snow and at about 3.20 p.m. the "camel train" sets off and they all drift into the barn and start some serious eating.  When twilight comes we shut them in, try and persuade the chickens to go to bed, shut the goats in  and then batton down the hatches for the night.,