Monday 9 January 2012

Goats again

Still very busy and muddy here.   The builders have finished digging out the footings for the retaining wall to keep the earth back behind the house and will start the concrete  foundations so that Larry can start building the wall tomorrow.

If we leave the premises by vehicle in the daytime it  entails driving into a paddock where the fence has been taken down and then through the muddy gateway with the four wheel drive engaged and so on to the drive.  This is to avoid diggers, the dumper truck, piles of building blocks, bags of sand and sacks of cement.

We scanned an alpaca who has been sold to ensure that she is pregnant and thought it would be a good idea to scan the does as well.  I did not think they looked very pregnant but the scan showed that in fact all five of the original does, who are the only ones old enough to breed from at present, seem to be pregnant.   Our scanner is not state of the art (or maybe it is my  lack of technique) so I was not able to be sure whether twins were present, although  I suspect that at least two might have extra passengers.  The old girl who has lost all her teeth, causing Nick to recommend a visit to the knackers, seems to be pregnant too, so maybe she will go to term and once again contribute to the herd.   I hope she can feed a kid but if not I am sure we will manage.

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