Long time no see

Well I cannot believe it was the 20th March when I last blogged on.

All the puppies have gone to their new homes and they seem to be making a good impression.   Dolly is already a fully fledged farm dog and comes round to feed the goats (and steal food from their trough) as well as the chickens.   She is not afraid of either but has been more reticent about the alpacas.   This morning, however, she was brave enough to stay with us whilst we cleaned the paddocks.   She tried to jump into the galvanised drinking trough but could not quite make it.   She has learned the delights of eating alpaca poo as a dietry supplement.

The hens have all settled in very well.   We now have the original 6 Black Rock,  7 Silver Link, 1 Rhode Island Red and 9 rescued hens and of course the cockrell.  We are picking up between 15 and 20 eggs a day and Mike is going to make a roadside sign so that we can get more people buying them.

We have sold quite a few alpacas lately and I am going to have to revamp our sales list to make some more money whilst retaining enough stock to keep the herd viable.  I took some weanlings and Pedro to the SWAG Spring show at the weekend and Pedro won his class with his daughter Lucetta coming second in hers.    Little Javier, a very attractive little fawn boy was thrown out because the judge could only find one testicle (on the alpaca) even though I had asked another experienced breeder to check for me before we went into the ring.  He confirmed that the testicles were present although they had not dropped.   Still you cannot argue with the judge, and to be fair he did have a second rummage when I mentioned that someone else had managed to locate the little devils.

We have scanned the goats and four of the five does are pregnant with some looking as though they might have twins.  We will be vaccinating them tomorrow to ensure that they have some immunity to pass on to their kids.  Mike and Nick will have to partition the goat house and the paddock to keep the buck away from the females and kids as apparently they can harm them.  Not sure if it is deliberate or just because the kids are small and the buck is big.

At last spring has arrived and the grass is starting to grow.   We have been struggling to get enough hay to go round for the last few weeks.   We are planning to buy in a much larger quantity this year and store it outside
under tarpaulin.     My friend's husband works in Chard Dairy and they have a lot of surplus pallets which we can have to make a base to stack in on.

We are going to move the herd around tomorrow to pull out some of the females who will be giving birth in the next week or two.   They will stay in a paddock near the barn so we can keep an eye on them.

Charlie, our latest dog has started to fight with Jake.  I think he is just getting too big for his boots as he has matured.   He will be paying the price with his manhood next Tuesday and in the meantime we are trying to spend some time keeping everything calm in the pack.   The last thing I want is for a dog to be hurt or for Dolly to learn bad behaviour.

Mike is suffering from a really bad back at the moment.  I have given him a couple of massages but I think he needs to go to the chiropractor and maybe get a professional massage too.  

All the hedges round the farm have now been layed and this year Mike and Nick will be concentrating on other jobs such as drainage and limiting the weed population in the winter paddocks as well as adding fertiliser.

Following a talk by Jo Scamell, a specialist in forage and soil nutrition and management arranged by our Vet practice we are going to have our soil tested and try to rectify any imbalances.    We will probably use green waste and natural minerals. This might seem strange when we have loads of alpaca manure daily but before being used on the paddocks it would have to be composted for two years to ensure that it is free of parasites etc:    This is not so important when it is just being used in small quantities to fertilise a garden but vital if being used to fertilise the whole farm.   

On the 10th April we held a coffee morning in support of Devon Air Ambulance.   Our friend and neighbour Pam suggested it as she had done several before.  She thought it might work to have it on the farm.

We are still waiting for the final tally on money because they have not collected the tins yet, but we made  over £200 on the gate, the raffle and the cake stall.  We also had a dog agility demonstration by Honiton Club and Friends and Members of Axe Vale club as well as Pam's nephew, Lawrence.  Pam made nearly all the cakes and the raffle prizes were donated by us and many well wishers.

Complete Meats our local butcher donated a lovely hamper and Moores Biscuits donated the biccies for the coffee.   We also had a jam and chutney tasting of locally made  varieties which we sell in the shop.

It was a beautiful hot day and most people seemed to stay for the duration.  Although it was not our intention particularly, we felt that it was a very good PR exercise.  We sold out of eggs and have been offered some extra grazing in the village which could be very useful.

I am away for four days from Wednesday as I am going to stay with Pauline in Andover and attend a John Rogerson course called the Ultimate Recall.  It will be interesting to find out if he has any brilliant new ideas to teach.

I will report when I get back.  I am leaving Mike with four females who could give birth any time over the next couple of weeks.  His favourite - NOT!

Farm News

We have started to take the pups into the garden every time we notice that they have woken up or seem restless and failing that every hour and a half to two hours.  We did not do it before as we were worried about the potential for them getting themselves in a difficult position such as underneath the cabin which is built on block pillarsor under the lorry unit which we use for storage and as a dog kennel.  Mike has blocked as many potential traps as possible with old bricks or wood of various types and so we feel more confident to let them out.  They love it and usually start to pee or poo immediately they get to the grass.   Apart from boding well for future house training it also saves a lot of work inside.   They get very excited when they first get into the garden and soon separate to investigate different areas.   Dolly comes to her name and the others bounce over to the call of pup, pup, puppies.

The main problem arises when trying to put them indoors  again.   One goes in and another comes out.  It is OK if Mike is around but it is a nightmare if I am on my own.

The new cria continues to prosper   She is due for her first vaccination next Thursday.nd

Today has been really horrible and all the routine jobs seem really hard when carried out against cold Easterly winds and driving rain.  Probably the reason we are both a bit dopy this evening.  I am sure it is nothing to do with the Brut Cava we just  downed with our dinner

We were worried when we nearly ran out of hay as it has been in short supply due to the long winter but we managed to source some today and Mike went off with the trailer to collect it.  We have almost decided that we with buy in 200 - 250 bales of hay for next year and prepare a hard standing area to store it on pallets covered in tarpaulin.

We will be glad when spring comes and the alpacas and goats just feed on grass most of the time so we dont have to go round topping up hay every day. We needed some rain but now we have had enough!!

Chickens Galore

The long awaited chicken launch has arrived.   We have 7 of our originals, including the cockrell, I bought another 8 Silver Links ( a hybrid renowned for their egg production) and David gave me 9 Free Range chickens from a large farm of 30,000.  They were due for the chop but slipped through the net to arrive at Laurel Farm.   This gave Mike a bit of a tight schedule to get the new chicken shed up and running but we made it and they all seem to be getting along quite well together.   We now have a glut of eggs so we hope that the word gets around soon so that we can become egg millionaires!!

The shop is doing very well now that it is on the ground floor and the builders have nearly finished lining and insulating the upstairs of the barn so that next winter I will have a cosy office and a room where I can use my sewing machine and knitting machine.   I always used to be quite good at making things by hand so hope to get back to a bit of sewing but I have yet to get to grips with the knitting machine.  I keep telling Mike that he is an engineer and ought to be able to help me work out how to do it!!

After not getting around to doing anything about it I decided finally to take my dolls house (a family heirloom) to the professionals.  The shop in Shaftesbury has closed down and so now I am starting the long search to try and find someone else who can do it.

The pups are going great guns.  They are on 4 meals a day and very lively.   As the weather has been good recently they have spent most of the day in their playpen in the garden.  Sadly rain is forecast for the rest of the week so they will have to spend more time indoors.  This also means a lot more clearing up of pees and poos for me, althoug Romie does help!!! Yuk!!!

Puppy News

The puppies have had lots of visitors this weekend.   Paul and Kate came to chose their puppies on Friday and spent a long time playing with them and taking photos and so on.   Chris came with her two girls to play with them and today one of my dog training friends, Rowena called in on the offchance and was very impressed with Romie and her babies.   Some potential alpaca clients called in by appointment and their two little boys enjoyed cuddling and playing with them and finally Nicky who has six alpacas at livery with us called in with her youngest daughter Sophia as well as her older sister.  They loved the puppies and the new baby alpaca.   So it was a busy time for the babies but they coped well and seemed to enjoy the visits very much.  Romie was a model mum and happily allowed the visitors to handle the puppies and her only intervention was to get a bit of attention herself when she felt the youngsters were getting too much.

A better picture

That's better.   She seems to be doing very well and is often seen going to Mum's milk bar.  She also has a little gallop round the paddock from time to time.  

It's a Girl

Well she couldn't help being born in the barn!!  This is our first birth this year and it's a lovely dark brown girl by Alario out of Lady Charmain.  She is absolutely gorgeous.

She was born just before Tessa, the vet, arrived to check on three alpacas who are going to their new home later this month.   We decided to have a pre-movement TB test done on them.  We expected the test to be negative as we practice pretty good bio-security and as far as we are aware we have not badgers on the land.   We also beat the bounds every day with the dogs and hopefully they leave their scent around the place, but you never know.    The results were negative so we can breath again.   Apparently a positive result is always true but alpacas are prone to false negatives, so the test is not fool proof by any means, but at least we have tried to do the honourable thing given the options that are available to us.  

The puppies are growing rapidly and have a constant stream of visitors which is very good for their socialising.   Chris who lives along the road brought her two daughters in to play with them this afternoon.  Both the puppies and the children enjoyed it very much.   We have them in the kitchen instead of in their little enclosure so much of my time was spent running around with a wet cloth clearing up the puddles.  Romie is very good at letting people handle the pups and is quite relaxed with the other dogs now.

Chris has a horse and two ponies, one for each daughter and yesterday I went out for a hack with her.  She rode one of her daughter's pony and I rode the 15.2 gelding.    I have not ridden for a number of years and even then did not have much experience, but I really enjoyed it.   The weather was great - brilliant sunshine and no wind for once and we went on routes that I had not seen before including some woodland rides and across Burridge Common.     Apparently I did not do too badly as she has invited me again in a week or so.  I am having a little difficulty in walking today, but it was well worth it.

Puppy Mayhem

Well the puppies are really lively and noisy now.   I went indoors to make tea for Mike and Nick and by the time I had come back from delivering it one of the pups has escaped from their box.   She must have scaled a puppy bundle.   She was not particularly worried and was busy exploring the kitchen.  Sandy looked on in amazement or fear, I am not sure which.   I quickly returned her to her brothers and sisters and removed the mesh guard now afraid that if they are capable of getting out of the box they could get stuck in the mesh.  It will only be a few more days before their heads are too big, I expect.   I put them all in the puppy pen in the sunshine this morning whilst I was cleaning out their box, so that is another thing to ad to their CV.  Romie was a bit worried but soon settled down to feeding them all when they returned to their nice clean bed.

Mike and Nick are still hedge laying and this afternoon Mike got the JCB running and shifted part of a pile of scalpings we bought.   He is gradually making the catch pens less muddy by making a hard surface.  This will be very welcome, especially if we get any more of the severe weather we have experienced this winter.   The weather is really lovely at the moment and according to the forecast set to last for a while.

I did some halter training and nearly all the weanlings are walking quite respectably now.  One let me down.  I must have tied her up insecurely and she ran off with her leading rope flying behind her.  I had to get Mike to help me catch her.  She settle down and was quite good once she realised she had been caught again.  I will have to be more careful next time.

We now have the shed which is to be the new chicken house.   Mike has just got to get some wood to repair the floor.    The owner of the chickens I have ordered phoned yesterday to find out why we had not collected them.  I had already explained we did not have their house ready, but I don't think he has anyone else interested in them so I expect they will be there when we want them.

We have run out of hay and it is short supply this year.   We have managed to reserve 20 bales but that won't go very far.