Winter is on its way and it’s getting dark so much sooner. This means there have been some beautiful sunsets at Garth Hall but it also means there is often a rush to feed all the animals before sunset.
On Tuesday we had a delivery of alpaca food AND fencing equipment. Not a problem, use the tractor to take the pallet of food into the barn and then move the fencing and posts. Josh was going to do this while I fed and checked the alpacas and silvernoses. Then Josh phoned to tell me the feed had fallen off the pallet so I had to carry 35 feed bags by hand…
The only thing that went well was that the rain had stopped. The bags are 20kg so I was able to put 6 at a time on the mule but no more because I just couldn’t reach!!
At the entrance to the barn were the 4 little silver nose girls, the 2 big silvernose girls, Percy the silvernose ram, Molly + Munchkin and several assorted other sheep. I picked up the first bag and sneaked into the barn. Marvellous. However on the second bag, they worked out how to get in with me. They pushed passed and raced to the sheep food storage area. There were way too many for me to move in the dark. They chewed a hole in one bag and got stuck into it! I got the other 4 bags in and shook a bucket to get them to follow me out but not a chance. I left them in there and went back for the next load of 6.
This time I drove into the barn as I needed the lights as well. As I was unloading this time, Sian the largest silvernose climbed up on the whole to try to get at the food in the back of the mule.
As pets they aren’t road savvy either. No amount of beeping would get them to move out of the way so I had to drive really slowly until they would move. The only consolation was that everyone I reversed out, they were all eating so not in my way!
By load 3 I was tiring. By load 4 I was struggling but finally Josh had finished his job. He was able to help me and load a lot more bags into the mule. At the bottom of the pile was a broken bag but we scooped up as much as possible. Finally everything was done. What a tiring job but we were grateful that everything was safely put away.
Every time I pass the silvernoses they call out asking for food but they’ve all eaten about 3 weeks food by my reckoning so they are out of luck for a while!
Josh went away for a few days so of course sheep were escaping all over the place when that happened. Were there gaps or holes in the fences? No! They were just casually strolling up the dry stone wall!
The fencing was started on Saturday so we can have a 3rd alpaca field. Some of the oldest cria will go in there to be weaned. Ebony, Olaf and Caspar (formerly Ghost) will go in first alongside Kylie who has been caught suckling from her mother even though she should have been weaned a year ago!!! The younger ones will be moved later in the Winter.
There has been revived interest in alpaca poo for allotments so I’ve been collecting some this weekend.
We have also begun advertising Christmas lamb boxes so there is plenty of organising involved in that. Take a look at our reviews of how much our customers enjoy it!
Written by Helen Edmunds
