It was light when I woke up which was unusual. It’s been dark lately. I didn’t want to check the time because I wasn’t ready to get up 😂 I knew I needed to in the end. It was 6.58. Not even a lie in but at least it was sunny. It had been a night of torrential rain. Jordan wasn’t expected at Garth Hall until around 11.30 when Riley had his nap. I still had to open up so off I went. Just after I got there, Neil messaged to say he had only just woken up. I told him there was no rush. We had plenty of time to discuss the alpaca chute before Jordan arrived.
I sent the ducks out of the paddock gate into the airlock expecting them to go to the pond. I fed Rascal and sorted out the syringe gun and got everything ready to take with me. When I went to the jeep, I saw the ducks, back in their paddling pool 🤦♀️ I drove down and filled the buckets but had to retreat to the jeep because of a heavy shower. I used the time to look for an email I wanted to share with Jordan and Neil. Jordan rang to say Riley had fallen asleep after football so she was going to be early. There was still no sign of Neil. I drove up for her and gave her my spare waterproofs. She just got them on before another black cloud emptied it’s contents on us. Neil arrived at that point and we all went down. We sheltered under the boys shelter for me to explain about the email. I shut the boys in the pen at that point. They had come in to see what we were doing . Then we went into the podfield. They were fun to get in the pod 🙄 Jubilee finally lead them in. I was next to the hurdle and celebrated too early. I took my eyes of her and she ran past me. Arwen ran out next and they all got excited.
After theyd had their fun, we got them in and set about Body Scoring them. They all felt a lot thinner with their fleeces parted along their spines. I’ve marked everyone down as they felt today. Hopefully for some it’s just a rain issue. Most of the ones that have lost weight are feeding crias so it’s to be expected to some extent. Hopefully they will pick up on weaning. After the girls were done and Greyce and Wilma had their second Heptavac injections, Neil went off and Jordan and I went to BCS the boys. They did not want to be caught. It’s a sloping field with a mud-filled dip where the shelter part is. It’s lethal. We tried to walk slowly. The shelter roof is at head height. I can attest to the fact that hitting your head on it hurts. A lot 🤕I’ve hit my head on there many a time. When we got started I noticed Olaf outside the pen. He won’t get BCS’d for another month now. He eats well, I don’t have concerns about him. The others were a nightmare. Our last one was McQueen. He was a little bigger today. In the end Jordan caught him, somehow, by gripping a bit of fleece on his side. This is not how to catch an alpaca and not to be recommended but it bloody worked! She slowed him enough and gripped for dear life. She’s not called ‘truck’ for nothing. She’s strong 💪By holding his fleece there, she was then able to get her other hand around his neck and stop him properly. Even some of the boys have gone down a score so it could just be the rain on their coats.
I fed the boys and the podfield girls. Jordan went to help Neil. I thought he had left but he was trying to load the quadling onto a little trailer so he could take it home. Once again Truck was needed to be strong and help with that. He did leave then and we went to the main field. The feed bucket was left in the jeep. We had things to do before they were fed. Jordan reached for the blue rope. The infamous blue rope, that burned both my ankles earlier in the summer. It was in one huge knot 😬 She pulled some out but not as much as we usually had. They were reluctant to go in the pen though. A black one got under the bloody rope 🤬 “Its OK. It’s Clara. I know she’s OK.” Then Persephone got out too. We left them to it so we could get all the others in. “Mam! It’s the one at the front. Go and move her!” It was Zippy. She had Jett with her and they wouldn’t go past the chair. The chair has been there at least a year so it probably wasn’t that. I guessed it was the red biscuit box on it. That was new. It had the Heptavac in it. I moved it and they soon moved again. Funny creatures 🤦♀️
We had the proper needles this time and got through everything really quickly. Body Scoring is fairly quick. I just put my hand on them. Recording the scores on my phone takes longer than actually scoring them. We discibered that it was Bernadette that was out not Clara. She could have done with being checked as shes a mother to Fern but there we are. Vaccinating the crias was more difficult. They are wriggly and fluffy. Jordan had to pick them up a bit to hold them and the hardest thing was delving through the fleece to pinch enough skin to get the needle in. A few times, we saw the vaccination pour down the fleece where I hadn’t got the needle into the skin. The best way to know how the needle was in was the ‘jump and squeak’ reaction. I knew when certain ones had the vaccine. And then we were done. Jordan fed the girls while I undid the knots and properly wound the blue rope. We drove up. Jordan left and I sorted everything out. I left a bit after 12.15. I was glad she had come earlier. I had gluten free pizza for dinmer because it was quick. After walking Skye I went to the office to do the VAT.
Three video chats to Josh (and one chat with William) later, we decided that the issue was that the office is too far away from the router. I’ll need to get a booster 🙄 I gave up on that. Neil phoned then to chat about a potential hard standing area in the podfield. We will need somewhere for the alpaca chute. We think we’ve got a plan. We had a discussion about the (STILL) unfinished polytunnel 🤬 There’s a plan for that now as well as a few other ideas/improvements floating around.
I went back to close and was greeted by two ducks and four Peckys! They have been joined by one of the white ones. I decided to call James Coburn 🤦♀️ The buzzard was about when I left earlier. I must admit I was expecting it to have attacked them rather than there to be an extra when clucking about. Off we went, in procession to get food from Cai. I started off to Barry with the food and stopped to take a photo of the ducks. They were filthy. Happy but covered in black from dabbling about in dirty puddles. I got everyone fed and put to bed. I went to Argos before home to pick up the Wi-fi booster
Helen x
