The forecast for today was not good. I put my waterproofs on at home, not fancying getting ìnto them in the rain at Garth Hall. It actually wasn’t bad when I got there. I let the ducks out and then fed the Peckys. Neil had picked some windfall apples so I put 3 in the run to see if they eat them. I fed Rascal then and went off in the jeep. In all honest, I was lucky with the weather, only a few light bits of rain on me. I was lucky with the weather but not lucky with Arwen. She’s being very naughty at the moment. She pushes her head all the way through the fence 🙄
I had the bucket with their food, which I tip into the trough. Before I can do that, I have to separate Ffion’s portion into an individual hanging feed bucket. I can’t put it out though until the others are the other side of a barrier, eating from the trough. In hindsight, and from now in, I will put a lid on the bucket because Arwen got her head in it. It’s very difficult to get an alpaca head out of a bucket because those long necks are solid muscle. Multiply the difficulty level by at least two if you’re dealing with a greedy alpaca. That’s also how the bucket handles get broken. I got her head out once she’d come up for air. I hung the bucket on the outside of the fence, at the bottom. Bloody Arwen forced her head through and into Ffion’s feed bucket. By the time I got her out, she had already eaten one of Ffion’s antihistamines 🤬 I put the carrying bucket in the feeding bucket and took both to the trough. As soon as food hit the trough, Arwen dived in and forgot about Ffion which left her on her own to get her food.
I went out of their field and then fed the boys. Ffion had finished her food by then but left the remaining tablet, wet and squashed into the bucket. Fail 🤦♀️ I went back over to the boys and managed to take some food from them. Ffion refused to eat it. I was getting slightly hysterical by then and gave up. I fed in the main field and still didn’t get rained on which was a win. I drove up and Charles Bronson was already out of the run! Back at home, my first job was to try out the WiFi booster. It took slightly longer than I anticipated. I don’t tend to read instructions until I’ve had a good fiddle around with the item first. It was to my detriment this time. Once it was done, I typed up my talk for the afternoon. The other issue was the stupid cheap laptop has a broken charger so I had to hold that in and type one handed for a bit. It doesn’t have Microsoft Office so I didn’t have Word. I had to find a free notepad to type it up. That took longer than I needed it to as well. I typed it up and then couldn’t print the bloody thing 🤬 I copied it to an email and was able to print that. Because it wasn’t in word, I couldn’t make it a large font. But there we are. It was done.
I let Skye out the back then and got dinner on. I then remade the bed while it cooked. After dinner and her walk, I had a shower to get ready for church. Belinda messaged to say she was already there so to go when I was ready so I could go over the slide order. The rain was really heavy by then. I got to church and discovered I hadn’t sent all the photos. I’m rubbish at forwarding things. Just ask Josh 😂 Robert (who does the slides) was very patient with me. When we were done, he gave me my Madonna headset and microphone ready for my talk. “How do I get that under all my hair?” An, bless him, he had the answer. “Belinda always puts her hair forward, puts that on her ears and then flips her hair up again.” It worked great and was hidden. I just had to press the button when I was ready to be heard. I asked him where the toilet was. “It’s OK. The mic isn’t on yet!”
Unfortunately there were less people in church than we’d hoped, probably because of the weather. I did meet two lovely dogs and plenty of friendly people. I did my talk and got a clap 👏 Then after the service, handed my mic set to Robert and joined everyone for tea and cakes. There were also biscuits but I had a kitkat, less gluten. I chatted to most of the groups and said my goodbyes. I had a lovely thank you hug from Belinda. “Hopefully there will be more people next time you come.” Did that mean she was inviting me to go again?
The rain was horrendous on the way home. I had to swap the order of the car and truck again so the truck was available for tomorrow. I then walked Skye. I was cold 🥶 so cold, that I put the heating on and my big fluffy Oodie. I also had a headache. While I ate my tea, I started aching. Not good. Neil messaged to say he had closed at Garth Hall and there had been 3 Peckys out. They had eaten the apples I gave them and the ones he previously gave them. Unless, of course, they aren’t brewing cider under Barry. I wouldn’t put it past them 😂 He also said that he had a headache. I messaged Jordan to see if she could potentially open tomorrow because I didn’t feel too good. She had a headache as well 😬 Hopefully just the weather.
It was a good day when I got to talk about my alpacas 😁
Helen x
