Nest Boxes and Cars

As it is National Nest Box Week we put up several boxes yesterday in the hope that the little birds who seem to be eating us out of bird seed at an alarming rate, will carry out a little bit of home viewing ready for when the weather is warmer and they need to start setting up home. Barn owl boxes to build next as we have several owls who hunt all around us and it would be a great honour if one decided to use our barn this year to rear a brood. Simon King is promoting nest boxes on the National Nest Box site which also wants people to monitor the boxes and any other nests in hedges in the garden for the national data base. It gives lots of information about building, siting and watching so why not join in.

The truck appears to be working again, which is a huge relief as we need the truck to be able to pick up our visitors and get to shops, market etc. It was doubly annoying as the Stig (our lovely green 1977 SAAB) was also playing up. Why are cars such a nuisance and a necessary evil, so a big thank you to Chris for keeping at it despite negatives from the other half, who always seemed to be the one driving when one or other broke down. 4 hours in a car park while it got sorted out - never a dull moment, but several frustrating ones!

Birthdays and Cake

Busy weekend as family birthday so visitors and lots of cake. Having a member of the family who has a wheat intolerance can be difficult at times, but it also means that more care has to be taken when choosing and cooking food, which is not a bad thing as it makes us all think about what we are eating. There has been a lot of cooking and baking going on, in order to have birthday cake. Mind you there has been quite a lot of cake brought into the house from lovely market stalls in London where getting wheat free cakes and tasty vegetarian take-aways is a lot easier.

However there is a great cookery book called Gluten free baking which was a Christmas present and it has the most amazingly, yummy cakes and bread in. We have tried several and will be gradually working our way through it as the weeks go on, so thanks for the presetn and to Phil Vickery who wrote it. Another favourite dish for the birthday boy is curry so a home made vegetarian curry was his birthday meal, made by his best friend from London who came to visit for a few days. He brought his two dogs one who is about the same age and and size of one ours - 18months and full of energy! They have been tearing around the garden with totally disregard for where they were going and the visiting dog mistook reeds for solid ground and got quite a shock when he disappeared into the shallow end of the pond - these city dogs!!! I think the poor frogs etc. got a shock too, but it does not look like any harm done and the flags have got to be thinned out this week anyway.

Happy New Year 2011

I know it is late but this is the first blog of the new year.

Since we last posted our direction has changed and we are in the process of being set up as a charity called A Change of Scene for Children, as those of you who have looked at the website will have seen. Therefore we have been rather preoccupied with registering as a company and a charity, which is nearly done, and now look forward to having lots of young visitors to make a fuss of us, so we can help them feel better about themselves. A win win situation!

Of course Christmas and New Year were in the middle of this and great fun was had by all, with lots of new people visiting us alpacas, making it a little more interesting than just sitting in the shed out of the snow and ice all day. What a winter!!! Almost like being in Peru with our relatives! Still it certainly feels as though the weather is picking up and there are signs that movement is happening in the garden with preparation work for veg planting.

Fund raising seems to be taking over the time and applications have been made to a couple of trusts and the round of club talks is starting, not that we go we send the humans to do that sort of thing.

Our first referral visited this week and it was lovely to think that in just 3 months, we decided in September to go for this, (I have discounted December) we have actually started.

All the young alpacas, Fleur, Dameli, and George have grown enormous already, and are very excited about having visitors and we look forward to increasing our stock levels with a few more animals in the coming months. We do enjoy company.

If anyone knows of any animals needing a home please let us know via the contact page or on facebook page A Change of Scene for Children- Lincolnshire. Better not have any more dogs though, our lot get so jealous.

I think the humans try to keep up to date with the face book page but I promise to update the blog more regularly now - new year's resolution!

National Nest Box Week starts on 14th February, what a lovely Valentine present to give the love of our life, a nest box to put up in the garden and be able to watch a whole new love story unfold between our feathered friends this spring.

Bye for now just seen a patch of grass I haven't tried yet so ..........

Hay and tractors

As I sit in the office trying to catch up with paperwork, that the sun is mocking me and is shining warmly, letting me know that most of the hay is still sitting in the field. It was looking good for this weekend as the weather is meant to stay warm with maybe a shower on Thursday, but it would be possible to get it all in at the weekend as we have a few extra bodies staying! Guess what the tractor and trailer are not available!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am now trying to persuade a few visitors to come early and give us a hand on Thursday/Friday.

On a more positive note I have seen some of our processed fibre and it is beautiful and will ready in the next few days for knitting up or selling as duvets, pillows and throws. Very exciting. I have to say it is even tempting me start knitting myself, long winter nights coming up.

Mind you at the moment I have got to make chutney with the glut of courgettes i seem to have, they are taking over, off out today t oget more onions and jar seals - guess what everyone will be getting for Christmas this year?

The photo is George our only little boy - he is about one week old in this picture and is great fun now he has grown a little more confident and worked out that his Mum does not like to feed him when she is eating - he doesn't keep getting kicked off!

Fame at last

http://bbc.co.uk/i/tc509/

If you look at this programme aired today on BBC One it will show our land and some of the past alpaca residents. you may even spot a very Inky amongst the herd. I got a phone to watch and have to say we are rather over excited about especially as it give a little add for alpaca fibre and why everyone should be using it!

Shearing complete

At last the girls have been sheared and are looking elegant and thin. This was a new experience for all of us and not as traumatic as we thought. Our girls were very well behaved and even the yearlings who were being sheared for the fist time did not cause too much stress. I have to say the youngsters are being slightly more jumpy when I go into the barn now than they were before!! However all of them are cleaner looking now and not sticking their necks, legs and anything else they can into the water troughs now.

Their fleeces have been sorted, which was a slightly dusty job, especially the first timers. Not made easier by the fact that the dogs thought it smelt great and was something for them to play with and kept splitting the bags just as we had got the fleece in it. The yearling fleeces are so soft it was like sorting cotton wool, wafting about - it will produce fabulous yarn to make into ultra soft socks, jumpers etc. They have been dispatched to the mill and are being processed along with the rest of last years fleeces. so soon we will have a store cupboard restocked with lovely yarn and products to sell.

My daughter and I tried to get the hay into the barn on Tuesday, but only managed to move 80 or so bales out of the 200 sitting there, before getting absolutely soaked and abandoning the task, much to our annoyance. The wet bales have been left to dry off this week, and hopefully can be stored away at the weekend - weather permitting!!! Got told afterwards that if we had tried to store the wet bales they could have spontaneously burst into flames as they dried off, so glad we did not do that then!!!!!! We will be trying to cut down all the thistles too, busy weekend and short handed now as daughter gone off to work at Cowes week, having 'survived' her parachute jump yesterday!! Yes it was a birthday present from her Dad last year, and only now managed to get it done. She, and I, were terrified before the event. I had to go and check she got down safely and will admit to actually crying on the way home out of sheer relieve! What a softie!!!

Well must go now to get the cat in from chasing the froglets, the dog who has got himself stuck on the wrong side of the fence and bring the bin in which has somehow got itself into the middle of the road causing everyone to brake rather sharply as they come round the corner!!

Pictures

This is Fleur at about half an hour old with Mum Inky on the left and Fleur a couple of hours later looking beautiful on the right.