Top Soil and Washing Lines

Who would have thought deciding whether to have a washing line or a whirlygig would take so long - and still it is not decided! I prefer lines as the washing drys quicker and blows but we have no mature trees in the garden to tie a line to. I resent spending out for a post to put in the ground as it would have to be cemented which will be a mission. There are already holes for a whirlygig but they are on the patio and I do not want to look out on washing when we have a lovely garden to look at. We have a lot of washing so probably can not confine to one day a week.
After 6 weeks we have bought a washing line and yesterday tried to find somewhere to hang it, but to no avail, plus it was raining all day anyway. We still have no washing line and I suppose I am going have to accept that I need a whirlygig or buy a post! More expense.
While the rain poured down and I was trying to organise an advert on the phone the topsoil arrived. The lorry blocked the road, so not wanting to get on the wrong side of the neighbours so soon, time was of the essence. However chaos rained as usual, top soil being offloaded, while I am on the phone, at the same time trying to keep dogs out of the office so they do not eat the cat food, keep cats in the office so they do not jump out of the open windows in the lounge, find change to give the driver a tip and sound professional on the phone to the magazine trying to write a feature about alpacas!
However we now have our top soil which is sitting at the front of the house getting heavier because it is raining heavily again. It has to be wheelbarrowed to the veg beds which I am now thinking should be closer to the house! Got to go now as phoning the vets to order worm and bluetongue stuff, find some straw, order cushion pads, write more trust letters, buy some fleeces and organise the herd name.......

Three of the dogs Inky wants to keep her eye on. 'They look peaceful here but I've seen them in the garden'

The rest of the girls 'just hving a chat'.

'I am just keeping an eye on those dogs in the garden'

Catch Up summary

In November 2009 spotted a property to rent in Lincolnshire with land. It is not a property we would have looked at as did not particularly want to move to Lincolnshire, or so I thought…….

‘Go along with an open mind’ mother said as we had been looking for several months without luck. With six dogs, two cats and an elderly relative to house it limited our choice somewhat. This property had enough rooms and space for all of us and the owners were fine with the dogs et al.

The bungalow – yes I know, not the pretty farmhouse envisaged – was fairly non descript from the front , but it looked quite big and the welcome from the owners was extremely warm. The village was very small but being on the edge of the Wolds, the countryside was more green and undulating, more to our taste, very pretty.

Once there, the extent of the place unfolded - 16 acres at the back with alpacas! After further discussions we were hooked and decided to move and take on some alpacas of our own and produce beautiful, useful products from these pretty quiet charismatic animals.

Decision made we started to look at buying some of our own, ~The owners f the property agreed to take us and help us buy a few of our own. A date was decided and all arrangements made, the day dawned and it was snowing, not just a bit like we usually get in this country no it was unbelievable, blizzard conditions!

However daughter riding shotgun we decided to go not really believing it would be that bad. It was. It took hours to get there. The boys did not believe it to be that bad either but they would later on!

We had lunch then went on a 40 min drive to meet Kevin and his alpacas. On the way it was green and very beautiful right across the Wolds. We met several lovely alpacas and chose 3 pregnant ladies, Inky, Zoe and Achyls with 2 of their young crias, Dior and Colby. They were all so lovely we were over excited looking forward to them coming to live with us, hoping they felt the same. Kevin agreed to keep them for us until we move in February and we left, just as the snow started to fall and it kept on falling.

It was a good job the boys knew where they were going as I would not have been able to see the road – it was a blizzard. It turned out that everytime we visited our new home to be it snowed.

We finally got home after a long day very tired but pleased we had got our alpacas.

March

Well here we are, installed after a lot of toing and froing. (So much for hiring a removal firm). What a stress. I booked them told them what we had to move and when the day came they were not sure their lorry was big enough so they brought another smaller one and filled that up with all the items from the rented house with no room for anything from the other house. Later when we arrived at the bungalow, the first van, which had the content of the storage container, was not even full and could have brought all the plants, and furniture we had to leave behind. We were not happy and have spent the last few weeks gradually bringing things over a bit at a time. Not the stress free move we anticipated.

The alpacas arrived on a very wet Sunday afternoon completely stress free, calm and chilled out. They followed us out of the trailer down the garden and into the paddock without mishap. They seem to be settling in well and have been gradually getting used to the dogs charging out in the garden every morning as if they have never been out before in their lives!

We have fed them up a bit with extra feed because it has been such a rubbish winter and there is still not much grass. They certainly seem to getting bigger and friendlier and we are starting to see their individual characters emerge.

This has set us thinking about creating this blog about their adventures meeting all the other animals that will be joining us over the coming months and our endeavours to deal with everything..

It does not feel as though we have achieved much but thinking about it, we have shortlisted our logo, built two raised veg beds and ordered the topsoil, planted potatoes, and potted up some patio plants and herbs.

We have also gathered together the fence panels that my other half ‘just happened to have’ and discovered there is enough to put around the patio. This means the mad escape artiste that is Ollie the lab, will not charge off into the paddock, next doors hens or straight into the pond. Apparently he does not jump over things just barges his way through things!

Finally got some loft boards and put some of the Christmas decorations away – why have we got some many?

We have ordered two new sofas, in cream and pale blue – what was I thinking, we have six dogs! Watch my blood pressure go up when we get them installed.

We have also chosen a new car, one that does 60mpg, the very best reason as cash flow will be tight for the time being until the alpaca business is up and running and the festival starts paying it’s way..

As far as the festival/association is concerned we have sent out about 50 letters to trusts, 30 letters to schools for horticultural comp., also starting to write letters for sponsorship. Had one positive response from a trust who asked me to write again and they will try to help. Others have been positive but we need to be a charity so trying to find two trustees so I can send in the application to the Charity Commission.

Doodlebug Designs are coming up in April for a meeting and we can finalise some details for the web sites for both The English Alpaca Co. and the festival. We must take a lot more photos so they have lots to choose from.

Janice the cat has moved into the office with Murphy and seems to quite like it, as long as the dogs stop eating their food. Murphy is getting quite adventurous and goes out every morning for about half an hour while I feed the girls and Coby, Billie and Princess have a charge around the garden.

The pond is full of toads spawning although we think they look more like frogs - how useless are we? Not seen the heron lately, but no doubt he will be back later in the year when all the ‘froglets’ are about! Seen buzzards regularly which is a real treat, and the other morning had about 4 yellowhammers feeding on the patio – very pretty. The barn owl flew over the garden the other morning and looked beautiful, it must be the same one I watched along the road earlier in the week. Very exciting. We have a regular pheasant visiting the patio and parading in front of the dogs, especially Billie who gets quite affronted. The pheasant has been named Sir Percival because he looks well preened and snooty.

Topsoil for veg. beds arrives today and it’s raining again!

So that’s us up to date. And entries will be daily.