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.

web site (almost)

Here we are in July, still hot! At last we have all three babies Fleur, Dameli, and George. typically the boy, George was he weedy one, lightest and lazy. Starts raining, and all others go inside George just sits in the rain, so he has had to suffer the indignanty of wearing the asbo coat. At least we could see him in the long grass. Dameli arrived he day my daughter got back from Australia hence the australian name, it means affection, and she is very affectionate, or nosey is another word for it.

Now finally we can get them sheared which happens this Friday evening - not really looking forward to it as it means upsetting the girls a bit, but better than them getting too hot, and the fleeces can be processed straight away as the mill are finally get around to processing the fleeces I bought in April. So within a couple of weeks we will have some stock and the web site will be up and running.

We have also taken delivery of our first lot of wild flowers ready to be potted up and labelled for selling - that's my job today. Just got to design write and print all the explanatory labels to stick on pots!

Bit of potential disaster with hay fields - they still not cut!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The contractor is all behind and now I am wondering if we will ever get any hay. It must have no value in it either nutritionally or price to sell so not very happy. He promised to get it done this week, but depends on weather. It is not as if we have had bad weather, so not sure what going on there. Tractor will be bought before next hay time if we still here.

Now that this blog is connected to web site I will must keep it up to date with our news each week - I think I may have said that before.

Our first new arrival

At 8.50am Inky gave birth to a health, beautiful cria. We are all over excited.

Inky is being wonderful and has introduced her new baby girl to everyone. the other alpacas have all been carefully checking out Inky and her baby and one of the adults (the oldest of the group) made sure the youngsters did not interfere with the new born until she was up and about.

All are in the paddock next to the field so we can keep an eye on everything for a few hours, but so far so good. the weather is warm and not wet, and being born at this time gives baby time to feed dry off and be strong enough to cope with the nght night - clever alpacas.

I just read some of the blogs of note and realise my blogs are so boring at the moment, people really put a lot of effort into them. anyway maybe I will catch up to their standard one day.

Thunderstorm last night after a very heavy (weatherwise) day. the girls decided to sit it out outside! they do not seem to be spooked by anything. needless to say this morning they are soaking and dirty again. Dogs did not bother too much either, living here is chilling everyone out. The hayfever not good though, forgot we not near the sea now so suffering more than before.

The new car saga rolls on. We decided on a volkswagen estate until got told it will be another 6 weeks when it was due this week! So back to the beginning and went to look at a volvo estate again and decided to order, which will be here earlier saving lots of fuel money we hope -very important for us poor smallholders. While test driving the car we came across another lovely place called Doddington Hall - I think. Great farm shop where we stopped for a coffee and ended buying stuff! The hall looks lovely and somewhere to bring relatives when they visit.

this week really going to get cracking on the wildflower business - really excited about it. Also maybe this time next week we will have another little alpaca to add to our herd.

time has whizzed by again. Lots happening. Inky is only one week away from her due date and I keep watching her with binos. It's been amazingly wet and stormy the last few days too so do not want baby alpaca to be born in wet. One of the crias had to have a visit from vet for treatment for something similar to 'mud fever' in horses. She looking OK now, but we had to wash her legs every day so it got us and them a bit more used to handling. Did not even get kicked this time. Also had the grazing field topped again, the rain makes the grass grow quicker than the girls can eat it, plus it will control the thistles! More expense though so need to get cracking on either getting more animals to eat it or change the fences around so it can be cut for hay.

Really starting to formulate some plans for land and development of business with the FWAG man coming out in July and the woodland trust in a week or so.

We have decided we need a tractor now as quite a few things would be easier with one, topping, mowing, carrying stuff etc. So I have asked some friends of mine to advise about what to steer clear of so we can hopefully get a good one, that will not break down too much.

the fleeces we sent for processing should be ready soon, hopefully, and we need to get photos done for the web site and get some things sold.

Daughter returning from Oz next month and soooo looking forward to it. I know she sad to leave but no doubt she will be planning her next trip as soon as she gets back.

Saw an item o n news last night about some rescue ponies that need a home - must try to control myself!!!!!! They were sweet though.

Well we have found a shearer although he can not fit us in until July after the babies are born, but at least we have met him and he lives close by. He came and gave the girls a pedicure and is gentle and caring so much relieve all round. We got a few tips on how to do a few other things too.

The mini heat wave is over and as it is Bank holiday it is of course raining. We did need the rain as the ground is very dry and the grass in the meadow we want to cut for hay have not grown that much yet. Still I am sure there is time. We still have to tackle the thistle problem and it is getting worse. We have been told they just need to be cut before they flower and that will help, but how we re-establish the grasses, we have still to find a way we feel comfortable with. Visitors are just going to have to help dig them out!

Great excitement as the web site was sent by the designer for us to try out and very cute it is. Not sure about the colour still, but will try it out on a few people to see their reaction. Now we just have to have some products to sell and get some lovely pictures.

WE may well diversify into wild flower/plant selling as when we have tried to buy them for the garden there are none around in the normal laces, you have to send off for them, but it would be great to start with plants bought in then start growing our own. Will investigating that this week.

Heatwave

I do hope this is not our summer and just a preview to what we can expect. The last few days have been hot hot hot! Great for us but not for our girls who have still not been sheared. We spend time pouring water all over the grass near the trough for them to lie in, under the fruit trees, which they seem to like. Hope the shearer comes soon or we will be nervous wrecks.

Discovered, yesterday, from the neighbours that this house had a large orchard in the fields behind and it got me thinking that maybe we should replant an orchard and grow fruit. A bit long term but am hoping we will be here for a long time. Will ask FWAG man when he comes if ground suitable now.

Yesterday spent most of time in garden potting things on and replanting pot bound roses etc. Dogs were in garden until quite late especially Tilly who appeared late on when all others were inside from the pond area soaking wet, having dropped her ball in the water again. this time it is lost for good and she is distraught that we have not been able to get it for her, lets hope she forgets about it when we get her a new one!

Bit of crisis night before, office window was wide open and both cats had disappeared. Not too much of a problem if window facing back as large garden no road, but it doesn't , so two cats out, strange place - no road craft!! the wild cat who used to live outside decided to come when called, the other large black one who goes out decided to hide, not difficult in the dark! After about 20mins he too decided it was a little bit scary and came back hissing and yowling, but wanting a cuddle. He is usually so lazy.

also bio tank aerator pump has stopped working so electrician been and said it is a switch that has worn out and he will try and order a new one, if not it will be new pump! Hope it does not take too long to put right, sure it not good! so will be trying to use loos when out to save using the tank!!

Trimming and Kicking

Forgot to mention the incident with the girls on Wednesday evening. Had to give Inky her lamivac which has to be injected into the skin, this means trying to find some loose skin on an alpaca - well there isn't any! Chris was holding her still ,after he had been spat and squealed at several times. I was desperately trying to find any skin under all the fibre, let alone loose skin conscious that Chris could only hold her for so long. Anyway finally got it done, hopefully in the right place, and Inky was eating her tea as soon as we had let her go, so no stress on her part, which is what we worry about the most - the same could not be said for the humans.
To add to our discomfort we decided to trim one of the crias around the rear end as looking a bit messy with straw etc. so Chris caught her, he's stronger than me, I bent down to trim the offending area and whollop, kicked straight in the throat making me choke and Chris let go of cria who ran off a little way then turned and looked at me as if to say 'that'll teach you not to stand there'. She's right of course, will be more careful next time.
Honestly animals are so ungrateful - why do we do it?

Well thats me thoroughly told by my daughter! (you need to read her comments) She phoned from Oz this morning and told me to read them! Just to put a balanced view on things, I do know she is working hard and doing really well with her assignments etc.too and am very proud of her - must take after her Mother!!
It's Thursday again already, market day so will be trundling off to get the bread, and today I need compost for the tomato plants which finally seem to be growing - a little bit of warm weather yesterday has set everything off.
Sophie arrived late last night on her way to visit her friend who has just given birth to a little girl. It was a flying visit as she left lunch time today to get there for visiting time, but lovely to see her. Her dog thought he was dreaming and kept licking her, probably to see if she was real. I kept him in the garden all afternoon so he got so tired and would sleep, so he probably did think he had been dreaming.
The cria kit arrived, which is a little bag full of vital things we may need when the alpacas give birth, interesting, and a little scary, sooooo hope we do not need to use all of it. I have been wondering what it's called when they give birth, you know like calving, lambing etc and yesterday I heard that some people refer to it as 'criating' which sounds like 'creating' I think that is perfick, so thats what we will say.
Have ordered the pour on stuff for girls to keep off the flys etc. which is essential, and more so if it gets hot and they have not been sheared. Still no luck getting a shearer before July so we will be rigging up hose pipes to keep the girls cool if it gets too hot.
Spent 4 hours digging out thistles during the afternoon and have got the blisters to show for it , but quite satisfying in a strange sort of way.
Chris spotted 3 egrets in the farthest field, which we were both surprised about as thought they only inhabited coastal areas. Also saw a sparrowhawk being chased off by a blackbird, a magpie then chased it out of the trees where it had gone to hide, forcing it to fly into rook territory which meant it got chased by them too. Poor thing it had only been sitting in the field having a rest, not even flying about!

Daughters and bees

Why do I not take advice, just read my daughters blog, which she advised against, and thought how proud I am of her! The capacity for drinking and eating at such a young age must be from her father!!!! You see this is the down side of the internet etc. in the days before parents did not know what their children were up to and could imagine they were having fun but in a sensible and tasteful way, but now it it there for all to see and worry about!
No wonder children think their parents lives are boring there is no record of what they got up to when they were that age - thank god. (boring - been there done that)
Anyway back to life in the countryside, much more suitable. Alpacas are growing, outwards mainly and I have still not found a shearer yet, really want to get them sheared before the babies arrive it will be so much easier to see what is going on etc. Will be on the phone again today chasing people.
The fields are starting to look very full, but unfortunately a couple of them are full of thistles - not sure what to do about them, everything I read says dig them out, but there are hundreds of them, perhaps we should get a goat? may well have to try eventually. The top field which is very uneven with loads of nettles may be the ideal spot for the wild flowers as we have been told it looks as though it has not been improved so will check when get visit from neccessary experts.
Yesterday morning a cloud desended outside the patio windows, very localised weather and dogs all came in rather quickly. On taking a second look I realised the air above the patio area was full of bees, absolutel hundreds of them. Rushed around to close all windows and doors so they did not choose the house to nest in, and made sure all dogs were inside. After a few minutes they were gone - hopefully moved on and not nesting somewhere too close, to be discovered later!

Farmers market Day

Off to farmers market in a mo. hopefully the bread man will have my cheese which he forgot last week and I was really looking forward to a little bit of Colston Basset.
I am really crss with myself this week as I have forotten to book the shearer and now it is getting rather close to the alpacas due dates to be putting them through any kind of stress, so have been on the phone trying to find someone we like and who can fit it in to the next couple of weeks. so stupid. also we are starting to act like expectant parents watching the girls every five minutes to check they are OK they think we have gone mad. I need to give them thier injections soon too so that's a job for next week, if I have got my dates right.
The web site is starting to get going now - I do not know what I have been doing for the past 3 months. I hope we will have it up and running for June, ready for when the babies arrive.
Talking of babies the moorhen babies are huge and eating all the bird food from the patio - they look like they have clown comedy feet when they strut around, I am sure they will trip over them.
The fruit trees are all in blossom now and wondering what they all are, know the plums, because we were told! and they all smell fabulous. The veg on the other hand is not doing so well as it has been so cold - another frost this morning, only beans seem to be surviving - better find recipes for bean chutney! The tomatoes which sould have been hardening off have been brought back in as they look not hard at all. Better luck with next lot. On the positive side the potatoes have eventually started to grow so we may have something to eat later in the year, the rabbist are certainly eating well.
The only thing that is growing is the grass so that got it's first cut yesterday along with the paddock, which looks loads better and can now actually be used for the girls to come into when they are due - so we have them near.
Two of our little bithches are on heat so been to vets to get a bitch spray which hope will stop smell and stop the dogs going mad and pestering them too much. Poor things.
Well joy of joy the sofas arrive today so may actually be able to sit comfortably tonight -I am stillconcerned about what they will look, as totally forgotten what we ordered. Also we have light! We can now see what we are eating when it gets dark as had lights fitted over the table in sun room - it is great, of course it means we have to eat really late now so we can use them!
Well must go now as got to get to market and be back in case the sofas arrive early - so excited! How sad are we?

Under a Harvest Moon Association

the aim of the association is as follows;

To promote and advance education in sustainable and ethical living practices within local communities, thereby enhancing the health of our communities, ourselves and our world.

If anyone is interested in helping us achieve this just leave a comment and contact so I can send you further information and if you want to join the association it is only £10 per year, to get us going, so just let me know.

Cats and keyboards

I could blame the cat for all my typing errrs as he does have a habit of walking over the keyboard while I am trying to type, but that would be rather unfair - I am just rubbish. I really should read everything before I post it, not ages afterward, as I have done now, to find the spelling mistakes along with the terrible sentences! Sorry to anyone who reads it.
Again I have neglected this spot, as I seem to have been really distracted over the past week or so. As my school report said ' must try harder'. The moorhen chicks aare growiong fast and getting very bold coming right up to the patio to get food, although the adults give them a real telling off if they stray too far from cover. Inky and the rest of the girls are enjoying the warmer weather and are rolling in the dust baths and charging around the field like race horses. I never knew they could run so fast. They have been joined in the barn by a pheasant and his wfe, not Sir Percival, who seem to be making their home there, so maybe we need to watch out for eggs next time the barn is cleared.
I have tried planting out more squashes as the last lot did not seem to like the cold, must get a greenhouse for next year, The mang tout peas seem to be holding their own if not growing very fast yet, the runner beans look good and yesterday sowed leek and cattot seeds. Not sure how they will survive the dogs jumping all over the beds. also planted the tomatoes seedlings into bigger posts and have started to put them outside in the daytime.to 'harden off' - get me.
The association I mentioned last time to help other people has developed into helping communities to help themselves become more sustainable and community minded and it is gaining more and more support. The idea is to help communities as well as individuals get the support and personal advice to help them set up village allotments, garden plots to help the wildlife, and row veg. We want to raise money to pay for villages to buy tents for horticultural shows, pay for an expert to get people started with community projects and start looking after each other and the environment again. The will is there but alot of the local expertise and knowledge has been lost. Villages have lost their schools, who used to organise the village fete, s nothing happens to bring neighbours together. Communities are detached from their surroundings, maybe we could pay for a village policman, support the village shop to stay open and provide the service for the community and encourage swop shops of ideas and produce. The rekindling of communities will hlep the environment whithout even noticing.
Getting on my soap box, but I feel it is important and I am sure many more people will understand what we mean so I will post the aims of the charity (pending) and if anyone wants to rebuild our communities and help the environment please join us.
I will go now mainly because if I do not feed the cat he will sit on my keyboard and break more keys!

Spring has Sprug

Noticed on one of the blogs that the frosts had finished!!! Typical should have known better so no veg been planted out recently. The rabbits thanked me for the red cabbages I kindly planted for them and the squashes have all been killed by the frost. Still the weather has definitely warmed up now so this weekend will see the beds starting to fill up with veg. and a net to try to stop the rabbist until the plants are well establised and there are plenty so we all get some.
The fields have all been topped apart from the very rough one which will get done next week - needs a more heavy duty machine. The girls are very happy with the field now as they prefer the grass a little shorter. We had a couple of visitors while topping the fields as the gate was left open (cardinal sin) someones horses decided to take full advantage of the extra grazing space. Strangly when we went to check all was well the horses had somehow turned into sheep, and no sign of the horses, that we had returned to their own paddock. The sheep all look liked Shaun the Sheep with the same quizzical look at us looking at them.
There appear to be seven moorhen chicks all growing rapidly and boldly coming out ontot he lawn to be fed bfore being chased back into the reeds by mum or dad. the large black cat has decided he likes sitting on the bridge watching them and being shouted at by the adults until we relieve them and take him in to much growling and hissing (not vicious, just moaing).
Feeling very frustrated about advice or lack of it available. We have been looking for ages for someone to advise about what best to do with land relating to the wildlife and earning a little income this year, but all you get is leaflets and booklets to read and no one will come along and advise and suggest. this amongst others is why we are setting up an association to raise funds to pay for experts to make site visits to smallholdings and gardens to advise people how to get the best out of their space without damaging the environment. Lots of organisations concentrate on techniques and policies, but few or none seem to be able to help individuals. Unless anyone knows differently.