Another queue, to get stabbed.

My day off was followed by an early start again, not so much fun this time though.

This morning I had an appointment at the doctors for my Swine Flue jab. I could not believe the queue, it was huge, lots of people, all very quiet, all looking a little pensive with one sleeve rolled up. I dislike standing in huge queues waiting to be stabbed by a smiling nurse ;o)) Having said that, I am sure it's much nicer than having swine flu. The only 'flue' I would like this year is the one attached to the new log burning stove when it arrives in December. Anyway, my arm is a little sore now, I will stop moaning.

The alpacas are like drowned rats down on the winter grazing, it hasn't stopped raining all day. Mind you, the rain here is nothing I suppose, nothing like those poor people in Cumbria have been suffering, now that was rain in biblical proportions.

The good news is I had a lovely present from some of my blog followers this week, I won't say too much as I wouldn't like to cause any embarrassment. Suffice it to say the lovely gift of Scottish oysters and smoked salmon was gorgeous. I cannot tell you how good they were, absolutely delicious. Thank you very much, you know who you are. It's so nice to know I am not a "Billy no Mates". This world has some lovely people in it, many of them have become our very good friends.

A day out in Devon for a Petrol Head.

It's been a long day......

I was up at the crack of dawn, the Evo was off for some suspension felting. I fired up the beast and headed off south westerly along the A303 and the M5 to Exeter. Damned fine bunch of blokes down there make some of the most amazing suspension kit in the whole World. They supply a lot of the World Rally Teams with professional race suspension. The engineering is sublime.

OK this is a bit Petrol Heady, but stick with it, I think it's worth it. Just for fun. When I arrived at the factory they took me to a secret place and showed me the latest arrival from the United States. It was Ken Block's Subaru Gymkhana Car, it had been sent over for them to kit out with special suspension for a World Record Jump by a car, this will be done by Travis Pastrana this coming New Years Eve. For those that don't know Ken Block, maybe I could tickle your interest with this little YouTube clip of Ken's Gymkhana (with a rally car). Click Here The man is either bonkers or a complete genius, the Jury is still out ;o))

Anyway, it was a pleasure to see engineers working to such a high level. They worked on my car solidly from 9.00a.m. until 4.00pm, they were amazing. The car is awesome now.

Onto alpaca news. There isn't any. It's my Petrol Head day, ha ha ha ! Se you soon.

Puss, Puss, Glorious Puss, there's nothing quite like it....

...for causing a fuss......................

Hello everyone, it is I once more.

Today we have been mostly paddock cleaning. Our attempt yesterday afternoon was rained off. The weather was dry but the clouds have been dark and threatening all day. They all passed over without precipitation, for which we were very grateful. We hoovered all the paddocks sparkling clean once more.

This afternoon we gathered up the core herd for a close inspection, being so far away on the winter grazing land, we feel it's important to have a close look at them regularly. Today's little victim was Wellground Geives. The poor little fella had a nasty abscess on his front offside foot, right between the toes at the front of the foot. It looks suspiciously like a thorn had been buried in there from the brambles and dog rose that grow around the winter grazing paddock.

Not to worry, in came Doctor Les with the hibiscrub and some Teramycin spray. OMG! How much puss can come from one cria foot. It just kept coming and coming. Les is known here as the Puss Meister, she is never satisfied until the last drop of puss is out. She did a great job, the little fella now has a bright blue foot. He also had an injection of Nuflor a long acting antibiotic to help the infection clear up nicely. We will be checking it again soon. He wandered off with his mum like nothing had happened.

I bet you're going to be spending the rest of the evening with that silly tune of 'Mud, Mud Glorious Mud' in your heads. I shall enjoy that thought, as I can't now shift it from my head either ;o))

Bye for now.

Billie-Jean has her new bed back......

The Russell Sisters had taken control of the asylum for a while last night. They held Billie-Jean at bay from the high ground (new dog bed) for quite a while.

Then late last night the girls went out for a late night ablutions, when Lexie saw a rat heading for cover under the lid of the galvanised chicken feeder. Typical of Jack Russell's she was in there like a flash, lifted the lid and killed the rat. The problem was that the rat had it's revenge biting Lexie under the chin. Poor Lexie-Lulu was really down in the mouth, especially when Billie-Jean stole the dead rat and started to run around the log cabin with it in her mouth. Lovely !

Today, Lexie is licking her wounds and hiding under a bed. Billie-Jean the boxer however, has re-taken the high ground (on the new dog bed). She is pictured here on look out duty, eagerly looking out for the advance of the enemy......... Yeah right.

Onto things alpaca related.

Our alpaca online store has gone bonkers this week, you can tell Christmas is coming. It's only Wednesday and we have sold 3 jumpers/cardigans, two hand knitted hat & scarf sets, two brushed alpaca scarves and some fingerless gloves. We have sold a hat and a cardigan via Karl from Willowbank Alpacas, thanks Karl. Also a lady called here over the weekend and ordered two commission knitted jumpers. Lillian is knitting like crazy to keep up with the demand this year. Smoke was seen rising from her knitting needles.

Meanwhile, the alpacas are all fine. Banksy has lost virtually all of his camouflage leaves, blown off in the gale force winds we have here today. This afternoon, it's paddock cleaning time, yuk! I hate poo picking, come on vacuum, off we go......

A lovely day, things are looking good.....

There are times in life when someone or something can really ruin your week, alpacas can be such an antidote to this kind of uncalled for stress.

I won't bore you with the in's and out's, other than to say, Aggghhhrrr!!!!!!!, well, that was last evening anyway. This morning we woke to a beautiful day, the sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The alpacas were all dry and looking beautiful in their new fleeces, our herd is mostly white and light fawn, with the muddy conditions recently they can look a bit grubby at this time of year. Today, they looked splendid, bright white and glistening in the autumn sunshine.

First Lady was a little better this morning, so with her companion Cyan they returned from the barn to the weaning paddock. Cria and weanlings can be like children sometimes, bullies! Poor First Lady was immediately jumped on by Relentless, a 7 month old male weanling. With two feet up on her back, he was trying to orgle, silly little fella. She soon spat at him and he went away.

I then went on down to the winter grazing land a 4.5 acre paddock with lovely lush grass everywhere, the alpacas were in heaven, they were dotted all across the paddock stuffing as much lush grass as they could. Not all of the cria were bright and sparkling white though. Banksy had found an area of leaves under a tree and had rolled in them. He looked like a walking camouflage net, he could have hidden a troop of soldiers and their artillery behind him. Apart from our living camouflage cria, the rest of the mums and offspring were looking lovely. A bit on the tubby side from all the lush grass they have been eating for a week now. But to be honest, I would prefer them to be on the larger side of an ideal body score going into winter, the cold wet weather usually takes it's toll on them as the grass disappears.

What else did we get up to today ? Oh yes, Les went to the Dentists, poor thing, and we collected the Evo from the garage. All fixed with it's new MAF sensor. They gave it an oil/filter change and valeted it for me too. Bless them, all clean and shiny ready for the next outing. Not quite actually, the shock absorbers are knocking a bit. This is a Racing Suspension set-up bought independently from Mitsubishi, it was made in the UK. I have negotiated a free updated replacement suspension system on warranty. So I shall be off to Exeter sometime soon to have my new updated suspension system installed.

Billie-Jean has a new bed too. It's in the sitting room. As I type this, the Russell Sisters have taken up a position on high ground (on the new dog bed) warning off the advances of the boxer. There will be war here tonight I think.........

Limping Lady and a Recovering Evo

This morning we awoke to a bright morning, but the paddocks were soggy from a very wet night.

I went down to feed the alpacas as normal, in the weaning paddock poor little Wellground First Lady had a nasty limp on. She had a job to put her front offside foot to the floor. I called Les on the Mobile and she came down the track in the van. We loaded up First Lady and for some company we took her best mate Wellground Cyan. They were taken back to the alpaca barn, where they were given a straw bed and some nice hay. We could find no obvious injury. First Lady has had a day of rest in the barn and this evening she is looking much better. I think she must have just sprained it.

The Evo went in to the garage this morning, our suspicions were correct. Irene was right too. The air flow meter was kaput. A new one is on order, it should be here tomorrow.

We have been Littlegem'd

OK, I'll explain the heading.

Today we had a visit from our old friends Paul and Sue from Littlegem Alpacas. Bless them, they took Les and I up The Duke for Sunday Lunch. Thanks guys. Paul and Sue came for a chat, we haven't seen the for ages, so there was a fair bit to catch up on.

After lunch we had a quick trip down the rented ground to have a peek at the alpacas. We had a chance for a look at Imprint's fleece. Her fleece was just as good as it was last time I saw it, that girl never ceases to amaze me.

It's been a pretty decent day today weather wise. Before Paul and Sue arrived, we had a few jobs to do. One of those jobs was to rest the stud paddocks, each herdsire now has a large paddock to himself, whilst their own summer paddocks have a good rest for a few months.

BIG NEWS

Tonight it's the return of the 'petrol heads' televisual journal. Top Gear returns to the telly with a brand new series, guess what! it's now in HD too, I am not to be disturbed during this most important of programmes.

Some say that he wears hand-knitted alpaca underpants and that he hums quietly when stressed by a faulty 'Mass Air Flow Sensor' on his car. All we know, is that he is called The Stig!.

Bemused of Bratton

Ohhhh! what wicked weather we have had in the last 24 hours, blowing a gale and with more rain than the drains can cope with. I woke this morning to the excitement of another Track Day at Castle Combe. The trip there was a bit interesting, branches of trees strewn everywhere on the roads.

I arrived at the circuit, where I met up my old buddy Julian, he's still a copper poor sod, he used to be my crew mate on Traffic, gosh we got up to some tricks, many a high speed chase together. I think he was concerned that we were going to be doing excessive speed without blue lights and sirens. I told him not to be so ghey and get in the car. It was a bit like the old days, me sliding about on the circuit and him shouting go on 'ave him mate.

Then I met up with Carl and Sam from Westhill Alpacas. They were itching to have a go in the car. Sam kitted up first, off we went at silly speeds in the wet, laughing like mad, sliding about round the bends. Not the fastest way round, but definately the most enjoyable ! After lunch, it was still wet and miserable, Carl got in the car with me and a lap later poof, poof, bang, whoops. The car broke, the engine management light came on and the engine went into limp mode. Bugger!. That was our day over, the boys had broken toys..........

I will take it in to the Mitsubishi garage on Monday, I am pretty sure it's a failed Mass Air Flow Meter, which is a known fault with these cars. Should be fairly easy to fix I hope.

I got back home and was a bit down in the mouth really. Les spotted it and said, "go and feed your alpacas, that'll cheer you up". She is right of course, they are like a calming influence. I love my alpacas, they seem to make all your bad days good again. What a great job I've got........

Great news on the Planning Permission front

Hiya all, it's a wet one out there tonight. But I have two lots of exciting news for you this evening.

First of all, I know you are all just bursting to know that the new anti-roll bars are fitted to the Evo. Yes indeed......

But far more exciting than that is the great news that arrived from Jeff and Sheila Easter at Easter-Wood Alpaca Stud in Finchampstead. After a huge Public Enquiry where lots of NIMBY's from the local area tried to prevent them getting permission to live on their land, Jeff and Sheila have won their case. The Planning Inspector has given them permission to live on site at Easter-Wood Alpaca Stud. I have spoken to Sheila and they are delighted, so they should be, they richly deserve that result. Congratulations Jeff and Sheila, may your alpaca enterprise thrive and grow now you have permission to live on site. You will find a link on the left of this page to Easter-Wood Alpaca Stud's blog.

We have a weather warning for tomorrow, so we have battened down the hatches. Keep safe everyone.

Confession time. Suspense is Over

I think you'll be disappointed.

My news is exciting to me, but maybe not to you. My Mitsubishi Evo X goes into surgery in the morning to have stiffer sway bars (anti-roll bars) fitted to stiffen up the suspension, all the way from Australia. With another track day looming close, it's a big exciting step for a 'petrol head' like me.

There were a few of you making wild guesses about my news....... Pygmy Goats indeed! A wise lady (she knows who she is, don't you Kirsty) once told me goats are only kept by mad people. I don't know where the evidence came from to make such a sweeping accusation. But I have to say, I am unable to find any evidence to the contrary ;o)) So, I believe I am not mad enough to keep goats, sorry. As for a suggestion of Kune Kune pigs ? have you seen the mess they make of the ground. I like our land to be kept tidy, that would never do.......

Bring on the anti-roll bars, that what I say........ Goodbye.