The boys haven't had a good day

Well today was Castration day for our two young Llamas and an Alpaca.  The Vet arrived early this morning and gave all three their sedative.

Leo first who soon dropped to the ground and was sound asleep.  The vets both young girls did an excellent job and leo was totally unaware of what happened.

The next in line was Teddy a four year old Alpaca who is going to join the llamas in the trekking team, his sedation wasn't quite as effective but we put him down on the floor and he was restrained whilst the Vets did there stuff.

Then it was Mr McGee's turn, well he had sedation but he was doing his upmost to fight it, even propping himself up on the gate whilst his back end wobbled around, but there was no way he was going down and he was still too lively to operate standing up.  So it was decided to give him some more sedative, after a few minutes he was on the floor, sound asleep.  The operation went well and we waited for him to come round, and we waited and waited.  His breathing was deep and regular but then he started to groan and his breathing was becoming shallower,  I was thinking should I be worried at this point, the vet didn't look worried.  After a few minutes the vet decided to give him the antidote for the sedative, much to my relief. After a few minutes Mr McGee was more alert and we helped him back into a cush position and then he finally got up although he was very wobbly for a while afterwards.

When we were happy that all three were OK we left them with a bale of hay, some ReadyGrass and some water in the barn until this evening when we walked them back up to their paddock.  They see none the worst for their traumatic day and we can now look forward to them joining the rest of the Trekking team.

These two Llamas are really gentle, easy to handle and I think they will be a great asset to the team.

Not much going on here

Really not much to report!

Still running around like headless chickens, still trying to find time to finish the Shepherds Hut.

We have been very busy with our Llama Walks so I though a few pictures would be good.

 These two are nearly ready to join the trekking team, they just have a visit from the Vet tomorrow before they can join there new mates

Everyone needs a hug with a Llama, this is my Grandson Josh on his first proper walk last week.

Polo can't resist gorse flowers.

 Steve has a little rest to admire the view on a walk last weekend, beautiful day but very cold.

 Halter training two weanlings ready for a show next week, they are not very good at the moment.

but they follow Zanti very well, not sure I can walk her into the ring if front of the little ones

Josh find with training easier with the help of ice-cream !

Back to the day job

Oh well we have had to stop work on the Shepherds hut for a little while as we both have had to get on with other work.  Steve had a backlog of customers wanting his landscaping skills and I had a lot of office work, accounts and general admin as well as a pressing situation of the grass growing and all our customers wanting their lawns cut.  I am pleased to say that we managed to catch up with it all except the general admin.  I had a list! but as soon as I crossed something off, two more things got added so I think it longer now than when I started.

The weather has been amazing, so warm during the day but we have had a frost the last two mornings so still too early to get the tender plants out!  but we have been doing a bit of gardening at Home.  We have never had to do gardening at home before as the garden wasn't our responsibility but now the house and garden are now ours we have to get on with tidying it up.  This is called gardening by Chainsaw! We have several large conifers which block out a lot of light and obscure the view from the house so they will be coming down.

At the weekend we weaned the final cria, very late but final got there.  So now we have the 4 weanlings in the field by the cottages and as we have had guests with children we have had a great time getting the cria used to having halters on and being handled. I was hoping to get them actually walking by the end of the week but we have run out of time.  I am going to bring back one of last years girls so I have one to teach the little ones what to do, far easier that way.

I have Thursdays off ( thats what Steve calls it) so I have been to the bank, got the shopping, one Grandson to Hockey, one Grandson still here.  I did have some fun though, I am changing my car soon so today my daughter, on grandson and myself went to Plymouth and I had a test drive, great fun, they said just take it out for a hour or two see what you think, so we did, even managed to get some lunch giving us plenty of time to explore all the dials and switches in the car while sitting in the carpark, youngest Grandson thought it was great, the interior lights can change colour.  Going to Exeter tomorrow so may have another go, just to make sure it is the right choice.

It is in place

After two weeks of solid work on the Shepherds hut it was finally time to move it into position.  It isn't finished but is water proof.  We still need to finish the painting on the outside wood and then the inside has to be fitted out.  Unfortunately Steve has to return to the day job for a couple of weeks.

The young Llamas are nearly at the end of their training.  Just a visit from the Vet at the end of this mouth and then they can join the rest of the trekking team


It has been a very busy time with the llamas as well, the Enjoy Dartmoor magazine has just been published and there is a double page spread about our Llama walks in it.  Hence we are very busy with our walks.  Today we have had a Cream Tea Walk with a very international feel, some of our customers were on holiday from Germany, the rest were of Chinese origin so there was a great mix of languages going on.

Zanti

Zahara

To continue the international feel to our week we have Italians although they live in London in one of the cottages.  The two little girls love helping with the Alpacas so this week we are going to halter train the Cria as I have willing helpers.

Bank holidays don't really feature in our lives here on the Moor, firstly we are usually working either a Llama Walk or changing over a Holiday Cottage. Secondly if we had a day off there is so much traffic around it is easier to stay home and have a day off when it is less busy.  This Easter has been a normal busy round of Llama Training, Alpaca husbandry, Llama Walk today, Cottage change over tomorrow and Steve is working with the Mini Digger for a customer. So as the weather seems to be dry and warm tomorrow I am going to finish painting the Hut, I really should be doing some Office work but I think that can wait for a wet day!

Its coming along

We have been working flat out for the last fortnight on the Shepherds hut, it has been slow at times and there is a lot of work which isn't seen.  It is now looking good and if the weather is ok tomorrow we are going to move in onto its site.


Steve spent the last few days putting the windows and door frame in then fitting the cladding on the outside of the hut.

I have been painting all the wooden bits to finish the roof and the back and front panels. All was going smoothly until I realised I had painted it all with the wrong paint.  So a quick visit to the DIY store and I managed to get the right paint in the right colour, so everything has had an extra coat.

The weather today has been foul, we had a Llama walk planned for this afternoon but the wind was terrible and the rain horizontal so we had to cancel.  As it was for a surprise birthday present and I knew it would be too late to organise anything to replace the walk, we invited the couple to come and visit the llamas and Alpacas for a short while and they are going to do their walk in a couple of weeks.  The Alpacas as usual behaved impeccably, they cam over had a look at the visitors, had a couple of handfuls of food and left when it had all gone.  We went up to visit our two young llamas who are currently being trained to join the trekking team.  Visitors are away welcome as it gives them a chance to experience different people touching them.  they get very used to us handling them but when they go into the team and go out on walks they will be handed over to total strangers so they need to have these experiences.  These two young llamas came from the Watertown herd in North Devon and are absolute stars, they are so calm and easy to handle.  We have now got them take a pack system and walk with it.  Mr McGee (brown & white) is much more confidant Leo (Fawn) takes a little longer, I think he has to watch Mr McGee first then as he hasn't been hurt or scared it is OK for him to have a go.

The two young llamas have to be castrated before they can join the trekking team for two reasons, firstly we have a couple of females in the team and don't need the aggravation that would ensue if we introduced three entire males.  Secondly young llamas like to see who is top dog, not helpful if we are stood on top of a Tor on Dartmoor and one of them decides this is the time to push one of the other off, not good for business.

Once our guests had left, Steve managed to complete the outside cladding with the hut still in a very narrow bay in the barn, it was a bit dingy and dark but as usual he managed.  He's a star really.

Lets hope that the weather isn't two bad tomorrow and we can get the hut on site, then the work on the inside can begin, except Steve has to go back to work next week! but then the clocks go forward tonight, extra hour of daylight!

Feeling very proud today

He looks better behind bars

Josh & Charlie

More of a Personal Blog today.
I am feeling very proud today as my two Grandsons, Charlie age 10 and Josh age 8 were playing for Plymouth Marjons U10's Hockey in the Devon Hockey finals.  They had 6 matches to play to qualify for the regional finals next month in Bristol.  My daughter had a very early start to get them to Exeter for 9am this morning and I got there just in time to see the first match at about 10am.  I had forgotten how seriously parents take their childs sports but there was no bad feelings or bad behaviour as at some Football matches I have seen recently, (they both play football as well).

Anyway to cut a long story short they didn't play particularly well in the first five matches but managed to win three and draw two so the last game was crucial.  Finally they decided to play Hockey and actually had a fantastic match to win 2 -0.  The outcome is they won the tournament and will go to the regionals. So I am really proud because Charlie scored three goals and Josh who is only 8 and plays in goal had a clean sheet in every match.  Josh has so much padding on he looks like a Michelin Man, at one point he had dropped his stick and couldn't reach down to pick it up, his coach had to run on and help.

Also this week Charlie played for his School team and won the Devon Schools Hockey.  The most amazing thing is that they didn't start to play Hockey until this season.

I am not sure where they get all their energy from, they never stop, when they got back this afternoon they got a football out and played with that until they had to go home.

Steve in the meantime was working on fitting the windows and door frames to the Hut.  After fitting the door frame he noticed that the threshold had a crack in it so needed to come out and we will now have to take it back and get a replacement.

I did get the sander out when I got back and started to sand down the windows ready for painting, I am hoping that I can get them primed tomorrow and then the gloss on Tuesday afternoon.

Very Spring like.

It has been very spring like here on Dartmoor this last week, I found this Periwinkle in full flower on the garden bank along with Daffodils.  The Azaleas and Clematis are starting to bud up as well.

The Shepherds Hut is progressing well, photos are in short supply as I have not been well again which means I have missed 3 out of 7 days of working on the hut.  Being ill is really frustrating as all I wanted to do was get on with painting the window and door frames as well as helping Steve with some of the heavy stuff like the boarding, all I could do was stay in bed in a darkened room.

Anyway today I have felt much better and we have managed to put all the waterproof membrane on the hut, the roof sheets are placed on top ready for Steve to fix them tomorrow.

The site for the Hut has been dug out and landscaped.  So as soon as the roof is fixed on we can move the Hut to its final resting place and complete it on site.

I would like to have the inside a bit like a Alpine Chalet which is a bit of a departure from the Shepherds theme, so we have left the pine boards unpainted on the ceiling and these will be waxed later.  We have some rather snazzy LED lights to go in, so the wiring is in place for these.  Just need to wire in for the electric sockets before we can put the internal insulation and cladding in.

I am having to leave Steve on his own tomorrow as I have promised the Grandsons I will watch there Hockey matches at the Regional Finals in Exeter.

Our two new Llamas have had a very relaxed winter so it is time to pick up their training before they join the older boys in the trekking team.  Here is Mr Magee with a full pack on for the first time, little Leo is a bit further behind.  We went for a short walk up the lane and Leo decided that the sheep which live in the field next door were just too scary to walk past, so a little more work required there.

On a Alpaca note I need to do the entries for Devon County Show and I can remember when the closing date is.  I have delayed doing them as I wanted to have a good fleece rummage with the youngsters as they change so quickly.  Hopefully I can do that tomorrow afternoon and get the entries done after that.

With all this dry weather all the Alpacas are looking lovely and fluffy and remarkably clean, even the cria which is unusual.

 Here is Zanti who always likes her Photo being taken but she does insist on doing it on here terms which means I kept getting the shadow in the picture as well.