return of the Dartmoor mist

and I for one are not moaning about it .............. yet!  Yesterday was the first time I had been able to get my car home, it had been parked at Poundsgate since we got home from Madeira last Tuesday.  The road between Poundsgate and Ponsworthy was only passable sensibly in a 4x4 until yesterday morning when the milder air and Dartmoor mist managed to melt the solid ice compacted on the road.

Feeding the Alpacas now takes a fraction of the time and not having to carry water is great, but don't the fields look miserable?  We need to do some serious poo picking this week.  We are going to wean the final two boys and Merlin the llama tomorrow (hopefully)  This will involve collecting the females and the two boys from Widecombe, the females will go into a clean field in front of the holiday cottages and the weanlings will go into the top fields well out of sight of their mums.  They are all eating from the troughs and they should have been weaned several weeks ago but with the cold weather and difficulty getting to Widecombe, let alone towing a trailer over there, we left them a little longer.  Jazz, Merlins mum is losing condition now so she really does not need to be feeding this huge boy, he is a bit of a mummy's boy though, so I am expecting to have a very upset little llama tomorrow!

We are off to a fancy dress party on Friday so I have been shopping for suitable clothing today and I had the normal things such as banking etc to do as well.  Now I don't like Newton Abbot at the best of times but this morning was just about the limit.  Everywhere I needed to go was either shut or opening late or the que was right out the door, even the O2 shop wasn't open!, the opticians had a note on the door saying back in 10 mins which was there for 45mins.  Thought I could get fish & chips for lunch, they were shut!  'Pasties' I thought, butchers shut, ..............half day closing! Sandwich bar shut! So gave up and went home for scrambled egg on toast!
Just got in, listened to the phone messages, one from holiday cottage guests.............. no cold water in the shower and the DVD not working.  So spent all afternoon trying to sort that out,  DVD sorted, shower not!

Looking forward to the new year, wishing everyone a good one.