At Last

I can not believe how long it is since I sat down to write a blog.  Mainly as I didn't think there was much to write about except the usual round of winter chores, weather, mud.

Now with Spring on the way and all the expectations of a new alpaca year I thought it was just the time to try and start writing again.

So the first thing to start with is our new project! for several years I have been bending Steve's ear about a workshop/studio space for the Alpaca products, well it is finally on its way.  The concept has changed a little and the space will be used mainly as a shop for the products and a reception area for the cottages with a small work space at the back for my felting and sewing machines.  The building will be a Shepherds hut as this will be a mobile building, something which is necessary as we live in the National Park and are not allow anything permanent that could be the least bit useful!

Anyway after much discussion and planning it was finally decided that we could buy the frame of the Hut and finish it ourselves, well what I really mean is Steve can finish it himself while I supply coffee, food and advice on how to do the job!

The frame has been ordered and is due to arrive on Wednesday, we had a old flat bed trailer which needed a new floor so this has been stripped down to make the chassis of the Shepherds hut, so technically it will be road legal--- now theres a thought!

So it is all in place ready to go, I have booked time out of Steve's work diary so that he can get on with the build, which means I now have to be in charge of the work diary to prevent him booking in any customers who ring and want work done yesterday.  They are usually happy to wait a couple of weeks as long as they are in the diary, April is looking very busy!

So the next two weeks are set aside to get the build done, so at last I will have something to write about.

We had decided to got to the National Show last weekend just for a look around and to catch up with old friends, so thought we should go to the AGM as well while we were there.  It was great to see so many Alpacas in one place, everyone seemed to be having a great time.

We made the most of our weekend away, we visited the Shepherds Hut supplier in Somerset www.blackdownshepherdshuts.co.uk on the way up.  they showed us around there factory, even showed us our hut on the trailer ready to deliver this week. Our B&B was a lovely old Mill House near Telford so we had a visit to the Ironbridge Gorge, did some sightseeing and had some lovely meals out before traveling back on Sunday. All very enjoyable as we probably won't get another weekend off till after the summer.

We can now look forward to this years births, we had 9 pregnant as we went into the winter, we will run them all past a male in couple of weeks just to check if they have held or not, it is still to early to re breed anyway. Our first Cria are due end of May, so not long to wait.

Yet again we have sold all our young boys and we got good prices again this year.  The last two were delivered a couple of weeks ago.  They have gone to live near the coast in South Devon and I am sure they are going to be very spoilt little boys.

Well hopefully I will be back with more updates on the shepherds hut build and pictures of the progress.