General catch-up

It's been busy on the non-alpaca front - Finlay, our son, had four days of tests in hospital in Aberdeen last week for his ongoing neurological problems and developmental delays. He managed to catch a hospital-grade cold which has been running for eight days so far, a really nasty one.

Meanwhile, Gerry and Sorcha tended the herd and llamas and all was fine.

Groove, our light fawn stud, has recovered from an eye infection. We are not sure how he got it but I had flushed it out twice and found a piece of grass the first time and some fibres the second time, so it could just have been any of those rubbing on his cornea. He had an ulcer on the cornea, but it's cleared up well and he is back to his usual perky self.

He does not really enjoy all the attention but he is patient when we have him in the bracelet hold and are working on him. He stood like that for over an hour once when his ear was stitched up after being ripped in half by Ashby, our black stud.

Aaaaaarrrr, this haylage is tasty!

The girls are all fine, and appear to be getting bigger as their pregnancies start to show. We are going to do some spits soon to check what's what with whom.

The two '10 crias are fine too - Tannara is growing masses of what looks like dk grey fleece underneath her lightened cria tips. Tiree is a wee scamp with a cute face. Both are still quite small, being autumn babies, but I am sure they will grow well when the spring grass comes along.

They have been enjoying the haylage and other rations we've been giving them over winter, as have the adults.

Next job for us is to Cydectin everyone, check them all carefully for any signs of mites, and trim some toenails. Then we'll be getting Saligo micron tested and on the market, along with several other young males from previous years.

We finally have more or less snow-free fields again, although there is more forecast for this weekend. I don't think it will be too bad as it's not that cold.

At home we are planning to hire a mini digger to excavate the footprint of a polytunnel so we can get growing salad leaves, chillies, tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes and anything else that we fancy. Can't wait!