We have to say goodbye to another seven alpacas – five girls and two boys – who will be going to live in sunny Dorset – if only – more like gale lashed Dorset over the last couple of days. Sue and Ian live on top of the cliff looking out over The Cob which must be very beautiful if a bit draughty. I was delighted to discover that Ian is a geologist and has an excellent fossil collection that I will be able to see shortly. Fantastic, I love fossils and have been collecting them since I was a tot on the beach at Charmouth. The family farm in Somerset is also full of fossils as our outcrop stretches all the way to Bridport. My brother William has been finding some really good ones in the asparagus beds and we have loved The Ditch a few miles away where you find some whopping ammonites.
Yesterday and today we have Steve Heatherington on the farm learning basic husbandry. We delivered his alpacas a couple of weeks ago to a lovely Welsh valley. He had to trim the nails of the stud males yesterday and do the lambivac injections on a load of females and we also did a handful of breedings with Dovecote Jaquinto and Tulaco Centurion. The weather was disgusting, howling gale, rain that felt like ice on your face. We kept the little cria and their mums in for the night – just finished clearing up all the poo. I am not sure what we are going to do today but we definitely have to start halter training for the next show at the end of the month.