Alpacas Knee Deep in Snow

This time it was serious snow, ten inches or so, and no power first thing. I had to get out the little gas stove to boil some water for tea, no way can you cope with shovelling snow without tea. I was very worried about the alpacas but the premature cria was fine. Most of the animals in that field which borders the barn had got themselves close to the barn wall under the eaves. The cria was next to the wall with his mother next to him and a snowdrift three feet away. His coat was completely dry. The problem came when the animals had to walk through a field full of snow drifts to get to the barn. It was too deep for the little ones. They are all in the hay barn now.

The heavy pregnant girls had spent the night right under the hedge and they were dry too – amazing. Nice to know these animals have some brains.

Humans on the other hand are a different matter. Chas gaily drove the mule into a snowdrift so we had to get the tractor to push it out and then lost his boot in the muck heap. It sank into the snow to be retrieved later when the wind had blown the snow somewhere else. The fluff ball Alice was very funny. She has extremely short legs and the snow was very deep so this crazy fawn creature kept appearing and then disappearing.

Meanwhile our little car is up in Withleigh in a layby somewhere. Kyle lost his nerve coming back from Tiverton last night and phoned for the special Dad recovery service i.e. the experienced driver in the 4×4. Poor Andrew had to walk here to come to work as Pennymoor was closed and there was no point in attempting to take a car out, he would have spent the day in a ditch rather than feeding our alpacas. 

The cat did not appear to approve of the snow and picked its way very carefully – it obviously wanted to borrow my furry boots.