Spring planting and Barn cleaning

Two of the larger jobs that I set myself to do this spring was the construction of planters around the farm and filling them with plants/flowers and also the mammoth task of jet washing the barn. Both of these projects I can happily report are now completed (well almost!).

Sheila had been watching some horse-related programme on the TV recently which featured a very attractive equine property displaying planters around the schooling area and this of course gave her the inspiration for the odd job man (me of course) to get cracking doing likewise here! I decided to use half round rails and posts which seem to work very well and was strong enough to retain the top soil mixed with alpaca manure of course! Anyway once that was done, we headed of to the garden centre to select plants and shrubs. I don't know if this is a woman thing or not but the time that Sheila took to select a couple of plants, I had almost filled the trolley with what I thought was appropriate plants!! Job done and we finally headed back to finish the aforementioned work. We still need more plants however but it certainly softens the look of our farm (just read that back and it sounds a bit girlie!!)

Over the last couple of days, I have been actively jet washing the barn. I say actively as it was a pretty messy and full-on job but now having completed it and disinfected the surfaces, I have to say it does look and smell so much better. Strangely, the barn now looks bigger!!

The treatment of one of our girls, Black Magic, for an abscess is now complete and after a 28 day course of antibiotic injections and washing of the abscess itself, it looks as though it has totally cleared up thank goodness! This process did have it's funny side however. Alpacas, as we know are quick to learn and after a day or two of "teasing" her out of the paddock into a smaller space to treat her, she realised what was going to happen and subsequently took every precaution to avoid being caught which resulted in me being ceremoniously dumped on the ground a number of times (much to the amusement of Sheila!!).

Cambridge Ice Cool Lad was put to work yesterday with one of our coloured girls. We had previously taken to using the track around Ice Cool Lad's paddock for matings as it was more accessible but have since realised that it is far more appropriate for the mating to take place in the mating pen where it is quieter and less distracting for them. The one thing that we have learnt over the last three years when working around alpacas is the need to be calm at all times!!

With the weather still being dry, my next job today will be some paddock cleaning and dare I say it, another trip to the garden centre!!

Be back soon with photo's next time.