At last - a proper tractor!

I've got to say that this summer has been pretty damn good weather wise, and as a result, we have an abundance of grass in our fields which has contributed to a very healthy looking Easter-Wood herd! One of the concerns we have always had is the ability of our little sit-on tractor to cope with long grass so we took the decision to invest in a compact tractor along with harrow and topper. Strange that we couldn't source one locally and so eventually we found one in Somerset! I've been educating myself on the mechanics of driving this beast and so it was no surprise then that I ran out of diesel in the middle of one of our fields! Unfortunately, I was not familiar with the process of bleeding air out of the system, etc in order to get it going again but after a lengthy phone call to the company who supplied the aforesaid tractor, I finally managed to fix it and finished the topping. All was not going to plan however as I managed to break the shear bolt on the PTO coupling by simply climbing back in the drivers seat and knocking the PTO lever into gear whilst the engine was running!! Oh well, you live and learn!

Sheila tests new tractor

Having previously suffered from excessive mud in our gateways, last week we ordered a couple of loads of road planings to fill the subsequent dips in front of our field shelters and gateways. Hopefully we should see less of our alpacas taking frequent mud baths this winter!

Lawbreakers Legend and Athos have now been put to work for the first time this summer and Sheila and I are very excited about the prospect of having further genetics from The Chairman and Lawbreaker next summer!

Signing off for now.

A return with renewed vigour!

Having read many blogs recently, it is apparent that absence from the blogging world is usually related to problems and Mark's blog (Patou Alpacas) reflects this hypothesis so accurately! It is with this in mind that our return is also based. Our problems however were, amongst others, family related and without going into detail, kept us out of the alpaca world for too long.

Trying to catch up on lost time (in terms of news) is going to be a challenge but suffice to say, our breeding programme is now back on track commencing with today's matings using our two stud boys; Easter-Wood Lawbreakers Legend, sired by Eringa Park Lawbreaker of EPC and Easter-Wood Athos, sired by Cambridge The Chairman of ACC. 2015 is now earmarked for our return to the show ring and a long awaited catch up with our friends and colleagues as the social element plays such a large part of our enjoyment on the show circuit!

Whilst we had to put our alpaca business on the back burner for a while, we haven't been totally idle and  have managed to sell on a large number of our animals to a variety of customers and as a result, we now have a tightly-controlled herd of 13, down from 48. This has made the task of alpaca and farm management much more focused and both Sheila and I relish the development of our business on a better prepared footing in the future.

Signing off for now but will return soon.