The Journey: Snowy days

Not quite the view on the way home from the airport but a
similar pinkish hue in the sunrise on the farm

The view on the way home from the airport after dropping Ian off was breathtaking. Just before I arrived in our village the landscape was suffused with the most delicate of pinks as the sun set behind me. I longed to stop and take a picture but had to suffice with drinking in the view whilst hurrying to the farm to put the animals away before the sun dipped below the horizon. Fortunately the animals have been good to me for the most part this week, apart from hiding their feeding trays from time to time. Having said that, sometimes they have been finding trays for me too. One was propped up on the side in the alpaca house one morning and then one was laid neatly outside the door one afternoon.

I have no idea how they manage
to place a tray on the side of the
alpaca house. It take some skill

It has been pretty cold and ice crystals have been building

On the first evening I was washing up when the electric went off. Charming I thought. The problem is that we have only been living in that apartment for about three weeks now and so I had to think hard where the nearest candles and matches were. Fortunately they weren't far. I then checked to see if it was just our apartment but then got a text from the electric company to say they were working on the problem, so obviously not just us. The other issue was that I had only just loaded up the wood fire so hurriedly had to clamp that off before it boiled the water in the heating system. Funny how Ian and I were only talking about the fact we should really have the back up sorted for the pump to run off a battery in an emergency. Shame we didn't get it sorted out earlier. Anyway no harm done.

We are not going out there!

Okay maybe for a bit.
I have been taking water in every morning. It isn't absolutely
necessary as they all eat the snow in fact some of them will
only eat the snow and won't touch the water. I know though
that if I do not do it every day then I will forget and there is
still not much in the well yet.

The rest of the week has been fairly mundane as I took on the jobs that Ian normally does. I am out on the land about 8:30 am, which at this time of the year is early enough. Sometimes the animals don't even get up when I go in, as if to say "Oh it's you! What are you doing here at this time?" even though Ian is usually out on the land earlier than I am. The first job is to go around and open doors and collect feed trays. As I mentioned earlier, sometimes that is easier said than done. I then feed the chickens. Depending on the weather and how cold it is, or if snow was expected, I would either have a cup of coffee or go and clear the poo in the alpaca houses. Sometimes it was too cold for coffee straightaway and sometimes the forecast meant it was better to get chores done first.

As you might be able to see the pond doesn't even cover the
area where the rushes are yet because the water table is
still so low. The other pond still has no water in it yet.

I love the way the rosehips stand out so
much against the monochrome background

It has certainly been cold this week. It has been down to -13C that I know of. I keep forgetting to check the various thermometers around the place but usually see what it reads in he car in the morning on the way out and in the evening on the way back. It has made wrapping up to keep warm a challenge but I think I have the layers right now. It wouldn't have been so bad but there was a breeze most of the time and that made it feel even colder. Plus I haven't got acclimatised to it yet. By the end of winter -13C can feel quite warm and almost spring-like.

The log pile and the green bin also stand out

Afternoon treats

As it is winter I have also been giving extra feed in the middle of the afternoon to our female alpacas who have little ones to feed or are pregnant. They always have hay but they appreciate the extra too. They have either been getting fodder beets, carrots or squash, all of which they enjoy. I noticed though the young ones getting more interested in the feed. Normally they are older before they get interested in it and Josefs is still more interested in the hay whilst everyone else is tucking into grain. I noticed last night though that Jakobs was trying to pinch food from his mother's tray, rather than eating the hay like the night before, so tonight Jakobs had a tray of grain to himself and he wolfed it down. Mind you there was pandemonium generally as no one knew which tray to eat from.

It was very eerie this morning in the pink mist

All was so quite too

Some days the sun did shine and the clouds parted

At the moment I am still in the caravan, even though it is pitch black outside because I am waiting for someone to come and help me with culling the sheep. This afternoon a friend turned up and he brought some sheep panels. It was a fairly easy job to entice the sheep into the enclosure (while there was still some daylight) - a lot easier than either of us anticipated. Having fencing still up that hasn't been taken in yet and the panels made it a lot easier than any of the other options we had. Once this is done we will no longer have any sheep and Ian can then concentrate on looking after the alpacas. Since we now have 18 of them, I think it will keep him occupied.

I made it out for a walk twice this week to take a
look around the land. Sometimes I didn't have time
with hay to move or it was too windy or even snowing