And other things

I got this look today when she turned to face me.
Fortunately she decided to do as she was told
and not spit at me in the process.

Not a plain sailing kind of week. Chanel had an eye infection, which meant putting eye cream in every night for about a week. I tried irrigating the eye at first, as that normally helps as it did with Freddie not so long ago, but after two days and no improvement we went to get a prescription from the vet. It was kind of tricky getting eye cream into Aggie recently but even worse with Chanel, who is our rather spitty alpaca. Chanel also sits down as soon as we try to do anything to her and she will often sit down near the door; so that meant straddling her to put the cream in and praying she didn't stand up in the meantime. Fortunately she decided to stay down on the floor. 

Sunrise! It really does exist

Personally if I was going to zone out on a 
frosty morning, I would choose a sunnier spot.

One night I noticed that Aggie was stamping her foot a lot and she seemed rather agitated. I thought she looked like the mites were bothering her again and so she has had oil sprayed onto her feet. It might also be the issue with her eye that is beginning to swell a little again. It's not an eye infection like Chanel's as Aggies' eye issues responded to steroid cream and not the antibiotic. It's most probably her overactive immune response to mites. The warmish (for November) weather is probably not helping. Those aren't the only alpacas we've had to deal with either. Mari has had a cough for a while, so she's on her second course of antibiotics. 

Mari seems to look fine but that cough has lingered.

The frost doesn't seem to bother them.

I wish I could say they were the only issues this week, oh no! I'd just had one of those hectic moments where I'd taken a phone call and then had a few minutes to put the chickens away before a staff meeting. I'd let the older ones out in the morning to roam around the greenhouse and eat the weeds that had been growing up. After lunchtime they are usually ready to settle down a bit so it is a good time to get them back in the ark ready for putting away for the night. Most of the chickens were already in and two of them jumped in after the grain I threw in, but of course there was one I ended up catching in the net to put her away. We had moved this last ark into the greenhouse as the weather has been awful and they were just creating mud patches on the grass where we moved them too each day. 

In more peaceful times

After that little performance I just sat down to listen to the staff meeting online and we were a few minutes in when Ian phoned. Ian knew I was in a staff meeting, so I guessed it was urgent. "The boys are out again!" Oh good grief! I tried to write something hurriedly but realised there wasn't time so slung on my boots and coat and ran out the door. "Get the poles," he yelled! So back in the greenhouse, grabbed the poles and headed up towards Ian, just as Mr. P went through the fence. "Drive them all down to the paddocks, we'll sort them out there," shouted Ian. 

I always get nervous when the little ones are
in the middle of the mayhem. 

Well that was easier said than done. There were alpacas going in all directions. Eventually I managed to separate off the little ones and two females and herded them into a paddock. Four more females were standing around wondering whether to go back to the boys. Nope! No way girls, even spitty Chanel took the hint that I was not messing around and they'd better move themselves. Eight down, three to go. I managed to get Silla up as she will sit down for the boys, although she was being harassed by Jakobs I managed to get her almost to the gate when she sat down again. She was not going to move this time, even when he sat on her head in the mud.  Ian was struggling with Brencis and a harness, so was not able to help me. 

It was rather cold that morning but so good to 
see the sunshine.

I managed to get Jakobs off but he was being too persistent and I was slipping and sliding around In the end I wrestled him to the fence (seem to have been here before). I held onto him tightly with him bucking and trying to free himself. Ian eventually came over with a couple of harnesses, one for Jakobs and one for George who had come over to join in the fun. Ian got Jakobs harnessed up and I took Jakobs back to the paddock. Ian had managed to get most of the other boys back in the meantime, while I'd been fending Jakobs off. Ian got hold of George and followed me. 

Silla looking a lot whiter here than she did 
by the end of the escapade.

Well that just left Freddie, Silla, Antonia and Vanessa. Freddie seems to be the initiator of much of the fighting with the boys, but I'm not sure he really knows what to do with the girls - fortunately in this case, because he's not breeding quality, with poor fibre and a slightly dodgy leg that is probably genetic. He showed no interest in Antonia and Vanessa and they were showing they were not taking any messing around from any males, especially a young whippersnapper like Freddie. Silla, who was by now black from sitting in the mud was wandering around. This would have been an ideal time for her to sit down as Freddie may have been easy to catch then, but no. Still we managed to get in between the two of them and headed Freddieoff back to the boys paddock. Next job was to herd the remaining three girls into their paddock. 

Surely a bit early for a bulging tummy Ilvija?

Amanda is still feeding Karla but she seems to
be starting the weaning process. Lolly is also 
taking less milk from her bottle feeds. We've
managed to drop the late night and early morning
feeds. 

Wheezing away I headed back to my staff meeting. I wrote a note in the chat box apologising for my absence with a short explanation. Not sure if the other staff who were meeting face to face saw it but I noticed smiles on the faces of those online. At one point I had some comments to make and had to wheeze through what I wanted to say. My colleagues laughed. I'm glad it's something they can understand and not frown upon. I was meant to be chairing this week's meeting but my internet has been so bad that I asked if someone else could do it fortunately.

Chanel at the front. You can see she still has skin
issues but she is so difficult to treat. She gets all 
stressed that will only make things worse. Still we
try to do what we can.

It wasn't the only event recently. The excitement in the caravan was palpable, when Ian laughed and said, "Only two more sleeps till bakery day!" We've had to manage without our usual pastries and bakery bread for over three weeks and last Friday was the first time the bakery reopened. Do you know how difficult that is for Ian? Yes I can bake but it's more of a faff at this time of the year and I'm kind of busy with work until it's dark. Not easy with a kitchen in the greenhouse that gets cold. Ian could bake his own cakes too, he's done it before, but... well the bakery is nice and of course we are supporting a local business. 

Morning on the land

Mari

I haven't followed all of COP26 but been aware of the issues. I know there will be a lot of background deals and nothing will really be done until the last moment, which is why I haven't been following it so much. I haven't been filled with a lot of hope either despite the rhetoric. I'm having trouble believing that Johnson can be serious about his proclamations. My concerns though are for the future generations. I've heard that mention of climate change is just "Project fear" and we shouldn't scare the children! But why should the children not be scared when it seems that the adults are ignoring the tsunami of change that awaits if efforts to address climate change and biodiversity loss are not taken. The children seem to understand the consequences and just want the adults in the room to actually do something instead of ignoring the data or even ridiculing it. They want the adults in the room to lead the children up the hill basically. In a tsunami, as many of us now know, the sea first retreats and uncovers all sorts of interesting things on the beach, the changes are amazing, but we need to read the signs that all is not well and retreat up the mountain. 

Blue sky! The lack of it just lately means that Ian
hasn't been out with his camera so much.

Aggie's eye is starting to look a bit swollen 
again. It will be time to get more cream I think.

So what does retreating up the mountain look like in this scenario? First reduce consumption. Buy only what you need to and make sure it is fairly made, ecologically sound and what you need - yes I did repeat that twice. In planning there is something called the mitigation hierarchy that means we should first try to avoid damage to biodiversity, if we cannot do that we should mitigate the effects (ensure they are not as bad as they could be) by restoration or rehabilitation to give it a new lease of life after the disturbance and finally offset by compensating for biodiversity loss through creating an alternative elsewhere. We can use that principle in life, by first avoiding buying something new. But if we have to buy something new and cannot reuse what we already have, then do as little damage as possible and make amends afterwards - buy locally, buy fairly traded items, buy long lasting items. Or lastly we compensate by tapping into the ecological restoration projects.

Silla

Next is to deal with our surroundings, like skimming pebbles in the lake where the ripples reach out further and further. Make our gardens productive, not primarily low maintenance. Plant useful plants, plants that feed you and the wildlife, plants that add tastes to our foods like herbs, plants that do not need to be re-seeded each year, bushes with berries, trees with fruit. Get involved in rehabilitation projects near you or find out how to start one. Let's show the kids we are doing something. 

Enjoying the sun. There has been precious little
of it just lately.

Now that will get us so far, but not far enough. There are bigger polluters of our environment and we have to remember they are stealing resources from children and grandchildren. Why do you think the kids are angry too, as well as afraid? They see their future slipping away. Do we want to pass on a dying planet or a living, breathing planet? Simple! We have enough resources to be able to rehabilitate this planet, we have the knowledge, but it is going to take an extraordinary effort to get us there. Not business as usual with greenwashing as I said in a recent meeting. Let's stop ignoring the issues that trashing our planet has done and start to restore and rehabilitate, while we still can . We need to insist that our politicians are onboard, by objecting to the companies that steal our futures and the futures of our kids and those are just for starters. Come on! We can do it! We have to do it! Acknowledge the kids are right, but we are going to have to work hard to give them a better future and not a dying one.