Category: Uncategorized

Thursday I took a PTO and met a friend for a nice day out, started the right way by driving into down town Atlanta in her Audi TT Convertible, the wether was perfect. First stop was the Atlanta Mart, which is a trade only location to buy everything from jewelry to furniture and everything in between. As is was not a market day, not a lot of the stores were open but there was enough to tempt us and relieve us of a few dollars.

We then had a tour of the local area followed by lunch at an Atlanta landmark Mary Macs tea rooms . Established in 1948 and very little changed over the years. The food is not what I would have expected for a tea room, no cucumber sandwiches and scones with strawberry jam.  It was mostly heavy southern cooking but we found something to our liking and it was very well done.

We then stopped at another historic landmark, Henris Bakery , established in 1928. I bought Rob and slice of his favorite, bread and butter pudding. We rounded the day off by visiting an estate sale in Buckhead but managed to resist buying anything.

One of the many things that George and Judy ( Walnut Knoll Farm) did was demonstrate on their herd how to give injections to our animals. So after watching a really good YouTube video this morning by the ARI we were all set.

Remembering to keep calm and our energy levels low is one of the main things we need to do. Alpacas are very sensitive to your mood. So all 5 injections went without incident and both girls and boys were really well behaved.

Buoyed by our success we decided to check with our vet and see if it was ok to mate 2 of our gang so close to having injection. The vet felt there would be no issue and so we put Rocket into the field and then brought in Lacy. He instantly knew what he was there to do, although Lacy needed a lot of persuading. After much pleading nudging and just persistence on his part, Lacy cushed down and let him have his way. Despite the fact it was his first time, he knew exactly what to do.

Fingers crossed, eleven months time we may have an new addition to the family.

Just over a week ago we had some heavy rain and high winds. Miss Lynne and I had just popped down to the local stores and we noted the sky on the way in. We were almost drown on the way out! By the time we got home, the water running off the fields was stained with the Georgia clay and the wind was thrashing the trees. We were very please to get back in doors. We had over 2.25″ of rain in a single hour.

All that wind and rain left me with plenty to do last week. Two trees had been blown down. One had fallen on the neighbor’s fence and a second was balance precariously above it. Time for the ropes ladders and chain saw. I’m glad Miss Lynne didn’t see me up that tree. I would have got an ear bashing.

As I’ve mentioned before, we have hardly any flat areas on the property so water runs away quickly. It can do quite a bit of damage on the way. The driveway took a hit this time. I knew I should have cleared those ditches earlier.

All that rain eventually ends up in the lake. I wonder how  much top soil I could recover.

Started in the right direction with an invite to a friends barbecue on Saturday night, Arrived at 6pm to be greeted with great food and great company. Dawn and Tommy have worked hard on their yard area and its looking really great. So we were able to sit outside and enjoy the evening. I provided the dessert, a really decadent frozen strawberry souffle which seemed to be a hit with everyone.

Sunday Morning after our chores were completed ( by Rob, as I had a lie in )  we drove up to Canon GA. Where our friends George and Judy run Walnut Knoll Farm. We arrived at midday and had a complete surprise, one of their Alpacas ( they have over 90!) was about to give birth. While we were waiting for her to get going we were able to also see the two little boys that were born last week.

The Mum was having a few minor problems, it was her first and she was having a hard time getting the little one out, although we would not have wished this on her for all the world, it did at least provide us with an insight of some of the potential issues and how to help and more important, what not to do. The babies feet and nose were out.

but mum was struggling to get the rest of the head out, at last here it came.

Judy had to make sure mum did not squish babies head, the mum really did not want to stand so we had to work with her. Here come the shoulders.

They were hoping for a girl but it was boy number three, Mummy loves him anyway, look how happy she is.

The next surprise we got was how quick the little lad was able to get up on his feet, must have been less than 30 minutes.

We went out to get lunch and then had a good look around the rest of their stock. Final check on the new boy before we left, clearly exhausted after all of his excitement but look how fluffy he is already. We drove back with huge grins on our faces, what and unexpected benefit to a great day.

 

 

 

 

The weather has been glorious since Thursday, mid 80’s but with a cool fresh breeze. When I go to feed the animals in the morning, I am greeted with the most fantastic smell. The trees surrounding the pastures are covered in wild honeysuckle and there is also jasmine bushes in some places as well. Every month brings its own new addition. We found rose bushes in among the bushes and ivy, the blooms were pretty and very fragrant.

We also have an interesting dance on our way up to close the chickens in for the night, we have a lot of frogs that come out as soon as it gets dark. So we have the flashlights trained on the floor to make sure there are no surprises. Here is one that hung around for the daytime.

We also found some turtles walking around the garden. A quick look on google images says they could be Gopher Turtles. We found the larger one down by the bottom barn but this small one was walking around outside my office window.

Can’t wait to see the surprises June will bring

 

With the lime down a few weeks ago and lots of rain and lots of sunshine, the grass and weeds have been growing strongly. I’ve already run the lawn tractor around a couple of times. The weeds had to be dealt with in order to give the new grass seeds a fighting chance and all that fertilizer needed spreading.

We don’t have a tractor and the jury is still out on buying or renting. One of the main issues is that our place is small and most agricultural contractors don’t have the compact equipment. Fortunately our friends at Turner Feed & Seed recommended a guy with a small place of his own that would be a useful contact. I called Johnny and he came around the property with me and discussed what we are trying to achieve. As it happens, Johnny looks after the pastures for our neighbor. All we needed was a dry weekend with light rain forecast just after. …… and we waited, and waited and …….

Eventually the weather was right and Johnny came along with all the equipment and supplies to spay weed killer, aerate, over-seed and then spread the fertilizer.

Now that’s a nice little tractor. I have to say that I’m quite tempted.

Because pretty much all our pasture is on a slope, it is very important to minimise the opportunity for soil erosion. In an ideal world we would like to have over seeded with a “no till seed drill” but they only work effectively on flat ground. We have far too many lumps and bumps. As the next best option we chose to texture to ground a little with a big aeration roller and the broadcast the seed.

Johnny then used the same spreader to put out the fertilizer.

In some areas , mainly around gates and the top fence, there is very little existing grass. In order to stop the seed being washed away by the first heavy rain, I spread straw as a mulch. This will also help retain moisture.

Of course it didn’t take long before the chickens wanted to see what was going on and what they had missed under that straw. I do hope they don’t eat all the seed.

 

This morning we had the call that they were going to come and spray the weeds and over seed for us. This meant that we had to keep the chickens in and under cover but more importantly, even though we are using animal friendly weed killer, we want to move our precious Alpacas out to the bottom field.

Let the fun commence – first the girls, make a smaller enclosure then then to coax them in. Grab the first one put the new halter on her – much better style its called an X halter and I will add a link and a picture later. Now the second then walk them to the bottom field – Sounds easy !!! Actually it was not too bad after a little bit of trepidation they walked down for us. No spitting, Yeay!

Now to the boys that involved a whole lot more running around but we got them moved in just under the hour 🙂

Well it has been wet this spring. We have had over 13.5″ of rain since the beginning of March. We had nearly 4″ of that last weekend. All that wet weather has delayed the work  to improve the pasture. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that rain holds off this week end so that we can get the spraying and over-seeding completed.

I’ve been trying avoid outside work so I concentrated on getting my barn workshop organised. It’s been a bit of a tip from the moment I unloaded the truck. The first job was to clear a space to work and construct a bench along one wall. Nothing fancy. It’s just a simple wooden construction screwed together with a ply top and shelf. It’s immediately been put to good use and is currently supporting the weed whacker (strimmer) with a carburetor in pieces.

Thursday was finally sunny enough to dry the grass, which has been growing like Topsy. We have lots of grass to cut here and lots of weeds too – hence the need to spray. I didn’t want to spread the seed heads all over the place so I opted to collect the cuttings and dump them – not in the compost heap. The dampness of the cut grass made the collection problematic but, by the end of the day, it was all done ……. for this week.

I find grass cutting quite relaxing (I know it’s odd) and you get to spot all manner of wildlife hurrying to escape the monster machine. Frogs, giant beetles and of course snakes. This week I only saw a couple of very small snakes. Miss Lynne, on the other hand, saw something much larger from her office window.  Oh dear, this is going to be trouble.

 

New girls are settling in and enjoying their new surroundings. Still pretty skittish around us but getting better. Best of all they are laying eggs already. Gave them a quick treat of some cooked oatmeal just to make sure they realize it will be good to stay close.

Just to show they are still around here are the cats on their way for their afternoon snack. Mr Rob tells me I  spoil all of them too much but I think I spoil them just enough.

 

 

Yesterday we added 6 new chickens to the ever growing family. We have a Jersey Giant, 3 Morans and 2 Amerercunas. They are already exhibiting some very different personality traits, the Jersey is a typical gentle giant and the Amerercunas are hilarious, they are very skittish constantly on the move.

No pictures yet as we need to keep them in the coop for a few days while they settle in. We should now be adding blue, giant and very dark brown eggs to the daily hoard.