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Today we had planned to clear all of the ivy out of the front garden, not my favorite plant at the best of times but this had really taken over the whole area. Luckily the weather was dry and sunny so we were able to get a good early start.

Here is the garden before we started as you can see there is no room for any plants at all, all though a few brave ones were trying to poke their way through.

With a lot of hard work we were able to get a good start on it by lunchtime.

Quick lunch, grilled Stilton and tomato on toast with a nice cup of tea and a mini magnum as a treat then back out to finish it off.

Man it was hard work but we were able to clear it all by about 4pm.

It’s looking much better already and those bushes smell like they are probably jasmine. Time to feed dogs and cats, treat the chickens to say thanks for another 2 eggs and make sure the Alpacas are ok. I scooped the paca poop and then came in to make dinner.

 

We are both exhausted and barely have strength to get off the settee this evening, but we feel really good about checking off something else from our list of jobs.

 

Every other Friday evening, we drive into the center of Atlanta and meet our good friends the “Coulbournes”. Claudia cooks enough food to feed about 50 people and we help serve it out with them. There is usually quite a few of the regulars waiting before we arrive. Most of them are there every time and they help us set up the tabes and carry the food etc.

Last night we served over 50 meals. There are a number of things that always surprise me when we do this, first how many people that there are needing a free hot meal, also how polite and well mannered and thankful they all are. Its good to help give back

Temperature went up to 68 degrees today and all the animals and plants seem to be celebrating. Another 2 eggs today and look how big the white one is!

The trees are budding and this one is full of blossom, it is very pretty and one of favorites with the birds.

Talking of which, they seem to have got their appetite back as we only filled the feeders yesterday. They have also built a lot of nests close to the house so hopefully we will get to see some bab birds soon.

Rob got in on the fun and started repotting some of the plants hat we grew from seed. It's amazing how much they grew in just 2weeks.

 

Look at the ones on the top shelf, that's squash and only took 2 weeks to get that big, can't wait till we get to start eating all this veg.

 

Blue skies and sunshine, although a slight nip in the wind. Chickens, dogs, cats and Alpacas fed. Gave my chickens some cooked oatmeal which they love as a nice treat and got rewarded with two more eggs.

So nice to work from home, even though the day was really busy, I still get time to stop and spend 30mins eating lunch with Rob. He must enjoy it too as he went out shopping later and bought me flowers ! Very nice.

Later i got another great surprise, delivery of chocolates direct from France, curtesy of my sister. These days don't come along often but when they do they should be treasured.

Although the temperature dropped quite low last night (28 degrees). This morning the clouds moved on and the sun came out. The chickens celebrated by giving us 2 eggs. Alpacas are starting to get the first signs of fleece growing back and are just happy to be back in the top fields.

Our pet sitter came over to visit and I had made her a little gift to remind her of her fave chicken. The design stitched out very nicely.

Apart from being ridiculously busy in work, I am really enjoying life. Love this version of farm life. My animals bring me so much pleasure. I can't wait to get started on picking, skirting and turning into roving all of my lovely fibre.

 

Well I hardly slept at all last night I was worrying about the shearing going smoothly and about movIng the Alpacas up to the top barn. Karen and Bruce arrived close to 7 and were immediately a calming influence on us. Kyle the shearer and his assistant arrived just after 8 and we decided we would shear at the top barn.

 

We were blown away by how easy it was to control the Alpaca’s once you have an arm around their neck, barely touching them and using no force at all. You then move one hand under their chin and the other behind their ears and they will move in whatever direction you want them too. We were able to put halters on them and lead them up to the top barn with no fuss at all. In fact the only time they faltered a little was when the road changed from grit to concrete.

 

Then Kyle led them, one at a time, to the mats and tied their legs to shear them. It looks as if they are being hurt but they really were not, which was obvious by the lack of stress. Kyle was very gentle and efficient and was talking us through what he was doing as we had told him we were newbies. Karen and Bruce had brought cut up hoodies to put on the pacas so they didn’t get cold. Kyle was quick to point out is was a first for him and I was not sure if it was the hoodies or the color purple that was causing him the most heartache.

 

We were pleasantly surprised to hear him tell us how the 2 boys, that I thought were cute but not great fleece, actually had show quality fleece. Wow I guess we still have a lot to learn.

 

We ended up with 10 full bags of fleece – cant wait to start working with it.

 

 

 

Quick trip to SAMs to buy some clear trash bags for the Alpaca shearing. As usual we did not get home for another 3 hours and 600$ lighter. It’s a good job we don’t go there too often.

Rob then needed to work till nearly 10pm hanging all the gates ahead of the shearing. We moved the Alpacas inside the bottom barns in the morning with electric heating and fans so that they could dry out and keep dry.

Saturday was really busy day, Rob went to get the rest of our farm gates and the other hay manger. I was busy trying to sew a tea towel as part of the hostess gift for the party we were going to. As usual we were rushing at the end and I was cutting off the threads and the stabilizer as Rob drove to the party.

 

As you can see from the towel we were on our way to a crawfish party. We had such a great time and got to meet and talk to some really interesting people. There was, of course, plenty of food and wine.

 

We were eating Cajun style food off newspaper and then leaving heads and shells on the table so we could just roll up the newspaper to get rid of them. Very sensible.

As always at the Jaeger's we were given some great wine and very palatable port. The desserts were fab as well.

 

Wednesday we decided not to ski, although it was snowing it was too warm so it was turning to water as soon as it hit the ground or any ski gear. But by the time we got up on Thursday morning we were greeted to 6 inches of powder, blue skies and crisp temperatures. We had a brilliant day skiing almost 28 miles of downhill runs.

I managed some pretty challenging runs and we also saw some really cool statues at the top of one of the ski lifts.

 

By the time we finished for the day we were both exhausted but happy and ready to fly home on Friday to go see all our animals.

Tuesday we were back at Park City and decided to try the free mountain guide service. It’s a great feature of the resort. A volunteer guide will show you ski routes around the resort and it also includes a brief history of the area which is fascinating. The city was originally built from the mining industry, predominately silver mines.

 

A lot of the buildings and shafts have been left in place. The guide was really nice and we not only found out a lot about the past but also some great ski runs.

We stopped for lunch up at the top of one of the mountains and were treated to a glorious view.

There was also a photographer and they were sponsored by Fidelity and so they pictures were free. Yeay.

 

We managed to complete 20 runs again and then went into town to look around the museum, followed by a really great pizza. Here is a picture from the main street it’s really pretty there.