Today we were up before the sun had risen...well not all of us the teenagers were still in bed at 8.30am. Anyway there was plenty to do and we started by separating Minne from the other female alpacas in the herd and breeding her to Conman. She wasn't very enthusiastic at first but soon succumbed to his advances. This breeding sent the young (intact) Leroy Brown into a complete frenzy so he is now in with the male alpacas...I thought he was too young but obviously he is mature for his age.



Once the alpacas were sorted we started the cycle of irrigation which runs for a whole week. Here you can see the water from the irrigation gun arcing through the air and "over" mount Ashland....well almost !



The hay in the hay field is now the tallest it has ever been and as you might expect is falling over in places. With luck we should get the contractor here to cut it on Saturday which will be a big relief. It has been standing and drying for some while now and I wonder just how much of the nutritional value has been lost.

The chickens are on good form and laying eggs faster than we can possibly eat them. In fact when we had the garden party last weekend we gave away at least two dozen eggs to various visitors.