A Stressful Day

Today was a day I’ve been putting off for some time; it was the day I administered the worming injections for the alpacas. Up to now I’ve been a wimp and got the vet to do them or used an oral version (for one of the 3 doses per year) but I’d decided that this time round I’d better get on and do it myself.

I’d been preparing the alpacas by getting them used to being caught and haltered using the CamelidDynamics technique I mentioned back in December. The training sessions stopped over the winter, as the ground was far too wet and have been sporadic over the summer but the alpacas remember well.

Even Dartagnan who was spitting all the time when he arrived allowed me to catch and put fly-repellent on him without fuss the second time I had to catch him.

Today was the day I could procrastinate no longer; the weather was warm but not too hot, there was no wind and the alpacas were really calm. Then the combine harvester arrived in a neighbouring field. I waited about half an hour and by then they were accustomed to the noise and in fact the general background noise masked anything else. I was also fortunate that the French air force were not out on one of their training sortie – they turn somewhere just passed me on their low level flights.
So with catch rope and wand, Dectomax, needle and syringe and a handful of granules to lure them into the catch pen, I took a deep breath and set off for the alpacas.

The granules did the trick and they were quickly shut into the catch pen and the first one caught. The Dectomax was to de given subcutaneously and the books all describe taking a pinch of flesh and lifting it away from the animal in order to make a tent into which you place the needle. So far so good, fleece parted to find clean flesh but could I get the skin to pinch into a tent … no I could not.

After about 5 minutes I eventually found an area where I could get the needle in and number one was done. And so it was with all the others, finding a tent of flesh was nigh on impossible but eventually I found somewhere on each that was flesh and not fleece. On the whole they were really calm, Dior decided to couch which made her easier to deal with as once on the ground she wasn’t going anywhere and Dartagnan made a bit of a fuss but he is small enough that I could hold him in place with my knee.

It took an hour to inject and check over the 6 of them but they were all really calm throughout more than could be said for me but it was actually much easier than I’d envisaged. Yes some blood was spilt but fear not, no alpacas were hurt in the process it was just mine. I managed to stab myself twice with the needle while trying to get the safety cap off – well at least I should be worm free for a few weeks.

The Pottager Emerges

While Sue was here last week she bravely set to work on the pottager, it had just about disappeared under a covering of weeds this summer. I’d asked her to weed the saffron crocus bed, which she did and then like the energizer bunny, she just kept going.

I made a start on lifting the potatoes, more of which will be in a later post, and manned the bonfire to get rid of the perennial weeds.
Sue made such a difference to the area it has really spurred me on to getting it fully cleared over the next month and ready for planting.

It’s Autumn!

Another season is officially here and the last of my summer visitors has departed for the UK so it’s time to play catch-up with the blog.

Last Thursday was celebration day, it was Snowy’s 12^th birthday and while Sue and I has a glass of wine, the cats celebrated with some tuna.

And talking of pets that brings me round to Cheep Cheep; he’s been growing fast. This photo was taken around the time G made the outside run for him.

About a week later he was too big for the box we were keeping him in and we moved him to the segregated area in the hen house. After a week there we let him mix with the other hens but put him in the separate run in the chicken enclosure. Eventually he was getting a bit big for that and had learnt to keep out of the way of the other chickens really well so he is now running round on the edge of the flock – being the smallest he is at the bottom of the pecking order.

This photo was taken a short while before G and M left and you can see just how much Cheep Cheep has grown.

Looking at his feathers we think Cheep Cheep is a male. He’s still very tame and will sit on my arm to eat the wheat when I feed the chickens. His friendliness is a good thing on his part, he is now in line for reserve cockerel while the cockerel from the earlier hatching has therefore been renamed Coq au Vin.

Many thanks to M for the pictures of Cheep Cheep.

I Am Still Here!

I can’t believe how fast the time has flown by. Days have been filled with repetitive work such as feeding the alpacas and the chickens, days of hard work such as getting in the hay and days out. Sadly though G and M are due to leave at the end of the week, the 10 weeks they have been here has sped by and I will be really sorry to see them go.

I won’t be on my own though, the plane that is taking G and M back to the UK is bringing my good friend Sue for a return visit which I’m looking forward to very much. Hopefully she can have more of a rest this time as I don’t have 200 trees that need planting although she has volunteered to help me tamp in some of the remaining 400 fence posts.

With luck, over the next few weeks, I’ll get round to posting some of the things I’ve just been too tired to post over the last weeks

Another Day, Another Fête

We had a day off last week and managed to fit 3 engagements into one day. In the morning G, M and I went to Eymet, renown for being the most ‘English’ town in France, or so the local TV station says every time England plays France at anything. They were holding an oyster and wine festival. Sadly there were no Arcachon oysters as their sales had been halted due to an infection scare but there were some from northern France. There were also many local wine growers eager to promote their bottles too.

We started off at the tourist information booth that was selling glasses for wine tasting and I also bought some raffle tickets. We then did a tour of the town square to examine all the stalls. There were stalls selling all sorts of seafood (as in the picture above), stalls with moules/frites and stalls with wine. Once we’d decided at which stall we’d purchase our moules the only problem was to get a seat. Whole tables were being reserved by the gathering groups of French who were far better prepared than we were. They turned up with the covertures, aperitifs, coffee and picnic boxes crammed full of salad and other delights to accompany the oysters or mussels.

We eventually settled ourselves on the end of a table near the corner of the square where we could people watch and then set off in relays to purchase lunch while leaving at least one person to guard our places. Having really little idea of which wines to try our decided plan was to get three different rosés and have a joint tasting. Wine, mussels and frites and a plate of oysters were soon purchased and very quickly consumed with much enjoyment.

From there we travelled to Monflanquin where the medieval fair that progresses through the bastide villages in the area was currently installed. The atmosphere in the encampments is always fun and the visiting children and sometimes adults, join in, arriving in their own costumes to be entertained by the re-enactors. One of the highlights of the Monflanquin stage was a display of raptors and along with a wonderful eagle our hearts were taken by this eagle owl.

We didn’t stay too long there as I started to feel decidedly unwell. This was not a good sign as at Christmas I had been very ill after eating oysters. Yes, I was decidedly unwell again which was strange as I’d quite happily wolfed my way through a box of two dozen oysters soon after I’d arrived in France. Having thought about it I’ve finally concluded it is the salt levels of the oysters that I can no longer tolerate. The ones I’d had when I’d first arrived I’d kept in cold water in the house as at that time I didn’t have a refrigerator. The two lots that had made me ill were both fresh and au naturel. So I think I’d better give oysters a miss when I out from now on.

Thankfully the illness was short lived for that evening we were off to the local salle de fete for a village meal.

My village/commune although very small, around 200 inhabitants, is twinned with two other places in France that share the same name. one of the twinned towns was visiting our village for a four day visit and the paella meal was part of the celebrations – a bit more of this in the next post.

As is almost statutory at these village meals there was far more food than anyone, even G, could eat and of course because this is the prune (plum) growing area of France it was washed down with the plum eau de vie. We did well and managed a few mouthfuls each of the fire water and then decided that we’d bring it home to drink the rest later. I only had to drive about half a mile but that stuff is potent.

The wonderful day was given and even better feeling the following day when I received a telephone call from Eymet tourist office. One of my raffle tickets had been drawn and I am to receive a basket of preserves from one of the town shops, exactly what I won’t know until I finally get it but I am thoroughly looking forward to that.

The Joys of Living Here

Take 2, let's hope Blogger doesn't screw it up again!

Despite the trials and tribulations of living here – no customer service, intermittent water, double guessing the weather etc. being here more than compensates.

Turning the hay yesterday I was treated to an aerial flying display by a flock of swallows as they swooped across the field all around the tractor to feast on the insects I disturbed. Their aerobatics were amazing; I kept expecting a collision as the dived, turned and generally put on an incredible flying display.

Cutting the swathe and then turning it for the first time disturbed a whole new lot of insects. Most numerous were the grasshoppers; they were all sizes and colours, brown, green, stripy and ranging from about half a centimetre in length to a whopping 5 or 6 centimetre one that’s body was at least as thick as my index finger.

There were also the locusts; bright green and looking like white fairies as they flew away. There were a lot of those and I almost stopped looking at them but then one of them dropped back to earth right next to the tractor and I realised that not all of what I though were locust were actually locusts; they were praying mantises.

I’d seen one 15-cm/6-inch brown one at the end of last summer but nothing since then. G had spotted a small green one when distributing the fencing posts and I had spotted another one when ploughing, but the long grass down by the pond was full of them. All that I saw were green and ranged in size from a couple of centimetres to 6 or 7 centimeters.

Having turned the hay I took a walk around the pond, the moor hens ducked away under the brambles and I could hear the coypu humming in its den. The butterflies, blue, brown, white, yellow, red admirals and peacocks all enjoying the swathe of thistles I’d left, flitted around far to fast and too far away for me to capture on the camera. I did have a go at photographing one of the many yellow and brown spiders I’ve seen this year – a bit out of focus as my little camera doesn’t do close-ups at all well. I’d seen quite a few of these running off as I cut the grass and they get quite large, the abdomen being over a centimetre long and around 3 cm overall including the legs, but walking round I found them on their webs. The first thing I noticed was the white zigzag on the web, I’ve not yet had the time to find out what they are but my guess is that as well as using the web, they might drop onto insects using the zigzag silk as a sort of bungee.

The pond has also been a focal point for hundreds of dragonflies and damselflies. There have been the azure blue and red damselflies black, brown, green and yellow striped, red and dark blue dragonflies. This, again out of focus (I’m still working out how to justify a new camera just for blog pictures), is one of the red dragonflies, a common darter I think.

Final 2 pictures are the view from down by the pond. The first is the marsh area that leads onto the hayfield that curves out of site below the sunflower field in the distance.

This is looking the other way down my ‘hidden’ valley.

It’s really not hard to put up with some trials and tribulations when this is the reward.

Blogger has just screwed up

I'll try to sort out the posts later when it may have sorted its self out