A break in the ice

While I wished for the snow to melt, it froze into a thick ice shelf rooted deep in the soil. Depending on the weather has never been a part of my life like this. Like the land I feel gripped by the ice, right down to the bones. I retreated into hibernation and took a holiday inside my books. I read about long warm summer nights. 

A break in the ice came when Donna asked me to help clean up the farm today. We're expecting another blizzard and a foot of snow tonight so we tried to get lots done before we we're frozen solid again. 

Seeing the alpacas thawed my frosty bones. They greet me in the same order they usually do. Dante is always first, led by his curiosity then Nikolai steps meekly from his shadow. Willow is the meerkat amongst the ladies; her head is always the first to pop up amongst the tightly packed grazing bodies. 

Of the four babies there is one who is being bottle fed after her mother didn't produce milk for her. She's bottle fed twice a day and she has started to graze on the hay. She's doing well but is a little smaller than the others, which makes her the most popular with visitors. Today I bottle fed her and we got very messy! Bottle feeding an alpaca is much different from bottle feeding human babies. Lucy will suck the bottle for a few seconds (and you really need to hold on to the bottle) then she quickly moves her head to the side for a breath and turns the suction pump back to maximum strength. So that none of the milk is wasted I needed to try and tip the bottle upright quickly when she moved her head away. It's safe to say that I don't have the quickest reaction times yet and by the time she finnished her breakfast she looked like a Jackson Pollock painting. It was great fun, she really does have the sweetest nature. 

As well as catching up with my furry friends it was nice to see my human friend too! Donna answers all my questions, even the stupid ones. I enjoy our conversations between the fences of the enclosures amongst the chorus of chicken warbles and alpaca gobbling. 

We spoke about the international alpaca show that's coming to Harrisburg next month. I'm going along to learn more about the industry but also to see the fibre art competition and how a colorful Jackson pollock style alpaca study would fit in.