It’s not quite mid-November and we already have a good snow cover thanks to the almost-foot we’ve received so far today. It’s a little early, but the snow and the cold seem here to stay. There are a lot of things we do on the farm to get ready for winter, and we’ve had to scramble a bit since winter’s a little ahead of schedule. Even the usual fall chores like cleaning up the vegetable garden and removing leaves haven’t been finished as completely as we’d like. All the leaves aren’t even on the ground yet!
This year we divided the girls into two groups, with one group for older or thinner alpacas plus nursing mothers and babies. That group will get pellets every day. The other group is “well conditioned”, to say the least and should be fine eating just hay.
The regular hanging water buckets have been replaced with heated buckets. We have a few overhangs that need plastic to cut down on cold winds and give us more usable winter barn space, but that task has not been crossed off the “to do” list. For the most part, we’re in pretty good shape.
On a recent cold, but sunny, day, the girls were enjoying the pasture. Today, they haven’t poked their heads outside, but the boys are out in the snow.
