The weather here is just pants! Ha - you thought I was going to be talking about my underwear, sorry to disappoint you ... however there is a funny chap in Wiltshire who is happy to discuss his underwear at length on his blog - you know the one I mean don't you!
It rains here every day, sometimes just showers, sometimes continuous drizzle, sometimes continuous heavy rain, sometimes very heavy thundery downpours. Our chalk downland paddocks are completely saturated, usually free draining they just can't take any more, we have puddles where we never have before... the ground is squelchy and we have MUD. It's officially the wettest year since records began, this time last year we were in drought... so nature evens things up.
The Meon Valley is a changed landscape - they don't call those fields now under water, 'water meadows' for nothing. We walk the dogs down there every day just to check out the growing floods, now almost to the top of my boots, which are rotting fast and threatening to leak - good job I had a new pair for Christmas, though they're still pristine in their box where I admire them and promise them regular cleaning and regular leather treatment (some chance). Thankfully we are on high enough ground to be safe from flooding - that must be just awful and I feel so sorry for anyone coping with all that must bring. Snow in the States - doesn't it come here after usually - that'll be fun - at least it'll be clean for a bit!
We have quite a few white pacas here who are doing their very best to blend in with their surroundings. Muddy knees I can put up with but then they go into the dry, earth floored shelters and have a really good roll about and come out a completely different colour. Not any more - I put straw down, even though I know it's going to be a nightmare taking it all out again. I have heard that this weather could go on for months yet, the thought of showing these things in this state fills me with dread, and when are we supposed to halter train them, not great in the rain and on slippery ground. I even have to admit to not quite recognising some of the weanlings - they all look remarkably similar with a coating of mud - where has Cassidy's crazy topknot gone?
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| Water Meadows |
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| A favourite picnic spot |
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| A rare dry moment |
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| Soggy, muddy Melissa and some white ones???? |
I feel much better now Karen, hearing about the squelch and dirty alpacas, and knowing we're not alone with earthen floors.
ReplyDeleteTo think that we complained about a bit of freezing weather in past winters...give me minus fifteen degrees any day rather than all this rain...still we have summer to look forward to (oh yes rained then too!)
ReplyDeleteWe've caved in here, all cria currently in the nice dry shed!
ReplyDeleteWe have also moved some girls to dry paddocks but doing it in torrential rain has meant another trip to the underwear drawer!
Karen, hope you've put that straw in deeply and stuck it down well...ours just roll about until it piles up at the edges of the shelter...then it's out into the rain and then back for a good roll on the newly exposed dry earth floor!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year... with that drier weather that we are all wishing for...yep, over here as well!
We are waiting for rain here!! We have the opposite problem - not enough of it! Our paddocks are very dry, but the humidity is very high. Poor Alpacas are camping out in the shade under the trees when they aren't sunbaking. Lol, we always wish for what we don't have :) Lisa
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