Today began with a hint of blue sky but that was just to fool - or even annoy – us because by lunchtime, the day had descended into a wild, windy rain storm that then continued well into the night. We made the decision mid-morning to bring the sheep and alpacas into the four-acre field shelters with their 'newly boarded fronts' and so spent the early afternoon strawing them up.
The sheep were shut in and the alpacas have been given free access on the 'understanding' they don't poach the land nor eat too much grass!!! By the time it was dark the rain and the wind were competing as to which could cause the most havoc. It was truly vile out there. Unfortunately the weather was coming from the north west and as such our north facing shelters were letting in more wet than we would have liked, albeit less now they have boarding up to the half way point! Tomorrow's job therefore, is to fashion our own gale breakers using lengths of wood and scaffolding netting. We are due a brief respite in the weather early morning when the rain becomes light and the winds change to south westerlies but by mid afternoon, all is set to return to the cold, wet and windy north westerlies of today. No pressure then but our new gale breakers need to be in place by around 2pm!!
When the animals were last checked at around 10pm, all the sheep and alpacas were snuggled up at the back of their shelters in the warm and dry. The photo is of Mercury, looking very grown up and very pretty! She is snuggled up with Pluto – these two are still so close, it's seriously touching!!