Today has been the most beautiful day. It began cold with a frost, stayed cold and then as dusk fell, the almost full moon lit up the garden and fields, clearly showing patches of frost that had remained in place all day. It was, totally, as winter ought to be!!!
And the best news: well, for the first time in weeks, the goats came out for a graze and as they were out, we felt it unfair to keep the sheep in their shelter, so the sheep came out too. We cannot say that the ground was exactly frozen but there was enough of a top crust for the animals not to do 'too' much damage... there were after all in the top 3-acre field which is not meant to have much 'winter' traffic on it' We are now forecast rain for the next week or so – joy – but with the odd sunny interval or two as well and crucially, all is coming from the south and west, as opposed to the north and so we should be warmer. We re-assessed the state of the 4-acre field and decided that the sheep can perhaps go back there with the proviso that if the land gets really wet again (which it probably will), they can be shut in the bottom field shelter which to date, has remained quite dry underfoot and in facing east, won’t get too much weather blowing directly in the front. One of the reasons we moved the sheep to the top 3-acre field shelter was because it saved us having to trek across the 4-acre field to fill up hay racks etc. So, we need the land not to get too soggy again for this reason as well. For the moment the alpacas will stay in the top 3-acre field and so share with the goats. Our hope will be however, that they can return to the 4-acre at some stage to give the top 3-acre some recovery time before the spring!!! We remain ridiculously optimistic that the worst of the wet weather may be behind us, this is based on nothing more than wishful thinking...