Tuesday 7 October 2008

The wooden house beckons!

The blog will fall silent this weekend as the Steele family head south for a week to visit the future headquarters of the Patou herd in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains.
Yes we are off to 'The Wooden House' or 'La Maison de bois', as they might say down there.

We bought our 'wooden house' almost three years ago as we planned for our future life when I retire in 5 years time. Only 5 more years to go. Unless..................................................!?!?

Anyway on Saturday we will fly down to the pink city of Toulouse and immerse ourselves in rural french life for a week. Ahh oui, c'est tres bon, pastis, vin rouge, poulet, canard, les montagnes, les sangliers et la maison de bois. We can't wait, we are all excited.

We haven't been since easter and although the house has been well used throughout the summer by friends and family it will be splendid to get down there throw the shutters open, exterminate insects and give a friendly 'Bonjour' to the resident mouse as he/she scuttles about from time to time.

Our good friends Elvie and Pete, who are also visitors to notre maison, will be moving into Park House to look after the alpacas, chickens and mouse slayer (actually he's pretty hopeless). Now that all the cria have been born we feel able to leave the herd. The mad labs will reside wth my parents for the week and I am sure my mother, with her lovely oatmeal coloured carpets, is looking forward to their visit.

In the meantime Lily's jaw abscess continues to give us cause for concern. The Nuflor does not seem to be working and I fear that we may have to organise her operation sooner rather than later. I gave her another jab yesterday, the 7th in a course 11 and the damn thing seems to have got slightly bigger. She is the nicest friendliest, calmest alpaca and it pains me everytime I have to stick that needle in her.

I know we shouldn't get too attached to alpacas but come on guys when they give you so much it is so hard not to. There are of course alpacas that I am not particularly attached to. The spitty, don't you come near me and don't you ever touch me ever, ever, EVER! sort but thankfully we don't have many of those. I could name names but Sue would tell me off.

6 comments:

Debbie, Barnacre Alpacas said...

Sorry to hear poor Lily is not responding to the jabs, thankfully we seem (fingers, toes and everything else crossed!) to be getting somewhere with Duchess. Her lump is definitely shrinking, like Lily she is the calmest alpaca ever and stands there whilst I inject that huge dose - bless her.
Incidentally we also have one of those spitty, don't you come near my type; to her credit though she has a fantastic fleece!!

Zanzibah Alpacas said...

Have a lovely break !!.. Hope you enjoy your holiday, you lucky, lucky lot !!...I nearly moved to France, it was a choice between Scotland/France, and guess where I am, its not France, but what a lovely place to live, I used to visit France, every month when I lived in the South East !! I hope all is well with your animal family when you return, and that Lilly is much improved for you. Safe Journey, look forward to the mighty Patou Patter when you all return....Jayne

Zanzibah Alpacas said...

Have a lovely break !!.. Hope you enjoy your holiday, you lucky, lucky lot !!...I nearly moved to France, it was a choice between Scotland/France, and guess where I am, its not France, but what a lovely place to live, I used to visit France, every month when I lived in the South East !! I hope all is well with your animal family when you return, and that Lilly is much improved for you. Safe Journey, look forward to the mighty Patou Patter when you all return....Jayne

Anonymous said...

Its good to know that others are also waiting for the year of retirement ours will come sooner than yours so you have my sympathy we have yet to decided on the location of our forever house and land but it will be in the uk and humming with alpacas. enjoy your trip

Gerry said...

You made the right choice Jayne!! Have a good one Mark, Sue and Angus - hear from you when you get back to Blighty.

Zanzibah Alpacas said...

As long as you have your 'top Coat'! to keep you warm and those broad, bricht moon light nights the night!! But theres always a good dram that'll warm yer up !! Ah!... but Im tea total !! I'll just stick to the Hat !!