Every alpaca farm needs a 'Widdy'.

A little bit of magic and some respite from the alpacas yesterday when our Grandson Edward Lord joined me in the workshop with his new hammer to make a bird box. All made and hung up within the half hour and waiting for the birdies to come and settle in. A half hour with more moments of magic than Houdini ever enjoyed... Thank's Widdy for bringing your hammer. Lurve in spades... Dandad

Racking up the head collars at TOFT

Busy everyday now sorting and shifting and humping stuff as we move into our new shed and get organised for the next ten years at TOFT. Collecting all the stuff in one place is a major challenge as 'secret squirrel' seems to have deposited stuff all over the farm. Time to open every black hole at TOFT get out the junk. Sort the useful and discard the passengers. 'Twas ever thus.

Where's the Chomp?

There's only one thing to do when the snow covers the ground as it did today.  Open all the hay racks and make sure that all the girls and boys get all the  chomp they can eat to cheer them up. Ironically if it had been cold enough for the snow to stay with us the boys and girls would look magnificent. As our world has dripped constantly from sun up to sun down they look like homeless souls lining up at a food bank. 

After a magnificent snow filled start all we are left with this evening is more mud and slop to wade through in the morn. I never thought I'd end up wishing for a prolonged freeze but we are all getting a little fed up with the wet. A week of hard frost and dry skies and we could get something done and put a smile back on our alpacas faces. 'Twas ever thus!

Jobs done- new entrance to the TOFT Studio....

Well that's done. 4 days start to finish and the entrance to the TOFT studio is now up to Highway Specification - looks great but makes the rest of the road look a bit rough. Let's hope the lorries stick to the road and quit cutting the corners. A big thanks to all our customers this week who adapted well to find their way to the parking. All back to normal tomorrow.

Lunch with the Monks...?

Shared my Chicken Ceasar sandwich and Skinny Latte Lunch yesterday with this group of Monkeys watching me. They had had obviously done a runner from the TOFT Studio and swung down the room preferring the ambience of the Cornflower Cafe! Needless to say I didn't share  ....even though they kept begging constantly with their eyes. Tough love !!

Jack of all trades...

Busy weekend at TOFT last weekend with yours truly working as driver and stall erector helping the ladies of TOFT set up their trade stand at the NEC. The lovely Petra was in charge of executing design and decor and she duly chased the wee members  of Edward's Menagerie into line to look their best for a couple of days. And the results? Well the stand looked marvellous! Congratulations Petra and the Yarnies of TOFT. Me? I nipped back to the Cornflower Cafe for a crafty Cappucino and Cake...Perfick!

Alpacas Feted in Dunchurch

If you can actually be feted then our alpacas were definitely that at the local village fete yesterday. England was out in all it's glory in Dunchurch and the whole village and half of Rugby must have rocked through the local sports field. The Rugby Mayor was even trotting around in his finery glad handing all and sundry.

Our new assistant herdswoman, Freya Shuttleworth, was on 'touch and stroke' duty in the alpaca pen entertaining  the crowd with lots of alpaca chat. This was a first for Freya and she did a great job. Once she realised the folks weren't going to eat her she really enjoyed it!

And me? Well I had a lovely day catching up with old friends and acquaintances. It also provided us with a great opportunity to promote the new Cornflower pop up cafe at Toft which we all did in spades. 'Coffee and cake to die for Governor! Here have an ice cream voucher...' We gave it large for the Cornflower cafe. My wonderful mother in law Myra was, as always, a stalwart at making sure no one left without a leaflet. At 82 she's worth three half her age, bless!

The Dunchurch village fete is a real traditional English affair and a credit to the organisers. On a wonderful summers day like yesterday it was a  joy to take part in. There can't be a child within a ten mile radius of Toft who by now does not know what an alpaca is. I look forward to seeing them all again throughout July when they turn up for their ice cream.

Looking forward to Lunch at the Cornflower Cafe..

Even the table decorations look good enough to eat ! Open Thursday through Saturday 9am-4pm . Getting busier by the day and rapidly becoming Warwickshire's hidden secret! Cake coffee and sarnies to die for!

Look what Popped up...

An all singing and dancing Italian coffee machine popped up yesterday in the corner of the Toft Alpaca Studio. This heralds the official "popping' up of the Cornflower  'Pop Up' tea room at the Toft Alpaca Farm Open Day on Easter Monday. 

After the launch on Easter Monday our customers will be able to savour the very best of coffee tea and cake Thursday- Saturday at the TOFT Alpaca Studio. 

Customers can sit around and chat alpaca from 10 am - 4pm throughout the Summer and keep an eye out for where the Cornflour Pop Up will Pop next. And believe me the coffee is goooood!!

Toft Alpacas cutting grass in December???

Can you believe it? It's the 1st of December and I spent this morning cutting the last 4 acres of grass on the new land we have taken on.  

We have just taken on another 14 acres of grazing at Toft which adjoins our current pasture. The down side is - it probably hasn't been grazed for 5 or 6 years which means the grass is three to four  feet high and the ground ridged with huge mounds of tussock. So it's out with the flail, choose a low gear and contemplate life for a couple of hours as I slowly move through the paddock cutting it for the first time in ages.

 The conditions were perfect this  morning so it just had to be done. When the rain comes again it probably won't stop until the ground is unworkable so it just had to be done. Three weeks until Xmas and I'm cutting grass? Incredible. 

Made a lovely job though. Just the hedges to cut back over the next few months so we can see the fenceline and the fences to put right and we might just get some alpacas on it by Easter!