Alpacaland Revisited

I am back in what I have come to affectionately call "Alpacaland," my friends' farm a few hours away from Melbourne. They've gone on a road trip and asked me to farm sit, so here I am. I am looking after 37 alpacas, three dogs, a handful of hens, and helping look after a couple of horses, in addition to the property itself.

The animals have been pretty easy to deal with. I have to feed the chooks and collect their eggs in the mornings. Then I walk over to the alpaca paddocks, count the animals and make sure they are all healthy, and give them some food. I also have to look after the dogs and feed them nasty bones which I have to buy from the butcher a few times a week (plucking the bones out of the plastic bags is not the highlight of this vegetarian's day). I also have to give food and water to a couple of the horses a few times a day. All in all, not too terribly difficult.

I did have one minor mystery that might never be solved. Rick had told me there were 27 alpacas in the girls' paddock, and 11 in the boys'. The morning Rick showed me all my duties, we went to the girl paddock to feed them. I quickly counted 27 alpacas and then had a look at them to make sure they were all alright. We cornered a plucked a thorny vine from one of the girls, then fed them and went on to see the boys.

But the next day, as I started counting, there were only 26. I counted again. And again. And again. 26. There are only 26. Who is missing? By now I've grown to know or recognize many of the girls, and I could tell who wasn't missing. It wasn't one of the babies, not one of the rose-grays (a pretty tie-dyed-like color), not one of the old grannies, not one of the white ones who always comes up to me. So who was missing?

I counted again, and there were still only 26. So after a quick walk around part of the paddock, I went back up to the house, got Josie (glad this happened before they left!) and we headed back out there together to have a walk and see if we could find her. It is unlikely that one of the alpacas would just wander off on her own - they stay in their herd. It is possible it fell down a gully, so we went and had a look for tracks, but found nothing. We went down in to the gully and followed it for a while, but there was no sign of anything. We walked the fence line around the whole paddock, but no alpaca, no blood, no signs of a struggle, no bits of fluff, nothing. It's a mystery.

Now, to make matters confusingly annoying, Rick is second guessing whether or not there were 27 to begin with, or if he had just forgot there were only 26 now. He can't remember. And I am also second guessing whether I actually counted 27 the previous day or if I had counted one twice. I am pretty sure there were 27. I counted 27. But now, I can't be sure.

Interestingly, a guy called yesterday and said he had found a stray alpaca ... so could that be ours? We also know another alpaca had been wandering around a nearby town (prior to ours disappearing) so he could have been calling about that one. It doesn't seem that the tag number on the found alpaca matches one of ours, but we are looking in to it. To be continued.

In other Alpacaland news, I am spending the rest of my time enjoying the serenity of the country. The sky is huge, the stars are plentiful, and driving on the left is getting easier the more I do it. It's winter here in Australia, so it's getting pretty cold, especially at night. But I've got a wood-burning stove and a fireplace to keep me warm. No heat in the bedrooms though, so I'm under about 5 blankets! Cooking on the wood-burning stove has been fun, but keeping the fireplace going has been a challenge since recent rain has left most of the wood damp. I've spent a bit of time drumming up in the studio on Josie's djimbe drums, trying to improve my skills.
I often sit down in the girls' paddock and spend some time with them, as some them are quite friendly and happily sit there whilst I pet them. Sometimes they are skittish and run away, while other times they come right up to me and stand there for as long as I am willing to pet them. I must admit though, I do find myself talking to the animals more often than not, so I wonder what would happen if I actually lived out in a solitary country environment. But I do occasionally have some human company. Windsor came out to visit last weekend and entertained the alpacas with some whistling and throat singing. We cooked yummy vegetarian food and horrible scones, and he did his mountain man thing, chopping heaps of wood so I would stay warm. And this coming weekend, Mike, Nor and Rachel should be visiting, so I'll see if I can get a bit of a drum circle going.

Hopefully my next entry will include news of a found alpaca! Hope everyone is happy and enjoying summer in the Northern Hemisphere!.