Really nice to see Charlotte again – first time since New Year 2008 at Haldon Road for me. It’s always a pleasure showing people round Pistyll Gwyn, and getting to see it through their eyes a bit. Because it is still so … undeveloped here (some might say messy), people tend to pitch in with ideas, and Charlottes ideas were pretty much all around ‘growing’.

Whilst we have had a journey of indecision and postponement on the veg plot, it was inspiring to talk to Charlotte who would clearly have got that sorted long before now!
As well as the veg she had other growing advice too ….

Me, I just want my plum trees and gooseberry bushes (rhubarb is already in hand thankfully).
Anyway, great time chatting and wandering about the fields. Gwen really took to her, and got loads of walks, which is always a good thing.

Because of a recessive lower lip and big teeth, Silky has always had a slightly comical air – something Fu Manchu-ish about him!

For the last couple of months the teeth have been overshot – a common alpaca problem and so we had Egbert the vet in to grind them down.

Silky is still looking comical – an alpaca with a big smile, but at least his teeth now DO fit in his mouth.

Well, after a week of preparing myself, assembling all the bits, and sorting out radiator and peripheral plumbing stuff, I finally bit the bullet and removed a stud wall and the hot water cylinder to make way for …. Steampunk.

I can’t say I enjoyed the week, but the satisfaction at the end of it all when it didn’t leak (nearly) was enormous. Endless trips to B&Q; endless re-routing of flow and return, hot and cold;  bits of wire wool getting to places where wire wool really shouldn’t get, and poor Gwen taking refuge in the car to get away from the chaos.

Caerthan, wisely, just shut himself in the spinning room and made spectacular things with alpaca fleece.

I say nearly didn’t leak, because it did a bit, through the immersion heater socket, which I had plumbed incorrectly. Thankfully, for this, and other problems I had phone support from Cinnabar Stoves Peter who aside from practical advice has been very enouraging.

So, the joys of the thermal store are just opening up for us, the first immediate benefit being mains pressure hot water in our shower, aside from the more economical fuel usage. Stay tuned for more critical appraisal as the weeks go by.

But what does it look like?!? This mass of tangled pipes. Well … they all DO go somewhere, and they all do DO something, I promise. The big question now though is: “Do I box it in, shutting it out of sight like some menial in the attic, or do I celebrate its pipey-ness and watch the looks of horror on our guests faces when I show them to our already crowded guest-room …. ?”

Hmmm … well I know what the devil is saying ….

Yesterday our new thermal store and solar panel were delivered, and Peter and Emily started the installation by swapping round the wood burners and installing a back boiler.

After three of us managed to manhandle the ludicrously large thermal store tank up to the stairs – no mean feat, I proceeded to bash a hole in the wall.

All in all we are looking forward to a few days of DIY discomfort and mayhem.

Gwen took refuge in the car – she doesn’t like house chaos, which is a little unfortunate.

Exactly one year after the birth of Dylan, Lavender finally gave birth to Molly on July 7th.

It turned out to be a stressful 24 hours for us as Molly, at first, couldn’t get it together to feed, and then when she finally did start to try, Lavender would push her away – not in a rejecting sort of way, but in a ‘my teats are uncomfortable’ sort of way.

We encouraged as much as we could, and I milked Lavender to try to get the milk flowing and to collect some of the precious colostrum. Caerthan went off to the vet and got a supply of lamb colostrum as a second best, and it was all a bit touch and go really. We kept mother and baby in the barn that night – first time we’ve had to do that.

The next day things did improve, and Molly started to make it to the milk bar. Lavender was still a bit reluctant, but finally we saw Molly getting a bit of life in her, which indicated that she was getting her nourishment, and sure enough, the usually bombing about the field wasn’t long after that.
She is an absolute delight – very small compared to Heulwen, but charming. Even Tyler is captivated.