Sat April 4th … Today the Alpacas will come…sometime…

Was up early today with anticipation of the arrival of the alpacas, which Isabelle will drop off sometime today. I was to the barn already and did a little cleaning at the bunny house and around the chickens. We also moved a few more eggs from the turner to the hatching box. but I can’t seem to get the temperature up to where I want it, so I will be going to GNH for a couple switch and receptacle covers and a light fixture & bulbs to supplement heating in the hatching box. I’ll tie it into the regular thermostat so it will work in parallel with the heating element, so I can get the heat up to the 101 degrees I need to hatch, since it is a still air incubator.
I suppose sometime here in the future, we’ll need a horse trailer, so we can transport the alpacas if we have to take them anywhere, but I don’t think it will be a real pushing matter, because we want them to be relaxed and enjoy being here. We didn’t get them to shuffle all over the place, but still it would be nice if we had to go to the vet’s if he can’t come out here to the farm.
We met with Jeff, our contractor friend last evening for dinner at Paul’s in Coxsackie and while eating dinner…… went over the cost of his doing our concrete work for the hospice gift shop. He gave us an estimated price and will donate his time to the program. We will install a bronze plaque when it’s completed, noting such………… but the point is that we’re moving on it. I’ll start figuring wood materials and we’ll call Middle Field Lumber to place that order once it’s complete.
When I have some spare time on nice days, I will work on digging a four foot hole in the center of the rear deck to install a sonna tube, some rebar and pour cement level to the deck itself. This will hold the center post of the roof for the back deck which will keep the rain off of us, the deck, the picnic table and the BBQ grill. The latter is all benefits of the real reason, which is to keep the rain from driving directly against the rear screen door and soaking the rear door when it blows rain from the east. It will eventually rot the door jam and floor in the kitchen, so it must be done.