Freezing mornings and frosty pacas..........

After a pretty lack lustre (and not very warm) Autumn, Winter has hit with a vengeance!  We have already had a bunch of below zero mornings and it's now the first week of June and the last three mornings have been -7, -6 and then -7 again (as recorded at the airport).  It's often a degree or so colder at our place as we are on top of a big hill. Our weather station was reading an apparent temperature of minus 11 the last few days!

Canberra usually gets a lot of below zero Winter mornings, but this many, this far below zero, this early in the season, is a little unusual.  Luckily our heating works pretty well...... the mornings have been cold and it's taking awhile to warm up, only hitting 10 or 11 degrees at the most for the day.  On the upside it's been beautiful and sunny.

Many people wonder what we do with the alpacas during Winter.  It's definitely too cold outside overnight for dogs and cats at this time of year, but it doesn't bother the alpacas one bit. They vastly prefer the cold and frost to the hot summer days.  They get a bit cranky at wet and windy days (and we take pity on them and put coats on them during really wet weather), but cold they love.

With their big fluffy coats they don't even feel the cold and we find them happily lazing near the door, chewing their cud.  They have straw in the backyard to sleep in, but we often find them asleep on the pavers outside our family room, not at all bothered by the subzero temperatures and ice layers. There is nothing cuter than a frost laden paca of a morning! Even Chimu's fringe had a layer of frost this morning and their was frost on the tips of his ears....

If you put your hand into their coat they are toasty warm and no frost gets near their skin. The food consumption does go up a little though on the cold nights as they try to grow more fleece!

 

This morning was the first day the alpacas got a good frosting, but the yard has been freezing over most nights.  This morning the ground was looking particularly frozen and white........

 

While the alpacas are more than happy outside in these freezing conditions, the cats are mostly found either laying in a sunny spot or curled up in a pile of feline fluff.

 

It's definitely indoor weather for the cats.  Mulder did escape at 3am this morning (when it was minus 7), and promptly returned not long after when he realised his paws were freezing over.    He managed to escape when we (meaning Anto) had to go out to turn the car alarm off.  This happened a further 3 times during the night as the car icing over was obviously activating the alarm.  Another few minus 5 and 6 mornings predicted for the next few days so the car might have to find a spot in the garage, it clearly isn't a fan of Canberra Winter!

The favourite photos of 2014 - the pet edition

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm putting together a few categories of  favourite pictures from 2014.  Today it's our household pets.  Prior to the arrival of the mini-humans, our pets were very well photographed! These days, not so much. I do take a few pics of them here and there, but hardly the volume they used to demand.  I do still think they are pretty cute though, and try to get some nice shots every now and then.

We don't have the typical household pets.  The two house cats, are hardly unusual as far as pets go, but some backyard alpacas and a resident (free range) pigeon are a little less standard.  We also have quite a number of fish - a 6 foot marine tank and our pond goldfish.  I didn't find a single photo of our lovely marine fish and corals, so next time it gets a clean I'm going to try and get some good ones.

The Cats

Mulder and Scully are getting on in years, they are 14 years old now, and lazier than ever.  Days are best spent lazing in the sun and trying desperately to avoid the small children (who love them but aren't all that gentle).

The Alpacas

Not everyone has resident alpacas in their yard.  Ours have been with us 7 years now and are a big part of the family. Astrid and Soren love their furry camelids, and walking them is a part of our daily routine.

It's normal for us to have big fluffy alpacas peering in the door as we eat or watch TV, and to have mobile compost units, that love to help us garden. Look out the window on a hot Summers day and you might see them cooling off in their water sprayers. On a sunny morning they will be laying down on the ground 'sunning' (and looking dead, trust me it freaks people out)!  In Winter they wake up covered in frost, and the rest of the time they hang out guarding the door or the washing.

We love taking them out walking, and they are pretty well known around our area.  Inti is extremely friendly, and likes to give everyone cuddles. Chimu, gets a lot of attention for his big blue eyes!

The Pigeon

A year or two after we moved into our house, we inherited a pigeon. He just turned up and made himself at home.  After awhile we started feeding him, mostly because he was hanging around the door, tapping on it to be fed, and eating the alpacas food.  He is just a common pigeon, but quite a pretty colour.  We weren't planning on him hanging around and named him the very boring 'brown pigeon' or BP as he is commonly referred to. BP loves to sit on the North side of our house, cooing and generally poo-ing everywhere.  About twice a day he does a figure 8 loop over our house just for some exercise.  The rest of the time he is poo-ing our garden and entertaining area and hanging around sitting in random places. I must try and get a photo of him sitting on the umbrella or the wall art. He also likes to 'ski' down the deck balustrade to get his seed.