Christmas is over for another year. As much as I enjoy it, there is a lot of work involved and this year there was some added stress, so I am glad things will be getting back to normal.

My car broke down on Christmas Eve. It will be fixed today so I will have it back this evening.

The alpacas gave me a great deal of worry over the weekend too. We could not restrain Tinker successfully in order to change his bandage. He was feeling much better however, as evidenced by his violent fight with his brother Prince. On Sunday morning when I went out to feed them, they were lunging at each other, rearing up reaching over the fence, screaming and running. I could not keep them away from each other. Then in the evening it got worse. Tinker threw himself at the gate so hard that he popped the chain off and went right through. It was pitch black outside and freezing cold. So I went out in my robe and PJs and opened the gate and just let them go at it. Monday morning, they were still posturing and screaming some but I thought the worst was over. NOT! They had another knock-down-drag-out-rolling in the dirt fight. Tinker lost the bandage on his foot and the tear in his ear had reopened and was bleeding all over the place.

I thought it would never end, but it did. I noticed Prince was at the far end of the pasture , sort of hiding in the corner. He would not come up to the barn. I was afraid he was hurt now too. When I walked down to check on him, he looked fine, but Tinker came running toward us with his head down and his neck stretched out. He was telling Prince to stay where he was! Prince turned away from Tinker, his face in the corner. Then Tinker went back to the barn and started eating. The other boys have just tried to stay out of the way of all the fighting. Buddy did not bark all night and Tinker did not sound alarm calls all night last night. So maybe things are settled. I will have to make sure Prince gets food and water though, even if I have to haul it to the far end of the field.

Also, I hope that Tinker's foot is healed enough, but I may have to put a new bandage on it. Margaret has offered to help again so I will call her today and see what she thinks. If we do put a new bandage on, it will have to wait til Steve gets home from work so that we have enough people to keep Tinker still while one of us puts it on. I'll keep you posted.