Alpacas on the loose

I was making my normal afternoon rounds today, feeding and watering the chickens, checking on the garden and walking the dogs, when I spotted one of the neighbor's alpacas on the loose. Actually, it was my dog Molly that spotted it first and after a brief hesitation to determine the best path to cut it off, took off chasing it. The dog was no match for the alpaca (who knew the were so fast?) and Molly stopped the chase about the time she got to the end of our property line and the beginning of the fenced area from whence the alpaca had escaped. This is becoming a recurring happening around here as two of the alpacas have discovered how to go under the fence. About a week ago the DW came in exclaiming that there was an alpaca near the street. So I called my neighbor to tell him and then went over to herd what turned out to be two alpacas, back into the fenced area.
 The renegade alpacas were not of great concern to me until this afternoon when I discovered that the biggest part of my deer fencing around the veggie garden had been torn down. Hopefully this doesn't become a recurring problem. Up until now, we have had great relations with the neighbors. They give me stall bedding to compost and I take care of their waste problems. A true win/win for us both. I am not sure how I will react if the alpacas were to destroy one of my crops. I put a lot of effort into growing my veggies and don't take kindly to having them destroyed by an overgrown sweater.

Garlic planting season

It's time for planting garlic here in the Carolinas, so I took advantage of a beautiful day to do just that. I put in several hundred cloves each of Aja Rojo, Burgandy, and Creole Red garlic. This is in a bed that is new. Last year at this time I tilled up an area about 10'x40' and planted crimson clover. The clover will deposit nitrogen in the soil and make good organic material to help loosen the soil.  In spring I tilled that under and planted buckwheat. The buckwheat is deep rooted and helps break up the soil. It's deep roots also pull up potasium from lower soil levels to the higher strata where your plants can reach them. In mid-summer I tilled that in and planted cowpeas. The cowpeas, being of the legume family, adds more nitrogen and again, more organic materials to the soil. I just tilled that in and planted half the bed with garlic. The other side with more clover that I will till under in spring and plant corn.  When the garlic has been harvested that half of the bed will be planted in beans for the summer.
 The first head of Atlantic broccoli is reading for diner. This is from plants that we started from seed in mid-June, transplanted into the garden a month later in mid-July. Here we are 80 some odd days from transplant to diner table. I think I'll be making a bechemel sauce with some cheddar added to ladle over the steamed broccoli.