Topping day, Farmer Thomas

The picture today is of Mike playing with his Fergie tractor - well he calls it working but I know he cannot wait to get out on the Fergie. It is an ideal size for topping and because we have been busy doing other things the paddocks were starting to look rather unkempt. Luckily the rain held off enough for him to do four this afternoon.

The alpacas do a sterling job grazing but at this time of the year the grass is ahead of them, not to mention the docks and nettles.

Shearing

We have several stud males at Laurel Farm and they all have very dense big fleeces. The recent hot weather has been taking its toll and although we are not expecting the shearer until the 3rd July we thought it would be kind to get them shorn earlier.

Ian Skinner of Dreamfield Alpacas agreed to come and do the deed for us, although he normally only shears his own alpacas and does not do it professionally. Although not as quick as Colin, our normal shearer, he made a good job of it and the boys are very grateful.

Unfortunately we did not get a photo of the actual shearing as we were all busy and forgot to get the camera out, but we do have a before and after shot.

Family Day on the Farm

It has been a lovely day in all sorts of ways today.

To start with Mike had to deliver two of our black females to Inca Alpacas for mating to one of their top stud males, Canchones Witness of Inca, who has an excellent pedigree and we hope his genes will enhance our herd. We have already had a beautiful female cria by E P Cambridge Centurian (also standing at Inca Alpacas) from our Reserve Champion Brown Female, Laurel's Saphire and we are hoping that that Witness will provide two more black cria next year.

Whilst he was away, our latest grandson, Josh, arrived with number 3 son and his wife and mother in law. They are staying until Saturday evening and are taking the opportunity to explore the area. They went to Lime Regis today and intend to go to Lynton and Lynmouth tomorrow.

As it was a warm evening we decided to eat al fresco and I cooked a spicy stir fry with rice, jacket potatoes, salad followed by rhubard crumble and ice cream, to appeal to Chris's wife, Aew and her mother who is over from Thailand on a month's visit. They cleared their plates, so they must have appreciated the meal.

Don Alario, our main herd sire, has been getting a little above himself lately and so we have separated him from the rest of the males. He looked so pathetic this evening and stood at the gate of his individual paddock asking to come into the garden, so I let him in. Nothing to do with the copious amount of Brut Cava I consumed whilst cooking the dinner!!.

He immediately started munching on our slightly overgrown lawn and seemed to appreciate the company. After a while he got bored and started humming and so I opened the gate and he trotted back to his lonesome paddock, had a few beers and went to sleep.

Preserving the Countryside.

We love to keep the farm as neat and tidy as possible, although this time of year it is a bit of a losing battle. At the same time we remember that when we took over the land it was over run with all sorts of wildlife and plants because it had remained untended to 9 or 10 years. We, therefore, try to leave some areas untouched and todays pictures show some of the plants along our hedgerow.

WaterAlpacas

It has been really hot today and when I went into the boys' paddock to clean their trough they enjoyed sitting under the spray of the hose. Alpacas really like water and it is a major job to keep the troughs clean in hot weather as they use them as cold dip and of course the mud comes off their feet into the water.

We have some big galvanised troughs in some of the paddocks and it is not unusual to see two or three alpacas lying down in one with a queue of other ones waiting to climb in.

Today is Friday

No, I know it's not but I went away for the weekend to a dog show (no surprise there) and did not do the blog before I went.

David came down and did some strimming for us as the Devon bank at the farm gate was so overgrown that it was becoming dangerous for us and customers to leave the farm unless they wanted to turn left and accelerate immediately. It looks much better now and is much safer, although I have called the Devon Highways Dept. to get them to come and cut the verge which is also obscuring our vision.

As always he gave us a hand with a few other jobs before both of us left for the weekend at about 4 p.m. The picture is of Bono one of our males chosing his bride for the day. They all look pleased to see him!! The other picture is David helping to move the girls from paddock to paddock. I think he is looking for ward to his surfing!!

Mike had a very productive time whilst I was gone and continued with the strimming and topping. He also managed to get some leisure time to enjoy the weather and relax.

Making the most of the dry weather

The weather forecast is variable for this week so we are making the most of every dry moment.

I have just come back from collecting our Blue Tongue vaccine from the vet and it is currently getting towards ambient temperature. We plan to vaccinate the entire herd later this morning so we are getting on with routine tasks as quickly as possible.

We are expecting a visit from our friendly shepherd/farm contractor this week who is going to bring our paddock water situation into the 21st century. He is also supposed to be supplying us with our chickens (Black Rock). Photos will be forthcoming when they arrive.

We have been topping the fields and leaving some areas to conserve the many wild flowers which grow on the farm. I meant to take a photograph today but was rained off, so it will appear in a later blog entry.

Our neighbour, Pam, is helping us clean the paddocks. She says she enjoys it because it is outside, good exercise and she likes to be amongst the alpacas.

We were spoilt last weekend when our friends stayed because they did all sorts of jobs whilst they were here, so Pam is even more welcome than usual.

The pictures show me and Pam with the manual tools and Mike (because he is an engineer) does the technical stuff with the poover.

We put the bags of alpaca manure, as we politely call it, at the farm gate and however many we put out they are always gone within an hour or two. We think there is a jungle drum system in the area, or maybe a Miss Marple character on her bike - peddling like mad to deliver the good news!!! Sometimes when people are collecting their manure they come and talk to us and the alpacas or meet the dogs if they come after about 3 p.m. when they are free ranging. It often leads to a visit to our farm shop where we sell our knitwear and South American blankets and ponchos etc:

P.S.

Well we did quite well today. We vaccinated the entire herd against Blue Tongue (44 animals) delivered a young male to his new home, did the shopping on the way back and arrived home in time for tea.