Good News

Good news - the weather has been quite pleasant today. No rain (although no sun either) and not too cold.

Just as our neighbour arrived to help us with the paddock cleaning I noticed that Annabel, one of our original alpacas was about to give birth. This was a good excuse to let Mike and Pam start the poo picking without me!!

I wandered down and in a very few minutes the prettiest cria of the year was born!! Annabel is an experienced Mum and took a no nonsense approach. She looked a little cross with me when I picked up her baby to rub her dry and spray her tummy, but otherwise she took it all in her stride. The cria, Laurels Lady Baptista, is a very pretty light fawn - rather the shade of an apricot poodle. She was on her feet in minutes and suckling within the hour. All very reassuring.

We did the last spit offs of the year and luckily only two females failed to reject the male (meaning that they do not think themselves pregnant). Both have been known to mate even though they are pregnant, so we are hoping that is the case this time as we are working towards having all our births in a window between April and July.

Chardstock Street Fayre

We promised last year to take our alpacas to the street fayre but could not because of the F & M movement restrictions. This year we took 5 of our female yearlings - Emilia, Cleopatra, Nina, Dorcus and Helena.

The organisers had a bit of a nightmare coping with flooded fields. The main events field was not useable and the car parking field had to be changed and a flock of sheep removed so the cars could be parked. Some of the events had to be cancelled or moved and because the Chain Saw juggler was being moved into Strongs Field where we were supposed to go, we were relocated to the verge outside the post office. Ray Smith, one of the organisers, thought the alpacas might be worried by the chain saws - if they weren't I sure would be!!

Congratulations to everyone involved and all the visitors who made the best of everything.

There was constant music and even though severe and sudden downpours occurred twice during the afternoon, everyone remained cheerful. The hog roast seemed very popular and the tractor rally and vintage cars all stood their ground. There was a lot of interest in the alpacas and the children enjoyed feeding them whilest their parents and grandparents photographed like mad.

We took along some of our hand knitted aran sweaters as well as various garments which we import from Peru.

Despite having everything covered over to keep off the rain for a large part of the afternoon, we sold a surprising amount. Not quite as good as last year, but not far off.

Unfortunately I left our camera at home and could not get mobile reception in time to get Mike to bring it when he came over. After trying up and down the road in the village, I found that I just needed to cross over the road to get reception, but by that time it was too late.

I am hoping I might get a picture from someone else sometime.

After their final soaking of the day the girls (alpacas) were relieved to be reloaded into the trailer and on arriving home galloped into the field to meet up with the rest of the herd again.

Dancing with baby

Well the weather has been variable to say the least, but lots of rain.

We have been concerned about the heavy rain for our latest addition, Esteban. He is a week old today. On the morning he was born it was my turn to make the morning tea and as usual I glanced out of the window to check on the Mums- to- be and was surprised to see a little white cria in the kush position. This was rather surprising, given that it was 7.30 a.m. and he had obviously been with us for at least an hour, I should think. Normally alpacas can be relied upon to give birth during office hours unless there is a problem. We drank our tea in bed as normal and I quickly nipped out in my dressing gown just to reassure myself that all was well. His Mum was not really very pleased to see me, and so I just gave him a visual once over and went indoors to get dressed etc: as I needed to spray his belly button with blue spray to fend off unfriendly bacteria. I did not need to rub him as he was already fairly dry with just a few strands of membrane arround his back haunches.

He started to feed whilst we were having breakfast and had obviously been to the milk bar before as he went straight for the right place, albeit through his mother's back legs!! Luckily he has since learned that there is an easier option.

Now he has been here a week it looks like he is taking dancing lessons from Devante, another young white male. See the photos!!

What alpacas do in the sunshine

Well it's a lovely sunny day today. I spent an hour or so indoors this morning making plum jam. My neighbour and champion poo picker told me that Miller's Farm Shop had Victoria plums in stock and I went over there with a friend who was staying for a few days with her husband.

I bought a box of 5 kgs and we all shared some for eating, and I stewed some up for deserts - as far as I am concerned that is just a carrier for ice cream which is my idea of desert!! The rest I made into jam much to the delight of the local wasp colony and of course, Mike, who loves plums.

We now have home made marmalade (nearly gone), apricot and plum jams in the store cupboard. We are expecting our chickens soon and the vegetable plot is well under way. All this combined with the stock of logs we have accumulated from hedge laying, tree thinning etc: should help us be more self sufficient next year. My neighbour also told me about a lady in Axminster who is moving and down-sizing. She has a chest freezer which is free to a good home, so we are collecting that in the second week of September.

The sunny day has given us a chance to air the caravan awning and I mended a loop which had come off whilst on holiday. My little dress making sewing machine found it quite hard going working on a tent!! The next job is to photograph the camper van and get that sold so we can recover from the outlay on the caravan. Better in our bank than parked in a field!!

The alpacas are really enjoying the weather today. It is the first really sunny day for ages. They love to paddle in their water troughs (making them muddy and in need of refreshing in the process) and also to sunbathe.

Back from holiday

Well - we are finally back from holiday. I think it is the first time ever we have had two weeks away. Usually it is a week or ten days.

We were delighted to return to the farm and find that our wonderful family have kept everything completely up to date including mowing the lawn!! Away above and beyond the call of duty.

All the alpacas seem fine and we are back to our normal routine, although we have several farm visitors - all wanting young males - and unfortunatley we currently only have three for sale and they will not be weaned until December. Still, it is nice to know we are in demand.

On Sunday I was doing something in one of the paddocks when I looked up and saw a scary sight!! Two enormous (16 - 17 hands at least) were trotting down our driveway. They were covered from head to foot in protective netting of the type used to protect horses from insects. They even had hoods so they looked very sinister.


Mike removed the dogs from the scene and I hung back until the horses were past the first gate and then shut them in. I then ran up to the road (the main A358) to see a queue of traffic overtaking a small red car with its hazard lights flashing.. The driver waved me over and he was on his mobile phone calling the police. He handed me the phone and I gave them our address and phone numbers.

He said he had followed the horses from The Olde Poppe Inn which is a mile or two away from us and ours was the first gateway they went into. He phoned his sister who lives in the village near the above pub and then drove off. She apparently spread the word.

About an hour later I saw a lady in horsy type attire entire our yard. I waved from the kitchen window and went out to meet her. Apparently she keeps the horses in a field on a bridle path and someone must have left the gate open. She went home and came back with her horse box and between us we haltered them and loaded them. A different experience to say the least.

We think all our females are now pregnant and we have had a new cria (white male) since we got home, with a few more expected.

We now have some old friends staying until Friday and we are looking forward to going to Bovey Tracy Carnival Agility show next Sunday with our dogs.

At last it looks as though we might have a few dry days so we are trying to catch up with the topping and have moved the alpacas around to new paddocks to give them some fresh grazing.

English Summer

It really has been miserable for the last few days. I managed to cut the lawn yesterday between showers and just as well because it has not stopped all day. Luckily most of our cria are a few weeks old so they should be able to cope with the wet but it is always a worry. At least it is not too cold here.

We have put plenty of hay and alf alfa in the shelters and we have reorganised the herd so that there is a shelter for every group and they are being sensible and making use of them.
When we set up the farm for alpacas we designed our shelters so that they are alpaca friendly. They only have two sides and the top is made from Yorkshire Board - that is where the slats are vertical with gaps between so that they can always see out and do not feel trapped as they can do with three sides to a shelter.

The males are really like a load of teenagers in this sort of weather. They seem to hang out together and in the mornings they just lie around chatting and really don't want to leave their shelter. Mind you they are soon up and alert if they see the girls being moved around. That might mean they can pull.

David, Jane, Zach and Tara came back from their holiday today and collected Jax, their collie dog who has been staying with us. We shall miss her, although we do have six dogs of our own, so I think we'll get over it!! They camped in Spain for a week using David's Mazda Bongo which is his surfing van. Then they joined two other families for two weeks in the Pyrenees where they experienced white water rafting and canyoning amongst other things (including good food and wine, I believe).

They are coming back on Thursday to take over the farm whilst we go on holiday.

Reshuffle

We are going away for a couple of weeks from Thursday so have taken the opportunity this morning to reorganise the herd.

We have moved all the Mums and babies into one of the top paddocks and the imminent Mums- to- be are in another. The younger females who have recently been mated have been moved down to the bottom paddocks. This means that it will be easy for the farm sitters (members of our family!) to know which animals need extra feed and which can just be left to graze happily.

It is important to keep alpacas fit and well with adequate feeding but this has to be balanced against the dangers of overweight which can reduce fertility and, is generally not good for their health. They are not bred for their meat and so can be kept slim and fit. Over feeding can also effect the quality of the fleece so this is quite an important aspect of keeping alpacas.

The grass is looking very lush at the moment due to the rain and warmth, so they should do very well.

All are matings are up to date now. So far we have had eleven cria of which only four were boys.