06/11/2009 by Rosemary.

Strange, this morning, the cria pronked happily and hummed around me obviously at one with the ancient mystic lay lines only they were in tune with (or it could have been the feed bucket I had in the trailer!).  As I watched from my rocking chair my mind wandered to the magical properties of an alpaca cardigan . . .

Ignore that last paragraph, I obviously was feeling a little unwell still, or maybe I had overdosed on ITV i-player!  Anyway, my alpaca fleece is obviously not cardigan quality by the look of some samples but that is another story.

Thank you for the concern over my illness, I think I am relatively back to normal now.  I will not bore you with the details but it was most strange, like an iron band tightening around my stomach.  The good thing was I could not eat but it may have been the result of the large quantity of apple and blackberry I ate earlier.

The eartags and microchips arrived today so I can finally register my cria.  Carl will be applying the eartags as that is one thing I really do not like doing.

Tomorrow is Lina day and Carl and Sam are out now, working by the light of the Daihatsu headlights, finishing the fencing on the new paddock.

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05/11/2009 by Rosemary.

Little bit not very well tonight so a very little blog!  Just about managed to collect the stock fencing, collect the eggs, feed the baby, feed the animals, cook the tea - now I’m going to bed!

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04/11/2009 by Rosemary.

Howling wind and heavy downpours of rain today but I battled on with the hand waste management regardless.  I don’t want the Lovely Lina to think she has gone down in the world when she arrives on Saturday!  She and the rest of the girls are going into the new paddock but all the same!  It is hard work going back to a bucket and spade but with the quad out of action, more on that in a bit, there was no other option.

I had a nice break at lunchtime when a lovely alpaca breeder from Devon phoned to check on Little Star’s progress.  We had a long chat and exchanged experiences but then it was back out for feeding and waste.  As I went up to fill the boys and the sheep hay I had a nasty shock, everyone rushed down when they saw the hay arriving except for Mossop.  He appeared to be bleating in an odd way and standing on his back legs in the field shelter.  I charged over as he normally rushes up and was horrified, he had got his head through the empty haynet and it had entangled round his horns.  Somehow he had then twirled round and round and tightened it round his neck so he was hanging from it like it was a noose.  I felt so guilty and I didn’t have a knife with me - it was so taut it wouldn’t come off the hook and I couldn’t get the hook out of the wall.  I had to pick him up, not easy with a huge sheep, to ease the tension and then wiggle his head out.  He was fine but it was ironic as I had just been saying to the lady from Devon that I was not too sure the haynet was a good idea - it is now cut down and thrown out!  That is the second suicidal animal in recent days.

I am ashamed to admit this but my cria are not all registered yet and the reason for this is that I am still waiting for the microchips.  I know the post is bad but it has been nearly six weeks now so I emailed the supplier and  within half an hour I had an email saying they had been dispatched ages ago and must have gone astray, more were being put straight in the post.  Excellent customer service and I shall use them again - Alpaca and Llama Care Ltd.

Brilliant news today is that Cool Dude ate Camelibra!!  He suddenly got the hang of the routine and ate all I gave him - it was mixed with the hay like stuff Rob gave us to try.

More eggs today but one was a tiny little miniature one, perfect but only 2cm!  I’m going to have that one for breakfast!  Today we were due to have frittata as it uses 8 eggs but I didn’t have all the ingredients so I made 6 quiches instead.

Carl is now out in his shed welding and looking superior.  He went down to look at the quad and discovered it was out of fuel which he says is because I didn’t turn the fuel on.  The thing is I had driven it round all morning without turning it on so I don’t see it can be that.  He says the smoke was something to do with being on a hill and stalling it which is total rubbish because I did not stall it.

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03/11/2009 by Rosemary.

Rather a testing day today, in more ways than one.  Mole Valley Farmers in Yeovil are going to test my soil for me which will be very interesting but first I have to collect the sample which involves several 4inch deep holes in several places around first field.  I phoned the man back to ask if it was alright brought in a feed sack but the man then said the total amount should not exceed  1kg - good job he did as I had all ready collected a wheel barrow full.  I shall have to start again now but use a teaspoon instead of a shovel.

The Surfers for Sewage have come up trumps with a do it yourself (NB not do it to yourself) fecal sampling kit which I shall be having a go with once Carl has collected it.  I managed waste all morning and was having quite a jolly time of it despite the rain and howling gale and then the quad gave up rather spectacularly.  There were a couple of pops and then a cloud of smoke came out of the handlebars (at least that is where it appeared to come from);  I fully expected this to be followed by a genie about to grant my wish but as there was no genie I have had to abandon the quad.

The vicar called as I was walking back up the field which was kind of him.  He did give me a bit of a turn though as he mentioned something I had written on the blog and when I asked him how he knew he said he had read it on the blog!  Hope he didn’t read More Tea Vicar!!

I have organised for poor old Spike to be castrated next Tuesday, Carl declined to be present!

Finally, on a surreal note.  I do not have and never have had newts.  I am newt free.  I do not aspire to having newts.  There are no newts here - but someone wants me to pay what for me is a considerable sum of money to tell me that I don’t have newts.  I am even dreaming of newts now - giant newts in the field.  I like newts, in their own habitat - a pond, but I have none and do not desire newts.  I don’t have a pond - it is a road run off, not even any good for the ducks that were to go there.  Once more I will say, this is a newt free zone.

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02/11/2009 by Rosemary.

Today I had a brief use of fifth gear.  I am sorry to confess that I never use fifth gear on my car, it just seems a little irrelevant.  I think it was because I started off in cars that didn’t have fifth gear and as far as I remember Dad didn’t use fifth gear much, if at all.  You didn’t get such things in a Morris Minor or a Truimph Toledo.  I did once have an Alfa Sud, which actually had six gears, and I really liked it but I never seemed to go fast enough to warrant all that gear changing.  I also had a TR7 which was a bit of a disappointment to me.  It was bright yellow and looked the part but I thought winking came as standard and it didn’t.  Once I was standing waiting to cross a road and a TR7 came past and it winked at me - one of the lights came up and went back down.  Someone tried to make my TR7 wink for me but it was never the same car after that; the electrics went funny and the Eight Track came on intermittently when you were least expecting it.  Carl always grumbles and says, “Wouldn’t you like to introduce yourself to 5th gear at this point?” when he is in the car and I am driving - a, thankfully, rare occurrence.  What put me off was one car I had where reverse and fifth were very close and when I tried to reverse I often got it into fifth by mistake and I kept imagining I would be driving down the motorway and accidentally put it into reverse instead of fifth and shoot backwards all of a sudden.  Anyway, today I was changing from third and accidentally went into fifth.  I have to admit I have been wrong all my life and actually fifth gear is a quite worthwhile experience.  The car appears to go better and the deflectors on the exhaust do not make a sort of grindy, tiny sound they used to do; Dad used to complain about that and now I know why we both have the same problem with the car!  I shall now be introducing myself to Mr Fifth a bit more often!

It was on my way to Mum’s this morning that this introduction happened, we had some bits to sort out.  This afternoon was a rush round of feeding, watering and filling hay.  I am very pleased to report that Lily, the suri cria, ate from the trough for the first time and Little Star had a sniff at it.  Emily, Carolyn’s cria, loves the camelibra but will only eat it out of my hand.  However, Cool Dude will still not touch it!  Plan B was to try mixing it with some sticky hay type stuff Les gave us but that didn’t work - Plan C tomorrow!  I really want to write about the lovely Lina now but that will have to wait until Saturday.

Carl is now out in his shed constructing a gate and I am involved in a delicate operation involving a lot of bubble wrap, cold water and some suri fleece.  I won’t explain more at the moment as it all looks like going horribly wrong. Also today I sold another book - that is £5 profit!  And another thing - I had an email from Shaun Daniels (from the British Alpaca Society) today -well, it wasn’t only to me, I was just a part of it - the outcome will probably be me making yet another fool of myself but I spent ages in the depths of the airing cupboard looking for my old Filo fax from a past life!

Back up to 10 eggs today but, luckily, I dropped one having been ram-raided by Stumpy and Mossop, the sheep.

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01/11/2009 by Rosemary.

A dreadfully wet and windy start to the day with a veritable stream pouring down the steps, despite us living on top of a hill.  Carl and Sam were out fencing, in full waterproofs, at 7am and they didn’t stop, apart from lunch, all day.  They managed to put up all the posts for the new paddock, we’ve just got to get the rolls of stock fencing tomorrow and Carl then has to make a new gate out of several rusty bits of old gate!   I wasn’t a lot of help as I became a bit dopey trying to work out what I am supposed to be doing now we are in a newly designated Nitrate Vulnerable Zone.  Camelids are, of course, not mentioned anywhere so calculating the nitrogen content of their poo floundered somewhat.  I have sorted out my ‘temporary field sites’ and ‘marked my map accordingly’ so I feel I must have got somewhere - where that somewhere is I do not know!  In the midst of this The Big Baby (the cat) caused a bit of a diversion by jumping up into my arms and relieving himself with a great sigh of contentment!  Luckily he aimed over my arm and just flopped down in obvious relief, I think he was too scared to go out with the wind howling!  After I had stopped laughing, mopped the kitchen floor, calmed Carl down, who is not a renowned cat lover, it was more alpaca tasks.  The girls were out in the hay field watching the fencing and chewing the string Carl had put up to get the fence straight so I had a chance to refill their feeder without them mugging me.  Spike, our soon to be castrated young boy, also loves his hay but has to battle with the sheep for it.  Our sheep love hay and eat it out of the haynet alongside the alpacas they are with; I didn’t think sheep ate much hay!

Batboy sent us some lovely pictures of Sam on his dream quad and finally, after fiddling around for ages, I have managed to resize it so he doesn’t look like Billy Bunter or Twiggy.  As The Wise Woman pointed out, my photos are normally resized wrong and I am pleased to say they generally make me look fatter that normal (not a lot, I admit).  I have to try to improve my resizing though as sometimes the alpacas look deformed - which they are not!

Down to 10 eggs today, thank goodness!

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31/10/2009 by Rosemary.

What a day!  Just the thing we needed after all that has been happening here.  We went to see Rob and Les at Wellground Alpaca Stud and knew before we went it would be a brilliant day - it was!  They are truly great people and I wish we had met them earlier in our alpaca journey.

We were welcomed like royalty, Rob had even laid on a leaf clearer to brush our path as we pulled in!  Then Billie Jean greeted us with much licking and general excitement until, finally, we reached the decking and coffee.  We were longing to see the alpacas but got a little side tracked on the way as Sam spotted the new quad; what a machine!  It is the Cool Dude of Quads and Sam’s face lit up as he was allowed to take it for a spin.  Carl soon wrestled Sam off and had a go himself and is now highly impressed.  I liked it, but wasn’t brave enough to have a go, as you didn’t have to pull a bit of string and put your back out in order to get it into reverse.  Rob put it away and managed to get a little jump out of it which deeply impressed Sam!  Finally, we made it to the alpacas and they really are impressive.  Banksy and Imprint were outstanding; I have never seen cria like them.  Banksy has the head of a champion and the fleece on both of them was remarkable; crimp way down the leg and up into the bonnet - a very interesting pair but I couldn’t smuggle them away!  We also looked at the Mums and there is a whole lot of quality there!  More on that in a bit!

We then went for a lovely lunch at the local pub which was all decorated for Halloween.  At first, as we walked in, I thought it was a special tribute to the Wellground Quad as the red tablecloths had a pattern peculiarly reminiscent of the pattern on the quad.

Feeling exceedingly full, we returned to Wellground for more alpaca chat and a look at the studs.  Close Encounter is a stunning boy and I have returned with my pockets stuffed with fleece to go on my,  “This is where I am aiming for” board.  We also looked at some of the knitwear and it is so soft and beautiful, an inspiration.  The silk and felted scarves were all sold out and I am not surprised as they were stunning.

In between all of this we had a privileged peak at the Evo!  I am not really a car person but even I was impressed.  I wished I had my sunglasses with me as I think you need a pair of Raybans to sit in it!  Most of the way back the boys were wittering on about the pristine figure hugging seats, the smell of the engine, the sound of the exhaust and the way Rob handled it.  I, however, was trying to talk alpacas!

Oh yes, and one other thing - you did warn me Sandra and I took no notice!  We have acquired another alpaca!  The beautiful Lina who is sired by Jolimont Commisario with EP Cambridge Lydia as her dam.  She is a real beauty and her fleece . . . Well, pictures will come soon!  For now, you can see her on Rob’s website.

I could go on all night with this blog but I must stop and go and lie down in a darkened room for a while.  Great day!!

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30/10/2009 by Rosemary.

Shock this morning as I climbed up the bank to feed Little Star at 6.30 this morning to find all the girls and cria in the wrong field!  Carl did the late feed last night and left them all vying for position around the hay feeder.  I had fed them earlier and put them back in their field leaving the gate to the barn open but shutting the run gate.  Sam was with me and we are sure it was properly shut but this morning it was half open and the girls had walked up the run  into their old field.  How that happened is beyond me and I have been searching for clues - looking for footprints or signs of activity other than alpacas - ever since, rather like a female Ray Mears.  It’s a bit confusing as there are strange quad tracks but I know the gamekeeper has been into second a couple of times searching for his pheasants so they may be his.  The other slightly worrying thing is the paddlock has disappeared from second field gate.

Little Star refused two of her bottles today but she was eating grass like crazy so I think the man with the guanacos is right and she is weaning herself.  We weighed her and she is up another 0.2kg.  Her Mum, Bert, was in the mood for a cuddle several times today which was lovely. When she is not pregnant she is really sloppy but she is not as bad as that - she just wanted a bit of neck and chin rubbing.

It’s off to Wellground tomorrow so the Chippendales are coming on baby sitting duties.  After last time I am going to put a little blue spray dot on Star’s back so there is no confusion!

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29/10/2009 by Rosemary.

We have had a bit of a day of it with waste management.  Having cleared most of the paddocks, Sam and I arrived home to find Amber, the dog, had her own waste management  problem.  She is a fiend for the cat food and it does not agree with her.  I think she must have got at the cats’ food and the result was a bit of a mess.  In the back of the pantry I remembered I had stored away a mini floor cleaner called The Little Scrubber!  Sam got it going and he was off - cleaning carpets!  Unfortunately, it is only a little thing so the cleaning was a bit patchy but the bits that needed it got a good scrubbing.

Little Star is improving rapidly and grazing like crazy.  She must have had a tummy ache the other day as she seems normal, although she is not taking as much bottle - maybe she is weaning herself?  All the alpacas looked very sprightly today so the crisis may be over!

I met Cat Woman in the shop at Belchalwell this morning and she has succeeded in catching the kittens.  Once they are a little less wild I can go and collect so Sam is constructing a kitten house!  The reason for the shopping trip was to get more flour as I am on a  cake making marathon operation to use the eggs.  I have made three sponges, two tray bakes and forty eight fairy cakes and still have 3 dozen eggs in the kitchen - flans tomorrow!

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28/10/2009 by Rosemary.

I was really worried about Little Star yesterday but today she is much better and has already had twice the amount of milk she had yesterday.  I had lots of email suggestions from other breeders about what I could do and I shall be following up those ideas.  One gentleman also has guanacos and the babies are called chulengo - I didn’t know that, a lovely name.  I think I might like a chulengo!

The girls are still enjoying their feeder and were all round it again this morning.  Every now and then Bert and Sherbert get a bit possesive and lie along side it warning everyone else off but then they have all now managed to find an even better hay feeder —–

We had forgotten to put the fence back round the hay and they took full advantage!

I can forgive Sherbert and Bert anything at the moment.  Bert is so good with her baby - can’t feed it but really looks after it and doesn’t mind what I do with it.  Sherbert was getting horribly thin and had a worm problem.  Her poo has always been sloppy since we got her but today she produced lovely, normal pellets!  The Cydectin must have done the trick - we will do another sample for the vet soon.

I have got the most terrible toothache at the moment.  I went for a filling a while ago and the Dentist just put in a temporary filling and said we had to wait and see if it needed root canal work.  He did explain why but he is Polish and has a heavy accent; he is a lovely dentist except I cannot understand most of what he says and I am in such a hurry to get out of his chair I never ask him to repeat himself.  Last time Carl went he had no idea what he was saying and just grinned manically and smiled only realising once the drilling had started that the dentist had actually asked him if he wanted an injection and he had said no!  I  went over to help Mum with paperwork today, so Sam has been on alpaca watch and feed duties,  and she gave me part of Dad’s aspirin stash which has helped.  I don’t know why Dad had so many aspirin - he only ever took paracetamol, strange, there were boxes and boxes of them!

Mum was not all down, she had phoned a cousin last night only to be told by her husband that she was at Karate lessons which seemed a strange  place to be (I think he meant Pilates) and for some reason the husband, who I shall refer to as The Elephant Man, referred to me as Neptune.  I am puzzling whether it was a comment on my hair or perhaps I smelt fishy!

The boys are out in the shed at the moment ’sorting out’ the quad.  For some inexplicable reason this means I now have a hand brake which has transformed itself into reverse gear and a foot brake on just one side.  Well that is what I think they said has happened, goodness knows how the mammoth management of waste will go tomorrow.  I also have to make cakes - I have 32 eggs to cope with!!

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