25/02/2009 by Rosemary.

I think I must be addicted to this diary!  I meant to wait until Friday to write but I couldn’t help myself - I have to write now!  Still no pictures of the Suris as it is gloomy by the time I get home.  Every time Sherbert lies down it makes me laugh because she looks like Dougal on the Magic Roundabout.  She is due to have a cria in May and Carl wants to call it Dip or Dippy whatever it is (Sherbert Dip!).  Crispie and her are both very keen to get to the other girls and keep looking over at them - they are not in the least bit interested in looking at the boys who are nearer.  Crispie is also pregnant and due in June but she is not quite as impressive looking - she has some huacaya back in her parentage but apparently threw a proper looking suri last time.

The saga of the logo continues.  Jason has rounded up the ears and the black alpaca is no longer rearing in a slightly aggressive manner but the white alpaca now appears to be levitating.  One day it will be right!

I had, or at least I thought I had, a brilliant idea about hy feeders.  At the moment we use haynets made from bailer twine which we spend our winter evenings sitting by the fire making - mine all end up with uneven size holes in them.  Our current batch are a delicate shade of lilac as that is the colour twine we used last year.  The problem is the nets take ages to fill.  We have seen lovely feeders called hay bars which you wheel along and you can put a whole bale at a time in.  They also have tops so you can put them out and the hay does not get wet but they are very expensive.  So I thought, what about an old shopping trolley with some sort of canopy on it?  It might look a little strange but it might work.  It doesn’t.  Firstly, you can not get hold of them - the stores I tried will not even let you have a broken one they are throwing away.  Secondly, the hundreds you see abandoned and rusting dissapear when you want them.  Thirdly, it would be stealing to use them anyway.  Fourthly, only certain family size ones are deep enough any way because I went and examined them closely in Tesco.  Fifthly, it is a ridiculous idea anyway as it would look daft.   This is why Carl is huffing and puffing in the shed because I have asked him to try making one and he wants to continue with making his Kune Kune pig house!

We are definitely going to the Alpaca Futurity on Saturday and I am very pleased about that - one day I will be taking some of my alpacas!

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22/02/2009 by Rosemary.

Just got back from seeing the Suri’s - well, we didn’t just see we also bought!  And not one but two!  They both seem to have settled straight away.  They are in their own separate paddock just until we have checked them over and the wormer has taken its’ course.  The other girls looked very interested when they arrived!  I must get some photos taken but I have to rush off now and get Sam ready for school and me ready for work in the other job tomorrow.  Probably no more posts until the weekend.

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21/02/2009 by Rosemary.

Lovely and sunny today.  I am a little over excited because we are off to look at a Suri alpaca tomorrow.  I have been told that I will regret this as Suri’s are daft, not like huacaya at all BUT sometimes you just have to do some things!  I have compromised though by going for cheap.  As Suri is not really part of the current breeding plan that is fair enough I think.  Maybe, once I have seen her, I will decide no.

To keep excitement at bay a little I collected poo this morning and then planned the duck pond.  Prospective site below!

Our 9 chickens are producing one egg every two days so I will have to see if I am any more successful with ducks.The chickens are mainly ex battery so I just like watching them learn to enjoy themselves!

This morning we looked out the window and saw one of the wild cats from on the hill trying to drag an enormous rabbit into the garden through the stock fencing.  I think it must have been a present for Slinky - he used to go out and do back flips to entertain them while they sat on the garden wall and watched.  Look at the size of the rabbit!

Carl has developed an annoying habit of carrying the alpaca foot clippers around in a holster and flipping them out periodically as if he were a cowboy!  He read in the Camelidynamics book (fascinating book on working with camelids) that this was the best way to carry them so they are readily available for use and it seems to have had a profound effect on him.  I began to worry when I spotted them under his jumper in Tesco!  We were going to do a Camelidynamics course this year but I am not sure it is wise for Carl to go!

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20/02/2009 by Rosemary.

After a misty start this morning the sun came out.  I caught Dobby and Spike doing what I call their rocking horse running.  They don’t do it that often but when they do it is fantastic.  They sort of bounce run, all feet off the ground at the same time, like the horses on the roundabout in Mary Poppins.  I think they only do it when they are really happy and excited!

A bit more field maintenance today.  The girls’ birth paddock is looking good and should be ready for them to move into towards the end of March.  I want them well settled before their due dates.

I think the decision on the next alpaca has been made.  It is not a very sensible decision but I have decided on a suri (the type of alpaca that looks like it has dreadlocks).  It will not forward the business plan at all but I just want one!  We did see a black  huacaya with a nice looking cria but I have got to get the suri out of my system first.  Hopefully, we can then get another huacaya later in the year.  BUT whilst searching for the alpaca Carl found a lovely man with Kune Kune pigs!  He has always wanted some so a slight diversification may be underway!

I can’t believe it after the weather we have had but the rhubarb is sprouting!

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19/02/2009 by Rosemary.

Had to rush of this morning to Blandford after feeding to get my feet seen to.  My toenails have a tendency to grow in at the side without some attention and it has been nearly two years since the last chiropodist appointment.  Rather like an alpaca really!  I don’t think the fact that my wellingtons are two sizes too big helps but they are really posh ones Dad gave Sam - Sam put a hole in one leg so they are no good for him but they are fine for me.  It has been drizzling for most of the day so I spent most of the time, once I got back from collecting Sam from his Grandparents’, sorting out the logo.  The man at the printing place is fantastic and the alpaca is no longer a subtle shade of blue but it does have a slightly pointy ear - Jason, the man from the printing place, is working on that!

Carl has booked himself and Sam on a shearing course in May.  Hopefully, we will be able to work up to shearing them all ourselves next year.  I think this year we will still have to get someone to do them for us but we will, hopefully, be able to do any cria that need it   I heard this morning from a delightful alpaca breeder on the Isle of Wight, I won’t say her name in case she would prefer me not too but she is another reader of this and I am jealous because she has successfully bid on a futurity stud - it’s one I would have liked but I didn’t bid on any this year.  We are still debating whether to go to the futurity - it is a big alpaca event the weekend after next.  Problem is it is about a three hour drive for us.

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18/02/2009 by Rosemary.

A cold and foggy day on the hill.  Spent most of the day creating a new logo and a banner to take to shows with us.  I think the logo will be alright but the white alpaca still looks blue to me!  The wonderful man at the printing company is going to sort it out and turn it into magnetic signs and, hopefully, the banner.  We are also toying with a company slogan - “Black to White” meaning we have alpacas of all colours but we are still playing around with that!  Once it is all done I am going to completely revamp the website.  I also spent ages trawling the internet for Suri alpacas.  We only have huacaya alpacas at the moment and I wanted to have at least one Suri but I haven’t found one I want yet.

Thank you Debbie for leaving a message - I am really excited someone has read this!!

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16/02/2009 by Rosemary.

This afternoon was lovely and sunny but still cold.  The girls were rolling happily with noisy bursts of wind escaping periodically!  Carolyn lay down a lot and has started to hum quite a bit - not usual for her.  I think she must be beginning to feel her pregnancy but she is not due till April.  I went and sat in the field with them which was very relaxing until we started to be dive bombed by a search and rescue helicopter.  Sam went up the road to investigate and found it was a man who had fallen and slipped off the road down the hill.  Everyone was out on their quads helping the para medics.  They found the man and took him off in the helicopter.  Hope he recovers quickly.

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15/02/2009 by Rosemary.

A lot of poo and shed clearing today - and a very good job we did.  Where the snow had been so bad we had put some bales of hay directly on the floor of the boys shed and they had been eating that - Spike is not keen on eating out of the hay net - but it had accumulated rather.  We started clearing it all out today and there was a rats nest in the corner with 6 baby rats in it - eyes not yet open.  Under the hay - which looked quite nice on top, it was disgusting.  Carl is now out in the shed constructing feeders to put the hay in with little roofs on!

We then attacked ivy for a while  - the plant, not some poor, unfortunate woman.  Some of the ivy is thicker than the tree trunks!  After that I went to church but spent most of it snivelling at the back over Slinky.  I rushed off at the end and didn’t go to the pub as we were going to do as I knew my eyes looked all red!

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14/02/2009 by Rosemary.

Well, Slinky is now buried between the apple trees and we must move on.  Had a good cry in the bath last night - Slink used to sit on the side and pat the water.  The Big Baby is suddenly very friendly - he must miss someone to play with.

The snow is almost all gone now but there are a few tiny patches up in the corner of the boys’ paddock.  Our condition scoring was a bit of a revelation as some of the girls are overweight and Prudence and Flamenco are positively hefty- urgent action required!  Supplement rations cut back as from now.

We did Belinda’s monthly check over tonight and she looks fine but she is very nervous with men so Carl has to stand back while I check her out.  Her feet didn’t need trimming and I watched to check her poo - took rather a while and it was pretty cold over there but I do worry if I haven’t seen each one’s poo every month!!

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12/02/2009 by Rosemary.

This has been a most dreadful day.  The dearest cat in the whole world is dead.  I arrived home from work to find a note sticking out the letter box from our neighbours saying that a tractor driver had called in to say he had hit a cat and it had run into our first field.  They had looked for it and could not find it and didn’t know if it was one of ours or one of the wild ones.  When I came in the gate The Big Baby (our black kitten) ran out but not Slinky - he was in his basket in the hall and didn’t get out or start purring.  Pusscat (old cat recovering from a broken pelvis where she got knocked over) was lying by him licking his head.  I picked him up and there was blood in the basket and his legs weren’t moving.  Any way I took him to the vets straight away and his tail was broken and his leg at the top, he needed his paw amputating, a pin and goodness knows what else.  The vet said it would cost £300 to £400 or more and he might not survive the night.  I felt dreadful but it was too much money and Slink looked so bad - I decided to have him put down but I can’t stop crying about it.  I am really going to miss him.  I loved that cat - he made a funny parp parp sound and rode round the house on my shoulders.  He didn’t have any road sense though, he nearly got run over yesterday.  Thank you to the tractor driver though for stopping - I don’t know who it was but I will try to thank him.

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