30/09/2009 by Rosemary.

Lovely, lovely afternoon!  Rob and Les from Wellground came to scan the three girls mated to Samson and Buckingham.  We confused them by getting the alpacas ready down by the barn instead of in their usual catch pen which meant poor Les had to drive round first field to get to us.

Rob got out his baby oil and Les greased him up and we were off!  First up was Carolyn - PREGNANT!  She stood like a little angel, her temperament is wonderful and she passes it on to her cria.  With next year’s cria having Samson as a sire, I think we should have something to be proud of.  Next we did dear Bert - PREGNANT!  She did have a little spit but it didn’t hit anyone.  The final Wellground mated one was Flamenco - PREGNANT!  She was a bit more feisty but we managed fine with Les manfully in charge of the tail end.  That is a hat trick, every one taking first time - well done to the super sperm of Samson and Buckingham!  Rob has a really good scanner with a little clip on bit by the eye, not at all cumbersome and it meant we didn’t have to get them all in exactly the same place to scan which made it much easier.  The box itself was in a back pack and he reminded us of the film Ghostbusters, “Who you gonna call?  Pregnancy Testers!!”

Rob and Les also had a quick scan of Belinda (known as Wapley!) and she was also Pregnant.  In fact they all are, with the exception of old Islay - that didn’t surprise us.  Crispie is a bit dodgy but I think she is she has big babies and she is now well over 60 days.  Anyway, we’ll see, it is a little too late in the year to worry now and we’d rather not have any movement in and out of the herd at the current time so lets just see.

We then all had coffee by the barn, good job it wasn’t raining!  Brilliant chat and lots of laughs.  We talked about the world of alpacas, Banksy and Imprint, the future and lots more.  I won’t tell you about Billie Jean and the wet wipes or Rob’s evening activities along the fences, imagining him going to the chemist to purchase 20 bottles of baby oil is quite enough!

We wandered up to visit Cool Dude and he really remembered Les, that was good to  see.

As usual, after a visit from Rob and Les, we are just so excited about the world of alpacas.  Of course there are ups and downs, they are livestock after all (whatever DEFRA classes them as) and with a relatively new industry there are bound to be challenges but alpacas are a joy to own and we  are positive about the future.

All that excitement in one day was far to much and Carl has gone to have a bath!

P.S. You need the baby oil for the scanner to make contact with the alpacas abdomen!

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29/09/2009 by Rosemary.

Carl lept out of bed last night as we were lying there reading and started beating me about the bottom with the copy of the alpaca magazine he was reading.  I thought the article on gelding must have strangely excited him, particularly when he shouted, “Don’t move!”  Turned out there was a large spider walking across the bed!  Makes a change from the Big Baby!

Busy day today running between the field and the computer.  The girls’ current paddock is looking a bit bare so they are in the hay field as much as possible but I need to keep checking on them as they are so near the gate and the road.  I needed to be near the phone and computer as well which was a challenge not quite met.  I did manage to organise a visit to some new friends who breed alpacas in the Blackdown hills and am really looking forward to that.  We have emailed several times and every time we do new ideas pop into my head so I can see things happening after that visit and hopefully we may be able to work together on a project.  Very exciting!  Luckily, The Chippendales have agreed to come over to alpaca sit that day.  Then, as if that wasn’t excitement enough, I had a phone call from another breeder who is a really charming gentleman, full of enthusiasm, hopefully we can arrange a visit there soon.  Lots of  these contacts we are making come from either the Blog, which I am very glad I started, or the Great Rob, to whom we are truly grateful!

Sherbert and Flamenco had a real falling out this afternoon.  Flamenco, Islay and Carolyn were flat out sunbathing by the gate in the chalk pit.  Sherbert stood next to them chewing and then suddenly pawed at the ground and kicked Flamenco in the tummy, I think by accident.  Flamenco woke with a start, jumped up and the pair of them had a really good spit at each other.  In the middle of this Carolyn got spat on and stalked off in a huff while Islay just remained where she was calmly chewing the cud throughout.  Lily got very worried about her Mum and put her head on her back and started humming, that pair are very close.  Flamenco and Sherbert went in for a little half hearted neck wresting but by then their mouths were droopy from the smell and taste and they both wandered of.  Now the interesting one was Sherbert. While Flamenco just stood around looking miserable, Sherbert went along picking all the loose bits of hay left over from baling; she didn’t chew it, she just picked it up and wiggled it around in her mouth and then dropped it out, a bit like an alpaca version of cleaning your teeth!

Sam spent the day in bed recovering and he has improved, hopefully he will be back at school tomorrow - when I caught him playing on his phone in bed this evening I knew he was on the mend!

The chicken has made a remarkable improvement.  She still stumbles a bit but is getting around fine.

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28/09/2009 by Rosemary.

Bills and bank accounts today; very boring but got to be done.  I also continued researching black huacaya and white suris (planning a ‘one day when I’ve got some money’ purchase).  I can’t find a suri I want anywhere but I have a picture in my head of what I want - it’s another Lily!  I suppose everyone doesn’t put all their sales stock on their website or on Alpaca seller but it does make it hard.  I now know the sire of the black I want so that is a step forward.  With the white huacaya I know where I want to get them from so that isn’t such a problem.

The rose hip jam was completed today and it is a bit weird.  I didn’t end up with much liquid so I only made one pot.  It is a very lovely colour but has tiny air bubbles in it and it is very sweet and thick.  I think it tastes more of apples than of rose hips but then I am not really sure what rose hips taste like.  I remember, or think I remember, having rose hip juice as a child.  It was probably for babies so I think it must have been bought for one of my brothers but that was much redder.  Of course it might not have been rose hip juice (actually I think maybe I’m thinking of something else).

Little Star has been very grumpy with me today as I have religiously stuck to four hour feeds as an experiment, rather than cutting out a bottle.  Tonight she weighed 17.2kg and it was 16.8 yesterday so, assuming the scales are correct, that is fine.

One chicken is injured.  She is hobbling and falling over.  After her tea tonight she went straight to bed and sat in a corner - it doesn’t look good.  Sam is also ill.  He went to Kingston Maurward despite a headache and sore throat this morning but went straight to bed when he got home which is not like him.  He is desperate to be alright for tomorrow when they are going to look at a seeder and for Wednesday when we have special visitors.

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27/09/2009 by Rosemary.

Terrible fright last night.  I woke with a start at 3am as a large furry object landed on my face.  Having almost suffered a heart attack I sat bolt upright and dislodged the Big Baby (the cat) who had appeared from nowhere and silently pounced on me.  I tried to go back to sleep but he kept sitting on my head and purring like a lion - so he was banished to the hall where he belongs.  He must have been hiding on the top of the stairs.

Carl arrived back this afternoon having eaten far to well at his Mum’s.  His homemade pasties and crumpets for tea did not excite him!  I collected lots of rose hips this afternoon and have started on an experimental rose hip jam.  They are very dangerous to gather and I’ve got fingers like pin cushions.  The book said to chop them roughly which is not easy so I gave up and froze them for a while hoping they will split like happens with sloes.  That project is ongoing.

Little Star now weighs in at 16.8kg.  This  means she is gaining about 1kg a week.  I suppose that is alright; she is very lively and charges around with Alf and Frank.  In fact, she is the fastest of the lot and zooms around overtaking everyone during the evening races.  I don’t think that I can cut out any bottles yet as she still seems to need each one.  Last night’s evening bottle she drank dry and then went over to her Mum and I am convinced she was sucking from her.  It is very weird as there is nothing much there on Bert.

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26/09/2009 by Rosemary.

I was just thinking today how different hand rearing a cria is to rearing a lamb.  Our lambs, once they got going, just sucked like crazy whatever and whenever.  We never had to weigh them and they were off the bottle at around 2 months with a lot of cutting down before that.  Little Star is still going strong on many bottles and has to have it nicely warmed.  She needs you to be wearing familiar clothes and, like Carl, she doesn’t like my perfume, Berkley Square!  All very labour intensive!

After yesterday’s hand Waste Management I was feeling a little achy so, fortunately, Sam and I came up with a plan.  We managed to syphon some petrol out of something else which Carl had put far too much in (we won’t say what and Carl is not here this weekend so he doesn’t know).  Unfortunately, the Poo Picker blocked irretrievably and I was back to the bucket.  Fortunately, it was a lovely sunny day and I then planned  to mow the lawn.  Unfortunately, the lawn mower wouldn’t start.  Fortunately, we still managed to strim, weed and water.  Unfortunately, we then noticed Mossop had a very bad limp.  He had split his hoof right across, no blood but obviously very painful and not clear where it needed trimming.  He was only walking a step or two and then lying down.  Fortunately, we popped down to the Jumble Sale and the Shepherd’s Lady was there.  She said she would ask her man to pop up and take a look at it.  Sam bought lots of things for very little money (and probably of very little use) including yet another remote control car which he has now taken apart and a computer hoover which he is using to hoover the step outside the door.

We’re now off to sort out some rubbish and commune with poor Mossop.

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25/09/2009 by Rosemary.

I went to a coffee morning today.  I think it is the first time I have ever been to one and I was a bit unsure about what you do at a coffee morning but it was good.  There was a selection of clothes for sale at good prices; I didn’t buy anything but I did get an inspirational idea for the fleece development plan.  The event was in aid of the Macmillan charity and there were the most gorgeous fairy cakes; some were my favourites with cherries on the top!  I couldn’t stay long as I had Little Star to feed and I also had to post the book I sold.  Carl laughed about it as he said it would cost more to post than I would get back BUT I paid £1.41 to send it and so I have made a grand profit of £1.59!!

It was lovely weather so I managed waste, cleared spilt hay and sorted water.  Waste management was by hand with the bucket as there is no petrol left.  I don’t know where it can have gone, unless Carl is secretly putting it in his bike (mind you, I’m not sure his bike takes petrol).  Carl told me to go and get some in a can but I worry it will overflow as I’m filling it.  He says it is impossible but I can’t see it myself.  I also decided to clean out the water troughs.  The girls have two and both are raised off the ground to ensure only alpacas drink from them but I took one down to clean it and left it on the ground whilst I went in search of cleaning materials.  I returned to find Sherbert with both front feet in it and a look of perfect contentment on her face as she gazed into the middle distance!

The Alpaca magazine arrived this morning and I thought it had a really eye catching cover this month; there was an even more eye catching picture inside, of a very handsome young man posing nonchalantly against a fence (well written article, Rob, if you read this!).

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24/09/2009 by Rosemary.

 I tried, again, to cut out one of Little Star’s bottles today but it didn’t work very well, she fussed and fussed while I was poo collecting (sorry, waste managing) and I had to relent!  I have visions of still bottle feeding her when she is an old lady.

Sam is really enjoying his Kingston Maurward course.  This week he was mostly digging holes!  Something to do with soil testing I think!

I am really a little over excited tonight as I have just sold one of my old paperbacks!  I have lots of books and the time has come when some have to go.  I was going to take them to the charity shop but money is a little tight at the moment so I looked randomly on the internet and found this website called Green Metropolis where you can sell your old books.  I put about 15 books on the website and thought no more about it and tonight I had an email saying one was sold!  I just have to post it off tomorrow, really quite exciting (little things do excite me!).

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23/09/2009 by Rosemary.

Little Star was quite distressed this afternoon when I took her bottle over to her dressed in a skirt (I was dressed in a skirt - not the bottle)!  I had to go to the dentist and got ready before going to feed her; I don’t think she has ever seen me in a skirt before.  She kept her distance, humming and sniffing and then gingerly took her bottle keeping a wary eye on the scary skirt all the time!  Having been to the dentist, I now have a filling to look forward to.

I am very aware that we have not put any photos of the cria on the blog recently but my camera isn’t very good and every time the photographer appears, it is raining.  I will sort that out very soon though as Frank is gorgeous, Lily (the suri) is a little stunner when she runs and her fleece moves and Emily is HUGE (and she is so good we trimmed her feet just with the bracelet hold round the head and afterwards she put her head up for a kiss - just like Spike, her half brother, still does!).

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22/09/2009 by Rosemary.

This is really odd.  I did the washing and when I took it out of the machine, in amongst the work clothes, there was a snail - it looked dead.  Well, obviously it looked dead after a hot wash amongst the dirty clothes.  I picked it out and put it on the draining board while I hung the washing on the line and then I forgot it.  An hour or so later I came back to the kitchen and the snail was crawling along the worktop!

Bertie’s passion for blackberries continues but she has now been joined by Belinda, Flamenco and Carolyn who all push and shove to get them from my hand.  Very few are making it into the freezer and it is lucky there are still the two pots of jam left that I found while spring cleaning because there are not enough to make more jam!

The wildflower patch I was creating earlier in the year on the bank outside the field gate has sprung into life - there is one solitary little cornflower!

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21/09/2009 by Rosemary.

Mad Lamblac dash this morning as Little Star ran out of her milk replacer last night.  I had miscalculated and, as it is not lambing time, Lamblac is not stocked everywhere.  I had no joy in Sturminster so raced over to Woodrow Feeds where I got a 10kg bag.  By the time I got back Little Star was ravenous.  I WILL NOT run out again, I promised her!  Two more walkers called this morning asking if they could park in our car park while they went for their walk, I shall have to try charging the council if something doesn’t happen soon.  I asked them to take their concerns to the Council.  Meanwhile our neighbours have erected signs saying CAUTION SITE ENTRANCE.  Well, I assume it was them but they are proper signs so maybe the council have erected them!  I felt like erecting my own sign this evening saying CAUTION MEN RELIEVING THEMSELVES after driving past this evening.  Bit concerning when I often have to go across to the fields on my own after dark.

Good news is that I have got another 10 ex battery hens coming on 24th October.  I have given up waiting for ours to get back to serious laying and as there is another release I thought we might as well get some more.  The old ones will just have to roam around and deal with the insect population while the new ones provide the eggs, hopefully!

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