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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27/10/2009 by Rosemary.

Bert attempted to hang herself early this morning.  There must have been some bailer twine left in the barn last night after we filled the feeder and we missed it in the dark.  Sam went over and found her with it looped over her neck and with her foot on the other end.  He tried to catch her and she panicked a bit; luckily this caused the loop to slip down over her tummy and he managed to extricate her.

After that drama we moved on to the next crisis - Little Star has virtually stopped taking her bottle.  Yesterday she was down from one and a half litres a day to around 600ml and today she has only had 300ml with only a couple of feeds to go.  Her last Nuflor injection was this morning and up to the day before yesterday she was looking normal.  Today she has started sucking on Bert’s leg again - when she is ill she always goes to her Mum and sucks on the inner thigh.  It must be a comfort thing where Bert can’t feed her.  Bert just stands there as if Little Star was feeding.  Carl says not to panic until tomorrow so we’ll just have to see.

The new feeder is in place and it is wonderful.  This is a picture of the feeder in use before all the drama started.  Mind you, I have just seen a picture of one hand crafted by the Chippy on the Island and that is a real work of art!  Bert is the one lying all on her own in the background, shortly before her suicide attempt, and Little Star is with me - it was a wet night and morning!  I also have a feeling I have resized the picture a little oddly as I am sure they look longer than they should be!!

Carl and Sam are a little overexcited at the moment because a very special thing is happening in a couple of weeks.  I’ll save that news until later but it does mean that they are both a little silly at times and Carl is annoying me by calling me bonkers every five minutes and it is all because of an idea I had which I thought was reasonable.  He was literally rolling around on the carpet in hysterics last night after I explained my perfectly reasonable suggestion to the BAS that if anyone did not want to go to shows for halter classes in the current climate there could be a sort of accreditation scheme for you to gain alpaca stars for any alpacas you owned who could be classed as elite.  There could be a sort of roving judge to determine degrees of ‘eliteness’.  I confess I did elaborate on this a little further and it did get a bit surreal.  I am now mortified that I actually sent this inane suggestion to the BAS and feel I am now going to have to consider renaming our herd to avoid the derision of the BAS board!  Carl seemed to think I meant that it would be like an alpaca show with the judge travelling to each farm - which I didn’t mean, that would be ridiculous, and would take years to judge a class.  I have visions of an elderly alpaca judge roaming the country searching for the final alpaca in the junior white male class!

Anyway, back to reality and down to 15 eggs today.  I think that is due to the fact that the new ex battery hens are spending a lot of their time squaring up to the old ex battery hens through the wire.  We had to create an extension for them today as I tried letting them out and they mobbed the cockerel and pulled all his tail feathers out.  He retreated to the top of the water feeder and sulked.  The weedy bald hen is the worst!

This Saturday we are off to Wellground to have a rummage with Les and Baby Oil Man and that is something which will, no doubt, fire us up again and give us lots to think about. I am longing to see Banksy and Imprint in the flesh and have a feeling I will be immensely jealous.  Probably won’t be able to get away with smuggling them out in the back of the Daihatsu!

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26/10/2009 by Rosemary.

Yesterday’s egg count was no fluke - another 18 today!  I have a little egg pyramid in the kitchen as the holder Carl made only takes ten.  He is going to have to make an extension or the Big Baby will start knocking them off the side again.

Sam and I went round returning tins from the funeral this morning and we had a good chat with Cat Woman.  I can’t mention to Carl but Cat Woman is looking out another kitten for me - she just has to catch it first!  There are some very pretty grey ones and tabbies in the yard but we will just have to see which one she picks for us.  Man with the Low Slung Landrover Roof was out, either beating or shooting, as the shoots have started.  I don’t know how well they did as most of the pheasants appeared to be in second field this morning!  At the bottom of the cut (or Back Hollow as it is properly known - a very steep lane down to the village) I met the Big Baby (my cat) going on his travels.  It is no wonder he has to sleep for several days after his adventures; it is a very long walk for a cat!

I did quite a lot of waste management when I returned and the alpacas contributed by doing a lot more poo - in all the places I had just cleared!  I let them out again this afternoon but the babies were a real pain - careering up and down the bank and it was all down to Big Fat Emily (she’s not really fat but her fleece makes her look huge -  I am going to start calling her Thunder Thighs).  She pronks around and all the others follow.  Feeding time was a bit of a rush tonight as I forgot it would get dark earlier.  I really don’t like it when the clocks change, it puts me all out.

Carl got back as it was almost dark and wanted me to come in the back of his van with him, always a bit of a worrying request!  Brilliant though!  He had acquired the most fabulous hay feeder on wheels.  We wheeled it into the field in the dark, filled it up and took it to the top of the girls’ field.  They were a little surprised at this arrival but Flamenco soon started to approach.  It was then very dark and we left them to it.  I’ll do a picture tomorrow, I’m longing to see if they like it !

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25/10/2009 by Rosemary.

Today the chickens lay 18 eggs!!  Sam has had to make an egg basket there are so many!  We have had egg on toast, omelets, cake and pancakes - tomorrow will be quiche, meringues and bacon and egg - the day after we will probably be sick!

I’m sure I once read a book called A Surfeit of Lamphreys - it’s really bothering me because I can’t remember who it was by or what it was about!

In between eating eggs we have been doing our alpaca checks and everyone was very well behaved.  Emily, Carolyn’s daughter and not quite 5 months old, gets the prize for the very best behaved though.  She lifted her feet beautifully to have them trimmed and made no fuss whatsoever about her injections.  We have picked out Sherbert and Prudence as two who need a bit of extra feed.  We knew Sherbert, the suri, was a contender but Prue was a bit of a surprise as she was marginally overweight last month and she is always a good feeder at the trough.  I think it is down to her cria Frank who is a bit of a demanding baby and a stocky little thing.  We are now feeding Pru and Sherbert separately and that worked very well his evening as for once Prue didn’t spit at all and Sherbert just solidly ate her way through everything.  We usually have a bit of a problem checking Belinda over as she is a big nervy baby and cries throughout but today Sam held her and she seemed to like that so was no problem. After all the alpacas we did the sheep injections and feet.  We decided we needed to weigh one first as I didn’t know how much wormer to give them and the sight of Carl carrying what turned out to be a 40kg sheep onto the bathroom scales with his legs buckling and the sheep (Stumpy) sucking on his ear will remain with me for some time!

After a further egg intake we managed waste which was sorely in need of managing - I have still got Caedmon and Spike’s paddock to do tomorrow.

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24/10/2009 by Rosemary.

Another very wet day.  It has stopped raining at the moment but the wind is now getting up.  Mum went back home this morning which I know will be a bit difficult but she will be coming back up here again soon.  At tea time Carl said it felt very strange without her!

This afternoon we collected the ex battery hens from the collection point which was not an experience I will be repeating.   The hens, however, are fine and a lot more curious than the last ones.  Some have got quite a lot of feathers and one clambered up onto the low perch straight away.  Four of them went straight out into the run and started scratching straight away.  It was quite tentative scratching and they all kept one foot of the ground as much as possible.  They don’t seem to be as argumentative as the old hens but that might just be as it is all so new.

The Big Baby has been away for two days on a holiday in the barn but he returned this morning and went straight into Sam’s room, where he has been all day, only emerging to demand food at regular intervals.  He is now back on the bed, curled up in the quilt and purring manically.

Tomorrow is a big alpaca check day.  We do a monthly check on each one - feet, body score, observing their poo, taking a photo, feeling all over and generally irritating them!  They also need their wormer and Vitamin D for the cria.  Carl laughs because I have designed these sheets I write everything down on and take my clipboard down there but I think it is an important record.  We can then think about if our feeding is right, or whether we need to adjust, and whether our breeding plans need adjusting.  We have then got to get back on top of waste management and plan the next bit of fencing.

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23/10/2009 by Rosemary.

Bit of a sad day today but there were some good bits.

The lovely man with the low slung landrover roof had his sweetcorn harvested today in the next field and that was fun to watch - massive great harvesting machine.  Sam says I can’t call it sweetcorn, I have to call it maize.  Landrover Roof Man says the weather is turning tomorrow so he had to get it in but it takes a long time to ripen on the hill.

I went to get the Cydectin wormer this morning in Sturminster and I had to get it from the place I don’t like going to, most of the people in there are fine but there is one particular man who is just so miserable.  I asked him for the price and when he checked it he said it was the drench and I told him it was injectable I needed and he grumbled that I should have told him that in the first place.  I don’t know why he can’t be a little happier occasionally!  The Cydectin says it has to be given SubQ below the ear which I didn’t fancy at all so I rang the wonderful Yohav at the vets and he said to do it in the normal place and it will be fine.

When Mum and I got back from the shops I decided to let the girls back in the hay field but they were so naughty I only let them stay in there an hour.  First, Emily ran up behind the field into the run and couldn’t get back to the others.  Luckily, I was over there so drove her out before she panicked.  Then, somehow, six of them managed to get through the trees in roadside and ended up behind the boys pen staring across at the rest of the girls with Dobby and Cool Dude racing around in the middle.  I was dodging in and out of the undergrowth to get them back while the little ones pronked up and down the bank to the amusement of passing motorists.

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22/10/2009 by Rosemary.

The day started with a trip to Woodrow to stock up on Lamblac, Layers Mash (for the ex-battery hens coming at the weekend), sheep nuts and oats.  Asking if I could have my oats caused quite a lot of hilarity and I won’t tell you where we went on the sheep nuts, he’s a very jolly chap in Woodrow Feeds!  We decided to get the oats to mix with the Camelibra as Prue and Bert eat everything at a great rate and we thought that would bulk it all out.  At feeding time this evening they all ate really well and enjoyed the oats.  Sherbert got an extra ration as she has lost weight.  We had a fecal sample analysed and she had a high worm count so the vet suggested we change the wormer.  We are going to try Cydectin at the weekend and then get another sample analysed later.  The vet has suggested a higher dose than we had been using of the Noramectin so we’ll see how that goes.  The sheep loved their sheep nuts and it meant they left Spike and Caedmon alone to have their Camelibra and oats in peace.

Earlier in the day Mum and I went down to the church to look at the grave and the flowers.  We were expecting the flowers to be sodden as we have had some torrential downpours but they looked as good as new, I think the Yew tree sheltered them.A picture of my tribute has been requested so here it is!  Believe it or not this picture manages to make it look better than it looks in reality and I regret to say something appears to have run off with the onion!

And this is the proper flowers (but even here my Brussels are trying to creep into the picture!).

On the way back we were passed by the Shepherd roaring down the hill in his tractor grinning and waving manically.  Mum is doing alright and this morning she wanted to do something useful so I asked her to warm the babies bottle.  I was a little perplexed when I returned to find her carefully warming the bottle of Frontline Spray in a jug of water!  To keep her out of harms way I deposited her with Rocky’s Mum while I returned some of the trays and cake tins.  The Keeper of the Churchyard was in fine form and is, I think, rather a whiz with the computer as he was engrossed in it when I arrived.

I had a useful email this afternoon from a gentleman who had stumbled on this diary and he gave me some handy advice on the Nuflor injections.  He said to try a different gauge needle and to warm the Nuflor slightly in my trousers before applying.  After Carl’s needle mishap and sore bottom I decided not to use my trousers as a warming device, and rejected the idea of putting it in the breast pocket of the body warmer for the same reason, so I wrapped it in a scarf instead.  The injection certainly went in easier - good advice if you stumble on this entry again kind gentleman.

Phone call this evening from The Grey Haired Neighbour to say that she had been told the Travellers had finally travelled.  Untrue!  They are still with us and thriving!

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