Sunday 30 September 2012

Girls girls girls

We've had another mixed weather weekend, yesterday wasn't too bad so all the alpacas were out in the fields which made a nice change.

Gill and Ross came over so the boys got a bit more fencing done whilst Gill and I fed and watered them, cleaned out the barn and felted a few balls in readiness for the next felting project.  Not wanting to be left out Taylor (5 years old) did a bit of supervision of the boys and then turned his hand very successfully to felting - no one escapes a job round here!!

We fetched the girls back in last night as the weather forecast wasn't nice for during the night, and the rain arrived. 

This morning despite the rain our girls wanted out so off the trotted up the hill and into their field, the livery girls weren't so ken and preferred to stay in the dry with their hay nets full to bursting.  By tea time the sun actually came out so I think they were starting to change their minds.

Getting our girls in tonight was a job and a half, they thought it was nice enough to stay out.  They were right but I didn't want Bridie out with rain forecast again, it's really windy and cold.  I am also keeping a very close eye on Liberty who is not herself.

You may recall a little while ago Mary wasn't well and was lacking milk, well Liberty is Mary's and is rather thin.  Typically she's not eating hard feed and wouldn't take a bottle from me.  The poor little thing has not been having a good time of late.  She's had worms (treated and cleared up) and now she has a sore eye. 

On the positive though I have finally managed to get her to have a little milk from me.  It takes a lot of encouragement and I end up wearing some of it but she will suck the bottle now.  Fingers crossed this will help her gain a bit of weight and feel like her old self.
 

Friday 28 September 2012

Somewhere over the rainbow

After another heavy downpour during the night I'm sure all the alpacas and goats were pleased to be in the shed, but with the sun looking like it was hoping to break through we decided to let some of the animals back out to play.

The goaties have their routine and will happily trot off for the day, depending on the weather depends on how long they wonder and what time they are loitering back at the gate wanting back in!

The livery girls are well behaved and happily run up and down from bed to field without any hassle.  Its always funny how the old lady Cassiopeia is always last on the way up but running down in front of the line at bedtime.

The boys on the other hand was an absolute pain this morning, we've not quite finished the channel down to the shed yet and they took full advantage scattering in all directions.  I think they new we had a 10.30 appointment and had a lot of cleaning up to do before it.  We got them all in the right place in the end but not before I had to go and get the head collars.

This afternoon Ant & Dec, two of this years babies, had a visit from their new mum and dad.  The boys have a fantastic home waiting for them once they have been weaned; another lucky couple counting down to living the alpaca dream.

We have visitors again tomorrow so hopefully there will be more sunshine and less showers, although on the plus side if the rainbows were anything to go by today there should be lots of pots of gold on the hill!

Thursday 27 September 2012

A tour of the shed dwellers, part 2 (Paul)

Hi all,

As promised here is the remainder of the shed tour!

First up we have the remainder of last years weanling's.  The 6 boys have all either gone to new homes or are waiting to go.  Of the girls, Celestial has left us to join Phil and Jan and the remainder are due to join our core herd.  In the top right hand corner you might just be able to see Minimus's bum.  Although he is now 2 years and 2 months old he weighs around 28kg and is presumably destined to stay a midget, a very popular midget though as 'his public' at the shows love him!  He is happy living with the 'littlies' although they are all bigger than him now!



Finally, we have the main herd of girls and cria.  We are holding back 3 of this years boys, the other 6 are already spoken for before they have been weaned!  The boys are off in 3 pairs to fantastic new homes which we will update you on later in the year.  Just in case the new owners are looking in (I know you do!) I have put the names of a few of them on the picture.  Phil and Jan, Palm-Olive and Clive are to the right and Palm-Olive went ballistic at Gianmarco's Masterpiece tonight at spit-off, excellent!  Enjoy!

Wednesday 26 September 2012

A tour of the shed dwellers (Paul)

Evening all,

I think that maybe summer has ended and winter is on its way?  I'm not talking the rain here, but orders for our handmade alpaca knitwear!  We have had several orders in the last couple of days and so Debbie is busy sorting them out and wrapping them so they arrive with our customers in tip top condition and ready to give as presents.  Here is one of the orders just before it hit the post box:
If you're on the look out for a special present or a treat for yourself, please check out our online shop, we have just added loads of new and unique items: http://www.findanalpaca.com/shop/.  Anyone who buys an item of knitwear from the shop is very welcome to come and meet the alpaca(s) who donated their fleece.  Alternatively why not come and meet them anyway and save yourself some money because we can knock the postage costs of your item!

As you might have seen on the news Morpeth has been really badly hit (again) by the heavy rain and subsequent flooding (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-19731095) we had to drive through Morpeth today to pick up some wormer and post some knitwear orders it must be horrible if your house is hit by the floods.  Back on the hill we have had lots of rain but everyone is safe.

For the first time we have pulled everyone into the purpose built alpaca shed and there is plenty of space for everyone, hay, straw and lots of 'stuff' (much of which is stored on a 'wifeless rough hen' of course!).

Armed with the camera, I did a quick tour of shed when my attention was caught by Lily, our lovely grey livery girl who is either very lazy or is getting too big for milk!
Here are the rest of the livery girls all enjoying a brief bit of sunshine this afternoon:
Next up we have the boys including our studs:
In case you're wondering, that's Niveous (son of Legend of Spartacus, standing at stud in Angus, Scotland) front right and his black friend Seymour who was for sale until Saturday just gone! Just behind them is Niveous's half brother, Sandstorm, our double fawn champion.

Next up we have the Angora goats (Debbie is very excited because they are all sure footed now with no limping!):
You still following me? Good.

Next up, the 13 chicks in their new little house (thanks to Ken and Ross for your help with this!)

I don't want to spoil you with many more photos and the rest of the herd so you will have to wait until tomorrow for those! Night all!
Paul

Tuesday 25 September 2012

Noah's ark

I thought this morning when I woke up that we might have to send out for Noah's Ark, there was standing water everywhere, our patio was underwater, which is a first.

Our little ford across our drive had turned into a full blown stream with a very impressive water fall before and a raging torrent after the drive.
 
The bottom of the drive was no better, we had a lake down there with our (luckily emptied) wheelie bin floating in it!

Our ford works it's way down to the Raylees Burn, usually a 2 meter wide max water course running through our land.  Not today, it had burst its banks and had swamped the trees, thankfully our wooden bridge seems so far to be holding up.

The Raylees Burn seems to have turned into the Woodburn Sea in our neighbours field!

Thankfully we have enough room in the shed for all the alpacas to enjoy some respite from the terrible rain, so the boys have now come in too.  The shed now plays home to the whole Barnacre herd, plus the livery girls and the goaties, oh yes and tweet the cockerel who still doesn't realise he's supposed to live in the chicken coop!

Monday 24 September 2012

Weekend update

Tut tut, no blog for two nights, what am I playing at! 

Saturday was a very busy day, we were at Whalton Show with the alpacas and our pet sheep for the sheep racing.  It's always a full on day when you have two lots of animals and the knitwear to look after, not to mention the alpaca demonstrations which are always very popular.

The sheep racing is hilarious, and three of my four pet sheep love it, the fourth this year was Ruby who won her race but wasn't sure about the jockey she had to wear!  Mocha, our old girls was my best chance at winning, or so Paul and I thought.  She turned out to be last in her race, but good old Mia won hers whilst Ebony came a very close second in her race.

So with two out of the four finalist we stood a good chance of retaining our title for the third year running, but sadly it wasn't to be, the Ponteland young farmers won with a Shetland ewe - maybe I need to get training my Shetlands for next year!

By the time we got home as two trips were needed as you can't mix the alpacas and sheep in the trailer we were both kick knacked hence the lack of blog!

Sunday was another nice sunny day, Gill, Ross and Taylor came up which was nice, Paul and Ross has planned to cut and move a huge concrete slab to make a bridge which worked perfectly.

We also decided to let the goaties have an explore round our ancient earthworks field, they are all finally sound on their feet, not a single limp or lame foot in sight.  We have been working on them constantly for what seems like forever, but it's worth it when it works.  Here's Paul showing them the way.

The new Shetland sheep are mingling well with the pet sheep, they are used to being fed so come running as soon as they see you with a bucket.

I'm no expert on Shetland colours yet so we are trying to work out what sort of ram we want, do we go for a certain colour, the finest fleece or the one I like the look of (that's how I chose Wesley!).  Our girls are all slightly different colours, the older girls are fawn.

This one is darker and the four lambs (two ewe lambs) are darker still.

Not as dark as Mocha's texel cross ewe lamb though!  Aren't these two sweet...

Friday 21 September 2012

Camping out

After the downpour we had overnight I was rather surprised to look out the bedroom window this morning and see Wesley (our blackie tup) had camped out with his two little pirate mates (bottle fed lambs who won't stay with the wild blackies!).
Unfortunately for Wesley he's not small enough to fit under the remains of caravan mark one.

Bridie is continuing to do well, she is gaining muscle strength and is bending her legs more and more, she is trying so hard kush with bent legs.  She has certainly inherited her great grandma's appetite, this were her at lunchtime tucking into some nice warm sugarbeet.

This afternoon we dropped off our racing sheep at the Whalton show field ready for tomorrow's racing.  It's always a really funny event and being double defending champions we have standards to maintain.  The girls are all carrying extra weight so it's going to be tough this year.  I'm thinking our veteran Mocha will be our best chance so she's my hot tip for anyone wanting to put a pound on the tote!

On the way back we collected our new Shetland sheep, they are rather sweet.  Hopefully they will soon settle in and feel at home, all we need to do now is find them a boyfriend ready for November.

Thursday 20 September 2012

Named at last

We have finally managed to agree on suitable names for our two nameless boys from Chiquita and Geena.  We had been struggling to find something at suited the boys and we could agree on.

Chiquita's on the left Geena's on the right.

As the weather was wet, wet and more wet today  we decided we had no excuse not to find something we could both agree on.  First up was Chiquita's little man, we wanted to carry on the little theme, after all I doubt he's ever going to be big.  Every suggestion we came up with seemed a bit girlie or just didn't suit him.  In the end we agreed on Pablo, meaning small and humble.

Next was Geena's son, now this one was more tricky as this boy has potential, his fleece is very nice indeed.  You may recall we were expecting (as much as you can with alpacas) a black from this black to black mating and we were well overdue a girl from Geena; we've had her 5 years and only every had boys!  Out popped a fawn boy much to our surprise, so what better name than Prodigiosus.  A Latin word meaning strange, wonderful, and marvellous.
Isn't he just adorable, and a good boy tonight, he actually took his bottle!
These photo's were actually taken a while ago as its been fit for nothing other than ducks today!

Wednesday 19 September 2012

I know I said I wasn't, but I did!

With the sun shining and Bridie looking great on her new legs I thought I'd let her out for a little wonder with her mum and fellow shed dwellers Chiquita and her little man.

Bridie needs to build up some muscle again now, having had her legs in casts for almost two weeks she is down on her pasterns and is having to get used to walking with legs than bend.  Bless her she is so sweet and doing fantastically, thanks to her strength and determination and our vet Sam Prescott.

Paul has topped the stud boys field which was looking rather long in places, it looks much tidier and they seem to be pleased with it.  Hughie was heading up the  quality control line following the quad. 

Whilst he was doing that I made some more paca poo fire brick, I'm loving my new mould.  I'm sure Gill will be itching to get hold of it at the weekend too!!

We've also been hanging another gate, this is on the smaller field which may be a weaning field or quarantine field, we've not quite decided yet.

Just before gate hanging we had a few spit offs to do.  Palm-Olive who we sold recently needed doing, the rest of her friends have already gone to their new home but as Palm-Olive had only just given birth and we had agreed to remate her she has to stay on a little longer.  Great news for the Archer's she spat; not great for me I was in the firing line!

Also not good news for me, Nefertiti sat as did Lucia.  I was not happy Nefertiti who was supposed to be 4 weeks gone, is mum to 2 brown champion daughters including Meketaten so I was not happy at the thought of her going into winter empty so went back on my word about us not wanting late cria and mated her.  Last chance Nefers so you better hold this time!

Lucia on the other hand I will leave, she is quite submissive and didn't sit immediately and didn't seem very impressed that Sandstorm was there.  We never actually spat her off last year as she escaped out of the mating pen the twice we tried so we just scanned her, maybe I will do the same this year as when she was mated she happily sat.

So many people this year seem to be having similar issues with girls not holding, surely it must all be weather related?

Tuesday 18 September 2012

Bridie meets Bridie

I have been rather apprehensive about today for  few days now, I'd had to bring Bridie's vet appointment forward as she was gaining so much weight her casts were getting tight.

It's not quite two weeks since Sam came and splinted them in the hope that he would be able to make enough of a difference for her to be much steadier on her feet and to be able to support her weight once she grew.

She has been coping remarkably well with her stiff legs, she was able to get up and down within 10 minutes of them being set.  This was this morning enjoying a bit of sunshine in the yard.
They didn't even hamper a quick game of chase the ducks back to their pond!

After creating lots of attention at the vets the splints were removed and Sam was very pleased with the results, and so was I.  He was planning on putting a back slab on the worst leg however she is looking so good we are giving her a few days to see how she gets on.  Before we left Bridie the vet nurse had to come and meet Bridie the cria! 

And here she is splint free, isn't this impressive.... 

It is going to take her a little while to get used to her new bending legs so sitting down takes some thought at the minute and she isn't bending them much, but I'm sure it won't be long.

The final photo isn't he best quality but I thought you might like to see it anyway!  Having shared her milk with Liberty last week it now appears we have another milk thief, Chiquita's little man!!!

Monday 17 September 2012

You're not?...You are?...You did! (Paul)

Evening all.

Debbie has fast-footed it to bed tonight because she objected to me singing and kicking a balloon around the kitchen - surely this is normal behaviour after a long day?

Anyway, I'd like to share a few photos with you today because I have been busy in my shed attending to a matter of great technological advancement.  Oh yes, after the ladies (Debbie, Janet and Gill) trashed my 'paca poo fire brick mould' - I ask you, I make a perfectly good prototype mould out of chipboard, and they break it after a mere 4 years - it was time for 'bob brick mould mark 2'.

The alpaca shed was like a centre of excellence for mechanical engineering.  Firstly, there was lots of tea drinking (no biscuits or cakes, come back Jan).  Then there was much sawing, drilling, counter-sinking (oh yes!), screwing and measuring.  I always get the order of those a little mixed up and so there followed a few minor curses, more tea and then some re-measuring, technical adjustments (hammer required),  re-sawing, more tea and then of course much male-self-congratulation.  Bob brick mould mark 2 was born - and this has a go faster stripe and a couple of modifications to make the working lives of the 'staff' a little easier.

Mould mark 2 was duly presented to the staff - and she was most pleased with the modifications and improvements (I think when she asked why it took all day to saw 4 bits of wood and join them together that it was her little joke - I did point out there were in fact 5 pieces of wood, eventually...).  In a fit of meriment the 'staff' and mechanical engineer hot footed it up to the alpaca paddocks to try out bob brick mould mark 2.  Of course this is a job that can get a little dirty and is technically manual labour, and so the staff proceeding to try out the mould whilst the mechanical engineer became Executive in charge of taking photos and walking around the field looking out for rainbows.

First up is the raw material, a sight common to all alpaca owners and their visitors...
 
Olly Impic came over.  "You're not?" I'm sure he hummed (didn't he Pat and Eric!)

 
Mary enquired "You are?", she is a clever Chilean import, well travelled and very wise.

 
"You did!" proclaimed Indigo (didn't he Jeannine and Craig!).  The staff and bob brick mould mark 2 can be seen in the top left corner of the picture, due to the commercial sensitivies involved though I'm afraid we are unwilling to provide a close up shot and/or technical specifications (these can be provided on payment of a mind-boggling and very large royalty fee - please make cheques payable to Mr Paul Rippon [only])
 

And here you go, the finished article, duly decorated and ready for action.  They burn like coal for around 2 hours - fantastic presents for the man/men in your life!  Barnacre Alpaca paca poo fire bricks are available for sale in our shop or when we are out and about at country fayres.


Night all !!!!
Paul

Sunday 16 September 2012

Weekend visitors

Another weekend draws to a close, this one has been another exciting one for us and others.

On Saturday we had a visit from Pat & Eric (and their daughter and grandchildren)  who have taken the leap into alpaca ownership.  We are really happy for you, the boys will be very happy with you and we know you will gain hours of entertainment from them.  Countdown begins for another couple until weaning!

This morning after a batch of lambivac injections were done on cria, we headed off to have a look at a few sheep, not wild blackies this time.  We need more mouths on the hill and I wanted something easier to handle than the blackies and more about wool than meat.  So I have my eye on a small Shetland flock, their wool is the finest of all native breeds and they are quite petite. 

With a deal agreed we pick up the girls and their lambs at the weekend, I can't collect them before as we are sheep racing next weekend at Whalton Show so need to be able to move sheep off the holding and bringing new ones on now would mean we are on standstill.

This afternoon we have had visits from Jan & Phil at Castleside Alpacas, the new owners of Molly, Palm-Olive, Lady Godiva, Celestial, Dillon and Clive.  It was great to catch up again; told you Clive was a little cracker!

As Jan & Phil left Brian and Sam arrived, I think Sam quite fancied taking one of the angora's home to live with their pygmy goats.



Saturday 15 September 2012

Alpaca Classic

This weekend is the Alpaca Classic event at Bozedown, unfortunately we weren't able to get down south, however we had eyes on the ground (thanks Barbara) and phone bids were accepted (thanks Heather)!  We just had to supply our own wine glasses as the wine was supplied by Eric & Pat - thank you!!

Friday 14 September 2012

Tired and grumpy

It has been exceptionally windy on the hill today with the odd shower thrown in for good measure.

Paul had another early start as he is down in London and was on the 6.30am train, it's a long day too as he's still on his way back - I think I'll stay out of his was when he gets home because he'll be very tired, which also means grumpy.

I had set myself a long list of jobs I wanted to get done whilst he was away, but I've not managed to tick many of them off the list.

I did get two of the most important (after feeding everyone) done, sort out the house insurance and put the last batch (for the year) of cream crested legbar eggs into my new incubator.  I didn't get any poo picking done or much of the kitchen tidy, but hey ho, hopefully he will go straight to bed an not notice.

Bridie is continuing to do well, she is gaining weight and happily moving round the pen, I'm hoping the splints don't get too tight or we'll have to take them off earlier than planned. 

Well I'm sorry for the lack of photo's, I had planned to go our with the camera when the sun came out but each time by the time I remembered or finished what I was doing it had gone .

Thursday 13 September 2012

Westmorland County Show

We were up before the crack of dawn today as we had to be off with our show team to the 2012 Westmorland Country Show.  It's hard work when you have animals that rely on you at home that need seeing to before you leave and you have to be at penned in for 7.30am.

It was a good two and a half hour drive but it was worth it, we took six animals and came back with 5 rosettes and a championship sash.

First into the ring was our grey girl Emery, first place, thank you very much.  Unfortunately there was no grey female championship as they were not expecting many entries, so hadn't ordered a sash, however the grey classes were very popular.  Never mind 1st place was great!

Next in was Seymour, our young black boy from Loki (half brother to Emery), black again were seeming very popular, but we were happy with the 3rd place, with judge Cathy Lloyd commenting that he was the finest in the class.

Next in the lineup was our fawn stud Barnacre Sandstorm, now this boy has presence so we had high hopes for him.  He didn't let us down, 1st place and he went on to win Fawn Male Champion too.
 
It's not the best photo, but I forgot the camera - well I was up at 3.45 so was bound to forget something!
 
After the excitement of the fawn champion it was on to what I think was the biggest class of the day, intermediate white female.  We had two in the class, and once again Neelie did us proud, 4rd place with Cathy saying was a fantastic handle she had and that her fleece was so bright she needed sunglasses.  Unfortunately her mate Angelica didn't get placed.
 
Our final animal in was Niveous, we were very pleased with his second place to the Supreme Champion; I'll say no more than that (as I don't want to spoil anything for someone else), but well done!
 
Thankfully when we got home all seems well; the ducks had gone to bed, assuming that they actually got up! The hens were long gone to bed, Mary was waiting for her tea and the goats has escaped and were walking round the yard.  They've eaten Dave's tree - hope it grows back before he comes up next.......
 

Wednesday 12 September 2012

Where does the time go

Another busy day on the farm, but then again you would expect nothing else when you have almost 70 alpacas, over 200 sheep, 8 goats, 6 ducks, 30 plus hens, 14 chicks, 3 cats and Paul to look after!!

We also has a visit from Hilary whose girls are on livery here.  It was great to get hold of her cria and rummage through fleece and compare the different fleece types.  I always find it fascinating how cria fleeces change and evolve.

Chiquita's little man (who we are still unable to agree a name for) has started a course of antibiotics today.  The poor little chap as a very sore foot, I have no idea what he has been up to but there is certainly something in there or been in there.

Bridie; not Birdie as she seems to keep getting called, is still doing well with her casts, she is gain weight nicely, in fact she is gaining so much weight I'm not sure her casts are going to be able to stay on until next Thursday when she's booked in to the vets.  They are starting to fit rather snugly!

We also did a few spit offs, Gabby here had her beady eye on the stud well before he arrived, she is so funny at spit off time, there is no need to get her in the pen, she soon lets you know what is going on!

Tuesday 11 September 2012

Latest arrivals at Liberty Hill

Blogger is continuing to drive me mad, I couldn't get on last night and I have been trying for an hour tonight before it has let me log in!

The  last couple of days have been busy again, Monday morning we were over at Carol & Dave's old house getting the last few bits emptied with Dave, then it was over to see Molly and her friends; the girls we recently sold.

Whilst we were there we popped over to a great place if you like ducks and hens!  We'd got 3 welsummer hens reserved, we didn't manage to leave with just the three though, we came away with three hens a cockerel and 2 Rhode Island Reds.  I also have my eye on a lovely pair of geese, so watch this space.

Here they are this morning getting used to their new surroundings; they will have to stay shut in for a little while.


Today we have been over to see what will be the new home for Ant & Dec.  Their new owners Jan and John have a fab place, the boys will be very happy there.  They have a little while to wait yet though as they are still only babies and with their mums.


Sunday 9 September 2012

Berwick Food Festival

Just a short one tonight as we're both half asleep, having been working none stop for the last few days helping Carol & Dave move on Friday then we have been at Berwick Slow Food Festival all weekend with the alpacas and our knitwear.
 
We have had a very good weekend selling lots of knitwear and taking a few orders.  Not bad to say it was boiling hot for a change, I think it's the first show we've been at this year where we've not got wet at some point in time!
 
For once we remember to take some photo's, although we had to do them before the event actually opened to the public or we just never quite get time.

Mum and dad were at home on animal sitting duties and did a very good job, mum was also working her way through the massive list of household chores (I didn't ask her to do them) and dad has started making the chicks a new home.
 
Smudge (our old cat) is currently trying to make out she's not been fed since we left home!!  Mum is telling me different!!

Thursday 6 September 2012

Cria with casts on

It has been a rather busy day again here at Barnacre.  This morning we had the vet coming out to look at Bridie's legs as she was far to unsteady on her feet.  I also wanted three girls scanning, there was Mary to look at and a dead sheep; yeah I know he couldn't do much for a dead sheep but I wanted some advice!

Thankfully Mary was already looking much better this morning, however she's still not 100% but I think a good poo and some metacam seems to have done the trick.  Mary is thin and has very little milk so I've been keeping a close eye on Liberty to make sure she continues to gain weight as she hasn't been interested in the bottle I'd offered her.

Well tonight I round out why she probably wasn't interested in my bottle, she is pinching milk from Kealani!  I'm not sure if this is a one off, I've not seen her pinching from anyone in the field.
Sam, the vet had a very good look over Bridie, like me he has concerns over her legs, so much so she now has both legs in casts to try and help sort them out.  He was worried that she would be unable to get up and thought I might have to pick her up on a regular basis. However before he could have passed the end of our roadside grazing she was up on her own!
She will have these casts on for two weeks, assuming they don't start to cause sores or any other issues and we will see what the results are.  Keep everything crossed as without improvement the future isn't good for Bridie.

Whilst he was here Sam did three scans for me for three girls who were not giving convincing spit offs.  It turns out the only one of the three to be pregnant was Freyja, so that's two more girls going through winter empty as we are no longer mating as we don't want late babies.

We have had a rather scary visitor to the farm today, a snake, and I'm pretty sure it's an adder..

A few years ago Paul was bit by an adder and ended up in hospital so as you can imagine I'm rather concerned about this rather slippery visitor.

Wednesday 5 September 2012

Barn buddy

Today has been one of those days.  This morning we were doing a few quick spit offs which turned out to need to rematings, nice for Golden Guinea and Sandstorm, not so good for shortening next years birthing window!

Then we had to return Ken's empty trailer, pick up our full stock trailer; (full of straw before anyone gets too excited) and in between we had to go to the metro centre.  I even managed to talk alpacas in Lakeland, the sales assistance were admiring our address and wanted to what we farmed.

When we returned home we found a not very happy Mary, she was sat on her side feeling sorry for herself.  She wasn't interested in tea or carrot and didn't want Liberty feeding from her either.  She is now tucked up in the shed with Kealani and her cria, Bridie, who had to come down in the trailer as Kealani was being naughty again.  I've got the vet coming tomorrow so we will see what he has to say.

I'd better make sure the sheep aren't working when he comes, who needs horse power when you have blackie lamb power!!
Tee hee, great photo Paul!

Off to pastures new

I have been building myself up to today for a little while now, as you will recall we recently sold some pregnant females, including our first two home bred girls.
 
Well today was the day we were delivering 3 of the four girls.  So as not to make a show of myself I said my goodbyes before we left home.  It is bad enough selling boys but selling home bred girls is even worse, especially two of our friendliest pregnant girls Lady Godiva and Celestial.
 
The girls all loaded well into the trailer and off we headed (after a rather exciting meeting which will hopefully go somewhere in the near future).  I know Jan was excited about the girls arrival and has been counting down the sleeps, well she was not disappointed. 
 
Here we have the girls just out of the trailer.
 Next up is Molly exploring with Dillon in tow and Celestial close by.

The girls seemed perfectly relaxed and settled, having checked out their field they decided to keep an eye on the joiner who is building them a shelter.
Paul had to drag me away from the field, I think I managed to hide the tears until I was in the car and heading home. No only did Jan very kindly fed us a bacon sarnie at lunchtime we also came away with cupcakes - very nice they are too.
 
On the way home we nipped to a friends Ken & Sue's to pick up 100 small bales of straw, I'm not sure our car quite knew what had hit it!  There is also a stock trailer full at Kens to be picked up in the morning! 

 

Tuesday 4 September 2012

Introducing Bridie

Our last cria of the year is going from strength to strength, although it is still quite early days for her we have decided to name her, well I say we, our great friend Gill Pearson chose her name.  Meet Bridie, which is Celtic meaning strong.
She is now gaining weight and feeding purely from mum which is fantastic to say only a week ago today when she was born she was clinging to life by a thread, had no suck reflex and couldn't even lift her head. 

She is still very wobbly on her legs and resembles a cria which is a few hours old however she is one determined little girl so we are positive.  She has been out enjoying the sunshine in the field with the rest of the herd.

Don't you just love cria introductions... 
Are you still in there? 
Here we have the oldest and the youngest cria of the year, they both share a dad in Legend of Spartacus and Bridie's grandma, Oonagh, is Leonidas's mum!