2010 cria

Thankfully the weather hasn't been anywhere near as bad as was forecast but you still wouldn't believe it is still summer.

Paul has been busy on the website again, it is such a slow job but we are getting there, if you've been tracking our births this year you will enjoy our 2010 cria page. I have just pointed out to him that he hasn't added Freyja yet!!

Talking of cria I find it fascinating how they seem to pick up on their sires personality traits when they never even get to see them. A prime example are our Golden Guinea cria, they are all so chilled out and super friendly just like Guinea.

Here we have Ochre on the left playing with one of Paul's shoes, whilst Meketaten is on the right also checking them out. Both of their mums last cria were completely the opposite, in fact Star, Kate's daughter still is.

It's not just the Guinea cria here, because his daughter born at Lavender-Bee Alpacas is very friendly too.

I'm looking forward to next years arrivals already.

Oonagh ends on a high

Oonagh has done us, and Gianmarco's Masterpiece (the sire) proud today, by producing a stunning female cria. She even waited until Paul returned from his 9 mile run; he's in training for the Great North Run, if anyone wants to sponser him he's doing it in aid of Macmillan Cancer.

We were hoping for a girl from Oonagh, she had a girl for us last year (Kealani), but her mum produced us three girls on the trot so we were hoping Oonagh would follow in her footsteps. Well done Oonagh your mum would be proud of you.

We have decided to call her Freyja, after the Norse goddess of love, beauty and fertility. Just as a matter of interest she also had two daughters so hopefully if she follows the family tradition this could be the same for our Freyja.

This was our last birth of the year so we've finished on a high. We now have 7 boys and 7 girls from our three boys and 2 outside matings. We are very pleased with the results our boys have achieved and can't wait for next year to see how the boys compare. It is a slow but very exciting process.

No more getting up at 5am to do a check of the field, although I've been doing it since the beginning of May so it will take me a while to get out of the habit I'm sure.

The girls were due to go on fresh grass today but we thought we would let Freyja find her feet before she goes in the nice lush green grass which will do wonders for everyone milk supply and cria growth.

I am alive!

Firstly apologies for the lack of blog last night, my daily blogging is that much of a ritual I received a text this morning to make sure I was ok seeing as I'd not blogged! Thank you for your concern.

Yesterday the weather wasn't great so Paul was doing some website updates whilst I was sewing labels into knitwear and trying to keep the kittens in order - that bit wasn't working very well! He was working on the meet the herd section which was out of date and the sales page which shows the latest comings and goings. There are still pages in need of attention so keep your eyes peeled.

I haven't done much of the shop yet but that is because I couldn't get on the machine as Paul was hogging it. I will get there though, honest Carol, bear with me.



Today we have been busy with herd husbandry jobs. Everyone has been given the once over, condition scored and toe nails trimmed where needed, which it has to be said was almost everywhere, even Geena who hardly ever needs hers cutting.

Many of the cria were due their second Lambivac injection and the youngest few were weighed again, which they just take in their stride as it happens so frequently. We also weighed Lucia who is now 28kg and isn't three months old yet.

Katia's little girl is growing nicely she has gained 1.76kg in a week. I will hopefully have a name to share with you all soon, in the meantime I thought you might like to share this photo I took this afternoon.

We also had some spit off's and matings to do, unfortunately Chiquita sat so she will have a meeting with Golden Guinea tomorrow as he was needed for Geena today. We decided that we would try and get some colour our of her next year! Imala had an appointment with Gianmarco's Masterpiece which he thoroughly enjoyed.

We have a quandary with Palm-Olive, one of our last remaining sales girls but more on that tomorrow.

Making a start

Oh boy it has rained today, in fact it started in the night and hasn't stopped all day. The fields really need it but I would like it to stop for a brief time for feeding at least.

Rory hasn't wanted his bottle today, he didn't like me wearing my waterproof coat. Thankfully by bedtime he'd got used to me in alien clothing and happily drank his bottle.

The day started with a lovely conversation with someone who is very lucky and shall remain nameless at the minute as I didn't ask for permission to mention it. All I will say is watch this space.

In fact thinking about it, I spent most of the morning on the telephone talking alpaca, great topic of conversation don't you think.

The rest of the day has been spent in front of the computer, I don't know how I used to do it all day everyday!

I've started to update the on-line shop and all, well most, of the photo's are re sized; yes I managed to do it all by myself, and ready to be up loaded. It is such a slow job though it takes ages.

Paul is on holiday from his day job next week so he has a 'to do list' being prepared and general website updates are on there. I'm not allowed to do those, he doesn't trust me.

This is for you.............

Another busy day draws to a close and I'm buzzing with excitement; I'm sure I'm not the only one!

First job on the list was to rearrange the garage as I'd got a supply of Camelibra being delivered, I'm not as lucky as Rob and Les, we don't have a forklift here so it was manually unloaded onto the quad and re stacked in the garage all neatly so when Paul got home from his day job the car would still fit in!

I have been out with the camera too, our online shop is so out of date it is getting embarrassing so I was out in the field taking some photo's, as you can see I had help. Lucia and Pearson trying to helping themselves to things in the bos whilst Ochre was trying to climb on my back.

Tomorrow we have rain forecast so hopefully all of today's pictures will make it onto the website tomorrow, that is if I don't break it first Paul gets slightly nervous when I start working on the website as that is usually his domain.

Whilst I was out with the camera I thought I would get a photo of the birthday girl, only she seemed a little camera shy and kept turning her back! Geena is 8 today, here she is feeding her baby Rory, she only has milk in her front two teats so Rory is being topped up by bottle which he likes which is good.

I also managed to catch Katia's baby sat down on the job, she seems to like to sit down whilst feeding. I know someone out there will be very interested in this photo!

Catch me if you can

We had another house viewing today which meant house cleaning took priority over paddock cleaning which I don't like!

Hopefully the family liked the house, I know the daughter was very impressed with the two kittens and then even more impressed when they went to have a look at the land and Lady Godiva came over to introduce herself, closely followed by Ochre - you can tell they are both Golden Guinea progeny.

Since the boys moved onto fresh grass at the weekend the field shelter has become a bit of a trophy possession. What once had room for all five boys now seems to struggle to fit more than one! Gianmarco seems to have taken over it and refuses point blank to share, although when I went out this morning Loki had managed to squeeze himself in.

Anyone who has read the meet the herd section of our website will know that despite being a big girl, Veruschka holds a very low ranking within the herd. I have noticed the last few days Kazuo seems to have taken a fancy to her and is trying to mount her whilst orgling. Needless to say as Veruschka is (hopefully) pregnant to Gianmarco's Masterpiece, who is actually Kazuo's dad, she is not at all impressed and runs off . The only problem is this then makes the rest of the youngsters think it's a game so she ends up with about 10 cria chasing her which puts her in a panic.

A new coat

My little man, Minimus is growing, so much so I had to make him a new coat today. In fact he would probably have fitted into one of the existing coats if Katia's new baby wasn't wearing it.

I have been busily updating alpaca seller today, it was a little out of date following the birth of the Aussie girls cria. If only I had the space (and some spare cash) I really would like to keep at least one of them, if only.............

I received a lovely letter of thanks from the Border Union Show thanking me for my Chief Steward duties at the show, Paul also received one so hopefully the rest of my stewarding team received one too. It's nice to knew you are appreciated.

Talking of appreciation, someone has been reading my ramblings. I had a call from a fellow alpaca owner yesterday who had an issue with an abscess on one of their alpacas. My blogging about the problem we had with Gabby's jaw last year will hopefully help her out - good luck.

PS. Whoever left the anonymous comment about Paul seeing the kitten photo it's too late!

New spinning apprentices

Today has been one of those days when one minute it looks like the heavens are going to open and we are going to get a soaking (which we never did) and the next we have glorious sunshine. Needless to say those babies with cria coats on have been dressed and undressed a number of times!


We weighed the three youngest cria all of whom are doing well, Minimus is still slightly heavier than Katia's daughter, who we have not yet named as she is for sale, and it is nice if they get new owners soon they will be able to name her.

I was feeling rather annoyed this afternoon, so took it out on a tree that was overhanging one of our fields. It provides a nice bit of shelter but it was far too low, not any more. It was quite funny I had an audience, typically at the front of the gathering was Ursula.

As a bit of a wind down I thought I would do a bit of spinning as my two young apprentices were not getting on with it very well!
Carol has knitted a lovely black hat in Mary fleece which I am spinning at the minute. I took her a bit over last week as Dave carded it all for me I thought she might like to knit a bit. It never ceases to amaze me how quick Carol knits, since I saw her last week she has knitted me a hat and some long fingerless mittens. She somehow manages to find time to go to work as well.