Four alpacas, five rosettes and a championship sash!

It was a very early start today, the alarm was set for 4am as we were heading off to the Wesmorland County Show. 

Paul has been working in London today but thankfully Carol and Dave were on hand to give me a hand.  Everyone should have a Carol & Dave, they are great!

The weather was not pleasant, by the time we arrived at the showground it was pouring down and there was mud everywhere.  Carol passed comment that it was the first time she had witnessed me panicking - I was worried about getting stuck in the mud with the trailer.

With the animals unloaded and the car safely parked (without getting stuck) and facing the direction for the messy exit it was time for the show.

Being a colour championship the running order was from Black to white so first up for us was Barnacre Meketaten in the Intermediate Brown Female class.  She has fabulous presence, a stunning fleece, good conformation and substance of bone with an impressive fleece length, in the words of the judge, Liz Barlow.  The judge was clearly impressed as Meketaten was awarded first place, and subsequently went on to win the Brown Champion (again! if you remember she was also brown champion at the 2011 Border Union Show).

Next up was the super friendly Lady Godiva, Dave was taking her into the ring and she behaved very well for him, other than sitting down bored at one point waiting for her turn to be judged!  This was another big class and we were very pleased to be awarded a second place rosette, I know this will be particularly pleasing for one very pleased couple???...

After lunch it was the turn of the whites, Casiphia was in the largest class of the day, Intermediate White female.  This was a very tightly contested class and there was lots of to ing and fro ing of judge Liz and apprentice judge Shirley Bettinson.  Casiphia was awarded second place, as was Niveous who was pipped to first place by the alpaca who went on to win supreme champion.

On the subject of champions, Meketaten was in close contention for Reserve Champion and being dark brown again a light fawn this is very impressive.  The judge said it was so close and they were so impressed she awarded a 'special award' of the show (the only one!) to Meketaten - what a superstar!  The judge described the feel of her fleece as running your hand through a silk carpet and suggested that breeders and public alike should check her out, which they duly did!

Hopefully (if Dave managed to work my camera) I will have some photo's to share with you tomorrow night, my bed is calling me now!

Pairing bales

Paul and I have been having a bit of practice using the forks on the front of the tractor.  We have been moving bales of straw for Alan.  We were gathering and placing them side by side to speed up his collection and stacking.

Paul shouldn't have taken a photo of the one bale we had an incident with!  I say we, I actually mean Paul!

After driving over to the alpacas on the quad this morning, luckily for me it was dry, I got my car back, it now feels much better although the handbrake now feels like it needs taking up a bit. 

The alpacas heading off to Westmorland Show tomorrow have been shut in, the girls have been in most of the afternoon but I decided to leave Niveous out and when I was back at the house it absolutely threw it down with rain so he is now shut in but very damp.  Hopefully he will dry off a bit.

Well as I have a very early start I think it's time for a shower then bed.  Keep posted to the tweets for updates tomorrow.

No wheels on my wagon

I had arranged to take my car in today to have some new brakes as they are in need of attention.

Living out in the middle of nowhere always makes things like this become a bit of a major job.  I had enlisted the help of Carol to pick me up from the garage and take me back later to pick it up.  The plan was I'd spend a couple of hours with Carol doing some knitting (flip top mittens as I've sold out!) and then we could go back to get my car.

However shortly after lunch I received a call to say they had been sent the wrong parts so the car wouldn't be ready until tomorrow.  Thankfully Carol agreed to take me back home, via the field to feed everyone. 

My mode of transport tomorrow morning will be the quad so please pray for a dry morning.  Just to make it even worse my wellies and waterproofs are in the boot of the car!

On the plus side I did pick up 5 pairs of baby socks, as scarf and a pair of fingerless mitts from Carol and added a couple more things to her 'To Knit' list.

I have been chatting to a lovely lady again today, in a moment of madness I did something yesterday which I know is going to end up in tears.......

Alpaca chatter

I have had a lovely day today chatting with four completely different people interested in four different alpaca related matters

The first was a lovely lady interested in some of our Barnacre wool which she is going to come and fetch.  I don't sell much wool as I like to turn everything into end garments so I can follow each animal from star to finish.

Another lady called round to pick up a lovely scarf that she'd ordered knitted in Ursula and Nefertiti.  Whilst she was here she had her eye on some of my yarn which was on the table!

I have also been speaking to a lovely lady about some alpacas we have for sale and a couple that will be released soon.  Anyone that knows me knows I'm not very good at the parting with them bit so it takes Paul a while to get me to agree.

I have also been chatting to a fellow blogger/tweeter about fleece processing, it is always good to talk to other about your experiences, it benefits everyone in the long run.

Just incase you read this Paul I have also been very busy working on the job list, honest!!!!

Hands on experience

Another busy day over and it's almost the start of a new week, how quickly they go by is just frightening.

Today we had Jean and Stuart over to have some hands on husbandry experience with their boys that they have purchased and will be taking home soon.

The four boys Ochre, Pearson, Rory and Wynfor have all had lots of attention from their new mum and dad, they have all had their toe nails trimmed and been wormed.  The day has given Jean and Stuart more confidence and lots of information to enable them to enjoy the boys and cater for their every need.

 In true Wynfor style he decided that he didn't want to be in the photo and went to try and see the girls instead!

Shortly after Jean and Stuart left Carol and Dave popped over with Dave's children and grandchildren to meet the alpacas.  Willow and Ursula took full advantage of willing hand feeders and had more than their fair share of tea!

Talking of tea, Carol kindly bought us over a goodie bag for our tea - aren't we lucky. 

Hill update

After the morning feed rounds we set about cutting the big boys toe nails, they were all well behaved, even Legend who let me cut all eight nails with his feet on the floor.  This was a new tactic I thought I'd try with him as he is a bet (or rather a lot) of a pest when it comes to toe nails.  It worked very well with only one little dancing moment where he didn't want to keep his foot still.

We have left all the little boys as we have visitors tomorrow coming for some husbandry experience.

Next on the job list was a spot of grass cutting, I think it is going to take some time, you may just spot me in the distance.

Am I nearly done yet..... 

The ground work is coming on, it seems to be taking ages but there is a lot to do, this is where the house and shed will be going in time.

Spit or sit?!

I spoke to soon, Dave has found his voice!  He has been cock-a-doodle-do ing this morning, only a couple of times though and he didn't get into a competition with the neighbours so no complaints yet.

I had some spit offs to do today, and the only girl to sit was Princess Mallika, who was Sandstorms first conquest a couple of weeks ago.  You may recall reading his first go was a bit on and off so it didn't really come as any surprise.  Imala who was his second attempt and a much more competent mating seems to be holding which is good news.

Alan delivered me a belated birthday present today, one of his top quality extra large bales of hay.  It took Oonagh about two seconds flat to spot it and as soon as he moved the forks out of the bale she was there, no need to put it in the hay hecks for Oonagh!

I popped over to see Carol and Dave (carding Dave, not cockerel Dave), she has been busy knitting, replenishing stock following on from the weekend sales.  Dave and I checked through his rather large pile of fleece to be carded  (no rush Dave I already have a pile here to spin) and then we discussed his next project!

Meet Dave

I've been promising to introduce our latest additions for a few nights now and failed.  Not tonight, here they are; meet Dave and his ladies.

They are cream crested legbars and are producing us some fantastic blue eggs.  Dave is the first cockerel we've ever had, he is a real stunner and quite friendly, so far he is also very quiet.

My parents have headed home today, mum has a list of knitting to get done before she comes back next week so I'm sure dad will be cracking the whip for me.  He didn't get off scott free as I sent him home with a little job too!!!

Brinley is now eating hard feed, that now means that all the cria are eating Camelibra which is good, I've never had a complete bunch of cria eating herd feed so quickly.