Our first new arrival

At 8.50am Inky gave birth to a health, beautiful cria. We are all over excited.

Inky is being wonderful and has introduced her new baby girl to everyone. the other alpacas have all been carefully checking out Inky and her baby and one of the adults (the oldest of the group) made sure the youngsters did not interfere with the new born until she was up and about.

All are in the paddock next to the field so we can keep an eye on everything for a few hours, but so far so good. the weather is warm and not wet, and being born at this time gives baby time to feed dry off and be strong enough to cope with the nght night - clever alpacas.

I just read some of the blogs of note and realise my blogs are so boring at the moment, people really put a lot of effort into them. anyway maybe I will catch up to their standard one day.

Thunderstorm last night after a very heavy (weatherwise) day. the girls decided to sit it out outside! they do not seem to be spooked by anything. needless to say this morning they are soaking and dirty again. Dogs did not bother too much either, living here is chilling everyone out. The hayfever not good though, forgot we not near the sea now so suffering more than before.

The new car saga rolls on. We decided on a volkswagen estate until got told it will be another 6 weeks when it was due this week! So back to the beginning and went to look at a volvo estate again and decided to order, which will be here earlier saving lots of fuel money we hope -very important for us poor smallholders. While test driving the car we came across another lovely place called Doddington Hall - I think. Great farm shop where we stopped for a coffee and ended buying stuff! The hall looks lovely and somewhere to bring relatives when they visit.

this week really going to get cracking on the wildflower business - really excited about it. Also maybe this time next week we will have another little alpaca to add to our herd.

time has whizzed by again. Lots happening. Inky is only one week away from her due date and I keep watching her with binos. It's been amazingly wet and stormy the last few days too so do not want baby alpaca to be born in wet. One of the crias had to have a visit from vet for treatment for something similar to 'mud fever' in horses. She looking OK now, but we had to wash her legs every day so it got us and them a bit more used to handling. Did not even get kicked this time. Also had the grazing field topped again, the rain makes the grass grow quicker than the girls can eat it, plus it will control the thistles! More expense though so need to get cracking on either getting more animals to eat it or change the fences around so it can be cut for hay.

Really starting to formulate some plans for land and development of business with the FWAG man coming out in July and the woodland trust in a week or so.

We have decided we need a tractor now as quite a few things would be easier with one, topping, mowing, carrying stuff etc. So I have asked some friends of mine to advise about what to steer clear of so we can hopefully get a good one, that will not break down too much.

the fleeces we sent for processing should be ready soon, hopefully, and we need to get photos done for the web site and get some things sold.

Daughter returning from Oz next month and soooo looking forward to it. I know she sad to leave but no doubt she will be planning her next trip as soon as she gets back.

Saw an item o n news last night about some rescue ponies that need a home - must try to control myself!!!!!! They were sweet though.

Well we have found a shearer although he can not fit us in until July after the babies are born, but at least we have met him and he lives close by. He came and gave the girls a pedicure and is gentle and caring so much relieve all round. We got a few tips on how to do a few other things too.

The mini heat wave is over and as it is Bank holiday it is of course raining. We did need the rain as the ground is very dry and the grass in the meadow we want to cut for hay have not grown that much yet. Still I am sure there is time. We still have to tackle the thistle problem and it is getting worse. We have been told they just need to be cut before they flower and that will help, but how we re-establish the grasses, we have still to find a way we feel comfortable with. Visitors are just going to have to help dig them out!

Great excitement as the web site was sent by the designer for us to try out and very cute it is. Not sure about the colour still, but will try it out on a few people to see their reaction. Now we just have to have some products to sell and get some lovely pictures.

WE may well diversify into wild flower/plant selling as when we have tried to buy them for the garden there are none around in the normal laces, you have to send off for them, but it would be great to start with plants bought in then start growing our own. Will investigating that this week.

Heatwave

I do hope this is not our summer and just a preview to what we can expect. The last few days have been hot hot hot! Great for us but not for our girls who have still not been sheared. We spend time pouring water all over the grass near the trough for them to lie in, under the fruit trees, which they seem to like. Hope the shearer comes soon or we will be nervous wrecks.

Discovered, yesterday, from the neighbours that this house had a large orchard in the fields behind and it got me thinking that maybe we should replant an orchard and grow fruit. A bit long term but am hoping we will be here for a long time. Will ask FWAG man when he comes if ground suitable now.

Yesterday spent most of time in garden potting things on and replanting pot bound roses etc. Dogs were in garden until quite late especially Tilly who appeared late on when all others were inside from the pond area soaking wet, having dropped her ball in the water again. this time it is lost for good and she is distraught that we have not been able to get it for her, lets hope she forgets about it when we get her a new one!

Bit of crisis night before, office window was wide open and both cats had disappeared. Not too much of a problem if window facing back as large garden no road, but it doesn't , so two cats out, strange place - no road craft!! the wild cat who used to live outside decided to come when called, the other large black one who goes out decided to hide, not difficult in the dark! After about 20mins he too decided it was a little bit scary and came back hissing and yowling, but wanting a cuddle. He is usually so lazy.

also bio tank aerator pump has stopped working so electrician been and said it is a switch that has worn out and he will try and order a new one, if not it will be new pump! Hope it does not take too long to put right, sure it not good! so will be trying to use loos when out to save using the tank!!

Trimming and Kicking

Forgot to mention the incident with the girls on Wednesday evening. Had to give Inky her lamivac which has to be injected into the skin, this means trying to find some loose skin on an alpaca - well there isn't any! Chris was holding her still ,after he had been spat and squealed at several times. I was desperately trying to find any skin under all the fibre, let alone loose skin conscious that Chris could only hold her for so long. Anyway finally got it done, hopefully in the right place, and Inky was eating her tea as soon as we had let her go, so no stress on her part, which is what we worry about the most - the same could not be said for the humans.
To add to our discomfort we decided to trim one of the crias around the rear end as looking a bit messy with straw etc. so Chris caught her, he's stronger than me, I bent down to trim the offending area and whollop, kicked straight in the throat making me choke and Chris let go of cria who ran off a little way then turned and looked at me as if to say 'that'll teach you not to stand there'. She's right of course, will be more careful next time.
Honestly animals are so ungrateful - why do we do it?

Well thats me thoroughly told by my daughter! (you need to read her comments) She phoned from Oz this morning and told me to read them! Just to put a balanced view on things, I do know she is working hard and doing really well with her assignments etc.too and am very proud of her - must take after her Mother!!
It's Thursday again already, market day so will be trundling off to get the bread, and today I need compost for the tomato plants which finally seem to be growing - a little bit of warm weather yesterday has set everything off.
Sophie arrived late last night on her way to visit her friend who has just given birth to a little girl. It was a flying visit as she left lunch time today to get there for visiting time, but lovely to see her. Her dog thought he was dreaming and kept licking her, probably to see if she was real. I kept him in the garden all afternoon so he got so tired and would sleep, so he probably did think he had been dreaming.
The cria kit arrived, which is a little bag full of vital things we may need when the alpacas give birth, interesting, and a little scary, sooooo hope we do not need to use all of it. I have been wondering what it's called when they give birth, you know like calving, lambing etc and yesterday I heard that some people refer to it as 'criating' which sounds like 'creating' I think that is perfick, so thats what we will say.
Have ordered the pour on stuff for girls to keep off the flys etc. which is essential, and more so if it gets hot and they have not been sheared. Still no luck getting a shearer before July so we will be rigging up hose pipes to keep the girls cool if it gets too hot.
Spent 4 hours digging out thistles during the afternoon and have got the blisters to show for it , but quite satisfying in a strange sort of way.
Chris spotted 3 egrets in the farthest field, which we were both surprised about as thought they only inhabited coastal areas. Also saw a sparrowhawk being chased off by a blackbird, a magpie then chased it out of the trees where it had gone to hide, forcing it to fly into rook territory which meant it got chased by them too. Poor thing it had only been sitting in the field having a rest, not even flying about!