Photos

Well here are  a couple of photos of our little boys as promised.

This is Toad Hall Simba in the dust bath

Here is Toad Hall Blue Ember with her latest offspring Toad Hall Timon

and not to be left out

Toad Hall Jolly Ruffo had to come and check out what was going on!

Three superb young males by Wellground Scriptwriter all with excellent genetics

Midsummer - ALREADY

The longest day has come and gone, midsummers day the same.  It doesn't seem that long ago we were struggling with the cold.  However, the last few days certainly haven't been cold.

Toad Hall Simba, our poorly chap has been progressing slowly.  Rosemary kindly sent me an usual teat which helped in a different sort of way - his reaction was 'I'm not sure I like this, I'll give it a go but I will try harder if you give me the other one back!!'  We have now reverted to the 'normal' teat and he seems quite happy.

There is supposed to be a photo here - however the camera has gone walkabout with Sid so I will be back later.

Yesterday as morning dawned I looked out in the most horrendous downpour to see 'Toad Hall Blue Ember' out in the field - the other girls were all sensibly in the shelter.  This is unsual for Blue so I watched and within minutes she produced a healthy little boy.  Waterproofs on and off we go to get them in the dry - Blue is very, very protective and did not welcome the interference but we put them in the adjoining shelter, produced the necessary spray and left them alone.  She has not let us near enough to weigh him yet.  He was up and feeding in a very short time and spent the day in the sunshine.  We have named him 'Toad Hall Timon'  Timon is greek for 'respect' and he does stand out with his mum looking around and obviously knows he is something special as well as the name linking in with the name Simba .

Problems with Internet

We are still here but our internet connection has been exceedingly slow.  The phone line was out for a week although we had very, very slow internet.  Hopefully both of those problems now seem to be improving.

Unfortunately I have had problems with 'Blogger'.  I have called it other names but they are not printable.  I read that others have had the same problem and I kept trying different things and hooray I thought I had cracked it - for all of ten minutes as we were then back to being unable comment, unable to blog or upload photos.

At the moment it is being kind to me so just to let you know that our little chap is growing steadily. He lost quite a bit of weight but hopefully has now turned the corner.  He looks well and at last is playing and pronking about.  Unfortunately he still won't suck the bottle, he lets his mouth fill with milk and then swallows and the vet does say that he really should suck to enable the milk to do the most good.  However no matter how small a teat hole we use he just stands and lets his mouth fill so we are just grateful that he does get the milk.  I have decided to call him 'Simba' as he is now fighting back like a little Lion!

Hopefully some pictures next time (whenever Blogger will let me)

Welcome Rain

Last Thursday we had downpours and again on Monday - both of which were very welcome.  It has been dry for weeks, our little brook that runs alongside the property is almost dry and down to a trickle.
Although Monday's rain was very welcome the timing was not - Monday was shearing day.  Sam, Shannon & Jason from Shearco arrived wondering what was in store but they didn't know that the barn had been put up and all the animals were nice and dry as they had been shut in overnight - thank goodness.  I did feel sorry for the alpacas though when they were sent out without their coats on afterwards but they didn't seem to mind.

Our new cria (still not named) is not thriving.  We had hoped as Debbie and Hilary mentioned that Gem might accept him in the end.  Unfortunately she hasn't.  He has gained weight but is definitely under par.  Yesterday he had a plasma transplant and hopefully he will perk up soon.  It seems that despite having colostrum from Gem and also giving him some by bottle feeding it he has 'rattle belly'.  At birth he sucked well but now doesn't make much effort.  Hopefully after all his medication he will respond as he is a super chap.

The blue tits in the box with the camera are growing well, 6 hatched out of the 7 eggs but unfortunately 1 is dead in the nest now.  Hopefully the rest will survive.