Thank Goodness for Alpacas!!!

A long overdue but very short blog.  Unfortunately due to circumstances which are not farm related life has been extremely stressful over the last few months - BUT - there is now light at the end of the tunnel.

Decisions in life can be tough but when they are done with the best of intentions hopefully all will be well.

The thing that has kept us going is being able to sit and watch our lovely animals.  Unfortunately fleeces haven't been sorted, fleece shows not entered, blogs not read or written but hopefully by October life should return to some sort of pattern.

So basically - no news, all is well with the Alpacas and life in general, just one or two hurdles to overcome.

Darby & Joan

Darby and Joan is defined  as "a happily married couple who lead a placid, uneventful life. 
Well I suppose we are in a way but life is far from placid - it's just hectic.

I've just realised it is a month since I posted a blog and I have missed out on so many happenings on other breeders blogs - I do read them but say to myself I must go back and comment but the time has gone (again).  It took me a long time to log in as I had forgotten my password!!!!!!!

The alpacas are well,  our little Simba is not so little now and runs over for his milk and actually sucks the bottle properly which makes life much easier - unlike the haymaking.

Mowing went well, turning went well, baling went well -  help organised for Friday night to get the bales in BUT the rain came on Friday morning.  I was not available to help so Sid did what he could on his own before they got too wet but had to leave over 200 out as the rain got heavier.  We both had a go yesterday when they had all dried out but it is not a job for Darby and Joan on their own and no help available.  Hopefully all will be sorted today before the expected rain tonight.

The paddocks look like desserts as the alpacas look for any green areas left.

Garment sales have been good at the recent sales and whenever I attempt to update the web page I run out of stock - good to the products are appreciated.  More knitting tonight and I really need to sort out the fleeces for showing.

Hopefully my computer will soon be more user friendly - it doesn't like tea spilt on it and makes things very difficult with unco-operative keys and a mouse!!!

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.

It happens in Three's

Busy, busy, busy.

Firstly the pheasant eggs hatched and off went mum with her chicks (Sorry no pics)

Then the blue tit eggs hatched.

Not the best of pictures but this is when the eggs started to hatch, in the end six of the seven eggs hatched and both parents are looking after them well.

Unlike our next birth,

This is our first cria of 2011 - a very, healthy and strong male from Toad Hall Ice Gem.

Gem had looked uncomfortable for days and when checking at 5am on Friday morning it was obvious she was in labour but having problems.  The weather was atrocious but there was no choice but to intervene.

With much assistance from Sid she gave birth to this lovely, very big cria.  He weighed in at 10.4kg.  Luckily he was fit and healthy and Gem soon seemed to recover from her ordeal and before too long he was able to have that first vital feed of colostrum.

However, that is where Gem's participation ended.  She has totally rejected him.  We have put them in a small pen of their own by the other animals in the hope that she would accept him.  Unfortunately every time he goes for a feed she goes down.  We have tried encouraging her, lifting her (which is exhuasting) but there is no way she will  let him at the valuable milk supply.  Luckily he is a superb bottle feeder, so Sid and I are bleary eyed as we take it in turns to feed him round the clock.

So much for day time births in fine weather - it seems many breeders have had early and late births this year, just goes to show there is no text book birth!!!