Cuddling Bert

I am very pleased to say that Lina's baby put on 200g today! I have managed to get 500g of milk into her so far but it has not been easy as he really resists the bottle and I have had to squeeze it down his throat but it has got to be done. Lina has been very good about it all and just grazes next to me while I grapple with her baby. She wasn't keen on Carl weighing him - I don't do that as I want her to accept me so I can feed on my own.
The SFS and friend came over this afternoon and Velocette was a little charmer - coming over to say hello and doing her cute look. We were in the middle of matings and sorting out a barbed wire alternative to electric fence on Dude's pen. Electric fencing is not working well for us as things keep blowing against it or growing up to it and shorting it out. Nothing appears to be getting in but we wanted a second line of defence so have had to move to plan B despite the gates looking like something out of Colditz!

It has worked well, going for a touch of colour amongst the cria this year as Barnaby Rudge and Barry Norton look really attractive in the paddock. We were going to look towards adding some black to the herd but now I think we might consider brown as well. Barnaby is only ever going to be pet quality (his mother is our blue eyed white) but his fleece is really lovely with a tight crimpy curl. The challenge is now to make the right breeding decision for Prue - it will have to be a dark, solid colour - and then hope for a girl we can continue to breed up from.

Bert has stopped looking for her baby and is now in her intensely loving mood. She came up to the gate this evening for a real cuddle, snuggling her face into me and sighing with great appreciation as I rubbed her eyelids - something she really enjoys! Bert, as I have said before, is my very favourite alpaca. She was one of the first imports from Peru and, I think, probably took a while to get over that. When they were sheared a couple of years ago by Tim Hey he still remembered her from when he selected her in Peru. She has had a mite problem in the past and, to look at, has some rough patches but, despite all that - if you look at her closely - you can see she is something special and you can see why she was picked to come here. I always knew Bert was capable of producing something very special and she did this year - hopefully, we'll do it again soon!