Painted/not painted!

Yet another busy day and an early start.  Sam was in charge of everything here whilst Carl and I headed out to do a little assisting with foot trimming, condition scoring and handling - great fun and we were priveliged to  see a couple of delightful young cria.  When we got back we checked over the boys and sprayed the sheep against fly strike.  This was easy with Sam's in the race but for mine it meant creeping up on them with the gun behind my back and catching them unawares.

We have just had a mammoth downpour, which could not have come at a worst time as Carl had just put the first coat on the upstairs wall of the house - outside!  It has now all washed off into the water collection trough, not good and he is stomping a bit.  We also had a lot of rain in the night but none of the alpacas are any the worse for it and it has done the grass a great deal of good.  Jed is settling in well and spent a great deal of the afternoon sunbathing.  He was a bit wary of his feed trough which was obviously not what he is used to, but after a lot of sniffing and backing away, he tucked in and cleared the lot.  Watched closely by Harry and Dylan!

Windy out there tonight!

I have recovered from yesterday but have not yet driven the new car.  It is supposed to be green but looks more a dark blue to me.  The Jalopy had his last trip out today and I discovered it has a petrol warning light which flashes!  I didn't know that so all those times I thought I was almost out of petrol, I couldn't have been - remarkable and I shall be a little sad to see him go.

Greeves is still not into Camelibra, or oats, or peas, or sugar beet - just hay - but I did infiltrate a little Alfalfa into his hay and he did eat that.  Tomorrow is his weighing day and I am really hoping we at least do not see another weight loss.  I had a little sit with him and Bert this afternoon.  It was blowing a gale but quite warm (I had done a lot of poo collecting).  Bert was in the mood for a neck rub and I know for lots of alpacas that might mean she has lost her pregnancy but not necessarily for Bert.  When Bert isn't pregnant she snuggles up to you, wants you to hug her and is generally sloppy.  A pregnant Bert firmly refuses to have her feet done and only has a neck rub and a sit down next to you on her terms.  Lina is another matter and I think it is highly unlikely she is pregnant as we had a long neck rub and chat today which is not really pregnant Lina behaviour!

None of the Mums are missing their babies at all and Greeves now seems very settled with Sherbert and Islay being his particular favourite Aunts.  Sunbeam and the two boys are also fine but Velocette is still crying and following me around.

All the new alpacas are doing well.  Cassie keeps a close eye on me and always gives me a look as if she has a 'cunning plan' in mind.

Dylan has now gone back to his bowl after preferring the trough yesterday - Harry is back in the trough!  They were all having a bit of a grumble this evening - except for Dylan!

Ooh! La! La!

It has felt bitterly cold today and has not been helped by having to do the VAT return.  That means sitting down at the computer for ages and I don't like putting the heating on during the day.  I was very glad to pop down to Mum's and warm up while waiting for the library van (where I spotted an alpaca scarf being worn!).  On the subject of knitwear, my French customer sent me a photo of her daughter wearing the alpaca scarf and gloves she bought - she is so beautiful!

She has allowed me to put the photo on the blog and I am so proud to have some of our alpaca being worn in France - and by such a glamorous young lady!

The alpacas are all fine but Dylan is not quite so keen on his bowl now.  I think he has realised there is more in the trough and that he can easily push everyone else out of the way.  Harry was pushed out and immediately staked a claim to Dylan's bowl while the weanlings looked on.  Spike and Alf decided they would far rather I fed them by hand!

Greeves has now stopped crying for Mum but Sunbeam and Velocette are really moaning!

The Morning After

Greeves survived a night without Mum but I did worry about him!  He is not exactly crying, just whimpering a bit.

He seems okay as long as I keep taking him fresh hay!  Oddly, the girls he is with are generally very tolerant of him.  I haven't seen them push him away or spit at him once - they are doing both to the other two weanlings!  Velocette and Sunbeam are both making more of a fuss than they did yesterday - I think the novelty of being without Mum has worn off!

Dylan is very much part of the gang and is incredibly sweet.  This morning he came up to the fence to give me a kiss.  He holds his own with the others though.  Harry and Alf both tried to muscle in on his bowl this evening but he was having none of that and soon saw  them off!

When I went in to clean the boys paddock this morning some of the chickens followed me - both Dylan and Harry did not know what to make of these intruders!

Cassie and Zara are both fine.  Cassie was very pleased with her lunchtime carrots and happily ate them from my hand.  Zara was a bit more timid but enjoyed one from the ground - she is getting more confident though and came and sniffed me over the fence this evening.

Back at the house the cats are all now fine.  Mitzy is definitely not keen on outside anymore, since getting lost she runs away if the back door opens.

Reddingvale Arrives!

Today did not start quite as early as planned.  Carl was given a bottle of wine for his birthday and, at ten o'clock last night, he suddenly remembered it.  One glass led to another and we ended up rather late to bed!

Despite this we had all the injections, drenches, foot trimming and body scoring done by 12, apart from Dude who has to wait until tomorrow.  The new injection method failed dismally, but not due to the method,  rather it was a slight mis measurement problem so we will try again tomorrow and I'll tell you about it then.

Everyone was very well behaved, apart from Bert who was highly hormonal.  Emily, Carolyn and Prue were the stars, barely needing to be held and lifting their feet perfectly.  Lina and Islay are always little monsters so they had theirs trimmed on the ground as usual, which they are fine with, so no dramas there.  In fact the only drama was when I broke the drench gun by letting it fall off the fence!

We then weaned Barnaby and Barry.  This went remarkably well - their Mum's haven't looked for them once and they haven't looked for their Mum's - lets hope it stays that way!

Then . . the big excitement!  Viv and Andy from Reddingvale came with Cassie, Zara and Dylan in a very smart stock trailer.  Dylan came out on his halter and walked beautifully into his paddock with Harry, Spike, Alf, Barry and Barnaby.  He is quite a cool young man and sauntered over as if he owned the place (after Andy had given him a manly cuddle!).  Zara and Cassie were straight off to explore their paddock - as Andy said, rather a higher altitude than they are used to.  Lina's crowd came over to investigate - I think Cassie will soon become the boss when they get together!  It was then back to the house for a coffee - no faints or trouser incidents so the state of the carpets was immaterial.  I forgot to ask if they needed the toilet and they were probably to afraid of what they might find in there to ask, which was a shame as they were specially cleaned and smelt very lovely with a musky pine fragrance, brand new soap (I'll go and whip that back into the packets for the next visitors) and clean towels.  Somehow Carl lured Andy into his shed, which I had told him firmly he must not do (he gets carried away talking about his bike).

After Andy and Viv had gone I went over to feed.  Viv had left Dylan, Cassie and Zara's bowls - all individually named.  I really did not see this working but, it did!  Despite Cassie's bowl being the furthest away from where she was she went straight over to it and Zara to hers.  Very well behaved, intelligent alpacas who can obviously recognise colours and read! 

Next up was Dylan.  I put down the troughs and the others rushed over.  Dylan lagged behind a bit, obviously way too refined for a trough made out of drainpipe, and when I put his named bowl down he came straight over and ate it all up!  Barry Norton tried to get his nose in but Dylan was having none of that!  Not a very good photo of him - I'll do some better ones tomorrow!

All three seem very settled - looking good!