Bottom Problems

We have had a lot of diarrhoea here today - well, Greeves has - the rest of us have been okay! I thought he was dead mid morning as he didn't raise his head or even twitch when I lifted his head. Luckily, it was a false alarm but I really wasn't very hopeful we would get through another day. We have been on hourly sips which has been hard work but this evening the diarrhoea has stopped and he has miraculously gained 100g! He is nibbling blades of grass and standing up at the moment which is a great relief. Lina has been so good. I go over to Greeves in the field and she comes and joins me. Then I have to hold his head and hold the bottle in his mouth while I squirt it down his throat. She sniffs him and hums, sometimes, if I am sitting down to do it where he will not stand, she lies down beside us. When we have finished she has a neck rub and I try to get him to drink from her. It is all very amicable so tonight I asked Sam to come with me and have a go as I needed to pop out for an hour tomorrow. I told him to follow me up to the baby but wait behind until I had got him going on the bottle. He did this and then I said, "Come on over then Sam." At that point all hell broke loose! I couldn't believe it! Lina started to spit at him, shriek - he wasn't even near Greeves! Only me for bottle feeding then!!

Barnaby Rudge and Velocette had been trying to play with Greeves but they have given up at the moment - I think they find him rather boring!


I had a cuddle with Bert after that and she is now at the ridiculously friendly stage - staring up into my eyes and wanting a kiss. She is even starting to get jealous when Little Star comes over to say hello, chasing her away - got to arrange her mating as a matter of urgency! We also had a good look at Sherbert's eye which we are very worried about. I think something must have gone in her eye and it is looking very cloudy. It doesn't seem to hurt her but I have flushed it with a great quantity of water in case there is anything still in there - hope she will be okay.

A slightly perked up Greeves

Little Greeves was really flat this morning. I had put his coat on as it was beginning to rain last night so he was dry on his back but he wouldn't stand or raise his head to feed. I struggled to get a bit of milk into him and then decided to give him a teaspoon of glucose mixed in a bottle. Gradually, over the day, he has perked up a bit and this evening I am celebrating a weight gain of 200g. Here he is, looking a little more perky.



We are also celebrating Dude's performances so far! He is a bit fed up tonight and a little bit feisty as no one welcomed his advances. The four we have mated so far all spat off for the second time - very convincingly! Islay still is not interested and Emily we are leaving to tomorrow. I am going to give Lina another week as I want to get the baby gaining weight properly first. The Suri's are desperate to get at him but that is not going to happen!

Carl and Sam have dabbled with a little fencing today - they were not going to do anymore yet but we are getting so short of grass in the current paddocks we need to create another secure one. Amber, the dog, has to go on her bailer twine lead when the tractor starts up or she tries to run back to the house!



In fact, it has been all go all day - except for the cats who have been asleep in what was once a flower border - Smudge, Cruella and lack of time have put paid to all that!

A visit from Easter-wood Alpaca Stud

A visit today from Jeff and Sheila of Easterwood Alpaca Stud. We had been trying to arrange a visit for ages but births meant none of us could leave things. Luckily, they had a break in their births and with a farm sitter on hand over they came. It was really lovely to meet up and we had long alpaca conversations whilst doing a tour. Most surprising was Lina who appeared to fall madly in love with Jeff. I had warned Sheila that Lina was a bit protective and then over strolled Jeff and she was straight over for a neck rub! Bert, of course, wasn't being left out and wanted a cuddle - well most of them did! Jeff was attracting the girls like a magnet! We had a good talk about fleece and processing, future plans and heard about an excellent crop of cria they have had this year - looking forward to visiting soon to see them!

Sadly, that can't happen yet as Lina's baby is still not out of the woods. He has stopped putting on weight and is now shrinking - from a 7.9kg high he is now back down to 7.4kg despite the bottles. However, I have decided he must have a name now as I can't keep calling him Lina's baby - so he has been named Greeves. I am getting to know him exceedingly well (he was almost called Mr Kipling but Carl vetoed that!) as I am now having to up the feeding frequency as he cannot take too much at a time - he just spits it all back up again.

Carl is on mad barometer checking now the mower is mended - he's champing at the bit to get the next crop of hay and keeps looking gloomy and muttering, "It's going to be a hard winter, hay is going to be in short supply . . . " The fact that we have around 600 bales in the barn is forgotten. He and Sam seem to have teemed up on a 'We need a new tractor campaign' and I keep being shown pictures of 'cool' tractors and told about the delights of 'shuttle gears' and the merits of 'Valpadene' - I may have got that all wrong as, to be honest, they mention the word tractor and I shut down!

Mule Accident

Last night, Carl was run over by the Mule - I had told him before not to turn round and bend over in front of anything that is moving towards him. I have to say that it was not me that ran him over and the person who did was very sorry but it wasn't his fault anyway. Carl is fine but does has some rather nice bruising which might mean he will take more care. I have given him some Health and Safety advise but his response to that is unprintable.

Sam returned from his camping trip this evening after having a very good time. He seems to have eaten a vast quantity of battered Mars Bars which are, apparently, delicious. He also smells despite having sampled the delights of Milborne Port public toilets.

We have had a very busy day cleaning paddocks, Carl has today and tomorrow off, doing toenails which appear to be growing at an excessive rate and giving Dude a second shearing. His fleece was so dense and he was beginning to find it difficult to see out so we thought best do him again now to give it time to grow before winter. He still has some more matings to do so we need him lively and not overheating! Here he is after Carl had finished him and he had sampled the delights of his rolling pit (Dude rolling that is and not Carl) - and Dude was a very good boy!

Waterloo!

The title has nothing to do with anything - I just can't get that song out of my head this evening! My headache gave me a rather disturbed night and I blame it all on that and my dream of a Tipsy Bookmaker!
We have just weighed Lina's baby and I can't believe it - he is 7.9kg - a gain of 0.8 in a day! I have been going like mad with the bottles - he still will not suck much but is beginning to have tentative goes. I wait until he has drunk from Lina first and he always goes straight back to her afterwards. She has now got used to me giving him a bottle next to her so it has been working fine - just hope the weight keeps going on. I think we are almost ready to name him now!
I fear Smudge, the cat, had a bit of a near miss on the road this morning. I heard a squal of brakes and a few seconds after Smudge came hurtling through the cat flap. He's been asleep upstairs since then so maybe it scared him a bit and, hopefully, he will be a bit more careful!

Bert and Me

My tooth has settled quite nicely but I have had a nasty headache today. The dentist phoned this morning to check I was okay which I thought was exceedingly nice of him. Lina's baby has put on no more weight today but he hasn't lost any and he is more lively. He actually had a go at the Camelibra tonight - a little young for that! The flies have been really attacking his eyes so he looks a little bedraggled.

I think Bert is ready for mating already! She is always a bit cuddly but is now getting ridiculous! Sadly, this photo also shows my 'new' haircut which, as can be seen, is now virtually the same as it always was. It did look different when I came out of the hairdressers! Bert's eyes are bald - they always have been. She had a bad case of mites before we had her and, despite lots of improvement, we have never succeeded in getting the hair to come back on her eyelids.

Luckily the picture doesn't show my legs as it has been so humid, I had my shorts on and Carl has taken to calling me Stanley Matthews as they appear to be very wide and long in the legs - ballooning about in the manner of Eric Morecambe! And it is the body warmer that makes me look such a strange shape (I hope!).

Like Lina's baby, the flies have been getting on Bert's eyes and what she likes most is having her eyes covered up and rubbed! She stands there for ages like this making little soft sighs!

Sam is now camping - minus a tent, sleeping bag, torch or even food! I tried to get him to pack proper things like apples, spare underwear, toothbrush . . .

My tooth

Today was the dentist. Not good! My old dentist had broken a root filling as he put it in and this new one was trying to dig it out - he couldn't. I ended up having to have the tooth out and it was a big one and it was horrid. When it was out you could see the filling sticking out of the bottom of the root. I always feel I am going to drown when I am at the dentist and although he assured me I wouldn't, the picture of a tropical beach on the ceiling was not very reassuring. The rest of the day I ambled around feeling very sorry for myself. Sam must have felt sorry for me to as he poo picked the boys field without being asked. The dentist said not to lie down for a few hours so I managed the rest of the waste and readjusted Barry's hernia contraption. The rest of the time was taken up with trying to get Lina's baby to drink. I didn't think I had done too well but tonight he weighed 7.1kg which is, finally, 100g more than he was just after birth.

Sam is away camping now for a couple of nights - which seems odd as he doesn't have a tent! Mind you, the size of his army rucksack, I should think he could sleep in that!