Where next?!

The blogs have been getting increasingly sporadic of late and this is mainly due to a lot of difficult decisions being mad here and the necessity of being away from the house quite a lot!

Normal service will be resumed at some point but in the mean time please forgive my lack of regularity.  I think a lot of people realise by now that our house is up for sale and we are making difficult decisions about where we are going and what we are doing - all made even more difficult by Sam and his future.

We have also had to make a difficult decision regarding our land - and a decision we never thought we would be making - but life has very funny turns within it.  It should be a time of great excitement and plan making but sadly it is rather too difficult for that!  No doubt we will get through somehow and the right thing will happen but right now we feel rather like we are herding cats as one bit comes together another bit of the jigsaw flies off over the hedge (rather a lot of mixed metaphors in there!).  I have to say we are also pretty heartbroken at - possibly - leaving all the good friends we have made here not to say panicy about being homeless - with 3 chickens, 34 alpacas, 1 dog and two cats - not to mention 20 sheep!

It only remains to be said that we are pretty clueless about where we will end up now!   So - updates will follow at some point!

The alpacas are surviving all this trauma - in fact, despite me constantly telling them, they are completely oblivious.  All are doing well.  Lina's baby has put on no weight whatsoever in the last two weeks  but is lively and totally refuses the bottle.  Trouble, the Bert and Samson baby, is putting on weight steadily despite having very little of her bottle now.

From the left - Yossarian, The Slink, Trouble, String and Striker (Carolyn's baby and real name - Strikingly Cool).  He is a real little monster and very strong but lovely with it - here he is posing!

Sam continues to do his 'sort of' job' over at Stalbridge Weston - he loves it but I am not sure there is enough work there for anything anymore permanent.  He also makes frequent forays to Milborne Port which he now feels is one of the best places on this earth!  When we went over to pick him up the other day I made the acquaintance of a lovely young man who must be one of the leading authorities on cars - he was even able to tell me which car I had now - something I was unsure of - it is an escort and a very nice one with one drawback.  It has heat shield things under it and I have a tendency to bend them which makes them clatter if I don't change gear at precisely the right moment.  Carl says I am a fool to take it down the track in the field.

Ashton Lane came to visit at one point and as rain was threatening we set up a cosy cafe in the field (and yes those are the fleeces waiting to be sorted for the GWR show!). 

Luckily the luxury accommodation was not required but I did get the chance to show Carol and Peter Yossarian - sired by their Legacy.  He soon gave up scratchign and started to show of his baby orgling and jumping everything skills.

And finally - Greeves - doing well but refusing to look at the camera!

Little Worry Day

Not big worry day - that is end of September - but little worry day as today was the day Sam got his GCSE results.  We were not hoping for great things as, although he tries, he struggles with reading and writing due to his dyslexia.  He did as well as we hoped and is pleased.  He got Cs for Science and maths, passed his ICT and got his diploma for the two day a week agriculture course he has been doing at Kingston Maurward.  A D in English but they have sent the paper for remarking a he only missed the C by  mark - if he gets that he will have done very well indeed!

So - that drama over - he is up in one of the the lofts sorting out the mess of old toys he appears to have created over the years which we knew nothing about!

Alpacas are doing fine apart form Lina's baby - Accidently Cool or Axle to his friends - he is still 9kg at 2 and a half weeks - he was 8kg at birth.  Top up bottles are not going to well as he is spitting it out now after a promising start last week.  At least Lina is being a little angel this year and makes no fuss over feeding or weighing.

Cria photos

A busy day of knitting today and another pair of gloves almost complete!  Not sure I am that pleased with the patten I made up though - I prefer them a bit more lacy really.

I managed to get a few photos of the babies in between times.  String (Pretty Cool) discovered thistles and did not like them very much!  Yossarian is getting difficult to photograph as he moves so quickly and then gets too close or too far away - he is at the front and you can only see his side!

Tilbo's leg is a bit wonky but does not slow him down at all, or prevent him from posing.

Lina's baby is still a bit of a concern and he looks tiny compared with all the rest but he is very alert and runs around with the others.

Finally, Striker (Strikingly Cool) Carolyn's baby who is gaining weight well and enjoys the company of Yossarian - not sure if that is a good thing or not!  He's the one looking at the camera.

Now tomorrow we have a slightly worrying day - I won't tell you what it is about until tomorrow - and the I may go completely quiet on that subject if the news is not good!!

Me again (Sam)

Hi everyone :)
It's been a long time since I have written a blog and becouse I have a new herd (still don't know a name for it) I thought I'd better tell everyone about it. I have two alpacas now and they are both female. The first member of my herd is Sapphire that I got from Warren Field Alpacas. She is a very lovely brown alpaca but unfortunatly isn't pregnent. she has a lovely temperament and  likes to be in charge.  I have tried mating her to Dylan but Mum says he is too young so we are going to try her with Dude today.  I might get a multi - I don't know!

My other alpaca is Bianca that we went and got yesterday from Redingvale Alpacas. She is a very calm alpaca and is starting to settle in now. She is also not pregnant but this maybe becouse of a SMALL weight problem so she has gone in a paddock with not too much grass to try and over come the problem. Bianca is solid white and will hopefully be mated to Cool Dude and we will have to wait and see what she produces.  I am going to try putting a halter on Bianca and taking her for walks round the paddock as she only moves around to get to new grass so I think she may need more excercise.

I will write another blog soon!!  This one has taken me ages as the spell check wouldn't work.

Peter's Plums

Just had a very pleasant tea which was rounded off by a large helping of plums given to us by Peter at Ashton Lane - delicious!

We had visitors this afternoon, looking at the alpacas who behaved very well.  Selling animals is something I always find a challenge - I know I have to do it but worry about where the animals are going.  This is, I know, ridiculous as other people look after them as well, if not better, than I do but I can't help it!  This couple were lovely - the sort you just know would be ideal alpaca owners!

Much of the day has been spent knitting whilst alpaca gazing - very good for soothing tension, something I have a great deal of at the moment!  Now I am about to send Sam into the loft from where he may never emerge again, to sort out his old toys!  He has been working again today and, as usual, has had a great time.  It's the huge, expensive tractors he likes most!  He will be blogging soon about his 'herd' which has, incredibly, doubled in size already.

The Curry Incident

Sam wanted chicken burger, Carl wanted kebab and I wanted a curry.  Last night we were so behind with everything we opted for takeaway for tea.  I ordered a curry and just got what we normally have even though it was only for me, thinking I would save half for the next day.  It was very nice and somehow I ate the lot which resulted in a serious pain last night accompanied by odd noises and continued until this morning when Carl banished me to the caravan for a time.

A bit of a lie down with the knitting and I recovered enough to start on today's tasks.  Carl and I did a mating (alpaca mating obviously), trimmed every one's toenails, weighed babies and had another go at Sherbert's skin.  Sherbet is suffering a bit at the moment as she keeps getting sores on her back which crack open and then are pestered by flies.  The same thing happened to her last year and they eventually cleared up.  I have a suspicion that it is a touch of nasty sunburn after shearing and I really need to catch it earlier.  She is a suri, not a youngster but not particularly ancient and the problem recurs each year.  It is made worse as she scratches at it with her teeth and makes it bleed which attracts the flies.

Sorry about the lack of photos tonight but we had torrential rain this morning and when it cleared I had no camera with me.  This afternoon was too hot - too hot for knitting but I had to plough relentlessly on as I have the grand sum of two scarves and three hats here and have an appointment on Friday to take some knitwear to a shop who may like a few items to sell.  It is going to be a pretty meagre collection at this rate.

We were managing without Sam as he was having a rare day out with his friends - where he had a great time!

Looks like tomorrow will be busy as well as Sam has sold all his lambs and they are being collecting (we sold ours last night - except Stumpy's lamb who I refuse to part with despite the Shepherd thinking I am soft in the head!).  We also have to take Dude out on a mating - still not good on the halter, he is just too keen to get at the girls) and we are out in the evening on a special trip - more on that next blog!

A bit of a natter in the car park

Last night I ran out of blogging time as we had a meeting of the Great Western Region Fleece Show Committee.  We should have got back sooner but ended up lurking in  the car park with Andy and Viv from Reddingvale.  Carl and Andy discussed hay making tactics and compared their equipment whilst Viv and I talked alpacas.

Now please excuse this next bit – it’s a sort of plea and I don’t like doing this on the blog so forgive me!  We need more entries for the yarn part of the Great Western Region Alpaca Fleece Show.  I confess that I was really keen on this addition to the show and I envisaged lots of people wanting to have balls of yarn judged by Jean Field.  We have had some entries but we really need more - there is no entry fee - I really, really want it to be a success so if anyone else could enter, just for fun.  I am desperately trying to hand spin something to enter - not much chance of that coming off but I will persevere!  The web address is http://www.gwr-alpaca-show.co.uk and the yarn entry forms and rules can be found there.

Okay,  plea over!  Little Axle, Lina's baby has gained weight and is doing well.  Sometimes he takes a bit of bottle and sometimes not but as he has put on a kilogram in two days, I am not so worried about him!  This evening we had a visit from Irene and Si who we hadn't seen for ages.  Good to see them and hear all their exciting news.  They are doing very well with alpaca sales and knitwear - things are looking good in Devon!  In fact, Irene was talking so excitedly about plans and successes even little Yossarian got interested!