The end of June ’21……..good grief, actually it’s August now!
Oh my word, I guess I hibernated a bit longer than planned over the winter, ha ha! I’ll bet none of you are bothering to look at the site anymore…….same old,same old, never changes……..Surprise, I’m here, now that’s buggered up your day as you’ll feel that you’ve got to read the rest of this twaddle now ! You will wonder why I started this in June and it’s now the 2nd August……….umm, I get side tracked easily I’m afraid and then forget what I was doing for weeks before I happen on it again………sad isn’t it.
So, where on earth do we start filling in the last 7 months…….errrm, well for one thing these guys were a bit smaller when you last saw them, this is Hideki (Stringbean) and Hamilton caught briefly not neck wrestling & chewing each others ankles. Quite a few boys and girls have left us this year going to new homes and hopefully we will keep in touch with them all to see how they get on. The house roof was finished and we even got the upstairs insulated for 2 euros, bargain! Unfortunately all shows, fetes, visits etc have not happened this year so far but maybe soon things will be changing.
The government has been pushing hard on subsidised renewables, heating, insulation etc for a 1 euro payment so we took a punt on it and I have to say I’m impressed, 1€ for the ceilings and 1€ for the walls for the whole upstairs. It is like a big sqidgy duvet…….that should cut down the drafts a bit hopefully and the little roof windows have made such a difference to the light up there……..I know,I know it’s not exactly rocket science is it but I was still surprised at the difference…….I’ve led a sheltered life ok?
We have had to become stockists for alpaca foodstuffs now as our nearest other breeder and supplier has retired. We had thought about it once before but it is quite a financial commitment as one has to order by the pallet load, 1000kgs at a time……..still, can’t have our little darlings going hungry. Will just have to make sure we advertise it well and sell that which we don’t use for ourselves. We have in stock now: Alpamin, Alprofos, Fosfobeet, Alpa-Grass and A,D&E paste.
We had our usual yearly little flooding session in February when the small stream at the bottom of our furthest fields burst it’s banks and irrigated the bottom couple of hectares……..it was just after we had re-sown the field with new grass seed……ha, Oh well, c’est la vie…… we have partly re-sown it again!
The girlies don’t like getting their feet wet and muddy but I’m afraid there was not a lot of choice, it did rain in ark building proportions for a while.
” I’m sorry ‘Ooh la’ it’s not our fault…… the gods of soggyness have decided that your feet need damping down a bit, don’t you just love the feel of the mud squigging up between your toes?…..hmm, lovely!”
Wet, wet, wet,…… Oh well, will see how much of the grass seed survives or perhaps we could sow rice next time!
Six of our girls went off to a new home in February, to possibly become TV stars, featuring on ‘A new life in the sun’ to be shown next year…….well, shown if they behave for the cameras or maybe there will be a better chance of being shown if they misbehave somewhat……..makes better TV! Here’s Holly, Clove, Pepper, Rohini & Astrid just out of shot.
Five of them travelled first but Blaze stayed with us for a few weeks until she had birthed and settled with her new cria ‘Blossom’ before joining her five friends at their new home.
They seem to have settled in nicely……..Clove and Rohini know who has the food treats, ha ha!…..Enjoy yourselves girls. Also in February we had our first birthing of this year…………..
Welcome to Calista from black mum Eponine sired by white Arunda Lorca……..with Ooh la trying to say ‘hello’! Calista was followed by ‘Blossom’ in March and then we had a small gap until May and June when first Pip birthed a boy, ‘Macallan’ followed by girl ‘Jura’ from Cassis, ‘Islay Mist’ from Sakura, ‘Thistle finch’ from Sioux & ‘Finlaggan’ from Kiska. Unfortunately Efra had a little boy in early June but he was nearly 3 weeks premature and not in good health and despite our best efforts he didn’t survive…….always heart breaking to loose one.
Calista trying to get Tupelo to play whilst Blaze watches her Blossom wondering what this strange green stuff is!
A trio of toddlers in the buttercups and grass……aaah, bless! So, moving on…………Ooh, a big posh looking shiny lorry….. is that for us? lovely jubbly, that will look good when we arrive at a show!……….oh, is it not for us to keep?……….bugger!
Quite literally ‘moving on’, we sold 4 suri boys down to Cantabria in Spain in April, it should have been 5 but Rutland didn’t test positive for the blue tongue vaccination and was refused export………don’t get me going on the stupidity and bureaucratic macchinations of exporting animals, the ‘powers that be’ would be hard pressed to make it more difficult to comply with their regulations if they tried……needless to say I was still sitting in the préfecture’s office in Limoges at 5pm on the Monday evening as the office was closing awaiting the export documents to allow the transporter to take our alpacas, said transporter was already on his way from Spain up to us to collect them 1st thing the following morning………and what were we waiting for?……the final blood test result from the laboratory who have had the bloods for a week now! Apparently it takes them 5 days to do the PCR test but the rules for export state that the bloods must be taken within the 7 days of departure, the clock starts ticking when the vet takes the blood samples which are then sent to the Lab maybe that day but they won’t start testing until the next day………oh yeah and they don’t work week-ends either…….well that really helps doesn’t it?, you do the maths, I know I was pretty below par at some things at school but it ain’t gonna work is it?…… hence me sitting here as the office closes. Result: A slight discrepancy from the normal in Rutland’s levels so can’t allow his export without a further test………there’s no more fff*+g time you dimwits……….And another thing, Has he got the bluetongue disease?……..No, we’ve vaccinated him So what’s the frigging problem with him going then HUH??? Calm down, deep breaths and go back home with only 4 names on the export papers and poor ol’ Rutters will have to stay with us and our Spanish client will be upset at not getting all five……..that’s it, no more exports, I really can’t be done with the required stupidity necessary to do it!
Ok, on to happier things, shearing……although we did have a slight calamity on the morning of shearing………. what happened wasss……………………
Ooh, the back wall is on the move………why’s that?…………aah,looking up I guess that that supporting bit of tree should be attached to something to stop the building falling down, best not rely just on a few ratchet straps then!
Shearing had to go ahead anyway with no time to make repairs apart from the straps……..oh well, ‘she’ll be alright boys’ just don’t look up, it’ll only worry you!
Shearing went well over the two days with just over 60 done plus a Llama. With Allen the shearer on his own we invited visitors and other owners who came to watch to participate in helping him……..all good experience! Say hello below to a visiting Llama come for his first haircut………..
He was a smart chap, and everyone wanted to meet him…………Hmm, I could put up with a Llama or two here you know!
As luck would have it Leo who was with us for shearing had her brother visiting her and he happens to be a restoration carpenter/mason who would be willing to spend most of his weeks holiday stopping our barn from collapsing along with other friends who came to our aid………you know, some things just come right don’t they.
A few acro’s needed to take the strain and slowly jack the beam back into it’s right place then a concrete pad put under the centre of the beam to support a new central pillar to also support the beam and then a couple of large bracing planks and some very long bolts and the beam is back where it should be more or less. Thank you chaps, life savers! Now I’d better build a buttress against the back wall to stop that moving any more……all good fun!
Well, I’m afraid that will have to do for the moment ’cause I’ve got to stop again now to go and work …..or do something vaguely constructive anyway and once stopped again it could be months before I get back here! I know we’re only up to May’ish so far so I will endeavour to continue Very soon………promise, honest………..
November 15 2020
Hello……..err hello?……..is anyone there?……..it’s only me, I’ve been away for a bit……hmmm well ok maybe 5 months is more than just a bit but , you know…..time just gets away from you. If I said I’d been abducted by aliens collecting specimens as they passed through our galaxy on their way to their home planet far far away but was returned labelled ‘sub standard, of no further use’ would that be a good excuse?……….no, I thought not…….the tax man didn’t fall for that one either when demanding the latest vat return! Oh well, I’m back I’m afraid to take over from Hiccup with the blog…….Yes, unfortunately we’ve had some terrible events the past few months, firstly we lost Hiccup to a worm burden we couldn’t treat fast enough and then a month later we lost Celeste who managed to strangle herself shoving her head through the fencing to eat whatever was the other side…….oh Celeste you silly girl!
So, onwards we must go and there are new lives joining the herd…….here are some of this years newbies…….
Hamilton up on his feet but looking a bit confused about it all!
And this last week we have had two ‘late entries’, first from Natasha last monday, a fiesty black girl sired by Sherlock and then on Tuesday Boomer birthed a large boy sired by Rutland………Sherlock and Rutland had staged a breakout last december and were in full party mode with the girls when we found them ………they don’t miss a trick do they!
Between ‘lockdowns’ in August we had a Tourist Office visit to spend the afternoon with the ‘pacas which went well, lots of interest and questions……..hopefully answered well enough in our ‘iffy’ french! Unfortunately I forgot to take any decent photos…….too busy nattering!
We have had a couple of the usual ‘blowy’ autumn days but nothing like as bad as others have had and very little rain really but we did loose a tree in one of the paddocks by the road in front of us…… luckily it fell back into our field and not out across the road, shame it flattened the fence between the paddocks though……..another little job to go on the never ending list! But look on the bright side……more firewood to keep us warm!!
We have 4 stud boys with us on agistment (looking after) at the moment for some friends who have retired and moved away. The boys, 2 silver grey’s, a modern grey & a fawn have good genetics so they have joined the ‘for sale’ list on the website.
Shock horror…….news flash…..Our abode is getting a new roof as we speak……well no I lie because it’s a Sunday and silly things like roofing are not done today but you know what I mean, we’re 3/4 done now, tiles are mostly on & we’re pretty much watertight which has been confirmed by it raining all afternoon and we’ve only got one drip along the ridge where the tiling isn’t on yet……..Yeah, first time in nine years we’re down to just one bucket upstairs to catch the leaks……..brill.
Well, that’s your lot for now folks……. I’ll see if I can try harder to keep in touch……..yeah I know …..said that before haven’t I ?! Oh look ….sun’s going down, must be time for a wee dram…………..ta ta.
June sometime…….could be about the middle……..
How dare he!……. who said he could cuddle Sioux? I am Hiccup and I am in charge of this herd and I wasn’t asked, that’s just sneaky, we are going to have to have Words about this!
Now, before you say anything, I know it’s nearly two months since last I was here but we have been busy, lots going on as usual…….there’s never a dull moment on our little farm so lots of photies to show you so where shall we start?………..Oh I know, how about the trailer that fell over a while ago…………
Oops, trailer full of grass zooming (possibly a bit too fast) on the road around our commune dropped a wheel in the ditch and……..over you go!
there was a few tons of grass in there that had to be dug out by hand before they could pull the trailer back upright……..
did we offer to help clear up?………err, too busy laughing I’m afraid and anyway there were enough people there, look at all the cars stopped to give advise!……..I bet somebody got a bollocking!
So we got our annual haircuts a little later than first planned as our usual tondeurs Ian & Tom weren’t allowed over from uk……..something about spreading the disease of not speaking french or something, I’m not entirely sure I got that right but it sounded awfully complicated and Eve and Nigel spent lots of time trying to get an Ok for Ian to come over but kept being told ‘Non’……that was usually after they had first said ‘Oui, pas de problème’ then change their mind a couple of days later and I understand that there was a bit of a worry that we wouldn’t get trimmed until August as all the french shearers were already booked up but luckily Robin & Julian could fit us in and came in May.
They were very good with us, very gentle but they did have an odd way of doing the job……I shouldn’t laugh but some of our gang have some very odd haircuts now, bits missed, especially some of the suris, I’ll try and get some photies to show you.
I think Elvis here is winning this wrestling match…..as I say, they did have an odd way with us and as you can see we are a lot stronger than they are mostly especially when they are trying to be ‘gentle’ with us ………. ha ha,sometimes We won!!
” What you doing with my mum?”……… it’s little Woody wondering why his mum, Rohini is down there, he needed a cuddle after that……..
Now we are waiting for summer to come back again, it was here just before shearing as we were all getting a bit too hot in the sun with our big wooly coats on but now it’s disappeared and it’s been cool and showery for ages……… it does this every year, even though we are a month later with shearing it has still changed just afterwards but apparently summer will be back next week………that means too hot and loads of flies! we’ll see. Hay making has been done but before that it had been decided by…..oh I won’t say who but suffice to say ‘boys and their toys’, you know who I’m talking about huh?……that tractor ‘new blue’ needed an extra ‘toy’………..
Uh oh!…….. he’s taken it apart, oh my word it’ll never go back together again, NOooooooo,………..
Ok…….. maybe you can, but does it actually work, you know go up and down lifting things? ……. and by the way, how many bits did you have left over? and don’t say none because we’ve all seen your boxes of nuts,bolts,washers,screws,brackets,shafts,wheels et all that you term as ‘profit’ or ‘un-necessary weight’! …… well, not going to answer hmm?
………and another thing, how are you going to cope with all those levers and pipes?…..yes, you who struggles to type on a computer keyboard with one finger of one hand never mind trying to co-ordinate two hands steering and moving levers up & down whilst pressing feet on pedals at same time…….heaven forbid! ……this is going to be brilliant to watch!
As it is spring time, or rather it was a month or so ago…….. matings are still going on……….
Looks like a bit of an orgy going on here, old feller Ivor (grey) and Deeks (white) next door having a blast which causes the other ‘open’ girls to sit down in hope of getting a turn as well.
not the most organised way of running a mating session but as a bit of a party they all seemed to enjoy themselves and nobody un-intentionally got mated ….. Ivor’s no youngster these days and has his limits!
Three year old Kody was getting worked up watching and wanted to join in which is a good sign as they want him to cover a couple of us this year, it is time he started working now…… he looks fit doesn’t he girls? ….mmmm, athletic !
Ah ha…….I wondered if he’d show it working……. well, parked in a field with a hay bale anyway that’s a start!
And bales in the barn for us, that’s a nice feeling to know we’ve got the winter supply sorted and it’s wonderful hay this year, a near perfect mix of mild weather,sunshine and rain made for an early cut and baling all in the dry……yee ha, it smells fantastic.
And to finish today……. either shortass in the orange is really short or Miles stood next to him is a monster, I’ll leave that one with you folks, answers on a postcard please! ta ta.
Sunday’s banter, April 19th ’20. Hiccup strikes again.
Hiya Folks, your favourite ‘paca here to brighten your quiet day of confinement stuck in front of US cop show re-runs for the umpteenth time on tv or appallingly bad reality games shows that just boggle the mind……..people are paid ‘real money’ for this?…….you really do need to get out more, come and join us in the field, chill with our gang for a bit, you’ll love it.
Well as you can probably imagine we’re having our usual quiet time here, not much passing traffic to get excited over and certainly no visitors to hum to or investigate any goodies in their pockets! We have got some new young’uns arrived after Kiska’s ‘Elowen’ a few weeks ago………oh yeah, her legs have straightened out a treat now, look……….
She looks very white compared to young Falcon looking at her, lets say he’s just a typical boy…….grubby!
As I said before the mating season is with us now & unfortunately Sakura and I were walked up from our field to meet a couple of the boys up at the house barn …… I say ‘unfortunately’ because I for one am perfectly happy as I am, staying in our field with my mates, munching and chilling, I don’t want to meet with a ‘boy’……….noisy, grubby oiks!
Oh well, if we must……nice day for a ramble anyway…..
Oh No……….must you?!, how undignified……. and the other one is sniffing me!!… wot’s he doing here, he should be with Sakura!
HELP, MUM!……… get him off me……..I’M NOT HAPPY!!!!
I really hope that doesn’t happen again! I didn’t like that one bit………. I think I’ll talk about something else now…..following Elowen’s birth in March, Pip decided it was her time ten days ago so after breakfast………
Welcome to ‘Ashby’, very well camouflaged against the ground! Note that Pip just carries on eating……. well she’s an old hand at this birthing lark, Ashby is her 8th cria now, she’s a great mum.
Welcome young lady, fluffed up and running around in after a couple of hours, lovely.
No…………. that’s not Mum! Hello Terra, just saying ‘Hi’.
And then we had a surprise when first time mum Rohini birthed in the bergerie (shed) down in Park field 2 days later, trouble is Rohini didn’t understand what was happening so when done she followed everyone else out and went grazing down in the field leaving her cria in the bergerie, poor little tike. Luckily one of our carers came down a few hours later to see us and found him jammed in the hayrack! More dead than alive he was rushed back up to the house barn with mum in the van for some emergency care.
Although Rohini has plenty of milk for him he was too weak to stand up for long enough to feed and kept falling over. Also he was right down on his pasterns, that means not standing on his feet but down on his ankle bones, very uncomfortable & difficult to stand. Colostrom supplement, anti-biotic & vitamin injections & then powdered milk boosts every 4 hours or so to keep the little guy going.
A week on and he’s turned the corner or so it seems although it’s early days still but he’s feeding from mum now quite happily and running about a bit now and then. He looks much happier and more with it now, see below……..
So although I said earlier that it is all quiet here, it’s not really, there’s always some little dramas happening one day or another, don’t you just love it!
I couldn’t resist this pici of ‘Ooh la’ catching the sun, she just shines, lovely. Oh yes, I forgot to say that we should have started shearing this weekend with Ian & Tom arriving on Friday afternoon from the uk but obviously with the Covid problem that has been put on hold for now….. lets just hope it does not get too hot too soon! I’m glad we didn’t start today as it is raining really hard at the moment which would have been a problem, all of us shut in the barns since yesterday to keep us dry, no fun, lots of spitting probably! And just to finish today, how about Pip & Ashley bonding…………ta ta for now.
Sunday 29th March ’20
Hello peeps, tis I ‘Hicci Hiccup’, welcome to our ‘paca world again. As hoped ‘His Lordship’ has got his thumb out of his wotsit and his brain out of neutral and let me come chat with you again without waiting months! So.…….. hasn’t life changed somewhat since last we chatted, well not for us really, we do not seem to suffer from your strange ‘virus’s’ but then You don’t suffer from Liver Fluke or Coccidia as we can so fair’s fair! We are kept in ‘lockdown’ in our fields most of the time anyway……..unless someone (no names mentioned) leaves a gate a tad open, we don’t miss a trick given half a chance! We will miss having any visitors for a while though, our tourist office visits starting in April have been cancelled and even worse our trip to the Alpaca show at Easter has been cancelled……we were all looking forward to that, even though I wasn’t going we all get involved and there is a good ‘buzz’ around the place in the lead-up. Oh well, wait and see what happens. Talking visits, our most recent was by Retromobiles club of Limoges who came to share some time with us, unfortunately only photo’s of the cars outside were taken…….head honcho not paying attention again, poor organisational skills from upper management leading to failure of basic working practice. ……….err, did I mention that I am now also the union representative for our alpaca farm? Oh yes, going to keep them on their toes from now on, it’s about time!
a good mix of shinny motors, can you play ‘name the makes?’
There was a nice delivery two weeks ago……….
A lovely lorry with sparkly new blue tractors!……. unfortunately not All for us, ours is the small blue bit at the back below the orange back bucket on the rear tractor…….. can you guess what it is yet?…….
Yup, it’s a foreloader to go on our sparkly blue tractor, someone (you can guess who) has just got to work out how it clips on……..err, I’ve just been told that it might need more than just clips to hold it on and there will be lots of messy hydraulic oil to squirt out all over the place when he discovers that he hasn’t done it up right….ha ha, should be entertaining! . We also had another delivery two weeks ago…………
Kiska gave birth two weeks early to her baby girl, named ‘Elowen’, she had very forward bent front legs, but after a week they have straightened out well. It is tempting to put her legs in splints to straighten them out but by doing that you stop her using them properly and strengthening the muscles, so ending up with weak legs……..it’s always worth being patient and give nature a chance to sort things out first.
She’s a little cuttie. This years theme for names is ‘trees and types of ‘, ‘Elowen’ being old Cornish for Elm tree. See you do learn something from us ‘pacas by reading this rubbish!
Also in the news and much to Lorca’s delight mating us girls has started now………..
Are you sitting comfortably Celeste?….then I’ll begin. Now here’s a little aside…. Celeste has spent the last eight months spitting at any male that came near and telling us all that she is pregnant to Godswell JJ back in July………then earlier this week when Lorca came to us and mated Blaze she came and sat down next to them, saying that ‘actually I’m not pregnant’……..what game is she playing, just enjoying herself?
You’re an ‘ol tart Celeste……….. go girl!
Errrrmm……Feb. 19th 2020!!
“Bienvenue, hello there, it’s your one and only Me, Hiccup here, should you have forgotten my name as it has been so long since I chattered at you. Now, I don’t want to be blamed for this long gap…….I have been humming & chatting away every day with our ‘carers’ but between them they are very lax at putting pen to paper so to speak or should I say digit to computer keyboard. I know they’ve been having their health problems between them……. No for heavens sake don’t ask them or you’ll never hear the last of it, they’ll whitter on for hours about their problems and the multitude of excuses why they can’t do anything we ask but really can’t they find some time to keep you up to date!
Ok, enough of my moaning….well for the moment anyway! at least we are still being fed and watered and sort of mucked out even if not to the usual high standard…….(sshh Hiccup, you said you’d stop moaning!) So, what’s been happening….Oh yes,new arrivals……..
Christmas surprise,10th Dec…….. a baby girl, Holly….(Ooh,that’s original!) for mum Eponine, that’s mum Eponine who scanned as ’empty,not pregnant’ back last summer! and anyway Eponine…..counting back the days that means you were covered in November, err matings stop in September usually…….so that means that you sat for Haymitch when he escaped from his field that day and still beat the scanner when knowing that you were very pregnant by the time you were scanned…….hmmph, best throw the scanner away or learn to read it properly!
Now there’s a face that is going to cause trouble! she is always bouncing around harassing her older siblings and crashing into all of us older ‘mentors’ trying to get us to play…..but she does get us out ‘pronking’ around the field on a nice evening when we’ve a mind to!
The other new arrival recently was ‘working boy’ Arunda Lorca, re-homed from Nigel & Ginny who have sadly retired and moved south to enjoy the vistas of the mountains of the pyrenées. He could be a busy boy this spring bringing some new genetics to us girls ………..oooh, steady there girls,calm down we’ve got a few months to wait yet…..but I want first shout!
So, which one do you think should be left in the van with a bucket of water and some hay?!
It’s that time of year for last years cria to be introduced to the demeaning joys of wearing a halter and being made to walk to somewhere we might not want to go……and do it when They decide,not us……. huh, we’ll see about that!
They….our carers, had a couple of visitors the other day who are buying some of the boys and they used me to show how to put on a collar etc…….how dare they! the shame of it ……..you can see I am NOT happy! I am glad to say that Snowy, Miss.Sunshine and Toyah showed their disapproval as well……..
‘White heat’ (Snowy, oh that’s So original!) stood 4 feet square,stared at the ground and refused to move, Miss.Sunshine launched skywards and Toyah hung her head in shame and starred at the ground!……bless, normal behaviour for us ‘pacas I’m afraid, we don’t take well to halters initially….but we do come round quite quickly and then we never forget how to do it, so you can’t grumble at us……..you wouldn’t like it either!
As the youngsters are not ready to go out for a walk yet, they have a few goes just wearing a halter first in the barn before learning how to go promenading, three of the 3 year old lads who are going to the April show went out for a refresher walk instead………..
Left to right…….Deeks, Kody & Picard strutting their stuff trying to teach 3 assorted humans how to convince us to tolerate them…….. easy, More nuts & hay and less touchy,touchy feely & cuddles…….we don’t like that!!
Moving onto other things, I’ve just remembered that the ‘one that’s always hurting himself’, you know who I mean, the numpty in the back of the van, well he’s still trying to build the new ‘River field’ shelter…….. slowly is the best word to describe it!…….. still he is getting there and it hasn’t blown away in the few windy days we’ve had so that is a bonus, take a look…..
Roof going on………ignore the spirit level leaning against the post behind……he hasn’t got a clue how it works, you can see that by how ‘un-square and wonky it is! He’ll probably blame the ground being all uneven and causing the frame to twist…….yeah,all right, ever thought of being a politician with an answer like that? how to avoid responsibility mmm?
It might of helped if it wasn’t placed on what now appears to be one of the wetter parts of the field, oops! although in fairness most of the field is currently nearly as wet as a paddy field, ready to grow rice! May have to let him loose with the digger to put a couple of drainage channels either side……..talking digger………(nicely slipped that in)…….
The new toy (thank you kindly MrG, CEO,uk division Bonheur Alpacas) having a brief ‘practice run’……..that’s practice for new operator not tractor!
She does a wicked job…….love it! Well, I guess that will do me for the mo……hopefully I’ll be allowed to chat to you a bit more often now that ‘he’ has finally got his act together and posted this. As I mentioned earlier we have a show coming up on the Easter weekend and I think Kody, Picard, Deeks, Sakura, Lady Tyburn, Ooh La and White Heat are booked to go so I will keep you updated on preparations…………I wonder why I haven’t be asked to attend the show………Oy answer me that you………
Corr…….couldn’t resist a pic of Kodama to close……I think I may fancy him better than Lorca, will have to work on him…….…. hum hum,……bye!
Bonjour c’est Octobre, 6th!
Hello it’s me Hiccup…….hum, ok it has been a few months I know but we’ve been enjoying the summer and watching the youngsters growing and just doing alpacery things.
Toya is a mini-me of Cassis but with more colours, she has turned more brown on the outside now but has grey and black underneath and the obvious white bits. She is the last newby this year, born on 14 august, we all had to check her over, we do like a new arrival to our gang, but you’ve seen these pics last time I was on I think. We have had a lovely long summer, got very hot for a while………..
Sunbathing was the order of the day most days,here’s Lady Tyburn getting some rays,well we do need our vitamin D regularly, until it got too hot in the afternoons and then we had to rest in the shade of the trees………it’s a hard life!
My friend ‘Silkstream’, Sexy Sioux’s boy who was born a few weeks after me last year……..he’s nice isn’t he? he’s got his mum’s ‘sexy’ looks hasn’t he, corr, makes me waggle my tail he does!
Well, after all that hot sunshine all our grass had turned brown and crispy and we had eaten nearly all the leaves we could reach on the trees and worked our way into most of the greenery in the hedges so it has been a relief that the rain’s have finally come this last week and everywhere is suddenly turning green again, it changes so quickly, a couple of days is all it takes. Bless them but our staff started repairing and re-fencing the next paddock down from us as it still had a bit of grass in it as it is wetter down there being closer to the pond……….. you haven’t seen the pond have you? oh well, I had better get some pictures taken of it to show you next time, actually we could do a virtual tour around the farm so you can get a better idea of our layout……..I might have mentioned this before but I had probably forgotten to do it, too busy grazing I expect!
It’s very nearly straight……..not a bad effort by the old feller.
Ooh, a posh gate as well, he’s getting quite good at those now!……… it was noted at our annual ‘slave/workaway’ visit recently by Tony that a cross-brace was missing from said gate and was therefore of a sub-standard quality and not ‘fit for purpose’ and this gross omission would not have occurred if the gate had been fabricated by a qualified slave and not some amateur farming type person, consider yourself told Nigel!!
………anyway, good gate or not we have grass again and we are happy ‘pacas, although looking further down the fields………..
I spy…….. boys! They look interested……..I think I’ll just stand here at the fence and let them look at me, I’m not flirting, no I’m not…….well, maybe just a little but……..……
When the ‘slave’ Tony was here, apart from casting aspersions about certain gate building abilities of our staff he did do some work…… although there is very little photographic evidence to support this claim. You may be able to see the field shelter in the above picture, well he re-roofed that as it had collapsed in a few places due to the heat of the sun melting and distorting the fibre roof panels which did not have enough support beams beneath them…….. who roofed it originally I hear you ask?……….um, could have been the amateur gate builder again possibly…….. I feel I should say no more at this point!
Slave work at it’s best, a nice new field shelter taking shape in the new field heading down to the river,
It’s going to be nice and big by the looks of it, my only concern now is that slave Tony has departed, leaving a lovely framework to be clad and……….dare I say it, roofed. Who do we suspect will be doing this work? ………I’ll leave you to ponder the possibilities of the forthcoming catastrophies and disasters which are liable to befall the finishing of this latest project, I hope I can be in the field when he is doing it, it should be entertaining!
Oh look……… a slave engaged in…..err….. oh yes, Not working, and the usual cup of tea is missing, how bizzare!………moving swiftly on………….
This is Conker, one of the original boys bought back in the uk in 2008, he likes horses, always has. Here he is meeting up with two of our neighbours.
Ears are back now, not sure about Bert wiffling him this close!………they love you to Conks.
Talking about neighbours, a bit of excitement a couple of weeks ago…………..
Barn roof (seem to have a theme going about roofs!) but there shouldn’t be a gap in the middle normally……oops. On a calm sunny afternoon, a loud rumble and a cloud of dust billowing across the farmyard……………….
Oh bugger, that’s a mess, there are many items of machinery and tractory things buried under those timbers and tiles, not happy neighbours, luckily there was nobody in there at the time or any animals, what a relief but what a disaster. That’s going to take some clearing up. Well, I will finish now, more grazing calls and I may go and stand by my fence and just see if there are any boys in sight……..just out of interest of course. It will be getting dark soon anyway I expect, ta ta.
Saturday July 13th,nearly Bastile day!
Nearly time to man the barricades,(or should that be ‘paca the barricades), you know 14th July, Bastille and all that, do try and keep up, I am only an alpaca after all ! It’s your Hiccup here again, come to save you from your boredom and let you share in our exciting lives here at the ‘funny farm’…….. and the strange goings on of our ‘staff’, they do their best but they are odd! .…….anyway more of them later. Can you see Sioux behind me? well, she had her baby on Friday just after Blaze had hers……it’s been all Go here these last few days! But before we get to our newly borns we had to say goodbye to big ‘ol Katniss & ‘bounce’ along with Amelia, they’ve gone off to join a new herd over near Geneva which I understand is near the mountains with lots of different weather……….I do hope they’ll be alright,,,,,,,,I’m really missing having young ‘bounce’ tearing around and getting us all going, she was good fun. Oh well, lets hope some of our newbies are as lively as her.
Here’s their view………mmmm, nice, we like hills!
You can read Amelia’s thoughts……’look at that view, where the flip are we?!’ They’ve got some new friends to make there so they are not alone.
Here’s one of their new friends, Now there’s a wicked haircut…….can I have one of those? hee hee……….. So, back to our little ‘funny farm’, we have had our grass cut and baled in the flower meadow by our neighbour the other week so we are stocked up with hay for this coming winter, that’s a nice feeling as always and the sun has shone all the time so no trouble getting it all in dry this year.
Our ‘Staff’ have been making the most of the sunny weather with other jobs as well, not least getting the Boutique roof watertight before the next rain comes, although we’ve had a few impressive thunderstorms recently which have caused a few puddles on the floor.
Now, when I say ‘make it watertight’, that is probably more of a ‘wish’ or one could say a ‘forlorn hope’ when we consider who is doing the job and his past track record and first time success rate in other enterprises! ……… hush now my wicked mind, stop casting aspersions, let the first rain storm be the judge…….. but if there’s streams running down the walls and puddles on the floor again, don’t say I didn’t warn you! At least it’s a lower roof and he can’t hurt himself as much when he falls off! Right, back to the important business of us alpacas and our new arrivals these last few weeks, you saw Terra’s young boy just born who is now called ‘Just Joey’ so…………
……here is Celeste’s new cria who is called ‘Alfie’, born 26th june, a sparky little chap by the looks of. him, Celeste is even grumpier than she usually is with us all…….. no surprises there then, grumpy old boot!!
……and then the day before yesterday, Thursday 11th Blaze started birthing, there she is behind Alfie and Joey…….
…..it’s very interesting isn’t it…… what’s going on back here then guys?!
….ta daa, new arrival for Blaze, not quite a mini-me though, she hasn’t got her white face (not yet), fawn all over, looks more like dad Mo at present, and then whilst this was happening………………
……Suri ‘Sioux’ sat down in sympathy and went into labour as well!
Poor ‘Silk’, Sioux’s son from last year looks on with concern………’what’s going on mum?’
Ooh…….. there you are, out pops a little brown girl, two girls in one morning, very nice and everyone’s fit and healthy, phew.
Welcome young lady, join the crew (she’s got the white face now, how they change in a day or two)………….
……..and welcome to our gang as well to you, girl of Sioux….…..steady, I could become a poet, or is that a limerick’ist!
So now it’s playtime, stretch those new legs and see how they work, could be fun………. See you soon.
June 7th 2019
It’s me again…….. the hummmming Hiccup……
Well, here’s me and my mate Grumble and two of those silly little boys behind me, that’s Falcon, Kiska’s boy on the left and little Clyde hiding behind me, we’ve been having fun now there is lots more grass about and Katniss’ girl has been getting us all running and ‘pronking’ around the orchard then racing into the barn and jumping off the little bank between the two, great fun, we should call her ‘bounce’.
One of the Suri girls from the big field down by the river had her baby on Monday afternoon, none of us knew Terra was going to have one yet, mind you we haven’t seen her for ages so I suppose that’s why, silly me! Our two ‘trainee staff’ suddenly came rushing up to our paddock with the van and bought them in to our barn to stay with us now, that’ll be nice to have someone new to play with.
We all followed him into the orchard when we were allowed out of the barn later on, got to make sure he is ok ’cause you can’t trust these ‘staff’ to keep a proper eye on us all the time!……..we’ll look after him.
Yes, we’ve just decided, me and the girls that is, to call Katniss’ baby ‘baby bounce’ because she’s always bouncing around and getting us ‘pronking’, look, she’s trying to get Terra’s boy to play already…….tee hee, she’ll look after him!
Talking of the girls in the river field we heard through the grapevine, well from Terra actually, that they had some excitement a few days ago when somebody tied a car to a tree on the roadside near their field…….no honestly they did, look……….
……..see, they’ve tied it to the tree, how bizarre! I’m not sure it’s supposed to have all those dents in the side though and the front looks a bit……crinkly don’t you think?
Terra said it was a bit scary to find it by the entrance into the field like that, no-one heard it put there…… they are Very strange these humans, they don’t half do some odd things!
…….talking Odd & Strange, you know our staff …well the one who is always hurting himself, the one that disproves Darwin’s theory of natural selection as he is unbelievably still with us, well he has been trying again to re-dress the balance and give Darwin back his credibility by causing his own extinction again, this time by playing with a chainsaw whilst up a ladder……..you may remember he did this a few years ago or so I hear, it didn’t end well then so what makes him think that this time will be any different?
Ok…….. he got away with it again, Darwin 0 — Nigel 1, I can’t believe he defied the god’s of common sense again…….there ain’t no justice!
Our staff took three of the boys out for a day at the local Meziérès fête a while ago, a nice day in the sunshine but lots of poking and patting on their heads gets a bit tiring after a long day but even so I liked it when I last went out, lots of new sights and loads of funny new smells.
We had to say good-bye to three of the boys recently, Haymitch, Sweep and Tribute went off to a lovely new home just outside Bellac. It is very sad when some have to leave but we can’t all stay here, some of us have to go and start new herds elsewhere, a new adventure…….but still very sad.
Ha ha…….don’t they look funny in the van, looking through the hatch to see where they are going……. love it!
Back to our group again, having a play on the little bank……..
……….bounce, bounce, bounce……that brown one, she started it ………see ya next time!
May 19th 2019
Hummmm……..Hummm………Hummmmmmm…… no, you are not understanding me then? Ok, I will talk in your speak instead……you didn’t know I could do that did you, we are full of surprises me and my friends here. You should recognise me……..I’m Hiccup,the prettiest of all the girls….well I think so and the smartest for sure! Talking of smarts, I must apologise for our two carers, or as we prefer to think of them ‘staff’…….they are obviously not the brightest fireworks in the box but one can only work with what one is given! I understand that the older male one who usually keeps you informed of our life here has been somewhat lax lately and getting worse, I think January was the last time he uttered anything remotely coherent…….. appalling behaviour! Well he is getting old I suppose and forgetful , even older today I hear so don’t talk to me about boys, bloomin’ hopeless the lot of them…….. It is about time you had a younger view on our life here so I’m taking over the chat, the rebellion has started………’paca power is Go!
My friends and I are the new kids on the block from last year so we are all coming up to a year old, I’m the oldest as my birthday is next Saturday the 25th……so I’m the boss of our group. Well as you can imagine so much has happened in our world in the last four months, where does one start……. it’s all exciting though. We got let loose in the back yard a few weeks ago…….or maybe it was a few months ago, time is more important to you humans I think, it concerns us little except if we are shut in somewhere and can’t get out with our friends to graze and explore. This yard is wonderful, lots of smells and different things to examine……ooh and plants to taste- test, wonderful !
……… and boys to meet and greet, very exciting but they are Soo scary,they are all pushy and snorting at us, I think they would chase us if the gate was open, in fact I know they would……..boys are boys,only thinking of food or joining us,typical!
What did I say about being shut in somewhere? it is never good for us, always ends in something unpleasant! And this was no exception, we lost our nice warm coats recently……. and it’s been horrid and chilly since…….Ooh they are nasty to us sometimes!
It’s all very stressy for us,not only do they cut off our lovely warm coats but then they cut our toe nails and trim our teeth with a nasty noisy wizzy thing in my mouth which tastes horrid and makes me wee sometimes, it’s soooo embarrassing for a young lady And infront of all my friends too! Then the ‘staff’ have all their friends here doing things with our coats and we have to stay in our pen whilst they stop for lunch…. I ask you!
What do they all look like! but we had a plan to get our own back, look at this………….
Auntie Dabbs……who hates everyone who wont leave her alone, really, really hates people who touch her….. so the shearer man stood No chance……..ha ha ha!
Katniss,who is one of my half,half sisters I think……err possibly or something like that, anyway it’s not important…….she had a baby just after we lost our coats, which was very interesting, I saw some of my friends born last year (being the first) but it is still fun to watch and we all gather round to help her get up.
I think she will be good fun, she’s very lively, I’m sure we’ll be good friends. It’s time I went out to do a bit more grazing and see what’s going on with the gang so I’ll chat again later……..ta ta. or as we say…….Humm.