Monday 25th Sept.
Hello there, can I help you?…….if you’re looking for the rest of them they’re just out of shot over there.
I’ll get back to grazing then.
Well, Loti finally popped and had her cria last Saturday, not this saturday gone, a week ago……..yeah I’m sorry, late as usual, so what’s a week between friends,it only seems a couple of days ago! She was about a week overdue and getting very ‘plump’ shall we say. It was good timing as friends Leanne and Nigel were here to witness the arrival. They arrived from uk on Saturday morning having driven down over night after work on Friday and then were driving back on Sunday ready for work on Monday…….what you call a ‘speed visit’, brilliant and great to see you.
Seeing as you’re here for a couple of hours it would be rude not to help with some work…….oh that’s very kind of you, how about some fencing then? you can even drive the tractor………marvellous! And to add a bit of excitement we arranged for a sanglia (wild boar) to charge past across the field escaping from the Chasse (hunt) …..And then just to top it all good old Loti calved down after lunch so you could watch that………I mean, what an interesting week-end we lay on for our visitors entertainment, I don’t know how we do it!
Ooh, here she comes, as ordered by ‘the Memsahib’ a little grey female, she’ll be happy to see her.
Drying out and fluffing up nicely.
There’s a pretty girl ……well she is if you’re into alpacas!
So she is the last of our 12 cria for this year, great to finish up with a girl and a grey to boot which makes 8 girls and 4 boys………lovely jubbly!
Just attended an ‘artisans fête’ at Bussiere Poitevine yesterday……….
It was a cracking day weather wise,lovely hot and sunny, we took just three of last years youngsters to show off, much to their disgust being penned up for the day!
It was only a small market, a dozen or so other stalls there but a good few visitors during the day for us to practice torturing the french language again whilst trying to explain the ins and outs of alpaca ownership!
That is the last of the summer fêtes for us now, next up will be the start of the Marche de Noël,(christmas fairs) in November…….unless I’ve forgotten any in October that we should be going to……….hmm, that’s always possible!
Friday 1st Sept.
Welcome to a new month and welcome to some new ‘inmates’ to our Toy Farm!
Here be four Suri boys,two studs and two companions to join the four girls,Lacota,Brooklyn,Boomer and Curly Sioux and our brown stud boy Elvis.
……….err, did I mention before that we are breeding Suri’s now?…..No, obviously not, oops, sorry.
We’re breeding Suri’s now!
Ok, well for those who don’t know, Alpacas come in two types, Huacaya’s (or Wooky’s in our slang) and Suri’s. The Wooky is the soft,fluffy ‘teddy bear’ alpaca that you are aquainted with from reading my drivel the last few years and the Suri is the rarer ‘shiny’ dreadlock looking alpaca,coveted for it’s wonderfully lusterous fibre ideal for high-end clothing such as ladies dresses and gentlemens suits. We have thought about diversifying the herd over the last few years as more people have started asking about Suri fibre at the fairs and fêtes but never done anything about it…. until recently when the opportunity arose to throw caution to the wind and purchase some females a few months ago and now another chance to chuck the rest of our money to the small gods of chance and haphazard decisions…….well, what else would we do with it? only end up giving it to the taxman or some other ner’do well with a hopeless cause!
So please say hello to (the back-ends of):
Bonheur Raffael de Grand Fouilleze.
Bonheur Rutland de Grand Fouilleze.
Bonheur Romeo de Grand Fouilleze. and Bonheur Silky Harris de Grand Fouilleze.
………..yeah ok, all very pretentious names I know but we’re presenting a class act here, it’s a high-end product we produce so they deserve a bit of ‘upper classery’ in their names….. and it beats Sid or Bert the alpaca in the ‘posh’ stakes ,sorry Sid or Bert no offence meant…….. none taken. But that’s not all…….Oooh no, we have two more Suri females to come in the next week or so to join the four girls which will give us……….lets see, 4, plus 2, plus the 5 we already have,plus the 3 babies born……..oh my word 14 then! that’s not bad concidering we didn’t have any a few months ago….. oops a daze!
Mums and babes were moved to fresh grassy fields recently much to their delight although since then the hot 35c temperatures of late have somewhat ‘browned’ the grass a tad! ……hate to say it but we do need some rain.
It’s no good you hiding behind that tree Ivor, we can see what you’re up to with Eponine!
…….. matings continue!
Oh yes I nearly forgot, we had some more slaves over for a weeks ‘work-away’ early August
……Rose and Andy,that’s the way to do it, splash it on all over……no,not on each other. I see son Chris kept well out the way, I think he knows how messsy mum and dad are!
If all this excitement wasn’t enough we went and ordered some goodies from Peru to compliment our home made stock of wares……….
A table full of colour, there’s hats,scarves,gloves,bags,soft toys,bracelets,keyrings,pens…..all sorts of goodies.
Get you cuddly alpaca…..or maybe it’s more Llama’ish toy, good colours though!
Bags for…….stuff.
My mission now, should I accept it is to get all these products onto our website in some coherent order………hhmmm, I’ll get back to you on that!
Tues. 8th August
You have got to be kidding me……… it can’t be six weeks since last we spoke…really? you should have said something, you know I get lost in this space/time thingy and loose track of …….things, reality,all that un-important stuff just slips past.
Well, life rattles on and we’ve been up to our ears and elbows in garden work as the weather has been just right for growing,long hot sunny days, a bit of rain, more hot sunny days……the weeds love it and the mowers and strimmers are on overtime!
June was our busy birthing month with 8 cria born, a couple who needed a week or so of bottle feeding to top-up,but they are all feeding ok from mums now, and then we’ve had another 3 born in July which makes 11, of which 7 are girls and 4 boys, for us this year that is a perfect ratio, last year was a boy year so it’s nice to ballance it out a bit. All are fit and healthy and thriving…..brilliant…….Oh, and Loti is still to birth in September as she was bought pregnant but had been mated late, so still one more to look forward to!
And of course if we’re birthing then it must be time for mating as well……said the actress to the bishop……..
Issac getting in some practice as he could be quite busy this year, he will be covering quite a few of the girls for us hopefully.
Jacques with Amelia and behind is Mo getting fruity with Blaze.
Mo has just started working this year so Blaze is his first ‘bonk’ and I think he was a little over enthusiastic possibly, poor Blaze seems a tad ‘flattened’ by the whole experience, still he’s whispering sweet nothings in her ear by the looks of things, hope she forgives him!
Moving swiftly on………
We have done a few village fetes recently, it now being the summer fete season, showing off last years youngsters and their products. Not all fetes are well attended or advertised, I got stuck at one 2 day event a couple of weeks ago and probably only spoke to thirty people all weekend……..a bit of a disaster really! never mind, one’s got to do them,you never know what it’s going to be like, some are great.
Everyone has just been moved around to new fields as the grass is starting to die off now especially up near the house and barns but we still have plenty further down near the pond and the flower meadow that was cut for hay is looking good so all the mums feeding their cria have moved down there, neccessatating the stud boys and weenling groups moving as well because having the studs in a field next to the girls is just chaos, the boys are just beside themselves trying to get to the girls,fueled on high octane testosterone…….it’s never worth the wrecked fences!
A good dusting of D earth has gone down in all the rolly holes which they love to throw themselves around in,which in turn gets rid of a lot of the mites and bugs.
The weenlings or ‘gobby teenagers’ as we like to call them now are constantly harrassing each other,neck wrestling,chewing an ear,biting ankles,pushing into each other……basicaly anything annoying! Here we’re on ‘sitting on your head’ and then…..
“let’s have a threesome tangle”
…..boys will be boys.
Finn and Sherlock being all cutesy,cutsey ”please love me mum”
Uh oh………….someones collecting clutter again………
Red box on wheels with a yellowy contraption bolted to the front….. yup, you got it it’s a baler……yes you do, makes rectangular’ish bales of hay from mown grass…..er yes it is old, ….yes,even older than me,thank you for that!….err 1940’s we think and Yes,it works a treat apparantly, I’ll let you know next year when we use it, ha ha.
…… oh my gawd,what have you got there?, it’s a horse drawn jiggamething, primarily used for confusing the un-initiated in the black art of farming and archane other strange practices.
……but we seem to be ‘au fait’ with these weirdo cult going’s on so can get away with it…..and it looks good behind Katy !
………. have you worked out what it is yet?……No?, shame……………..
Oh ok then, it’s a turner and rower-upper (not the correct name I know) for the hay prior to baling with the antique baler…….it’s gonna be great fun, or a total fiasco!
Either way you’ll love it, entertainment all the way!
Thurs. 29th June
Ok, what did I say the day before yesterday about busses?………well, I had to leave the ‘memsahib’ on ‘cria watch’ yesterday whilst I went up to Paris with the other Nigel for a meeting with the Minister for Agriculture, unsurprisingly not in person but his ‘Chef du bureau,direction géneral de Alimentation, sous direction santé et protection animales’……..they do like their titles!…….why? you ask would we want to fight our way around the Paris metro system to spend an afternoon in a hot,stuffy meeting room on the umpteenth floor of a faceless office block filled with sombre grey suited government civil servants generating reems of official paperwork to drown us mere peasants in……Good question. Well, a year or so ago a Decree was slipped in below the radar, as in not well publicised and became law this year that all ‘Camelids’ (camels,llamas,alpacas) must now be on a register with the french horse society for traceability for health protection (why a horse society??,wadda they know about camels?!)……..ok, a registry is good, it is needed I can see that but we already have a European alpaca & llama registry which most of us use as it is free, just make it compulsory to register, end of problem.
Aah, No, it’s an independant register so the government have no control over it and wouldn’t get any revenue either……..No, we must pay the horse society for each alpaca/llama we have and pay our vets to health check them every year and micro chip them,as this is a specialist veterinary job that only a vet can do and then do the registration via internet…. like the vets have got the time to do this! with french supplied and approved chips only, even though most of us breeders are perfectly capable of chipping them. So, we were there to put forward our case as to why we think this is an ill conceived and implemented law and we’re not up for playing this game. I for one am not paying my vet a lot of money for doing something I am quite capable of doing and have been doing for years now so if the minister would like, I am quite happy to microchip him just to show him that I can do it and then he can go and ‘get registered’!!
Sorry………I’m going off on one aren’t I, it is the frustration of spending hours banging ones head against a brick wall of bureaucratic blinkered reasoning, no compromise, no common sense allowed! Anyway, where was I?…….Oh yes, busses coming at once wasn’t it…. well, whilst we were swaning around Paris two of the pregnant mums, Sioux and Brooklyn both gave birth at the same time in the middle of a thunderstorm and Sioux had problems birthing…….and Evey was on her own!
Sioux looking a bit grubby from rolling around on the floor trying to birth her young boy, luckily neighbour Laurel came over to help Eve with them. Unfortunately she doesn’t seem to have much milk so we’re bottle feeding every four hours or so for the moment.
Brooklyn had no probs and popped out a strapping girl, she’s white under the dirt camouflage honest!
Outside to dry off a bit between showers.
A better shot of Tasha’s girl,ten days on, looking good.
And another shot of Trisca’s ‘black face lamb’ or was it “I knew I should have put the lid back on that paintpot”!
Tues. 27th June
As I said……Tasha wasn’t going to wait so she popped out a little brown girl a week last Sunday, 8 days early so not too soon and she’s a good weight, a playmate for Amelia’s cria ‘Juno’ and Lacota’s cria ‘Terra’.
I guess that has started the ball rolling now because yesterday morning Tasha’s daughter Celeste followed in mums footsteps and birthed 12 days early!….one upmanship going on here me thinks!
A very dark brown, almost black boy, a little light in the weight department and a little crimpled around the edges, I think he must have been a bit jammed in thats why Celeste popped him out early!
See how he goes and make sure he’s getting plenty of milk to boost him up, bloomin’ flies are a pain at the moment, they cover their faces straight away.
Then blow me down this morning if Blaze didn’t give birth at 8.00am, Yvonne popped out to check everyone at 6.30 and they were all grazing happily, we had breakfast then wandered out and there was another newbie…………..
First time mum ‘Blaze’ popped out this little sweety, unfortunately another boy, this colour would have been lovely for a girl….. never mind. She was actually due tomorrow but was showing no signs of being close so we thought she would probably be late being a first timmer……..wrong!
He started feeding straight off which is always a good sign……might be quite a smart boy then!
………………………… INTERMISSION ………………….
Sorry for slight delay, on ‘cria watch’ as I’m typing this and Trisca who was due to birth yesterday was Very agitated and not comfortable this morning so I just popped out on hourly check-up and…. ……….. Ta DAA…….she’s gone and birthed as we speak!
Welcome to our world young lady……….Yup, a girl, well done Trisc!
Well, she’s a different colour-combo that’s for sure!
Two births today……so far!……..it’s like waiting for a buses and they all come at once, we’ve still got Brooklyn who is overdue by 6 days who could pop imminently, so interesting times……..current count is 4 girls and 2 boys……….love it!
Monday 12th June
‘allo, ‘allo,’allo……….S’mee again………….Look……..
………now there’s a look of attitude from someone only half an hour old!
Yup, Amelia finally gave birth yesterday miday after 357 days cooking her, 8 days short of a year out popped…….err, haven’t got a name for her yet (or for Lakota’s cria last week either!)
Not a very clear shot but she’s a mini-me of mum,lovely dense curly fleece by the looks of things and a fiesty little madam, came out at 7.5kgs and was up on her feet in 10 mins. running and crashing into the others in half an hour…….brilliant!
Instead of ‘line dancing’ we have trained our ‘pacas in the new art of ‘line sunbathing’……..
They have taken very well to it so far and with more hot,sunny weather likely they should become quite profficient by the end of summer!
Well, that’ll do for now, next due to birth will be suri ‘Brooklyn’ in 10 days time followed by Tasha and Trisca a week later…….that’s if Tasha waits that long……unlikely as she’s looking very uncomfortable now and usually pops them out early!
The ‘memsahib’ has been busy planting this spring and the front of house is looking very colourful now……..lovely.
Sunday 4th June
Back again like a bad smell I am…….sorry but I thought you’d like to know whilst it’s still fresh news…….ok, I’ve been beaten by ‘her’ and facebook but for those of us not on facebook it’s new news!
Yesterday lunchtime Lacota finally decided it’s time to stop cooking it and serve it up………..
Unfortunately after all the lovely dry weather we have had she decided to pick the one wet miserable day to deliver,so came in and dropped her cria on the nice dusty, now muddy floor, well done Lacota! Handfulls of hay quickly scattered around to make things a bit better but she is well grubby. I think she was white’ish before she hit the ground but now…….who knows,any shade of dirty brown!……..Yup,she’s a she so that’s always a good start to the years birthings.
Aah, that’s better, a different day and a bit of sunshine today.
A shaggy little criter she is and definately two tone,half white and half fawn, not good for showing but a dream fibre for the spinners and knitters.
And we’ve just started getting next years births from the planning stage to phase one, T minus 345 days and counting………
Our Issac is going to get a bit of work this year, lucky boy……mind you I think he might be in for a pleasant surprise in a moment……is that a threesome coming up?
Jorja has had enough by now and rolled onto her side, looking for her cigarettes no doubt! Issac’s just Sooo happy to get a bonk!
Oh yes, on the last post I did mention that there may be a reason for the ‘new box’ the slaves have made……..well here it is………………………
Fergus posing outside the ‘new box’, a nice new field shelter for the boys in ‘Pond field’.
A very professional looking box I must say, full credit to the Slaves for a cracking job….. obviously the roof and fencing (still to be finished by the way) are the icing on the cake so to speak……oh yes, they were done by my good self……after the slaves had gone leaving half a shelter completed…..but hey, would I mention that?…….of course not!
Oh well, that’ll do for now, see ya soon……….
Sunday 28 May
Here we is back again and just within the month too! When I left you last we had sheared the ‘pacas and it was raining and chilly……..now I’m hiding inside cause it’s too bloomin’ hot out there trying to work in the field, wall to wall sunshine and 38 deg.c…….I know, any use to stop working!
So, shearing done and all the boys and girls have been moved around into different fields now to make the most of all the lovely new grass available…………
The weenlings and their ‘uncles’ having a canter around in ‘Pond field’
The girls have come up to ‘Barn field’,nearer the house ready for birthing as first up is Lacota who was due yesterday followed by Amelia next week, both ‘first timers’ then we have a gap until end of June when Dabbs,Tasha and Trisca are all due on 26th but we rekon Tasha will pop hers out early….. she usually does and is ‘bagged up’ ready to go now!
We’ve all been getting messy with the ‘Diatomaceous earth’ after shearing…..
ditommaso what? I here you cry…… it’s a very expensive powder made from fossilised remains of tiny aquatic organisms called diatoms whose skeletons are made of silica.Microscopically its sharp edges are very abrasive and it kills insects and mites by drying them out and being ‘food grade’ a little added to food or just ingested as they roll around helps internally at reducing mites and parasites……..if nothing else they love it and have just gotta have a roll!
Easter had a different haircut this year, because the poor lad feels the cold more these days especially in his hip joints Lara gave him a Llama style ‘barrell’ cut, just around the middle. He was certainly better just after shearing when everyone else was cold he was looking quite smug!
A couple of weeks ago we were invited to bring some alpacas and our wares along to an ‘Artisan fair’ in the streets of La Souterraine……can always be an interesting day so why not……..
……..ooh, that’s handy, right next to the café, good spot!
Well, I don’t think many people were expecting to see alpacas on the streets of the town and they certainly slowed the passing traffic down……there were cameras going off left right and centre all day! Unfortunately it turned to heavy rain showers in the afternoon so we called it a day around 3.00pm and took the very grateful,fed up with being prodded and stroked weenlings home for some peace and quiet.
Now that’s how to paint your house…… I bet that confuses the drunks on a Saturday night trying to walk up the steps!
Our two regular travelling ‘Slaves’ have paid their first visit of the year this last month with a two and a half week, work re-assessment course incorporating design limitations, structural surveying,building construction parameters and artistry in paint effect visualisation……impressed aren’t you I can tell, I’ve obviously been reading some un-intelligible bumph from somewhere,anyway we will even offer a diploma type certificate for competance if the finished work lasts more than a few weeks, How’s that!
Unfortunately these two are well known for their need of rest and Tea on the hour where possible so overlabouring is not allowed by management……..mutter,mutter,mutter,who do they think they are huh?
…..so much so that this is not a slave digging the floor out…..this is slave ‘Master’ digging the floor out………Wrong,oh this is So wrong!
Laying concrete for the new boutique floor is definately slave work….phew at least they’ll do that!
Whilst slave one was concreting slave two was brush in hand, painting all wooden doors and lintels black……everywhere or until she ran out of paint!
Now then……..
So……when you saw slave sitting cup of tea in hand just now they were constructing this frame…… …………………..can you tell what it is yet?
Of course it is….a large wooden box
for putting things in, it’s what farmers need isn’t it?
Aaha…… normal service has been resumed…….Slave working and Master standing watching whilst giving essential infallible advise……that’s more like it!
Superb……full complement of workforce hard at it…..lovely jubbly!
It was with some disapointment that our volunteers time contract expired before fully completing the ‘box’ or any further work on the boutique but ‘c’est la vie’, Master will just have to finish them both off unaided……..as usual……..let down again, just can’t get the staff these days.
In fact…….I have an idea for the box, give me a day or two and I’ll get back to you…………
Tues.2nd May ’17
Ha ha!……….got ya, I know you keep clicking on the ‘blog’ to find nothings changed,no new drivel to despair over and then I catch you out…….or were you expecting a longer break and I’m actualy early?….ah,now there’s the conundrum, who’s surprised who? ……..hmmmm
It’s shearing time again…..you can tell because the weather has reverted back to winter with wind,rain and tumbling temperatures! lots of unhappy,shivering ‘pacas unfortunately, happens most years but we’re all tied to when the shearers are available.
Here we go then, stretched on the unloved rack for their ten mins. of fame as we all ‘Ooh and Aah’ over this years fleece quality, or move swiftly onto the next one in some cases!
Little ‘Cori’ having his first experience of being undressed. He looks to have the best quality of everyones fleeces this year although we will confirm that when we send off the samples later this week to be tested. It could be termed as ‘sods law’ that as breeders of ‘coloured alpacas’ we produce a white with the bestest fleece of the lot!
How to unwrap an alpaca!
The lovely young rose grey girl ‘Jay’
And then it is only right that we stop for a proper lunch,french style to keep all happy………..
…….look at that blue sky,that was Saturday, Sunday it was grey,cloudy and then the heavens opened just after we finished and started on lunch…..bugger,”quick folks,pick up the tables and decamp into the barn and carry on” We’ve had a good shearing stint this year,all’s run pretty much to plan(surprisingly!) we’ve missed the rain and sheared in the dry and all the alpacas have behaved very well……and so have all the owners and helpers……well done and many thanks to our shearers again this year Richard and Lara, brill job guys.
A couple of weeks ago we teamed up with a friend Lynn who runs the Alpaca B&B not far away in north Dordogne………No, it’s not a B&B for alpacas silly, it’s a B&B that has alpacas in the gardens for the enlightenment and delictation of the discerning guests……..mind you,now that you mention it I quite like the idea of a B&B for alpacas to come to!
Anyway,where was I?………oh yeah, Sérelihac, where we teamed up to have a stand at the spring ‘Salon des animaux’, an animal fair aimed chiefly at small animals, dogs,cats rabits etc but we were invited to come and show off our strange creatures as well for a couple of days.
Set out your wares and talk the day away and there were lots of visitors with lots and lots of questions!……….and if I have to tell one more person that it’s NOT A F#~+ing LLAMA I’ll scream and scream and ……..
Balls of wool on the hoof.
A neat little row of very patient youngsters sat in their tent waiting to meet and greet with their adoring public, bless them.
……..look a ride-on rabbit, ok maybe there were some creatures a bit bigger than cats and dogs,infact Eve saw a skunk on a lead in the main tent………err,no comment !
Who luvs ya baby! I think we should have a few of these on the farm…… might have to raise the fencing a bit higher I suppose though.
Last years wool came back from the mill the other week……….cooo it’s lovely, look……….
The photie doesn’t do them justice I’m affraid,the colours are wonderful, our thanks to Bertrand and Veronique at Valée des Saules again for a cracking job.
And to finish for now……….gatelike looking constructions……….
The workshop has resounded to the sound of wood being sawn and screws hammered in (it’s quicker than trying to screw them in and the batteries are always flat on the electric tools!) It ain’t half bad actualy,if I say so myself……….
It even fits in the hole between the fence and barn!…….or did I make the fence finish there after putting the gate in position?….. hmm,sounds too much like forward planning to me…… possible but it is me we’re talking about………. maybe you’ll never know!
Fri. 31 st March
There we go, I said I wouldn’t leave it a month until we catch up again and I haven’t……..it’s six weeks! I don’t get it at all, I know it takes you longer to do things as you get older and more incompetent and time seems to go quicker whilst you’re faffing around being incompetent and dropping things then trying to work out what the bit is that you’ve just dropped is and how on earth it ever fitted in the place it seemed to drop from and still work properly and if it didn’t come from there then where did it come from and why can’t I work it out?…..so many an hour passes in a blur of incomprehension and general bafflement with the world and as the ageing process destroys a few million more brain cells every day my only hope now is that if one regresess far enough one will become a gobby,know-it-all late teenager again capable of functioning on a couple of hours sleep a week,partying all night,up for work next morning,capable of setting-up any complicated newfangled gadget without the need for instruction manuals whilst at the same time sending romantic texts to their girlfriend on one phone and arranging that nights party with their mates on another. Grumpy?……….me?……….never……………
Well, the only problem with leaving it so long again now is that there are lots and lots of photies to fill it up with…. and I probably haven’t got time to do it all !!!! Stop it and just get on with it will you……..
Ok, we’ve been and gone and bought some more chickens again, you know ‘fox fodder’ but had to do it, it’s been too quiet without some chooks about and the fresh eggs, so the chicken pen has had another security revamp and seven new inmates installed…………
A mixed bunch of egg poppers
We delivered the last group of girls and boys the other weekend to their new owners ‘down south’ near Rodez,
Elianne, Sparrow and Tuppence eyeing up their ride………not convinced on this!
A somewhat damp and misty south of france for Harper,BJ and Asterix, it’s a lovely view once the mist has cleared boys, honest.
Neighbour Tony wanted to take his digger for a walk the other day as it has been feeling lonely parked up in the barn so asked if I would mind leading it and reassuring it as it gets a bit nervous on the road if cars come by, bless!
In between times we’ve started doing a bit of re-fencing of the top paddocks……………..
Making wooden things to fill the void between the ends of the wirey bits…….could be loosly termed ‘gates’ but I’d reserve judgement on that until we see if they actually open and close!
The trusty home-made fence tightener has been working well, we have more trouble getting the posts far enough in the ground not to get pulled over by the super tight stock fence now!
Had a bit of wind a few weeks ago (it’s that age thing again, well…..that and a good curry) which unfortunately uprooted a small tree overhanging one of Eve’s greenhouses……….nurse,pass the chainsaw please, sorry but it’s for your own good.
It’s the time for ‘Weenlings on excercise’ now, a bit of halter training going on prior to ‘showtime’,
As always some are more adept at it than others but this years group have all been good and willing to walk, no refusals or lying playing dead on the ground.
Unfortunately our one and only Alpaca show scheduled for the end of April has just been cancelled due to staffing problems………merde! The biggest alpaca shows are going on in the uk as we speak,with entries of 500+ animals and we can’t organise one solitary show for the whole of france……..sad isn’t it, it’s that time thing again, no-ones got the time spare for all the organising needed. Oh well, try again next year!
So in the mean time…….re-training has moved in a new direction, we will train our own football team to show off!
Team tactics were discussed as kick-off approached……………..
……….. and off we went, an encouraging and spirited start was slightly marred by some deliberate and flagrant flouting of the rules……………
…….with the first training session match degenerating into a free for all when both teams refused to observe the ‘off side rule’ and the match had to be abandonned for the safety of the referees. Further training will be required.
Watch this space for team news.