Tue. 21st Feb.

Ha ha…..there you are, so much for me trying to scribble on the blog a bit more often……huh!……there goes a month this time, well not too much goes on in january and february usually anyway apart from more manky weather and time to try and catch up with indoor jobs and of course the dreaded paperwork…….you know, end of year accounts…..the lies and half-truths we want the accountant to pass on to the tax man to make it possible for us to carry on again another year!  ” ……… all good fun.

So, we’ve said goodbye to a few of our girls this last month, gone to new homes far and wide, one little group up near Angers in Maine et Loire and  young Pepper and Katla over to near Lyon in Rhône………..

 

     A row of contented bums munching hay in their very swish new barn at their new home, Espresso,Cece,Cosette and Cinna I think will enjoy their new surroundings.

 

 

 

 

 

Katla and Pepper walking out to examine their transport which was to some surprise emblazoned with a large union jack! ,oddly they were french buyers with a french built and registered Ifor Williams horse box but it comes from the french factory with a soddin’ great union jack advertising 60 years of building trailers……..love it!

 

                                                                    Up you go girls, your charriot awaits……

It’s hard to say goodbye to them especially as we’ve raised them all from cria and gone through all the usual trials and tribulations involved with raising any creature to the best of ones ability……. but we are alpaca breeders and that’s what we set out to do and they are going to new owners who will I hope look after and enjoy them as much as we have.

 

It’s been a noticably dry winter here so far……..famous last words! although today is grizzly and damp,hence why I’m making time to whitter on here for a bit but last week spring had definately arrived, the birds were singing,the sun was shinning and in the afternoons it was T-shirts whilst working outside in the garden weeding and repairing greenhouses etc, that’s more like it!   Evey has started potting up flower seeds etc and has some wonderful compost to use now as we had neighbour Tony over with one of his big tractors with large bucket on front to ‘bulldoze’ the big rubish heep outside the sheep barn to uncover many years worth of rotted horse and alpaca manure………’black gold’!

 

 

 

 

Yeah,ok, it’s a heap of soil….big deal….

 

 

 

 

 

                    How’s that?……a bit more artistic with a ‘Bandit’ in the shot…….no?, ok, moving on…….

 

 

Honking Cranes!……..the little dots in the grey sky are migrating Cranes heading back north to Scandinavia from their summer breeding grounds in Spain and Africa. Sorry but we get somewhat excited about it because it means spring is definately here and it’s warming up if they’re on the move, there has been wave after wave the last couple of weeks, they are better than any weather forecast!

 

 

Shocking news hot off the press…………Plans are afoot for us to actually do some building/ decorating kinda work around the place…….not on the house heaven forbid but on the attached shed between house and  old pigpens……. we’re going to convert it into a ’boutique’ to display all the alpaca goodies, the wool and products etc……..see that’s the problem with these long winter nights you start having ………ideas and we all know that ‘ideas’ only lead to ‘trouble’ followed by vast ‘expense’ and ‘complications’………..we really should know better but we’re only doing it to give you something to laugh at…….the things I do for you!

 

The shed……..sorry proposed ’boutique’ with nice courtyard just crying out for little tables serving tea and cakes for weary ’boutique browsers’……..just gotta loose the grass and put some nice pots of plants around and…….and……..

 

 

 

hhmm….I know, a bit of work needed, well I did say ‘proposed’…….ambition and ability may well figure highly once we start doing it but hey it’ll be entertaining……… and if anyone wants to come and lend a hand I’m sure any imput will be greatly received……..tea and bickies/ wine and crisps always on tap!

 

 

 

Damp grubby ‘weanlings’, all eleven of them together now in the fields near the house just so we can keep an eye on them for a week or three much to the disgust of the three geldings, Fergus, Conker and Easter who are with them to act as ‘uncles’ to look after them

 

 

 

 

but they all seem to be fairing ok without their mums now and are becoming quite a good little group.

Well, that’ll do for now, try not to leave it a month again next time……..Ha!

 

Monday 23rd Jan. of the next year………..

Hi there gang,  how are we all doing? sorry for the long pause…….again! but have been a trifle busy of late looking after the ‘memsahib’ and by the end of the day the last thing likely to happen is doing battle with my nemesis the laptop, a.k.a ‘the spawn of satan’…….we still do not operate within the same parameters of language or expected results thus causing much misery and suffering, mentaly to me and often physicaly to it!…….a necessary evil unfortunately.  Actualy I’m not looking after the memsahib as she is quite capable of looking after herself, I’m more constantly poo-picking the alpacas  ,repairing broken things or trying to sort out the never ending paperwork……..more things break or go wrong in the winter when it’s minus blinking cold and the days are too short to get it all done…….. mutter,mutter,mutter……….anyway, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it! ….But…. on the good news front the memsahib is bit by bit getting better and stronger……..she’s up to swinging the small 5kg axe again for chopping our logs but is still struggling with the big chainsaw but I did tell her that she shouldn’t be that high up in the tree with the big saw anyway!

Moving swiftly on………here’s a blast from my past I recently uncovered……………….

 

………… circa thirty years ago, me and my mucker Dave Buckley dicing with stupidity on a Grass Track sidecar…… nuts!………fun, but definately nuts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frosty morning sunrise time of year, all very picture-skew……….

                                                                     Proper picture postcard look……..

Only trouble with the pretty weather is lots more running about with buckets of water and trailers of hay for everyone…………

 

 

 

 

Meals on wheels for the boys………….

 

 

 

 

 

………..and formation ‘starring at the camera’ by newby ‘Loti’ and ‘Fraggle’.

 

 

 

We seperated the first four weenlings from their mums the week before last and bought them up to the top hanger with teenager Jorja for company so that they can run the orchard with the three geldings Easter, Fergus and Conker and then the next three will come up this week and the final youngest four in a couple of weeks time, well, that’s the theory but It’ll probably change!

 

 

A new bit of entertainment started last week when our neighbour Claude got the builders in to do a bit of work on the back of the house………………….

 

              ………….errr, a bit excesive for re-pointing isn’t it lads?

 

 

 

 

 

…… “ahh, there’s the crack, I can see it now, might need a few more bags of cement though to stick it back together”

 

 

 

Me thinks this could keep us well entertained for a month or two………watch this space!

Fri. 16th December

Oohh only two weeks since last I spoke, surprised myself for once, I thought it was much longer than that…….. excellent!

Well, since then we’ve had another one of those nasty life changing events……or rather Eve has in as much as she was diagnosed with two new tumours in a kidney…….bugger, where did they come from? rounds of hospital visits and scans followed quickly and then into hospital and offending kidney removed, no messing about as they were too big to be treated, one week in hospital and home the day before yesterday…….very sore and tired.

So I get to play nursey and look after her……….well, No ok…… so you know as well as I do that I wouldn’t be trusted with anything so important or grown up as looking after anyone…….jeez, he can’t even be trusted with himself, lets face it it’s a miracle he’s got to this age relatively intact without deleting himself from the human gene pool somewhere along the way…….So, it’s a good job that this seemingly very good french health system provides regular home visiting nurses, in Eve’s case twice daily for three weeks,changing dressings and stabbing her with nasty sharp needle things……..mind you I’m quite adept at that with all our practice with the alpacas, I’m more than happy to administer a wormer or two if she likes!

 

On a happier note we have welcomed a new arrival here to the ‘funny farm’………….

Say hello to Loti…………

 

                       She’s a five year old, rose grey colour female, un-tried as a mother so we are taking a bit of a gamble with her but if you don’t give it a go ……you never find out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She’s a lovely looking girl, hopefully she’ll do us proud.

That’ll do for the now, better go and write Christmas cards I suppose…….baa humbug……I was going to make a Christmas cake but I can see that failing to happen one way or another……..we’ll see!

 

 

Friday 2nd Dec.

Here we iz…….. and there’s gone another bloomin’ month……woosh……..ta ta……..

 

                                              Morning sparkly bits, very pretty,  that’ll be December arrived then……

So what have we been up to these last few weeks?………… a bit of gardening work, but even with some rain the ground is still dry and rockhard following the long hot summer and the little bit of new grass that had started growing is stopping now as the temperature is dropping away……but on the brighter side we’ve been having lots more interest in the alpacas and especially prospective new french owners wishing to start breeding herds……..yeah, at last!

Last month some of the bigger breeders here organised a meeting in Paris to get all owners and breeders together to discuss the future of the alpaca industry in France……if there is a future?, are enough people interested in making an industry work, can we all pull together to go forward and promote these lovely creatures and their valuable wool? and can we present a coherent,professional face to put our views and needs forward at government level to prevent restrictive and un-necessary legislation that is rapidly heading our way?………… cor, steady Nigel, that sounds a bit grown up for me…..sorry!

Anyway,  it would seem that the answer was a resounding  ‘Yes’  as 30 odd owners arrived at a hotel in Paris at 9.00am of a Sunday morning to thrash out what we need to do…….yeah, we had to leave home at 4 am to get there on time as did many others…….but we needed all day ’cause some of us gas way too much and we only just got the meeting wound up by 6.00pm as we promised to do!………what a way to spend your sunday!

Result is we have a new association that we are all running called……….. wait for it, you’ll love this…….. Union Professionelle France Alpaga……..UPFA……….. appalling isn’t it?! …… more like a bad case of myopic indigestion I reckon! ……… hush Nigel, it is what was voted for by the ‘collective’ so accept it or you’ll have 7 of 9 after you.

Anyway, lots of volunteers willing to start doing lots of jobs to get us all pulling our socks up and making a proper go of this so………onwards my friends, lets show everyone what we can do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I want to be a Tree when I grow up! ……..thanks Sherlock,do you have to do that??

 

Now then……….. the small matter of ‘Slave labour’ around our little ‘Toy farm’. As we near ‘year-end’  it has been noted that there was a slight reduction in the normal availabilty and booking of our usual  ‘volunteer’ workaways…. namely those associated with the enterprise known as ‘Chaingang services’………a normally staunch and reliable UK ‘slave’ allocation department specialising in retirement age ‘ner do wells who benefit from a solid ‘hard labour’ regime to re-invigorate their self esteem and personal worth (other brands are available) ……..for this purpose we are More than happy to provide the required ‘hard labour’ deemed necessary to meet their requirements…..and have been so doing for the last few years…….. the shortfall would appear to be in the autumn allocation this year which was conspicuously absent. After the usual ‘springtime’ flurry and calmer summer run of willing participants the autumn session has been positively bereft of ‘travailling miscreants’……..nada, not a one to be spotted, we’ve searched the four corners of our lands, high and low, in the treetops & hedgerows, behind rocky spires, underneath the flatest stones……..not a worker to be found………we have been left wanting, undeniably devoid of aid, abandoned to our own devices………to toil alone in this foreign land with narry a thought cast in our direction for the trials and tribulations of this thankless task……….in short we are forced to………………………..

…………………………………………………..repair things ourselves, nay, even forced to fair ‘Manual labour’ with our delicate hands, risk dare I say it……..dirt under the finger nails!   This must stop, this inhuman treatment cannot be alowed to continue to our goodselves otherwise further instances of the following photographic evidence will become commonplace………………….

 

 

………we have been forced……..to make a Gate.  This is quite obviously unacceptable behaviour and cannot be allowed to continue, this is unargueably ‘slave labour’  and should be reserved for them, we cannot be seen to condone this action but if ‘chaingang services’ operate a further breach of contract in the forthcoming year we will be forced to  ‘Make’ more things.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

………..you have been warned!!

 

Just to end tonight here’s a last look at the piggies……….

 

        who have found their way into the freezer again, seems to happen every year……very careless of them.

Have to say they are very scrummy this year, we must have fed them just right!

Nov. 6th…….err, 4,…5,…6…must be Sunday then……..

Hello, tis only I  finding time between rain showers, at last the rains have come……..sounds more like africa but it seems like we’ve been waiting for the rainy season to come! and it is bloomin’ cold with it all of a sudden, logs are in, both the fires are lit……there goes another summer.

When I say ‘must be Sunday then, the 6th’, I am using that in the flexible sense…..as in it could actualy be the following Saturday by now, last Sunday just being the day I started this but then had to stop for one reason or another……..as usually hapens!

Anyway,  shall we try and continue for a bit, see what occurs………..

                                                     Having some cracking sunsets lately though………..

 

After we sent young Debut back to his owners in Spain I did say that I was going to mutter on about the joys of sending him back, the official hoops to jump through just to take him over an imaginary line on the ground that’s been drawn on a map……..the country he came from not too long ago, a neighboring country still part of ‘the single european community’, free trade and travel etc  etc ……..you’d think he was coming from a third world country rife with nasty diseases, un-discovered creepy crawly’s and monumental bureaurocratic incompetance …………Oh yeah ok, not far off then!

So, first step; contact the regional health department for all information relating to import/export of anything, the DDCSPP : ‘Départementale de la Cohésion sociale et de la protection des Populations.’…..they love their acronymns here!

DDCSPP duly contacted……..’you want to export what?’….err…no idea what paperwork you need to export one of those!….. has it got a passport?…….No, it’s not a dog and it hasn’t got any frequent flyer miles either, I just want to put it in my van and take it back to it’s home in northern spain, it’s not far, only about six and a bit hours away ……..’Oh non monsieur you cannot take your camel over the border in your van unless you have a licence as a registered transporter, I will contact my counterparts in the neighboring department and see if they know, au’revoir monsieur’ …….’but,but you must know, there are alpacas coming in and out of France all the time these days,you must have come across them before’……….bbbrrrr, dialing tone,silence……err, good bye then…..

Some time passed,…… followed by a bit more time……..then low and behold, an email of conditions required for  travel arrived via one ministère to another ministère who can’t quite agree on if the ‘blue tongue vaccine’ they prescribe is recognised for alpacas or not………well, if you don’t flippin’ know I’m hardly likely to am I? , they sugest I contact the health authorities in spain and check with them……yeah right,sounds like you’re making hard work out of this me ‘ol mate, it’s the only vaccine everyone seems to be using at the moment so that’ll do for me Tommy, we’ll order that from our vets now as it has got to be given at least 42 days before transport as well as a written confirmation from the vets that there have been no cases of TB or Brucelloses within the 42 days and then he’s got to be tested for TB and Brucelloses inside the 30 days prior to departure and then have a clean bill of health from our vet 48 hours before departure all of which must be documented onto a six page ‘Union Européenne’ certificate, known as TRACES, downloadable from the internet and then taken ‘in person’ to the dear lady at our DDCSPP to be stamped and signed within 48 hours of leaving……..hopefully, to allow him to go……..oh yeah, we also need certificates of current authorisation to transport animals, registration numbers and certificates of disinfecting of vehical ……..err, phew  ok.

So, we’ve got to get a definate date and time from the transport company to fill in the nice neat little boxes on this here form then………hmmm, the problem being that we have arranged very loosely to go on a shared horse transport from UK heading for Portugal via france and Spain and then back to UK a week or so later, keeps the cost down for us and they are a very well known and reputable company……but we are in the hands and timing of other customers, only knowing that it should be early’ish October, we just have to wait to hear,so can’t arrange the rest of the veterinary tests yet as they might run out of validity before he goes……..difficult!

Wallop……nine days before the end of September an email from transport…….collection 1/2nd Oct. that’s just seven ‘working days’ and we all know how swiftly france works…….bugger, this could be tight! Next day up to the vets, urgent please need these tests doing, yup, no problem but the bloods have to go to the laboratory in Limoges for testing and can take a week………err, NO that’s the wrong answer actually, what you need to be telling me is 3 days will be possible and I will be a happier alpaca owner………’mmmm, we can but ask’…….thank you.

Phone the lady at the DDCSPP, ‘ please can I make an appointment to bring the TRACES documents in to be checked and signed off next week as transport is coming Saturday ?’…..’ we are only open to the public Weds. or Friday PM’………ok, better be Friday as I may not have the vet papers earlier…….ooh, this is gonna be close, if she’s not happy with something and says ‘ No stamp’ we’re buggered, cause the transport’s already on it’s way and’ll be here in 24 hours and they won’t take him without the right documents………ooh lets hope I’ve filled it in right!, lets hope the blood test results come back in time…….lets hope, lets hope……..

Come Thursday, no results from the laboratory………up to the vets, can you phone them please and rush it along? Yes, they’ll be ready tomorrow late morning and pop them in the post……..post?…….POST??!!  I’ve got a f*+=ing appointment at 2 PM I need them , what do you know about the french postal service that I’m missing? have they perfected time travel now? do they fly above us with sleigh’s crammed with letters pulled by Prancer,Dancer,Donner and Blitzen distributing our mail all in one morning?, please explain to me how the f*/+  are they gonna pull this one off?, can they not email you the results and you print them off and stamp them for me along with the other health certificates……..please, pretty please?

Busy Friday it was, sat in the vets awaiting results and emails……waiting patiently…….waiting Not so patiently….. finally emailed results,then the slow painstaking filling and stamping of forms by a vet who was the only one on duty that morning and who had never done this before and was unsure if he should realy be doing this unsupervised with a near hysterical alpaca owner pleading with him to ‘please sign the attestation and pop your veterinary stamp on it….now, quick as you can please, I’ve gotta get to Limoges yet to see if I can avoid having my day spoilt by a ‘jobs worth burocrat’ sitting behind her fortress desk looking forward to the fast approaching weekend which could be nicely set up by ruining some imigrant ‘rost biefs’ day by stopping his paperwork due to his poor grasp of their wonderfully flowery language………..lets do battle madame.

A quick blast down to Limoges on the bike, speed limits observed, honest officer. DDCSPP offices found in the centre of the financial area of the city, no surprise there then! Push on the door…….locked, check time…….gone 2pm, apointments for two, check sign on door…….. yup, DDCSPP, push door again…….nope locked…..great! Stand and wait, look unpeturbed, bit by bit other people arrive and do the same, phew, it’s not just me then……it’s the great french lunchtime, 2pm re-start after lunch is just a vague suggestion of a possibility of an option for a discussion for recommencement of work for that afternoon, it is in no way to be construed as a definate probability!

Anyway, being first in the queue when the doors did eventually open meant I was called straight up to the the bastion of power, Madame Levrerre’s office on the third floor where I was invited to perch in an intimidated fashion on the edge of my seat as she studied the reams of paperwork I presented to her…….studied in silence piece by piece, then shuffled and re-studied…….piece by piece in continued silence………bugger this is hard work, I’m scared to even clear my throat never mind say anything, maybe I should try to open a small conversation, you know break the ice a bit……perhaps I could………….’tut’ sshhh, another shuffle of paper……’Monsieur where is the name of the disinfectant used in the transport vehical?’………errr ‘does it not say on the certificate of cleansing of vehical…..madame? (with winning smile)  ‘Non, it also has no date of arrival or collection or departure monsieur’……..damn, I thought that could be a stumbling block, because of their shared load itinery and the vagueness of it they had not filled in the fine details, not knowing exactly when they would arrive with us……which I tried to eloquently explain to her in my not so brilliant french……..but I did find a name of disinfectant hidden in the smallprint on the back……result, thats all she wanted………a name to write in the box…….Voila monsieur, Stamp, you can go!

Yee Ha a raft of paperwork which wasn’t even looked at by the driver’s when they arrived Saturday evening to collect young Debut, just thrown into the glove box along with all the other rubbish accumulated on a week away trip around Europe!

  Not very good night shots of  ‘Goldie’ the transport lorry backing up in our yard on arrival saturday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And an even worse piture off Debut in the ‘flash’ tucking into his hay on board.

Still, now we’ve done the ‘official’ export bit once now it’ll be a doddle next time!……….. Ha!

Fri. 21st Oct.

       Hello there, Clove here…….you know me, Cassis’ girl, turning pretty now aren’t I?…….you just wait,I’m going to be a cracker if I do say so myself!

 

So what’s been occuring then in the last three weeks?…….ooh, a bit of this a bit of that……still waiting for a decent amount of rain , I know when it starts it will carry on in biblical proportions for weeks but we do need something to get a bit of grass growing before the cold really sets in and it all stops. The poor old ‘pacas are grazing what little there is, clearing the hedgerows and munching through our winter hay at a fair old rate, never mind It’ll work out, still time to play silly buggers………..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

……..aahh how cute, who’s the silliest ,Fin or the odd one in red?………….don’t answer that thank you!

 

I went off on a day jolly out to the ‘Salon d’agriculture’ at Clermont Ferrand with neighbours Tony, Jacky and  tractor mechanic friend David the other week, boys toys day!

Lots of large expensive bits of kit, most of which I had no idea what they did…… and when explained it still beget the question……..Why?, do you really need it to do that?  followed by……HowMuch???

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

….aahh lots of nice evening meals rowed up for inspection.

Nags being shown off in the ring…….. but definitely no alpacas to be found, I hunted high and low but nada,

something we might have to look into for next year.

 

As it’s been dry for so long we figured we should make a better crossing point over the ditch on the way down to Pond field and flower meadow before the rains come. Once it gets wet and boggy there it’s a real struggle to get poor old Petunia the Poover through and as we usually poo pick every three days it is kinda important, …………..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

……….so we had a cuppa tea and “right said Fred,here’s what we gonna do……..”

……..now all the plans including dimensions,load bearing coefficients and lateral stresses were meticulously calculated and written out on the back of a matchbox before being put somewhere safe and ignored in the enthusiasm of construction………..I always wanted to be in the royal engineers, building bridges and things for tanks to trash, great fun…………

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

………look at that, spanning the divide an engineering masterpiece, it’ll last……well, weeks possibly…….ok, at least until the wet rots the planks away, you’ll just have to drive faster over it so as not to put too much weight in one spot for too long……..I’ve got a formula for that on my matchbox somewhere,…… it’s the same formula as the one for running fast in the rain to avoid being hit by the same rain drop twice, bear with me I’ll find it.

 

Oh yes, nearly forgot to say that we’re missing another alpaca……..not in a nasty way, in a good way, we sold Briganda, Tasha’s girl from last year, to a very nice breeder who runs an eco farm in the foothills of the  High Pyrenees, a beautiful setting in the mountains,lots of lush grass and views to die for, hopefully she’ll like it there,she will certainly be well looked after.

Didn’t get any photo’s of her leaving……too busy sorting everything else out, never mind!  Now I was going to tell you about the fun of sending Debut back to Spain but I’ve kinda run out of time right now……soo I will try very hard to do it in a few days time……meaning next week…….’ish, promise!

Sunday 2nd Oct. ’16

Wwooosh…….there goes another month, October already……must have missed September somewhere on the way,  I do remember it was hot and sunny still, we had that little fire excitement the first week then we had a mini-tornado come ripping through one evening which felled a few trees around and about and tore the top out of a couple of ours, more firewood! …….err, then we attended the annual ‘weirdos and devients’ wool day at Chateau Peyras followed the following weekend by having a stand at the Bussiére Poitevine ‘artisans fair’, both events accompanied by a trusty alpaca team of Harper, Sherlock, BJ and Mo to astound and amaze the visiting public by strutting their stuff and asked please not to spit at any of their admirers…….. a big ask when some numpty,having been asked not to, insists on hanging over the pen hurdles and trying to repeatedly pat one on the head…….. I told you they don’t like it, you so deserved that!

We’ve had a few visitors old and new this last month, some for just the day and others for a few, great to see you all, keeps us in touch with the big outside world a bit more tee hee……. commiserations with Steve and Sarah who left us after a couple of great days catching up only to have the car break down on the way back to the tunnel……..oh no!…… three days later after waiting for parts for the repair they finally made it home, sorry guys, a naff end to your holidays.

Oh yeah……….we have done a bit of gardening work along the way surprisingly enough,even though there’s no grass and the ground is like concrete the bloomin’ weeds and brambles still keep a growing……..little varmints!  And a few journeys up onto my favourite place………the roof, to move the odd drip/leak from one spot to another……..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

……..ooh I love it up here, not! it’s the step onto or off the ladder, flailing around in the void trying to get your foot on something solid without missing or disappearing through the rotten bit………love it.

                      But once there it is a great view…………. blimey that’s a bit overgrown down there, better suggest that                                                           someone may want to do a little weeding at some point soon……….

 

       When Steve was here he helped Mo practice his dancing party trick, it means that Mo can get to eat all the tree leaves that others can’t reach…….clever move Mo!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have no idea why I’ve put that pic in, it just seems like a fun shot we had done for a magazine article……. moving swiftly on……….

On the gardening work side, the weeds seem to be getting bigger……..the lady said that she wanted the hedge trimming to shoulder height so we figured this big woody weed in the middle ought to come out first……….”was that alright madame? we’ll clear the mess up later, promise”

 

Aah, Chateau Peyras wool fetish’ists day out………..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our little alpaca settlement under the trees,nice bit of shade for the lads,views over the battlements, lovely……just another eight hours to go………….ZZzzzzzzz

                                                   Awake awake peasant…..un spectacle, fire throwing Jongleurs……..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

……. and a fire breathing dragon, obviously quaffing the local brew, Chateau Peyras ‘eau de vie’……. and No I’m not letting him near the ‘pacas to test out the fire resistant properties of their fibre!

Well, it wasn’t such a bad day really…….he says trying to convince himself ready for a repeat next year, if I keep saying it, it’ll be true I’m sure.

 

And finally for now, young stud Mr. Debut set off from our fine establishment for his return to Spain at 10.00pm last night after his eighteen months pleasuring our girls, a little later than initially planned to leave but he arrived safe and sound at 8.00am this morning……. and therein lies another story I will recount in a day or two…….he glibly says………Ha, believe that you’ll believe anything!

 

 

 

 

Thurs. 8th Sept. ’16

“OOOOOpss a  daise”

Had a bit of an incident yesterday!

I said the other day that it had been a bit dry for a while now and we need some rain…….. well, I wasn’t wrong.

We was very lucky that we were both at home and not out working at lunchtime,just having a bite to eat and a cuppa when the well pump kept going off………thought, Bloomin’ alpaca’s have pushed an outside tap on somewhere, better go and have a look…….walked up past the barns behind the house to be met by a lovely swirl of smoke and the crackling sound of burning……….lots of burning……..oh crap, Houston we’ve got a problem!

‘All hands to the pumps’, best we hose this down a bit toute suite before it goes too far, the well pump going was because the fire had burnt through the plastic outside water pipe to the vegetable garden hose and there was now a nice fine shower spraying over that part……..well thats good,one less bit to have to hose down!

……..and the culprit for the start of the fire?……… a glass globe garden ornament sitting on a broken tree branch looking very ‘twee’ and artistic…….and acting as a magnifying glass for the scorching sun…….Ooops.

Luck was with us yesterday me thinks….. lucky we were here, lucky the water pipe burnt through setting off the pump so we investigated, lucky there was no wind as there had been the previous day so the fire advanced nice and slowly, lucky we had hoses close by and the fire burnt in that direction and not towards the barns, very lucky that more of the tinder dry hedgerows and laurel hedge didn’t get going otherwise it could have been very messy!

Still, burning off the old vegetation is good for the ground and promotes new growth……so we’re on a winner with that one, I’m not sure it was what one would call a proper controlled burn as such, a bit more haphazard than that I fear, good for raising the excitement levels without a doubt!

Stay tuned for the next gripping installment from the “funny farm” my friends.

Tues. 6th Sept. ’16

OOOOOhhhh……….the nights are arriving earlier now and the mornings are taking their own sweet time about getting light now, rats…… summers sneaking off already, although I have to say we’ve had a cracker so far and it’s still hot and dry as I speak………in fact we could desperately do with some rain, look at this wot used to be grass………

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

……. it’s all a bit yellow and crispy, a  distinct lack of green goodness about it…………

     The fields now match the wasteland that is the pig pen……..you can spot Fergus in the background, head in someone else’s bucket as usual……..just hoovering up any last microbes of the pig food that may be left behind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…….and talking piggies, as Rose said recently on Skype…….” where’s my pigs?”…….they’re doing fine,

…….. they’re a nice couple this year,just starting to get a bit boisterous now and throwing their weight around when it comes to feed time…….can knock me off my feet no trouble with their excitement to get close……ooh I’d have died to have that effect on females as a teenager! …………but then the kinda girls I would have been attracting having to use a bucket of pig grain and slops doesn’t bare thinking about……… mind you as I recall from my distant past there were one or two young girls a bit…………. No,don’t go there……………

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry about the quality of the pic. not good,not enough pixies in the iconograph aparantly, need to change something teknikal inside I think, anyway, it’s Mo doing his party piece, he can balance on his hind legs for ages to pick leaves off the trees that the others can’t reach…….clever little so and so!

 

Have been busy, amongst the usual ‘busy stuff’ getting the next batch of fibre ready to send to the mill, Evey trying to remove the hairy’er bits and the rubbish they manage to collect so well!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is Asterix’s lovely grey fleece, a real…’mmmm’ if you’re into alpaca fibre or just….’So?’ if you’re not.

     Young Mister Debut in need of a bit of a haircut!…….we gave him a little trim after this shot so at least he can see forwards a bit better now! He is due back to Spain next month,just awaiting the date for transport and me to get the export paperwork right……ha ha! we know it’ll probably end in tears, It’ll never be straight forward……never is when I get involved, you just know something will come up that the ‘authorities’ don’t like. We’ll probably end up smuggling him back over the border in the dead of night using a van load of illegal immigrant Moldovian olive tasters to run distraction for us as we slip through……..hhmmmm, could work!

Monday 15th August

                                                                                            Calypso                  

A very sad day here at the ‘funny farm’ on Friday as poor young Calypso lost her fight for life, after many months of treatment her damaged liver could cope no more, just when we thought we were winning and she had been improving slowly……….we sat with her the afternoon but she died in our arms late afternoon……… lots of tears,life can be a bugger!

 

 

Pick yourself up,dust yourself off and carry on…….when there’s livestock……there’s deadstock as they say but on a brighter side we have new stock as well……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

……a little white one, we don’t have many white ones……welcome to ‘Cori’ son of Katla our last born for this year. So it has been a proper ‘boy year’ this time, 8 boys and 3 girls, but at least the girls have been goodun’s……. 2 greys and a black which is what we like!

   Haven’t been able to catch all eleven cria together to fit into one photo, six or seven if you’re lucky……keep trying!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Cinna’ and ‘Cori’ having a neck wrestle and then apparently falling asleep!……..it’s a hard life being a ‘paca!

 

We’ve had a move round this weekend as there’s not a lot of grass left in the top fields  where the girls and cria are and they are somewhat hungry having to feed the babes so they have all gone down to Flower meadow and dropoff field where there is still some grass, meaning that the boys have had to be moved up to the top here and go on a diet for a while……..well, they’re all a bit ‘lardy’ and un-necessarily well covered shall we say, so it’ll do ’em good…….I’m not sure they agree though!

………. Happy mums and hopefully happy babes with more milk coming.