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………..
