Chasing cria.

The cria are developing well. We thought that the yearling sisters of two of them were distracting them from feeding, as they're weight gain had slowed, and on occasion caught one of them stealing a sneaky drink, so we seperated the mums, cria, and an expectant one, to fresh grazing, and they have increased their rate of weight gain.

We entered a couple of fleeces into the North Devon Show, as a new challenge, and were pleased for both to get rosettes, in particular because I had shorn them, so they wouldn't have been maximum weight, as I haven't quite mastered getting all of the good leg and base of neck fibre in the first cut with the saddle.

We had a visit from Mark Steele, editor of the South West Alpaca Group newsletter (SWAGMAG) recently, who was writing an article for a new feature called Farm Focus - when dealing with the 'press' you can be putting your neck into the mouth of a lion, but I think on this occasion the lion was tame, and we are pleased with the outcome, even though I felt faintly ridiculous modelling one of Joys felted ladies hats! The main purpose was to get a little publicity, and to help the 'Ed' fill another issue.

One of the greatest pleasures (and there are many), is when the cria play chase, and they are mesmerising - the move to a new paddock gave them a larger 'circuit', so here are a few photos of one particular evening:

Apple Vale Fiesta

Fortune - Florina - Fiesta