Follicle challenge.

(Dr.)' Harvey', and his dam 'Blossom' (Valentina of Reddingvale) Sire: Reddingvale Class Act;

Apple Vale Hawkeye Delicious

It's been a while and many of you have asked how are the herd etc.....well all right, nobody has, but I'll tell you. Autumn is a time for enjoying the growing cria, checking (and hoping, as it's too late to do anything about it) that pregnancies are holding, and trying to make the most of the grazing as grass growth slows down, and we don't know what the winter will throw at us. Of course, the autumn weather has been fabulous, with endless sunshine, starry nights, and a couple of showers, so our ground is very dry and cracked, and with an abundance of wild rabbits exploiting the cracks to start holes, I've been filling them in to try and avoid the risk of damaged cria legs or ankles as they charge about, but it's a losing battle - does anyone know of an effective rabbit deterrent?

Rabbit divots.

Apple Vale Florina

The South West Alpaca Group hosted a talk by Graham McHarg of Fowberry Alpacas titled, 'Feeding for Fibre' explaining how to maximise the potential of your herd fibre by careful feeding and pasture management - a fascinating presentation, and followed by the group AGM and dinner. As a result of Grahams talk, we are now carefully trying to plot the feeding and grazing regime of our pregnant females to suit the fibre follicle develpment of the foetus.

We have a public footpath crossing our land, and our village held a 'Countryfile walk' in aid of Children in Need, which included the path - when we divided the land into paddocks, we chose to create a laneway incorporating the path so that we, and walkers, don't have to worry about the alpacas - ideal in this situation.

We had a friend visit with his camera-mounted drone to film the paddocks and alpacas, and my daughter is editing the several clips together for publishing soon.

Meanwhile this afternoon, along with hedge trimming, I spent some time trying to get a few light-hearted photographs:

15 year-old Moira in her sunday best!

Moira with Scrumpy beyond.

Making progress with the two-headed gene!

Time for a rest - back soon!