Musical paddocks.

Well yesterday we gave the herd their due vitamin AD & E injections - we had to plan where to corral each group very carefully, so that we could catch each individual without skidding onto our a*ses in the muddy conditions. The permanent, dry shelter is being used by the weaning group, and so it would have been logistically awkward to try and manouevre each of the other groups over to that shelter - anyway, it all went to plan.

However, with the constantly damp-to-wet conditions, the condition of all paddocks is poor, and while we are resting one paddock at all times, we have to move a new group onto it before it recovers properly, as the other paddocks deteriorate, just to allow each group to occasionally have somewhere dry to sit at night. So it was, that today we had another move around, moving a group of females into the 'rested' paddock, moving Scrumpy into the paddock where the females had been, and creating a 'weight-watchers' group of females needing to slim, who moved into Scrumpys prevoius paddock. We gave Scrumpy a couple of hours in the orchard/alotment - he thought he had died and gone to heaven, before moving him off to his new paddock! The 'weight-watchers' were seriously un-impressed with their new 'squelchy' paddock.

Our weanling has the use of the dry shelter with her companions, and we hope her fleece will clean up before the National show, but it all depends how dry the paddock becomes during the daylight hours, whether her fleece actually improves or not - and one of the males, also in the show team, is in a damp paddock with some straw bedding in an open (but damp) shelter.

We can only hope that, either we get a long frosty spell before the show (not going to be this week), or, the judge seriously looks beyond the external (paddock condition) appearance, and takes notice that these animals have clearly had more fesh air and natural daylight, than the clean alpacas that have been kept in large dry barns - we've done our best, we can only hope.

Meanwhile, halter training has continued, with the lure of the squelchy but almost un-grazed lawn being the treat.

'Wean-uary'

I'm not such an ugly duckling!

With apologies for the title, using the current fad for conjoining the month with a 'movement', such as 'mo-vember' 'beard-ember'. Yes, it is time to start weaning, and with a more settled weather forecast for the next week, I decided to do it yesterday...except that after a dry day on friday, heavy rain showers began over-night, and continued all day.

We had a plan to corral the herd, disperse those not needed, halter the three 'chaperones', and lead them with the weaner, in a controlled manner up the 'avenue' along the 'track' and into the designated weaning paddock, close to the house. That was the plan...

It quickly became obvious that as the field is on a hillside, and the gateway where the corral was located, quickly became a skid-pan, we were very likely to repeat either our version of the elephant-keeper on Blue Peter, or a scene from the Keystone Cops, so we went for Plan 'B', and ushered them into the avenue un-haltered, and we walked in a steady group back to the weaning paddock.

Gala, our ony weanling this year, wandered bewildered around the paddock, humming for her mum - the other three got on with grazing the rested grass, and Gala quickly joined them, occasionally coming over to the barn, still humming for mum - the day alternated heavy rain with hail showers, and every step includes a wellie-sucking squelch.

I still have fingers crossed (as I am sure all breeders have),  that from monday onwards, as forecast, the weather will settle down to be more dry than wet, and colder, and we can begin to see the alpacas cleaning up ready for the National Show, just eight weeks away, and we can get some serious halter-training underway.

In other news, Joy at Appleknit Alpaca Craft, has been seriously weaving with some of our fibre, and produced this lovely pram blanket//knee wrap.

With colours inspired by heather, gorse and snow in the mountains.

All done and dusted.

The herd have been 'over the hill' during the autumn, on a south-facing slope, as we try to maximise the withering grazing, and we bring them over 'this' side of the hill near the house, a north-facing slope, where the permanent shelter stands, for the darkest, shortest days of winter.

The hens have got used to having the shelter to themselves for months, and now have to accommodate the alpacas! So I swept out the floor of the shelter and in view of the mild weather, gave a dusting of Diatomaceous Earth, as the herd had dried during overnight wind, and went to collect the females:

Here they come, running up the 'avenue'.

Around the bend...

Exploring the new paddock...

"ooh, icing sugar, left over from icing the Christmas Cake! move over hens"

First one down...and the hens are departing...

"c'mon girls, room for more!"

A ittle shake...

You know that the dark ones have rolled properly!

job done!

Have a good Christmas everyone!

Suspens(tion) over.

Five weeks ago, I wrote about a clandestine mission to take a photograph for a competition being run by our regional group, the South West Alpaca Group, and of course couldn't say where we'd been. Well, today at the AGM the results were announced, and above, you'll see my entry. As you can see, it is a public place, but adjacent to a built-up part of Bristol, frequented by dog-walkers, joggers and cyclists. There is no on-road parking close-by. We wouldn't take our pregnant or nursing females, or our older un-halter-trained females, and so it was the two young males, who have been to a few shows, but I wasn't going to risk spooking them with dogs off-lead in such an open area, with a cliff near-by! So I took a look at Google Earth and Street-View, and reckoned I could pull onto the grassed area with the trailer - if we went early on a sunday morning, there would be few dog-walkers or traffic wardens, and hopefully we'd be out of sight of the bridge security cameras, and so we planned to leave home at 7.00 to arrive at sunrise, around 7.45. As usual, it took longer to round-up and get away, so we arrived at 8.00, on a calm but dull morning. With the clocks about to go back, and the weather about to turn, we had to get on with it - the boys are too muddy for photograph modelling at the moment.

Knowing the area reasonably well, I had a vision for the photograph that I was after, and so we pulled up the grass bank, which was steeper than it looked on Street-View! There was no-one around except a few cyclists, so we dropped the ramp, Joy got into an uncharacteristically professional photographer pose, and I led the boys to my chosen site.

We tried a few positions, as it's a long bridge, and we needed to be close enough to gain full impact - we also needed the boys to be looking the right way, after all, it was about alpacas, more than the bridge.

Eventually Joy declared that she had enough 'in the can', and we headed back to the trailer as the first dog-walkers were arriving.

I had considered Glastonbury Tor (difficult access, plus too many people), the Pyramid Stage at the Festival site, Wells Cathedral, and Cheddar Gorge. If there is another competition next year, they are up for grabs. I had half-expected to see Durdle Door, Stonehenge, the Tamar Bridge, or the Cerne Abbas Giant.

I can reveal now, that the picture that I entered (top) was runner-up to a picture by Mark Steele at Salisbury Cathedral - well done Mark, and I did like the pictures that Mark took with everyday icons, like the post box, 'phone box, front door and road crossing. It was a good challenge, and carried out carefully, you can show the public how 'versatie' alpacas can be - and get yourselves some good promotional photographs (or Christmas card material).

Cloak and dagger.

The South West Alpaca Group (SWAG) set a challenge to produce a photograph of a breeder with some alpacas infront of a high-profile interesting public place for use on the cover of the Royal Bath and West show programme.

Well I had an idea, but then had to assess the logistical and other issues - safety, security, bio-security - the public, dog-walkers, stress on the alpacas, which alpacas could we take: non-pregnant, not nursing etc., time of day for sunlight - parking near the chosen 'icon' - permission from land/building etc. owner (or not).

After all that, would it be worth it? Well, when I join an organization, I try to be an active participant - committee members work hard to involve their community, and it's often a thankless task, so I try to take part in most events.

Then I had to consider that I couldn't do it on my own, I'd need a photographer if I was to be in the photo. Discussing it with Joy, she thought my suggested 'target' was a good one, and she particularly liked the 'naughty' side of what we would try (she reads too many crime thrillers).

I then had the bright iidea of looking at Google Earth to check the location, access and parking possibilities, as it was too far away to visit on a 'whim' - this gave the perfect view and answered all the questions. But then, what if there was some other activity going on, such as building work, road-works, a fun run, boat race, fair etc.etc. - a search of various web-sites clarified this.

So the plan was we would arrive at the location at sunrise, so there would be few dog-walkers about, and the sun direction woud be right (if it shone) - we would do it on a sunday for the same reasons, and not a work day (for me) - we'd pull up onto a grassed area, so no street parking issues (apart from not actually being allowed on the grass with a vehicle!), drop the ramp, lead the chosen year-old males out, Joy would start 'snapping', a few poses, then before anyone could ask questions we'd be on our way back to the trailer.

I woke up in the night worrying about the possibiity of one breaking away, accidentally releasing a lead clip, spooking by a dog etc. - it wasn't an 'enclosed' location like a show ground, and with no other owners/handlers etc. around capturing might have been difficult - we decided we could use a piece of cord to tie the lead to the halter as a fail-safe, and I would wind the leads around my wrists, so if they 'went', I went with them!

So we left at 7.30, arrived in good time, no-one around, parked as planned, 'click-click-click', back to the trailer, just as some dog-walkers were arriving, and set off home. We are still awaiting a knock at the door to say we were caught on cctv, after all you can't go anywhere discretely, to be told we'd broken a local bye-law - and then I'll end up with egg on my face! but then perhaps there is a bye-law that says you can do what we did on the third sunday of the month, provided you take an alpaca with you. It was rather overcast, but hopefully the camera has adjusted for that (I couldn't possibly say yet)

Oh, we didn't need the cloak and dagger, or balaclavas. Where did we go? I couldn't tell you that either - the competition has a few weeks left to run...

Radio Gaga

Apple Vale Fortune s: CCNF Talon of CME

BBC Radio Bristol & Somerset's Steve Yabsley drove down from Bristol after his lunch-time show on a lovely sunny afternoon, and after a brief introduction, we set off up the hill to show him the herd and our farm. Talking into a single hand-held microphone, Steve interviewed me about all things alpaca for the best part of an hour,  finishing with an interview with Joy in the fibre studio. It went surprisingly smoothly, we were pleased with the broadcasts, and I've received favourable comments (but do I really sound like that?) - I've always thought that getting involved with the media is like putting your head into the mouth of a lion, so I had reservations.

Apple Vale Freedom of Caton s: Dovecote Jaquinton CME/Alpaca Stud

We were on holiday in Florence when the broadcasts went out, so I was glad to be able to hear it on i-Player, while we took a lunchtime break from the 28degree heat!

Apple Vale Florina s: Van Diemen Qjori of Patou

You're not likely to learn anything unless you don't have alpacas, but if you are interested for the sake of considering inviting your local broadcaster for an interview, it may be worth a listen. The first one is available for another 9 days - they were broadcast from monday to friday, in 4 to 5 minute pieces, and can be found at about 1 hour 34 minutes into the show at the following locations:

monday 14th Sept.: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0318n71
tuesday 15thSept.: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0318mtk
wednesday 16th Sept.: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0318np0
thursday 17th Sept.: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0318nfx
friday 18th Sept.: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0318mp9

Fiesta and Fortune in the evening glow.

There were a few minor 'bloopers' - for example, with an alpaca in front of us, Steve said 'now talk me through the alpaca from one end to the other' - I didn't follow what he was after, bearing in mind it was for radio, and so I said "well that's the back end, and this is the front end"!

Florina

Apple Vale Gala s:CCNF Talon of CME

Letting go.

What a fabulous day it has been today!
As I said in the last post, we have sold a group of three females to start a new herd for a lovely couple, who chose Apple Vale Bramley, Golden Delicious and Flamenco, a brown and two fawns. These three have fabulous temperaments, and Bramley has been the queen of the 'selfie' for most visitors. Sired by CME Centurion, and born on my birthday five years ago, she was our third cria, and became a real favourite. 'Delicious was our first cria born to a female that had been born on the farm, and had to be bottle fed due to lack of mothers milk, so became easy to handle - she gave birth to Flamenco last year, sired by our herdsire, EPC columbus of Patou, and her second fleece is starting to look very good. The mating has been repeated for the new owners, and Delicious' temperament has changed in days! Bramley gave us two fabulous females, courtesy of sire Van Diemen Qjori of Patou, who will take forward her characteristics. So when Joy told me she'd sold them, I had to get used to the idea of 'letting go' - and yesterday we delivered them to their new home, where they have some lovely paddocks laid out, and we wish Caroline and Jeff every success, and look forward to hearing their progress, as they are only around 12 miles away.

Meanwhile, we heard last year that three males we had sold, had moved to a new owner, who had a small-holding in the next village, and they were helping to clear bramble scrub from a hillside - so last weekend we went for a cycle, and managed to find them, and a grand job they are doing - the funny thing is, that although they are in the next village, they are at the end of a long track, which is almost back in our village, albeit several fields away, and from our morning dog-walk, we can occasionally see the boys as specks on the hillside! We were welcomed in, and climbed up the hill to see the boys - very quickly, we reallised that they remembered us, and to the astonishment of the owner, without corralling them, I was able to put my arm around them while we rummaged in their fleeces!
We are going away for a holiday soon (our daughter and family will be house sitters), and so I have been trying to get the herd organized into easily-looked-after paddocks, and again getting used to the idea of 'letting go' for a while. Tomorrow, I have an interview for a small radio feature, more on that when it comes to fruition.