Well it has been a challenging week end for sure! Newborn cria requiring barning due to wet this time and somebody was Sweet Sixteen too!

I managed to sneak a few hours out with hubby in total control of the quadrupeds to attend an event with our Kensmyth Stand but more on that later.

Meantime we have taken the plunge to be Silver Sponsors for the British Alpaca Society National Show 2015. We have so much else afoot that we nearly didn’t but decided, as last year, it is such a worthy promotional event for the breed society it is a must!

well we have been a bit busy have we not?  I cannot believe it is already August 2014!!

Bang on schedule our new website was launched and it really is different is it not!?

Mitchell has been working away on the videos after his daytime job with me, after farming late into the nights to get it all done and it was only three weeks late in the end!

I have to say in the rain and birthing lately as an Alpaca farmer, my “entrepreneurial” side seems a lifetime away… but we have TEN – yes TEN lovely healthy girls so far and TWO boys so far which is a fantastic result. As always, there were some that simply did not hold over the winter and some that are struggling to get pregnant in the weather conditions but that’s Alpaca for you. Many before dawn matings in this heat and I joke not!

There is not one single Alpaca farmer I have spoken to this year who has not had issues as a result of the weather – either pregnancy losses or mortality rates post birthing and of course grass conditions at the moment in the heat wave are dire.

Shearers have been challenging for some – we have always been lucky so far with extremely reliable shearers but then we do shear early here because we have always had barns since 2008 in case of inclement weather.

Anyway, much needed rain falling as I type and the cria when I finally remembered to take a camera out were less than obliging as you will see…thank goodness in this heatwave we left half of each field untopped this year!

only one poser…

two escapologists…

one secret squirrel…

one Grand National entrant…

one shady lady…

finally turning their backs…

and one at this point yet to make an entrance!