Well it is February tomorrow which is pretty amazing really. Icy wind, cold and typical January which is hopefully going to go out like a lamb and bring us a super Spring instead of wet, we live in hope.

Anyway, a couple of amusing situations which tickled me this last few weeks…

The first is the cria weighing … we use a large weigh scale with open ended gating and the cria love it… so much they form a queue!

the second thing that tickled me, what with all the rumours being quashed as unfounded about Dobbies closing due to Tescos stores closing (Dobbies is a large Garden Centre in Cirencester owned by Tescos) in the local papers this week

– they obviously have more pressing issues to deal with….

Too busy as usual and loads to report on but no time to do it. Alpaca Walks are booking up fast and we even have one on Valentines Day – perhaps we shall wear red for a change and be all gooey. hmmm. hope the weather is at least dry.

well the recent cold brought some lovely photos – especially when the water pipe dripped all night…

and the Alpaca decided their shelters were just close enough to the hay troughs to venture out…

but enough of that romantic stuff – remember the cold?

Well its great for killing off some of those worms but not all of them so off to the Vet last week with the second lot of herd poo samples. Trusty car mine, don’t take passengers often…

back soon

Well, silence meant only one thing – busy busy busy. This time it was weaning. The snow of the week end merely meant resolve had to be hardened and getting the job done.

It is always a tricky situation to “get it right” when the birthing window is so varied. wean too young and the cria suffer, wean too late and the mother suffers. Never let it be forgotten that the Alpaca female carries for 11.5 months plus which covers the Winter harsh months AND will have a cria at foot for 6 months of that time too.  So she is feeding herself in winter, her cria at foot and the unborn… Triple care and attention for all.

Anyway, I have been doing this all my life and in the dim recesses of my brain, I just recall the “milk letting down” feeling as a Mother… so my sympathy is with the Mothers who can hear (sound carries a long way in snow) the pitiful cries of the newly weaned cria… one always has to be careful that the Mothers do not get mastitis when their cria are weaned.

Onto new green paddocks and adventures with life off they go and in this particular case, investigating a clients scarf…

wow, time flies and busy busy busy. The weathermen have not got it right for the past three nights and that is a lot of mucking out for sure!

meantime – visitors, making friends, husbandry days, more scanning and yarn sales

everyone’s knitting now for sure!

As the sensible amongst us increase feed ratios by need rather than greed in Alpaca, I am often shocked at the suggestions some make as to sugar content and sizing of pellets in some of major Alpaca manufactured feeds.

So I had a look for myself and was quite shocked to see that on several bags containing high sugar content and very large variants – there was zero warning for cria feeding.

whilst many feed soaked sugar beet in winter, especially to “poor doers” or aged Alpaca, one should be aware of choking hazards.

CHOKE

Alpaca can easily choke if fed too large a pellet. This is Adults let alone cria. Furthermore, large grain feeding can also cause abscess where it can get stuck in teeth/against jaw linings. it sounds bizarre but can, does and will happen.

you need to be diligent when looking at the size of the feed pellets you use.  check on the bag, if in doubt check with the person you bought the Alpaca from, your vet or another Alpaca breeder. Too many heads are never enough when it comes to feeding.

if in doubt – leave it out!

the small pellet shown in the top right of the  photo below is the size we feed to our Alpaca – the grains and larger pelleted food is a well known mix which I would never use.

see what you think…

well where did the first week in January disappear off to?

Was it the field maintenance or the poovering? Was it the toenail cutting or the ADE? Was it the back to school haircuts and dash out for geometry sets? Was it the tidying of the house and the taking down of the small Christmas trees?… and I do mean small…

twelfth night means everything Christmassy down and gone for another year…

Unfortunately the large white lighted tree that was in the garden is currently drying out in the barn so I hope that counts as down…

Back to reality with a bump and school on Monday for the lads.  in the meantime as farming life continues temperatures have plummeted again and zero degrees right now with rain on the way at midnight… not sure how that works without snow but it seems to!

2015 a great year for us with zillions of things going on but I was asked for a few “best things” today from 2014 so I thought I would share them…

Best film I watched this year, suitable for all and a really good story with great humour…

“once more” I know it did not come out in 2014 but then I never was up to date with films!

best CDs – Sam Smith “in the lonely hour” and wait for it…

X factors 3 x CD medley Songbook. This is not X factor finalists but songs throughout the year and is all the ones I might have chosen off everyone else’s Albums! Ellie Goulding’s version of “your song” is outstanding.

Favourite photo – well it has to be one of my RDA friends coming onto the stand at the Corn Hall with my favourite Black lab!!

or though its pretty close with Mitch Corner…

our best achievement this year?

Has to be sharing the experience of the lad shown in the video under “Disabled welcome” on this site.

The story behind that is that his mother died a few months earlier, having always intended to come to visit our Alpaca family together…

we were delighted to be able to show them the Alpaca and for them to have that life changing experience.

More on our plans for that in 2015 another time.