Evidence of a very lazy bank holiday weekend...and Explorer's fleece

We have had a very lazy bank holiday weekend; quite unusual for us. With no pressing jobs to do (there are always jobs but nothing that can't wait until next week when Paul is on 'holiday') we have managed to spend our time both socialising and relaxing with our alpacas.

With all this leisure time I tasked myself with trying to tempt Explorer into being a little bit more loving:

It appears to be working although Tabitha looks a little unsure. I think the problem was that there was evidence of previous rejection...nobody wants to be second choice:

Whilst I had hold of Explorer trying to teach him some loving ways, we decided to have another go at a fleece shot. Definitely more in focus I think. The improvement ? Paul was holding the camera:

Beck Brow Explorer....in focus!

Lucie hasn't had many head shots on the blog due to initially being shy then latterly due to some sticky eyes. Daily washouts were not achieving any long term benefits so we decided to use Orbenin eye ointment (we used this with Explorer with good effect) and they have cleared up straight away:

Lucie (Nutmeg sniffing Paul in the background!)

Velvet, our new puppy has won Paul over completely. We have been taking her out on a lead and she has been doing pretty well:

Most of the time:

Velvet...enough training for one day!

Zipperdy Do-Dah!

I seem to have woken up singing this morning. Zipperdy Do-Dah is the song of choice; rather strange but cheery. The reason for this early morning brightness? Against all the odds... WE HAVE HAY!

Despite rain having been forecast, the Eden Valley managed to escape the showers and we have had 3 days of dry weather with a lovely sunny day yesterday. Amazingly the hay looks pretty good. Well 90% of it. The rest we will keep for wind breaks just in case we need to put any young cria under a heat lamp next year.

Now normally Craig and a gang of his fit young friends do all the manual work involved with getting the hay into the barn. Labour in exchange for a nice bottle of red (whatever happened to a few tins of beer!) keeps my back in working order and Robyn's horse in hay! Unfortunately Criag and Robyn are not back from their holidays until today....Oh well I am creaky but happy.

Amanda will also benefit from supplies of hay but was no where to be seen. I had popped to see her earlier in the day but she had enough on her mind. Absorbed with shelter building some one had left the gate open:

 It appears that Alpacas and Soay sheep get along just fine!

The alpaca's in the post...

Bored with sorting and skirting fleece for the mill, I decided to skirt Galaxy's show fleece this morning. I set off with enthusiasm...rather too much so...getting rid of the shorter bits; the lighter bits; the dirty bits; the bits with slightly more guard hair (that bit was fair enough to throw...but the rest?).

Anyway when I looked at what I had removed it seemed rather a lot; I weighed it...800gms. Oops that equals 6 points with the BAS system. No way can I get that many points back in the other categories (uniformity of length, colour, micron)...she was never going to be even in colour whatever! (photo left). I'd put some back...well that's what I thought...unfortunately Velvet had got in the bag and was doing a bit of carding!! Oh well it's the taking part that counts or so I am told.

I felt that it was time for a little chill out in the cria paddock before resuming fleece sorting for the mill. Camera in hand of course:

Lucie a Top Account daughter has such a bright white fleece it is difficult to get a shot of her without too much glare!

Parisien with Katkin

Nutmeg (always posing) but what is Tabitha up to in the background with her head through the wire?

Finnian trying to get Holly to stand and supply lunch!

Gorgeous!!

Finally; I received an e mail yesterday enquiring after alpacas for sale. Unsigned it did appear a little suspect. I politely replied that we had no alpacas on our for sale list at the moment but that would have some females for sale in the spring. Their response:

Thank you for replying to my enquiry. I will have one male and one female alpaca. Please send me your bank details so that I can send you a cheque. Payment will include postage.

Will that be first or second class post? I guess that's what happens when you have a website...you get found!

Puddles inside and out....

Raining doesn't go anywhere near describing the weather here in Cumbria at the moment. It is torrential... It is constant...It is just plain miserable.

Not an alpaca in sight when I looked out this morning. Now the girls are known to be rather keen on their shelters but the boys normally tough it out. Not this morning.

No hay for us this year. In fact not much hay for anybody around here. We are now just waiting for the cut grass to be removed from the field. It is the first time that we haven't managed to get any of our own hay; it was bound to happy eventually I suppose.

The wet weather is doing nothing for Velvet's toilet training either. Not very keen at going outside in the rain we have a a few puddles on the kitchen floor...this usually entails a change of socks...thankfully we do have stone down rather than carpet!

Paul and I braved the weather to do some poo picking yesterday. What looked like a shower turned in to a downpour. With neither of us willing to wimp out we carried on soaked to the skin with the alpacas watching us from undercover in the barn!

Like Mark at Patou Alpacas we are rather excited by the Australian imports arriving today. Not quite on the Richter scale of Mark as we are not collecting a fabulous new stud male; but we are looking forward to the arrival of Waradene St Patrick. St Patrick is a mid fawn male who will be joining E.P Cambridge in Wiltshire.

Why the excitement?...Waradene St Patrick and E.P Cambridge Lady Gaga have a date...we have kept her waiting but we are rather hoping this will be a perfect pairing. St Patrick has a good depth of fawn in his pedigree including Purrumbete Inti so fingers crossed we could get the desired elite fawn cria next year! ...But the real excitement...I will hopefully get her here at Beck Brow before the end of the year. It has been six months since we saw her last. I believe her fleece is in the post so at least I will feel a little closer!

It really hasn't been the weather for photos over the last couple of days. However Kenzie has decided that he rather like the camera.

Kenzie

Kenzie trying to spoil Nutmeg's pose. Noah (left) keeping out of it!

Spot the difference....surely the next one can't be white?

Two days of sunny weather. A night of pouring rain in between...all hope of seeing any bales of hay continues to fade. At least the alpacas have enjoyed the sunshine.

I caught Nutmeg and Finnian cooling off by the water trough this afternoon. It did look like they had dozed off. Definitely chilled out. I'd have a bet that Nutmeg is going to be a dunker:

Nutmeg & Finnian

Baheti is looking pretty fed up now. The last of the girls due this year she is spending most of the day just sitting about. With Baheti the anticipation is about whether she delivers a male or a female cria. I have a feeling that I can predict what it will look like. She has had two daughters for us so far both to black males. Spot the difference:

Pebbles; Baheti's first cria (2008)

Pepsi: Baheti's 2010 cria.

As Baheti is again pregnant to Blueberry Sinbad Holly (Pepsi's sire) I am guessing we won't be getting a white cria but hey who knows!

Willow (born 2009) is one of my favourite girls not only is she very gentle but for me she is the perfect colour; dark fawn. Dam...white!

Willow.

Thankfully all of our females mated to stud males not owned by ourselves continued to spit off yesterday. Only Blanche sat. We mated Blanche at two weeks postpartum when we normally wait three weeks. We really must stick to our belief that three is a more successful time frame. We have now lost a week instead of gaining one as Blanche spat off at ovulation so is now four weeks post Nutmeg. I know lots of breeders only wait the fortnight but any failed matings for us have generally been the early ones despite the dams having been keen.

Poor attempts at fleece shots continued...

The rain is so bad here today that we have had a weather warning. Slim chance of seeing any bales of hay this year I fear! We do have enough hay left from last year thankfully. Obviously not our first choice but at least we have supplies and we do give a regular vitamin and mineral drench to our herd. Cutting the hay field was definitely Paul's decision!

I have been trying to get a shot of Explorer's fleece this morning; not easy to open the fleece and point the camera at the same time. He did stand pretty still but I still managed to get a blurred image due to me moving about rather than him. The photo does not do him justice but you can just about catch the brightness. He is a mass of very narrow staples which doesn't show in the picture; but what I hope is  particularly promising is his coverage of crimp from top to toe.

Beck Brow Explorer at 2.5 months

I think that predicting cria quality at such a young age is a real skill and must come with years and years of experience and the opportunity to see vast numbers of elite cria (I have a way to go!). I remember visiting Anzac Alpacas and witnessing Dominic Lane at work. He showed us two very young cria both from elite dams and who shared the same sire. Although both looked 'pretty darned good' (have you got the Aussie thing there) he could instantly say one was a future stud male the other a pet. He was right of course.

It was this ability that persuaded us to purchase Anzac Almost Illegal (a medium fawn male) at six months of age. Apart from his fleece style it was his fineness that had impressed Dominic. Second fleece stats for Almo:

MFD: 17.2       SD: 4.50         CV: 26%        >30um: 1%

Not a bad prediction. Meanwhile I will keep practicing and testing my findings!

I have been trying a little halter training over the past couple of days. Yesterday we seemed to be in reverse gear for much of the time. Although she is weaned I think that I may be starting a bit too early. I also have poorly fitting equipment which is really not good at all!

Velvet...still time to grow into the harness

Right decision?....time will tell

The call came this morning; our new trailer was ready for collection. Although I am not the most competent at reversing I decided to go collect it myself. Surely I could get home by going forwards? Yes...just use the mirrors...I remembered! And I even managed to reverse park it. Okay, it did take four attempts but Paul doesn't need to know that.

The purchase of a new trailer has caused rather a lot of debate in our house. I made the decision to order an eight foot trailer when Paul thought that it should have been a ten foot one. Now I agree that when we have an amazingly large show team it may be rather small, but we do still have a horse trailer as well. In the mean time it is the ideal size for taking females for matings and boys to local events. As most of the time it will be me who will be towing it; small is good! (I will be practising my reversing). Time will tell if I have made the right decision...I am sure I will hear plenty about it if this is not the case!

I did try to get a photo of Explorer today in order to prove that he looks much more angelic with his neck fleece tidied up. Not sure if I succeeded? Well I did manage to get the photo... it is the angelic bit that is in doubt!

Explorer...looking less grumpy?

If Explorer wasn't looking as sweet as I intended I thought I could get a photo of Camilla to demonstrate how pretty his mum is; but I obviously caught her by surprise:

Camilla...should have said cheese!

The decision to cut the hay field is looking rather dubious. We had rain again this morning. It is sunny just now but the forecast is for showers again tomorrow. Another case of time will tell...