Ugh!

It has been wet, cold and windy all day here on Dartmoor, we had to cancel a walked planned for today.  Went off to buy tiles for one of the bathrooms in the holiday cottages instead.  Hope it improves for tomorrow as we have some people coming to look at animals!

A bit of a odd week.

It has been a bit of an odd week really, not much to report on the Alpaca/Llama front really.

Monday weather forecast was terrible but it turned out not too bad, but as we had listen to the forecast, put off any work we had planned, Merlin and Blackjack got a bit of training, we went to town and caught up with lots of banking stuff.  We took the opportunity to have lunch out, visit friends and pick up animal feeds, visit more friends and had dinner out!.
Tuesday Steve had a recall appointment about his hip resurfacing operation, they wanted to discuss blood results from some tests that they hadn't actually done yet !  good old NHS we went all the way to Plymouth for a blood test that could have been done in our local surgery. As we were in Plymouth we had time to visit an old friend which meant we had lunch out............. think there is some sort of pattern here.
Wednesday actually a very nice day here on Dartmoor, Steve had work all day (good job one of had) and helping administer some wormer and ADE to his customers Alpacas,  they were animals we sold earlier this year and we offer help with husbandry as part of our ongoing support.  I managed a couple of hours of work in the morning then went to a spinning workshop ........ needed to start using some of the fleeces I have left.
Today again the weather forecast was bad, but they were right this time, wind has been terrible, wet first thing but better later, Steve has been replacing the heated towel rail in one of the cottages and tried to organise the materials ready for putting in the services for our new camera system in the birthing paddock and shelter.
I have spent the day attending a meeting of Devon farms,  who we advertise our holiday cottages with, they hare launching an online booking system and I was involved with training some of the members to use the new system............. now my brain hurts, it is not used to so much work!
We have Llama walks booked in over the weekend and the forecast does not look too could so fingers crossed they are wrong!!

All drenched and jabbed

We decided to have quite an early start this morning as I was planning a shopping trip with youngest daughter.

We got all the female Alpacas and the two cria that are still with their mums into the handling pen ready for their ADE jabs and their Liver Fluke drench.  Only one of them managed to cough up any of the drench my technique must be improving, in fact they all behaved impeccably except Stephano who is definitely his mothers son, Lily is our most neurotic female by far and Stephano has inherited this trait.  Unfortunately he is the only one in the herd who is showing any sign of fibre loss, just around his feet, a little oil and ivomec rubbed onto the affected area should sort out the problem.

That little chore over and onto the main event..........shopping.....I hate it especially clothes shopping.... all that changing in little cubicles,  those mirrors in there are a nightmare just like the hall of mirrors at the funfair!!!
Anyway it was a fruitless task as the only thing I liked was far to much for a dress that I would only wear once. So four weeks to go and still nothing to wear!  we had a nice lunch though.

We stopped off at Lakeham Alpacas on the way home to pick up some bags of feed, on the way Linzi thought the car was making strange noises, difficult to hear over the CD player but I had to agree that there was a loud bumping noise coming from the engine.  Luckily we were just up the road from Lakeham, so after scrabbling on the floor looking under the front of the car it was obvious that the engine cover was hanging off and dragging on the road.  So call the RAC and have a cup of tea while waiting for the patrol man who was in the area to arrive and remove offending cover so I could get home.  Just need to take the car to our usual mechanic to get it repaired now, so really it wasn't a very successful shopping trip!

Alpaca update and Traveling Ted

It’s a while since I have updated the blog , a fact that I have been reminded of by several of my friends and readers of this blog.  As I told them sometimes I go to update the blog but with so much going on that I can’t or wouldn’t want to write about I don’t know where to start.

It is a quiet time here with the Alpacas and Llamas, just routine husbandry really, poo picking, toe nail trimming etc etc.  We decided to send some poo samples off to be analysed by the lab rather than just treating for worms routinely.  We were very encouraged with the results only one animal showed a worm burden and one of our cria showed a heavy Coccidal oocysts.  So both of these animals have been treated as well as the cria in that group, we will do another set of tests in three weeks time.  

The whole herd Alpacas and llamas will be having a ADE jab over the next week as well as a drench for Liver Fluke, this will complete their routine treatments for this year.

Over the half term we had a visit from our Grandsons and a bear call traveling Ted,  Ted normally lives at Josh's school but sometimes he is allowed to go home with one of the pupils.  Ted has to have a record of his activities whilst he is away from school and as you can see from the photos he had a very eventful time.

Ted in the Wheel barrow

Ted & the Alpacas

Ted collecting eggs

Ted on the Tractor

I can assure you that Ted did have a good wash before he went back to school not sure I should publish the pictures of Ted in the washing machine!