Waiting game

This past week has flown by, where has the year gone.  we are now waiting for our first cria of the year to arrive, that is expected cria after last weeks sad event!
We have three females just coming into their birthing window, Loopy Lily is first, she is mated to our grey Male Humming Rolex, she is dark brown with grey bits so who knows what to expect.  Then Mica is close behind, she is a maiden so we will keep a close eye on her.  Cassini is the last of this batch she has been bred to Inca Picasso, now last year she has Choc Ice who is a fancy sired by Golden Nugget (fawn) so it will be interesting to see what pops out this time.

Choc Ice looking like a hay stack

The next batch are due later in the summer hopefully giving us a couple of months to watch the first group grow up a bit before the new ones arrive.
All the pregnant females are now in the paddocks covered by the camera so we can keep a watch over them.
Our old female Carla caused some concern this morning, whilst feeding I notice she was walking slightly exaggerating her step, it wasn't much but this is something we noticed last year with Marietta when she was so ill, turned out to be Selenium deficiency.  So she had a drench of Selenium & Colbalt straight away, the rest will have some once I have been to Mole Valley to restock.

Our Holiday Cottages are full now and we only have one full week left until the end of August now, there are a few odd days when we have no one in one or the other but not much, even taken a booking for next year already.  So I need to get back into the routine of change overs, washing, ironing, making scones etc.  It can be hard work especially if the weather is bad and I have to dry washing inside, our pitch can look like a chinese laundry sometimes, but we do meet some lovely people and it is nice when they come back year after year.  Last weeks guests we met for the first time when we went to collect the llamas one day last summer, they were sat in the sunshine just by the field gate which is on the open moor.  So they were a bit surprised to see us turn up with the trailer and get 4 Llamas and an Alpaca out of the field.  Any way we got talking and discovered they were on holiday but would love to actually stay on Dartmoor. Can't miss an opportunity like that so we told them about our cottages and a few weeks later they booked their next weeks holiday and they say they will be back next year.  So if you fancy a holiday on Dartmoor have a look at our site www.newcott-farm.co.uk

Holiday Cottages

We are off to North Somerset show tomorrow just for a look around as I missed the closing date for entries.  So we will check out the Alpacas and the Llamas and catch up with a few friends and may be have time to look at the rest of the show as well for a change.