Red Sky and lots of Smoke means......

Well we have had one hell of a week, we were resting on our laurels thinking things would calm down after the hay was in.  How wrong we were.  The week started of quite nicely, the weather wasn't too bad, the cottage guests were all settled in, all the animals were well and munching away on their grass.  I was even seeing light at the end of the tunnel with the accounts.  Then we got to Thursday, Steve went to work in the morning and I spent most of the day doing the accounts and watching the Alpacas just incase one of the three decided to give birth.  I was just finishing when Steve rang to say I better get home as there was a bit of a disaster happening, the Dutch Barn at home was on fire.  Steve had seen the smoke on his way home and had worked out that it must have been either our neighbours or our property but could see exactly where it was.  He was nearly home before he could see it was on our farm.  Not knowing if it was the house or the farm buildings he tried to get home quickly, not day when you have got holiday makers stopping to look at ponies etc.  As he got nearer he could see it was the barn and yes it was the barn where we put all of his brothers hay last week.  By the time I got there there was three fire engines in the road, the barn was well alight and bits of roof flying off everywhere.

Steves brother had been up in the field when he heard the transformer which is on a pole opposite the barn explode apparently a neighbour saw the flames shoot up into the sky.  A short while later the barn was on fire.

So at the moment it is a bit of a mess here, we have a generator as we have no electric supply, we have a large pile of socking wet scorched hay in the yard.  The remains of the tractor, baler and who knows what else are still in what remains of the still smouldering barn.

Friday there was a steady stream of men in suits, electricity men etc  I did feel sorry for the guy who just happened to be in the area checking the electric poles, I said you better come and check this one then, his face was a picture when he walked round the corner and saw the barn still smoking and his electric pole black and charred.

The rest of the weekend has past in a whirl, change overs in the cottages, we discovered a leaking tap in one and a TV bracket broken in the other, on the plus side we have been out for dinner at friends for the last three evenings so it's not all bad. I really hope next week is better

Sun, Hay and Walks

Well we had about 8 days of dry weather and we made the most of it!

Friends at the top of Cordon Tor

We had 5 llama walks booked in and we managed to do all of them with just one shower of rain on the first one.  We have had a good selection of clients from young children to eighty year olds, locals and from foreign parts, we eaten Lunches, Cream Teas and Strawberries and Cream, drunk numerous cups of tea, coffee, apple juice etc, had a lovely time on all of them and this is what we call 'Work'

View of Home

In between doing all this walking we have made Hay infact we have made our Hay and Steve's Brothers Hay and for the first time in years we didn't have to rush to get it in.  So we had 520 ish small bales stashed in the Barn, we have now sold 150 and have another 200 to sell. My part in this was to provide gallons of cold drinks and food when needed. (think I got off lightly) it is a very hot and dusty Job I am told.

A break in Hay Making

The holiday Cottages are full we had a couple of weeks with German guests and dispite having terrible weather they all seem to enjoy themselves and were very interested in the Alpacas and Llamas coming out to feed up each morning and then going off to explore the moor etc.  The last week we had British guest, didn't see them all week in fact don't think they got up much before lunch time and it was glorious weather, really can't understand it.

View from our Hay Field

I am now on Cria watch again, we have three females due in August and the first one Olivia is now 320 days, she is huge and sits around a lot although not as big and wide as Marietta who is not due until 24th Aug.  We weighed them all this morning and Marietta has put on 7kg in 3 weeks which seems a lot to me.

Marietta looking very wide

 Just though I would put a couple of pictures of the girls when they spotted something in their field!

And what was causing all this concern?

Well it's a stray cat we have seen around the fields for a few days.


Today we had several rain showers and the weather forecast is changeable, so I think we have returned to normal British Summer.

Here comes the Sun!

Well it did put in an appearance on Tuesday (the sun that is)

I have been having problems sitting down to write anything on the Blog since my last entry mainly because I found it very hard dealing with losing Murphy,  Some animals just have a bigger impact on your life than others.  For several days I didn't want to even go to the llama field, even contemplated giving up the llama walks all together.  Steve as always was more philosophical about these matters said that it wasn't the time to make that sort of decision and as we have lots of booking we really would just have to carry on.  It is getting better every day but I still think about our gorgeous young llama.

So whats been happening here?, well  it has rained a lot!, we have got very wet a lot!, we haven't done much work, we have canceled several llama walks but we are surviving.

Tiffany

We have had some good times, the last of our first batch of cria arrive two weeks ago, another girl from Cassini, she is either dark fawn or light brown, sired by Inca Picasso.  She weighed in at 9kgs and just like Picassos cria from last year, full of beans with huge legs very big boned but like Cassini's cria last year Choc Ice she isn't growing very fast, it is a worry as she won't take a bottle, just like Choc Ice, she is active but not as much as the other two, feeds from Mum a lot and is already picking at grass she has been named Tiffany.  Choc Ice has caught up with the rest of last years crias now, but we probably won't breed Cassini again as there is no point if she isn't going to produce good strong babies and she could pass on her problems.

Cassini & Tiffany

We decided to have a couple of days away, go and see my sister in Emsworth and pop up to Hampton Court Show as it was forecast to be raining any way.  So looking at the forecast, Thursday seemed to be the obvious day to go, there was a amber weather warning for heavy rain!  We both had full days work booked in but if it was wet that would be called off and we could leave after we had feed all the animals.  Thursday dawned and there was a strange light in the sky, there was blue bits and a certain glow (think thats called sunshine)  so off to work we went and it stayed dry all day, we finally left about 6pm.
Very easy drive, hardly any traffic and we arrived in Emsworth about 3.5 hours later after stopping for something to eat.  Friday we went to Hampton Court, it rained but it was very good and we had a lovely day although some of the show gardens looked like they needed a good go with the Strimmer, I think they call them Natural gardens, I call it long grass & weeds!
We went out for a lovely meal in the evening with my sister and brother in law, had a lovely time catching up with family news etc.  After a big breakfast we set off for home about 10am we arrived back at 6.15 pm after spending most of the day trying to get through Dorset, we tried Bridport, then Yeovil and then Crewkerne, sat in lots traffic queues which weren't going anywhere,  Finally managed to take some small roads across country to Beaminster going through some floods which I am sure we probably shouldn't have and finally getting back on to the A35 and home.  Just in time to get changed and go out for Dinner with friends, exhausted.

Choc Ice

Tigerlily

Last Sunday we took three Alpacas, Choc Ice, Tigerlily and Lalique to our annual Animal Service on the village green, very Vicar of Dibley.  Our guests in the holiday cottages came along with their children, they are from Berlin and had a lovely time, afterwards they said to me they thought it was very English.  I don't think the Alpacas were as impressed they wanted to get back in the trailer as soon as they could I had to stand on the ramp for a while to keep them in the pen, as soon as the service was over they shot back in. while we had a cream tea and a chat to everyone else who had brought various animals along.

Olympus

Hummingbird

We have had one of the cottages empty this week which is un usual at this time of the year but it has been so wet, nobody is booking last minute with the forecasts we have been having. I feel so sorry for our German family, they have driven all the from Berlin and all it has done since they arrived is rain.  The first thing they asked was where can we buy waterproofs! poor things.  The children have been coming out to help feed up in the mornings, which they love and their English is so good, they are 7 & 5 which really puts us to shame.

My Poor Gorgeous Boy

I was going to write this blog on Sunday with news of new cria, Summers new home and breedings but on Saturday Murphy our gorgeous young male llama wasn't feeling his normal self.  At first we thought he had some Colic which normally passes without treatment but he was no better on Sunday.  A visit from the Vet, antibiotics and pain killer administered, fingers crossed he would improve.  His symptoms were similar to our female Alpaca who was so ill last year, nerological twitches, excitable but he also had problems with his sight.  We then suspected he had eaten something poisonous possibly Bracken as the symptoms fitted.  By late Monday he had suffered a fit and it didn't look good, our vet came out and he was given some steriods and some Vit B1 drench, he got really stressed out by this and was very upset we settled him for the night and left him with a companion, he was sitting up and seem alert.
When we arrived at the Barn this morning he had died in the night,  I am absolutely devastated, Murphy has been a dream since the day he was born, he was calm, friendly and so easy to handle, he has been trekking with us since he was weaned, he was starting to carry a pack and a favourite with all our customers and he will be missed very much.

He really was growing into a very handsome boy.
We have had a PM which as usual came back inconclusive but thankfully there was no signs of TB, Liver Fluke or Worm burden which is encouraging for the rest of the team.

Our other news will have to wait for another day.

Bit like the Hokey Cokey here

Well as usual after shearing the weather has reverted to something like November, so everything has been in.  The pregnant females/ Mums have been in and out of the Barn several times a day sometimes.  The young Females are tucked p in the Stock trailer when the weather is bad and out in the track when the rain stops for a few minutes.  They are not sensible enough to go in when it saris raining so we have to put them in and let them out when we can otherwise they sit there shivering.  Atlas and Prospect are in the little field shelter and look quite cosy, only going out when it dries up a bit.  We had one of the llamas shorn and Logan who thinks he is a llama but there is no shelter in there field so they have been in the barn for a few days which they were really fed up about.  So as it was drier yesterday we took them back to there mates in the field as you can see they are wearing some very fetching coats which are keeping the worst of the rain off.

Our little grey female cria is growing well and turning into a little thug, barging into the females trying to get someone to play with her, she desperately needed a play mate!  Mica and Cassini didn't seem in any hurry to provide one with all this bad weather.  Monday promised to be the best day of the week and I had a feeling Mica was going to produce her cria when I looked at her first thing.  Even though it was a bank holiday it was dry and I needed to get some work done so I dashed off to the first job which was about 2 hours work, dashed back to check Mica...... Grazing. Off to second job another hour and a half, back for lunch
and check Mica...... definitely uncomfortable, I sat in the office to observe, our holiday cottage guests were watching from the balcony, poor Mica, no privacy.  About an hour later she had given birth to a lovely mid fawn boy who was cushed within minutes, inspected by the herd and up on his feet very quickly.  Hummingbird had been waiting nearly two weeks for this, was there in a flash, nudging him and dancing around so excited.  He wasn't interested in finding the milk bar as plying with Hummingbird was far more interesting.  So fearing that he would exhaust himself before feeding I put mum and babe in the pen, that did it, straight to the milk bar, no messing about with sucking front legs, belly, barn walls etc.  Once he had had a good feed and a little rest I let them back out with the herd and Hummingbird.  At three hours old he could give her a run for her money, chasing each other round and round the field.  I think this one ( now named Olympus) is going to be a bit of a character, not surprising really as he has both of our '96' imports in his family both of which are great characters and have a lot of attitude, just hope he has the fineness from Carla's side and the denseness of Demeter, he is a lovely shape and his fleece is very bright and crimpy, but who can tell at this stage.

Since Monday it has rained and the two youngsters have been confined to the barn for most of the time but when they have been let into the field for brief periods they have taken advantage and entertained us and our guests with their antics.

Today it has been foul, gale force winds, heavy rain all day, everyone is in and still shivering.  Cassini is looking really uncomfortable so I don't think she will be long now then we have a break until the end of July before the next batch are due.

Just what we ordered

To say we have been busy would be a understatement, we had 3 days at Devon County show which was very enjoyable and successful.  We took 6 animals and came away with a 1st, 2nd and 2 x4th which we were really pleased with.
Since then the weather has been great and if I dare say it slightly too warm especially for working, but we had work to do as well as topping the fields as the grass is growing a pace.  Our holiday cottages have been a bit hectic with several short breaks which are always a bit harder with all the washing etc but at least it was easy to get it dry.
We have been on Cria watch for several weeks now with three females in their birthing window, Lily was due first.  Loopy Lily as she is affectionately called, is dark brown with some grey patches now showing through as she gets older, she has been mated to Humming Rolex who is a Rose Grey.  Steve has been saying for months that she is going to have a rose grey female, so it was becoming a bit of a joke every time he came back from the field.  So last Wednesday I was doing a change over in the cottages before going to work, I checked Lily before I left and she was grazing near the top fence, fine I thought I was only going to be a couple of hours so I could check her again then.  I drove off to my job which was five minutes down the road, I had just parked the car when the customer came out and said "Steve said its a rose grey female" I laughed then it dawn on me that they didn't know the in joke!  Steve had gone back to the field just after I left and saw a huddle of females so when to investigate and found Lily had dropped her cria and yes it was a rose grey female, just as he had ordered.

So while I had to carry on working Steve spent the next couple of hours sitting in the sun watching Lily and her cria doing everything just as the text book says.  When I got back cria was up and just about to find the milk bar, I asked Steve why he decided to sit and watch as we usually give them some space, turns out I had driven off with his car keys so he couldn't have gone to work anyway!
Once we had seen the cria suck we went off and did another job, the weather was very hot, too hot for strimming long grass but it had to be done.  We got back to the field and the cria was flat out, I hate it when they do that! this time though it was flat, Steve lifted her up and she was all floppy, alive but very weak.  So we carried her into the field shelter with Lily in hot pursuit, firstly I thought she may be dehydrated so gave her some boiled water then I check Lily had milk, she had a very full udder so with a little bit of a struggle I managed to take some milk off and feed her that. I checked her temperature that was fine so we decided to leave them in the shelter and go home for a while and watch on the camera.
This is a bit long winded but after a while the cria sat up and was trying to get up, we went back to check her properly before it got dark, she was very weak still so I rubbed some honey on her gums, fed her some more milk and left them for the night, dreading what I would find in the morning.
Really didn't want to look at the camera first thing but I still got up about 6am to see cria sat upright with Lily next to her, so I made a cup of tea, took the computer back up to bed and watched for a while before the cria got up and had a good feed from Mum.
When we got to the field both Mum and babe were stood at the gate waiting to get out,  They ran off down the field to the others, the cria had not quite got control of her legs bounded after mum and did a great impression of Bambi when she tried to stop at fence.

To cut a long story short, she has gone from strength to strength and is now terrorising all the other females by barging and jumping on them, she really needs a playmate. She now has a name Hummingbird after her sire.

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.