In my mission to be a more regular blogger I thought I may share are exciting day in London Yesterday.
Myself and Liz (Lakeham Alpacas) had been invited to a private viewing of a fashion collection by a knitwear designer we have been supplying fleece and yarn to for a couple of years. After much deliberations we decided that we really should go and see what is happening to our yarn as most of the garments end up in Japan.
So bearing in mind we don't see a bus up hear from one week to the next the thought of negotiating the undergound was very daunting! Liz does live a bit near civilisation (she has a bus stop outside her gate). We got the train from Exeter to Paddington with a change in Bristol as I couldn't get an advance ticket on the direct route. Once we had arrived it was lunchtime so Oxford street seemed like the best place and of course we could go to john Lewis, nothing like playing safe!. We had a very long lunch in fact it was nearly tea time by the time we left the store, well you have to browse don't you!
We had to be in hampstead by 7pm so we planed our route to get us there via St Pancas Station since it had been do up, last time I saw it there was scaffolding everywhere.
We spent some time having a coffee and people watching before having some Dinner and getting to the venue in Hampstead. What an amazing place, not sure what is was but now it is used as a shared workspace, our knitwear designer, a weaver, printer and several more.
We saw all our yarns made up and the photos which had been taken last month which despite the weather were really good. Bit the best bit was talking to so many people, designers, knitters, the agents from Japan and just people who wanted to know about the Alpacas. apparently they are all coming to stay in the cottages and meet the Alpacas in person.
Thank fully there was someone there who was also going back to Paddington at the same time as us and knew the quickest route back, for which we were really grateful as we were to catch the last train back to Exeter.
It was a very tiring day but very much worth the effort, it is so good to know that the yarns we produce are so much appreciated by the people who use them as well as their customers who are the end user.
We saw a lot of London Tube Stations, saw loads of London Buses mostly at a standstill due to traffic, but it was a relief when we finally got back on that train and could sit back and relax.
This morning is bright and sunny, the weanlings are still humming a bit, Basil is still not eating concentrate but the rest are, this afternoon I am going to start halter training, do I think we miss out on anything living in such a remote wild place, you have got to be joking, give me Dartmoor any day of the week, the John Lewis's was much better than ours in Exeter though!!!
Tuesday, 19 February 2013
Sunday, 17 February 2013
It' s been a long time
I realised it has been months since I last blogged, I had a sort of block, couldn't think of what to write, it was all much of the same really.........rain, mud, cold, followed by more rain, then a little snow just for a change. Life just carried on with the usual rounds of feeding, mucking out, worming, ADE, Fluke, just made more difficult than usual with all the mud.
I have kept up to date with the goings on, the comings and some goings on some of the blogs I read, most people seem to have coped with all the wet weather but there has been some very sad occasions but I still could get down to writing a blog.
The last few days here have been bright and sunny and dry and it feels as if spring is just around the corner. The daffodils are nearly in flower and the snowdrops look stunning in the sunshine.
We have spent the last couple of weeks decorating the holiday cottages and generally getting ready for the next season, they are all finished now and we have our first guests in this weekend.
All our animals have been out during the winter, they have a field shelter that they do choose to use in the worst of the weather. Overall they seem to have coped very well, they have had ADE every month and due to the warm damp weather they have had a dose of Fasinex for Fluke. We weigh the females and cria at least every month, more often in the winter and apart from one or two they have all maintained condition. Carla are one and only import (96) has lost quite a bit of weight for no apparent reason, she has been wormed and fluked and seems to be holding her own now, she is feeding a cria and is (possibly) pregnant, she is still stroppy which would suggest she is holding here pregnancy. I think we will just have to keep an eye on her for a while.
The Llamas have survived the winter very well, they don't have a shelter but their very large field has lovely hedges to shelter behind which ever way the wind is blowing. Polo has had the benefit of a pony coat which fits him well, he was shorn last summer and was lacking fleece, llamas don't seem to grow fleece as quick as Alpacas. The coat came off yesterday after several weeks wear and we took all four llamas and Logan the Alpaca for a walk, thought they may need the practice and we have a appointment at the Hospital next week. We often take them to our local hospital to meet the patients.
Today we decided would be the day to wean all of last years cria, so were over due and the last two were just 6 months. One of the youngest 'Norma' is Carla's cria and here growth rate had dropped, it looked as if Carla's milk had nearly dried up, so we thought it was time she had a rest. Usually we take the Mums away and leave the cria with the herd to reduce stress, but due to the wet conditions we hadn't moved the females around to release a paddock. So the weanlings have been given the field shelter at the top of the boys paddock with a large pen at the front, they are not happy bunnies at the moment but this didn't put them off their food. The mums on the other had don't seem bothered, most of them didn't even look up as we drove the babes out of the field and into the trailer for the short drive up the lane. Once the babes have settled down I will start halter training them before they rejoin the herd.
Last week our Holiday cottages and Llama Walks were featured in the Daily Magazine as one of the top six short breaks with a difference in the UK.
A few other exciting things have happened over the winter, some may come to fruition some may not. We had a visit from a photographer who was taking pictures for a catalogue which is being produced by a knitwear designer we have been working with for a couple of years. Tomorrow I am going to London with a friend for a private viewing of the new collection, all very exciting but it will be a long day, one of the downsides of living in the SouthWest, it takes so long to get anywhere.
We are starting to look forward to this years births and planning our breeding program, we need to decide which animals to put up for sale, always a hard decision, but one which has to be made.
What I am really looking forward to is a nice warm spring followed by a proper summer, we can but hope.
I have kept up to date with the goings on, the comings and some goings on some of the blogs I read, most people seem to have coped with all the wet weather but there has been some very sad occasions but I still could get down to writing a blog.
The last few days here have been bright and sunny and dry and it feels as if spring is just around the corner. The daffodils are nearly in flower and the snowdrops look stunning in the sunshine.
We have spent the last couple of weeks decorating the holiday cottages and generally getting ready for the next season, they are all finished now and we have our first guests in this weekend.
All our animals have been out during the winter, they have a field shelter that they do choose to use in the worst of the weather. Overall they seem to have coped very well, they have had ADE every month and due to the warm damp weather they have had a dose of Fasinex for Fluke. We weigh the females and cria at least every month, more often in the winter and apart from one or two they have all maintained condition. Carla are one and only import (96) has lost quite a bit of weight for no apparent reason, she has been wormed and fluked and seems to be holding her own now, she is feeding a cria and is (possibly) pregnant, she is still stroppy which would suggest she is holding here pregnancy. I think we will just have to keep an eye on her for a while.
The Llamas have survived the winter very well, they don't have a shelter but their very large field has lovely hedges to shelter behind which ever way the wind is blowing. Polo has had the benefit of a pony coat which fits him well, he was shorn last summer and was lacking fleece, llamas don't seem to grow fleece as quick as Alpacas. The coat came off yesterday after several weeks wear and we took all four llamas and Logan the Alpaca for a walk, thought they may need the practice and we have a appointment at the Hospital next week. We often take them to our local hospital to meet the patients.
Today we decided would be the day to wean all of last years cria, so were over due and the last two were just 6 months. One of the youngest 'Norma' is Carla's cria and here growth rate had dropped, it looked as if Carla's milk had nearly dried up, so we thought it was time she had a rest. Usually we take the Mums away and leave the cria with the herd to reduce stress, but due to the wet conditions we hadn't moved the females around to release a paddock. So the weanlings have been given the field shelter at the top of the boys paddock with a large pen at the front, they are not happy bunnies at the moment but this didn't put them off their food. The mums on the other had don't seem bothered, most of them didn't even look up as we drove the babes out of the field and into the trailer for the short drive up the lane. Once the babes have settled down I will start halter training them before they rejoin the herd.
Last week our Holiday cottages and Llama Walks were featured in the Daily Magazine as one of the top six short breaks with a difference in the UK.
A few other exciting things have happened over the winter, some may come to fruition some may not. We had a visit from a photographer who was taking pictures for a catalogue which is being produced by a knitwear designer we have been working with for a couple of years. Tomorrow I am going to London with a friend for a private viewing of the new collection, all very exciting but it will be a long day, one of the downsides of living in the SouthWest, it takes so long to get anywhere.
We are starting to look forward to this years births and planning our breeding program, we need to decide which animals to put up for sale, always a hard decision, but one which has to be made.
What I am really looking forward to is a nice warm spring followed by a proper summer, we can but hope.
Thursday, 13 September 2012
Cria Update
This is a bit of a photo blog tonight.
Firstly some pictures of this years cria, starting with Hummingbird who is just 4 months old and huge, so much so that we are going to have to wean her early as her Mum Lily is getting really thin.
But it obviously got to much for Lalique who needed to take a nap and used Tigerlily as a cushion.
A good day was had by all, I think the crowds were up on last year as there seemed to be a sue for the loos most of the day which hasn't happened for the last couple of years.
Firstly some pictures of this years cria, starting with Hummingbird who is just 4 months old and huge, so much so that we are going to have to wean her early as her Mum Lily is getting really thin.
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| Hummingbird |
Next up is Olympus aka Ollie, he really didn't want to be photographed as he was having a good munch on some grass and didn't want to be disturbed.
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| Olympus |
Last of the first batch of Cria is Tiffany who certainly doesn't mind being photographed.
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| Tiffany |
The second batch started to arrive in August, here they are in nursery this afternoon.
They may look angelic here but they are a pack of hooligans really.
Here they are with Carla in charge, behaving themselves but then they wouldn't mess with Carla!
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| Fandango is the oldest on the right by ten days, Basil on the left. |
The little white female is Tempest AKA Norma (long story) Pictured with Basil, both born on the same morning and inseparable.
A few pictures from Widecombe Fair, as you can see it was a lovely day, someone had been very creative with the papermache with this brilliant model of Uncle Tom Cobley and his mates on the Grey Mare.
Our stall was in a very prominent position near one of the entrances at this point the girls seemed quite interested in what was going on.
A good day was had by all, I think the crowds were up on last year as there seemed to be a sue for the loos most of the day which hasn't happened for the last couple of years.
Wednesday, 12 September 2012
Hay, Fairs and Breedings
It has been such a busy time for us here that by the time I have thought about updating the blog it has been really late so I haven't even started it.
It was six weeks ago tomorrow since the barn at home burnt down and the picture below shows you what our yard looks like. As you can see the hay that was pulled out from the burning building is still there, the clean up should have started today but nobody turned up. Can't understand how it takes so long to organise a company to come and sort out the mess, but then we are talking about insurance companies here.
As you can appreciate it is really inconvenient not being able to drive into the yard, everything has to be carried up to the car and even more annoying I haven't been able to get the shopping delivered meaning I have had to go and get it myself which I haven't really got time for.
Any way onto more enjoyable things, we had a stall at Totnes show which was at the end of August and we actually had a nice sunny day, the crowds weren't there this year, this may be because the show had to be postponed from the end of July due to the weather. The weather played a big part in the next show which was a little local show at Lustleigh and because it was a bank holiday weekend the weather forecast contained a severe weather warning for the Monday, the day of the show. We did consider not going but it was too local to just not turn up. As normal it wasn't as bad as forecast and we actually set up in the dry, then the rain showers came in but it wasn't as bad as they said. We had a lovely day and sold a reasonable about of products, spoke to lots of people about Alpacas but I am sure the weather forecast put a lot of people off.
On the Thursday that week it was off to Honiton Show, well that was a show that should have been called off, the mud was terrible, trouble was you needed a tractor to pull you in and that just made the mud worst. Once in the show ran really well, we had a very small show team as this show had also been postponed so I didn't take some of the females who had been entered for the earlier show.it turned out to be a enjoyable day, lots of Alpaca chat and time to catch up with old friends.
I have spent a lot of time over the school holidays looking after the Grandchildren, we have been on the moors climbing up on the rocks or swimming in the river, them not me, but they seem to have most fun in the trough, who needs theme parks! not sure there is a need for googles though.
We seem to have got very late with our breedings this year, so far we have three definitely spitting off, one who seems to like to be bred every other week, one who was bred, then sat, then refuse to bred with our preferred male, then sat and then decided preferred male was OK after all and dropped like a stone at first sight. Now our last three females to give birth are nearly ready to rebreed and I keep changing my mind over which male to use over which one. We will not bred after the end of the month so fingers crossed they will be ready by then. We had decided not to breed our youngsters until next spring but then the opportunity to use a outside stud came along so we have given it a go.
Yesterday we went off to our local show 'Widecombe Fair' of Uncle Tom Cobley Fame, we took along all of last years babes, all girls two whites, two browns, a fawn and and a fancy, so a nice group who took great interest in their surroundings and had an admiring audience all day. We were very busy on the stall, the yarns, knitwear, socks and scarves proved very popular. It was a really good day, we saw lots of our neighbours who we don't see very often, didn't see anything else on the fair field as I didn't have time to leave the stall.
So thats it for shows for this year so now we have time to relax a little, maybe.
Still a lot of hay down for some though!
Maybe spend a bit more time out on the moors, we have a Llama walk booked in for Saturday.
It was six weeks ago tomorrow since the barn at home burnt down and the picture below shows you what our yard looks like. As you can see the hay that was pulled out from the burning building is still there, the clean up should have started today but nobody turned up. Can't understand how it takes so long to organise a company to come and sort out the mess, but then we are talking about insurance companies here.
As you can appreciate it is really inconvenient not being able to drive into the yard, everything has to be carried up to the car and even more annoying I haven't been able to get the shopping delivered meaning I have had to go and get it myself which I haven't really got time for.
Any way onto more enjoyable things, we had a stall at Totnes show which was at the end of August and we actually had a nice sunny day, the crowds weren't there this year, this may be because the show had to be postponed from the end of July due to the weather. The weather played a big part in the next show which was a little local show at Lustleigh and because it was a bank holiday weekend the weather forecast contained a severe weather warning for the Monday, the day of the show. We did consider not going but it was too local to just not turn up. As normal it wasn't as bad as forecast and we actually set up in the dry, then the rain showers came in but it wasn't as bad as they said. We had a lovely day and sold a reasonable about of products, spoke to lots of people about Alpacas but I am sure the weather forecast put a lot of people off.
On the Thursday that week it was off to Honiton Show, well that was a show that should have been called off, the mud was terrible, trouble was you needed a tractor to pull you in and that just made the mud worst. Once in the show ran really well, we had a very small show team as this show had also been postponed so I didn't take some of the females who had been entered for the earlier show.it turned out to be a enjoyable day, lots of Alpaca chat and time to catch up with old friends.
I have spent a lot of time over the school holidays looking after the Grandchildren, we have been on the moors climbing up on the rocks or swimming in the river, them not me, but they seem to have most fun in the trough, who needs theme parks! not sure there is a need for googles though.
We seem to have got very late with our breedings this year, so far we have three definitely spitting off, one who seems to like to be bred every other week, one who was bred, then sat, then refuse to bred with our preferred male, then sat and then decided preferred male was OK after all and dropped like a stone at first sight. Now our last three females to give birth are nearly ready to rebreed and I keep changing my mind over which male to use over which one. We will not bred after the end of the month so fingers crossed they will be ready by then. We had decided not to breed our youngsters until next spring but then the opportunity to use a outside stud came along so we have given it a go.
Yesterday we went off to our local show 'Widecombe Fair' of Uncle Tom Cobley Fame, we took along all of last years babes, all girls two whites, two browns, a fawn and and a fancy, so a nice group who took great interest in their surroundings and had an admiring audience all day. We were very busy on the stall, the yarns, knitwear, socks and scarves proved very popular. It was a really good day, we saw lots of our neighbours who we don't see very often, didn't see anything else on the fair field as I didn't have time to leave the stall.
So thats it for shows for this year so now we have time to relax a little, maybe.
Still a lot of hay down for some though!
Maybe spend a bit more time out on the moors, we have a Llama walk booked in for Saturday.
Wednesday, 5 September 2012
Especially for Hannah
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| Olivia with Fandango |
We had three females due to give birth and they have all now delivered, so that it for this years cria and we are already looking forward to next years. First to produce was Olivia who gave us a lovely Dark Brown male from Wessex Mambo, lovely looking boy weighing in at 8.5 kilos.
Than on Monday we woke up and checked the female field via Alpaca Cam to find a little brown cria sat up next to the hay rack and another little brown cria running around the field. Sure there was only one the night before ! When we arrived at the field we discovered Marietta had produce a little, well quite big really Dark Brown Male by Inca Cayanne weighing in at 9 Kilos.
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| Marietta's Cria |
Just a couple of hours later it was obvious Carla was also about to give birth. I had the Grandsons for the day and we were just about to go for a swim down the river, so change of plan, picnic in the field. So there we were sitting on a rug in the field eating our picnic, watching Carla sitting down, getting up, rolling around and then there was a nose, then a leg, more head, still one leg. well I thought this is going to be fun, stroppy, spitty female, cria with one leg back, two small boys who couldn't help much although they offered. Luckily Steve was on his way back from a spot of grass cutting, so help was on it's way. Once Steve was able to hold Carla with her face firmly held facing away from me, I was able to locate the other leg and manoeuvre it into position, shortly after Carla delivered a very white female cria by our Stud Male Caliban.
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| Carla & Cria |
Loads more to report but really need to go to bed now so will update again soon.
Monday, 13 August 2012
Finally someone sees sense.
It has been well over a week since the fire and I know I wanted a quieter time but absolutely nothing has changed in our farmyard. The hay which was pulled out of the fire was heaped up but it got so hot there was a danger of it bursting into flames, the fire brigade covered it with foam and said it was a fire risk. The loss assessors looked at it and went away, then they said it was up to us to get someone to move it at which point everyone got mad and some rather heated phone calls and e.mails later and the insurance company said they would deal with it. Turns out that our contaminated waste was going to cost to much to move but if they could get some one to pick out the big bits of asbestos roofing it would be OK to remove, not sure the insurance company who is going to pay for the removal should be the ones to decide how it is removed.
We can't drive into the yard so everything has to be carried over the pile of hay, really annoying when we have to load the car to go to Okehampton show.
The final straw this week was when the insurance company decided to offer a settlement value on Steves mowing deck which was £650 less than the cost of replacement. We can't find a secondhand deck anywhere in the country as they only come with the tractor. At this point Steve lost it as he said, why should we be out of pocket because someone else was responsible for burning the barn down. Anyway finally today after a whole afternoon of Steve shouting (something he never does) down the phone at the loss adjusters and anyone else he could get hold of, they got the message. They are going to pay for a new deck. At least Steve can now go to work and we can start to earn some money, that is if the rain stops.
Everything else is running smoothly, I had a day at Okehampton show last Thursday which was a bit disappointing, weather was lovely just too many Alpaca stalls all together, not sure we will bother with that one next year.
Saturday we went to Holne fate which was a great afternoon out and we took the stall and a few Alpacas which created a lot of interest, this turned out to be better than Okehampton Show in respect of takings. Tomorrow we are off to Widecombe in the Moor for a Fun day in aid of Leusdon Church, I think the same group of girls will be going and hopefully the weather will be kind to us.
We are still waiting for our next cria we currently have Olivia on 334, Carla 324 and Marietta 322 days. Still that gives me an opportunity to sit and watch, some me time all in the name of work, all is not bad really!
We can't drive into the yard so everything has to be carried over the pile of hay, really annoying when we have to load the car to go to Okehampton show.
The final straw this week was when the insurance company decided to offer a settlement value on Steves mowing deck which was £650 less than the cost of replacement. We can't find a secondhand deck anywhere in the country as they only come with the tractor. At this point Steve lost it as he said, why should we be out of pocket because someone else was responsible for burning the barn down. Anyway finally today after a whole afternoon of Steve shouting (something he never does) down the phone at the loss adjusters and anyone else he could get hold of, they got the message. They are going to pay for a new deck. At least Steve can now go to work and we can start to earn some money, that is if the rain stops.
Everything else is running smoothly, I had a day at Okehampton show last Thursday which was a bit disappointing, weather was lovely just too many Alpaca stalls all together, not sure we will bother with that one next year.
Saturday we went to Holne fate which was a great afternoon out and we took the stall and a few Alpacas which created a lot of interest, this turned out to be better than Okehampton Show in respect of takings. Tomorrow we are off to Widecombe in the Moor for a Fun day in aid of Leusdon Church, I think the same group of girls will be going and hopefully the weather will be kind to us.
We are still waiting for our next cria we currently have Olivia on 334, Carla 324 and Marietta 322 days. Still that gives me an opportunity to sit and watch, some me time all in the name of work, all is not bad really!
Monday, 6 August 2012
More excitement
If last week wasn't enough today has been just as exciting.
We had another day of people coming and going, we now have a new electric pole but no electric on it as yet. they were hoping to have it fixed but our road has been closed for pot hole filling and the lorry couldn't get here so thats another day with the generator. Funny things have been happening with our alarm clocks since the fire we keep getting up early! I checked the clock when we went to bed and the time was correct by morning it is half to an hour fast so the alarm goes off, this has happened every morning since Friday but strangely the same thing has happened to Rogers alarm clock, now that can't be a coincidence. They are both electric clocks which set their own time and always change them selfs when the clocks go bcd/forward when necessary so why should they both gain over night? Got to be something to do with the transformer exploding.
Anyway today started off quite enough, picked the boys up whilst daughter went to work, hospital appointment, got back Steve was fixing the TV bracket when we got a phone call from one of our guests to say they were stuck on Mel Tor and couldn't get back as one of them had Parkinsons and had lost the use of her legs. Could we pick them up with the Landrover, we knew where they were so off we went. Unfortunately we couldn't get very close so had no option but to ring for help, half an hour later Police Helicopter with Paramedic on board arrived and after finding a suitable spot our guest was rescued and had a short ride in the Helicopter back to the Car Park where their car was. Obviously this caused a great excitement in the car park and lots of photos were taken ( sorry can't show people ones as I didn't as permission).
Holiday snaps with a difference I think. I advised the to have a quite day tomorrow as I can't cope with all the excitement!
We had another day of people coming and going, we now have a new electric pole but no electric on it as yet. they were hoping to have it fixed but our road has been closed for pot hole filling and the lorry couldn't get here so thats another day with the generator. Funny things have been happening with our alarm clocks since the fire we keep getting up early! I checked the clock when we went to bed and the time was correct by morning it is half to an hour fast so the alarm goes off, this has happened every morning since Friday but strangely the same thing has happened to Rogers alarm clock, now that can't be a coincidence. They are both electric clocks which set their own time and always change them selfs when the clocks go bcd/forward when necessary so why should they both gain over night? Got to be something to do with the transformer exploding.
Anyway today started off quite enough, picked the boys up whilst daughter went to work, hospital appointment, got back Steve was fixing the TV bracket when we got a phone call from one of our guests to say they were stuck on Mel Tor and couldn't get back as one of them had Parkinsons and had lost the use of her legs. Could we pick them up with the Landrover, we knew where they were so off we went. Unfortunately we couldn't get very close so had no option but to ring for help, half an hour later Police Helicopter with Paramedic on board arrived and after finding a suitable spot our guest was rescued and had a short ride in the Helicopter back to the Car Park where their car was. Obviously this caused a great excitement in the car park and lots of photos were taken ( sorry can't show people ones as I didn't as permission).
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| Safely back in the carpark |
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