Up dates

As you may have noticed , my blogging has become less frequent . In lots of ways this is positive - oh yes it is - because it means that the things I blog about are all going well , and there is little drama to report. Having said that , not all drama is bad news , and we have had plenty of drama recently.Firstly , the hay is ALL cut and put away, and we got more than last year, it smells great and I can sleep more easily knowing that there is no stress related to winter feed! Grateful thanks to our belgian visitors who helped with the physical putting away , very different from what I think they thought they'd be doing on a weeks holiday in the Brecon Beacons !

And now the fun bits . Well true to expectation , all the alpaca girls have delivered happy healthy cria in the predicted time span- to the day!! Not quite in right order I must confess , but still within the dates I hoped for .Since my last update we have now got the full complement of 9! Six boys , 3 girls . 3 black, 3 choc, 2 mid fawn and 1 white!! Isn't alpaca genetics fascinating , all from the same sire , Teifi Magic , himself a blue black , out of mums varying in colour from black to white . 2 of the black cria are from black mums , the third is from a light fawn ? The only white is from a light fawn , and all the white mums had choc babies - it s a bit of a logic puzzle , which I have given up trying to solve , lets see what next year brings.

Elf , who had ' inside out ' ears at birth , no longer has 'inside out ' ears . Interestingly this is due to 2 things , initially I did nothing ,then at 2 weeks old I vet wrapped both ears , one bandage came of within hours the other stayed put for a couple of days = one fine ear , one dodgy ear . Poor little thing looked even weirder , but was easy to pick out in a crowd! Gradually the other ear straightened all by itself , and now I struggle to tell the difference between her and Enzo. Ain't nature clever.

The final four arrived in a fairly civilised manner, Veronica gave birth to Ewart on my dads birthday which was a week earlier then predicted , especially after last year when she was very late. He is a real beauty, with the most fantastically tight curls which are growing out to show amazing crimp, fingers crossed. Currently he is still a bit small , but she is an experienced mum and he seems full of the joys , so we will watch and wait.

The last birth was quite interesting- I have been waiting for Cerys to produce since the 22 June , at shearing the shearers agreed that she was pregnant , I sat back and waited , and waited and waited .... nothing happened , and some days she did look pregnant and other days I couldn't really tell. I couldn't feel a cria ' bounce' and she bagged up a long time ago - the signs were highly confusing! Anyway , on Aug 1st I put her mum , Boz Bijou , into the mating pen with Teifi Magic , and lo and behold Cerys insisted in going in too . I was pretty exasperated - only a week before she was spitting like mad over the fence at him .I felt pretty peeved that she had finally

decided to reveal her open state after all the weeks I

have watched and worried , but at least I knew for definite as she sat sedately next to the mating pair waiting for her turn.

And then I saw a foot , actually 2 feet appear and disappear with regular contractions ! Clearly the old adages are true - sex does have an effect on a pregnant creature , just not the one I expected . Fairly quickly after that she stood up , I let her out of the pen , and within 10 mins she had produced a gorgeous black boy, all fit and healthy and up and away within all the predicted time limits .

He goes from strength to strength , despite the fact he has no name . I know , its shocking , but true , he is nameless.

And so the herd is complete for this year .

Matings have taken place at the appropriate times , and Andaw Czars Aberlour has started his career as a sire of prize winners - we hope !