Mixed blessings

Today has been a bit of a roller coaster emotionally, poor old (5yrs) West has never been far from my thoughts , and after the initial flurry of activity to get a postmortem sorted at Shrewsbury VLA there is not much more I can do except sit and wait . The vet says it is unlikely to be anything that will be of concern to the others, fingers crossed, the wethers in the field with West have all looked a bit subdued and a little bit lost , but maybe that's just me. Talking to the local farmers , who have been very sympathetic , a diagnosis is emerging - apparently yesterday at approx 2.30 threre was a humm dinger of a thunderclap and a lot of lightening ( thou not the rain we so desperately need) and all the animals went berserk , the sheep farmer said all his sheep were shocked into silence and then all hell broke loose. Could this be what killed West? the timing fits , my rough estimate was that he had been dead about 4 hours when I found him at 7.30 , judging by the level of rigor etc , and there was no sign of a struggle , heart attack is where my money goes at present.

Anyway on a happier note , i collected our puppy , Jasmine, today. She is an 8week old black lab , and truly gorgeous . The boys are thrilled with her , and she is currently sleeping peacefully after a very tiring 20 minutes with the boys !

Oh B*****ks

Just been to check on the alpacas , and find that my stud male West has died .Fine this morning , now stiff as a board.Why is it always the good ones? No obvious sign of injury , fit and healthy, looks like he just fell over and died . His tongue is hanging out at the side , but that could just be the angle of the slope.......

F***, f***, f***

Sitting on my hands!

As for most people the last week or so has been glorious weather , sunny warm , in fact darn right hot on occassion! The alpacas are enjoying the sunbathing and the regular showers I am giving them . Veronica started it - she heard me watering in the polytunnel and came to wait outside , she made it clear that she wanted to be 'watered' too!I started with her toes which she held out very nicely , and worked up until I got to her face , she is not keen on having water sprayed directly on her face but will stand under a sprinkler if it is held well above her head like rain! Gradually almost all the alpacas came and joined in, some got very excited , particularly Artemis , who threw herself around and I was in danger of a good kick but luckily she missed . The funniest was Kirsty, she just reminded me of the ladies who manage to swim calm lengths without getting their hair wet or smudging their mascara - her whole demeanor was' don't wet the hair'! She held each foot up nicely and eventually sat so that I could really wet her back - but not the hair or the face!

I can confirm categorically ( I think) that Hermione is expecting - hurray hurray hurray! Judging by the bulge and the foetal movements I feel quite confident in this statement, by my reckoning she is due on the 19 June .....
Bijou is also looking huge and her due date was yesterday.... hence sitting on my hands. She comes in quietly every morning for extra rations in peace and quiet , but is looking uncomfortable , the shearers are due in the next couple of weeks , how precise is that! , which kicked things off for her last year .....
I am still not 100% about Cerys , she is refusing any advances , and I have stopped testing her on the basis that if she is pregnant then I don't want to stress her , she will also be due on 19 June , so we shall watch and wait . Her belly is swollen but not as big as I would expect - has she just had too many pies?

Yesterday we did Bluetongue vaccinations, a bundle of laughs as usual , not hard but it was hot and sweaty work. I took the chance to tidy up some nails and do a bit of essential 'dagging' , boy did I smell great by the end of all that!

I did it !

The pink Walk for breast cancer was last weekend , and I did it! Along with 2 friends we trudged the tow paths on the Brecon and Monmouth canal until we reached Llangattock - it was good fun , but the last few miles were hard , very tender feet were OK as long as you kept going but when we stopped ....ouch! We finished in the first 100 , anad took just under 5 hours , so those of you who promised money - now would be a good time to cough up!

Clear as mud!

I did some spit=off's this morning , and really life is no clearer!

West shows great enthusiasm for the first girl , but if he gets a knock back , he goes off the boil and isn't very interested in any of the others - kind of tricky when spit-offs are the order of the day. Help from the 2 eldest boys is actually more of a hindrance , but I never seem to remember this until they are already 'helping' , #'s 3 & 4 sons , althou' smaller are much more help! anyway, with 'help' everyone was rounded up and penned for said spit-offs , first up was Kirsty who gave a resounding spit or several- good result.
Second up , Acantha , she is a really sweet little girl , and whilst not spitting , refused to be caught , conclusion - pretty sure she's pregnant. At this point West sat down himself , in sheer frustration I think!
Third up was Veronica , she spat for Wales - pretty good , but West hardly moved off the spot , took one look got spat at and refused to show any further interest.
Tried for a fourth result with Hermione , who's status is unclear but leaning towards pregnant, West refused to budge , had a cursory sniff , she spat he ignored her ! Cue me doing a passable orgle to see if that would get things moving - definite interest from all the alpaca , but more om the lines of ' what the hell is she doing now' , and a few surprised walkers .......

hey ho , life is never as simple as I'd like ! Off to view new puppy who is now 4 weeks old !

Big decision!

The last few days have been hectic but very productive , hence the blogging gap. Over the bank holiday, with the help of generous friends, we managed to get new gates hung at the bottom of the drive onto the yard , new fencing on the side of the field by the drive - it all looks very smart on arrival now- rose hedge trimmed , beech hedge trimmed ( understatement ) all the rubbish clippings burnt , veg gardens weeded..... all this with 6 kids in tow , a very arduous ( and for everyone else) enjoyable walk- I don't like steep hills so it was on the side of torture for me , and a riding lesson for the children. Pretty pleased with ourselves right now.

Plus the grass is growing ! We seeded and rotivated etc. a large patch of lawn and it is definitely green. Also managed to get the empty alpaca fields fertilised and it then obligingly rained... fab.

I have also been doing spit-offs and matings , which seem to be going well,I still wouldn't stake my life on Hermione being pregnant , but she is certainly doing a good impression. Bijou is looking larger by the day , she is due in 3 weeks so fingers crossed that we don't have to endure the wait like last year.

Now for the decision- I have put my first alpacas up for sale! I feel slightly sick at the thought of selling them , but it has to be done . Bourbon and Bilbo , my beautiful brown boys , do not have a place in my herd , being too closely related to most of the girls , but Bourbon particularly shows a lot of promise and I have tried every which way to keep him , not to be . The two of them are so close I think it is fairer to let them go together . I have also put Bozedown Kirtsy on the sale list. She is a great animal who has produced a couple of lovely girls for me , fab quality , but she is white , and my dream goes towards the darker colours , so sadly she too is going . Although I've put them up for sale , parting with them will be another story - gin will be in order !

surprises

The weather has been lovely , and the alpaca have been making the most of the gorgeous sunshine . Today , I did some pregnancy testing , and got a couple of surprises - Riva isn't pregnant going by the joyous greeting she gave West when she saw him . That is a shame ,but hey ho . Artemis was very keen to make friends with West ( little hussy) as was Acantha and Veronica. I wasn't expecting any of them to be pregnant , so Veronica was the first to be mated this season. Kirsty did a runner as soon as she saw West , so I didn't get a chance for a close encounter - the jury is still out on her status.Then came the surprises, Hermione is now 4 and a half , and for 3 years we have been trying to mate her with no success. Today , she went berserk and turned into the resident spit fountain , I have my fingers firmly crossed, interestingly , just before I went outside I had been reading an article on an alpaca forum in the states which was specifically saying that big boned animals ( Hermione ) and those with accoyo( Hermione) take longer to mature and may not be mate able until 3 or 4 years old ! How spooky is that. Athena was the next surprise - the jury is still out , but it looks promising - she spat at West , and after much sniffing he didn't even try mating with her , can the males tell I wonder?

The chicks were due to hatch today, and sure enough last night I saw a few piping . By this morning we had 7 chicks, 6 were bouncing and one looked distinctly dodgy , but tonight we have 14 healthy chicks including the dodgy one . I am really pleased- 5 barnevelders, 5 buff Sussex and 4 heinz 57 from my own flock. Currently they are all flaked out in the incubator like a huge chick carpet.