To quote from pygmalion

- he's got , I really think he's got it ( apologies for the slight mis-quote) . Diablo is feeding himself!!! It's a bit messy and slightly unorthodox , but feeding himself he appears to be . Friday midnight feed found a cria with milk on his face , I waited a few hours and checked again , and whilst he is hardly an elegant feeder , he is managing , and Veronica's udder is reassuringly less full. Initially I was concerned that her milk supply was drying up , but after 2 days all is well , her udder is covered in the remnants of his feed and Diablo is out in the fields frolicking with the best of them. He has put on a little weight - 200gms - but now that nursing is being established I hope that we will see a continued progress. Diablo has fast discovered the power he has over the 4 girls in his field , if they get too close Veronica objects most strongly , as a result they are all keen to keep their distance if she is watching , so he has taken to running up to them and then chuckling to himself as they turn tail and leg it before Veronica gets any ideas - he has the makings of a holy pasture terror!

Beginning to see the light

.. at the end of the tunnel I hope ! Diablo , as he will be called, is making progress thank God. Monday night was stressful , with a couple of night feeds from me , so I was tired by the morning . Luckily Tuesday was glorious , and so the little chap went out to meet some of the herd , red cria coat and all. Everybody was very excited to meet the new cria and there was alot of running around and of course lots of sniffing . Veronica was torn , on the one hand she wanted to get at the grass and on the other she really didn't like the others getting too close to her baby . In the end a compromise was reached by putting her in a small filed next to the rest of the herd . Diablo took it all well , initially he couldn't get up by himself , but once up could stand for a short while before folding himself back into a perfect little cush. Despite being over due by forever , he is tiny at just 5.8 kg , by far the smallest cria we have had.

Today he is able to stand and walk about by himself and he has spent a large portion of the day outside. The yearlings are very excited and there has been a lot of skittishness , Diablo is keen to join in but the flesh is not quite up to it! I am still milking mum about every hour and then giving it to her cria , his sucking reflex is a bit weak , thou' it seems to be getting better , and he is having trouble keeping his tongue under control , but that too is getting better. He is keen to feed from mum , but with a slightly out of control tongue and still wobbly legs he has not managed to perfect latching on , he knows where to go and is very keen so I am hopeful that within a couple of days it will all come right , meantime I am milking mum and supplementing with goats milk from a bottle . Still fingers crossed!

At last!

Finally , on the day with the worst weather conditions for at least a month, Veronica has had her cria!!! A beautiful dark fawn boy , the spitting image of his dad West who sadly died last year. It has not been a smooth start , hence no picture yet , I just haven't had time , and I don't want to tempt fate.
After a gestation which must be the longest in history, 391 days, Veronica chose today to give birth. It is about the only day for weeks which i discounted due to the appalling weather conditions- we have had rain or drizzle all day alongside a gale force warning and incredible winds - and here in lies my mistake. I checked her a couple of times this morning - nothing , checked again just before I sat down for lunch - nothing . Then at 2.20 something made me check again - somebody shouting nearby I think - and she had a cria. I pelted outside with a towel to find a flat , wet , cold cria with the sack still over his nose , and a mother who was clearly concerned and had already delivered the placenta. Quick run to the stables , lots of rubbing and several prayers , and I was getting nowhere fast. Grabbed the heat lamp - ping! the bulb blew! Don't own a hairdryer - slight panic setting in .Called a neighbour who was luckily in , and had a heat lamp which he bought over pretty fast- things were looking up , but the crias temp was very low , so I decided to stick him in the bath - which i had just un-plumbed in readiness for moving it - oh s**t. Large tub trug came to the rescue and after half an hour in hot water inside a plastic bag , the cria started to struggle and hold his head up - success.

We are not out of the woods yet, he is finding leg co-ordination tricky , and cannot stand for long periods , so I have supplemented with mothers colostrum ,they are both having a rest at the moment, and i shall be back out every 20 mins or so for a bit more colostrum until he can do it himself!! Now to choose a name!

Still waiting!

I can't believe it - we are still waiting for anybody to produce . Veronica is at 378 days and Kirsty is at 373! Veronica particularly looks like a battle ship , she is so huge , everyday I've looked and agreed with myself that today will be the day , but no , so far I have been completely wrong . All the signs are there for both girls , but neither seems in a hurry to produce . Both these cria are from Boz West and are the last of his line so I am really hoping for something special.

I can see that this year is going to be a long one ! I have decided to have a go at field mating , to that end I have put Magic in with a filed of perspective girls with high hopes that nature will take its course and I will not spend so much time walking him backwards and forwards to the mating pen , which requires haltering him first - an activity he does not like and makes as difficult as possible. 2 days now and no mating has occurred ! At first he was quite keen and the girls were pleased to see him , but within a few minutes they had chased him just a little too much and he is not remotely interested . All that posturing is fine when there's a fence between us .... he's turning into a bit of a wuss. So back to the drawing board , he will go back with the boys and we will return to pen mating !

things are progressing ...

just not quite the right things! No , we still don't have a cria on the ground - Veronica is at 368 days ( our current longest gestation ) and looking huge , very uncomfortable and hot. She has been coming down everyday for a good soaking from the hosepipe which she plainly loves , and I have been telling her how much better she will feel if she would just get on and have it , but to no avail.

My broody hen has produced 6 chicks - would have been 7 but she trod on one - so I hatched the rest in the incubator for the last 24 hrs just to be safe , she is happily touting them around the garden showing them all off.

Finally we have aquired 2 new pigs ! Petunia and Daffodil ( don't ask) arrived yesterday and are saddleback piglets , 9 weeks old . Amazingly , our pig rearing feats range far and wide and we are well known!! When DH went to collect them , the breeder , whom we purchased from 5 yrs ago , said that he had heard about our first pigs from the butcher - I did say infamous didn't I ?- who apparently still recalls the 2 elephants we took to him all those years ago , and the breeder is in a different county!! These 2 are not destined for such greatness , a modest 70kgs will be fine !

Observation of the day

... spring is truly here! How do I know ? Well , simple really - the alpaca are not showing much interest in their daily ration of hard feed , so the grass must be really good !

Currently I am waiting on a new cria , which should have been due on the 13 April , judging by last years days , 351 to be precise , but now we are into the final run up to 365 and still no sign , Veronica is very large and clearly uncomfortable , and the weather is perfect so it has to be any day now , but when ? Every morning I 've got up and had a quick look and thought' today's the day' but clearly I am wrong. I have had everyone on standby whilst I was away in Mustique , but nothing , so expect the news very soon , with pics I promise . This also means that mating must surely be on the horizon , still a couple of decisions to make , and plans to put in place , but on the whole we are ready to start , and I even heard from the shearers today - nothing concrete of course , but progress.

The sole remaining turkey has started laying , which is very exciting but not as exciting as if we had a stag, DH is dying to try soft boiled turkey egg , watch this space.

All our chicks seem to be growing fast , and since I have a broody sitting on 10 eggs I am debating the need to incubate another clutch myself , well in an incubator actually , ha ha . If I do hatch another lot and the broody does well I could end up with a grand total of maybe 42 chicks hatched this year , if they can avoid the fox I may at last have enough to sell !!

Since my last post we have been battling lumpy jaw in one of the young males , daily antibiotics have certainly helped and the swelling is less than a quarter of what it was originally , but after 6 weeks it is still not quite gone . The vet is unsure as to what may have caused it , a kick maybe , or bizarrely , hay that was too ' nice' - not enough hard chewy bits ?? Luckily Bilbo has started to put some weight back on , having got pretty skinny , so things are looking better , it would just be nice to see the back of it once and for all.

Tree climbing dogs ?

A bit of a gap since my last post and quite a lot has happened , I shall try to be concise !

Firstly the alpacas are all well , Calpurnia is still not eating hard feed , but is tucking in nicely to her hay , I'm not overly worried but we are going to run some fecals just to be sure there is nothing else going on .Veronica is due to produce at the end of March / beginning of April , which is when I am away so DH gets to watch and wait a bit , fingers crossed she does it before I go or hangs on for a week until I come back . Out of interest , the alpaca people reading , can you tell me how you deal with birthing season , do you have somebody watching them all the time ? or just checking a couple of times a day?

This morning has produced another fox in our trap!! Hurray I am shouting . The last couple of weeks have been somewhat trying , I knew he was around but I couldn't catch him , and then on Wed he tried to take the big white turkey literally under DH and DS3 's noses! He didn't manage it , since DH was close enough to give him a good kick, but we have been on tenter hooks every evening since waiting for the poultry to go to bed ,we have almost mounted an armed guard except that we don't own a gun. On the positive , we have had our first turkey egg and our first blue egg - on the same day!!

And now to the title of this blog , as I am sitting here typing , I can see the children and the dog in a field and they have just taught her to climb a tree ! Not a small tree either , all 4 of them are perched in the tree and so is the dog ! Incredible , but I'm not sure how useful a tree climbing dog is ?!