Karen's alpacas

HAPPY EASTER!

Happy Easter - chocolate big time in this house!!

Busy times lately - lots of visitors, mostly for the alpacas and last weekend we had the Southern Alpaca Group Vet Day here with Peter Aitken - he's just brilliant and as usual everyone learnt lots.

More shows are looming up - the Heart of England next week in Warwickshire and then South of England in East Sussex the following weekend, a last minute decision to enter that one, as we didn't have our shearing date until the day of closing, but we can just about fit in the show before they all get their annual disrobing. I love to see them after shearing - they look so elegant and streamlined and they seem to love it too.

We delivered a couple more of our pet boys this weekend, they're going to live with a small flock of chickens and ducks within a beautiful old farmyard, a lovely environment for them to live in and I'm sure they'll be very happy in their new home, and should keep those pesky foxes away from their new paddock friends.

It won't be long before the next generation of cria arrive, in around 6 weeks or so, it's been such a long wait and I'm getting very excited as many of these will be from our new Snowmass boys as well as from The Sorcerer, and one from our Incan King boy Eros from Cassandra. Poor Eros suffers from sweet itch - just like some horses, he gets very itchy from the midges. I am putting various lotions and potions on him to try and help the situation but nothing really works for any length of time and he rubs all the fleece off his ears and face, which then of course allows more midges in. I read somewhere that Avon Skin So Soft works on humans to keep midges away, so I've sent off for some - will let you know if it works!! He looks a bit of a mess really and I entered him for the next shows, so I might have to leave him behind, which would be a shame as his fleece is beautiful.

The big boys

Alfie and Jack Black - leaving home

ALPACA SHOWTIME

Another great weekend, this time in Cambridgeshire at Alpaca Showtime, hosted by Houghton Hall and jointly organised with The Alpaca Stud and Bozedown. Rebecca and I left on Friday morning in the rain with a very bedraggled show team but by the time we got through all the traffic on our journey the sun had come out and they had blown dry...

The venue was the biggest indoor arena I have ever been in with a great looking show ring and the show was very well organised with a good atmosphere.

There were some amazing trophies for colour Champions and I was thrilled when The Sorcerer won his class and then went on to win Grey Male Champion, which meant we could have one!!! We went off to get our photo taken - it got pretty heavy after a while! Imagine my excitement then when Bonami also won his class and went on to win Champion Fawn Male and we got another one!! Now I can do weight lifting with them!!! Shame we have to give them back next year!

Enigma came first in the Intermediate black females and Macy, Talisman, Dynasty and Bonnie all came 3rd. A new way to close the show was to have a line-up of all the female Champions and then all the Male Champions and then the Supreme was decided between the winner of those two groups. I was pretty chuffed to have two in the male line-up.

All in all a very good weekend - lots of fun and we were home by 7.30pm and everyone was back in their fields and we were able to flop in front of the TV to watch the hunky Musketeers! Whilst we were away we have been adopted by a female Turkey - she's rather lovely and laying eggs too. Not sure how long she'll stay with us but she's rather cute.

Now I must decide who we're taking to the Heart of England ...

Rebecca with Enigma

Bonami with Shaun

Our two Champions Bonami and The Sorcerer waiting to go into Best Males

Best Males Line-up - I was pretty proud to have two out of six in there!

Our haul

Turkey Lurkey!

FIRST DAY OF SPRING

Hurrah ... well that's winter over with then, officially at least, if not literally. March 1st and it's a glorious sunny day after a frosty start - perfect.

We brought all the females in today for a weigh in, I always find it quite interesting to see who's gone up or down, or stayed the same. Only one girl, old "Aunty Miel" has lost any significant weight over the winter, she is 16 almost 17 and we don't shear her blanket off so she's been good and cosy, but its just her age I suppose catching up with her, not that she's thin, just no longer fat. The rest have either stayed the same or increased slightly with pregnancy or growth - all good then.

This week I have been giving our website a bit of an overhaul, not done it for ages, it's one of those things I put off doing for far too long and then once I start I can't stop fiddling with it! I don't know enough about the works of it all really, why it can look beautifully set up on the local folder, but once uploaded to the remote site it looks completely different ... hours wasted trying to sort that out and still not finished!

I have added a new page just for a bit of fun really, thought it was worth sharing. It's basically all about one of our females Bon Bon and her family - tour female 'B' for Bretta line. I started it a couple of years ago, but only this week finished it! http://www.mvalpacas.co.uk/Featured%20Female.htm

BonBon with her cria Baylee

Well too nice to stay indoors so I'm off outside again, might get some good pics of some dry alpacas for a change!

National Show in two weeks - looking forward getting on the circuit again.

THE WETTEST WINTER SINCE 1760 - YOU'RE NOT KIDDING!

My last post, back at the very beginning of January, a very wet and windy day.... well it's still wet and windy. There really haven't been many days dry in-between. We're used to wet weather here in the UK, but this is ridiculous! My heart goes out to all those people who have been flooded, there can be nothing much worse than filthy water coming into your home and businesses for weeks on end; the news coverage of the farms under water are just appalling and I hate to think how many animals have been drowned. Thank heavens we're on chalk here and on relatively high ground. The old timers in our village say the valley has never been so flooded - I certainly haven't seen it so bad in the 16 years we've been here, I don't actually remember a winter quite as wet as this one, and there's been a lot! Apparently the wettest since 1760 ... I'm very relieved I don't work with horses any more! Just up the road the village of Hambledon is closed off because of the floods. There's so many trees down too, the whole countryside looks a total mess.

Our large group of females have turned one corner of their 9 acre field to mud as they wait near the gate for their feed twice a day and gather round their hay feeders, thankfully the rest of the farm isn't too bad. We're lucky to have got away with just a bit of damage.

I have decided not to move them into a different field for the time being, on the basis that they're at least eating lots of good quality hay, which is keeping them warm and in good condition, and they're only trashing one field in the process. It also makes taking hay out to them with a wheelbarrow a bit easier for me, being downhill. The other fields are 'resting' ready to receive them in the Spring, if it ever comes! I may well change my mind on that one though.

The wind outside right now is roaring like a freight train, it's very dark, so I can't see what's going on, but I'm sure there'll be more damage to find in the morning. Blimey sounds like a tornado! More fencing, more trees - hopefully not more of our shelters....

The weanlings are now more or less halter trained and are getting used to me picking up their feet whilst being tied up. I've entered 3 of them into the National Show and older ones too, 10 altogether - I hope it's a bit dryer by then, they don't look up to much at the moment!

It's gone all quiet outside now - I'm tempted to go and see if everyone's OK out there ...

The river Meon at Droxford - this bits usually the picnic area ...

The girls - any more breakfast?

So filthy, I can't really tell who is who to be honest!

A brief glimpse of the sun - Cotton Fields and Enigma studying the cat on the other side of the gate

Stylish topknots girls!

Much more stylish bums - the weanlings on a rare dry morning!

The weanlings playing King of the Castle - Talisman reigns supreme!

Another view of our Meon River in flood

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

1st January 2014 - Happy New Year everyone! Outside it's blowing hard with very heavy rain, and I think a day mostly indoors keeping warm and dry is probably the best plan, starting with this post!

This morning we waved goodbye to two of our intermediate boys Agent and Touchwood, as they went off to their new home with Liz and Gus who already have some of our older boys. I know they will be well cared for and loved, and they're very nearby, so I often drive past their field and will see them from time to time.

We weaned the crias last week, we had a couple of dry and sunny days and they have the big field shelter all to themselves, so they're fine, they actually settled very quickly with only Bossy Boots making a fuss every time I appear. Their mums are all now with the main group of females and we kept them out of sight of the weanlings for a few days and they too soon settled, though are still hanging out together as a group.

Not much else is going on so I'll leave you with a few pics from 2013

Weanlings December 2013

Goldie and Selene Summer

Bonami at the Nationals 1st & Reserve Champion Fawn Male

Enigma and Macy Grey Spring

Medusa just loved the camera!

Bonaventure a very proud first time mum to Bossy Boots

Back in January - at least they were dry!

The Sorcerer winning at the Nationals

Basking in the warm sunshine

Mid summer evening frolic

Champions back home from one of the shows - Enigma, Macy Grey and The Sorcerer

Mid Summer greenery

Our intermediate boys - Agent and Touchwood the fawns in the middle

Group of females

Ready to go to the Show

Eros at the Nationals 1st

Weanlings Feb 2013

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

Good Boxing Day morning ... the sun is peaking through the fog and I've come in for a coffee and a warm up before taking the dogs for a walk through the valley. We have our walk challenge over the Xmas holidays - a different walk every day - but we can't go anywhere in the car at the moment as it's got a flat tyre. Peter is outside changing the wheel for me, or was but actually he just asked me to raise it to the off-road height to get the wheel out from underneath, which means starting the engine, it seems it has a flat battery as well!

It's been an eventful few days, thanks to the forces of nature. We were hit extremely hard by the storm on Monday night. It was pretty ferocious by the middle of the afternoon and half of our field shelter roof was blown clean off and dropped onto the other side of the remaining roof. The mums and crias were still occupying the space that had been under it - seemingly oblivious! We rushed out to make sure that no-one was injured, all were safe, thank heavens.

Struggling to walk against the wind and blasted with spiky torrential rain, we tried to tow the displaced roof off the corner of the remaining one with the tractor, but to no avail, it was just too heavy and dangerous to continue. We hoped that the building wouldn't collapse onto my little Boris the Morris who is also housed in one end and directly under the wreck. I decided to move the mums and crias into the next field where they would have the shelter from our neighbours large house and huge conifer trees and so I wouldn't have to worry about them getting trapped if the building fell down.

We were expecting our friends Ken and Liz from Artwork Alpacas to come over for dinner, but I put them off til the next day, not wanting them out and about in the storm. The winds and rain continued to worsen during the night, there were times in the night I thought we might lose our own roof. The power went off at about 11.30pm and it was very dark all round - just the odd flash which may have been lighting or power cable clashing.

At first light we looked out fearing what we might see - a very different view - half those huge conifers were down! A quick head count from the bedroom window and all were accounted for and seemed fine. The shelter roof had moved again, folded onto itself, like a sandwich. After feeding and haying up we walked all the boundaries, lots of debris and another tree down in the woods, I think we were fairly lucky not to have more damage.

Our power stayed off for over 26 hours, apart from our log burner which also gives us hot water, we are all electric. Ken and Liz weren't coming for dinner that night either and offered to have us over for lunch on Christmas day as they had a generator! We ate fish and chips and played cards by candlelight and listened to the local Radio - apparently there was free food and drink for those with no power - you could find out where to go by going on-line and venues would be listed on their website!!!!!!!!!

Christmas morning, and we had power again - hurrah! However, Ken and Liz insisted that we still go for lunch and we had a lovely time.

Waiting for breakfast

A chilly start this morning ...

Here comes the sun

Marmalade inspecting the girls breakfast

PHOTO SHOOT

Alpacas are beautiful and a bit quirky, that's what we all love about them. When you add a stunning model, a professional photographer with a unique style, stylists, hair and make-up artists they help make the most striking pictures.

Yesterday we played host to a fashion shoot by Emy Lou and whilst I can't share her pictures with you just yet, I can show you some behind-the-scenes shots which I took with my phone. Emy, her model Valentina and team arrived around 9am, by which time the clear and frosty morning was rapidly deteriorating, with menacing, deep grey skies heralding the forecasted heavy showers for the day. Emy and her team settled themselves into the den for the day, which within a very short time resembled Rebecca's bedroom - well not that bad, but almost as much make-up!

I left them to it for a while and fed and moved animals about with Lucy. Those clouds then dumped torrential rain, thoroughly soaking the already wet alpacas and adding that good old British chill to a dismal November day. There were however, brief glimpses of the sun, and the rain eventually moved along, allowing everyone to get on with the shoot.

Rebecca and I herded animals about so that they stayed in the background, sometimes handing a soggy alpaca to the very scantily dressed Valentina, who I don't think had even seen one before, but who remained very chilled, or it could be that she was just frozen to the spot! We held a branch here and there and generally got in the way I suspect. It all took hours as the poor girl had to be thawed out between dresses. I did feel sorry for her, maybe modelling isn't all that glamorous after all! I think it was a pretty unique experience for everyone, we really enjoyed the day, and I can't wait to see the finished pictures and video. Emy Lou's website Model Valentina