OK so now it starts - the pregnant girls have all been moved into the fields near the house and whilst I have been watching them gradually expand, now it gets serious. Time to get obsessed with bums and tums! A couple of them are already doing the standing staring thing, look fit to burst and generally looking a bit slack, if you know what I mean. The birthing kit is in the porch, the cria coats and towels are all washed and ready. The binoculars are on the bedroom windowsill and another pair on my desk. The only thing left to do is to stock up with ready meals for the freezer for those times when the family has to cater for themselves because a new cria takes priority. They'll go in the same drawer as the lovely yellow frozen cow colostrum and the bags of plasma!
Last year I only mated the girls for a 4 week period starting on 6th July, so they're not far away now. We have one or two who are usually early, so I'm on standby for the end of this week and for the last week or two I've been making the most of going out for the day as all that will have to stop...
The grass is growing like mad with the alternate sun and rain we're getting and the 5 acres of buttercups we sprayed off has now been topped and will be ready for grazing in a couple of weeks. With our shearing all done the pacas all look beautiful, I love to see them sheared. I've managed to dry off the fleeces on sunny days and all have been skirted now ready to send off for processing, we've kept back our special ones for our hand spinners as usual.
So, just as soon as we get some crias they'll be up on the blog, but in the meantime here's some pics I took this morning of the due girls... I have a thing about their lips and noses!
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Goldie |
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Dove |
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Sound asleep |
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Medusa trying to reach a fly - but she's too fat! |
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Cassandra - just a wee this time! |
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Love those lips |
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Agrippina and Candy |
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What was that rhyme -"Flies are a nuisance ... bees are worse" |
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The blonds ... |
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Dust bathing |
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Annabel and Cassandra .... |
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