Mothers pride

Sometimes I find myself apologizing to the non alpaca breeders for a blog that is almost all alpaca chatter, but this blog will be of no interest to those readers, so for those of you who were looking for your next  alpaca fix sorry, this one is not for you !!

Regular  followers of this blog may have, from time to time, seen we have someone  clicking on from Baja California or comments on the blog from No.1  son and those of you that know us well will no doubt realize this is our eldest son Josh who at the tender age of 18, packed his suitcase, and went to work and study in Mexico, a third world country !  or so we are led to believe.

 

Josh left France to study for his language degree six years ago and since then has gone from strength to strength.  He now works and teaches for the university in Ensenada  and does interpreting and translation work in both French and English.  Here he is interpreting for an International conference, not quite the U.N. but give him time.

As a parent I think that the most difficult thing we have to do is to let go, it is always hard to say goodbye to your child after 18 years but when they are getting on a plane at Nantes airport, waving you goodbye through the passport control window and you are trying to look cool, waving back and being casual - boy it is hard.  Skype is a wonderful thing and we are able to communicate on a regular basis, but there are times when you feel you are not fulfilling your parental duties.  When they are ill because they have once again eaten something off the street stalls in Mexicali (hope I have spelt that right), at Christmas and birthdays, or as in this week when they send you their photographs taken at their graduation ceremony.

 

They say that Pride is one of the deadly sins, well then I am just going to have to add it to  my  list of other deadly sins as Josh passed this degree with honors and we are both extremely proud of him and  what he has achieved.   So many congratulations Josh  from all your family this side of the world, we all love and miss you.

 

Oh and just one thing .... do you think Mexico might be interested in this one too ? !!

 

 

 

  

The waiting game

Its that time of year again!  when I spend most of my day either looking out of the bathroom window or leaning over the gate just in case one of the females decides to give birth unannounced.  No doubt despite our constant surveillance Bella will once again still manage it.

 

This year all being well we expect 11 little extra mouths, the first is now a week overdue and still no sign.  LGM Apple Blossom is now 151 days and looking very fat with a body score of 5.  I hope she is not having us on and getting fat on all the extra preggy girl rations.

Our breeding programme here at Quelvehin has now taken on a new direction and the senior partner has got a new project to occupy his spare time !!  chickens ! -   We have had chickens for several years now that wonder freely around the farm -(yes protected by alpacas ) too freely in my mind, two in particular think they are part of the family and if they get the chance wonder around the lounge and sit in front of the telly.  After a hen went broody the other week we ended up with two delightful chicks.  This is the second time this hen has sat on eggs, the first time didn't go so well, when only one hatched and for some reason the good lord decided to put one leg on the wrong way  so it went round and round in circles, needless to say it didn't last long .  So on the strength of our current success,  we are now the proud owners of a new incubator and are hatching our first clutch (does one say clutch) of eggs.
  

One good thing about breeding chickens it only takes 21 days and requires no monitoring on my part.- finally a business idea that requires no picking up poo !

 

Finally some caribbean sun !

I believe that is was Aristotle who said  "One swallow does not a summer make, nor one fine day;  -well in our case it is the lizards that give the illusion that summer has started .  This week they have been out  in force, basking in the bright sunshine and running up the walls.  They hibernate in the walls during the winter months occasionally somehow making their way into the house.  They are often seen running across the bedroom carpet and even on one occasion, on pulling back the sheets of his bed,  Jake  found one snuggled up there, taking a nap !

   As you can see they weren't the only one's soaking up the D3

The good weather seemed to coincide with the visit of a family from Costa Rica.  When they first enquired about the gite four weeks  ago, I thought it was someone having a  bit of a laugh, a joke or something.  I sat there and replied to their enquiry in two jumpers, listening to the rain against the velux and looking  at the meteor reading on my computer which read just 3° and wondered why anyone would want to leave this .............

 

and this ...

 

   to come to this  ..............

 

it was surely not because of these .........



I was right  -the answer was Cheese !!   Jean Jacques explained that he kept a herd of 200 cows and that his main income comes from milk production.  Over the last few years the costs involved in keeping them taking into account  the rising cost of feed and medication, compared to the income in milk sales was  making it more and more difficult to keep going and that he was looking for  another outlet for his milk. Costa Rican cheese apparently has very little favour, so most of the cheese they eat is imported and hence is a bit of a luxury.  He had booked himself a course at the local Agricultural college to learn how to make french cheese.  While here he sampled some of our mature white cheddar which really impressed him.  So if anyone knows of any Cheddar making course I am sure he would be interested.  While he spent his time on the course his family enjoyed the summer sun with temperatures  as high at 26 ° , here are the two girls aged 2 and 5 enjoying a chocolate cake. 

                                                                     

Every day we had endless conversations, with me replying  'si'  which is the only word  I know in Spanish.  I just hope I was not  saying 'yes' when I should have been saying 'no'. They left this morning taking the tropical sun with them and  leaving us with a cloudy outlook and a temperature of 8 degrees.  Standing at the door with their coats zipped upto the neck they  explaining they had packed the sun  in their suitcase - thanks !

All this good weather gave us a chance to look over the cria from last year and make some decisions for this years matings.  We don't  open fleeces that much here at Quelvehin,  if you're  not careful it can become a bit of an obsession and we feel it destroys the structure .There are very few shows in France so we don't think about it that much. Hence every now and again we come across something that is quite a nice surprise.  They say that a good stud will improve any female, although if you want the best then put him across the best, especially if you're paying good money.  So, with that in mind, I will just ask, what is best, to get a good result out of a Dam and Sire that you expect to get a good result out of, or to get a female cria that is a vast improvement on her mother and shows you just exactly what a sire is capable of.  Having seen what Columbus could do when given our best female - Fanny Ann or as she is affectionately known 'Princess Fanny' (as she absolutely refuses to eat unless she has her own personal bucket - no way she's eating with the riff raff),

 

 

 Izzam - second fleece ! s. Columbus

 

 

Almost two years ago now, we decided to see what he could do with one of our 'lesser' females who had been bought solely to put strong colour in the herd.  Meet  little Janine, almost a year old now.

 while I admit, it's not what I would call show quality, I have to say given the Dam,

I am very  impressed.   Anyway,  a pleasing result, a lovely female who just needs a nice male to put across and  I  think we  have just the one for the job !! 

    !!!!!!!!!

  
  

 

 

 

 

 

Photos Salbris

As promised here are a few photos of the show.  Sorry for the delay but I had to beg them from the four corners of Europe ,so thanks to Gary Sanders who managed to find a couple without someone holding up a brochure with his advert on the back and Ginny Cobb who managed to find one without her  on. Nobody, by the way, took one with me on - oh well I was only the  organisor what should I expect.

First of all a ring full of young white suri males.  A real pleasure to see given that normally we would expect no more than half a dozen in total throughout the entire show.  There were  nine in this class alone with a further 16 spread across both  sexes and the  full colour range, whites, beige, fawns and even black.

 

 

The total inscriptions for the show were 163 so this makes a staggering 15% of the entries suri's.  Nick Harrington Smith  was surprised and delighted to be able to judge so many in one class saying - ' one rarely see's so many suri's   entered  in an English show, let alone here in France'.  Given the world population of suri's being  just 5% of the total  Huacaya  population, thanks to the Spanish invasion of the 15th century,  it was truely a wonderful sight.

Next up is Izzam,  a Columbus boy,  who has a fleece to die for but unfortunately has just refused to grow on during the winter months, so I have to admit I had reservations about taking him and in the end my reservations  were justified when he was awarded a second to Ginny's Manot, because of his size, still the class numbered eight so he didn't do too bad despite his size - he'll be back - watch
this space !

 

                                    Here he is trying to look big - stand up straight lad !

I couldn't resist putting up this next  one.  Some people come to win, other people come to compete and generally have a good time.  Ron and Judi  of La Grand Mere alpacas fall into the latter category.  They had no aspirations of winning anything, a single third would have been ample,  but  here is Judi getting first place (oh and yes Ginny again) with Elpenor or Elpie as he is affectionately known, out of Snowmass Sizlin Hot, in the Adult Male H brown class -  Judi your face was a picture - well done.

I suppose the main event of the day for us was Daniel.  Popham Daniel has been with us now for so long that I tend to forget he doesn't belong to us.  So when he was awarded Champion Black at the age of 82 months I couldn't help feel extremely proud of him and that somewhere along the way we must have had a hand in it.  The judge said that he had a fleece as fine as a crias, so we must have been feeding him something good. Here he is with his real Mum Felicia.

Finally I come to the Atlas Progeny class.  Once again, I had my doubts , all three of the progeny I had not seen in advance and although I was happy with them as individuals, all together I can not say they were similar, something that is essential for a progeny class. So here they are two  females  from La Grand Mere  (told you Silhouette was the best !) and little Electron, third in his class.

 

 

The best thing for me when we go down to the AD show is meeting up with all the other breeders not only across France but Europe, its lovely meeting up again with people who I now class as friends, hearing their news and talking alpaca all weekend without them  yawning or getting bored. People who say they don't do shows and that they are not into all that, are missing a great weekend - we have such good fun !!  - freezing together !! oh boy was it cold !

 

 

Concours International d'Alpaga -Salbris 2013

After the excitement of last  weekend, I find myself  coming back down to earth this week with a huge  bump, with  a  field full of uncollected beans (we know the sort!) a pile of ironing and   a house to reclaim from the dog who has ruled the roost over the last couple of weeks .  An  eerie calm  has descended over the house,  the only emails seem to be spam, the only phone calls are people wanting to sell me the latest Orange offer and once again my dining room table now has a place to sit down and eat.  - where have you all gone ? - I am lonely !!

For those of you that are not of the alpaca world, don't  think this  blog will be for you , so look away now before you get too bored.

I'd like to thank all of you that either emailed me directly, phoned or placed comments on face book saying how much you enjoyed the show and praising me for my achievements, and it is at this point that I would like to point out I did not do it all on my own  and that an organisor is only as good as her team . I would like to take this opportunity to thank that team personally so here goes :-

Firstly to Norman and Orla Priestley , who left their farm on the Wednesday to go down to Salbris and collect and set up all of the barriers - this was a huge task  that took them two days and I am truly grateful - many thanks - also to Orla who found herself alone checking in  people in on the Friday night. To Mickael De Prat who dealt with all the official DSV paperwork, arranged vets,  and without whom the Belgium's would not have been able to compete and for looking after all of our animals during the night and while we were enjoying our meal,  all work no play ....... Many thanks. To Ron Bourton for stewarding for the day,  first time ever, but hey what a pro. To Leah Duclaud  and Nigel Cobb  for doing such a great job as Pen Stewards and keeping the whole show ticking over - knew I had found the right people ! To Gillian Howard-Evieux   who came to my rescue the morning of the show when I found we had no translator.  As usual word perfect ! To Christelle Chipon who although unable to make the show due to commitments at home was a huge help with all the paperwork leading upto the event.  To Gaby Lion who did everything on site that I was unable to being so far from the venue and getting the microphone working 10minutes before the show (another panic). To Patricia Schumacher and Sylvie Sorlie for overseeing the show and staying behind  with Gaby  after we had all gone,  to do the final clear up, never a nice or glamorous job but nethertheless essential, - many, many thanks. To Gary and Felicia Sanders , without whom we would not have been able to compete ourselves and for looking after my stall.(you're starting to wonder what I did arn't you !) To Pascal Aubert,  who put up the spotlights and did all of the publicity - thank you, also to Catherine Aubert who sat all day in the cold recording the results - fantastic job, c'était impeccable ! To Clare Faber  who arranged for Italian Television to come and do a programme on our show - incredible - great work ! To John Squire without whose help our brochure would not have happened and generally putting up with my panic attacks. To Nick Harrington Smith (should have mentioned him first really) for all  your help and advice over the last few months and giving us  your judgment on a very, very, cold day. And Lastly to my husband who has had to familiarize himself with both the ironing board, and cooker. and has had to spend far more time than usual doing my share of the animal jobs and listening to all of my worries and problems.

Many congratulations to Frederic Henry for Supreme Champion Huacaya  with Artemis for the second year running and to Leah Duclaud for Supreme Champion Suri with Vaughan de Grand Fouilleze.  The full results can be seen at www.alpaga-développement.org . -  brochures are available from myself or the association.

If anyone could send me some photos of the day I will do a blog that is a little more interesting to everyone, unfortunately the Senior Partner did not take any, I am told it is my fault because I  forgot to take the camera - damn knew there was something else to organise !!  - him !

 

 

Up to speed

They say 'if you want something doing right, do it yourself" well in this case if you want something doing at ALL "do it yourself" so , after endless emails enquiring after our health, concerned parents, saying "I was told to click on it the blog if I wanted to know what was doing on -but there isn't one !!" -  other alpaca breeders wondering if we are still in business and telephone calls wondering if I am now in a state of mourning ! I find myself having to bring the blog upto date. So where were we ? Oh yes Soloman !!

Well we did eventually have some success with him, although we did run out of time and only managed one successful mating.  All being well, if the winter has been kind to us, good, old, reliable Bella is pregnant. In a couple of weeks we will do our after winter spit offs and confirm all is still well. We have a couple of females lined up for him this year, so by the end of the summer Soloman could well be a 'full on' Stud and flying the flag for his Ambersun genetics  - can't wait to see the results. Just had to post up this picture of Bella as it is my favourite preg. female picture taken by a gite visitor last year.

                                                                  Beautiful isn't she ?

 

Next to family news - Christmas - yes I know is was along time ago and you are all buying Easter eggs but I can't let this 'up to speed blog ' go by without mentioning our little Christmas visitors.

We had my brother in law Liam (alias Liam Mullone), sister in law George and their two twenty month old twins Digory and Atticus,  for a week over Christmas. I, myself, had never seen the twins before,  one of the disadvantages of living the dream in France  I am afraid, and so for me it was a real pleasure to be able to  play Aunty Jayne for a week.  The six weeks leading upto the event I found myself once again trailing the shops looking  at brightly coloured pieces of plastic.  Thinking back to my own boys at that age, I remembered their sudden interest in Cars and so decided to buy them a  floor car play mat (a great favourite in our house) and little chunkey cars.  I am glad to say they hit the spot on Christmas morning.  I have to say though for the twins,  I don't think it was Christmas day itself that made the biggest impression, neither was it the Christmas tree, turkey dinner or chickens and alpacas, no it was the open space.  Liam and George live in Peckham, London

(Delboy country).  Their garden is, well how can I say, a back yard full of rubbish that my brother in law has been intending to take to the tip since they moved in.  So playing outside is not easy.  Plus going to the park is not an easy task either.  George explained she can only get one of them out of the pushchair at a time because they run off in opposite directions.  So here they are, - just running ! 

They brought with them their little Chubby Cars which became their favourite pastime, as they could go outside at anytime and not have to worry about the traffic. As a special treat Boxing day we took them to the local Indoor Play centre where they could have stayed all day for 5 euros but an hour wore out not just them but us.  At that age you don't need to spend money, go anywhere or do very much and thats exactly what we did, - not very much, and it was great.  They were a delight and I am looking forward to seeing them hopefully later in the year when we can take them down the beach.                                                          

                                   

 sorry I am not very good at getting these pictures all lined up !!

 

As winter turns into spring, we find ourselves once again thinking about our show team and what is the main event for us, the Alpaga Developpement's show, this year our 'Concours International d'Alpaga' is on Easter Saturday the 30th March at Salbris, dept Loir et Cher.  I have been a little more involved in the show this year than previously and   I have  somehow managed to  find myself organizing it.  Back in October, when the president Marie Genevieve  asked me to help out and take over as organisor I think my reponse was

'Zut', which is slightly better than the word ' Vachement', I had never organized one before and being 500 kms away from the venue wasn't going to help matters.  But hey, never one not to accept a challenge I agreed to put up my hand. She assured me there would be plenty of people to help and she was right, I have been overwhelmed by the  support and help from not only people in France but Europe in general. The reality was that Marie Genevieve was not a well woman and if I had known just how ill she was I would have thanked her for her support and confidence she obviously had in me.  She passed away sadly at the end of January after a long illness so I feel extremely honored and proud  to be able to present the show on her behalf , as they say 'the show must go on' and it will.  We have 167 animals entered from all across Europe, the most there has ever been in a French show.  Don't think this is a reflection of my organizing folks, just a reflection of the development of the industry in general here in France.  I am delighted that  Nick Harrington Smith accepted our invitation to judge the competition and he will also be judging the fleeces that will then be on display throughout the  competition. If anyone out there wants more info. Just ask, we are open to the public as well, so if you're in the area pop along and see us, its always good fun.

 

  Thanks to Gary Sanders for this wonderful Suri picture for the brochure

 

Well I  think that I 've filled you all  in on the last six months.  No doubt now my n°. 1 son  will criticize my grammar and spelling while the senior partner will also have a few words to say as well !  so hopefully folks this will mean that normal service will be resumed - I do hope so!

 

 

                        

 

 

 

Matings and mugshots

With all the cria now out of the danger zone and developing their own little personalities it's time to turn our attention to re-mating a few mums for next years crop. All the first timers were done a few months ago and all seem to have taken.
We are fortunate to have two great Popham stud males to chose from as well as our own, but there is one youngster we are really keen to get working. It's his time, He's old enough, but frustratingly he's never really been interested in girls.
His name is Popham Ambersun Solomon. Born at the Ambersun stud in Adelaide Australia, now owned by Popham Alpacas and on loan to us. He's a cracking looking solid fawn and winner of the fawn championship at the international alpaca show at Bourges earlier this year.

 

We've been letting him watch the experienced boys at work the last couple of times and there was a little spark of interest just beginning to show.

So with two matings to do this week, one with Atlas and the other with Colombus and with Bella ready to mate as well this was our best chance to get him going. Bella is, well, how can I put it?, An easy lay,shall we say. She sits ready at the mere sight of a male. Just what a shy boy needs.

A special triple mating area was erected. Atlas one end . Colombus the other, and Solomon was put in the middle of the orgle sandwich with Bella sat waiting. It had to work.

 

 

 

 

 

Everything went to plan to start with and Solomon looked all set to lose his virginity as he proudly took his girl.

Unfortunately despite my best efforts to help in with his directions it was all over too quickly.

( Oh, c'mon we've all been there!) 

Confused and embarrassed in front of his mentors either side he decided a little role reversal was in order and sat for Bella instead.

Bella, unable to hide her dissapointment, gave her best 'stupid boy' look and explored the possibilities of changing pens.

 

 

 

But it's a start! at least.We are slowly running out of time and options but fingers crossed we'll try again next week.. We will have Solomon babies!

 

Had some time to look over the cria this evening. The fleeces do seem to change alot,so not picking any winners just yet.  Here's a few mug shots.

 

 

Jonah, son of Equador. Wouldn't say boo to a goose. Soft as tripe. Bit of a wet weekend.

 

 

 Jazz, daughter of Atlas, Approachable but crafty. Accomplished milk thief and getting fat on it.

 

 

Janine, daughter of Columbus, Perhaps the best fleece of the bunch. Beginning to moan about everything  just like her mother.

 

 

Jamaica, daughter of Horizon, Absolutely adorable bundle of fun. Fast becoming my favourite,and I don't care for greys!

 

 

Jupiter, son of Fellipé Grand name for a little squirt. May have to get some sticky tape for the ear kinks