Quelvehin Alpagas

Happy new year

2012-01-16T13:18:00.000-08:00

Winter finally has arrived after weeks of balmy unseasonable warm wet stuff we are now breaking the ice on water butts and crunching through the frost again.
The alpacas have cleaned up well and look all nice and fluffy again apart from the cria whose long fine fleeces seem to hold onto every bit of fallen hay and debris. It's funny but you can always tell the better fleeced cria this time of year. There the ones that look the biggest mess!
Our year has started with quite a dent in the herd as we delivered six girls and a boy to pastures new at the weekend.
It's always a mix of emotions at theese times between a healthy injection to the bank balance and parting with animals you have helped into the world and nurtured along the way.
That's the trouble with alpacas.Too damned adorable!

Well there they go, all safely installed with a new set of paddock pals.

Best wishes to Gwen & Ginni at Alpagwenn

Come in. It's Christmas.

2011-12-27T16:39:00.000-08:00

Oh the joys of rural living.

Our bedroom is a tip! It's a huge room but unlike our two gites (which are beautifully restored and cosy and surely represent good value for money,book now to avoid disappointment,) is in need of a little renovation to say the least.It's the room where everything that doesn't have a place lives.There are piles of stuff. Boxes that haven't been unpacked since we moved here eight years ago. Everything from mattresses to mirrors to car radios to christmas decorations and somewhere in amongst all this is our new house guest.
For some time now I've awoke in the dead of night to scratchings and scrapings and the patter of tiny feet sometimes running overhead inside the sloping section of the ceiling and more recently from the corner of the room that is this pile of stuff.
What could it be? Far too noisy for a mouse. I know the cats outside,and anyway when you switch the lamp on it stops instantly. A rat? possibly, although too horrible too contemplate.
Well yesterday I think I found the clue needed for identification.
We were getting dressed up ready to go to a Christmas dinner and as the wellies didn't really go with the suit I put on a pair of shoes not often worn to find one of them contained a stash of hazlenuts and acorns!
Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Must be. Mustn't it?

joyeux noel

2011-12-24T15:03:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE

Update

2011-12-12T13:30:00.000-08:00

It's official. I've reached middle age. My body no longer can keep up with the demands of the mind..
A couple of weeks ago I was in the third week of an enforced 'do nothing' phase following an operation.
A good time to take our annual weekend away at Pophams in Cornwall, take in a veterinary seminar on alpacas and generally have a jolly good busmans holiday. Or so I thought.
Now I should say that I am a reasonably frequent ferry traveller and have never suffered from seasickness apart from one occasion returning from Ireland in my youth but I had had Guinness for breakfast so really only had myself to blame!
This time it was a day crossing to Plymouth, A calm sea,and we had barely left St Malo port when I realised I had to buy a cabin and lie down.
Jayne and I had just had one of those moments that you have when you've been married too long and had been arguing about where was the best place to sit on the boat.
I chose the bar. She wanted the quiet lounge by the window.
We ended up in the quiet lounge by the window.
So when I made the announcement ten minutes later that I had to leave she left me to it. No doubt thinking I was having a 'mardy' after losing the seat debate.
I got myself a cabin and spent the next five hours on the toilet floor dying. Being seasick is bad enough but believe you me wretching on a stomach recently patched and stitched was memorable to say the least.
And where was the missus when you really need someone to mop your brow and kiss it better?
Knitting alpaca bootees in the quiet lounge.
The bellyache subsided shortly before docking and a couple of jars of real ale and a chicken piri piri in the evening seemed to make the world right again.
The weekend was great, as it always is.But something wasn't right. Every now and again it was like I was back on the boat and the floor was gently undulating under my feet making me feel dizzy, and a haematoma that had developed above the navel had doubled in size.
Anyway to cut a long medical story short I've had another week in hospital on our return following bad stomach cramps and it is still under investigation with further tests this week.
It would appear I have three different unrelated ailments that have all decided to come at once just to confuse things.
So there you go. It's like buses. Twentyfive years without seeing a doctor and then three come along at once.

vets day at Pophams

It's not all bad though, somewhere inbetween being ill I did manage to get to the movember moustache grand passing out Gala where my moustache was judged to be... not as good as somebody elses. So I didn't win the Mo-bro crown but a few hundred pounds were raised and I'm glad to be rid of it and clean faced again.

the three moustache eers

the band ,who's name I can't remember

A fine drop handlebar effort from Patrick in the background

Lee van Cleef meets Charles Bronson

Apart from that nothing much has happened. I can't remember the last time I was able to pick up poo. Despite her best efforts Jayne is struggling to keep on top of things but understandably weeks of damp and drizzle have left the fields and the alpacas not looking particulaly attractive.My light duties have included cleaning out the workshop,putting up the Christmas tree,lots of hoovering and a half hearted attempt at repairing the washing machine.
Force 10 gales are forecast for Wednesday so we shall batten down the hatches and hopefully a few tons of wet soggy leaves will get blown away a rid us of one big job!

Fluff bundles and the delights of facial hair

2011-11-16T14:12:00.001-08:00

Voooom!
"What was that?"
"That was your life mate"
John Cleese 's observations in,and indeed on, the meaning of life, seem to be ringing ever truer.
(or should that be 'ever more true'?) Josh? Anyway
It must be something to do with my advancing years, I just don't know where the time goes.
Any regular readers of alpaca flavoured blogs couldn't have helped but notice the sharp decline in blogging recently. Not only here but throughout the alpacasphere.
Truth is , not much happens this time of year.The cria hopefully have all made it through those crucial first few weeks and are growing on and apart from a few updated pictures of the fluffy bundles not much to report.

Which is probably just as well as it's been all go in other departments. The gites have both been occupied during Toussaint and after.Building and fencing etc.. has kept me busy but unfortunately also taken it's toll on the body and put me back in hospital for a second operation on a third hernia.I had to go back and see 'Jaque le knife' who some of you may remember from Februarys blog.As a result I now have a belly with more holes than swiss cheese and I'm under strict instructions not to do anything, which as you all know is not possible. There's only so much daytime TV you can stomach.!
So I'm lounging around growing a moustache. Yep a great big French moustache. How cool is that? In fact it's about the only body hair I've got left. They do like you nice and smooth in that hospital!
This is exactly the sort of thing you get talked into on a Saturday night at my new favourite bar 'Aux Sabots Rouges' in Guemene after several pints of Guinness. But it's all for a good cause.
I was sworn in, photograph taken clean shaven as of the 1st November, to the Movember team and the judging and gala party is the 3rd of December.
Sponsors are collected throughout November and the proceeds go to Cancer research.
I didn't realise at the time but it is a truely global effort. Even Jenson Button is a team player sporting his new tache for Movember in the formula one on Sunday.If it's good enough for him.....
More details at Movember.com

I thought I would go for the Paul Teutul Snr look from Orange County Choppers although to be honest mine's a bit more 70's porn star than hard biker dude at the moment.
Perhaps I'll buy some shades.

Boys on tour

2011-10-12T15:00:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy time these last few weeks as the Quelvehin roadshow has done back to back shows at horse fairs around Brittany soaking up the last of the years glorious sunshine along the way.
The alpacas drew large crowds as always, along with the usual exhausting array of questions to answer.
It's alot of fun but I always have French Brain ache by the end of the day!

And, as if you needed another reason to keep alpacas ...The poo dump here is bursting with mushrooms at the moment. Lovely!

Wet and wonderful weekend.

2011-09-11T17:02:00.000-07:00

The last cria of the year finally arrived on Friday. A beautiful fawn girl for Alibrandi ,and for the first time this year I was witness to the occasion.
She caught us on the hop a bit as we were in the middle of doing a couple of matings one of which was outside the mating pen with the alpacas on lead ropes so it was a bit awkward to drop everything and attend,but as Atlas seems to go at it for about an hour these days and won't be interrupted for anything we were safe to leave them to it for a while!
Fortunately it was a text book birth and baby was soon feeding.
Weighing in at just over 10 k if it is anything like her last cria she will be 50 kilos in no time at all. Alibrandi seems to be blessed with the udder of a fresian cow and there is no shortage at the milk bar.

It was just as well everything went smoothly because we were due to go out later that afternoon to stay overnight with friends.We were exibiting at an agricultural show on the Saturday with some of the males,and as it was a bit of a trek decided to break up the journey and stay over at la Grand-Mere with Ron and Judi. who were also going.
Once the boys were unloaded and settled in for the night it was down to the local for a few jars and some very welcome fish and chips. The bar was English owned and called the 'Pitstop' as the owner was a bit of a racing driver and also owned the garage attached to the bar with a small forecourt and two petrol pumps just outside the bar entrance. The heinous crime of smoking was not permitted in the bar but was socially acceptable outside the door...........
Next to the petrol pumps.
Hmmm Is it me ? or has the world gone mad.
Best not go there.
Saturday morning came and the stalls were set up at the comice and we soon discovered we didn't have the most exotic camelids at the show.!

The sky in this picture really tells the rest of the story. We had battled against the wind all morning blowing the products and information boards etc.. off the stand but when the rain came in the afternoon it was horizontal and all too much to bear. We decided to give it up as a bad job and called it a day!

It's all go

2011-08-21T13:11:00.000-07:00

August,as you probably know is holiday time for the French and nearly everyone fits their annual vacation in somewhere during this month and as a result of this there are fetes and festivals all over the place.One of the biggest in Brittany is the inter-celtic music festival at Lorient. A ten day extravaganza where the town is filled with market stalls and every bar (and there are loads) hosts live music from traditional accordian players to solo folk singers to full heavy metal bands. There is something for everyone and we spent a happy time bar hopping on Friday. It's all free if you stand and watch from the street, as most sets are on the pavements outside.
You eventually get drawn to a band you want to stay with and for us it was a band called 'What' We took our seats at a table and of course it's only right to order drinks from the bar hosting the band. Two cokes and a small beer cost almost a tenner! but then the table is yours for as long as you want.The band were brilliant and my logic reckonned I would gladly pay a tenner per ticket to have stage side seat to watch this band. Suddenly the drinks didn't seem so expensive.
So we had some more! and in fact stayed there until the small hours.

There was a huge food village catering for allsorts and the market stalls were varied and interesting.
Although there was one knitwear stall that made me wonder that when choosing a company name they had'nt really thought it through!

Alpaca News. We decided, a little late perhaps, to shear the two suri girls after all. It's a constant battle here trying to keep suri fleece free of debris,and one we always loose! Too many trees, most of which they manage to create a rolling dirt bath underneath and are soon knotted up with twigs and all sorts of rubbish.

We enlisted the help of a new Breton shearer who had learnt his trade with Colin Ottery the best shearer I know.

Although he's not of Colins calibre, Pascal, whilst evidently a little nervous and new to the game did a reasonable job considering it was his first Suris!

Unfortunately French lass got a small cut under the armpit and we are checking and treating it daily. There are a lot of flies around at the moment and they mass around any open wound. Fly strike is not something I want to deal with later so it's definately prevention rather than cure.

And we've had a baby!

Charisma unpacked our final Columbus cria for this year. Another boy! 7 kilos and just slightly undercooked.. Could have done with another week in the oven. He was a bit slow to get going but a dose of glucose and electrolytes later and he was up and about. He's a grand little chap with a promising tight curly mop.

We were pondering on a name beggining with I when a new lot of guests arrived for their holiday stay . As we made our introductions the two boys anounced their names. Silus and Isaac . So it had to be didn't it . Isaac it is then!

Rain forecast for tomorrow; Oh please let it rain.

Sod the holiday makers,we need some grass!!

Late night contemplations of the troublesome kind.

2011-08-09T17:37:00.000-07:00

I have just been made aware of the recent and ongoing riots spreading through the major UK cities.
Yes, I know it started days ago but haven't watched any telly for a while.
Truely horrific images of buildings burning, town centres destroyed and shops looted. Why?!
How do you get to such a state of lawlessness.(if that's a word)?
I saw it coming. For twenty years England has been a role model of mis management.
The signs were there alright, they started when we prevented schools from disciplining pupils and therefore erroded respect that children have for any authority when they were just infants,and then we prevented parents from disciplining their children and reinforced the belief that they can coast through life with few consequences to their actions.We destroyed family values, choosing instead a diet of reality TV and violent video games. The latest cell phone is king. Social support networks are in place that enable people to live comfortable lives without ever having to work, entirely supported on the state with no obligation to take any responsibility for their actions or their life. It gets worse every year as this underclass of undereducated, under disciplined irresponsible individuals continues to have more children born into a ghetto culture where underachievement is celebrated, criminality is glorified and parental responsiblities are ignored and abdicated to the state. Police forces are pared to the bone,their working disciplines making law enforcement nigh on impossible and at the end of it all judges are handing out derisory sentences. Where's the deterrent? ASBO's CCTV? Political correctness is out of control. Gang culture is rife. Britian has become afraid of it's own children.
Unfortunately there's no easy fix.The disease is in it's latter stages.The damage is done.

Anyway, I don't live there anymore so here's some pictures of Hennebont where we had a particularly enjoyable Sunday with the happy peasants of medieval Brittany.

La Grand-Mere Apple Blossom of Quelvehin

2011-07-17T16:16:00.000-07:00

Or Blossom for short is a new addition to the Quelvehin troop this week complete with her angel-wing ears that won us over when we first saw her last summer. Isn't she lovely?

She is very well developed for her age and is already showing a strong urge to be mated.
We will leave her a while yet but have just the man waiting in the wings.
There is a lot of testosterone floating around the male paddock at the moment as the mating season is upon us . With all our girls to 'do' as well as the' away games' there's a lot of confrontation as they challenge each other to prove who is the most worthy macho.

Talking of sex....
Ever been to one of those parties? You know,..where you find yourself being surrounded by women all wanting one thing. I was at one last night.
I kid you not. It was a BBQ type soiree and everyone took a little something to contribute.As you do.
As we stood around the kitchen tucking into our grub the room started to resonate with gentle moans of pleasure mainly from a group of ladies not too far away from me.Some even took it to the next level and became what can only be described as,well, orgasmic.!
Apparently it was all my fault.
I was approached by at least six ladies during the course of the evening all begging me for it.
I had to promise to email all of them so I thought I'd save time and blog it here.
So here it is. The reason for my new found popularity...
My recipe for Broccoli Salad.

1 Head Broccoli
1/2 mug cashew nuts
1/2 mug chopped spring onions
1/2 mug lardons (pref smoked) cooked and cooled
1/2 mug golden raisins/sultanas

Dressing:

1/2 mug mayonnaise dijon
3 table spoons cider vinegar
2 table spoons sugar
2 table spoons liquid honey
2 tea spoons curry powder

Mix all the dressing ingredients together,then stir in all the rest and finally gently turn in the raw cut broccoli florets.
Easy.
Well there's a first. I never imagined I would be posting recipes here.
There really ought to be a M&S type photo to make your mouth water but sorry we've eaten it.
So, any guys reading this that want a sure fire way of getting attention at parties; Try it. It's lush.

I should perhaps point out than when I say "my recipe for broccoli salad" it isn't actually my recipe. I stole it from a friend who probably stole it from somebody else. I don't know who's recipe it is or even if people can own recipes.But I should hate to be sued by Jamie or Delia for breach of copyright.

The other way of impressing ladies of course is to dress up in leather and get the motor bike out. Something I seem to have less time for these days but last weekend was one such occasion.
It was the annual Brittany Harley Davidson rally at Baud.A weekend affair with an all night shindig on the Saturday night and a three hour ride out parade on the Sunday. I must admit I no longer have the staying power for the beer fest and bands but enjoyed the ride and spent a few hours admiring all the shiny metal on show.Not just bikes but American cars and trucks too.

A sea of lovelyness

A proper truck

Indiana Jones raider of the lost virgins

2011-07-05T15:49:00.000-07:00

This blog is becoming dreadfully out of date. Don't seem to find the time at the moment.
Sad news first. Our suri that was breaking the gestation records was doing it for good reason. Her cria had died inside her.Reason unknown. We suspected something was wrong some time ago and got the vet to take a look at her.Although I voiced my suspicions being unable to feel anything moving, he wasn't concerned and treated her for colic.
Anyway I won't dwell on the whole fiasco,suffice to say I think we need to find a new vet. Nuff said.

We were,however rewarded with a different suri cria the same week. A cracking little girl. Not ours unfortunately but born to one of Pophams alpacas living here. After an initial rejection problem as sometimes happens with first time mums we managed to force them to love each other and are now inseperable.


out she comes


temporary 'get to know each other pen'


mum and daughter today

She is a gorgeous coffee colour and has been named cappuccino until we are instructed otherwise.
As for our lot they are growing on well with one boy imparticular growing on a bit too well! More on that later.
Here are some pics of the Columbus cria.

Ieesha,Izzam and Imran

Imran

Izzam and Imran

Ieesha and Imran


Sorry a bit short on Izzams, another Imran!

Well that's all the "whiteys" sorry they're not the best photos in the world. Still getting used to this new camera.

Right. Remember this chap?

Indiana. The most amazing cria ever. The jury is still out on his colour classification. For the most part he is a rose grey but does have areas of just brown. His sire is black( Atlas ) and his mum a dark fawn.
He was running within minutes of being born,was eating grass at three days old, is now almost twice the size as the others, and at 2 WEEKS OLD decided he was the new stud male at Quelvehin.

I kid you not. He pesters the females all the time trying to get them down and anyone who wants to sit and chew the cud a while soon finds themselves the subject of unwanted attention! He's got all the moves and even a little cria orgle!

He's not winning many friends though and is becoming a constant source of irritation. I look to his mum sometimes during these performances and I swear she looks slightly embarrassed.
Atlas,no doubt takes a different view.

"THATS MY BOY"

Bella does it again

2011-06-17T13:50:00.000-07:00

Despite watching the herd like hawks at the moment, for the third year running Bella managed somehow to secretly slip her new arrival in unoticed once again. Never showing any signs of labour she just casually drops it whilst you take a coffee break.
Djill,our French 'stagiere' student was back with us for the second week of her studies so it was nice to have a birth whilst she was here although we missed the actual event.
Not the best choice of mornings.Wind and rain a-plenty so it was a cold and very wet cria that greeted us.
Another 'Columbus' boy, weighing in at 8.5 kilos and a week early. He was dried and fitted with a warmed cria coat and seems to be doing well..

So,that's four boys,one girl so far. so we could do with the balance redressing with the remainders please.

From one extreme to the other

2011-06-10T15:50:00.000-07:00

We've had two more cria since the last blog but unfortunately the camera was playing up again so I couldn't take any photos. It was either the battery or the charger,and in the end probably both.
The cost of replacing both was only twenty euros cheaper than a new camera and a camera much better than the old one.
What a wasteful throwaway world we live in. Anyway, I am now the proud owner of a new (hopefully trusty) Canon. Being over fifteen years of age I am still trying to find my way round all the different functions it performs. The fact in came with half a dozen instruction manuals and not one of them in English doesn't help.
Evita 'unpacked' a week ago,and nearly three weeks sooner than she should have. A girl this time,not especially small at 5.9 kilos but very weak,very down on her pasterns and unable to stand. or hold up her head. Another unusually late afternoon birth.So it was mum and baby into the barn,hot water bottle plenty of wrapping,warm electrolytes inside her and glucose and anti-biotic injections. A comfy chair for me and we were set for another long night. After a few hours she began to show signs of improvement but was never going to feed herself in time to get the colostrum. So around midnight mum was milked and baby was fed by bottle. She was lucky enough to have the sweetest ,calmest alpaca for a mum who stood perfectly still and unheld whilst we took what we needed at two hour intervals through the night.
The importance of having alpacas with this temperament is often overlooked but on occasions like this can prove to be a life saver.
After a few days she slowly found her legs and is now feeding from mum and is back with the herd and doing alright.
The second arrived yesterday. Afternoon birth again! This time two weeks early but a huge 9;5 kilo boy that literally hit the ground running.I have never known one so determined to get up and go!
Once his cord was iodined he was off, heading for the otherside of the field and within one hour of being born he was running with all the confidence of a two week old!
Poor mum was desperately waddling after him humming and cursing, her placenta still swinging, in an attempt to get him under control! Quite incredible.

These pics were taken today at one day old, he's changed colour as he's dried from yesterday but we're still not exactly sure what to. Rose grey I think.

Heres another picture of Izzam whilst we're at it. He was found to have a small umbilical hernia so he's wearing a strap-on.

Our Suri still keeps us guessing. Now running to 381 days! and not at all bothered. It's certainly a mixed bag this year!

It's been a while

2011-06-01T19:04:00.000-07:00

Writers block. That's it.Sometimes you can't think how to write and another sheet of paper gets screwed up and tossed into the bin, hypothectically speaking;
Do the masses really want to know I've cut the grass this afternoon ? or any other mundane day to day stuff or worse still, do I write about bad stuff. Stuff that may cast you or your animals in a bad light..Maybe giving wrong impressions or jeopardizing future sales. Might I say something that would offend somebody else?. Sometimes all these things haunt your thoughts and you edit down to nothing of interest.
So in the interest of keeping a truthful and hopefully readable blog here's what's happened over the last month or so.Warts and all.
Regular readers of the goings on at Quelvehin will recall we adopted a weimaraner some time ago that promptly gave us a litter of five puppies, one of which we still have and has grown up with us and the alpacas and is now a big strapping lad, but soft as you like and still rather unimaginatively still called 'Puppy' He follows me around like a shadow always trying to please but often just being something to trip over whilst doing alpaca duties.
A local lady bought one of his sisters from the litter and we have stayed in touch ever since,so when she asked if we would mind her whilst she went away on business for a week we agreed to help out.

All was well for three days,a little bit hectic as they wound each other up chasing around and playing with endless energy,but apart from competing with three dogs for the best place on the settee of an evening, not a problem.
This turned to a horror situation on the third evening when just as we sat down to dinner an alpaca appeared outside the window in the garden. It was Hannah a young female very distressed and covered in brambles.
We dropped our knives and forks and ran outside. Fortunately she was close to a field gate by the time we got there and was easily directed back into the paddock. Further investigation revealed a broken down section of fencing and worse still, Harvey, a male weanling was missing. Hannah seemed ok,we quickly made good the fence and set about searching for Harvey. Puppy was in the garden and,,having ripped out a claw in his boisterous playtimes the day before was unable to walk on four legs. However, Mimi was missing.
It didn't take too long to put two and two together. This was bad news. The horrible feeling of the inevitable stirred stronger in the gut as the search went on.
Mimi appeared after about five minutes,but it was another twenty before I found Harvey. He was in a quite inaccessible part of the wood adjacent to the paddock, lying against the fence. Dead.
He had a wound to the back of his head,but not sufficiently bad enough to have killed him. I suspect it was shock that did that.
Now I'm a very placid,gentle sort of bloke but at that moment right then I could have easily beaten that dog to a pulp and it's taken me until now to completely trust my own again which is unfair because I'm sure he was not involved, and on reflection I don't think it was Mimi's intention to kill. She probably was playing chase with it and the wound was conducive to him trying desperately to get back through the fence to the herd. A sad affair all the same. Mimi was re-homed the next morning with a friend who agreed to take care of her until the owner returned.And then of course the blame shifts from the dog to you and you spend days wondering whether you should have been more vigilent.

The 26 May was shearing day. All the fluff balls were gathered in for the annual haircut. Because of matters beyond my control we had a different shearer this year Adam Riley and his ear holding companion Josh came from Florida as part of a European shearing tour. It was quite interesting to note the different styles and methods used. The ladies were done first and then a couple of clients alpacas before the clouds came over and rain threatened. We had had no rain for months so sods law dictated it came today of all days. There a mild panic as we got all the boys under cover until the shower passed over.

I do love to see nicely shorn alpacas and it always suprises me how small they actually are under all that fleece.

The day after shearing we noticed Bali was not walking quite right. A little stiff in the legs. She was heavily pregnant with only a week to go. At first we thought the stretching at shearing had pulled at her muscles a bit but by later in the evening she was in a kushed position and nodding her head like a dog on the parcel shelf of a Cortina.
As I approached she remained kushed and didn't shy away. I made her stand and took her in for closer inspection. By the time we got to the compound she was shivering violently.
The thermometer showed no reading. Believing it to be faulty we tried a spare brand new one. It was the same.They were both tested in a cup of warm water and were working perfectly. Back to Bali,still no reading.I finally got a reading vaginally of 32.2 degrees. This animal was seriously cold.
It was a mild spring evening and had been a warm, if not hot day. There was no reason to be this cold even given she had just been shorn.
By now the evening was upon us but we had to call the vet. He seemed unwilling to come out but seemed to think it was a calcium defeciency. You have to understand that these telephone conversations are conducted in French and although Jaynes French is pretty good now, sometimes it's difficult to make yourselves understood perfectly. We sought a second opinion from other breeders and it seemed most likely that Bali had Hypothermia.
It was clear she needed to be brought in and warmed up urgently.A space was made in the barn to contain her. A radiator was set up and my body warmer made a pretty nifty extra large cria coat.
In the rush to get things sorted out Jayne cut the sleeve out of one of my perfectly good fleeces (when there was a crap one with a broken zip hanging next to it) to make a neck scarf. Hey-ho.
We also warmed her from the inside with a warm water and honey drench and by two in the morning her temperature had risen to just below normal.
It was only the next day whilst out in the sunshine in all her makeshift clothing looking like some sort of alpaca bag lady that her temperature returned to normal.
It was now the cria inside her we were concerned about and sure enough the next morning we awoke to a still born cria. Only the head and feet were out and she was very cold again. Too exhuasted to push it out even with help. The vet had to come to remove it.
It was soul destroying to be so close to a new arrival to an animal that seemed perfectly alright three days before.The vet was still adamant it was lack of calcium that caused her condition and we still don't know whether he is covering himself for not diagnosing hypothermia on the phone or if this truely was the case.
For sure, he gave her two calcium injections over eight hours and her temperature has stabilised ever since.
The only info I can find on the net is a possibility of the body dumping all it's reserves of phosphorus/calcium due to shock (shearing?) If anyone knows anything about this I would be grateful for their opinion in the comments.

And now some happier news. The world didn't end on the 21st as predicted I was all ready to be elevated up to the heavens or was I going downstairs? don't suppose I'll ever know now. Can't help wondering if the good-godlies were relieved or dissapointed at the outcome though. I guess those that gave away all their worldly goods were at a bit of a loose end.
But even better news...
Our first cria has arrived and the most important one of the year. A son for Fanny-Ann by Columbus, A dream pairing for a future champion,surely? He was out,washed and dressed and running around before we even woke up! Thery're the best sort, no worries!
We're still arguing over the name but we're on I this year but don't you think Izzam has a ring to it?
Quelvehinism. Hmmm.

Levitating at two days old!

We have a few girls all running late in they pregnancies now with Felicia our white Suri leading the field currently at 372 days!

With the arrival of our first cria I have had to keep a promise to do something about the hay rack in the large paddock as all last years cria fleeces were spoilt by falling debris onto the little-uns sitting underneath.So I've fitted a drip tray underneath in the hope that it catches the bulk of it.

So all nice clean babies this year then. I'm still not sure.

and finally a picture of Heidi in the wilderness for no other reason than I like it and to try and finish an otherwise gloom laden but honest blog with a smile.

Overseas Aid.

2011-04-29T16:08:00.000-07:00

"It's the last chance we'll get to have a break"
"Can we go? can we?"
"I've checked the ferry prices,and there's one in the morning"
It was eleven o'clock on Saturday morning and the lure of the Popham open day in Cornwall was becoming too much to bare for my missus.
Like a junkie in need of a fix it had to overcome all obstacles.
"We have people just arrived in the Gite" I pointed out.
"Oh, they're ok. they have been before"
"But,Jane and Micheal are coming tomorrow"
"I can change that to this afternoon, they won't mind"
"What about Manny and Damien coming over on Monday? and they're bringing us some chickens"
"I'll ring Manny she'll understand"
I should perhaps explain at this point our chicken family had become seriously depleted and we were down to two surviving old hens, when sat outside a few days ago there was an ear piercing shriek from the hen house followed by a few thumps and old Harriot was on her back stone dead!
One solitary chicken was not much of a flock so Manny had kindly offered to get us some more in return for favours done.
Anyway, I relented. People were re-arranged and the ferry booked.
Popham Farm was bathed in sunshine when we arrived and we soon settled in to what is fast becoming our second home.
A few beers on the patio and the 'chill mode' was engaged.
Around fifty people came along on the Monday and inbetween cooking homemade sausage and burgers it was good to finally meet a few people you already felt you knew. If you see what I mean.
The highlight of the afternoon was the sale of 'Thunder' the futurity winning black male to Tim Hey and Matt Lloyd.
It all came and went too quickly and it's now back to work trying to make the grass grow!
Rainfall is about 80% down on the norm for the first quarter of the year in Brittany and it shows.
It is forecast for this weekend though, so I've been out fertilizing the fields today in anticipation.

The show season is here

2011-04-11T14:52:00.000-07:00

First things first. French Frankie, our string eating alpaca is back to normal and grazing along with the others.He spent a couple of days mostly kushed down staring into space wondering what had hit him, but all's well now.
We're just waiting for the alpaca bean necklace to exit!
Gary Sanders from Pophams spent a few days with us last week to take in the Salbris alpaca show and try to continue their show winning run this side of the channel with a few males that stay at Quelvehin.
French alpaca shows go from strength to strength each year. The entries have grown in size (170 this time) and the quality gets better and competition harder.
Salbris was a new venue for the Concours International organised by Alpaga Developpement and only a stones throw from Vierzon where it is usually held. A fantastic stable block within the grounds of a chateau. You'll have take my word for it as I still have no photos!
We took our usual gang of three stud males plus two new boys
Judged by Matt Lloyd , Daniel and Alfonso both took first place rosettes in their respective brown classes for Gary, and Columbus was placed second in a very high quality senior white male class, losing out to the eventual show winner Jolimont Attitude owned by Alpagas Sologne.
For our part,the mighty Atlas was up in the Champions league again for the forth year running this time,taking reserve champion black huacaya.and a first place in the black fleece entry. What a star.
Columbus and Atlas have both proved their worth in the showrings in recent years and now we shall reap some rewards with a handful of stud services already in place.We are certainly looking forward to our own C&A cria this year.

photograghs supplied curtesy of gary sanders and ginny cobb.

Ever had one of those days?

2011-04-06T17:04:00.000-07:00

This was supposed to be an account of our weekend at Vierzon where we attended the annual alpaca show once again. But it will have to wait.
During the weekend my mobile phone was playing up and now it's dead. Went to cut the grass. Battery flat on the ride-on. Went to charge the battery. Battery charger dead. Thought I'd download the weekend photos on to the computer. Cameras knackered. So no show pics at the moment.
On top of everything else we had an emergency with one of the alpacas this evening to deal with.
We had let them onto a parcel of land around our polytunnel this afternoon with some tempory fencing as a treat because the grass was long and lush. As we did the final check around eight o'clock before they settle for the night we found one of the boys choking and coughing and in some distress.
The shelter walls were all splattered with green gunge he was spitting up.Hastily I checked in his mouth and throat for any obstruction but could see nothing.The vet was called.
All the other boys seemed fine, but while waiting for the vet to arrive I decided to check around for anything toxic we may not have noticed. What we found,in fact, was a trail of string and a tangled ball.This was the twine I use for lining up fence posts and must have been hidden in the long grass. My guess is he had swallowed a length of it. I checked again now suspecting what to look for,but nothing to see.
Anyway the vet arrived and he's had various injections. Muscle relaxants,anti inflammatorys and what seemed like a bucket full of some oral drench which the poor mite obviously had difficulty swallowing and as a consequence a lot of it was spat or coughed over me.
It's now two in the morning and I've done the last check on him. Very drowsy, too drugged to move away so just a pathetic squeak as I stroked him goodnight. Hope he's ok in the morning.

Right, I still stink of alpaca juices and need another wash.Luckily the boilers mended and we now have hot water. Forgot to mention that one.!

Mayenne weekend

2011-03-24T17:29:00.000-07:00

Ahh bliss. Home alone. Wifes away alpaca sitting for a few days at' La grand mere' so the music is up a few volume notches and no dissaproving comments to be heard.
Spring seems to have sprung and we enjoying some great weather at the moment. It's amazing the difference a bit of sunshine does. A tonic for the soul, fueling the incentive to get on with the endless list of jobs 'pending'.which, after seven years hasn't got any shorter!
We did manage our first weekend away for some time though albeit mixing business with pleasure as we delivered a couple of alpacas to Ian and Karen in the Mayenne. Our plan for an early start was scuppered as the electricity supply blew just as we were about to go,and not thinking it very fair to leave Jake in the dark all weekend had to get an electrician sorted before we went.
We arrived at Chailland just in time for lunch. Jake had rang.The electrician had been and gone. I had left a blank cheque fearing the worst. It was the kettle shorting out the circuit. The bill? Five euros! FIVE euros.
I think I'll use him again!
After the alpacas were settled in we were treated to home made elderflower cordial, home made bread,home made moussaka,home made lentil and cheese loaf,home made cherry wine, and home made bakewell tart.
Very scrummy. They had embraced the self sufficiency ideal to an envious degree. How do you find the time?

As we were in the area we paid a visit on Clare at Atlantis Alpacas where we were once again wined and dined.
The food was excellent. She would be the first to admit it wasn't all home made but guess what? The dinner service was! and all emblazened with alpacas.How's that for oneupmanship.(Is that a word?)
We talked alpacas into the small hours and retired to a four poster bed passed down through family generations.

Sunday morning,after breakfast we made our way into Normandy for a surprise visit on Norman and Orla at Vaux Hardys and arrived,you guessed it,just in time for lunch!
Things are back to normal now. Jayne's cooked a big pot of curried stew. She said.
"I've made this so you can warm it up for yourself whilst I'm away at Judi's"
"Great,was is it, beef,?"
"Well sort of, - you know thoose packs you can buy in the supermarket marked 'consommation animal seulement ' "
"Dog food?"
"No it's alright it's just the bits they trim off when making up the joints"
"You won't be having any then ?"
"No, Judi's got me some food in"
"Well, thanks babe. How thoughtful"
Think I'll ring Karen and go back and check on the alpacas .If I play my cards right I can get there about lunchtime.!

Pontivy Show Time

2011-03-15T13:38:00.000-07:00

Well it wasn't exactly the Alpaca Futurity but another weekend spent spreading the good word at the Pontivy Festival of Animals. A two day event featuring everything from snakes to horses. There was an international Cat show in half of the hall with some very strange felines on display. I'm sorry but I can't get gooey over a cat with no fur! Some very well trained donkeys seemed to be the stars of the show doing almost all the tricks you would expect of a dog including rolling over to have its tummy rubbed.

There was also the usual pony rides and a display by a team of sled pulling Huskies although the skis were replaced with wheels owing to the lack of snow.

The last couple of hours on the Sunday and the alpacas were ready to go home. They let you know by waiting by the entry gate to the pen and humming loudly. Dinnadin was so fed up he slumped his head on Daniels back. The alpaca equivalent of of big sigh.

There's only so many photo shoots one can take!

A helping hand

2011-03-10T14:53:00.000-08:00

Every student of a certain age here in France has to work a "stage" A week off from their usual studies and they go out into the big wide world and find an employer that is willing to take them on for a week and let them discover what goes on in their chosen trade.
Our own N° 2 son did his last year at a boutique in Pontivy. Not being of an extrovert personality we thought that being put in a position where he had to engage with the public would help develop his people/conversational skills.
I'm sure it did to a degree, although his study of the retail clothing trade seemed to be mainly re-folding jumpers!
No surprise then that a 'stageire' whoose chosen career for a week was Alpaca Farming should discover that the alpaca equivalent of folding jumpers is, i'm afraid -- poo picking!

This is Djill Coutiez. No stranger to Quelvehin as it happens. She was born here!( We bought the property from her parents) and hadn't seen her for some time. So when she asked if she could do her stage here we agreed.
Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point of view I spent the week away working on a building project so it was left to Jayne to instruct and educate.
A week is a long time when it's one on one especially in a foreign language, and they managed to cover most things including medication,fleece skirting,halter training etc..;
A good Stage presentation goes a long way to acheiving your BAC apparently and she wants to come back for three weeks in June when most of the cria will be born.

Also, I am reliably informed she is a very efficient poo picker so that's a bonus!

Felting Day off or not !

2011-02-26T12:15:00.000-08:00

After three weeks on blue jobs, I was really looking forward to a day off last weekend, doing something less strenuous, or so I thought.
Like most of us that have alpacas, after a few years of breeding and shearing you start to get a really large pile of fibre marked ' I'll find a use for that one day 'and you are reluctant to spread it on the roses or stuff boots with it. So I was very pleased earlier in the year, to meet up with Kate Smith, an experienced feltmaker working and running workshops here in Brittany. Although Kate had never worked with alpaca before she was keen to give it a go and spent several weeeks playing around with various samples and working on new ideas. One of which was Nuno felting which is produced by using a fine fabric for the base, usually cotton or silk, and felting fibre onto it (nuno means fabric in Japanese). we were both very impressed with the results.

Kate kindly prepared and presented several pieces for display at our open day in November and it was clear from the interest , that there were quite a few people looking for something to do with waste fibre. So we organised a felting course for last Saturday with the aim of producing a Nuno felted scarf.
When I originally planned the day, the gite was vacant, so great - we will do it in the gite. Then , after getting a month's booking from 'The Arabs' I decided the house would do just as well and continued with my plans. Boy - was I glad when they did a runner. Water and bubbles everywhere. There were four of us, all in all, Judi who was looking for something to do with 'bag lady' alias Peg and Clare Faber from Atlantis Alpacas, with her mum Betty. So 2 in the kitchen and 2 in the lounge. By the end of the day the gite looked like a jaccuzi that someone had tipped bubble bath into.
Its surprising how far a little bit of washing up liquid goes when you start rubbing - and rubbing we did. Thirty times on each spot, turn it over, another thirty times, more water (on my floor !) - more rubbing - roll it up in bamboo, rub it 100 times - more water (!!!... ) hot this time - keep doing all this re - rolling and adding more water (!!! - starting to look for my swimming goggles now ) around 800 times until it starts to felt. Then it really gets phyical. After washing it, you have to bash it and throw it around. Then, as if by magic, you can see it start to shrink and felt together - and all this I thought would be a restful experience. Still we all had a lovely lunch, prepared by Steve, who is now getting the hang of domestication and had layed the table beautifully, even opening the wine to breathe on the table, and I can tell you we were ready for it.

Huge thanks to Kate for sharing her wonderful talent with us. Anyone interested in the next day, we have planned for April, please let me know - and bring your own wellies !!
Jayne

2011-02-21T09:31:00.000-08:00

A womans work is never done.
Especially now I'm doing it!
As I'm not supposed to be doing anything strenous for a few weeks,including poo picking (too much bending up and down) hooray! I've had to busy myself around the house.Cleaning,cooking and ironing.and all that girlie stuff.
Cleaning is a thankless task as we have a woodburning stove constantly running over the winter.It keeps the place nice and cosy but at the same time seems to cover everything in dusty ash.
Ironings ok but those big sheets are a bit of a bitch. Cooking I can manage as long as I take three times as long over it as is really necessary.
And if you needed proof here is a rather scrummy chicken & mushroom pie and three jam tarts which weren't so good if I'm honest. Jam came out and went everywhere.

I've also started the halter training this week as that requires little effort,only patience and an understanding of how an alpaca thinks.
Hendrix and Heidi picked it up very quickly but Hannah is still very nervous and is going to take a little longer.

One lump or two?

2011-02-13T02:52:00.000-08:00

I know,I know.
It's over a month since I uttered anything here and I need to come up with some good excuses.
The truth is, since having wished everyone a happy new year ours has turned out a decidedly unhappy one, so far.
We have both suffered a flu type virus which leaves you feeling unable to do anything much except mope about feeling sorry for yourself. So no enthuiasm really.
Along with other stuff I can't really write about at the moment lest it be scandalous or libelous.

Actually, I'll take a chance on the libel front (the scandal will have to wait) and let you know we had a problem in one of our gites with a group of six men that took a months letting. Travelled up from Bordeaux, One large white van.One car.On business, yet not a cheque book between them and as the days went by, seemingly no intention of paying. It was only upon discovering they were robbing the electricity meter that they were confronted by Jayne (who is much scarier than me) and they did a bunk the next morning.
Bleeding Gyppo's!
Annick, our French long term winter tennant in the other gite (who is slightly paraniod at the best of times) had them sussed at the outset and had pulled up the drawbridge and fastened all the hatches straight away."They're Arabs" she had said "And up to no good. Faire attention"
As they drove away we feared our belongings may had found their way into the back of that big white van,and we entered the gite with some trepidation.
But surprisingly all was well,nothing appeared to be missing and apart from the smell of stale tobacco it was all left quite clean and tidy!
So Al-Qaeda may have been plotting their next atrocity in our kitchen but at least they left it as they found it!

It was sometime around being debilitated by a virus and being duped by the Gyppo's that I began to get a pain in my left leg.
Now, apart from the odd vasectomy some time ago, I am quite proud of my record of not visiting the doctors for something like twentyfive years.But have been feeling my age lately and decided perhaps it was time.
I knew I had had a hernia for some time, and I now realised it wasn't going to go away by itself. Worse still, was it possibly starting to strangulate and that was causing the pain?
An appointment was made to see a doctor. Then cancelled because the doctor was off sick!
It had never occurred to me that doctors could be ill. Who does a sick doctor see?!
Anyway, after a shakey start the full splendour that is the French health service was put into motion. And here's why it is the best in the world;
The day after the doctors I was at the blood laboratory in Pontivy in the morning being tested for everything under the sun,and the results were at the doctors before six o'clock. The same afternoon I had a rendevouz with the surgeon at the clinic.It was decided he should operate and I had in fact ,two hernias,a large one and a small one and he would do them both at the same time.
Dr Le Gras was an instantly likeable sort of chap and not really what I was expecting of a surgeon. He wore his white coat with the buttons open down the chest. No shirt, just a hairy chest and a gold ingot dangling from a chain. He was a kind of French 'cockney wide boy'.
He explained the procedure in a similar fashion.
"Yeah' no worries, cut holes here, here and here. Push that down there, pull that through there stick a bit of this webbing stuff in,stitch it up. Jobs a gud un! (only in French)
"But there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with this side" I pointed out, hoping to cut down on the number of holes.
"Neh, it's very weak, may as well do the two at once" Del-boy insisted.
I must admit as he cupped my testicles and his ingot dangled in my face I wondered if he was on piece work and it wasn't really necessary.
I got dressed and we chatted about alpacas (as you do)
"So, I come to see you when I want an alpaca" he said.
" Yes of course" I said, and then sensing an opportunity to get my own back added " But you can't have just the one. They're like hernias, you have to have two!"
He appreciated the irony and gave me a playful pat on the back.
Better not push it too far I thought.After all he's the one with the knife.

I had to wait a whole day then before I could have a consultation with the anaethetist . Tut.
He did some more tests and made some notes and confirmed Tuesday as check-in day for an op.

Well,you don't really have time to get nervous as Tuesday soon came around.We checked in late afternoon after having refreshed Jayne on the details of the life insurance policies and where I'd hidden the porn.
We were shown to my room. Not the single room with satellite TV I'd asked for,but as there had been an earlier confusion over the validity of my carte mutuelle I let it go.
The nurse was very attentive, demonstrating the various positions of the electronic state of the art bed which was to be my companion for the next few days. Then she went and left us to it.
"Now what?" I said to Jayne
"Maybe you're supposed to get into bed"
"But it's only 5 o'clock, I'm not tired"
The Pontivy Polyclinic is a fabulous new hospital built in the countryside on the outskirts of town, and from this room there was a view of this countryside as far as the horizon through the large picture windows. We were just saying I bet there wasn't another hospital that offered that sort of view anywhere when a nurse came in brandishing a tray of equipment and asked "Est-ce que vous étés pret Monsieur Parker?"
"Ready for what?" I said
"Rasser"
"Oh", It was time for Jayne to make her excuses and leave me to it.
The dragon of a matron was going to shave me from the nipples to the Kneecaps and I'm sure she derived just a hint of sadistic pleasure from it.
My room mate turned up shortly after. 'Rogere' an 87 year old, who, it soon became apparrent was experiencing problems in the toilet department. Rogere struggled to walk with the aid of two sticks and couldn't grasp the intricacies of the remote light switch operator. A simple device which turned either your personal night light on and off or the main room light on and off. There was an open and close button for the window blinds and a big red button to call the nurse should you need help.
At first I felt some sympathy for the old chap and although I couldn't understand a lot of his Breton/French ramblings I endeavered to be a good citizen and helped him to the toilet which was opposite my bed and closed the door behind him etc..; After all I was still in pre -op spritely mode.
Little did I realise this man was going to be more painful than any operation to follow.The lights were on and off, the window shutters opened and closed.
His visits to the toilet were to be too numerous to count. All day and all night for three days. It was impossible to sleep.Just as you started to slumber the darkness was pierced as the big light would go on. The brightness hurt your eyes, and the ten minute trudge to the bathroom started again. Click,click,click went the bloody sticks It became a torture, but I endured it because I knew I was more fortunate than him and It wasn't really his fault.
By the second night he became claustrophobic and insisted on having the door open to the corridor so all the passing traffic in the hospital was quite clealy audible.
Then,to top it all, he became concerned about the batteries in his pace maker,and (Monty python fans will know this bit) the machine that goes "ping" was wheeled in. Only this was the latest model that went "ping,ping,ping" every minute rather loudly.
Still,I thought at least if he's wired up to that he wont be up and about so much. Not so. Rogere was not to be contained by mere wires. And a disconnected 'machine that goes ping' has a different alarming "PING".
It was all getting too much.
I just gave up on the hope of sleeping and put my night light on to do a crossword. Rogere grumbled his disapproval and when I ignored him he called in the nurse and complained!
Well, the audacity!! From then on he put the light out when I was eating and I put the telly on when he was sleeping.It was room wars.
But, that apart, the Op went well and the care was second to none. The nurses were fantastic and the whole place runs like clockwork.
I was discharged on Friday and told not to do anything for three weeks!
That's going to be difficult but I have enjoyed watching the rugby over the weekend and being waited on a bit.Maybe I'll find the time now to try and tidy up the website 'for sale' pages which seem to have developed a mind of their own.

Hay and Horses.

2011-01-09T12:08:00.000-08:00

I suppose I'd better start with a somewhat belated 'Happy new year' wish to everyone.
I know it's a bit late but it's been a bit hectic recently.
Josh is finally back in Mexico after a four day journey missing a connecting flight at Philadelphia because of delays. He installed Skype on the computer before he left so we can now have regular free video contact. Isn't technology wonderful !
Ironically the sun reappeared today to coincide with his departure after having spent three weeks in the most depressing grey drizzle!
I think he was quite happy to head back to the South American climate.
The alpacas don't suit the soggy, humid weather either. They always look at their worst this time of year. Damp fleeces seem to hold all the dirt and bits of debris, and the cria insist on sitting under the hay rack whilst the adults feed and get covered in all the waste that falls out.
I've been told in no uncertain terms that a rethink is needed regarding the hay racks after a customer couldn't tell what colour a cria was, as he looked more like a walking haystack!
In the meantime if the likes of Popham and Patou could stop posting pictures of lovely immaculate cria it would make my life a bit easier.
Talking of cria, we need to start weaning this week now the weathers a bit better and also incorporate some quarantined animals into the main herd and separate older and younger males.Always good for a bit of head scratching as you sort out the logistics of who goes where?

I was reminded today of how easy alpacas are to manage when a friend in need called upon my services (or rather that of my horse box)to collect a horse she had acquired and move it to her place.

A sort of belated Christmas present for a teenage daughter.

After a 50km trip to the collection point the horse was brought out of the field to the trailer and absolutely refused to walk in.

For two hours various people were pushing,shoving,feeding, bribing,slapping ,coaxing and stroking the creature.

'Horse whispering' and 'Horse shouting at' were both employed to no avail.

"Any ideas?" I was asked presumably assuming that being in possession of a horse box I was familiar with the equine mind.

"Nope, If it was a alpaca I'd just pick it up and Carry it in" But when half a ton of ex-racehorse doesn't want to do something there is seemingly nothing you can do about it.

We made the journey back with an empty trailer and a tearful teenager.

A new (b)logger

2010-12-30T15:02:00.000-08:00

What better way to burn off the Christmas excesses than a day's graft in the fresh air ? Aided and abetted by my two helpful sons keen to leave aside their new I-pods and phones and be 'at one' with mother nature....
Actually, it wasn't quite like that.
Josh, 'the elder' who lives and works in Mexico is spending Christmas with us this year is not really the physical type, whose idea of heavy lifting is two pens at the same time.!
Jake 'the younger' normally doesn't do anything he can't reach from the end of his bed, so a bit of shock was in store.
The job was done though, and the logs were all moved to an accessible point yesterday.
Today we all have aching backs and shoulders but a satisfying sense of acheivement. (or is that just me?)

Josh wanted to write the blog today. So here is his account:

It’s been a tough year. After having spent most of my waking hours explaining subjunctives, conditionals, and subordinate clauses – with varying degrees of success – I decided to reward myself with what I thought would be a well-deserved, relaxing winter break with family in the heart of Brittany, with the promise of being able to relax for a couple of weeks and, well, the tranquillity might even help clear my mind. Chicken soup for the soul.

It turns out I was wrong. Yesterday I was assigned the task of “chucking logs across a forest” as my father so accurately put it. He had recently cut up a couple of trees that had fallen down in a nearby forest for firewood in a few winters’ time. He would normally get the tractor in and move them all back to the house that way, but, as sod’s law would have it, the trees that fell down were at the bottom of a valley, making access impossible with a tractor, and the logs lay at the bottom of a 10-metre slope.

All alternatives having been considered, and subsequently ruled out, the only solution was to throw the logs up the slope by way of a human chain: my brother, my father and myself. I’m not sure how much logging experience any of you have, but I soon discovered that two trees – one oak and one chestnut – give you one hell of a lot of wood. Obviously, I didn’t count the damned things, but there must have been in excess of 1,000 logs. Add to that the fact that these were logs that had been soaked by three weeks’ rainwater, making them much heavier – about two tons.

The whole job took us about seven hours, with a half-hour lunch break. Somewhat ingenuously, I offered to position myself at the bottom of the chain. This was for the psychological motivation of seeing the pile of logs go down bit by bit, but also, admittedly, to avoid myself the embarrassment of not being able to catch the wood. However, I had failed to realise that this would mean picking them all up instead of just catching them, which is without a doubt more strenuous on the back. I also discovered that for every log you took off the pile, ten more appeared underneath, so it was psychological torture.

So, for all those of you who are wondering what I’m getting up to in France, and possibly thinking ‘That lucky git gets a nice holiday in Europe while I’m stuck here eating tacos… again!’, well, I hope this post has answered your queries, and given you something to smirk about. Maybe it has even taken your mind off the stress caused by the relentless crashing waves on the Ensenada beach and the endless carne asada tacos and buñuelos. Rest assured I am still busy working, this time in the freezing cold and incessant rain, on my two-week lumberjack apprenticeship courtesy of Quelvehin Alpagas and Dead Oak Trees Co.

Oh, and guacamole just isn’t the same with French avocados… and it doesn’t go very well on crêpes.

The Predator

2010-12-12T11:21:00.000-08:00

One of the main chores of alpaca ownership is the never ending collection of droppings.
Whilst this is not essential, we choose to do it because on limited pasture it helps to keep the parasite and worm counts to a minimum,and that means happy,healthy alpacas.
Which has to be a good thing!
Nevertheless it can sometimes be a bit of a drag with around thirty animals to clear up after.
Imagine my joy then when I came across a poo-hoover for sale in a nearby village.My days of trudging around with the wheelbarrow were surely numbered.
I hurriedly arranged a viewing to see this machine that was to change my life.
To get the story into perspective this all happened about a month ago. At the viewing I wasn't convinced it was the godsend I had hoped for.However, the guy selling it used to be an agent for the manufacturers, and,having lost none of his sales patter assured me it was the bees knees and I couldn't live without it. Mindful of my apprehension he agreed to let me have it for a trial period.
So it was arranged. I collected the beast and unloaded it from the trailer ready to clear the paddocks in a jiffy.
Now,the first thing you notice about the beast is the word "PREDATOR" emblazened on all three sides in large print.
The "PREDATOR" (this should be said with a growl in your voice, the voice over of all the horror movie trailers you've ever watched).
The"PREDATOR" is the beast to make mincemeat of poo piles,the Arnold Schwarzenegger of poovers gobbling up everything in it's path.
Well.
As my trial period unfolded inbetween bouts of rain and other chores over the following weeks the "PREDATOR" turned out to be more Mr Bean than Arnold Schwarzenegger. A catalogue of mishaps too numerous to mention made the whole experience rather miserable.
Not that it was all entirely the "PREDATOR"s fault. It could suck.God it could suck.There wasn't much that didn't fly up the tube. But the tube was always in the wrong place.There's always lumps just out of reach.The whole thing was too cumbersome to manoeuvre without running through poo and thereby spreading it rather than collecting it.I couldn't get through gateways without knocking bits off the tractor. The pipe kept blocking up when I tried to do leaves,At one point I was so engrossed in watching that it wasn't blocking up that I drove straight through the fence!and then a trip through the woods to empty the thing resulted in me tipping it over on it's side. Gary Sanders style!
Ok,if I had a Quad instead of a tractor it would have been easier. If the paddocks were flat and the leaves had been dry it would have been easier. If I could train my alpacas to poo in allocated areas like Judi B's it would have been easier. But lifes not like that and now the old wheelbarrow is back in daily service.
The PREDATOR has been returned to it's rightful owner.

Quelvehin Porte Overte

2010-12-12T08:39:00.000-08:00

Well we nearly didn't manage it. The freeze was holding out right up to Friday night when the temperature upped a few degrees and the rain came and washed the bulk of it away. Too late for some of our more distant clients and friends who made their apologies and would have stay away.
After concluding by Thursday it was going to be a non-starter, it was now a mad panic to get everything ready for the open day.
Gary and Felicia from Popham Alpacas arrived Saturday morning after a longer than normal journey to avoid the worst of the remaining snow,and after settling the animals in, there was only time for a quick cup of tea before it was 'all hands on deck' getting things ready.
The workshop was cleaned (a bit) and dressed with fleeces. The Lodge was decked out with products with Patsy spinning in one room and Kate felting in the other. The Cottage was to be the dining room for some thirty odd lunches despite the fact it is let out to a long term tennant. She was very understanding and quite enjoyed being waitress for the day.
Gary gave a talk on fleece traits whilst Felicia was in her element searching for unwanted nasties in freshly gathered poo samples under her microscope.
All in all the day went well and a big "Thankyou" to everyone that made it possible.

This week also hails the return of the prodigal N° 1 son after a few years in Mexico, Josh is coming home for Christmas. He is currently doing the rounds in England and after three years of only wearing tee-shirts and eating everything laced in chillies he is finding the food rather bland and the weather somewhat chilly!
Looking forward to his arrival on Wednesday.

2010-11-29T09:42:00.000-08:00

Blimey! Winters arrived. A bit too early for my liking.
This was the scene we woke up to yesterday.
It was minus eight degrees first thing this morning and all the car doors were welded shut. I had to detach the trailer from the car in order to take Jake to school but only after wrapping the hitch in a woollen shirt with a hot water bottle to release it!
I had hoped to replace some broken rotten fence posts this week but there's no way I can get a spade in the ground at the moment.
Not that I was particularly looking forward to digging holes but it would have been a welcome break from picking up leaves which at this time of year is never ending.
Hope it clears up for the weekend or our 'open day' could be a closed shop.!

Goodbye to Fleur

2010-11-01T15:09:00.000-07:00

Another alpaca left our clan this week. The lovely Quelvehin Fleur survived her 10 hour drive down to Marc and Odiles herd in Auroure apparently unperturbed by the journey,and has settled in well.She was a hard one to part with as she was mated to Atlas and having a black father herself was well placed for a possible black cria. Just what we want ourselves! Oh well,
business is business,needs must and all that.

canine contemplations

2010-10-20T16:48:00.000-07:00

"You know,it's not a bad life,this being a dog lark. My plan for total world dominance is slowly taking shape. I've gotten rid of mother.Moved her in to the old folks home across the way.Well, she was getting a bit too much attention for my liking. Cramping my style you see. The old fart of a setter is no bother.I can be at the scraps bowl before his arthritic old legs have lifted him off the carpet. And as for the cat? well he hasn't been near the house for six months since I gave him a 'seeing to'.
I've just got this new settee too.Leather don't you know.Not new, but it'll do.Just my size,as long as they sit on the floor. Apparently it's easier for them to clean after I've sprawled on it. And sprawl on it I do! Well you see, I've chewed enough shoes and stuff now they don't shut me in the utility room any longer so I've got free use of all furniture during the night. Well, until about four in the morning when I go up and jump on their heads in bed. It's a right laugh,they can't shut the bedroom door you see, due to the house falling down and it no longer fits in the frame.
Just need to sort the catering side a bit. Helped myself to a smashing pork loin the other week in a bid to demonstrate that, I too appreciate the finer things in life,but so far I'm still only getting dog type biscuits.
Well, it's getting late. He's off to bed now. I'll leave it a couple of hours and then I'll have one of my barking sessions where I pretend I've seen something. Always good for a bit of night time attention. woof woof."

Le Petit.

2010-10-20T15:44:00.000-07:00

Whilst out clearing the usual autumnal tree debris from the fields this morning I snapped a few quick cria pics. The first is Heidi who is an exact mini replica of her mother.

This is Hendrix. Sporting the best fleece of this years bunch despite the black band right round his belly

The lovely Hannah, daughter to Evita and Atlas. A beautiful solid dark fawn.

"Tiny Tim" little light fawn Harvey. Only 5kilos at birth but going like a good un .

Hendrix again. What a cracking head!

Heidi and some leaves.

Hannah

Popham visit and a dog leaves home

2010-10-09T13:42:00.000-07:00

Well, we are back from our annual holiday.A long weekend at Popham Alpacas in Cornwall. Always a treat even if it is a bit of a 'busmans holiday'.
With a herd of over 100 alpacas there is never a dull moment and we spent a lot of time looking over their results of last years matings,with a certain degree of envy.We were hoping to bag ourselves some coloured females,and spent a lot of time pondering it over pints of real ale down at the local.
If there's one thing we're lacking in France it's 'proper' beer!( and black alpacas). (two things)
oh,and lemon curd,marmite,and custard cream biscuits.
We were fortunate to have Judy to' house sit' for us whilst we were away. even if she did manage to lose two boys within an hour of us leaving!
She did a sterling job. Way beyond the call of duty and in pretty dire weather conditions too. You can read her blog story at www.lagrandmere.com
So it's back to business as usual.The leaves are starting to fall and the spiky chestnut casings are a nightmare to try and get out of Suri fleeces.I can see many days of raking ahead.

Meg, my beautiful weimaraner bitch that wondered into our lives about a year ago has decided it's time to move on and has chosen to live in a big manor house over the other side of the forest. She has had a wander lust ever since the puppies didn't need her any longer and having no boundary here it was difficult to stop her roaming. After a couple of months of fetching her back we have given in and have agreed to let her stay there.Her new owners are besotted with her,and whilst I was annoyed at first as she was clearly enticed to stay with treats and her own bowls and bed etc.. She has since had the opportunity to come home but seems increasingly settled there.
She was a beautiful dog,but like a lot of beautiful women,fickle and a heartbreaker.
We still have one of her pups,and still called 'puppy' (we really ought to think of a proper name now) who I think is partly responsible for her leaving as he has become more and more dominant over her.
I'm sure I'll grow to love him too, once he stops eating my bloody shoes!

Living the dream?

2010-09-15T13:23:00.000-07:00

I've often wondered how my alpaca business plan would be received if I put it before the tycoons of Dragons Den.
This week it all became clearer....
So there I was in that bare brick warehouse clutching Dinnadin,our favourite alpaca, and facing a row of daunting 'Dragons'. I pulled the silken cloth from over his head and they all simultaeneously managed a smile.
Dinnadin had charmed them already.They would be putty in my hands.
I nervously made my pitch asking for a paltry sum of £50,000 investment, seemingly on the basis that they were 'cute' and I wanted some more.
James Caan was quick to declare himself 'out' stating he had an allergy to all things fluffy and for this reason he couldn't invest. He did however say he would love to bring his children over one weekend for a visit. I said he would be welcome.
Deborah Meaden started to quiz me on projected profits for years one,two and three and what returns to expect on her investment.
I stuttered an answer not structured on any findings fiscal or otherwise but reitterated that they were lovely.
She admitted this was so but proceeded to give me a dressing down on my business acumen,saying the sums just don't add up.
She had a look I didn't warm to,reminding me of a school teacher in the past.
I decided I couldn't go into business with someone that was going to give me lines or make me stand in the corner.
Duncan Bannatyne was the first to make an offer saying he "could'nae see a problem" and they were "terrific" Peter Jones,not wishing to be left out said he agreed and would match Duncans offer.
Theo Pahitis also declared an interest but only after asking a lot of questions about how much meat each animal produced and what they tasted like.
So, three offers on the table to choose from.
I walked Dinnadin to the back wall to 'take a moment' We didn't take long to dismiss Theos offer suspecting he had plans for some kind of Greek kebabs he wasn't being entirely honest about.
Dinnadin said he always thought Peter Jones was a bit too smug for his liking so Duncan was the dragon of choice.
As we shook hands I remembered Duncan had a criminal record way back in his past but decided to let bygones be bygones and everyone deserves a second chance.
Nevertheless I made a mental note to keep an eye on the petty cash.
And so it came to pass that Duncan arrived at Quelvehin and the fifty grand was in the bank.
We exchanged pleasantries and I took him to meet the alpacas. After a while I handed him a poop-scoop and wheelbarrow and following a quick demonstration he pushed up the sleeves of his Saville Row suit and knuckled down to some shit shovelling.
It didn't last for long though. "This is bloody crazy, yer ne'r gonna meck any money doing this man"
I told him that as a partner in this business he should learn to take the rough with the smooth and that it was all worthwhile because alpacas were, after all, very cute.
He had no argument with that and momentarily succumbed to a bit more scooping.
But it wasn't working for him.Something wasn't right. He started ranting about how we should start another company that specialised in animal waste management that then hired the machines from another company that we own that then had to get it processed at the proccessing plant that we can set up,and that way we actually get paid for somebody else to clear the fields.
I gave it some thought but couldn't see how we could get it all in place by this afternoon so I said we would have to carry on as we were.
It was at this point that everything became very surreal as dreams have a tendancy to do and we were farming lime green turtles, checking they were pregnant by pressing their soft underbellies to see if a little head popped out.Wrapping them in tissue paper and stacking them in crates.
Clearly it was time to wake up.
Now I don't know what all this drivel means or why I think you should be interested but, turtles aside maybe I'm trying to tell myself something.
When poo picking starts giving you nightmares It's time to buy a poo hoover. So if anyone has one for sale please get in touch. I have an imaginary budget of £50,000
I'm sure Duncan would approve.

All in a days work

2010-08-31T14:28:00.000-07:00

Sometimes life's not so bad. I can remember in a former life Mondays being a bit of a drag.This Monday was just how a days work should be. Nice early start in glorious sunshine, load the mighty Atlas into the trailer and hit the road. He had a rendezvous at Le Grandmere alpacas with a couple of ladies desperately in need of a little lovin'.
Whilst Atlas was at work Ron and Judi,as always, laid on a fantastic lunch and we sat on the terrace and supped wine all afternoon.
It certainly beats plasterboarding, one of my other ongoing jobs at the moment,and it's more profitable!
We did put the wine glasses down at some point in the afternoon to take a proper look at their cria. The results of last years Quelvehin couplings,and quickly fell in love with a certain white female.
Meet Blossom. Very,very white,and very fine, but it was the ears folks,incredible ears. Never have I seen such thick fluffy ears! Totally adorable.
It wasn't too many glasses later a deal was struck and she was 'earmarked'(no pun intended) to join the Quelvehin breeding program.

Mystery plague wipes out entire herd

2010-08-29T14:58:00.000-07:00

There I was,in the heat of the afternoon,dashing around,hoovering the paddocks,checking water,fetching hay and all the other jobs to keep the little darlings happy and healthy. Sweat dripping from my brow,and what are they doing?
Sunbathing, bloody sunbathing!
Who's the mug here?

The joys of motherhood

2010-08-25T16:33:00.000-07:00

Charisma surprised us with a most un-alpaca-like late afternoon birth on Monday. A tiny fawn boy only 5kilos but full of beans. It was her first,and whilst very loving and attentive would not allow him to feed. No way. The more he persisted the angrier she got to the point of stamping and kicking him. Then was overcome with remorse and made a big fuss of him.
It was clear she needed a lesson in motherhood, so as the night was drawing in we took them into the barn and penned them in together and prepared ourselves for another all night vigil.
Coffee and Cornish Pasties al-fresco again as we monitored the proceedings.
It's a frustrating situation. Not wishing to intervene and stress the Mum making her less likely to allow him to suckle but at the same time knowing you have this time frame in which he has to get the colostrum intake.
As we approached midnight she had allowed him a couple of short sessions but he was getting tired of trying and was resting for longer periods. We decided to make sure and transfer some milk ourselves.
After a gentle but firm talking to, to our surprise she stood perfectly still and allowed me to milk her,and feed it to the cria.
Happier in the knowledge he had taken at least some colostrum we called it a night. By the morning he was feeding normally and everything was hunky-dory.
We put them back with the herd and I spent the day poo picking so I could keep an eye on him.
Apart from getting stuck in the fence all seemed well.
They are back in the barn tonight because it's actually rained ALL day today. Yes rained,loads of it. Hooray!Our first decent downpour in months, great news for the grass. Not so good for a little-un to be out in all night.

Caurel Fete

2010-08-25T15:39:00.001-07:00

It was the annual Caurel fete again this weekend,so we took the Quelvehin quartet along to entertain the folks. It was a little overcast and the attendance was down on last year. Once again we had the pitch next to the stage where the musicians were playing and conversation in French was even harder than usual whilst competing with the loudspeakers.But that aside, it was a pleasant day and a few more people have been enrolled into the alpaca appreciation society.
We had an artist and a potter along side us and by the end of the day they were drawing and modelling alpacas.

Madonnas and Motorbikes

2010-08-17T12:54:00.000-07:00

Had a bit of rest from alpaca duties this weekend to indulge myself in my other favourite pastime and got the motorbike out for the Porcaro ride out.
The story goes that the Curé (parish priest) of Porcaro and keen biker held a special service some twenty years ago whereby he blessed his bike and a few others within his congregation with the old holy water and the 'Madonne du Motards' was born. Every year on August the 15th he is available to 'baptise' your bike and bestow upon you the blessing and protection of the Moto Madonna before the ride out. How cool is that?
The Madonne du Motards starts on the Saturday evening when bikers from all over France converge on the sleepy village of Porcaro, set up camp and do what bikers worldwide do. Rev their engines all night and drink alot mainly.
We found the Priests home complete with club house in the converted barn and even saw the main man himself sat astride a huge trike in his leathers complete with dog collar and chomping on a cigar. Very surreal!
We visited the chapel. A sombre place and reminder of the dangers of motorcycling. All the walls were adorned with plaques of remembrance and photographs of hundreds killed on a bike.
I questioned whether the Moto Madonna was perhaps failing in her duties.
Anyway, the old priest has really started something. I don't know exactly how many showed up for the weekend but opinions varied between four and ten thousand bikers set off on the Sunday afternoon. It was a seventy kilometre run through various villages and finishing at Josselin. Because of the sheer volume of bikes, the trip took around two hours and bikes were still leaving the start as the first batch arrived at Josselin. A couple of times along the smaller country lanes the traffic ground to a halt in complete overload!
It was a great day though and it seemed the world and his wife were lining the roadside to cheer on the procession.Lots of hand slapping as you ride by and Jayne was throwing sweets to the children from the big pocket in the back of my coat.
A splendid weekend. Roll on next year.

Elodie's Birthday

2010-08-06T12:58:00.000-07:00

We say goodbye tomorrow to Justin,Conchi,Talia and Elodie who have stayed with us for a fortnight. I hope the girls enjoyed their time with the alpacas and have a few memories to take away.
Dinnadin, our favourite Huacaya was on good form as always and seems to genuinely enjoy the company of children and is a bit of a poser in front of the camera.
Elodies introduction to alpacas coincided with her fifth birthday and she wore her bestest party frock for the occasion which unfortunately attracted a few brambles along the way,but all was put right again with the promise of a plaster and an ice cream. The photos of this occasion sadly didn't come out too well so I've posted some others. (must get a trusty Nikon!)
We also said goodbye this week to two males we had for sale. ElCid and Eldoret have gone to pastures new and very much greener near St Nazaire.
Michel & Sybille will,I have no doubt, pamper to their every desire in their grand surroundings. Sybille is the perfect new owner for Eldoret, being, as he is,"adorable,but ever so slightly daft!"
( in the nicest possible way.)
Alpacas have put us in touch with many new friends and acquaintances and if only for that reason you have to love 'em.
Still no rain.

Oh please let it rain.

2010-08-03T14:32:00.000-07:00

Seems all the rain we had in February was our quota for the year! It's been months since we had a decent downpour and I know the holiday makers in the gites won't thank me for saying it,but, "I wish it would rain. I mean really rain! for a few days at least.All the lawns and fields are scorched brown,and nothing is growing. The alpacas have already started their winter hay supply and that's not good as I think the supply of good hay is going to be lean this year.

2010-07-26T15:09:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I last penned a few words,truth is, it's been a hard and unhappy week for the Quelvehin gang. Hope, our premature cria succumbed to the bacterial onslaught that mother nature threw at her,and without a chance to develop any immunity had been in rapid decline all week.
With no chance of recovery it was with much sadness her life was ended this afternoon.
Without the plasma infusion we knew this was always a risk. Doesn't make it any easier though.
Thanks to everyone for their help and advice. Hope to write some happier stuff soon.

For Andy and Angie

2010-07-07T14:46:00.000-07:00

Just a quick photo gallery tonight. I promised I would,so here are the Searlies getting stuck in on their 'Alpaca experience' week.

Introduction

Haltering

Handling

Weighing

Toenail Trimming

Walking

Mating

Just thought I'd include this one because I looked quite brown and muscular

Washing

And of course........

A few days off !

2010-07-04T14:04:00.000-07:00

Hannah & Hope

Heidi, Hendrix & Hannah

Hope

Well, it's been a while. Busy,busy,busy you see.Added to which, we've had no telephone/internet connection for nearly a week due to some plonker with a crane who loaded my phone line on to his truck as well as the tree trunks he was collecting down the lane. I've also had a bit of a week off actually,doing holiday stuff with oldest and dearest friends that came to stay.Lots of sight seeing, swimming in the sea etc....and my very first game of golf! A thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.Needless to say I was not exactly Tiger Woods but eventually finished at the clubhouse bar which I think is the object of the game!
It wasn't all fun and frolics for the guests though.There was still spit-offs and matings to do,and of course, poo-picking, but they soon got the hang of it.
They loved the alpacas, and Hope won the 'most aaahhs' competition as she still nuzzles between your legs searching out the bottle. She's doing very well by the way, and is now in the field with all the others trying very hard to be an alpaca. She is still half the size of the other cria born at the same time and it is actually her due birth date today! She weighed in this afternoon at just over nine kilos and I reckon when she hits double figures she should be strong enough to cope with her vaccination.
Must go and do the rain dance now,getting desperately short of green stuff out there.

and another one

2010-06-16T15:29:00.000-07:00

Cria number four popped into the Quelvehin troupe this afternoon almost unnoticed .This was typical of Bella,the most casual of mums! All the cria she has given us have just appeared as if by magic.Washed and dressed and with a full belly. Never any indication of it's likely arrival.
A boy this time, 8 kilos of chocolate brown, out of Daniel, and looking just like his dad.
We are so pleased with our lot this year. It was our intention to try to put colours into the herd with our matings last season and it's all worked perfectly.
Hope,our 5 week early girl has truly found her legs now and has been pronking around the paddock with a somewhat happier mother. We shall stop her antibiotics after tomorrow then the real test starts for her immune system. Fingers crossed.

Permission to blog accepted !!

2010-06-15T13:08:00.000-07:00

Its not very often I am given permission to blog, so I better get on with it, before him indoors changes his mind !
After such a busy and stressful week, I was really looking forward to a couple of days away at Vierzon at the weekend. Marie Geneviève of the Alpaga Développement had invited Mary Jo from Bozedown to give a fleece course at her château. So Friday lunchtime Jacques Olivier picked me up and off we set, stopping off briefly at an appointed rendez-vous point to pick up Orla from Vaux Hardy Alpacas. We arrived about 6 .00 and met up at the Auberge Restaurant, a favourite haunt of Marie-Geneviève's, where the food is wonderful and the price is reasonable.
After a few bevvies and full stomachs, we all retired. Mary Jo and her friend excusing themselves earlier as they had been up since 4 am and had had to cope with a tedious hour and a half route around Paris.
The next morning we awoke to a dry and sunny day and headed off to the Château de Rozay. The château itself dates back in parts to the 15th century and is surrounded by its own moat.
Until M.G. brought it, 10 years ago, the château had never been sold. Passing down through the family for generations, until the last countess and is now badly in need of renovation.Entering into the courtyard is like stepping back in time. The ornamental gardens, around the back of the château were a picture with rambling old roses and honeysuckle. Over the stone wall, which surrounds the large courtyard, you enter into an enchanted wood which then leads to further lawned areas, where M.G. can enjoy her alpacas close up. Never have I seen a marriage so perfect, alpacas with the back drop of a 15th century château - one made for the other.
Mary Jo started the course outlining the importance of good conformation, something she feels represents the building blocks of a good, healthy herd from which to build on. During the course of the day ,we were able to get our hands on some pretty outstanding fleeces, that she calls her elite fleeces. Starting with the basic fleece language, she then proceeded to talk through with us her breeding aims and how she achieved them, bringing out Sire and then progeny fleeces from several generations for us to see the progress. Back in October Jacques was lucky enough to win a free mating with Bozedown Period donated by M.G. in the raffle. At that point he had not yet brought his animals, so the mating is still pending. The look on his face when he saw the progeny fleeces of Pernod was a picture, the smile went from ear to ear - what a prize !!
The day for me, was slightly spoilt by the news that little Hope had taken a step back but having one of the biggest breeders in England sitting across the table with advice helped and I realized
that without Plasma I had to accept whatever fate throw our way, as many have done before.
We arrived back in the early hours of Sunday morning, exhausted (Jacque still smiling).
Many thanks to Mary Jo for such an informative course and for making the journey, and also to Gaby and Michel for their translation, which at some times was challenging - what is the correct translation for 'bum fluff' when talking about cria shearing - anyone know ?!!!!

All legs and raincoat

2010-06-14T15:12:00.000-07:00

One week old and still hanging on. Hope continues to pull at our heart strings, laying comatose for long periods of time, and then, just as we give up on her, she has a dogged determination to live and gets up and totters about. Today has been her best day yet with more time spent awake and alert. She is attempting to suckle from mum and is starting to become more wary of us which is good.

A story of hope

2010-06-10T16:02:00.000-07:00

We had just finished weighing and vaccinating the cria and attending to biscuits aftercare

when the rain started. We collected together all the paraphernalia and started to leave the field. As we left I noticed Bali had taken herself off to the opposite side of the field and was sitting alone under the big oak tree. She was still there some time later. The spot she had chosen was a favorite place for the alpacas, a large dust bowl they had created for rolling in. But not today. The rain was lashing down and it was more sludge that dust. Too far away to see for sure, but was that something beside her? I flicked up the hood on my coat and trudged down the field wondering how other folk spend a rainy afternoon.

As I approached her she didn’t move away as I expected but pointed her nose at the package on the floor and then looked at me with an expression that just said “whoops”

Her pregnancy still had five weeks to go and the helpless little bundle was laying in all the dust and sludge.

In normal circumstances mum and baby should be allowed to bond a while before we intervene but these were not normal circumstances. I gathered it up and headed out of the rain trying to coax Bali to follow. She wouldn’t and seemed pre occupied with the birthing spot. Eventually, after what seemed ages we managed to halter her and led her out the field into the barn where we were able to clean the cria up and dry it off.

It was another girl sired by Atlas, very dark solid brown almost black around the head.

She was too weak to stand and could barely hold up her head and obviously wasn’t going to suckle from mum any time soon but we decided to give it a couple of hours to see if she progressed. We kept her warm and monitored the temperature.

Eventually we had to try and get mums colostrum into a bottle and feed the cria. Not a task I was looking forward to as Bali is the most obnoxious alpaca we own.

She growls and slobbers and kicks every time you lay a hand on her.

One of my French purchases before I knew any better.

But a mans got to do what a mans got to do and as the night air turned blue and the spit flew I managed to get a little, not enough really, but it was something at least. We got it into the cria who surprisingly had a strong sucking reflex we also gave it powdered colostrum. I think it was around this time we noticed the blood on the floor and it wasn’t coming from the gash on my neck from a particularly well aimed kick moments before. It was coming from under the cria. Her umbilical cord, what little bit there was, was hemorrhaging and a clamp and more iodine was called for.

She was getting weaker and I really wanted more of mum’s milk. We decided to give it another go. The softly softly approach bore no fruit and soon descended into some Heath Robinson contraption to suspend her from the ceiling and prevent her from cushing down ,but even this only brought forth a dribble. It was given along with glucose to help her along.

Jayne volunteered to stay in the barn all night to monitor her temperature every hour and bit feed colostrum and glucose. But by the morning things were no better. An antibiotic was injected in case of infection via the torn umbilicus. By the evening she was completely lifeless with only the occasional flaring of nostrils to indicate she was still with us. She stayed like this for hours and we had given up hope. Bali was put back in the field rather indignantly because of her lack of co operation, Jayne was exhausted and went to bed and I brought the cria into the house to die before I could join her.

I layed on the settee with the cria on my lap and massaged its body, bit fed it milk and glucose every hour all through the night.

And then ,at four oclock in the morning as I was watching the Isle of Man TT highlights for the third time a remarkable thing happened, it lifted its head and started to look around and from that point within half an hour it was wanting to walk around!

I put her on the floor, but the floor was tiled and it was like watching Bambi on ice, every time she moved a step she slid spread eagled with her four legs to all four points of the compass. I steered her onto the perimeter of the rug that was under the coffee table and we slowly did a couple of laps around. She stopped , weeed and pooed on the rug and carried on. Oh joy! Never have I been so happy to have a animal defecate on the carpet!

When Jayne got up she was surprised to find me not in bed and even more surprised to find last nights ‘dead’ cria watching telly!

She continues to go slowly from strength to strength and is now back in the barn, re united with Mrs Grumpy arse and the bond is still there. Hopefully she will get strong enough to pester mum for milk and when and if she does get to suckle I’ve asked her to give her one hard bite from me!

I know she’s not out of the woods yet though.

We’ve called her Hope.

Matings

2010-06-10T15:11:00.000-07:00

Having got a few births out of the way it’s time to start thinking about next years early batch and got the stud males ready to meet our first timers.

Four out of the five were successful couplings but with one young lady absolutely having none of it! I can see we are going to have to have a little chat.

Like mother like daughter

2010-06-10T14:46:00.000-07:00

What a star Jayne is. Still managed to get these pictures of Cochitis monster cria being born surrounded by a group of admirers whilst helping with a prolapsed uterus.

2010-06-10T14:17:00.000-07:00

I was awoken Sunday morning in my favorite guest house, still in the ‘recovery position’ from the evening’s excesses. “Jayne was on the phone” Pat said.

Biscuit had aborted her cria. There was nothing I could do from Normandy so it was decided I should have my ‘ride out’ and return home Sunday evening instead of Monday.

Upon my return the whole story unfolded. Not only had she aborted but this was followed at lunchtime by a prolapsed womb which the vet had to manipulate back into her and keep in place with big safety pins. Jake was a great help holding the animal and keeping things clean and translating the more complicated bits of the operation.

He only went and spoilt himself by asking how she was going to poo through the pinned up hole?

“Er, that’s a different hole Jake. I thought you were eighteen this week!”

But that’s not all, whilst all Bicuits bits were being re-instated in their rightful place Cochiti, another female, now well overdue and only one day short of a full years gestation decided that, with the gaffer away and everybody’s attention diverted it was time to unpack and promptly gave birth to a whopping great cria of more than ten kilos!

It was another girl and an absolute carbon copy of its mother, fawn with a white fringe and nose.

As we are on H’s this year and had waited so long for this one I suggested Hallelujah would be an appropriate name, but common sense prevailed and we have named her Heidi.

A weekend away

2010-06-10T13:58:00.000-07:00

This weekend was supposed to be my long weekend away in Normandy. An annual event always held this time of year. A motor biking jaunt where I meet old pals from the UK, and we take over a b&b near Avranches. The’ Val de see’ run by Pat and Clive Beresford is the most wonderful place to stay. Great hosts, great food and a caverness wine cellar. It’s something we’ve done for ten years or more and long may it continue.

The problem is it’s always fallen on number two sons birthday and I’ve never been at home for it. This year was his eighteenth so I missed the Friday part of the trip and we had a birthday bash in the garden.

Also I had noticed a female alpaca looking a little ‘off colour’ and not being her usual self and thought it best to keep an eye on her. By Saturday morning she was worse spending most of her time in a ‘going to the toilet’ stance or sitting alone. The vet had been called and decided it was probably colic and gave her something for the pain. By the late afternoon she seemed to have improved a lot and Saturday evening I saddled up the Harley hoping to get to Avranches in time for dinner.

polytunnel

2010-06-10T13:53:00.001-07:00

It has been decided that since our lives are now almost completely dedicated to raising alpacas we have no need for the large weed patch that used to be the veg garden. There just doesn’t seem time to manage it so it will be turned into another useful penning area.

The polytunnel stays though, and gets a complete new polythene cover. I’ve dug in loads of good rotted alpaca poo and planted it out.

Looking forward to football sized tomatoes to coincide with England winning the world cup!

The Dustbowl

2010-06-10T13:30:00.000-07:00

Colin Otterey, Master Shearer and all round good egg (although he does moan a bit!)turned up today to do the shearing.

There was a mad panic yesterday afternoon converting the field shelter into a holding pen as the forecast was for rain in the night and the animals had to be kept dry.

But the sun shone and the day went without incident..Everyone was shorn and had their dentistry taken care of.
I do like to see newly shorn alpacas. They look so comical in their corduroy coats.Now the fun starts to try and recognize who's who.!
They didn't stay clean for too long though. It was straight to the dust bath!

Concours Bretagne,Terralies,St Brieuc.

2010-06-10T12:45:00.000-07:00

It was the last show of the year for us and a well attended one. Set within the Terralies agricultural show at St Brieuc in Brittany. A three day event with halter classes held on the Saturday and Sunday judged by Nick Harrington-Smith.

We took just three animals, two young females Fanny and Fleur, and Atlas our black adult Male. Fanny took a first place in her class and Fleur a second. Atlas went on to the championship and took best black for second time.

Popham Columbus and Daniel, both standing at stud at Quelvehin were also entered and faired well with Columbus claiming reserve white huacaya loosing out to a beautiful junior female owned by Alpagas Sologne.

The show was won by Top Lines Aquaviva Marcus.

I had to leave the show during the championships on the Sunday to attend to a birth back home. Jake had discovered a cria mysteriously in the holding pen that interconnects three fields. As all the gates were closed and there were animals in each field he had no idea who it belonged to!

I soon established it was Evitas.She must have had it by the gate and somehow pushed it underneath and unable to get to it had wondered away.Mum and baby were re united and bonded straight away.

This is the first cria from Atlas for us as Bali aborted last years, and was something of a test of his strength of colour as Evita comes from at least four generations of all pure white stock.

The result is a solid mid brown girl. (Well a black would have been a bit too much to ask!) She’s gorgeous of course, and we’ve called her Hannah.

The cycling club visit

2010-05-09T15:47:00.000-07:00

Earlier in the week Jayne announced she had taken a call from a cycling club that asked if they could stop off on route to look at the alpacas and maybe take a picnic on the farm.
Of course she said they would be welcome,and thought no more of it.
Imagine my surprise as I went to see what the the dogs were barking at this morning.Twenty five hairy arsed bikers were parking up and undoing themselves of all the gear that goes with motorbiking.
"Jayne" I called through the kitchen door "You're CYCLISTS are here! What are you like!"
We said our' bonjours' and then showed them around.The alpacas remained surprisingly calm throughout the ordeal considering they were surrounded on all sides by so much sweaty leather!
No,they were a great bunch, as bikers often are,and I should know being a 'Black Widow!'
They all seemed to enjoy their morning, especially when we made them coffee, and I luckily had an unopened bottle of Ricard to hand,which was pretty much polished off.
After making a generous donation to the Quelvehin coffers they were gone,and calm was once again restored.

DaVinci va chez Myriam

2010-05-02T10:49:00.000-07:00

Da Vinci was delivered this afternoon to his new home at Kerporho. A sad day for Dinnadin, our favourite alpaca, as DV was his best mate. I'm sure we witnessed a tearful 'au revoir' at the gate as we led him away and Dinnas was still gazing over the fence looking for him when we returned.
Kerporho is a sprawling menagerie open to the public with all sorts of animals including an outdoor guinea pig village. There is a little cafe/tea shop and conference centre where we agreed to stage a spinning workshop from time to time.
Everything was beautifully kept and presented and DV was installed in his temporary enclosure of lush green grass, whilst we went to fetch his new partner from another part of the park.
Reglisse, a black female, whilst very calm and gentle was adamant she wasn't walking anywhere for anyone and after all attempts failed she was somewhat unceremoniously delivered to her new suitor in a wheelbarrow!
After a brief introductory sniff they both decided the abundance of grass was far more appealing than getting to know each other. Maybe tomorrow love will be in the air.

Suivre la route de briques jaunes

2010-04-30T12:51:00.000-07:00

Today's been one of those days when you are reminded you live in a foreign country,but a good day for tying up loose ends.My time was spent at the Hotel d'Impots (tax office) for a quittas fiscal then the Sous Prefecture to query requirements for the Certificate d'immatriculation.Got a Controle Technique and applied to the DREAL for a Attestation de Conformite.
Jayne meanwhile was sorting a query with the DSV concerning alpaca bruccelosis testing,wrote a couple of email letters in French and then did a ten minute interview for RBG a local radio station about life in Brittany with alpacas .
All Frenched out now! Need a dose of Coronation St or better still that 'Over the Rainbow' show of wannabe Dorothy's. How great is that! Ok I make no secret of the fact that I detest Graham Norton but there is something strangely compelling about the elimination process of the girls and the seemingly heartless way they are rejected.Andrew 'Lord' Webber (who seems to be turning into a caricature of himself) presides over the selection from his golden throne.
"Well Emily you polled the least votes,you are not as well liked as the others,we thought you were a bit crap, you'll have to go" they as good as said.
"But before you go, sing us a song"
So fighting back the tears and probably feeling absolutely wretched the poor thing gives us her rendition of the classic title song. A song that makes me go gooey at the best of times.
Well readers, I was filling up it's true. I had a secret blub.

It's all go

2010-04-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

Well I seem to have hit the ground running since arriving back from England.The sun has not stopped shining from the moment I got off the ferry and all those jobs that have been waiting for such times have been tackled.This has meant working into the sunny evenings with no time for this rubbish!
So the doors and windows have all been repainted,1 house,2 gites, garage and workshop. New truck cleaned, lawns mowed,verges strimmed, drives weeded. Truck cleaned, field shelters cleared of old bedding, tractor repaired,Poly tunnel cleared out and weeded ready for it's new polythene,lots and lots of logging and I cleaned the truck.
After six years here I'm finally in a position of having logs stock piled so I can burn the stuff that was cut three years previous and is good and dry.The only problem with logs is you always want to burn the oldest which invariably is at the back of the pile!
I should have built a bigger store.
Meg,our recently adopted (not pregnant) weimaraner had an appointment at the vets last week to have her 'ladybits' cut out. She is now sterile and never again to surprise us with little ones.
We have just removed the huge lampshade the vet fixed around her head to prevent her picking open the stitches. Poor thing has spent a week crashing into things and the simplest tasks such as taking a drink became a Krypton Factor challenge as she attempts to envelop the bowl within the contraption without knocking it over.
Her operation became something of a necessity in the end. You see we still have her male puppy, still called ' puppy' but is now actually bigger than she is! And we of course have old dog 'Shaft' our English Setter of some thirteen years.
Too old to be bothered we thought and anyway,he doesn't even like her that much.
How wrong we were!
Meg came into season and a womans needs should not be under estimated. She flirted and taunted him into submission. He turned from a docile pensioner that normally wouldn't give her the time of day into a drooling frustrated wreck in a matter of days.
Keeping them apart became a challenge of unbelievable complexity. Shaft in one room and Meg in the other,and letting them outside in rotation.
The fly in the ointment of this arrangement was Puppy who, being the brightest of the bunch learnt some time ago how to open doors by jumping on the handles, and regularly lets himself in and out whenever he so pleases.
I guess it was during one of his comings and goings that the deed happened.It was only a matter of time I suppose. Meg was well and truly, well.... 'Shafted'
Because we had working so much recently I decided we deserved a rare day off. So Sunday we took ourselves off to the beach with Puppy and Meg. Shaft doesn't understand new environments and just wanders off and gets lost so he has to stay at home.
It was the first time we had really taken the dogs out any distance in the car and it soon became apparent they were not good travellers. Meg was drooling buckets of slobber and Puppy soon threw up. And yes,I had just cleaned the truck!
Anyway we got to the sea side and had a great day.The waves at Guidel Plage are terrific and there was lots of kite-surfing going on.
There's not a lot happening alpaca wise at the moment.We said goodbye to Elsa last weekend as she went off to Gwen & Virginie's and Da Vinci is going this week-end to Myriams,so it's starting to thin out abit in the field,just in time to make room for the new borns,the first two are due in a fortnight,so it's regular checks outside from now on.
It's the Terralies show at St Brieuc in a months time. A monster agricultural show with an attendance of some 100,000 folk over the three days. This year the alpacas have their own 'village' in a marquee with a halter show judged by Nick Harrington-Smith and a Fashion show for mohair and alpaca products. So we have some dusty animals to clean up between now and then.

The black widow

2010-04-11T12:28:00.000-07:00

Just back from a week in the UK where I picked up a new truck,all big and black and shiny.
Take a good look.It'll never be this clean again. It's a fact that men clean and polish new vehicles for the first couple of weeks and then loose interest. I've done it twice already!
It's just like the old one but posher and without all the squashed panels! This weeks job is to pinch some bits from the old one and get it Frenchy- fied and re-registered.

European alpaca show Vierzon 2010

2010-03-31T15:01:00.000-07:00

It soon came around. Last years show was held at the back end of the year because of complications with the availability of the blue tongue vaccine, so barely six months between the two, and once again we have pre show car problems. We still haven't got a replacement yet so Gary and Felicia from Popham alpacas drove us and our animals down, along with their alpacas that live here. We also loaded a suri female and cria we had sold to customers in the Limousin,to be collected from the show. Add to that, a spinning wheel, fleeces, boxes of products and clothing, overnight bags and picnics,signs and banners and anything else you can think of.
Ready to go ,the big Toyota hauled itself down the road without effort. Crammed in the car amongst all the stuff we joked where on earth would we put all the cups and trophies on the way back!
After a somewhat fractious AGM on the Friday evening the show was underway first thing Saturday.
The lovely Quelvehin Fanny-Ann was first up,with the intermediate girls. Not looking her best I have to admit. Still a little damp after Thursday and Fridays rain. A matted top knot and a good deal of this years hay quota still stuck in her fleece.
It didn't matter though. First place. A good start.
Pophams Columbus was up next. A terrific stud male who has spent his life in France after coming over as a weanling. He had been working in the Dordogne for the last year and was at the show to come back to Quelvehin to stand at stud for 2010.
Sporting a silly haircut and in need of a teeth trim Gary was hesitant about showing him.
He needn't have worried. First placed in the seniors.
Daniel was next. A Popham male already at stud here. A beautiful mahogany brown boy and so well behaved he couldn't fail to wow the judge. First place.
This was all going very nicely thank you.
Could Atlas spoil the party? Up next,I doubted his chances. I had spied a very nice black in the Belgians pen next door. The judge took her time and then pointed us forward. Yyesss Attaboy!
As the afternoon went on Popham French lass and Quelvehin Ghost took a first and second in the Suri classes. Daniel and Atlas both went on to win championships in their colour classes.
And Columbus,? only went on to win Supreme champion didn't he. Supreme!
Thats like the bestest alpaca in the world! Well, it felt like it just for a while.
I think he's going to be a busy boy this summer at Quelvehin.
So all in all, a good day at the office as they say.
The evening was topped off nicely with a meal at a local restaurant for all the exhibitors.
Sunday morning the fleece entries were judged and Atlas copped for another cup.
Just the tidying up then Oh , and that problem of extra space in the truck!

Walkabout

2010-03-22T17:14:00.000-07:00

Spring has sprung this week with a notable change in the temperature and signs of the green shoots of new grass starting to show. Thank goodness. We seem to have got through an unbelievable amount of hay this winter and had to collect another roll this weekend.
It's the international alpaca show at Vierzon again this weekend so we have spent a little time brushing up the halter training and trying to keep the show animals clean. A thankless task, as it's always those that find the dirt to roll in. I'm sure they do it on purpose.
The picture is of Atlas and Di Vinci going walkabout with a couple we met at the Pontivy show. They turned up this week complete with picnic to look over the boys.
Marie- Eloise was besotted with Atlas and has insisted on having first refusal on any of his male cria born this year.
The first is due in about six weeks to a very nice solid white female. Should be an interesting result.

Festival de l'Animal de Pontivy

2010-03-15T16:05:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from the Pontivy animal festival.An annual event held in our town which this year was extended to include Saturday as well as the Sunday. It was a busy show again this year and very tiring talking rubbish French for two days solid! Although I must admit I tend to leave most of it to Jayne and loiter in the background. Sold another two females though and got a lot of very positive feedback for the future.

Onward and upwards

2010-03-12T14:42:00.000-08:00

Well it's all done. A new 20 metre pipe,3 new drains and whilst I was at it, re-furbished the borders and even laid a new stone paved area to stand a bench on. It was hard work but at least we have peace of mind now knowing exactly what's going on underground.
It's been a funny old week,lovely bright sunshine but a bitterly cold biting wind. Although we never had a frost the alpacas water butts often had a couple of inches of ice on top just from the wind chill.
It's certainly cleaned the alpacas up nicely after all the rain and mud of a couple of weeks back.They look positively cuddlely again! We had them all in yesterday for their A D & E injections and wormer,with only Cochiti giving us her usual run around. We even managed to get around to putting little Ghosts microchip in. One of those jobs I don't relish and always seem to put off to another day. Such a big nasty needle,but as it happens he was as good as gold and one of the easiest yet.
As you may know lifes been a bit of a struggle these last few weeks but it's all coming together again now. Another alpaca sale underway and gite enquiries starting to come in, and then this evening we received a email which I feel I have to post up.
It reads;

Hello Jayne and Steve,
I hope this email finds you both happy and staying warm! Wow what a crazy winter this has been. We couldn't help think of you guys and the alpacas whenever the news spoke about high winds, blizzards and freezing rain in your region. How are all your animals doing?

I am writing to share a cute little story with you. Ella's birthday was last month and she recieved a "friend" book. The first couple of pages have questions for Ella to fill in all about herself and then the rest of the book is for her to give to her friends and they fill in the questions about themselves. It makes for a nice keepsake when we return to Michigan. Anyway, last week I was looking through the book and reading what Ella had written about herself. For the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?" She wrote "A farmer." for the question "What is one of your happiest experiences?" She wrote "Staying at an Alpaca Farm in France for one week.!" I thought you would love to know that. Especially considering all the amazing places and experiences Ella has had in her 8 years of life!

We found out about one month ago that Eric's contract will be ending at the end of May. We head back to Michigan on June 1st. We are mostly ready to head back as it will be really nice to be around family again on a more regular basis. I am really hoping to get Ella back to your farm before we leave, even for a long weekend if possible but I am not positive we will be able to work it out. Are you still renting your cottages? Did you get a perment tenant to help with the rent?

I hope all is well for you and your family. Of all the experiences we have had living in Germany, staying at your cottage was one of the best moments for all of us. We will never forget you both and your lovely hospitality and farm. Thanks again.
All the best,
Jennifer, Eric, Jack and Ella Smitterberg

Kind of makes you realise what you are striving for is all worth while.

It never rains but it pours.

2010-03-01T14:02:00.000-08:00

Following the tail-end of the hurricane storm that devastated the Vendee and Atlantic coast of France this weekend we found ourselves once again mopping up. The rain soaked land could absorb no more and the only way was up. Through our kitchen floor again.
Fortunately the emergency drain I put in the house after last years episode worked, up to a point, in that it took the water straight out of the house again. But there was a problem in the old land drains outside. A bit of digging was required to release the build up and it was soon flowing like a stream.

It's still flowing now after 24 hours. Into the house,out of the house and down the field!
So its a 20 metre trench to dig tomorrow and a new land drain pipe to make a proper job of it.
I'm really looking foward to it, as you can imagine.
And if anybody else reminds me I'm living the dream in France especially after these last couple of weeks they could be on the receiving end of those drain rods !

Another alpaca left us today. Quelvehin Flynn, our first 'Quelvehin born n bred'' to be sold, so something of a small milestone for us. He's gone to live in Bayeux where it's probably a lot drier and I don't blame him!

On the road again

2010-02-25T13:06:00.000-08:00

A very big thank you to all the kind offers of help from family and friends in our recent predicament. We had two animals to deliver today and no vehicle to tow the trailer,but spoilt for choice with offers of assistance we chose to borrow Lynnes Toyota Surf which did the job admirably. It absolutely chucked it down with rain all morning and the alpacas were delivered looking more like drowned rats!

overdue posting,but not a happy one

2010-02-22T15:22:00.000-08:00

Well it's been almost a month since writing here.Time flies, it really does. Funny how age speeds the days along. Life is like a toilet roll. Slow to unwind at first and then as you get to the end the sheets disappear in no time.
So here it is. I was getting complaints from regular readers at the lack of effort here,so especially for Angie who logs on twice a day to check the updates.(Yes I know,bless. Still it's healthier than EastEnders)
Well it's been a month and not a good one I have to say. All alpaca breeders are aware of the scurge that is mites. I believe every one comes across it from time to time. Not normally a problem, as long as you spot it early enough it's easily treated.
We have just had a bad dose.A very virulent strain that hid itself in the underbellys and lower back legs almost impossible to see without turning the animal on to its back,or feeling for scabs through the fleece on the legs. But every one was checked and treated, some everyday or every other day for the last three weeks.It was mainly half a dozen that shared the same paddock but you need to go through them all. Quite a time consuming pain in the ass really but has to be done and now I think I can say we've cracked it and they are all healthy and suitably scruffy for the time of year.
However a much bigger calamity hit us yesterday and one that cannot be put right with lotions and potions.
Jayne and Patsy loaded the Mitsubishi with all their kit to do a spinning and craft fair at Guarec and set off at eight in the morning. I was enjoying a lie in, as you do.
The telephone rang persistently until I gave in and got up to answer it. It couldn't be Jayne she had only just left.
It was. Tearfully she explained she had had an accident about a mile down the road. I dressed and went to the scene with a sick feeling in my gut.
She had lost control of the car on black ice, completely rolled it, uprooted an oak tree in the bank and finished up the right way up in the hedgerow.There was another car on it's side in the opposite ditch. A victim of the same circumstance but an unrelated accident.
Incredibly the two girls were out of the car and seemingly unhurt, the Pompiers had already been called for by a passer-by and they were duly checked over in the ambulance and released.
The pick-up is a write off.
Sods Law comes into play too having driven for some thirty odd years without a claim on fully comprehensive insurance. Last year we had to make cutbacks on an ever increasing list of insurances and the pick-up was changed to third party F&T.
So, bit of a bugger really.
Any good news? Well, we have sold another puppy, just the one left now and things are definitely easier with one!

Sunday afternoon

2010-01-25T14:40:00.000-08:00

Another puppy left us today, it's starting to get sad now and dare I say starting to miss them!
Bye Rosie hope you have a nice life.

We did 90% of the alpaca chores we hoped over the weekend with just a spit-off remaining.
All was well, with just a few alarmingly long toenails. It's a strange thing how some hardly grow
at all whilst others seem to determined to take root!
Cochiti was her usual obstinate self and had to have a stiff talking to after planting Jayne on her
arse again. I'm afraid it was out with the tea towel to cover her eyes, and whispering sweet
nothings in her ear. It's seems to work and she calms down a bit.
Cochiti was better too!

Quelvehin Alpacas?

2010-01-21T11:12:00.000-08:00

Funny thing, although we're two puppies light the efficiency of the pre-wash programme in the dishwasher has improved and the chore of collecting up alpaca poo seems to be decreasing.
Two more reasons why you should all buy a weimaraner puppy!
Although the second one would only apply to alpaca owners of course, and ok,the first one's not that convincing either. But hey! Buy one anyway....They're lovely!

I'm sorry, I know this alpaca blog has been a bit lacking in the alpaca blogness department lately but our lives have been in some disarray since the arrival of the little critters.
We intend to have the whole alpaca herd in this weekend for routine checks and they could all benefit from a dose of vitamins and minerals this time of year as the grazing is not too good and the sunshine from which they derive their vitamin D is lacking.We also have a couple of microchips to inject and a pregnancy to confirm on a female before she is delivered at the end of the month.
So a busy weekend in store.

Oh, and 'Hello' to the Vino Duo,Marie & Al whoever you are. It's nice to know my ramblings are appreciated. Come and see the alpacas sometime, and bring a bottle.
You don't want a puppy by any chance, do you?

Proud new owners

2010-01-20T12:55:00.000-08:00

Well it's two down and three to go. Our second girl left us today. Her new owners travelled three and a half hours from Le Mans to collect her.Don't know quite what happened to the photo below though.Looks more like a Great Dane with empty eye sockets than a weimaraner puppy!

Off to the vets

2010-01-11T13:16:00.000-08:00

The pups have now all had their vaccinations and micro chips installed.

My suggestion to the vet (who incidently I like) that he presented his partner (who I don't) with the invoice because it was due to his misdiagnosis we were having to do this, fell upon deaf ears. So begrudgingly I handed over the 416 euros,and, having made my feelings clear (for what it was worth!)started the fun journey home. The roads were pretty treacherous with a good covering of snow and ice and having five howling mutts determined to escape from their cardboard boxes in the cab of a pick-up added an extra dimension to the challenge!

Anyway, we are down to four tomorrow.'Lucky' (Mimi) is going to her new home in Guemene where I suspect she is destined to be the most spoilt dog in Brittany!

I have again this week been in talks with Identichip uk where Meg was registered and they still have no reports of her chip number being lost and all attempts to contact the registered owners have come to nothing, so the process of transferring the ownership to us is now in place. After a couple of hours in the snow,competition to sit nearest fire starts in earnest!

Snowing Again

2010-01-06T10:24:00.000-08:00

God it's cold. Yesterday I couldn't break the ice on the water butts,even a full blown stamp from the trusty Rigger boots didn't leave so much as a dent! so it was trundling back and forth with boiling water from the kitchen all morning. Hay feeders all replenished and puppy poo picked up just about left enough time to build a snowman.
Congratulations to Baptiste at La Jardinerie Simorin on his aquisition of Bar-Lowenna & Honey (last photo) We wish him well in his venture.

Taking down the tree

2009-12-30T10:54:00.000-08:00

Well Christmas has been and gone and we are left with the tedious task of taking down the Christmas tree. This year we have discovered that a good tug on the correct string of beads soon has the job done!

To everyone who has nothing better to do than read this drivel may we wish you a happy and properous,puppyless new year!

Snow and sunshine

2009-12-19T16:24:00.000-08:00

Still haven't sussed out the Stud page layout. Sorry I just couldn't face up to it today.

It was a glorious day for being outside in the snow and sunshine. We have a French couple taking a week in the Lodge today,and the cottage is already occupied so I did the honourable thing and cleared a path to the doors,and got the wood burner going for a cosy welcome.

I thought I'd see how good a snow plough the tractor was this afternoon but the cold weather had seen off the ailing battery as it managed one last groan and died. So....Not that good then.

Bloody Computers

2009-12-18T13:49:00.000-08:00

We awoke to a winter wonderland this morning. Loads of snow and thundering at the same time!I don't think I've ever known that before.

Michel Decker from La Ferme du Lama Gourmand in Lavigney Dept 70 close to the Swiss border had stayed the night and we loaded his alpaca at first light ready for his long trip back. We were a bit concerned about undertaking such a journey in these conditions but undeterred he waved us goodbye and promptly slid backwards on the grass, wheels spinning. Unfamiliar with the grounds. I guess he didn't know the grass from the gravel. It all looks the same when covered in snow. After a bit of pushing and shoving he got enough momentum to go on.

We had a call this evening to say he had arrived home safe and sound.

After replenishing the hay and breaking the ice on the water bins there was little else to do on such a day.

A perfect opportunity to update the web-site sales and stud pages.

Well,I should have stayed out in the snow. After about six hours and much swearing and pulling of hair I managed to add two animals (badly), change one and accidently delete a stud male when I should have added one, and a couple of other entries have just disappeared into the ethos!Images won't upload because they have been cropped,text and fonts all mixed up and pictures that just put themselves randomly wherever they feel like it.

Twenty Benson & Hedges later I threw the keyboard at the wall and took the dog for a walk.

If you should read this Joe (Brittany internet services) Denham. Consider this a plea for Help.

Quelvehin alpacas contribution to fossil fuel reduction quotas

2009-12-13T15:50:00.000-08:00

Winter arrived today. The miserable wet drizzle we seem to have been stuck with for ages has gone,thank goodness. It has turned dry and cold.Much better,and we even had ten minutes of snow this afternoon. Time to test our latest venture. Alpaca poo brickettes.

Being blessed with a few tons of alpaca dung (there's only so much you can put on the roses) we are experimenting with compressing it into bricks,and letting it dry out fully.It really makes the most excellent fuel for the fire.Burning hot and slow rather like coal. How eco-friendly is that?!

The only snag with this amazing Bio innovation is volunteers to knock up a couple of hundred are a bit thin on the ground.

Da Vinci,a long standing favourite alpaca was sold today. He will be leaving us for pastures new after Christmas, but staying in Brittany not too far away, and making way for the venerable Popham Columbus who will be standing at stud here next spring.

Washed out

2009-12-06T14:13:00.000-08:00

We have had a busy few days with Gary and Felicia from Pophams staying over after delivering us some alpacas on Thursday. We managed a trip to Vannes inbetween alpaca jobs. It's amazing to note the difference between here and the UK. It's only three weeks to Christmas yet Vannes was pretty well deserted and some of the shops closed for business. All a bit gloomy really, and a far cry from the bustling crowds I remember from Leicester city centre at this time of year! Still, not being a natural 'shopper' it suited me. I always enjoy the splender of the buildings over the contents of the shops.
Our first puppy has been reserved today. Sally Stone of Les Bon Voisins had the pick of the litter, not that it was much of a choice as they are all peas in a pod!
The rain last night was horrendous and actually kept me awake. The wheelbarrow was still outside the door from bringing in the logs and it was almost full of water,which gives you some idea of the amount that fell. The polytunnel polythene has torn again over a third hoop so now is officially beyond repair.
I was hoping to post a picture of the new alpaca arrivals but they must have spent the night out of the shelter and looked like drowned rats this morning.

leaves and puppies

2009-11-20T10:30:00.000-08:00

Not a lot to report on the alpaca front. It's thats horrible time of year. Lots of wind and rain and leaves. LOTS of leaves! I seem to spend most of November picking up leaves,unblocking drains and gutters. The alpacas roll in them and the dust bowls which are now mud ponds and look totally filthy. So I thought I would post pictures of the puppies instead. They are now just over two weeks old and growing fast. Their eyes have just opened and are piercing blue. Still struggling to find thier feet though.

Dog blog 3 "The truth"

2009-11-04T16:06:00.000-08:00

So I said to this vet "Look, we've been offered this dog.It's a stray,probably abandoned,but I think it's pregnant. Before we take it on can you confirm it's condition?

He said. "Bah Oui Monsieur it is true zis dog as zer big titties but zer is no milk and I sink zer is no babies in er. She as ad zem already!"

Or something like that.

So readers I don't know who's the biggest plonker,Him, or me for believing him.

Meg went missing yesterday evening and I found her this morning in the old goat house with five little extras.I must admit my initial reaction was "Oh shit, just what I need right now."

But they are adorable (I know, ALL puppys are adorable) and remarkably appear to be 100% Weimaraner. I have this evening looked on several professional breeders websites and the puppys are identical.This should at least make finding homes for them easier.

Maybe there is a silver lining to this story and she's sitting on a fortune. I'll keep you posted!

A weekend away

2009-11-03T07:36:00.000-08:00

Arrived back home this morning from a three day 'Busmans Holiday' at Pophams in Cornwall with Gary and Felicia. Stocked up the larder with lots of groceries, and got extra veterinary stuff. It's so much cheaper over there now! We had a great few days looking through the alpacas and helping out with all the chores that need doing. They have been blessed with thirty or so cria this year with lots of really stunning Suris.
Whilst we were there we took in an open day at the Natural fibre Company in Launceston and were shown around the mill. The yarn production was explained from start to finish as we walked the length of the factory following the fleece as it was fed through the various machines.
It all made for an interesting day,topped of nicely with a few pints of real ale at the 'Riser' and a cracking curry with friends and neighbours.
Back to my old job tomorrow. I have an antique bed to restore for someone but if the weather is anything like today's I shall be glad to be in the workshop.Get the woodburner going and maybe warm up a cornish pastie or two on the top!