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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.