A Sad Farewell

Finally the rain has stopped and the alpacas are happy soaking up the suns rays. Fresh hay and sunshine equals happy alpacas.  Now all we need is the grass to come back and we are ready for this years cria.  First one due in 8 weeks, first time mum Snowdrift, sired by Popham Flame, one of the senior partners better buys, pregnant to who else but Columbus so I am really hopeful with this one.
This last weekend saw us lose one of our favourites, Popham Daniel, who has been resident with us for the last 5 years went down to Gers as the main stud for new breeder Céline Seban and her huband.

 He was bought as a present for Céline by her father, who's name is also Daniel.  Everyone fell in love with him instantly as usual and he was a big hit with both father and children.

His nine hour journey was broken up with a stop off at Europa Alpacas to pick up their other new stud and companion Edmond Socks.  Good luck to them with them both.

It was sad to see him go but he has left us with some lovely cria, a nice young bay black male, with the same temperament and an extremely fine fleece and little Knuckles another very fine boy, brown, both with super heads.

 

The cria are now all weaned and doing well.  I hate when they are just separated, they look so sad.  Mothers didn't seem to bother this year but one little cria did miss his mum. Little Knuckles just ran up and down the fence.  Finally let him up the raceway to see the big boys and he seemed comforted by that and was fine after.

 

Rain, Rain go away, come again another day

Its been over a month since I blogged the last time and really I can't see a lot of difference with the weather now than then.  Really its been more of the same, no, it's been even worse.  Day after day, Steve and I just seem to spend our time putting out hay in the rain then coming in and drying off our clothes in the tumble dryer.  We look out the window thinking, 'oh it will be alright in a while' then we have to give in and go out in it.  Got soaked this morning, came in and it took me the rest of the day to dry out and get warm.  The only consolation is that we are not down in the town.  the flood barriers are out all down the River Blavet desperately trying to stop the water flooding the local cottages.

But far worse than this, this week was the shocking news that the Chateau wall has collapsed. 

Since this picture was taken even more damage has occurred with the room and roof you see also having collapsed.  An enormous job and huge expense.

The big question in the town is whether the insurance company will pay out, whether this can be considered a natural disaster.  Just to think of all the years the chateau has stood there,  surviving the French Revolution.  Steve says, its French builders, they can't build anything that doesn't survive more than 2000 years.  But we mustn't complain, after seeing 'The One Show' Flood special tonight, compared to some people we have it good.
I can't say that we haven't had the odd day when the sun has come out, and it has been a welcome sight for both us and the animals.  However, 'The Nuggets' were taking no chances the other day and decided to come inside anyway.  Any opportunity they get to come in they will.  They love making themselves comfortable on the rug away from the riff raff.

 

They had a near miss last weekend, when we had a dog attack here on the farm.  A young hunters dog, who had paid us a visit once before, killed 5 chickens, the rest scattered everywhere and we lost the Nuggets for an hour.  We feared the worse, but they where hiding in the wood shed thank

goodness.

Had to say goodbye to one of my favourite young males this week.  Jupiter our lovely little black boy was bought by another breeder.  Sometimes I think I am not cut out for all this.  He had the cutest little face and when we put him in the car I felt awful.  He has a good home though and I know he will be well looked after.  But I do miss him !

 

 

 Its now 25 years since our son Josh was born, a quarter of a century, being in Mexico presents are difficult, so this morning thought I would surprise him by putting a few photos of the last twenty five years of his life on his Facebook Timeline.  Don't really know whether it will be a surprise or just an embarrassment, probably the latter.  However, dropped a bit of a clanger when Jake pointed out that one of them was, in fact, him  !!  just waiting now to see if Josh notices.  The problem is when looking through photos of your son's last twenty five years, you are also looking at the last twenty five years of your own life.  And that's not funny !!

Happy birthday anyway Son - here's to the next quarter of a century !

Hey Ho Lets Go !

One of the disadvantages about living the dream is not being able to spend enough time with family, so this week it has been a real pleasure spending time with our two young nephews,  Digory and Atticus.  Being city toddlers animals don't feature much in their day to day lifes,  not even a dog in their house.  As we pulled up into the yard, after picking them up from the airport, my sister in law suddenly announced, ' oh forgot to say, they scream when they see any animals ! and right enough, the sight of chickens wandering around the yard and 'Puppies' rather verbal welcome, brought tears and screams - what was this hell on earth that Mum and Dad have brought us to.  It took two days until they realised the chickens meant them no harm, four days for the alpacas , but 'puppie' was never really that well received. 

Their speech is at that amusing stage when they just pick up a phase and use it at every available opportunity whether relevant or not, and brings a smile to your face.  They were a delight and a welcome distraction from the day to day routine.
Here are a few pictures of their day on the beach.

 

Yummy ...  crunchy sand sandwiches !

                                            Hey Ho Lets Go for an ice cream

The house now seems very quiet without them and our youngest son Jake, who yesterday left to visit his brother for a month in Mexico with his girlfriend.  He has told his brother, ' this is the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me' - I  do hope he is not disappointed !

 

 

 

The future and what of it

Is it me or is the Internet a revolutionary invention ?  next to the wheel and the discovery of penicillin, it must be one of mans most life changing inventions.  Never before has humanity had the world at their fingertips.  I could, if I wanted, reserve a hotel the other side of the world, order flowers to be sent to Mum, find a flight to anywhere, research medical problems, find out any global exchange rate, translate any language and today locate two car seats for my young nephews visiting us next week, and all from the comfort of my own  armchair.   It took  approximately  3 hours after posting a Wanted ad on Anglo Info to locate two beautiful car seats from a lady who lives just 2 kms the other side of our village - like I said the world at our fingertips.

Cute hey !

I have  recently discovered Facebook, wow, how powerful is that ?, anyone who isn't yet connected, don't be Like I was, with your head in the sand.  It's fantastic.  I am now  totally addicted .  Only yesterday I was thrilled to see the alpaca twins born at Cedar House in Australia , both looking well along with their mother, apparently they weren't  aware the female was expecting twins , just found them when they got home, how wonderful is that.

I remember in 1966, world cup year, my grandfather having one of those new colour televisions, where the colour wasn't quite tuned in, and half the street coming around to watch England win the World Cup.  Strange to think how far we have come since then and what my grandparents , and their parents would think to this new internet thingy.  Even more, it's scary what man will invent before I leave the planet and long  after.  I hope it's something, to End all wars, feed the starving, cure cancer, stop crime, keep children safe and bring peace on earth, - now that would be an intention ! or a miracle

Too Hot and full of cold

Looking around the farm at the moment we are wondering what on earth the alpacas are eating.  It's been at least 8 weeks since we saw anything more that an overnight shower and the fields are quite frankly dust baths. Everyone likes to see a little sunshine during the summer months but for us now all we want is a week of rain.  The garden plants around the gites are looking rather sad.

Collecting our second roll of this year's hay this week , our local farmer was seriously worried there wouldn't  be a second cut ,  whereas normally he expects to get three.  Looking in the hanger I could see only 10 rolls ,  - well that's us sorted  what is everyone else going to do !!

Here they come - this games is called ' see if anyone can find a blade of green grass '

 

Working out in the field in the dry, intense heat is one thing but when you are handicapped by illness it is even more uncomfortable.  Yes, both Steve and I have fallen ill to a deadly virus.  Hardly ground breaking news I hear you say, but for us it is.  Neither of us have had as much as a sniffle in over 5 years. Our medical cupboard consists of plasters, a tub of paracetamol  and an old bandage, everything else was thrown out when  the expiry date had long since passed. Living here, in the middle of a wood,  isolates us from the usual cold, flu viruses that most people succumb to.   Now we don't have children of school age coming and going,  that any passing virus can hitch a ride on, it's like we are  living in a little bubble, protected from the outside world.   However, last week our little bubble  burst when one of our guests took ill a couple of days after arriving.   Being the good Samaritan I promptly made an appointment at the local doctors surgery and offered to join her to help with translation.  The French national health service, has on many occasions been worthy of great praise but when it comes to our local medical centre, well, I think it must have been left off the ' needs improvement and development'  list.  Stepping through the door is like being transported back to the sixties (yes I can just remember them), after announcing your  arrival you're  directed to a dark, pokey, 10ft square waiting room with no outside windows where at least twenty seats are all squashed together, occupied by sick people, all coughing and sneezing in your direction.  The average waiting time in the 'Germ Pit' as my son calls it, is between one and three hours, and in fact,  on one occasion we were there four hours breathing in everyone else's germs.  We were lucky this time just half an hour after arrival the doctor called poor Sarah through and said she spoke perfect English so my services were not needed  - great thanks !!  so here we are  a week later - cough, cough splutter, splutter, sneeze, sneeze  -   I have even lost my voice today, not necessarily a bad thing where Steve is concerned.

 

It's been an extremely busy week, with both the gites and the alpacas.  It's that time of year again when after the births, comes the remating and spit offs.  This year after his initial success last year, the stud of the moment is Soloman.  Since posting pictures of his first cria he has become a very popular little stud. 

Quelvehin Keiser

 This year  he understands the game and females are keen to sit for him (and who wouldn't be)but he still seems to have directional problems as he  shuffles about and then slips off.  I don't know who becomes the most frustrated, him, the female or Steve !! 

  

I think the only sure way of getting these genetics is to buy a female pregnant to him.  Hopefully, later on this year we will have a couple of good quality ones for sale.  We will keep you posted.

 

Oh and special note to our friend Angie - 'you can follow us on facebook now'  when I work out how to link from the site I will do.

 

 

 

 

Fanny and her Prince

First thing this morning saw the second royal birth of the year.  Princess Fanny Ann, her who only eats out of her own personalized bucket away from the rest of the riff raff, gave birth to her little Prince, Prince Khan. Another Columbus boy.  This is the second female who gave birth exactly on the due date although I have to admit she has been having  us on for the last fortnight - but that's Fanny for you. 

We have quite a little gang now so thought I would take a few pictures.

Kushti, turning into quite a stunning little suri.

Kane, our little Daniel boy, Jury is still out as to whether he is Bay Black or Brown, he will probably change when he gets to 6 years old , like his Dad.

Beautiful Kylie, spot the spots !

and my favourite this year - Keiser, our Soloman boy.  On further inspection he has turned out to be mid Brown very surprising considering his mother is white and Soloman is mid fawn.

 

Kirikou, Kushti and Keiser

One more female left on the maternity wing,  due in September, bit short on girls this year so fingers crossed we finish the year off with a female.

 

 

 

Party night in Lorient

Saturday saw us once again taking a night off to head off to Lorient for the music festival.  Although the festival doesn't really kick off until it gets dark you have to go early as parking is murder.  Thankfully there aren't  that many restrictions so basically if you can find a space your car will fit in, just put it there.  Its amazing how they park tail to bumper, how  they get out I don't know.  And I bet you've never seen people park on roundabouts before !

There is little in the way of historical monuments in Lorient as the city was flattened by the allies when they dropped 4000 tons of bombs during the war to prevent supplies from reaching German submarines based there.  But  between the first Saturday and second Sunday in August Lorient comes alive and plays host to the Interceltique Music Festival with representatives from many other Celtic countries.

It's difficult to get over the magnitude of this festival with a few pictures.  There are around 4500 artists and musicians who entertain around 300,000 visitors each year.  Young and old there is something for everyone, from the traditional Breton music and dancing, to heavy rock .

 

And food .......you name it  they've got it.   The large food hall  looks like a refugee feeding centre, with  long trestle tables  full of people eating everything from Fish and chips, moules, Indian, chinese, crepes, jacket potatoes and cornish pasties.  Just outside the hall there was also the biggest BBQ that Steve and I had ever seen.

 

By twelve thirty we felt we'd spent, ate and walked as much as we were able and headed back to the car, pushing our way through groups of teenagers just arriving and preparing to do some heavy partying.  No doubt our son was somewhere within  the huge mass of people.