Well things have slowed down now that we have had the Open Day and all the cria have arrived. Not that there’s nothing to do. We have now got a chance to get the last of the matings done and get the last of the crias vaccinated for BTV. Also we can get the ADE jabs done on the whole herd.

We have at last taken delivery of our commercially spun suri yarn from the Natural Fibre Company in Launceston. We had some on show at the Open day and the response was very favourable. Anyone interested in a sample let me know and I’ll send you some.

You can’t help but have a successful Open Day when you get weather like we had yesterday. We had holiday makers, alpaca breeders, local farmers, even a dentist. Some people spent all day with picnicking in the fields and just soaking up the sunshine. Thank you to everyone who came. we will definitely be repeating it next year and thank goodness I had the marquee to keep the alpacas in the shade.

All go at Popham, we’re in the middle of erecting the marquee we don’t need. I told you that as soon as I ordered and paid for it the sun would shine!!! We’ll put the progeny in the marquee pens to keep them nice and cool. Who’d have thought you’d be saying that this year. Anyway must go, too much to do. Hopefully we’ll see alot of you tomorrow.

We’re enjoying checking through the cria and picking out the one’s that are going into the progeny pens for the Open day on Saturday. You’d like to put them all in but obviously theres not enough room in the pens for that. I guess we are really picking out next years show team. It will be interesting to see what people think of them. These two in the photos are Verdello’s daughters, like two peas in a pod.

This is our latest and last cria, a fawn huacaya girl who arrived over the weekend. I have taken an up close shot of her fleece as she has the woolliest cria fleece I have ever seen. It’s not as though she was very overdue either. It is also crimpy more like a shaggy sheep than an alpaca cria fleece. I shall watch her with interest over the next few months.

What a weekend to pick for a golfing trip to Brittany, how lucky is that. The courses were spectacular, the wine and food fantastic, the company great. My golf was appalling……oh well can’t have everything.

Managed a quick trip to see Robin and Linda at Utopian Alpacas where they have some of our animals. The picture is of the two cria we’ve had there this year. A lovely white boy and a stunning fawn female suri sired by Robins male Bulleyboy. She is something special and I would really like to bring her back at some point.

While I was away our last cria of the year was born. We finished with two females which is a welcome relief after the run of boys we have had. It is also a relief not to have to “cria watch” all the time now. When the sun comes out again I’ll get some pictures of them onto the blog.

Sorry the blog has been a bit quiet for the last few days, I’ve been pretty busy getting things done before I go away on a golfing holiday with some mates to Brittany. Catching up on the spit offs, which are going very well and getting things ready for the Open Day. Also had a trip up to Ian’s at Langaton Alpacas with some females.

Sunday was an interesting day a LLamaLLand. Did a bit of trekking and as you can see Felicia got stuck into the bottle feeding. They are so much bigger than alpacas, it really did surprise me and because of this their methods are different. For example all matings are paddock matings and when you imagine getting stuck in a pen with these animals chasing each other around you begin to understand why.

Anyway I’ll be back with the blog next week, hopefully with some pictures of our alpacas in Brittany.

Managed to get these nice pictures while the sun briefly shone otherwise we’re still waiting on the three girls to drop their cria. I’m going up to Alpacas of Wessex this afternoon, the girl who mated to Wirracocha sat again. Also Inca Matador is coming along for the trip as he has two girls to meet while we are there.  Some alpacas have all the fun !! I know what I’d be if I ever came back again !!

It’s all quiet on the alpaca front. Three mums still waiting to drop, Federer is taking the bottle reluctantly and his mum is beginning to put on condition though is still as thin as a rake. Gail seems to be over her pneumonia and is running around again but still hyperventilating, so we may not be out of the woods there yet.

Had a distress call from Robin in France last night, Madame Lion has some sick animals and need some Vetrumex, a pro-biotic urgently, so thats on order.

Also ordered the marquee and the loos for the Open Day on the 27th.

Oh and the rain is back.