Wow how low is the resevoir?

Took the pooches to Wistland Pound today. It is one of our favourite haunts. We do a lovely 45 minute walk around a relaxing resevoir which is surrounded by woodlands. We could not believe how low the water was. We certainly need some rain. The dogs had a great run and enjoyed chasing each other around and then we popped to the pub on the way home for dinner.

Mega Shearing Day

Sunday was not only the British GP, but also shearing day at Mullacott and Colin the shearer's birthday. What a treat he got, 39 alpacas to shear and a lovely cake baked by Izzy, which we all tucked into before he even saw a slice. It was a nice dry day and I got to meet several other local alpaca owners which was interesting. Most had small herds like myself. Half time treats of sausage baguettes were provided followed by clotted cream, jam & scones later in the day.

I found it fasincating to see all the different alpacas get sheared. Colin makes it look so easy. Bagging up the fibre was the easy part which I volunteered to do. If I am lucky next year I will be promoted to mat sweeper!

New puppy class

Helpped out on the Thursay dog classes last week, as well as Tuesday. Once a month classes clash with Tracey's puppy parties at the vets so Hannah and myself step in to help. This Thursday saw a new intake of dinky pups.

Chris was back following his bout of man flu and we got back to our usual banter of teasing him.

All the dogs were coming along nicely - and owners working hard.

Baby sitting Laya

Tracey asked me to look after Laya last week while her and Mark went out for the evening. Baby sitting Laya is very relaxing, it involves sitting on the sofa drinking coffee and eating choccie biscuits and watching TV. She was so chilled out and slept most the evening on my feet.

Shearing Day

Yesterday was our first shearing since getting the girls. With all this warm weather I bet the girls couldn't wait to get their coats off. We prepared the paddock the night before and crossed our fingers the weather would hold. For shearing you do not want wet alpacas. (I did consider doing my rain dance in reverse, but didn't get time!)

The weather stayed fine and Colin the shearer came over early evening. After getting over the shock of how many steps up it was to our paddock, he soon gone on with the task ahead - shearing, nail trimming, teeth cutting, injecting vaccines and drenching for worms. The girls had a full MOT. Camilla's rear toe nails were very long and slightly curly - white nails grow faster than black. Suzy's teeth were extra long, it appears she still has one baby tooth. Alice was an angel considering she has never been shorn before. Sophie - escaped being done this year - but watched on in interest. They look so tiny and bare afterwards.

For those who have not seen an alpaca shorn before it is quite a site. The legs have to be hooked up either end and a weighted pillow is used to keep the alpacas down. If they cannot lift their necks, they cannot swing to get up. Each one is sheared in less than 10 minutes. Camilla is suffering badly from mites which we are treating her for and also needs to put on more weight.

Sunday we are going over to our breeder friend's near Mullacott to see Colin shear one of our males Oscar.

Welcome to the herd Sophie

At last she has a name - Sophie. As a child my mum always wanted to name one of our pets Sophie and she was always over ruled. However, I did promise her jokingly that if Camilla had a white girl, we would call it Sophie for her. Seeing as mum was here on the morning of the birth we decided that we would honour her wish. When we thought she was a boy we had considered calling her Jenson after the racing driving which seemed adpted with our motor racing backgrounds. However, Jenson is now Sophie, but I am not sure anyone had told her as she is currently racing around the paddock - and I am sure she keeps trying to improve her lap time.

The vet did have to come out to Camilla the day after the birth. He did an internal inspection and found the placenta had come away, so we can only imagine that the buzzards, jackdaws or crows took the afer birth. That is not usual, but it would not surprise me as we are surrounded by wildlife. The vet also said that Camilla was not overly full of milk and that the baby felt light so we should supplement her feed with some bottle milk. So after a quick dash to Mole Valley Farmers to get some ewe replacement milk, we gave Sophie a top up drink. She was not overly thisrtsy and we did not give too much as we wanted her to stay hungry enough to keep sucking on mum and encourage milk.

Four days on Sophie is putting on weight nicely and is far more interested in her mum's milk that any bottle I have and seems to be be feeding fine now. The purple spray marks are fading to pink and her umbical cord has dried up and fallen off. She is so cute.

Stu, mum and myself have created a second paddock for the girls and now they are enjoying their new grazing patch. Last night we had loads of rain, but still want more for the grass please.

Next thing to sort is a mini pen for the shearer who is coming on Monday evening.