September 9th 2010 For once it is not actually my fault for the gap in the blog. I've been having some more problems with the website and every time I try to update it it has been refusing to play ball!! Hopefully, fingers crossed, we might solve it this time! I've now decided to keep a copy in Word just in case! I've been very close to throwing the computer out the window but figure that isn't going to solve the problem!
I am now archiving the blog up until July with the above link so hopefully the current blog will load more quickly.
Of course it feels like I've already told you quite a lot of news several times but it has still managed not to get through so in a nutshell…!
Our crias are now all safely with us and doing well. Amaia's little chap was nameless before and is now called Charcoal. All mums and babes are now together at Great Gutton enjoying the attention of the holiday makers. They are very beautiful and growing fast. We will need to move them to a new area soon as they have limited grazing in the paddock they are in for such a large group. It is lovely to see them all together and get a good idea of the colour spread I'll have for yatn next year.
Several sacks of fleece have now gone off to the 'Wooly Shepherd' to be made into felt sheets for me. I can't wait to get it back as some of the baby neck fleeces are being mixed to create a ripple effect which should look lovel and alsobe extremely soft and cuddly - ooh, what I can do with it!! I'm still sorting the fleeces for yarn. As shearing was so late the waiting times in the mills were already very long and to have the yarn back for Christmas was not going to happen so I'm not rushing quite so much.
August 19th 2010 I've been having rather a lot of problems with my website today. The entire blog had gone completely for some time and then refused to be updated, edited, deleted or anything else. Not quite sure what the problem was but hopefuly it is now sorted out. I am told that it might be good to create an archive and start again on the main blog page so that is the plan. Life on the alpaca front has been a little less frustrating. We now have all of this years crias safely on the ground. Martina and her daughter, Annie both calved on the same day within about an hour of each other. Annie had gone to Camouflage from Popham but didn't manage a spotty baby. She did, however produce a very pretty and extremely soft female for the 'Anne' line. She isn't a solid colour and has some white on her head and feet but is otherwise light brown.
At about the time of Annie calving things were clearly going on with Martina and after watching her for some time there was no obvious progress. I generally like to allow nature to take its course if at all possible but on this occassion it wasn't looking promising so I decided to have a feel and find out what was going on. It's good that I did as the cria was not presented correctly and Martina wasn't able to deliver without assistance. I'm glad to say that my first delivery, a little female called Annalise, is beautiful and absolutely fine. She has a grey head which fades into a dark fawny colour. I'm undecided whether she is actually a rose grey. These two took our gender split to evens - 2 boys, 2 girls. That left Amaia to tip the balance, which she did this morning, in favour of the boys this year. In my quest for a grey she went to Langaton's Smokey Joe. She has a gorgeous boy with a little white face and going down the front of his neck, and, I would say, he's a dark grey! :-)
