Yorkshire Alpaca Show

In October we took 5 alpacas to the Yorkshire Alpaca Show in Thirsk. We had 3 alpacas who were just over 6 months old on the day of the event & had been weaned. Destiny - Mississippi's cria, Comet -Cosmic's cria & McKenzie - Paula's cria. They are all Van Dyck's cria & all black.

We have not showed alpacas so young before, ours are normally the oldest as they are born in April/May so we were unsure of how they would cope in the ring. We shouldn't have been, they were all very good, McKenzie stood perfectly still all the time as if she had been in the ring lots of times. Her reward was a lovely red 1st rosette & Destiny came second. Comet was next in the ring & he also was awarded a 1st rosette so we were very proud of them.

Our other 2 alpacas Lex & Fergus were in the same class Intermediate Brown males, they had been shorn quite late in the season as Fergus had been to Kenilworth Show, but they had managed to grow enough fleece to be entered. They came 3rd & 4th another very good result.

It was a lovely show, with it being later in the year we set off in the dark & came home in the dark.

Must try harder to blog

I've not had a lot of time to blog recently & have decided over the next week to bring my blog up to date with what has happened since August!

Affinity is growing into a beautiful alpaca.

In September we were invited to have a stall at the MX-5 National Rally at Mallory Park. It was a beautiful sunny day & from our stall we could see the cars wizzing around the track. It was amazing to see rows & rows of MX 5's.

The day after we were at Stamford, an altogether different day weather wise, no sun. We had been invited to the Stamford Dog Show which was a lovely large event on the Town Meadow. To this one we took 4 of our alpacas, Leo, Fergus, Kasper & Robin. Leo had been requested as often featured in the Stamford Living Magazine there is a King Charles Spaniel called Leo. We had a lovely day, lots of talking about the alpacas, there was lots to see, as well as the dogs & alpacas, there were reptiles & owls.

Dream's cria & Elvis & Gethin

Dream's cria has finally a name, he's called Affinity.

On Tuesday we put our 2 Lincoln Longwool rams in with the girls. Gethin our first born lamb has 5 girls in his field & Elvis has the rest.

Dream's new cria

Well the cria didn't arrive on Thursday, he arrived at 1pm today, when we were in the field mating Hornblower to Shirley Bassey! He's a lovely, brown boy & unusually for us he hasn't a name at the moment.

Waiting for a Dreamy baby

We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the last cria of the summer, number 18. Dream is due on the 10th but tonight she is looking promising. It has been raining here all last night & this morning & all the alpacas apart from one have lovely clean coats. Dream on the other hand looks filthy, she has been rolling on the dirt pad which is normally lovely & dry but today is very muddy & she is covered in mud patches from the top of her neck to her toes! Her tail is slightly raised & she is humming so I am hoping for a cria in the morning, not too early, the last 2 births have been 8.15 & 7.45!

Claire, who was the last to give birth to Chance, has been mated to Hornblower tonight

Skylark in her boa scarf

Today I have managed to upload a photo of Skylark modelling a boa scarf in her fleece. As Skylark is my alpaca, we each picked one, I chose this scarf to wear at the events we have attended over the past year. She is my best friend a month before she is due to give birth & then until she decides she is pregnant again & will stand & be cuddled & stroked. When she had Ani at the beginning of the month I sat on the floor at the side of her & angled Ani's head under to find the teat. Skylark spat yesterday so I think my cuddle time is over for another year.

I'm learning to blog

Well here I am learning to blog. Today I've managed to attach a photo of Finn to my blog & become a follower of 2 sites. One Barnacre alpacas as I like to read Debbie's blog & Handm@de Cambridge as we are attending their event on 5th December. Would like to be able to attach this blog to my website but I'm sure that I will be able to look into this, this week. Would have liked to have a photo of Skylark modelling a boa scarf in her own fleece but it wouldn't upload this so I will have to try to add a photo later.