Just added the handsome JandJ Reid to
www.alpacaseller.com

He's a lovely gentle, inquistive alpaca.

This is the first listing from our new McKenna Alpaca range. 

It's a fab ceramic white heart with McKenna Alpaca in red on the front.
www.alpacascarves.co.uk smile emoticon

Peach, Clementine & Lana

Peach with mum Clementine &
Grandma Lana in the background

Caspian & Henley

Caspian & Henley having their last walk before they go to their new home

Kobi looking Kute

Kobi loves rolling in the mud!

Meringue Scarf in Clementine & Enya

Lacy Riverene in Dragonfly

Lacy Riverene in Dragonfly

JandJ Pipit

The eldest cria JandJ Pipit

Belle

Thea & Tiberius

Thea & Tiberius

Southwell Minster Craft Fair - Saturday 2nd November

   
Come & see our beautiful alpaca knitwear
Can't wait this event is my favourite

Fab day at Yorkshire Alpaca Group Show - Thirsk

James with Swift & Jess with Sparkle

It was very dark, cold & wet when we woke up at 4.30am for our trip to Thirsk! After driving through heavy rain & strong winds we managed to arrive in Thirsk just in time. Our girls & boys unloaded we just had enough time to set up the stand with all our gorgeous scarves & have a bacon butty before the judging began. Our black girls are now over a year old & were in the second class of the day the intermediate black female class. This was quite a large class for black alpacas which makes for a good competition. James was in first with Swift & Jess further down the line with little Sparkle. Mary-Jo placed Swift in 3rd & Sparkle in 4th & we were delighted.

James with Daley

Daley went to the show having already been sold 2 weeks before, & we were really hoping for a rosette for his new owners Roots at Thorpe Farm. James took him into the ring & even though he did get bored & sit down alot, he came out with a fab red 1st rosette, which I think will be on show in Roots :)

What an end to our amazing Sunday

JandJ Belle

By the time I arrived home I had 2 new little cria to go & look at. Martin had been busy all day with the new arrivals & also been keeping a very close eye on Luminaria who had been coughing & salivating for part of the day. We decided to call the vet out as it looked like choke, something lodged in her throat which she could not clear. The vet came within an hour. 

While we were stood with Lumi waiting for him, we were watching Nell very closely, as she appeared to be in labour, she is a first timer but a birth after 4pm is a little late for a cria to be born. The vet came & sorted out Lumi's choke, while he was doing this I was concentrating on Nell who appeared to be struggling with the birth. There is a 20 minute rule with alpaca births, as long as there is a progression in 20 mins you do not intervene. Unfortunately, the little cria's head seemed to be stuck half way out, perfect timing for the vet to be there, he said that Nell's contractions seemed to have stopped. So with the help of some gel he eased the little cria out. This is the latest birth we have had at 5.15pm. 
Nell's nickname is Nellibell, so of course her little female cria is called Belle. Belle is tiny, the smallest cria we have had (we thought Sparkle was tiny last year) & we have had problems with her not gaining weight. We did think that the fault lay with her mum & her milk, but we are not sure about that at the moment. Belle is feeding off Nell & we are topping her up with bottles of goats milk. Unlike our lambs, when we feed Belle she does not come running for her bottle but tends to try & run in the opposite direction. She is the cutest little alpaca.

Our second Sunday cria

I missed yet another birth on our very busy Sunday the arrival of Persia's cria. This happened at 2.15 & was a very straight forward birth, Martin was on hand to help it out a little. This is Persia's first cria, a little female called Ester which means Star in Persian, perfect I think.

The late arrival of Reid

Reid & Ruby Tuesday

On the day Lana's cria Kobi was born it was very hot, too hot for the little cria to be out all day so we brought them into the shed out of the sun. At 3pm we let them back out into the paddock & Ruby Tuesday made a very quick dash for the poo pile & stood there with her tail up, a sure sign a cria is coming. I did say to Martin, 'look at Ruby go' but then carried on working thinking it is a little late for a cria now. Ten minutes later he said 'are you watching Ruby as she's having a cria', oops, & 5 minutes later Reid arrived! He's a cute little cria, Ruby's first & took time getting used to his long legs, he is very friendly. We found his name when we were searching for Aslan's & Kobi's, it means red & there is also a Bondi lifeguard called Reidy.

Lana's look alike Kobi

JandJ Kobi

With 5 mums due I was sure we were in for some births soon & on Friday I was not disappointed at 10.15 we had the very quick birth of Kobi. 
Kobi really is cute, such a sweet little face, he looks like Lana when she was born. Lana's cria are Clementine, Kiki & Caspian so the new cria's letter is K. I have been looking for an unusual name for the past year & whilst watching Bondi Rescue heard the name of one of the lifeguards, Kobi, & added it to my list on the wall, so Kobi it is.

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Claire's cria finally has a name!

Claire with Aslan

Eventually Claire managed to have her cria last Monday. A handsome huge cria, he had been growing as much in side her as he would have done if he had been born earlier I think. Her gorgeous little boy has been waiting for a name, we have been calling him little Leo after his big brother, he's very similar but a little darker fawn. Daren't give him a nickname like Nettle in case it stuck. James has finally decided that he is called Aslan & it really suits him, he is very brave, loves to be the leader of the racing games at the end of the day & wanders over for attention, he did try to eat my ipad as I took photos :)

JandJ Peach

Nottinghamshire County Show 11-12 May 2013

Well what a weekend. 
In the end we were the only herd to make it to the Nottinghamshire County Show  this year. 

We had checked out our pitch the week before & were amazed when we rolled up to the gates at 8 o'clock to see a row of caravans there. Luckily, as we do not take up too much room, there was a perfect space for us on the end where a tractor & trailer was parked. 'Just move the tractor & we'll set up', but the keys could not be found & it took an hour & a quarter to move it, so if we were looking a little frazzled & rushing to set up on Saturday morning, this is why!

After this little hiccup we had a wonderful weekend, talked about the alpacas & their amazing fleeces, had all our scarves etc on show & they sold well. Our spot next to the Yellow Gate was perfect & Magic, Swift, Blade, Wallace, Sparkle & Daley were very good.





The weather could have been a lot kinder, at one stage Martin was hanging on to the gazebo pole to stop it from flying away but we & the scarves remained dry :)

Spring Alpaca Fiesta

Last Saturday we got up at 4am for our journey to the Spring Alpaca Fiesta. We decided that we would take the black girls this time, McKenna who is an intermediate, Swift & Sparkle who are juniors. The black junior female class was so large it was split into 2, very unusual for black classes to be this large, so we were delighted that JandJ Swift came away with a 3rd rosette.

James in the ring with Swift

Swift with her rosette