McKenzie's un-named cria

A bit of motherly love
McKenzie with Maggie May

On Sunday morning I had a stall at the 
Dry Doddington Flower Festival, so had to be out all day. Martin was left in charge & what a day he had. 

As we were busy we didn't get to look at the alpacas until 8am & McKenzie had already delivered a beautiful black female cria so the day was off to a good start or so we thought. This little cria has been waiting for a name for a fortnight, James was trying to go for a something scottish but eventually she has been named Maggie May.

JandJ Wallace

There has been much discussion about Wallace's name which is why I have not blogged about him. He was born on 17th July, straight forward birth but we really were amazed how huge he is, definitely the largest cria we have had, with really long legs. He is McKenzie's boy so James gets to pick his name, although I pick his sister McKenna's name last year. I really wanted another name beginning with Mc but instead he is called Wallace after William Wallace so the Scottish connection is still there. 

Wallace really does not like having his photo taken so it took ages to get one without his ears completely back!

Open Weekend

The sun is shining as I write this & I hope that it will for at least part of the weekend.


The alpacas are in the big sheds, so we can all be dry. The mums & cria, & mums to be have the big shed & paddock so they are in & out & it only takes a minute to herd them in if it starts to look rainy. They were happily out most of yesterday in all that rain very unlike them.


McKenzie is looking very uncomfortable, a cria today after 11 would be perfect, Mississippi & Miss Scarlett are also over 11 months so we will have to wait & see.

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.