Familiar faces

Now with Summer slowly slipping by (that sounds terribly depressing!), we will soon be saying farewell and bon voyage to our family of swallows who annually nest in our stables. The parents have, I believe had two sets of youngsters this year and the current occupants of their nest are well and truly on their way to making that momentous journey south................see pictures below;

Another non-alpaca story is that since we have had our chickens decimated by that scoundral of a fox, we have been constantly keeping a watchful eye on the remaining two chickens which are permitted to roam, free around the farm only during daylight hours. The other day, I was surprised to see that one of them had bagged itself a very large frog!! There it was, trying its best to swallow the poor creature with, not surprisingly, little success! The very next day however, the same chicken had taken a fancy to a sloworm which it had disturbed from the undergrowth. I made an attempt at rescuing the aforementioned reptile but this time, the chicken made off at full gallop running away from me with the sloworm wrapped around it's neck like a college scarf. I did however manage to catch up and am pleased to say that the creature was relatively unharmed apart from a shortened tail! I guess if I had not rescued the poor chap, we would have had to put up with slow-boiled eggs for a while!! :o)

We had a visit from a lovely couple from the New Forest last week who are investigating the possibility of setting up their own Alpaca business. They are due back again this Friday to have further discussions so we are looking forward to meeting them again and having more "Alpaca chat", along with the customary coffee and cake of course!

Since we now have Cambridge Ice Cool Lad back at Easter-Wood, he has been busy mating our girls for next years stock and to date, he has had 4 "interviews" with another 11 to go including the 3 girls we sold recently as they are on agistment with us.

Our farm is adjacent to a public footpath and as I was closing the entrance gate the day before yesterday, I was approached by three walkers/ramblers who commented that they could not see our Alpacas and so I duly invited them in to take a look at our new crias. After the regulation footbath, we walked across the paddock to introduce them to the youngsters. If they could, I am certain that they would have secreted a couple of the cria in their rucksacks as much "oohing and ahhing" took place with some of the youngsters even bold enough to allow the occassional stroke!! How can anyone not fall for these adorable animals?

As it is harvesting time, I managed to spend half an hour today picking blackberries. We have an abundance of these growing all around the perimeter fences so it would be a waste not to collect them. Looking forward to a nice Blackberry pie Sheila!! Yet again, we also have had a bumper harvest of mushrooms this year so what with fresh eggs and mushrooms, we have been spoilt for hearty breakfasts!!

Finally, whilst out with the camera today, I took a few pictures of our girls and boys.......

This one of our "mature" ladies; Torn Ear

Easter-Wood Leia out of Wellground Close Encounter

Here we have (from left to right) Easter-Wood Leia from Wellground Close Encounter, Easter-Wood Diego from Cambridge Samson and Easter-Wood Metisha from Cambridge Neptune

A mixed bag of news!

This week saw the return of Cambridge Ice Cool Lad from his co-owner, Joe and Ann at Chase End Alpacas and we set him to work almost immediately. He was due for an "interview" with one of our coloured girls and no sooner had he been introduced to her, half a dozen of the other girls all sat down as though they were in a doctors waiting room!! They also will be "serviced" during this coming week. One surprise came about on this occassion when one of the girls, who is due in October, kushed down and refused to budge!! It looks as though, despite her bulging tummy, that she has not held!!

My grandaughter, Emma also came to stay again with us and it was a joy to have her here at Easter-Wood. She was very enthusiastic about feeding the Alpacas and cleaning up the barn and she would regularly ask "What else can we do Grandad?" She kept enquiring about Cambridge Ice Cool Lad's forthcoming mating and wished to observe but on the day, she decided that the book she was reading was of far more interest.......bless! Anyway, it was lovely to spend some time with her.

We also administered Dectomax injections for 9 of our cria and conducted the customary toenail inspections on the whole herd this week. Surprisingly, some of them displayed extremely rapid growth and so a quick snip with the clippers was the course of action.

Yesterday, we took delivery of 35 bales of haylage from our regular supplier, Phil who is a great bloke (literally) unloaded them and stored them at the back of our barn. He always arrives here with an exceptionally large John Deere tractor towing a 30 foot trailer and just manages to squeeze it through our gates. He seems to be able to manouvre this monster rig with uncanny precision!!

With the dry weather we have been having of late, it is likely that we will have to break into the haylage pretty soon. Another load of haylage, hay and straw is due for delivery later this month.....it's going to be an expensive month!!

Well, I am off to pick up some new glasses now but will be back soon.

Fox Attack!!

Back again and the bad news is that we lost another chicken..................that damn fox!! The real culprit however was me.............We had put a number of our Alpacas in the same paddock as the chicken coup, knowing that the fox would never dare to venture into the paddock when the Alpacas were present. We had however decided to move the herd around, thus resting this particular paddock and I had totally forgot the chickens.....That same night, the fox despatched another one!! I will have to be more vigilant in future.


Yesterday, we welcomed a visit from Jo and Anne Hempsey of Chase End Alpacas. It was really good to see them again and we were treated to some very fine home cooking in the shape of a Quiche and a delicious Coffee cake that Anne had baked! After having a coffee and exchanging some Alpaca chat, we headed off for a trip around our farm showing them some of our new crias from Cambridge Ice Cool Lad. He has produced, yet again, some astounding youngsters and we are particularly pleased with the results on some of the coloured Alpacas.


Afterwards, we headed back and had another coffee and sampled that delicious Coffee cake!! We had a very pleasant day with Jo and Anne and look forward to returning a visit to Chase End Alpacas later this year.


With the dry weather, we are like most, suffering from a shortage of grass this year but despite this, we have had significant growth in one of the paddocks which has remained untouched by any grazing for the last 4 months! It just goes to show how resilient grass is!!


Cambridge Ice Cool Lad is to be put to work again today, so I will close but will be back later.

A visit to Westhill Alpacas

After many attempts at meeting up with Rosemary, Carl and Sam at Westhill Alpacas, we finally made it! Following a somewhat lengthy drive (exacerbated by far too much traffic!!), we arrived at Ibberton Hill in Blandford despite some dodgy instructions from the Sat Nav!! What greeted us (apart from Sam standing in the road to ensure that we didn't drive past) was a view from Westhill Alpacas across to Ibberton which can only be descibed as "stupendous"!

Rosemary and Carl made us feel very welcomed and before we had a walk around their farm, we sat down for a general chat around Alpacas accompanied by coffee, biscuits and cake. We then had a wonderful tour around their Alpaca farm and both Sheila and I were so impressed with the layout and the work that had clearly gone into it! (great fencing Carl!). This was followed by introductions to the Alpacas and what struck us was that they were so friendly!!

Afterwards, we sat down for another coffee and biscuits and Sheila and Rosemary had a chat about Alpaca fibre and knitting garments. Sadly, our visit came to an end and we were soon back on the road to Easter-Wood. Thank you again Rosemary, Carl and Sam for a lovely afternoon.

 The WestHill and Easter-Wood teams

This weekend, we have a busy schedule of Dectomax injections for the youngsters. As they are much easier to handle than their adult counterparts, we should be able to complete this job fairly quickly (famous last words I hear you say!!).

Next week, we are looking forward to having my Grandaughter, Emma over for a few days. Last time Emma was here she was at the birth of Easter-Wood Moon Dance whom she subsequently named and we are looking forward to showing her how she has grown!

I had better close now as I have just remembered that I haven't given some of our Alpacas their daily ration of hay and I had better do this before it gets too dark!!

Catch up time at Wellground

With a hasty clean up of the barn and a check of our Alpacas this morning, we set off for a visit to the Wellground Stud to catch up with Rob and Les. With their (relatively) recent purchase of a wood burning stove, we had promised them some kindling wood left over from our Cabin build so armed with a couple of sacks, we duly delivered the aforementioned items!

It was great to catch up with Rob & Les again and no sooner had we arrived, the traditional "kenco" had been offered and greatfully accepted. Following a general chat about all things Alpaca, we set off for a good "fleece rummage". All I can say is.......Fantastic quality!! But how do you keep the Alpacas so clean Rob??

To cap off a thoroughly enjoyable visit, Rob & Les then provided us with a "home made" pizza and chips.....we were so spoilt.

First thing tomorrow, I will have to get the shampoo out to give our herd the "Wellground look".

See you again soon.

Fleece test results

Just a short blog tonight as I am cooking dinner!............ We finally received our test results back from Yocom McColl and are delighted with the figures. We sent off samples from the first cut of our Elite yearlings in May and we are really pleased that we had two at 15 micron and two at 17 micron.

Since the weather had improved drastically today, my first priority was to do a major poo-picking exercise on all of the paddocks but before I started, I went out early this morning with the camera to capture a few more images of the youngsters so here are a few, which I hope you will enjoy:

This is Pandora, a female from Cambridge Ice Cool Lad

This is Champagne Charlie on the left (a light fawn) and Cadbury on the right, both from Cambridge Ice Cool Lad

 This is another of Leia at 7 weeks from Wellground Close Encounter

 This is Diego at 2 months from EP Cambridge Samson

Be back soon.

The latest at Easter-Wood...

Over the last two weeks, a lot has happened and here's a summary:

• We've had five new cria
• Dismantled and re-assembled our shed
• Had a golfing break.
• Employed the last of our agricultural students for a two week work experience
• Entertained half a dozen visitors
• Managed to remove a vast amount of Ragwort
• Reluctantly removed our beloved shipping container

Cambridge Ice Cool Lad continues to produce great quality cria and we have now had another 5 of his progeny of which a couple are shown below:

This is Caspar, a solid white male at 70 minutes old! 

A new-born, light brown female called Cadbury with mum, Sheila and our work experience student looking on

Both of these cria were born within 45 minutes of each other giving Sheila and Kym (our work experience student) a real treat.

Neil, my son came down last week to help me dismantle a storage shed which for some reason was not approved by the local council when we applied for planning! Anyway it was a job that had been delayed because of the time it has taken to finish the log cabin and now that is out of the way, it is another job that I can tick off my ever-growing list of priorities!

Last weekend, I had a break from the building project that has been going on since early March and went off to Devon with a few colleagues to indulge in golf! It was great to get back to playing again after a break of nearly two years bringing about a real mix of good and bad golf. We had a fabulous time with pretty good weather except Sunday afternoon when it "lashed down (see picture!!)

Yours truly in the middle and despite the weather, we don't look too unhappy!

The local Agricultural College asked us earlier this year if we could provide work experience for some of their students during the summer and as a result, we have had two very helpful girls working with us throughout June and July. I've got to say that help with poo picking is really useful!!

Running our Alpaca farm here in Wokingham has generated much interest and as a result, we have entertained a number of visitors during the last couple of months. It is always a delight to see the effect that Alpacas have on people who have never seen them up close! What with the number of youngsters we have had this year, it is no surprise that people fall in love with them.

It never ceases to amaze me why Ragwort appears to grow overnight!! No sooner than I have cleared a paddock of this weed, that it appears the following day!! Anyway, armed with my weed-removing tool, I had a "blitz" on all of the paddocks last week. As the weather has been very dry for some time now (except today however!!) it remains to be seen if this was effective or not!

Yesterday saw our beloved shipping container leaving us. As a result of the local council's demands (again), we have had it shipped off our farm. It was housing much of our furniture, so now we have now finally moved into the cabin, it had to go!

I will post some pictures of our recent "batch" of cria on the next blog in the meantime, bye for now.