Alpaca update

Leaf and Cupcake are doing brilliantly.
Cupcake has turned into a right bruiser. Vienna's babies always do this. She puts her all into them, and really suffers for it. She is very thin. But we're feeding her about 5 times a day, every time her trough is empty we put more in and finally she's beginning to look a bit better.

Leaf's leg has fixed itself beautifully. He's a completely different build to Cupcake. He's very tall and slim. A really lovely boy.

 Here he was one afternoon, having a wee snuggly nap on his mum. He was still wearing his coat here as it was a bit cold and wet. I made this one by using Cupcakes one as a pattern. It came out pretty well.

He's all fluffy and clean compared to the pics when he was just born. Steve and Christine had a check of the fleece (fibre) of the 2 babies and said it's really incredibly good, so we'll keep these to use.

Look! He's smiling for the camera

 And here's Cupcake - look at the size of her!

The 2 mums and babies are in a paddock together so that they can get a lot of extra food. Cupcake has been used to being the only cria for a month until Leaf came along, so she's pretty independent. But Leaf just wants to play, and jumps all over her. It's really funny.

More pics of coat off!

Mmmm this fence looks good enough to eat.

This was taken seconds before leaf jumped up and did a lovely kicky leg thing!

 Aw look how handsome he is.

Kopi, just hanging out with her pals.

I couldn't resist this! Rachel just follows us around the paddocks like a puppy! Hard to believe she's 45 now!

Sad news

Our donkey, Sheba died in her sleep yesterday.
She suddenly became ill on Sunday. We called the vet out and she took some bloods but basically was pretty stumped. Her symptoms didn't immediately point to anything. Over the next 2 days we had the vet out again and the blood results came back with nothing really showing up.
All the time Sheba was getting worse.
 The pathologist had called our vets and said now they thought it was most likely cancer. On Tuesday we had the vet back again, who gave her various injections of medicine and electrolytes. But said then that she really didn't think we were going to win this one and to call her in the morning, but unless there was a miraculous improvement there was only really one thing we could do as she was suffering.

But when I got up the next morning I could see that she had died in her sleep.
She was such a lovely, gentle donkey, very calm and adorable, really.
It's heartbreaking when one of your animals dies. And once again, Rachel is by herself. This time we're not going to get her another donkey friend. She is surrounded by alpacas so I'm sure she won't be lonely.

 Sleep tight, Sheba.

It's been a trying couple of weeks already, for various other reasons, and Lloyd and I are feeling tired, fragile,  and very sad.  I hope things will improve now.

Donkey's feet

How many blokes does it take to do a donkey's feet?
Answer - 3.
One to do them and 2 others to keep him company.

Rachel had had hers done already and Sheba was standing patiently having hers done. We get the farrier out every 12 weeks to do their feet, this keeps them in tip top condition.
I thought all the animals looked so lovely hanging out in the evening light. Cactus had just had his hooves done, and the alpacas were standing by for company. 

Herbie and Stella have grown so much - Herbie is a total bruiser. He looks so like boy. Stella is tall and dainty, like a supermodel of alpacas.

Stella looking gorgeous

Cocoa looking not gorgeous! To be fair she was eating her dinner! She doesn't usually look like this!

Ten good things right now...

Hugging donkeys

It's cold enough to wear woolly hats - I love woolly hats.

lovely snuggly dogs

We're still harvesting chillis

 Pasta for dinner tonight, with home-made passata

It's jerusalem artichoke time. Yummy soup.

It's blowing a gale outside, but I'm warm and cosy inside, with three gorgeous dogs curled up beside me, It's almost the weekend and Lloyd will be home in a few hours.

What are your ten good things right now?

The Alpacas have arrived

Yesterday was one of those totally full on days, so much so that after the crepes for breakfast we forgot to eat. This is most unlike me.

There were just lots of bits and bobs to do, a shop for provisions, grass to be mowed, cottage to be got ready for lovely friends, our own house to clean, a dishwasher to be repaired ( blooming mice ate through the water pipe - where were the THREE cats when you need them?) and Alpacas to be delivered, then over to friends for a lovely evening of good chat and lovely food ( curly fries, where have you been all my life? )

whew!

Now, no offence to any of the others, but the Alpacas were the most exciting thing for us.

So, let me introduce you

Earl Grey

Darjeeling (heehee)

Tetley

Meeting their new friends for the first time.

 This went really well. They all sniffed eachother and said hello, then went off and did their own things. This morning when we went to check on them, all was well in the land of alpacas and donkeys. We didn't really have any concerns as our donks are the most super gentle, well mannered, snuggly girls who wouldn't hurt a fly, but you never know for sure so we did have a contingency plan of the other small paddock if things didn't work out, however now I'm sure we won't need this. 

Off their halters and making themselves at home !

When we went to see them this morning Lloyd couldn't really get very near them. So I think twice a day we'll go with food as a bribe. Steve from Naturally Alpacas said that once they know you have food they'll come to you.

They'll get their fleeces cut in October/November. I'll need to sort the fleece and get rid of  sticks and stuff, then I'll sent it away to be washed and carded. Once I get it back I'll felt it. However, lloyd wants to keep the first lots ( who knows how many years this will take) until we have enough to make a blanket, so as my spinning skills are Zero we'll get this done for us.

I want to say a big "thank you" to mum and dad who gave Earl Grey and Darjeeling to lloyd for his birthday and to Mum for having the idea in the first place!

It's a beautiful evening.

I went out to turn the irrigation on in the veggie garden and it all looked so pretty that I went back in to get my camera.

It's been another scorcher of a day, so much so that I gave up in the garden about mid day.

This is the veggie garden, some things are coming to an end, like the gem squash, the vine is still growing but it's looking very mildewy now. The sweetcorn is long gone and the yard long beans are somewhat past their best. However the tomatoes are still going strong, the chillis are going to be spectacular, I think. I'm going to take out one of the courgettes tomorrow - each of them have three crowns now and have taken over!

My aubergines are growing quickly, finally, but I think I can only see one tiny aubergine so far.

 I love my veggie garden, I spend more time in here than the rest of the farm put together.

Aubergine = Eggplant
Courgette = Zucchini
Yard Long Beans = Snake Beans

 The cows came over to see what I was up to. The one at the front, that's white with brown spots? That's Spotty - Yes, I know terribly original - but he is the most affectionate, tame boy we've ever had. His favourite thing is head scratches or eating your t-shirt, shorts, jeans, anything really, so long as it's clothing. I'm trying to persuade Lloyd to keep him, my head knows he will go with the rest when the time comes but my heart wants him to stay.

And remember yesterday, I said Rachel and Sheba are never more than a few feet apart - here's the proof! They wanted to join in the fun.

Donkeys!

The best thing we ever did was get Sheba as a companion for Rachel after Jojo passed away.

Even though we felt she was fine, and getting lots of attention, she was very vocal. Now the only time she, and Sheba, bray is if they think we're going to walk past them without giving them an apple.

It was always the plan to get her a new companion, but we had no idea how long it might take. We were so lucky that Sheba needed a new home because it really couldn't have worked out more perfectly.

They are inseparable already, never much more than a few feet apart. It's just lovely. 

Their winter coats are all brushed out now ( with only a month of summer left. It does look very autumny in the photos - I think it's because the poplar leaves are falling off because they are so dry.) Anyway,  they're looking very neat and tidy. Pretty girls.

Farm friend Fridays @ Verde farm

Check it out!

Bits and Bobs

We have Matt and Liz from Frolics from Scratch staying just now and they're lovely! Have a look at Liz's blog and it'll tell you about their travels around New Zealand.
 We all went out fishing last night and as is usual for us we caught nada! We did have lots of bites though and caught several too small snapper that had to go back. Big thanks to Lloyd for fixing up all the rods and feeding us the most lovely egg and bacon rolls!

Matt has been brushing Sheba's winter coat out and she's looking amazing and so much cooler. Think we need to put a wee bit of sunblock on her nose, though.

 It's still incredibly hot here, we've had around a week of temperatures in the 30's and like I mentioned before, this is hot for us, and the humidity is a bit of a killer - it's up at 90% most days. However it's incredibly good for the veggies! The tomatoes are a glorious sight ( with apologies to everyone who still has green tomatoes!)

The bean pyramid is now absolutely laden - so beans for tea tonight, I think.

And the broad beans have grown about 6 inches since I last took a photo of them!

Now finally, Fred. I have no clue if he's ok or not - any experts out there?

He's been like this for days now. I put him outside on the deck to see if more light was required. I've done thousands of internet searches - some say that their chrysalis went black but did hatch and others say theirs died.  The chrysalis is still hard but it's not going clear. So what do people reckon?

 I did buy a couple more swan plants, though as my huge ones are back to being covered in  mini Freds. These ones I'm going to put in very large pots and keep them on the deck. If the big plants get too eaten I'll transfer some Freds to these and perhaps cover them so that no more eggs can be laid. We have so many monarch butterflies in the garden this year, it's beautiful.

Rachel's New Friend

Since poor Joseph is no longer with us we've been giving Rachel a lot of extra attention and if I'm being honest she hasn't seemed lonely, in fact she's been rather perky! But everything we've read leads us to believe that donkeys don't like being by themselves, so we'd been on the look out for a friend for her.

We've been so lucky as one of the nurses Lloyd used to work alongside had been thinking about rehoming her donkey, Sheba.

Now Sheba has actually been here for a holiday before so we know her well and were really delighted when Penny said she'd be happy for her to come and live here.

She arrived this morning and Sheba just wants to eat grass and Rachel just wants to follow her around. I have a feeling it's going to work very well.

Sheba is a very pretty white donkey ~ she's just losing her winter coat just now so is looking a little scruffy but once it's brushed out she'll look her usual stunning self!

Oh and just to let folk know 'The King's Speech' was absolutely brilliant. Can't recommend it highly enough, really, it was just ace!

bit manic yesterday morning

If anyone was wondering why I was doing so much stuff yesterday morning, it was to take my mind off the afternoon.

After much soul searching we arranged for the vet to come and put Jojo to sleep.

I'd like to say both Mat, the vet ~ who knows Jojo well ~ and Lex, the digger driver made this a much more bearable thing to go through. They are so lovely and I know they'll never read this, but thank you both, from the bottom of my heart.

Joseph

Good night, lovely boy xx

Bad day/Good day

Yesterday was not the best day. I fed all the animals in the morning, mum and I went out for about an hour and when we came home the young ducklings - the 2 I kept -  were nowhere to be seen. They are 4 weeks old and really pretty large and were out free ranging with their mum. She was here but there was nothing to be seen of the ducklings, not even a feather. Most people reckon it was a hawk and I suppose that's probably all it could have been, but I have never seen a hawk over the house part of the farm and would it have got 2 at the same time? Anyway I fear they are gone and it's really sad.

Then the next disaster. Joseph, our ancient donkey is now blind in one eye and when I was leaving to pick mum up from the hairdresser I noticed that he was standing on the wrong side of the electric fence leaning on it, getting a shock every second. He would have been like this for at least an hour and I don't know what even made me look backwards when I was leaving. I ran to his paddock hoping to lead him out, but when I touched him I got a shock from his bridle. I ran as fast as I could back to the woolshed and turned off the electric fence then ran back to him. He was just standing there, sweating. Then he laid down. I patted him and gave him some water. Zoomed to get mum then came straight back to him. He was still just lying down on top of the, now not electric, wire. This could not have been very comfy so I thought Ah stuff it, I'm cutting this wire than at least he'll be comfy. So I cut the fence and he stood up. Still looking very dazed. We checked on him lots but he was sort of the same for the evening. This morning we got up thinking we'll have to phone the vet, however he has perked up and seems back to normal ( normal is a very, very old donkey) We are having a think over the weekend about what we're going to do, but it's a quality of life thing, really isn't it. I fear we are going to be making a very hard decision soon.

So all in all yesterday could have been better.

Today dawned clear and hot. It's the day of the A&P show which I love. We got there for about 9am and wandered around. I love the 'petting tent' I'm sure it's really for children, but its filled with baby animals of all sorts. It's lovely.

 By the time we left the grass in the front of this photo was filled with cars, we've never seen it so busy, and wasn't the weather good to us.

My favorite were the baby alpacas. Too much cuteness.

We spent the morning there then came back home, checked on the dogs and Jojo then went out for lunch to somewhere rather special. Kauri Cliffs. We thought it would be a lovely surprise for mum. It was an amazing lunch.

It's a stunning place.

We had a tasting menu which was totally lovely.

Lloyd and mum had rather a lot of wine :)

We had such a good time, which made up for yesterday a bit.

 this is all that was left of the salad!

Home again now. Sun is still shining, Lloyd has had to go for a lie down and mum is collapsed on a bean bag outside reading a good book.

I think I'll join her.