Philly's news from the farm  Autumn2010

(You'll remember that Philly is our biggest friendliest Alpaca, now appointed Head of Marketing)

The 3 cria, Coco,Crumble and Cola are doing very well,in fact Coco has reached 20 kg a week or so ago. Crumble and Cola are still being weighed weekly as they are a little slower putting on weight. It is a great sight in the evening to see the 3 little ones `pronging` around the fields to warm up before bed time. We have just closed off the fields behind the house, which we have been grazing since May, to rest them  ready for the dark days in November and December when we need to be near the house and the barn .

Fleur is improving , the homeopathy that she is receiving seems to be helping her knee.  Suki and I spent 3 weeks keeping her company in a small paddock to give the pills time to work.  We are all back with the big herd now, not sure if it is a good thing or not as the young ones are so excitable and run around alot ! It has been raining quite alot and cooler so the grass is growing, which is good, as it means we should have more available this winter. We are really enjoying the grass and the trees in the orchard, just a pity there are so many  rabbit holes, makes it a bit uneven for us older alpacas. I think that the next job is the annual injection for the three  cria, and then we will all be wormed in about a month. It will be interesting to find out in November who is pregnant for next summer , it should be all the young ones .