Quick update

No signs of our other 2 cria yet, Jasmine and Tara are now 4 days overdue so hopefully something will happen very soon.

Sheila from Scalpay Linen called the other day to let us know she had left our alpaca wool that she had spun in our porch ... we didn’t even notice it was there. I’ve never seen Anne move so fast when she got off the phone. Sorry we weren’t in Sheila, hope you didn’t come all that way just to see us. We have seen and felt plenty alpaca wool during our visits to other alpaca farms and we were not disappointed with ours…… thank you so much Sheila for doing a fantastic job. Here is a picture of her hard work.

In between watching out for any new cria I have been busy bagging and bringing all our peat off the moor and finally finished bagging with just a few more runs to collect it. Think I’ll celebrate with a couple of beers tonight before I think about embarking on my next mini project. I have 300m of fencing which needs done before we get our stud alpaca.

I noticed our hit counter jumped about 11,000 overnight. I’m guessing our blog isn’t that popular so there must be a glitch with it. Anyone else experience this?

On your marks, get set....Rose!

1 day old

Here are a couple of pictures of "Rose" who now seems to be feeding well and certainly has plenty of energy. I weighted her in at 21lbs which is at the top end of the scale for a cria.

So far so good

Well, I always said the cria countdown was fairly accurate..... today at 4:15pm Nicolette was in labour and after a little assistance gave birth to a rather large female cria. I'm not surprised she got a little stuck on the way out. So far she is doing well, up on her feet and following mum everywhere. She's still not to sure where to find her milk and its quite amusing watching her suckle at every part of Nicolette except where she is supposed to. We’ve given her some colostrum for now and I'm sure she will get the hang of it soon. Anyway, here is a pic and more blogs to follow.

Busy times

Apologies for the lack of blogs recently, Anne has started back at School and is up to her eyes so has asked me to post an update.

The alpacas are all fine... not showing any signs of giving birth soon. Technically their due dates are somewhere between 5th and 16th Sept so don't expect the cria when the countdown reaches zero. Nicolette (at the back) is definitely the biggest and we expect she will be first. Picture is of them in the garden when someone (clue: teacher) left the side gate open!

Sheila from Scalpay Linen called the other day to say she had nearly finished spinning Jasmine’s (middle) fleece. Anne has a few ideas of what products to make with the wool…. I’m just hoping they don’t involve me learning to knit!

Two new additions to the croft last week… a couple of black bantam chicks. Could be more on the way as another of our chickens has been hogging her eggs for several weeks now meaning we have a bit of a shortage in eggs.

Closest I’ve managed to get to our resident Sammy seal

We saw what looked like penguins through the binoculars but on closer inspection proved just to be cormorants. The fact they flew off before I got anywhere near them was a clue that the weren’t penguins (and also the fact that we don’t live in the south pole or the zoo!)

Anyway, I had better go as I've just had 400 rubble sacks delivered so I now have no excuses not to get the peat bagged and off the moor before it gets too marshy for the 4x4.

Fibre of the Gods

Well, now I really know why alpaca is known as "the fibre of the gods"!

Sheila from Scalpay Linen came to visit today to show me the fibre samples she had spun for us. Wow! I just can't stop touching it - it is unbelieveably soft and looks amazing! Thank you Sheila!!

Jasmine's fleece is the small, golden - caramel coloured sample (Maybe it could be called "Highland Toffee" - remember those chewy bars you used to get at school?)

The skein underneath came from only a handful of Tara's blanket (the best part which is shorn from the alpaca's back), and it is a beautiful, creamy white colour. (Crowdie and Cream??)

A few alpaca fibre facts:

Alpaca fibre is incredibly soft, fine and lustrous and although it is less well known than cashmere, alpaca has all the same qualities that makes cashmere a sought after luxury
It is lighter, warmer and three times stronger than sheep wool
It is one of the strongest natural fibres, second only to silk
The fibre grows continuously, and an alpaca will produce 2-3 kilos per year on shearing
There are 22 natural shades of alpaca, from white through shades of grey to black, and from cream through shades of fawn and chestnut to chocolate brown
Alpaca fibre doesn't contain any lanolin so is suitable for those who have allergies to sheep wool

Sheila has taken Jasmine's blanket away to handspin into yarn - now I need to get my thinking cap on to come up with some super designs and patterns to do Jasmine and Sheila justice!

Just one teeny, weeny problem...I can't knit!

Alpacas at Sunset

Spent half an hour taking photographs of the girls tonight...here are a few. Can't wait until I have some babies to photograph too...only about 29 more days to wait! (see the Cria Countdown at the bottom of the page!)

A Walk on the Wild Side

Well, we had a couple of wildlife encounters today...unfortunately the first one resulted in a death...

Iain was feeding the rabbits in the barn when he stepped on something...a little baby hedgehog. Now I know we are trying to eradicate hedgehogs in the islands, but it is supposed to be through capture and rehoming to the mainland. Poor little thing.

Our resident buzzard appeared today, but despite Iain's best Simon King impression he only managed to get the picture below.

Meanwhile, now that our alpacas have settled in we have increased their field size, so they had a wander round to exlore their "extension". Took some more photos...also took some of our poor flock of hebridean sheep - think they are feeling a little neglected!

Feeding time on the croft!

Still getting to grips with how the technology works here...am going to try to upload a video...fingers crossed!

Jasmine