tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31557635942446814112024-03-13T03:40:24.411+00:00PATOU ALPACAS BLOG - Ramblings from an Alpaca Farm in south WiltshireYou don't have to be big to be mighty.Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.comBlogger556125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155763594244681411.post-55641659820086228602016-01-28T13:12:00.001+00:002016-01-28T13:12:54.286+00:00A Grand Dam in every sense.I have delayed this blog posting for a while, in fact that's not quite true I have started it a few times but have stopped for one reason or another. <br />
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So here goes, final attempt. I want to tell you all about a wonderful female alpaca called Dee. Her full name is Indira of Cambridge and she is the only alpaca in the Patou herd who was actually born in Chile. According to her pedigree certificate she was born on the 1st of January 1998. Mmm, very suspicious.<br />
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We bought our initial three females in January 2006 and in early 2007 I went down to Sussex to meet up with Philip O'Connor to select some EPC females. These half dozen females would come back to our herd and be put up for sale as we had no females of our own to sell. I remember standing with Pip and him asking me which, out of a group of 20 or so females, I liked the look of. I immediately pointed to Dee and was surprised when I was told that she was the oldest female in the group. Even so I liked her and she was soon on her way back to Wiltshire.<br />
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That summer Dee gave birth to Fifi and from that moment on Sue and I knew that Dee and Fifi were not going anywhere. A deal was done and we bought them both. This was not how it was supposed to work!<br />
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The gorgeous Fifi has gone on to produce her own cria for us.</div>
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Dee had the gentlest of natures and has passed this on to all of her progeny. We still have within the herd the three beautiful daughters that she has bestowed upon us. All of whom have been cared for expertly by the 'Grand Dam' of the herd, Dee.<br />
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Pictured below with a young Jack of Spades daughter, Reeya, who has done very well for us.<br />
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Here is Dee with Reeya, all grown up!<br />
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Dee's third daughter is Truffle, possibly one of the laziest cria we have ever produced. Here seen expertly perfecting her laid back method of taking a late lunch.<br />
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Dee even featured on the front cover of Alpaca World magazine with Truffle in the below picture.<br />
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Dee in a typically motherly pose with Truffle, she adored all of her cria.<br />
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On the 30th of December last year Dee was sadly euthanized in the field by a vet. She had seen the vet a few times recently and the only diagnosis was that she was simply dying of old age. We cared for her as well as we could up until the decision had to be made and I cradled her head as she slipped away.<br />
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She was a very special alpaca and her mark has been indelibly made on the Patou herd. <br />
We miss her.<br />
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<br />Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155763594244681411.post-66415331539576028182015-11-05T11:18:00.002+00:002015-11-05T11:18:58.793+00:00Big fish, little fish?I am an optimist in most aspects of my life. I am also prone to wildly fluctuating moods, one minute the world is absolutely fabulous, a minute later we are all doomed...... then seconds pass and once again all is well with the world. <br />
Generally, however, I am well up for anything, most of the time, facing life head on and never taking a backward step, a sort of semi-permanent personal atmosphere of 'bring it on!'. <br />
Until I am a little bit tired or emotional of course and then I need comfort and rest (usually in the form of spicy food and wine) whilst the batteries recharge. <br />
I never seek or desire sympathy, it is very rarely deserved and although publicly to some it may seem as if I am sulking at times, I am not. I am using the 'quiet times' to continue my plan for world domination,........................ on a tight budget.<br />
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So what is the purpose of letting you have a glimpse into my interior world? Well it's the subject of alpaca showing. Last weekend we took a small team to Alpaca Showtime, an extremely well organised and laid on show at the HQ of the mighty Houghton Hall Alpacas. After the National and the Futurity the next biggest show I think? With just under 300 alpacas entered there was stiff competition across all colours with most of the 'big players' represented. Excellent stuff we like a challenge down here in Patouland. So to our results.<br />
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Sadly, due to in my opinion a rather silly rule (comments welcome on that one) that if you own an alpaca with a judge you (or any close relative) may not enter the ring with any animal at all, we did not pack our white shirts. However, we had asked Paul and Kathryn from the small but perfectly formed Nero Black alpacas to take our team in and they did a marvellous job, thank you!<br />
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Patou Nutmeg, fourth place intermediate black female.</div>
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Patou Pinot, receiving fourth place in the other intermediate black female class. </div>
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Incidentally the cameraman in the ring and the big screen was a great success once the cameraman and judges sorted out what was required to get good images up. A welcome addition to shows, compulsive viewing in fact!</div>
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Patou Wasimba (closest), a fifth place in the adult grey male division.</div>
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Unfortunately I don't have a picture of Patou Primrose, I was slipping into that planning phase as she was given a sixth place rosette. No complaints about the placings and the reasoning behind them was understood, fair enough. We enjoyed the show and the company we kept.</div>
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So to the title of this blog, 'Big fish, little fish?' What's that all about? Well, the last show we went to, a small show in the south, three of the same little show team were colour champions. Which was great, fantastic in fact!</div>
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But would I rather be a 'big fish' in a small pond? No. Definitely not. </div>
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I am happy in the big pond with the big fish and I'll tell you why. </div>
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Because one day, one day, this little fish will be eating big fish for dinner and it will taste soooo good! Bring it on!</div>
Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155763594244681411.post-85534643626764277992015-10-12T15:31:00.000+01:002015-10-12T15:31:02.176+01:00Favourites? There are no favourites here.October! 'It's October', someone said just now on the radio? Is it? It can't be, it's sunny outside. <br />
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Oh, hang on I am wearing a rather natty hoodie and reinforced undercrackers, it must be October. <br />
It can't be as warm as it looks, winter must be just around the corner. <br />
My temperature controlled instinct takes over at getting dressed time and I subconsciously clothe accordingly, my hands rooting around in the underwear chamber for sturdy garments not the flimsy summer 'smugglers', but the heavy duty four season gear, the extra weight ensuring a toastie feeling. Secure, ready for the icy winds blowing across from Siberia.<br />
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Anyway suitably clothed I ventured into the glorious autumn glow to have a look and see who of the shadow dwellers I could coax into the sunlight for some cria update photographs. I have to say they look marvellous, biased I know, but they do. If you want to dispute that come down and we'll have a jolly good argument about it followed by some gentle wresting and then we'll agree to agree over a pint. It's the way things are done down here in the land of the mighty Patou.<br />
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Moving on, I was immediately greeted by a rather scrummy trio on one of the Patou slopes nibbling at something tasty. I made my usual strangled chicken noise which attracted their attention in time for me to point and shoot with the camera. From left to right, Millichamp, Crackerjack and Hollister. Actually must have thrown my voice unintentionally on that one, unless there is some hearing deficiency going on?<br />
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Once I had chased them onto slightly better terrain with my best and loudest baboon barking I settled down to get some better 'solo' shots. And, ladies and gentlemen, who care to read this tripe, here are the results.<br />
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Patou Bollinger (sire Lilyfield Jack of Spades of Inca). Doing well and thriving again after a recent udder related weight loss.<br />
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Patou Millichamp (sire Wimmera Skies Class Act of Reddingvale Alpacas, just off the A303 in Somerset on the edge of the village of Templecombe), looking every inch the legend I hope he will be (no pressure then little fellow).<br />
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Patou Gilbert (Sire Lilyfield Jack of Spades of Inca) named after the rugby ball being used in this world cup. Big strong, dense...............just like me.<br />
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Patou Hollister (sire Wimmera Skies Class Act of Reddingvale Alpacas, just off the A303 in Somerset on the edge of the village of Templecombe). <br />
Now Hollister was named after a trendy clothes shop apparently, unbeknown to me. I have since investigated this emporium and can declare that there does not appear any reason at all why I should darken their door with my wallet clasped in my hand. I don't believe they have suitable attire for, erm, someone like me. Doesn't he look fabulous though! <br />
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Patou Tuppence (sire Wimmera Skies Class Act of Reddingvale Alpacas, just off the A303 in Somerset on the edge of the village of Templecombe). She is utterly gorgeous, a real knee weakener, a creator of a trembling bottom lip, Tuppence is secretly my favourite. Oh bugger!<br />
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And to finish, my favourites, Tuppence, Millichamp and Hollister, in formation getting ready for their group dance.<br />
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Thanks go to Andy and Viv Walker of Reddingvale Alpacas, just off the A303 in Somerset on the edge of the village of Templecombe, oh and some other bloke. I think the balance has been redressed!Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155763594244681411.post-13436309004575523482015-09-02T15:05:00.001+01:002015-09-02T15:05:46.320+01:00Why 10? I didn't even know how to work 8!I know it has been a very long since I last posted a blog, way too long. You may be forgiven for thinking that I had 'done a runner' and left these shores to take up the role of a food taster for some nomadic tribe of paranoid pygmies in some far away exotic land. Endless days of running around in a loin cloth eating strong cheese and slightly iffy lamb chops. Sadly, I mean fortunately, no, I am still here in sunny, (finally) Wiltshire. However, I do have a whole raft of pathetic, I mean valid, excuses. <br />
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The main reason for my lack of communication is that I have been computing beyond my understanding. I have brought tragedy upon myself.<br />
Let me explain. I used to like Windows Vista, I got very comfortable using it so it was a big change when Windows 7 came out but I embraced the challenge and eventually mastered Windows 7, I even became friends with good old Windows 7. <br />
When my computer went into meltdown 6 months ago and turned out to be irretrievably damaged I was forced into buying a new laptop with something called Windows 8 operating it. <br />
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Now Windows 8 was something very different and to be honest I didn't like it, but I could sort of still use it like Windows 7, it was bearable, I got used to it by ignoring most of it. <br />
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For some bizarre reason I then upgraded to something called Windows 8.1. Why, I have no idea, not a clue, but I did it. The change was hardly noticeable. I find it hard to notice things when I am not actually paying them any attention.<br />
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Having not learned my lesson I was like a moth drawn to a flame when someone in my laptop told me that I could upgrade to something called Windows 10. For free (I think that is what swung it.)<br />
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So I once again embraced the challenge and started using Windows 10, albeit by ignoring most of it's functions. However, I liked it. I actually preferred it to the Windows 8.1 thing. It was kind of groovy and did a lot of things for me.<br />
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But, and this is a big but, Windows 10 seemed to stop me from uploading photographs to my blog, hence the lack of postings. I tried very many things to try and fix this problem but none were successful. Mostly I was just clicking on random things and shouting a lot. Eventually I decided that I would return to Windows 8.1 (there was no option to return to Windows 7). I clicked the buttons required of me and waited. I waited for a long time before my computer went into a seemingly endless loop of repairing itself or preparing itself to repair itself. It went on for a very long time and was looking very much like my computer was looking before it went into complete meltdown. <br />
However, there was a happy ending to this story because overnight, whilst continuing to repair itself, my laptop has in fact mended itself! I am now back with Windows 8.1 and can once again upload pictures to my blog. So, although I did like Windows 10, be aware people it has a hidded mean streak!<br />
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Right, birthing here in Patouland is finally over and due to a lack of blogging there is some catching up to do. The dark side has grown magnificently here over the summer and here are a few of the new arrivals.<br />
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Firstly, probably my joint favourite is Patou Hollister. He is Wimmera Skies Class Act boy, his mother being our only Canchones Witness of Inca girl, Penny. He is so handsome, the jury is still out on whether he is black or dark brown, his fleece needs to grow a little more. Very excited about him.<br />
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Next is another Class Act boy, Patou Millichamp. He is my other joint favourite. His mother is Patou Willow (can you see where his name comes from?) and what comes from Willow? Cricket bats are made from willow and Millichamp and Hall make some of the best in Taunton. He is very promising.</div>
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Now for a Jack of Spades boy, Patou Bollinger, son of Polly a Centurion girl, and another joint favourite, very tight bibbly bobbly fleece and a real character, one to watch, I love him. </div>
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Bollinger is looking very similar to Patou Crackerjack who is extreeeeemly handsome! That's Jack boys for you! Here is Crackerjack showing off in front of Jamala and Taffy.</div>
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No question about the colour of this next boy, Patou Shadow, another Class Act boy from Patou Whisper (daughter of my favourite alpaca in the whole wide world, Lily.) A real live wire and another of my joint favourites.</div>
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And now for some girls, no people it's not all boys! Here is my joint favourite female Patou Tuppence, a Class Act daughter from Reeya our lovely brown Jack of Spades girl. Tuppence, in her "Does my bum look big in this?" pose, is absolutely gorgeous! No really, she is absolutely gorgeous, totally absolutely gorgeous.</div>
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Tuppence has a best friend in Patou Constance, another Class Act girl. They both hang around with Reeya, Constance only nips over to her mother, Patou Fifi when she needs a quick feed and then she is back with her chum. They are both totally gorgeous, although Constance is a bit 'hairy'!</div>
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There have been further births since then, in fact the last one of the year was born this morning, but I will save that news for another day. Suffice it to say, we are rather pleased with this year's crop!</div>
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Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155763594244681411.post-54940666961848013232015-07-04T09:59:00.003+01:002015-07-04T09:59:52.356+01:00Dark storm on the horizon.<em>*This blog posting was started on Wednesday of this week but had to be put on hold while I obtained the necessary permissions to disclose the contents. </em><br />
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As the temperature has risen today past mildly moist through slightly sweaty to uncomfortably hot degrees I have sought sanctuary in the cool of the thick stone walls of the farm cottage that we live in. I am still fully clothed in case anyone was picturing something altogether more unsavoury.<br />
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So with a couple of hours or so to spare I thought that I would turn my attentions to the blog, which if I am brutally honest, has not had the attention that I promised myself I would give it recently.<br />
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So, with nothing dramatic to report I will reveal the grand master plan down here in Patouland, in case anyone is interested. Suffice it to say that I am very excited about what is going on and what will be going on as the summer evolves. Next year I will be bursting with anticipation.<br />
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'So what is going on down there?' I hear you all clamour impatiently. Yes, I can hear you people.<br />
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Well, I will tell you. It is time.<br />
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We have decided that we need to do something dramatic in order to take the quality of the Patou herd to the next level. We do well at shows, we produce lovely commercially viable alpacas, our herd quality is rising year on year and we are pleased with the way things are going, but I want more.<br />
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We need some new genetics and some high quality input, we need to add something special to the herd. And we have. We have dug deep into our piggy banks and invested in some top stud services and also purchased a share of a seriously exciting male.<br />
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So to the details. As I write I am unsure how much I should reveal, I used to be very good at keeping secrets. Sue will say otherwise, but I was. It's just that she is a very good interrogator.......and very persistent................and she hurts me sometimes..............she's stronger than she looks.<br />
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At the moment we have a very handsome male staying with us. Now those of you who know me well will know that we breed coloured alpacas, particularly brown alpacas and more recently black alpacas and even the odd grey, but never white alpacas. In ten years of breeding we have never used a white male and have never produced a white cria. <br />
However, we do have a top white male here. We are not breeding white alpacas though. We do have two white alpacas incidentally but neither of them will be meeting our visitor. They will be liaising with the dark side again this summer. No, the females being introduced to our visitor are well and truly from the dark side, with at least three generations of colour behind them we are fighting against the whiteness but embracing the qualities that the white side has to offer (hopefully!). As can be seen below, our girls are not worried about a males colour, it is the quality of the orgle and the awesomeness in the way he moves that has them swooning. A queue has formed.<br />
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'So who is it!' I hear you exclaim as you rise to your feet and wave your arms around frantically.<br />
Well, I don't have a photograph of him, but as a clue, he was pictured on the front of the BAS magazine a couple of years ago. Actually (remember I started writing this a few days ago) I do now have a photograph, so here he is! <br />
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His grandfather, on his sire's side is none other than Rural Alianza Wiracocha of Wessex, a legendary male who I have been in awe of for many years. Legend is a word that is overused these days but not in this case.<br />
His grandfather on his mothers side is Windsong Valley Mateus, son of the equally legendary Purrumbete Highlander. This boy has some very impressive genetics indeed. <br />
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Further clue! He is a bit of a missile! <br />
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Oh bugger it, I've crumbled, Hanley Hall Rural Alianza Polaris is his name. Alpha Alpacas is where he can be found.<br />
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Now for the biggest and most exciting part of the grand master plan. I know this has already been revealed on Twitface but announcing it again has caused the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up, that's how big a deal it is!<br />
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The second part of the grand master plan is a little more predictable seeing as we are breeders of coloured alpacas. We have purchased a share in a dark brown male who's first fleece statistics read as follows: AFD 14.1, SD 2.3. Yes, you read those stats correctly. He was Champion brown male as a junior at the BAS National show last year and again this year as an intermediate. This is a very special male indeed and he has just started working this summer. He will be visiting us later this year and liaising with a bevvy of Patou beauties.<br />
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We are very excited and proud to be allowed to buy a share in this male and are extremely grateful for Rob and Shirley Bettinson for breeding such a wonderful animal. <br />
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His name is............... Toft Timogen. <br />
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Be aware, there's a dark storm coming........<br />
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<br />Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155763594244681411.post-69059027384915254132015-06-22T12:51:00.000+01:002015-06-22T12:53:06.360+01:00A condensed month.It seems another month has gone by and once again I have neglected the blog. It has been a busy month!<br />
So here is a brief catch up of things going on in Patouland.<br />
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On the 24th of May we were visited by Colin Ottery and Rachel for some shearing. Together with some returning local Patou boys we had 60 to do and thankfully the weather held off for long enough to get them all done.<br />
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The 'aaahhhh' moment of the day was when little Bijou (almost a year old) refused to leave the shearing mat area until her mother (Fifi) had also been shorn. Here she is watching Fifi getting her 'hair done', they then left together.<br />
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I love the look of newly sheared alpacas, gorgeous!<br />
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A couple of days later and it was off to the SWAG annual fleece and halter show at The Royal Bath and West Show. A band of crack set-up volunteers made short work of the pre show preparations. Special thanks go to the expert team from Urcuchillay!<br />
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A new location, a new format and a new vision for the future added to the excitement this year!<br />
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On a personal level we had a great show, the highlight for us being Patou Wasimba following up his grey championship at the North Somerset Show with another grey male championship sash. We also picked up two reserve championship ribbons (brown male and female) and enjoyed the whole event immensely. Bring on next year!<br />
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A couple of days after the Bath and West the show team were taken by kind invitation to join the Reddingvale shearing day and Wasimba was transformed! Thank you Andy and Viv!<br />
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Having then moved all the pregnant girls into the birthing paddock it became a game of watching and waiting. Particularly Alice who seemed larger than ever before this year. Could it be twins! (We say that every year by the way).<br />
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Alice was beaten to it by Minstrel who popped out a very handsome Qjori boy, the power of the white chin giving him the pie face look. Patou Taffy is now in residence.<br />
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Before Alice had given birth I made a rapid dash across the country to the Essex/Suffolk border with Qjori for a couple of matings. In particular was a mating to Patou Sahara, now owned by Vicki and Deb at Orchard Farm Alpacas. Sahara is the mother of Wasimba so hopefully this pregnancy will stick and if so will be one to watch!<br />
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The following day and Alice duly delivered a brown female in rapid time. Born in less than 5 minutes from tip of nose to hitting the deck the cria was obviously in a bit of shock and was not responding as she should. A temperature of 36.5 indicated all was not well so she was rushed inside and given the full hairdryer and electric blanket treatment.<br />
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Half an hour later and temperature restored to where it should have been she was reunited with Alice and is doing very well.<br />
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And that is about that!</div>
Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155763594244681411.post-77231383812916894072015-05-19T12:06:00.005+01:002015-05-19T12:06:57.923+01:00The ups and downs.It has been a strange past few weeks, we have had show success and complete and utter computer failure. So a month of ups and downs, a month of elation and a month of despair, a month of joy and unfettered fury. I'm exhausted really. However, things are now looking pretty marvellous.<br />
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I will report on recent events. <br />
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Firstly, the North Somerset Show. The weather was set fair and the team was looking good as I set off at sparrow-fart, alone, the rest of the family barely rising to bid me farewell. A thrash down the A303 and a potter along some of deepest darkest Somerset's roads and we were there. The sun was coming out.<br />
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As usual, with the grey, black and brown classes following on from one another at the front end of the show I was a blur as I was in and out of the ring all morning. Now this is not a bad thing, a benefit of travelling alone, no-one else to don the white coat, I get to show them off, I love it! <br />
Anyway, we had a superb morning, five animals entered, three first places, two seconds, one champion and one reserve champion. Perhaps it's all down to the handler after all?<br />
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The championship that we won was the grey male championship with Patou Wasimba, our lovely rose grey Qjori boy. Special in my eyes as he was the first cria that I helped being born in the most intimate of ways, i.e. up to the elbow! Here he is with his mum Sahara on the day I brought him into the world.</div>
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And here he is last month. I know I've posted this picture before, but I do happen to think Wasimba looks great especially as he is being held by number one son, Gus. </div>
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I will endeavour to get a picture of him with his Sash when the weather perks up. I know, aren't you all lucky.</div>
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The reserve champion was another special boy, the spoiled brat himself, our resident delinquent drama queen, Tsar, reserve champion brown male. I was very pleased indeed with his result.</div>
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The other members of the team did their stuff, Instrumental (joint owned with the mighty Inca) was first placed junior brown male and Pinot and Spitfire both took second places in the junior black classes.</div>
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Since the show my laptop has died completely, meaning I have lost all my photographs, documents and worst of all my X factor audition tapes. Luckily I have a lot of pictures on my phone which have just been downloaded onto the new laptop. The old laptop sits forlornly nearby as I hope that one day I may be able to get some life back into it so that I may retrieve my 'stuff'. Still it was 5 years old and I now have a nice shiny new one so it's not all bad!<br />
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This week I am mostly preparing for the weekend and next week. Firstly on Sunday is shearing day. Colin Ottery is due in at 7.30am and luckily it appears that the weather gods are on our side. I will be putting up the marquee anyway, just in case. It is always a relief to get that day over and done with!<br />
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Then we are straight into set-up for the SWAG Show at The Royal Bath and West Show on Tuesday, my favourite show of the year. Gus and his chum George will be coming along for 4 days of the show and three nights of camping. We will of course be sticking to a strict vegetarian diet whilst we are there and I will be throwing myself into the life of a tee-totaller. Guffaw, guffaw, tee hee.<br />
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Right, that's enough of this drivel, I have to give a talk to the members of the Salisbury Poultry club this evening so must do some swatting up.Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155763594244681411.post-81339560636082280242015-04-20T16:13:00.000+01:002015-04-20T16:13:16.217+01:00They don't like cricket......................******************** WARNING EXPLICIT CRICKET REFERENCES**************<div>
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This blog post will read better if you have a basic understanding of the inner workings of the glorious game of cricket. </div>
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It will read even better if you have followed the England cricket team through the ups and downs of the last 40 years, as have I. </div>
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It will read even better still if you have a screw loose..............as have I.</div>
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Apologies to my friends on mainland Europe.</div>
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Readers from Australia and New Zealand need not comment.</div>
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Those of you who know us down here in Patouland will be aware that Gus is cricket mad and has a growing talent for the game. As his father and being even more cricket mad I see it as my fatherly duty to help him as much as I can.</div>
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So yesterday we loaded up the trailer (also doubles as a wicket keeper) with his cricket kit and headed off to the only flat strip of land for miles to get in some training. Gus had already mowed the strip and the stumps were in place. The wicket is in the field currently containing 9 weanling females. We were accompanied by our two keen fielders, Josh and Kira. </div>
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Due to the unpredictable bounce from a very bumpy track and the potential for the out of condition bowler to bowl the odd beamer, Gus was fully padded up and ready for anything. Josh was ready to chase anything that moved and Kira, thinking we were going for a walk in the woods, was very excited.</div>
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We began with some gentle throw downs and were then surprisingly joined by 9 fielders at mid-off. Despite my request that they spread out a bit they refused, they were all going to field at mid-off. Fine, a bit odd and slightly selfish but fine, better than nothing. I decided to try and bowl to the very strong off-side field.</div>
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After a short while in which they proved to be of no use at all they decided, en masse, to move across to the leg side and field at short mid-wicket. Odd, very odd. Most of the time they weren't even watching the ball. Not only that but when the ball did go towards them they split like a shoal of fish and watched it go through the middle of them before reforming in front of it. Useless, absolutely useless.</div>
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I was bowling for most of the time and trying to set a field was very frustrating. </div>
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Josh was no problem, he would hare after the ball from wherever he was and chase it down quickly. His throwing arm (leg) is no good though so he would have to run it back to me at the bowlers end each time. Except when he got tired and then he would drop the ball, lie down and give it a quick chew. Very shoddy behaviour. It wasn't going to take long for the ball to go out of shape.</div>
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Kira was even worse, she would amble after the ball, pick it up and drop it less than a second later before wandering off in search of some alpaca 'snacks'. Just less than a second was all it took for the ball to become completely encased in a sphere of Newfoundland slobber. I tried to put her out on the boundary at fine leg but she wouldn't go. No respect for the skipper at all.</div>
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However, the worst of them all was the one fielder that was basically made up of nine separate muppets who couldn't field for toffee and completely lost interest in the game. Eventually they wandered off and fielded at long on, where they started to eat the outfield. A short while later they abandoned the game and wandered through the open gate to the next paddock. Very bad form.</div>
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Just as well really as a few minutes later the bowler blew up as his bowling arm fell out of it's socket.</div>
Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155763594244681411.post-86483971082186200432015-04-01T08:26:00.001+01:002015-04-01T08:26:13.213+01:00Solo at the Futurity.The thing about big alpaca shows is that they send me a bit haywire for a week or so beforehand. I am fine when I get there, once the animals are unloaded a calmness descends across me but for a week prior to departure I go all a bit odd in the head.<br />
So last week was no different in the build up to the biggest alpaca show ever to be held in the UK. The British Alpaca Futurity had a record number of over 440 alpacas entered into the two day show to be held at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. We had also entered our biggest show team ever. Now eight alpacas doesn't sound much but we only have a small herd and an even smaller trailer. So proportionately eight alpacas was a lot.<br />
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As a result, a week before departure my mind started playing it's usual tricks on me. Sleep became difficult to come by and I was fidgety and restless day and night as my mind raced around in circles.<br />
Nights were particularly annoying as two separate trains of thought kept my brain racing when it was supposed to be shutting down for the night. Firstly, the concern that I wasn't going to make it to Coventry. Mechanical failure, illness, acts of God were all things that I tried hard not to consider as I lay there trying to count lazy alpacas jumping over gates.<br />
Secondly, and completely opposite in emotion to the first train of thought was the notion of what was going to happen when I got there. I can't tell you how many times I worried about how on earth I was going to cope when all eight of the Mighty Patou Show Team were required to be in the championship line up. Travelling solo (school and work keeping Sue and Gus at home) meant that I would need seven extra handlers to help.<br />
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So it was this ultra-optimistic and simultaneous gloomy pessimistic thought process that I battled with each night leading up to the show. Death or Glory. Nothing in between. It was exhausting!<br />
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As usual I made life difficult for myself on the way. I engaged the sat nav system and faithfully followed it for over 120 miles, then at the crucial moment when it was telling me to exit the motorway near Coventry I decided it was not to be trusted and that I would navigate the last stretch by instinct alone. What? Why? It's just me, it's what I do, I can't explain it, I am an idiot at times.<br />
So, several minutes later I was to be found shouting obscenities at myself for being such a prat (I was using slightly stronger descriptive terminology) as I was stuck in a traffic jam, on a motorway north of Coventry, heading towards Manchester.<br />
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Anyway, having calmed down I arrived slightly later than planned and unloaded. Calmness descended, the animals were settled in for the night and all was well with the world.<br />
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Two show rings meant I had to be on the ball on Friday, the whole team would be in the ring leaving Saturday free for wandering around seeing what everyone else was up to.<br />
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First up I had Patou Nutmeg and Patou Pinot in the junior black class. I was absolutely delighted when Pinot was placed second behind the eventual female black champion. I could have packed up and gone home then, job done, happy days. Nutmeg picked up the 6th place rosette.<br />
Thank you to Pinot's handler, Rebecca Oglesby, who obviously did a great job!<br />
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I was brought straight back to earth when Misket and I were asked (amongst others) to take the 'walk of shame' in a highly competitive junior brown female class.<br />
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Next up was Spitfire with a disappointing 6th and when Viking and I trudged out of the ring empty handed my head was starting to drop, this was tough. I wasn't the only person saying this was the toughest show ever.<br />
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Greys next and it was Wasimba time. We love Wasimba, he looks great and is a bit of a favourite in Patouland. I was delighted with a third place as there were some very big names behind us which always makes me smile. I don't have a picture of Wasimba in the ring but here's one I took yesterday, he deserves to be seen. Being expertly handled here by Gus.<br />
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It was then junior brown male time and I entered the ring with Inca Instrumental, a male bred by the Inca Lord, who we are lucky to co-own with them. He looked tremendous and I was happy enough with a 3rd place rosette out of a class of nine. First would have been better obviously but there we go. I looked at the winner, a cracking little Meon Valley boy and couldn't argue much with the result. Well I could have, but the decision had been made.<br />
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Tsar was all that was left and I have to say he was looking great. A big class of ten adult brown males and some serious competition meant a sixth place. Disappointing but redeemed by the judges oral reasoning who said some very nice things about him.<br />
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Job done and six rosettes bagged. Satisfied. Beer time.<br />
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Friday night was quite a long one. I was somehow kidnapped by a mottley bunch from the north, including some odd fellows from Scotland. I was very pleased to see that Dave and Joy from Apple Vale (thanks for the photos Dave!) also came along so that when the northerners became drunk and unintelligible I would still have someone to talk to.<br />
It was a good night and although I did promise to write my whole blog in scottish, I just can't. It sounds too much like a pissed Glaswegian ranting about tatties or something.<br />
So I will say this and this alone. Fair fa' your honest sonsie faces, ya wee scottish bastaaartts!<br />
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Thank you all for making it a great show.<br />
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<br />Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155763594244681411.post-51148607258542247512015-03-13T14:21:00.002+00:002015-03-13T14:38:02.539+00:00Satisfied?<b>Satisfied</b> (adjective)<br />
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<i>Having achieved satisfaction, as of one's goal: content, fulfilled, gratified, happy. </i></div>
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I have been busy since the BAS National Show, it has been a busy week. I have been physically active with one thing and another but I have been properly, mentally active, a lot. I have been thinking about alpacas probably too much since we got back from the show. Really, too much, an unhealthy amount of time has been spent thinking about fleece, conformation, colour, breeding and all things camelid. I am exhausted. </div>
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First to the show. </div>
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It was an absolute triumph. The show was organised very professionally, it ran like clockwork, the judging was, as far as I can make out, impeccable and the show finished early, enabling everyone to get away on time. Faultless. </div>
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Congratulations to the organising team. The BAS has a show that is going from strength to strength and is something to be very proud of. I took this picture early on Saturday before it filled up, and it did fill up very well indeed. </div>
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We had taken a team of five from the mighty Patou and we came away with five rosettes. </div>
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The show format was different to previous years in that Saturday was 'ladies day' with all the female classes and Sunday was macho time, with all the male classes. It was a popular format and I hope it will be repeated.</div>
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So, Saturday was Patou Pinot's big moment in the junior black females. She just snuck in with a sixth place rosette so we were up and running. The black female championship was taken by the Mighty Inca, who seemed to win almost everything they entered (well they should do!) despite creating their own strong opposition.</div>
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The following day, with a slightly thick head after a late night was the turn of the boys.<br />
First up for us was Patou Wasimba in the intermediate grey male class. I have to say that Wasimba is one of the best looking alpacas that we have bred and he seems to be getting better and better. He was up against strong opposition and secured the third place rosette for us. </div>
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We then moved onto the black male classes and some very strong opposition. Patou Spitfire was up in the juniors and took a fifth place rosette. I can't have been pleased at the time as I don't appear to have a picture of that. Maybe I was knitting or something.</div>
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The next class entry for us was Patou Viking in the intermediate black male class. Before we left home Viking, standing in the sunshine, looked fabulous. He looked great going into the trailer with his travelling companions Wasimba and Tsar. </div>
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When he came out of the trailer in Telford, Viking looked like he had been in the washing machine on a slow spit. Tsar, had clearly decided to molest Viking for four hours and then just to make things worse when put in our pen he continued to molest him, a lot, and he wasn't being very gentle. As a result Viking looked like he had been in a spit and slobber fight and Tsar had to be placed in his own individual pen. So when Viking was awarded fourth place I was genuinely delighted, in fact it made my day.</div>
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That meant that there was only one class left for us. Adult brown male. My favourite class. My nervous class. My twitchy, itchy, can't sit still class. It was Tsar Tsar Gabor time.</div>
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Did he behave himself? No, as usual he was a complete turd in the ring. In fact he took an instant disliking to the AstroTurf ring and walked as if he was on some seriously strong mind-bending drugs. I honestly thought he was stoned. </div>
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However, he was awarded second place which I was pleased with. He was certainly the brownest in the class, but let's not get me on the subject of 'proper browns' please!</div>
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There were some great results at the show, particularly the Mighty Popham who seemd to be buried under a mountain of sashes even before they swooped in for Supreme Champion with Popham Havengore. In fact, with my SWAG hat on, I must say that SWAG members seemed to have a great show. </div>
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Personally, as it says at the head of this blog I suppose I must settle for being satisfied with our results. It has, as I said earlier, given me a great deal to think about. We have the Futurity in two weeks time and the team will be bolstered by another three juniors. We will see how they get on. </div>
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The real hard work will begin when the shows are over. We need to improve and for that to happen we need to look far and wide.</div>
Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155763594244681411.post-45388450838384053532015-03-03T11:38:00.001+00:002015-03-03T11:43:49.091+00:00Bring on the basmati!The excitement down here in Patouland is building slowly and steadily like a tsunami thousands of miles from the coast. The power is growing and soon the wave of excitement will be hurtling towards its intended destination, the journey will take another 3 days before with a deafening roar the mighty Patou show team will arrive at the Telford International Centre for the BAS National Show!<br />
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I really don't know how I can contain myself. The weather is set fair at the moment and the team is currently lounging around in the sunshine gathering itself for the big kick off. I am not, obviously, as I am sitting at a desk writing this drivel accompanied by a large mug of strong coffee. In about half an hour when the caffeine is coursing through me like hot metal I will burst into action to continue with the chores for the day.</div>
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I was a bit slow off the mark and so we only have a small team of five going to the National and as usual, with those of us who breed from the 'dark side', we will probably be all finished and heading for the bar at lunch time on day one. Win lose or draw we will have enjoyed the experience and will have learned a lot too. We will have decided who our favourite judge is and who we think is completely mad and knows nothing about anything at all, nothing.</div>
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Preparations have been underway for some time, the trailer has been professionally cleaned by the Gusmeister, the alpacas have been undergoing extensive halter training, chips and tags have been inserted and checked. I have even bought some new buckets, mainly because I had a little tantrum the other day and two buckets became lots of little pieces of bucket. Stupid buckets! </div>
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So who are we taking? Well, one brown one, one grey one and three black ones. It would appear that although my personal passion is for the gorgeous browns, that our dedication to breeding from the best dark males available has lead to a significant increase in the black wing of the mighty Patou empire. Still, they look great together. We have ploughed our own furrow and will continue onwards, wellies on, heads up!</div>
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We have two intermediate males and an adult going. The intermediates, Wasimba (rose grey) and Viking (black) and my little chum, stroppy pants himself (after all I have done for the little turd he is such a drama queen and kicks like a mule!) Tsar (brown).</div>
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The other members of the team are the junior blacks, Spitfire and Pinot who haven't met Tsar yet and don't know they will be travelling in a trailer together. They may be green on arrival.<br />
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No pictures of the juniors, they are currently being held in a high security top secret location whilst they receive their final instructions. Over the past few weeks they have been training hard in the dark arts of the Ninja. Come show time, if things don't go exactly as we want them to, they will explode into a whirling mass of ninja fuelled violence. No-one will be safe from those razor sharp, highly polished alpaca toenails as they fly every which way searching for a soft target, the precision spitting machines are accurate to within a hundredth of a millimetre, reloading is almost instantaneous. It will be brutal in it's intensity and awe inspiring in it's swiftness. The mighty Patou machine will be merciless!<br />
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Sorry it appears that the coffee has already kicked in, I must prepare to go outside.<br />
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And the reference to basmati in the title?<br />
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My favourite time at a big show is either early morning or late evening when the hall is empty apart from hundreds of alpacas. The soft background noise of the fans keeping the animals cool, the gentle humming of numerous alpacas, content in their environment and the smell, the wonderful smell of alpacas, which to me smells just like a newly opened packet of basmati rice. I love it!</div>
Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155763594244681411.post-91147995649871555162015-01-20T16:01:00.000+00:002015-01-20T16:01:35.047+00:00Right, stop that!Apparently this is supposed to be a regular blog? As in, there is supposed to be a new post every week or so. So what's going on then, it's the 20th of January and the last posting of drivel was on the 6th of December?!?<br />
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Have I been written out of my own script? Was I abducted before Christmas by a purple sloth who is now slowly feeding me to death, in a tree house, watched closely by seventeen siamese kittens? Did I lose my two typing fingers in a bizarre accident involving a trouser press and a bag of satsumas? Well?</div>
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No, no and no. I have no such excuse. I have been busy, I mean Christmas is a busy time of year isn't it? Many mince pies and presents and much ho ho ho-ing to be done. Still doesn't really cut it as an excuse though does it? Besides, Christmas ended over three weeks ago.<br />
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I am sorry, I have no excuse. And for my European friends:<br />
Je suis désolé je ne ai aucune excuse.<br />
Es tut mir leid, ich habe keine Entschuldigung.<br />
Het spijt me ik heb geen excuus.</div>
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Es esmu sorry i nav attaisnojums.<br />
Jeg beklager jeg har ingen unnskyldning.<br />
Mi dispiace non ho scuse.<br />
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Right, enough grovelling.<br />
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So let's bring you up to date with news from Patouland.</div>
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Firstly, since my last post I had several alpacas to say farewell to. Ten in fact and that was hard. I am an emotional fellow and taking ten alpacas to France was a bit of a wrench. I am absolutely fine until the moment comes when they come out of the back of the trailer. Up until that point I look like a real roughty toughty. But, when they come down that ramp and start making there way into someone elses trailer I'm afraid my bottom lip starts to quiver and I go all a bit wibbly wobbly. All very embarassing when you look like me. So who went? All the boys that we had for sale and two females with male cria at foot. Some real favourites amongst them as well.</div>
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You may remember Branson, who had a tough start and ended up in our bath, under the hairdryer and then in our bed before spending the night with us. He recovered spectacularly and was one of the ones who went, with his mother, across the Channel.</div>
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There was also Will.i.am, a personal favourite of mine and Sue's and his chum Whisky Mac and Wesley and, well before I go upsetting myself again I can take great comfort in the knowledge that they have gone to caring owners and they will be well looked after.<br />
Do you know what? I don't think I'll ever get the hang of this breeding and selling animals business.<br />
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Since then we have had quite a few less mouths to feed and are looking onwards and upwards. We were lucky enough to get a show team entered into the National Show before the limit was reached and have also entered a team into the Futurity. Preparations are under way to get the team ready to do battle in the ring. In fact halter training will begin this weekend, weather permitting. Team talks are being held weekly at the moment and mentally the team is shaping up well. Fleece wise we are looking pretty good too, but you never know who else is going to be there. We will party hard anyway, win ,win or win, I mean win lose or win or win.<br />
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The captain of our team this year will be our miracle boy Tsar who is currently featuring on the BAS National Stud auction. I think, and I know that I am biaised, that he looks fantastic, even if he is a very silly boy.<br />
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A second opinion from a chum of mine was sought and he thinks he looks pretty good too. No prizes for guessing who's expert hands opened up his fleece last month.<br />
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The herd is wintering well so far despite the weather. Conditions are good, weaning is underway and energy levels are where they should be, nice.<br />
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Just to prove that it does get cold down here in the south occasionally, here is Tsar with Wasimba and Viking well frosted up at breakfast time.<br />
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Right , is that enough? Can I go and lounge around a bit more now?</div>
Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155763594244681411.post-63900264751012811562014-12-06T14:32:00.000+00:002014-12-06T14:32:08.041+00:00Comings and goings.It appears that another month has raced past and now I find myself in December. A glorious hard frost this morning was a very welcome sign as worm burdens this year have been the highest that I have known in 9 years. <i> </i>I am always mindful of not overdoing it with medication, the vets don't go on about resistant parasites for nothing but even so this year we have had to worm earlier and later than ever before. In fact Fifi, one of our, 'never to be sold' girls had a very squitty rear end this morning. She was dealt with but I really must remember to take my reading glasses (or injecting glasses) as I once again gave myself a dose of wormer in the finger. Still I shall be worm free going into the Christmas period which is always nice.<br />
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December is set to be a busy month, but more on that as it develops, a trip to Calais is coming up so we will be well stocked for the festive season. Which by the way, still hasn't started people, what happened to the twelve days of Christmas? The Christmas build-up seems to get longer every year, patience is becoming very old fashioned these days, bah humbug etc.....<br />
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I had a trip to a new alpaca herd in Suffolk two weeks ago, a small herd had been formed and they wanted a lovely black girl to complement the colours that they already had. As a result young Patou Ulani, accompanied by Vanilla and Violet (acting as travelling companions) came with me to a lovely village just outside Ipswich. It was a horrible day, wet and drizzly but here she is with her new 'family'.<br />
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And because she doesn't look her best in the wet, here she is before she went.<br />
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I thought that I ought to point out that we have decided to put the big Q up for sale. Qjori has been a huge part of our herd for several years now but is being used more and more sparingly here as a lot of our herd is now related to him. He still has a big future ahead of him hopefully and if he does go there won't be a dry eye here, he is an absolute superstar and is much loved. His impact on our herd has been amazing, his attributes have been carried into our herd and his progeny are testament to his quality. He's like a big teddy bear really. I mean, don't get me wrong, when there are female alpacas around he is the true macho but he is so easy to handle and is such a character, he is always making me chuckle. Last week for instance I caught him for the second time, standing in his water trough. This time I had a camera with me and snapped him in full 'look at me' pose. What a muppet.<br />
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Another major change here is the 'retirement' of the Patou wagon. The old Discovery, which broke down spectacularly on the M25 last summer and then again on the M1, leaving me once again at the mercy of the AA, has been traded in for a newer and slightly more luxurious mode of transport.<br />
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Now I know I am 51, but when you only upgrade cars every 6 years or so it is quite an exciting moment. After much research I decided on a Nissan X-Trail and found a garage in Devon with 5 to choose from. When Gus (he's only eleven but isn't quite as excitable as me) saw pictures of the five cars there was only one option. The one with his name on it!<br />
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So far I have been very pleased with it, both on and off road, with or without the trailer behind it.<br />
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Right, must go, Sue is away this weekend, Gus has two friends round and we all like curry so there is cooking to be getting on with.<br />
<br />Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155763594244681411.post-7407236087642595182014-11-05T16:04:00.000+00:002014-11-05T16:04:16.366+00:00Hello, good bye and yahoo!It has been a busy last 10 days or so with a lot going on down here in Patouland. First of all I had help for four days last week when I was joined by a young GCSE student who wants to study to be a vet. She was looking for some work experience over half term week and had written asking to come over to help. <br />
Her name is Charnia and she is pictured below on her last day. She was a great help as we went right through the whole herd condition scoring, and medicating. The whole herd was given Lambivac, AD&E and wormed. We also drenched with Fasinex, cut toe nails, inserted ear tags, moved the herd around into winter grazing mode and generally got things pretty ship shape. Charnia baulked at nothing and threw herself into everything, even wearing a bit of spit. If you are reading this Charnia, thank you again! Charnia will be back to help out again I am sure.<br />
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With Mrs Steele out at work it is amazing how much you can't do on your own but when she was here on the Monday we spat off all the mated females and I was very pleased to see 17 spitting off comprehensively. We had left mating this year until very late so most of them only had one mating as we stuck to our end of September cut off date. It should be an interesting summer as we have an interesting mix of cria due. We used three males, our super brown boy, Van Diemen Qjori of Patou, the legendary and packed full of awesomeness, Lilyfield Jack of Spades of Inca and the new kid on the block, the small but perfectly formed Australian black male, Wimmera Skies Class Act of Reddingvale. I can hardly wait to see what those three will produce!<br />
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It was also quite a sad week as we said good bye to a real favourite here, Patou Vickery. Vickery was sired by our boy Qjori and he is a very friendly male who did very well for us in the show ring last year. He has come on in leaps and bounds and is now a very handsome young male with a great future ahead of him. Thanks to the Inca Chief, he is now at his new home in Scotland where next summer he will take up his position of stud male to some lovely females. If you are oop north and are looking for a cracking grey male next year he may be the one for you.<br />
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It has also been quite a remarkable week for me in that I have actually fixed things without creating more work, more expense or more problems, which is usually my speciality. Firstly, Gus somehow managed to break the screen on his mobile phone. In true 11 year old form he refuses to take responsibility for anything that breaks and says that he wasn't near it when it somehow 'fell off a bench' at school. Having checked out how much it would cost to replace at the mobile phone repair shop I was onto Amazon and tracked down a replacement screen that came with the necessary tools required to carry out the job.</div>
On arrival I opened the box and found not only the replacement screen but some tools that had been designed specifically for elves to use. I kid you not I have never seen such small tools. Even with my glasses on it was very difficult, I swear they were only about 18 microns wide. And before any wisecracker asks me 'how would you know what 18 microns looked like', I do, we have some, here!<br />
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Anyway I went in 'swiss watchmaker mode' and after only seven or eight hours I had replaced the screen and the phone worked perfectly, give that man a large one!<br />
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Buoyed on by my success I had a second repair to complete. The rear nearside window on my Discovery shattered due to a very rusty electric windy up thingy (technical term) so I hit Ebay and soon had a replacement window and windy up thingy ordered. After three hours of using a lot of tools, a Haynes manual and several cups of coffee I now have a nice see through window once again. Nothing else broke whilst carrying out this operation (well nothing much anyway) and it all works like new.<br />
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I now intend to open up a workshop for fixing absolutely everything as I am surely not the completely useless plonker that I thought I was. More of a versatile mechanical genius really!<br />
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Right, time to get out with the dogs for a final herd check of the day. When I get home I may break something expensive to test my new found abilities!<br />
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Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155763594244681411.post-37005767338167291402014-10-21T11:22:00.000+01:002014-10-21T11:22:00.203+01:00Sorry, I've been asleep.Some of the following, may have been made up..........................<br />
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My eyes were tightly shut as we climbed ever higher directly into the midday sun. I squeezed with my knees as hard as I could and gripped with my arms as strongly as I dared. Unable to encircle the densely feathered neck of the enormous eagle that I was clinging to I was forced to hang on to the thin leather strap that formed part of it's elaborate necklace.<br />
The noise was deafening as the mighty wings did their job of taking us ever higher, higher than I thought possible and then abruptly, they stopped beating. For an instant we hung as if suspended from a silk thread before slowly the giant bird rolled over to one side and tucking in those enormous wings, corkscrewed with ever growing pace back towards earth. Within seconds we were hurtling in excess of terminal velocity, the wind pulling at my cheeks causing my eyes to stream with tears which were instantly peeled from my face to be left way behind high up in the sky.<br />
"MARK! MARK!" Came the cry from somewhere behind me, slowly I turned and was dramatically pulled from my dream back into a state of consciousness, by Sue who was, not very gently, poking me in the back...."MARK, the alpacas are alarm calling!".<br />
"What?" I mumbled as I came back to reality with a bump.<br />
"The alpacas are alarm calling!" Sue repeated and as my eyes focussed on the alarm clock telling me that it was 1.30am, I could indeed hear at least 2 alpacas sounding the alarm call outside.<br />
I stumbled out of bed and staggered towards the light of the landing. I walked stiffly down the stairs and picked up a large torch as I shuffled into my wellies. It was a warm overcast night as I left the garden in my pyjamas and limped up the road towards the gate to the nearest alpaca field, alarm calls beckoning me to hurry up.<br />
I opened the gate and as I entered the field I swept the beam of the powerful torch in an arc. The alpacas, 16 females and 10 cria were all standing in the middle of the field looking towards the woods in a state of full alert. I followed their gaze with the beam of the torch and scanned the fence line and the trees beyond to reveal........................... absolutely nothing.<br />
I switched off the torch and as my eyes adjusted to the night I walked slowly into the middle of the gathered throng of alpacas. I stood amongst them and we all stared into the gloom in silence, the only noise was the distant hoot of an owl. A minute passed and nothing made its presence known to us. I then felt the nibbling lips and the gentle breath of a female alpaca on my right ear, the state of emergency had obviously passed. <br />
I spent a further five minutes standing amongst the girls as the tension dispersed and slowly one by one they returned to whatever they were doing before the drama had unfolded.<br />
I returned to bed smiling, feeling like the herd protector, the enforcer, guardian to a group of lovely females, another precious alpaca encounter experienced.<br />
You just can't make that up.<br />
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And now some random photographs:<br />
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This one, for instance, is the view from inside the garage. That is the field I was talking about, those are the alpacas and beyond them, the big dark scary wood containing mysterious beasties.<br />
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This afternoon I refilled the hay racks and in the process I was mobbed, as usual (I'm sure we all are) so I took a couple of pictures.<br />
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The little fellow front right of the picture is Branson who you may
remember spent his first night in our bedroom having been found flat out
and very cold. His mother had no milk either so he was bottle fed for
the first month or so until he managed to get her producing enough milk,
marvellous little sucker he was.<br />
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And here he is on that first night, just over four months ago. Very nice little chap and I tell you what, I had a good look at his fleece today, it is coming along very nicely! <br />
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Here are two of my favourite cria, Nutmeg (sire Popham Thunder) on the left and Misket (sire Qjori) on the right, both delightful, both very promising. I keep looking at Misket's fleece hoping it is brown, but I fear it may be.........................fawn.<br />
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Here's another of my favourites, Patou Pippin, beautiful even colour, deliciously soft handling fleece and wonderfully friendly.<br />
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And finally, one to watch, Patou Spitfire, a Jack of Spades boy. I love the look of this little male, dense greasy fleece which I hope will stay dark chocolatey brown and not tip over into black. Sadly he is being photo-bombed by Dilly (the ear nibbler), who in turn is being photo-bombed by Reeya who is performing back right. <br />
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Right, it must be time for another nap.Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155763594244681411.post-50392655940361801272014-09-22T13:38:00.003+01:002014-09-22T14:44:50.245+01:00And finally.......... a dilemmaIn my last blog I posted a photograph of Amelie looking lovely and pregnant. She was the last Patou female still waiting to deliver. <br />
Millie was expecting a Lavender Park Tulley cria. It was a late decision last October to mate her and it was a one off opportunity, one mating. The great masterplan was to try and breed our next herdsire, hence Millie, our best brown female was the chosen one and we hoped for a brown male.<br />
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On Friday, just before lunch, Millie did indeed give birth to a super little brown male. A bit of a tiddler at 6.95kg but perfectly formed and very lively. <br />
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He was up on his feet quickly and apparently feeding well within an hour or so. However, Millie has had problems feeding her last two cria, Vanilla and Tsar. She gets an enormous udder full of milk with huge teats and the cria struggle to get on and get enough milk. As we knew this we were prepared, so there has been a lot of milking going on over the past three days. Sue is the expert, I am merely the holder. Luckily Millie is a friendly girl and although she makes a bit of a scene initially she soon settles down and allows the process to take place.<br />
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We are also supplementing him with a bottle to make sure he is getting enough volume. He is doing very well and although in the above picture he has milky chops as a result of me bottle feeding him, it did take me ten minutes to catch him! Millie sees me coming and they are off! It is a case of trudging on and wearing them down. <br />
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Sue and I are completely smitten with the little man (as is his mother) but we do have a dilemma. As he was our last cria this year, born on the day the Scottish independence votes were counted, and the votes from the Highlands were the last votes to be counted, I suggested we call him Highlander. Sue, using similar thought processes came up with Braveheart and Gus, being eleven and bonkers favours Hercules.<br />
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As a result, on his little husbandry card (I like to keep my records in a card index, old fashioned I know but dependable!) it simply says Patou............... A decision will be made today, we will be arm wrestling for the privilege of naming him later (Sue and Gus don't know this yet!)Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155763594244681411.post-15569245571192061062014-09-17T12:55:00.001+01:002014-09-17T12:55:35.174+01:00What! September?I have just walked into the kitchen for a coffee, covered in hay (Sue is at work so as long as I whip the hoover round later she'll never know) and thought I would log on and see what was going on in the world of alpacas. The first thing that struck me was, 'Where did August go?'. It says in the corner of my laptop that it is already the 17th of September? I'm sorry but was I cryogenically frozen towards the end of July? Have I been in a 6 week long catatonic fit? Was I drunk, I mean really drunk? Where has the time gone? I haven't blogged for two weeks either. Um, really, it seems like only yesterday!<br />
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Anyway, time to right the wrongs and report from the heart of the Mighty Patou headquarters. It is an absolute buzz of activity here. We are in the middle of a late season mating frenzy (the alpacas that is).<br />
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We have a visiting stud male of the dark variety here for four days, all I can say is that he is Australian, black, smallish, but perfectly formed and working well (his identity must remain a closely guarded secret for the time being). On Thursday I return him and welcome another slightly larger Australian male, black again and as awesome as they get. As well as that our two brown boys Qjori and Tsar are getting some action so August should be a busy month next year!<br />
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Patou Reeya (Jack of Spades daughter) welcomes our esteemed visitor, in customary fashion, in the hay shed.</div>
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Mating cut off date is a strictly enforced 30th of September, so anyone not up the duff by then will just have to wait!<br />
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Last week I went out to soak up some sun amongst the mighty herd and was mobbed by Truffle. Truffle sadly lost her cria this summer and is going to be covered this weekend but until then she is the friendliest of alpacas and I have to say I made the most of it with a 'selfie-fest'. (Apologies to FB friends for the repetition)<br />
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Pucker up big boy!</div>
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However, when I got all 'arty farty' with the camera and put it on the floor, she appeared to turn into Rudolf the red nosed reindeer! </div>
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Since Gus went back to school I have been able to reclaim my little tractor and because of the glorious 'Indian summer' that we seem to be having (it was 26C here yesterday) I have been mowing paddocks in a blur. Here I stopped to admire my handiwork.............and probably to have a wee.</div>
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My parents popped round last week too with their working Cocker Spaniel, Abby. She always causes a stir. She is the size of a fox, the colour of a fox and moves like a fox and the herd don't let her out of their sight. She needs to keep her wits about her!</div>
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First it was the half of the herd with the older cria, a steady advance on Abby.</div>
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Then the other half of the herd, the top of Abby's head is just visible at the bottom of the picture.</div>
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I appear to have rambled on for far too long, after all I still need to whip that hoover round, have lunch and make myself look marvellous for when Sue gets home (it may take some time!).</div>
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I only have one more bit of news, or rather 'news to come'. Last year we broke our 30th of September mating cut off date for one special female. Patou Amelie, our best female, mother of Patou Tsar and Patou Vanilla had a final date with Lavender Park Tulley on the 5th of October last year. That means that her due date, based on a gestation of 345 days, is tomorrow. We all know that she may hang on for weeks (or even months) and to be honest I have just nipped out to check on her and she looks more likely to shin up a tree and start singing 'Over the rainbow' than to give birth today.</div>
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However, I did take a photograph of her just to prove that she is preggers and beautiful too (well she would be, she is the daughter of Patou Lily, paddock blindness? I don't care).</div>
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Right, where did Sue say we kept the hoover?Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155763594244681411.post-15060188693171845062014-09-03T10:57:00.000+01:002014-09-03T10:57:38.141+01:00Immature and nasty, that's us.Do you know what, I was going to tell you in great detail all about our prolapsed uterus last week and our cria who collapsed due to a vitamin B deficiency but as they are all fine I harked back to my promise at the end of my last blog to bring you happy news. Which I have just done, two potentially serious events sorted and all concerned recovered. Pats on the backs all round and let's move on.<br />
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Instead I am going to show you some of our lovely cria. We have 17 on the ground now, 9 girls with the boys catching up and 2 still to come. Potentially the last two are the most exciting, certainly the most eagerly awaited this year. Penny and Millie are both due to give birth to cria soon, to a male we have never used before. Penny and Millie are undoubtedly our best two females, both brown and both have done well for us in the past. More news as it happens readers.<br />
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Onwards to the cria report, here is Patou Primrose (left) a Popham Thunder girl who is completely the wrong colour, having a black mother, she also needs to grow into those ears!<br />
Next to her is Qjori's only black son this year, Patou Swanny, (named by Gus after the retired England spinner). Swanny is very black, very stocky and looks great, well he would do, as his mother is my all time favourite, Lily.<br />
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Last week also saw the arrival of a super little Jack of Spades boy. Patou Spitfire is a lovely rich dark chocolatey brown. His mother Patou Sirrocco, (she was the one with the prolapsed uterus) is a medium brown Cambridge Columbus girl so an excellent result. Spitfire is just in the process of receiving a welcoming headbutt from Polly. He was out cold for a good couple of minutes, nasty streak in that female, real nasty.<br />
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The cria with the vitamin B deficiency was Patou Pippin, son of the above mentioned headbutter and Qjori. I really like the look of young Pippin, he has real potential, one to watch. A bit wet in this picture but I hope you can see what I can see.<br />
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Another Popham Thunder cria, this time Patou Pinot, a lovely black female. She is being photobombed by Primrose's mother Bluebell! She was actually trying to get in all the pictures and pull a face, not very mature is it Bluebell?<br />
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Continuing with the Thunder offspring, Patou Black Lightning, very black and very fast!<br />
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Right, that's enough for now, the sun is coming out so it must be time for me to go out and get on with some real work! Things need to be ship shape here by Friday as I am packing my tent and sleeping bag and am off to Bozedown for the Classic this weekend, which will be a first for me. I am looking forward to a weekend of alpaca talk!Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155763594244681411.post-50635075381039518162014-08-26T15:30:00.000+01:002014-08-26T15:30:02.229+01:00MH - anyone heard of it?It would appear that I have been blogless for the past month.<br />
I think I am probably correct in saying that this is my longest absence since I started writing about the ups and downs of life amongst the Mighty Patou herd.<br />
I always wonder when one of the regular alpaca bloggers is absent for a week or two, always suspecting that it is because of a 'down' moment. Well if you were thinking that of my absence you would be spot on. To be perfectly frank the last few weeks have been amongst the lowest since we formed the Patou herd 9 years ago.<br />
As a result I just didn't want to write about alpacas, I didn't want to talk about alpacas, I didn't even want to think about alpacas, in fact there have been moments when I just wished that they would all go away, as one problem after another manifested itself seemingly without a break in between.<br />
I know others have been through much, much worse situations, heartbreaking life altering scenarios and in a way I feel guilty for mentioning our problems, which are relatively minor in comparison but I can only write truthfully and honestly about our experiences in the hope that it helps someone. It is probably going to help me to write about it, therapeutic I suppose, so here goes. <br />
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Anyway we seem to have come through our 'bad patch' and now with the wounds (literally) healing I can look back and try to learn something from what has been going on.<br />
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In short, in numbers alone, we have lost five cria, one two year old female and a yearling male. That, in numbers alone is a huge hit for us to take and to understand. Every death has been for a different reason which kind of puts into perspective the feeling that we just couldn't believe something else life threatening had come up. I can't remember how many times I have uttered the words "What next?" over the past few weeks.<br />
I won't go into each and every case but will say that we have had congenital defects, infections, abnormalities and a good measure of bad luck.<br />
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We have lost cria before, we have had still borns, lost early ones and have accepted that sometimes it is just not meant to be, in short, it happens. I know that. It is part and parcel of breeding animals. But in nine years of breeding we have never lost an adult and as a result it was a huge shock.<br />
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I will go into details because she died of something that I had never heard of before and I feel that it is worth 'sharing'.<br />
The alpaca was a lovely dark brown girl called Tabitha. She was the sort of alpaca who you hardly ever noticed, quiet, calm, anonymous within the herd. I blogged earlier about her cria, QT, who was our mystery cria this year, totally unexpected when he arrived, investigation required to work out who is father was.<br />
QT himself developed a bladder/urethra problem when he was 5 weeks old and heartbreakingly after ten days I asked for him to be euthanised to put him out of his pain. A post mortem revealed a urethra that had closed up, he was unable to pee but spent all day trying. We tried everything we could to put him right.<br />
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Naturally Tabitha moped around for a couple of days after her cria was taken away, as you would expect and then out of the blue I found her collapsed in the field.<br />
It became obvious very quickly that she was severely anaemic and the vet was called straight away. Apart from the anaemia she had also gone blind (due to the anaemia). She was in good body condition with normal pelleted poop. A rapid blood test was carried out revealing a PCV (packed cell volume) of 6%, which is very, very low. Fecal test was normal. An even faster blood transfusion followed with good old Priscilla providing a couple of pints of claret.<br />
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The suspected cause of the anaemia was something called Mycoplasma Haemolamae. Basically as I understand it, it is a bacteria that attaches itself to the wall of the red blood cells and causes the host to attack its own blood cells. It is a blood borne disease spread by biting insects. She was prescribed daily Engemycin (Tetracycline) injections and we waited, hoping she would recover.<br />
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Tabitha initially picked up and was eating and drinking well but after five days she started to deteriorate and 48 hours later she died. A subsequent PCR test confirmed the presence of Mycoplasma Haemolamae.<br />
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If you Google Mycoplasma Haemolamae there is plenty of information about it, mainly from the USA where many alpacas succumb to it every year.<br />
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I promise that my next blog will be on a more cheery note.Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155763594244681411.post-46557599890881230852014-07-25T12:06:00.000+01:002014-07-25T12:06:46.834+01:00All in the eye of the beholder?Something has been gnawing away at me for some time now and I just can't shake it off. It's nothing important to anyone else, no one else cares a jot, just me and I simply can not let it lie. I spoke to Sue about it....again....last night and was told in no uncertain terms to 'just let it go'. But I can't, it bothers me.<br />
So, as I have shared everything else with you lot I will share this also. Sue is at work so by the time she reads this it will be too late, there is no real censorship going on here, my blog, my thoughts, the good, the bad and of course, the ugly.You won't care about it, it doesn't actually make any difference to anyone apart from me and even then it is only in my mind, but, and this is why I have to share my feelings, I just can't let it go!<br />
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Firstly I am a big believer in the premise that the judge is always right on the day. Animals change from week to week and it is in the ring, on the day, that they are being judged. I have no problem with results in the ring. I may disagree sometimes, but I still accept the judges decision. I have no problem with that, it is a difficult job and I respect anyone who does it, I couldn't do it.<br />
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What is bothering me is the performance of our two grey boys in the show rings this year. They won't be shown again this year as they are too young for The Ellingham Show, which is the last show that we are going to, so if and when they appear in the ring again this will all be long gone and forgotten.<br />
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We had two grey boys born last year, both sired by Qjori. A mid grey, Patou Vickery, (mother a white female, Tisbury Dilly) and Patou Wasimba, a rose grey sired by the fawn Patou Sahara (daughter of Dilly).<br />
They both should have been brown females, obviously, but they were grey and we are beginning to like the greys down here in Patouland.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W55tNMJFmEg/U9IyRXxC0-I/AAAAAAAADxg/N5A8xMMwEWk/s1600/Vickery+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W55tNMJFmEg/U9IyRXxC0-I/AAAAAAAADxg/N5A8xMMwEWk/s1600/Vickery+2.JPG" height="640" width="618" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Patou Vickery - medium grey.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Patou Wasimba - rose grey</td></tr>
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So, what is my problem I hear you shout! Well, before either of them entered a show ring, they were selected by Sue and me to be in the show team, something that we, as alpaca breeders, all do. To be honest, initially I didn't know what colour Wasimba was but as he grew his fleece became a lovely even mix of brown and white fibres, he was a rose grey. Vickery was easier to assess, he was grey from the word go.<br />
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Both were put in the show team but I believed and still do believe that Wasimba was the better alpaca. His fleece was denser, softer, brighter and had a tighter crimp. So to recap, before they entered the competitive arena I had already decided that Wasimba was better. I must also point out that I have had no judge training and was only basing my decision on my limited experience.<br />
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The two boys competed in three shows in front of three different judges and each time, to my great frustration, Wasimba was placed one position behind Vickery. I just could not understand it.<br />
So, and this is where I get a bit naughty, I asked two other BAS judges, both who I hold in very high esteem to have a look at the two boys. I didn't give away anything of my views prior to their inspections and was very pleased when they both put Wasimba ahead of Vickery, easily.<br />
Now, once again I must point out that this was not under show conditions and I understand that alpacas have to be judged on the day, in the ring but it is interesting that my view on who was the better animal was shared.<br />
Fleece statistics can tell us something about the alpacas too, Wasimba's fleece is finer by 2 microns.<br />
Right, that is it I have got it off my chest and will now 'Let it go'.<br />
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So to other news down here in Patouland. This week I made a momentous trip out on the road to visit Andy and Viv Walker at Reddingvale alpacas. Of course it is always momentous visiting Andy and Viv but this trip was extra momentous as it was the first time that I have travelled with two Patou herdsires on board. On this occasion Qjori was joined by his son, Patou Tsar, a very special boy here in Patouland, who has made the grade and has recently started his working life.<br />
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It was an interesting experience as they were in pens separated by a walkway in which we stood. On one side was the deafening warrior like roar of Qjori orgling away as he dominated the Reddingvale female allotted to to him. On the other side was the sight of Tsar clinging limpet-like to the back end of surely one of the biggest females in the UK whilst he did his job in almost complete silence. It was like being deaf in one ear.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Patou Tsar, what a journey we have had with him over the last two years!</td></tr>
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That is all.Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155763594244681411.post-13279489071350995892014-07-09T14:48:00.001+01:002014-07-09T14:48:08.117+01:00From brown to lime green!It's all been go, go, go here in Patouland, the mighty herd has grown by ten and at the same time been reduced by ten.<br />
At the end of last month I took a trailer of 8 home bred Patou warriors across the channel to Calais where I was to meet up with some lovely breeders from Belgium. It was an interesting experience as up until the point where we transferred the alpacas from my trailer to theirs I was very businesslike about the whole thing. Well OK maybe the shorts didn't look terribly businessman-like. Then, when they came out of my trailer and made the short trip to the other I suddenly became quite emotional, so much so that I couldn't speak for a few moments and my vision became a little blurry.<br />
We said goodbye to six boys, Todd, Thor, Talisker, Wellington, Vincenzo and Wilbur and two girls Una and Verity. Too much in one go for a simpleton like me to cope with emotionally. Still, I am happy that they will all be going to good homes where they will be looked after properly. Not my favourite part of breeding alpacas.<br />
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We also said goodbye to Woody and Rafiki who went to a lovely home the other side of Salisbury, we will be seeing them again which is great. <br />
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So to my favourite part! We now have ten cria on the ground, six of them females. At the moment all are wonderfully healthy. Little Bijou is back to her lively self and we have been able to withdraw from all top up bottle feeds.<br />
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Here are a few pictures of some wonderful brownness!<br />
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Patou Bijou, back to full fitness. We think it was Coccidia that caused her listlessness, lack of appetite and thirst.<br />
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Patou Drambuie, a very handsome young man with a great head shape. Branson in the background nibbling Sue's fleece, he is always nibbling something.</div>
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From left to right, Finnegan (light, light brown), Pepper and Branson. </div>
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QT and Delilah, QT seems to try and shag anything that moves and moments after this picture was taken he was trying to get Bannock (aged 14yrs and very tall) down onto the ground. It was a very bold move, which was ultimately unsuccessful.<br />
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And so to the latest arrival, Patou Nutmeg. Last year we had four females pregnant to Popham Thunder, all four gave birth to males. They were all remated to Thunder and yesterday the first of them gave birth. Samantha produced a lovely dark brown female who we are delighted with.<br />
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And finally, I went to Leicestershire last weekend for a school reunion at Ratcliffe College. It was a superb weekend until the mighty Land Rover once again blew up, this time substitute the M25 for the M1. Anyway to cut a very long story short the AA managed to get me towed off the M1 but then took a further 4 hours to get a mechanic to me. I was urged by one of the many AA call centre operatives that I spoke to (I spoke to most of them I reckon) to make a complaint and as a result I was whisked away in a taxi on Monday to a car hire centre where I had a lime green Seat Leon FR thrust upon me, all at the expense of the AA. As you can see it is highly visible and as I have found, goes rather faster than my old Discovery! I have had comments and odd looks where ever I have been, especially at school pick up time. I'm sure I heard someone muttering something about a mid life crisis!<br />
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Have I reached mid life yet?<br />
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Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155763594244681411.post-62175829649015149992014-06-27T07:56:00.001+01:002014-06-27T07:56:12.523+01:00It's all on the QT.Finally after a hugely busy couple of weeks I get time to sit down and update you all with news from Patouland.<br />
We now have 9 cria on the ground, 5 females and 4 males. Colour wise we are very pleased, all brown until last night when the first black girl arrived.<br />
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We also have a confession to make, bad herd management I'm afraid, all a bit embarrassing but very cute nonetheless.<br />
On Monday this week I went out to check on the portly ladies to see a female with a head hanging out. When I got closer I could see that it was Tabitha, our lovely dark brown Qjori maiden. The problem was that she had been mated to the awesome Jack of Spades in September and therefore wasn't due until August!<br />
I immediately expected the worst. A premature cria who, at not even 9 months gestation, would be dead on arrival. However, a short while later out plopped a lively little male who was only showing slight signs of dismaturity. According to my records it was a gestation of 268 days. No, the general consensus and the text books suggested that it was not possible. But how could it have happened?<br />
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When Sue got home we discussed it at length and tried to work out who had been responsible. It remained a mystery until 5.45am the following morning when I was awoken by Sue declaring "It was Qjori".<br />
During last summer we kept all the males in fields in the next village. They would have had to catch a bus to do the deed. But Qjori kept coming over to do some matings and spit offs. When he was visiting he stayed in a paddock next to the girls. Sue recalls finding him grazing in the girls paddock one day. That day must have been the day he carried out the filthy deed. So Qjori's daughter, Tabitha, has produced a son and a grandson for him. Line breeding or just plain incest? <br />
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And here he is, we have named him QT. As in 'on the QT (quiet)', it also stands for Qjori Twice.<br />
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Our other cria seem, after a tricky start for some, to be thriving. Here is the gorgeous Rio, she is full of beans. Her mother, Minstrel, is a Jack of Spades girl. In fact Minstrel was the first ever Jack of Spades girl, how about that!<br />
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The unnamed brown boy who spent the night in our bedroom is now doing very well and has been named Branson. He is perhaps a little too friendly but has worked hard on his mother's, initially unfruitful, udder so much so that we have now stopped bottle feeding him as she is now providing sufficient milk. He is a nibbler of trousers and a nipper of bottoms.<br />
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The only one still being bottle fed is little Pepper. Her mother, Poppy, is not really doing the job we want her to. Frequently wandering off, often in the middle of a feed, she seems oblivious to the fact that she has a cria. Pepper is feeding from her when she can but is not getting enough just yet. We are monitoring her intake and her weight gains very carefully and will reduce the bottle when we can. She'll get there, they are amazing little suckers these cria.<br />
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A perfect result from Fifi, finally, as she produced her first ever female cria! A beautiful little thing who we have called Bijou. Text book everything from the word go, just lovely, lovely, lovely.<br />
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Bijou, with her mothers ears, bless her and the Qjori greyish head. It usually fades to brown.<br />
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I have no pictures of the new black girl as yet, she is a whopper though and was up very quickly last night. She was born at 6.10pm following a quite lengthy assist. Her head was somehow twisted around one leg and upside down so I was up to my elbow for ten minutes sorting it all out. However, she took the longest first feed I have ever seen from a cria. She stood absolutely rock solid for 15 minutes, glugging away before she was even an hour old.<br />
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So the first batch are now done. All sired by Qjori. We now have a few days respite before the next dozen.<br />
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We have cria from four other herd sires to come so exciting times ahead!Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155763594244681411.post-19053120302245836152014-06-12T10:52:00.003+01:002014-06-12T10:52:30.430+01:00Back on track.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Thanks for all the messages and good wishes over the past couple of days, I can report that we are back on track and the Mighty Patou machine is rumbling on!</div>
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An update on the little brown Qjori boy. After a night with us and a bit of TLC he is stronger and feeding from his mother. He is dis-mature though so we are watching him very carefully. He had a couple of doses of bovine colostrum, has been covered with long lasting antibiotics and we are topping him up with supplementary feeds for the time being. The glorious warm sunshine is helping and I am sure he will be OK. Two thirds of the naming committee (it is a big thing here) are at school and work respectfully. I am not permitted to name anyone without consulting said committee but I will have some strong suggestions at the end of the day.</div>
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So here is unnamed boy in his 'padded cell' in our bedroom. </div>
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And here is the little munchkin with his mother the following day.<br />
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Yesterday we moved into shearing mode, bit of a clue in the above picture. I heard Colin Ottery and his side-kick Seb arrive at 0750hrs as I was looking at the back end of a female, Rosa, from across the field as she looked to be acting a bit oddly. By the time I got to her a head and two feet had been pushed out and a short while later a large brown Qjori girl arrived! She was in a cush almost instantly, up within an hour and feeding within 2. She is now hard to catch and pops up in all corners of the 5 acre field, almost instantaneously. I think she may be some sort of shape shifter. She will also be named this evening. <br />
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Today I am on cria watch again as we still have seven females due this week and there are a lot of suspicious looking ladies out there. Minstrel makes a habit of giving birth on my birthday, today, and she was wandering about with her tail sticking out earlier.</div>
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The herd looks absolutely scrummy at the moment, newly shorn, suede to touch and of cartoon like, almost alien appearance, my favourite time of the year.</div>
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Here are the hooligan mobsters, last years boys, they follow me around the field like a team of pick-pockets waiting for an opportunity to half inch my wallet. When I turn round they all look around as if to say "Who? Us? No, not up to anything here". I am sure of they could whistle, they would. </div>
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We are on high alert here as we move into the birthing window for 10 girls.<br />
6am and Sue ran up the stairs announcing that Sabrina was giving birth.<br />
I was straight out and sure enough a head and two front legs were out. Airway was clear and all appeared normal.<br />
However, it soon became obvious that Sabrina was exhausted and was having trouble giving birth.<br />
I delivered the cria but after 30 minutes of trying everything we just couldn't get her breathing and had to call it a day.<br />
Sabrina, meanwhile, was flat out exhausted and had lost a fair amount of blood. Two hours later and she is much improved having had oxytocin (placenta now out, and normal), antibiotics and pain relief.<br />
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The cria was a big beautiful dark brown female and I have just laid her to rest in a lovely spot in the field. Tears are falling on the keyboard as I type, I know it is all part of breeding animals but it's hard to come to terms with.<br />
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Sabrina knew she was in need of help, she was lying right next to the gate that we always enter the field by.<br />
I know that there was nothing else we could have done, we will be up earlier tomorrow.<br />
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Shearing tomorrow, I have a busy day ahead of me getting everything set up.<br />
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<br />Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3155763594244681411.post-63224969599001156852014-06-02T10:36:00.004+01:002014-06-02T10:36:57.567+01:00Knackered, as the real work begins!It was 7pm last Saturday when I finally pulled up outside Patou HQ, weary, knackered, hungry and gasping for a drink. After four and a half days at the Royal Bath and West show I was home, ready to unload the show team and all their kit. The last show of the summer (well maybe just one more in August) was over and so was I, almost.<br />
We had a good show, but it's always difficult for breeders coming from the dark side at the Bath and West as it is run as an age championship, rather than the more familiar and MUCH BETTER colour championship. It basically means that the black, brown and grey juniors are compared to all the other light coloured juniors and so on. That invariably means that the Supreme championship line up is made up of white, light and fawn alpacas, from my point of view that looks a bit dull to anyone watching. OK, so it may be argued that they are the best alpacas in the show and so deserve to be there, but for spectators and breeders of the darker alpacas it is all a bit..........boring. Oops.... did I just say that?<br />
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At this point I must point out that there was one exception in the line up this year.<br />
Shining out like a beautiful ball of anthracite amongst a ring of dirty cotton wool, smoulderingly good looking and seemingly tearing a hole through the atmosphere from another darker world was a super Inca female. Black as the ace (or should that be Jack) of Spades, she stood alone amongst all the general assembled beigeness. All was not lost, we, the champions of the dark side were represented by the best of us all.<br />
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Actually I was also in the line up with a little white boy owned by Classical Mile End alpacas. He went on to win Best of British, very deservedly.<br />
In that Supreme line up we stood next to the eventual Supreme Champion, a junior fawn female owned by Houghton Hall Alpacas, who was absolutely beautiful. Her fleece was simply gorgeous, like molten gold. A very worthy winner.<br />
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Right enough of that drivel. The highlight for team Patou was that we were represented in the ring by two young Patou warriors, Gus had been accompanied by his best mate, George Fry and both of them were up for a scrap. Having camped on site we were up early and breakfasted ready to do battle on Thursday, junior day. Unusually the Bath and West show not only runs as an age championship but also runs in reverse order. I have no idea why, but it does. That meant the whites were in first and we weren't in the ring until after lunch.<br />
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Just before lunch, however, was a small matter of the junior handler class. Gus and George were entered in a line up of five eager handlers, including, past master and hot favourite, Isla May, a very shrewd operator with a steely glint in her eye.<br />
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The boys couldn't match Isla and she took the trophy, Gus coming second and George a very creditable third. Top marks to Barbara for her judging in, undoubtedly, the toughest class of the show!<br />
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Lunch was taken as the boys prepared for the proper show classes and it wasn't long before they were doing battle in the junior grey class. First for Vickery with Gus and second for Wasimba and George, the Mighty Patou were up and running.<br />
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As usual it was a all over in a blur with Gus going in six consecutive classes, brown, black and grey, not just for us, he was in demand.<br />
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He took Wesley in the junior black male class and came second behind some old bloke from Somerset, who was a little too smug showing off his first placed rosette!<br />
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The nuts and bolts of it were that we ended up with colourful display of rosettes as the big boys Tsar and Talisker took first and second in the intermediate brown class on Friday.<br />
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I am now at home with plenty to do, we are shearing next Wednesday and we need some sunshine to dry the shearing field up or we won't be able to get any vehicles in, I mean, come on, it's June! Where's the bloody sunshine!<br />
We also have females to watch, ten girls have now passed the eleven month stage and are lying around like a load of beached whales. No galavanting about from now on, we are firmly and properly on 'cria watch'.<br />
I also have a a group of animals to get ready for export, but more on that when they have safely landed the other side of the channel.<br />
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So what am I doing sitting here in front of the computer I hear you all roar!<br />
Enough said, now where are my wellies?Patou Alpacashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05402584864992426742noreply@blogger.com2