Mud, mud and more mud.

Looking on the bright side, and that is all I can do at the moment, every day spent wallowing around in the mud is one day closer to the end of this atrocious weather. At least we are not as bad as some, Somerset, not far to the west of us, is actually under water, the whole county! 

We have some very wet bits and a lot of very muddy bits. The lucky ones in our herd are the males.

Qjori and his merry men live in the next village and although part of their field is under water, most of it is dry.

You may remember that we installed a temporary shelter (actually it is a portable garage) for them as they don't have much shelter from the wind and rain. It was a bit bright so I put a camouflage tarpaulin over it, now you can barely see it. It is in the below photograph somewhere (in real life it does look less blue!)

The boys love it and at the slightest sign of bad weather they wander in and don't come out until it's brightened up.

Meanwhile back in the home fields it is a different story. very wet and muddy everywhere. Here is a picture of three of last years cria, Vickery, Wasimba and Wagtail. All looking lovely and brown. The problem is that Vickery and Wasimba aren't brown at all, they are grey!

Storm damage here too, a fence down, how hard does the wind have to blow to blow a fence down?

However, time moves on and that means weaning. Hopefully by the end of the week eighteen cria will become 'weaners' as I tear them away from their mothers. Where I am going to put them all I haven't quite figured out but where ever they are it will be muddy!

Not an alpaca in sight.

Although the rain seems to have stopped temporarily the mighty Patou herd still appears bedraggled and caked in mud. How we are going to halter train them or get them into show ring condition is anyone's guess, I have no idea. So with no alpaca photographs I feel the need to report on a recent Patou family outing. It wasn't just any outing though, no, it was to celebrate an eleventh birthday. Angus was eleven on the eleventh of January.

So, we decided that we would remove ourselves from the mud for a weekend and head to the opposite end of the spectrum, we went to London. We followed Inca advice and stayed at an absolutely fantastic hotel opposite the Houses of Parliament, I can thoroughly recommend the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel, absolutely perfect.

If that wasn't enough the day after we arrived the sun came out!

We had a weekend of exploring to do but just to be topical I decided that Gus and I would take a 'selfie', it is harder than you think with a phone. Especially a relatively new phone that is 90% beyond me.

The first attempt was disappointing to say the least, come on boys concentrate! Someone referred to the following picture as 'The great Muppet caper', not sure why!

 

 Second try and at least someone is smiling.

The third and final attempt (we are easily bored and even more easily distracted) was the best we could do, Big Ben was supposed to be in the shot but it must have moved as I pressed the button.

Anyway that was enough larking about we had to switch on and prevent ourselves from being mugged, murdered or worse.
I like London, don't get me wrong, it is a great place to visit and in my opinion it is the greatest city on the planet but there are still more criminals and rip-off merchants in London than there are in Wiltshire, so I was on full alert for the duration, ready to spring into action, ready to rain lusty blows down on anyone perceived to be a threat to the three of us.
Actually we picked a useless week to go. Two of the things that Gus wanted to do were to take a trip on the London Eye and to visit the Imperial War Museum. However, this was the week that the Eye was closed for maintenance and the Imperial War Museum was closed for some other reason, dusting or something.
So we had to look elsewhere for our thrills.

The Shard, standing at 1,016ft tall, is the tallest building in western Europe so we headed for that on a bright Saturday morning. A forty minute walk along the Thames and we went up it like rats up a drain-pipe, at 13.5 mph to be precise, as the lady in the lift informed us, very smooth indeed. 

 

Now if you want a fabulous view of London and have a suitcase full of money I would suggest going up The Shard. The view was spectacular (you look down on everything, obviously) and you could stay up there as long as you wanted, although I am sure that there would have been a loud "ahem" and a furtive glance at a wristwatch if we had set up for a picnic lunch.

You can see the London Eye way down below, but disappointingly I couldn't see our house from here. In fact I couldn't see a single field in any direction, it made me nervous!

Here is a view of 'The Cucumber', 'The Cheesegrater' and some other large buildings, oh, and some boats.

And of course, the birthday boy and some bridges, a river and some more buildings.

Anyway we had a great weekend, and we even went out when it was dark, twice!
If you can imagine ten levels up from a state of full alert, that is the level I was at.
I had to drink lots of wine to relax and finally, on the way home embarrassed the birthday boy the only way a loving father can!

Happy days, an enjoyable weekend but it was nice to get back into wellies and get out into that mud!

Water wonderland.

Wet, wet, wet, mud, mud, mud, thank goodness I have water and mud to deal with as it is a very nice way of avoiding any cricket watching. Thank goodness that's all over!
We are as wet as I can ever remember being here, the sheep down the road, now have their own swimming pool for example and with more heavy rain predicted today there is nowhere for it to go, ho hum and a farty lardy dah! Not much we can do about it so I am enjoying the dry bits in between. I am rather pleased with this photograph, taken on my new Blackberry Z10.

I was driving along through the Fonthill Estate last evening and had to stop the car and take a picture of another sheep field with an outdoor swimming pool, the colours were amazing. That's not a river running through the field, well it is but it's not normally there! At least we don't have alpaca swimming pools, although we could do a great line in mud wrestling rings! 

Shock news!! I have a picture of a dry alpaca, taken this week! Young Todd our Rose grey boy was looking rather splendid a few days ago when he was dry for about 20 minutes. I will be compiling a sales list over the next few days and Toddy will be on it, so if anyone out there is after a rose grey male, let me know!

 

Right, that's it, things to do blah blah blah!

Goodbye 2013!

I have finally managed to drag myself from beneath the great cricket fuelled depression that has been forcing me to overindulge in the Christmas cheer for slightly too long. Of the left-overs all that remains is some cheese and a bag of prawns. No doubt we will polish that off later.
So it comes to the time to cast an eye back over the last 12 months and see where it leaves us going into 2014. A small review is in order if that's ok with you? No? Tough, here it comes.

January and we were still struggling (but winning) to get Tsar back on his feet. The weather had been awful and hadn't helped, in fact I am sure it was a contributory factor in his decline. However, January was the month that we felt the corner was turned and so it proved to be, he is now thriving and appears to be the only one of the ten males that we had in 2012 to keep his testiculars. Castrations will be organised in the next week or two for his three contemporaries from last year and a couple of the older boys, Woody and Rafiki.

Tsar, before illness struck him.

Tsar this summer, looking a picture of health!

April saw the arrival of Patou Una, the first cria of the year, and another drama. Found early in the morning on a cold wet day lifeless and close to death. She was first introduced to a bath, a blow dry and an electric blanket. That did the trick and she was soon thriving.

 

We enjoyed a busy show season which as usual kicked off with a trip to the NEC and the Futurity. We weren't hugely successful but did take the female fawn championship, albeit with someone else's alpaca. It was still Sue in the ring, and if anyone asked who the gorgeous fawn belonged to we were open and honest, we couldn't have been accused of shouting that information from the rooftops though! It was a hugely enjoyable weekend and always great to catch up with friends.

We did however enjoy some success in later shows and enjoyed all of them, win lose or draw!

 Patou Talisker, son of Van Diemen Qjori of Patou, a brown male champion.

A much more successful breeding season was soon upon us and we ended up with eleven female additions to the herd in a variety of colours, all of which were one shade of brown or another. Although I have been accused of declaring rather too many shades of brown I do maintain that I am right. It is just that my brown spectrum is a bit wider than anyone else's!

 My favourite cria from this year Patou Vanilla. A brown alpaca in anyone's eyes!

A beautiful summer saw everyone doing well and there was even time to add to the herd further as four pregnant females arrived in late summer. Three black and one brown and all pregnant to Popham Thunder of Inca. We were ready for some female cria with some new genetics for the herd. Unluckily for us four males hit the deck, the best of the bunch just happens to be brown though, properly brown too! 

Matings were underway and 2014 will see cria arriving from five different herdsires as we expand the genetics in the Mighty Patou herd. Exciting times ahead. We start in June this year, with a September finish, all being well!

The major story of the year for me was my retirement after 25 years with the Wiltshire Constabulary (I know it's not called a Constabulary anymore but to me it always was one). Bugger what the desk jockeys think.

So I am now free to throw myself fully into the alpacas business. This has meant that everyone now gets fed in the daylight, injections and other treatments are up to date and you could eat your lunch off the floor of the field shelters, I wouldn't, but you could if you wanted to, and you don't mind alpaca shit on your sandwiches!

So to 2014. We must move on, we must move forward, we must sell some females. We will be at several shows the National being the first. The show team is taking shape and may be the biggest show team that we have ever taken on the road, I'm not talking double figures here, we only have one small trailer, after all you don't have to be big to be mighty!

So all that remains is for me to say Happy New year to you all, we hope that 2014 is an absolute cracker!

The darling of the herd.

On the fourth of August this year a little brown female was born here in Patouland. She weighed in at 6.65kg and was very dainty indeed. She was exactly the right colour and she was a she. She was the cria that I had been waiting for. We named her Vanilla.

Those of you familiar with the story of Tsar from last year know how much we laboured to get him right after a pretty poor beginning (he is now in great form by the way). You will also be aware of the fact that I declared him last summer as 'the best cria we have ever produced', a statement I still stand by as it was then. Well as we were so pleased with Tsar we repeated that mating. His mother, an ATA Cambridge Centurion girl, Patou Amelie (daughter of Patou Lily) was put back to our Aussie boy, Qjori and Vanilla was the result. A daintier version of Tsar but otherwise exactly the same. Great colour, great fleece qualities, beautiful.

Unfortunately Vanilla also had problems as a young cria, she gained weight initially but after two weeks she suddenly started losing weight and we had to step in. We started supplementing her feeding with a bottle and watched her very closely. It became apparent that she was only suckling from one teat. She would nudge the others but only the front left teat got used properly. There was no sign of mastitis but we treated Millie for it anyway, twice, to no avail. We continued to bottle feed, always a struggle as Vanilla never really gave in to us and at the end of September we stopped bottle feeding.

Acting on the gingery wise words of the Lord Chief Justice of Inca we put Millie and Vanilla in the shed and introduced Foal Creep pellets to Vanilla. A slightly complex arrangement with the feed buckets ensured that Vanilla could get them but Millie couldn't. Vanilla weighed in at 8.51kg. A month later and she had put on 3kg!

We have dealt with diarrhoea, pneumonia, listlessness and sudden weight losses since then but I think we have now turned a corner. Amelie and Vanilla now spend the days out in the paddock with the others and come in at night where they have plenty of feed. Vanilla is now off the foal creep pellets and eating regular alpaca feed, she is nudging 16kg and is a bundle of energy. She is a midget of course but she is, very definitely, the darling of the herd.

A sunny day but the 'phantom' still struck!

It was a beautiful sunny Autumn day yesterday so I headed out with the camera to take some photographs of the mighty Patou herd. Now I don't profess to be much of a photographer, I am always guilty of not 'seeing' what is behind the subject of the photograph, hence there is usually a certain amount of over-cropping before the finished article is ready for publication.
Yesterday was no different. Yesterday I was the victim of the phantom pooper.

For instance here is a picture of Skye and her cria Willoughby. In the top left corner the phantom perches in that familiar stance, the 'delivery' stance. At the time I hadn't noticed the phantom's presence.

 

Even when I moved location slightly to make better use of the sun I failed to see what was going on behind as the phantom had now been joined by a colleague, a 'double-header' was now taking place, could it have been deliberate?

 

Again I moved, still unaware, but it was no good the phantom and her colleague were still there. In fact a tail much closer had just been raised, luckily for a different reason.

Slowly, the phantom, having relieved herself then revealed herself and came down to say hello, it was Patou Whisper, daughter of Lily, my favourite alpaca in the whole wide world.

As she is totally beautiful I thought that I would photograph her, this time I could see what was occurring behind her as the scene unfolded, the perfect almost choreographed comeuppance for the phantom!

After that I was a bit more careful so here are some 'phantomless' pictures on a sunny day in Wiltshire.
Whisper was joined by her young apprentice, Wasimba, almost a grey but I am struggling to find any black fibre, plenty of brown and white but no black, yet.

Next, Vickery, a real proper, genuine, bonafide grey! He is the noisiest cria we have ever had, every time I touch him (and he doesn't seem to mind) he goes into a series of clicking, clucking, humming, chirping noises. I am hoping his fleece stays as it is, a bright shiney polished steel colour with a lovely tight crimp and as you can see he has plenty of it!

 

 Willoughby, a rich deep brown colour.

 

Wagtail, despite looking quite light on the outside she is a much darker, richer brown on the 'inside'.

And finally, regular readers may remember the drama we had back in April when Sue found a virtually dead newborn cria in the field early one cold morning. She was rushed into the house, went into a warm bath, was blown dry with Sue's hair dryer and then became the first alpaca to go into our bed, on the electric blanket under our duvet.  Here she is pictured on that morning, rising from the dead as her body reached it's optimum temperature.

Una has thrived since then despite having to have been bottle fed and although now fully weaned she still sticks close to her mother at all times. She is, as you can see a big bundle of fluff.

What a show!

Last weekend we headed off for the South West Alpaca Group annual show, this year held in the Autumn.
I set off for The Hand Equestrian centre on Friday morning to meet up with a small but dedicated team of SWAG members, lead by the extreme organiser Di Davies, to set up what was a very impressive and professional looking show.

The rest of the Mighty Patou arrived that evening dazed and exhausted after I had taken the only sat nav. Diversions, Carnivals, roadworks and a complete lack of knowing where they were had delayed their arrival so I opened the wine and started without them, well the show must go on!

Saturday morning and after a bit of warming up wrestling we were ready for action. 170 alpacas had arrived  by the start and the Patou show team of 6 were pumped and ready to take on all-comers.

This was to be a show with two firsts for us, it was my first show where my primary occupation is as an alpaca breeder and it was to be the first time the three of us were in the ring together as a team.
The Patou pen was adorned with a gift from the Queen of the Mighty Inca Tribe and we were looking forward to the long day ahead of us. Isn't she clever!

Lunchtime and the junior handler class was held. Gus took Todd in and despite appearances in the below picture, worked hard to go through the motions of showing off his skill set. 

He went on to bamboozle the judge, Val Fullerlove, with his Jedi mind tricks and once under his spell the result was a forgone conclusion. She was putty in his little sweaty 10 year old hands.

We were up and running, first place, a nice halter and lead set and a Champion Handler sash. 

Gus and Todd milked it a bit as the onlooking crowd gathered mementoes having witnessed an impressive display of mind control.

Later in the afternoon, our big Team moment arrived, the intermediate brown male class. Three Patou warriors, three brown boys eager to impress. We were ready in plenty of time and Gus and Sue took it in turns to keep the team seat warm. I couldn't join in, I had reached the point of no return. If my legs had gone beyond the 90 degree point and I had taken a seat there is every likelihood that I wouldn't have been able to get up again!

It was a big class with 12 entrants and the judge, Liz Barlow, commented on the high quality of the animals on show. After much deliberation one by one we were brought to the front row and took 1st, 4th and 6th places. A very satisfying result for brown alpaca breeders!

Not only that but the first place male went on to take Champion brown male! I know that those of you 'in the know' will know why no names are mentioned. Suffice it to say that the Mighty Patou showed three brown males and were triumphant! I am, as shown below, far too embarrassed to wallow in the glory of the whole thing so I did the championship with my eyes tightly closed.

So 6 alpacas, 6 rosettes and two Championship sashes, a nice little return for us. It was a fabulous show all round and although there were things that could have been done differently it is difficult without the benefit of hindsight to get things perfect all the time.  We enjoyed it immensely and can't wait until the next show, The National!