Getting cooler and Supervision

The days are getting cooler, and we've had to put the heater on sometimes.  And no, I'm not the soft touch who put the old quilt on the floor in front of the heater for the dog!

Even those jobs devoid entirely of glamour - such as cleaning up the poo pile - will draw a crowd it seems.  From the left Joeley, Phoebe, Maggie and Vevina take front row spots to see what I'm doing!!  As I left to take the first barrow load to the garden, I distinctly said 'no more additions required' which seems to have translated to 'not enough poo here, add more at will'.   The gardening book says 'well rotted' manure, not still warm!!

Holding Patterns and the Road Paddock Crew

Yesterday there was fog at Sydney airport, so lots of people were in a holding pattern... before being diverted to Canberra and other airports :(

Up at the road paddock, the girls were enjoying their breakfast.  Fresian:

 Jemma taking it easy.

All the llama girls seemed to have been involved in an altercation... observe the dropped bottom lips!!

 Midsummer, seem to have missed photographing her 'look alike' Medallion.

Nellie Melba, always keen on brekky.

Orchid, who takes forever to settle on one bowl and often walks away from it to stand in the middle of the yard and claim there's no breakfast with her name on it!!

Dont let looks deceive you, this willowy black alpaca is Pearl, and she's boss of the group!

Could see Tiana Rose's baby doing its morning exercise, roll on November!

 I have 2 pics of Trinket aka The Troublemaker, and none of Azzura!  Trinket's favourite thing, having worked out which way you'd like the group to go, is to turn them at 90 degrees to that and head off at top speed!

Lovely little Vynka

And the very friendly Yolanda, coping better without Yuri now :)

Kiki - trying to get the birds to come down out of the tree and 'fight fair'  LOL!!

New Comers, Updates and Let Downs

This weekend we welcomed Collette to our herd, she settled in almost immediately and this morning was in the yards at brekky time - smart girl!!

She looks quite like a feminine version of Alba, but will have to wait to see what their cria might look like because Collette's first will be to Callisto.

In the background you can see Namoi, definitely looking more dark brown than black!

Trying to take pics of Collette where she did not look like a deer in the headlights was made more difficult by Joeley wanting to photobomb every shot!!

Myriah and Missy Moo are doing well; yesterday was marking day and cant say Missy Moo was too impressed with her new ear jewellery much at all!!

A little disappointed that Myriah and Phoebe failed spit off tests yesterday, and as its getting too cold and too late now, we will have to wait for spring for the next opportunity to mate these girls; probably not a bad thing as my herd is very autumn drop heavy and the spring group could have a few more numbers..... 2 is a small group!!  LOL!!

Comings and Goings

Last Sunday we said good bye to Wia and hello to Namoi and Vevina.  We were unable to meet Wia's exacting standards in a mate and hope we'll do better with the new girls.  Namoi is listed as black but registered as dark brown.  I think she's a very dark, dark brown, she's been mated to a rose grey, and we're hoping she's pregnant, will do a spit off test in a couple of weeks to find out.  Vevina is black and has been mated to a black suri (heterozygous) so 50/50 chance of huacaya offspring.  The new girls are settling in well, and learning the drill, they have both come into the yards of their own accord on the last two mornings :) and seem very keen on the museli we serve for brekky!!

Wia

Namoi (left) and Vevina (right)

 Vevina (left) and Namoi (right)

And again

 Here are some of the other coloured girls at Currabungla:

I was really taken with the grey girl with the dark face, havent seen this colour combo before

John and Penny thought lambing finished 3 weeks ago, but these 2 ewes pulled a fast one and presented them with lambs only a couple of days ago.

Alan and Aleisha are visiting.  Al showing his usual reticence for being photographed!

Kiki is enjoying the extra company, here helping Aleisha with our game of Querkel.

The days are getting cooler and Kiki thinks there is only one thing better than being on the couch with a pillow and a doona...

And that's being on the couch with a pillow and a doona AND Aleisha!!  I will be checking her bags when she leaves tomorrow to make sure Kiki is not concealed within!!

Halter training continues for youngsters, Jester is a star pupil, very friendly and improving daily on the lead.

Noisette is coming along.

She usually enjoys a cuddle, but here it looks more like a cruggle (cuddle x struggle)

Misty - who found the presence of the trailer in the adjoining yard very 

interesting!!!

Yuri is doing the separation from his mother Yolanda tough, and she's not faring much better.  They spend a lot of time mmmm-ing to each other across the plantation that now separates them.  Weaning is not a cria's favourite time!!

Upgrades

We've had a new cook top installed, its a beauty, bye bye electric nightmare, hello gas instantness!!  I'd love to tell you I cooked my dinner on it tonight, but I wimped out and had a bing dinner!! (What's a bing dinner??  That's one you put in the microwave and when it goes bing, your dinner is ready!!)

The gas plumber who installed all this shiny-ness was a really nice guy, and endlessly patient with Kiki - who wanted to do a lot of helping - turns out he has 3 pugs at home.... Kiki now has another boyfriend on the list!!  LOL!!

Trailers and Newbies

We have a new canopy for the trailer :)  It makes for much swisher transport for the alpacas.  I picked it up yesterday.  Just need to teach them to jump up into the trailer, not that lifting their front legs and giving the hind quarters a heave-ho doesnt work, it's just not a job for one person!

Immediately I put the new acquisition to good use.  This is Myriah and her daughter Missy Moo.  Myriah is a half sister to Narcissus, and while not as big as Narcissus, she's not a teeny alpaca by any means!  She's registered as dark brown, but I think she's more medium/light brown, her Dad was black with black behind him, so I'm hoping she'll give us a black, or at least dark coloured cria, fingers crossed, mated this morning to our black boy Alba.

Myriah's mother is a suri, and while she is an huacaya, I think her hair do has definite suri 'influences', maybe it was just the rain last night!

Missy Moo fits in very well with this crop of cria, being very forward in the eating department, and already trying museli :)

Nanook and Casper are quite pleased with their new playmate, even though she's a girl, and a month younger than them, they seem to be all getting along fine :)  I think she's nearly the same height as Casper, though not as filled out yet.

Why do I like black animals, they are so hard to photograph, this is Casper who is such a cutie, and very laid back like his mother Cushla.

Alba & Bracken 1: Fox 0

Now that's more like it team, dead foxes, not harassed echidnas is what I like to see :)

The winning team coming in to collect their reward, extra serve of brekkie!!

Unhappy Much?

First morning of no Hazel in the house, and Kiki cant even see the point of getting out of bed!!  At 7am I decided she'd sulked enough and hauled her out, she's dragging herself through the morning, but is plainly missing her little bud.

Fearless Echidna Hunters and Computer Settings

This evening I heard the members of the weanlings and mums and older bubs paddock making alarm calls, then I saw them forming a possie and realised they were trying to see off an intruder... went to investigate, this is what I found!!

An echidna!!

The formidable 'guard' team!!  LOL!!

Heading back to the house after the echidna sighting, lots of excitement!

Hazel is a big fan of the bouncy chair, and having crawled into it, with my keyboard set about 'fixing' my computer settings, dont know that the static 'thing' happening with her hair was any help.  When I found her she'd started installing Messenger and set iTunes going and was rocking on... the next big thing in IT is a'coming... hope yous are ready!!