Talent will out...

There are millions of alpaca picture taken every week. These magical creatures steal the heart of everyone who comes into contact with them. However the great alpaca pictures come as always from those who have the eye to recognise the light , the situation and the composition as a potential upon which to lavish some time to get a great result.

Whilst in the last throws of shearing on Thursday I noticed my daughter Kerry Lord sitting cross legged in the paddock with a bunch of newly shorn alpacas. She is currently 5 months pregnant with her second child and there she was shuffling slowly forward on her back side inch by inch until she was in a position to take this photograph. Was it worth it? Well judge for yourself. I see lots of alpaca photies having been breeding them for almost 20 years now., I have taken loads but just occasionally you see something that takes your breath away and this one took mine. Is it the combination of colours all bright and new in the  air minutes after shearing? Is it the sense of release in the alpacas as they recognise summer after a wet winter? Is it the angle and the contrast against the deep blue sky behind?  It's all of those and a lot more besides but more than anything it's the taker who knew what she wanted and pursued it with patient determination to achieve a fantastic result. Luck no way! It's called talent. My eldest has the 'eye' and long may she continue to use it to surprise us. Enjoy!

Who's a smart boy then...?

Archie the TOFT Llama got his annual haircut yesterday as the final alpaca to be sheared at this sitting. Archie is sheared standing up and that cut is called a Barrell cut which apparently is all the rage in the Lllama soirees at the moment... Honest!

Archie has one main function at TOFT and that is to demonstrate the difference between a Llama and an Alpaca which he does magnificently. As you can see he is... A foot and half taller, has big curved ears like the handles of the European Cup, his tail is permanently cocked at a jaunty angle and his head is much larger and more accentuated giving him a haughty arrogant look which is not as submissive as the alpaca. Job done.. Well done Archie.

Happy new hair do....

Well that's done, we knocked off shearing the last alpaca about 1 ish, having made good progress since 6.30am. Good breeze over night ensured all were dry this morning. We got a good start and Freya and Linda had al the remaining alpacas in their place adn running smoothly through the holding pens ensuring the shearer kept moving without a break throughout. A big thanks to all who took part in  rounding up, shearing , sorting, grading and tidying up. Couldn't have done it without you. Go get showered and enjoy!

All there is to do now is clear up. For the rest of the summer we live with the 'Pink  Panthers' until the regrowth rounds them back into cute Teddies. Mind you with those ears now their main feature these girls look pretty cute!

Busy busy busy... From the crack of sparrows

We begin shearing yesterday afternoon having shredded up a number of alpacas overnight Tuesday for an early start. Unfortunately the weather was against us for most of the day. So as we can't shear wet alpacas we delayed starting until the afternoon. In between showers we had just enough dry to get through about 40 before rain stopped play. 

We were all up at the crack of sparrows this morning to find our shredded alpacas a bit damp to kick off straight away. We got them outside in the wind for an hour while we all tucked into bacon sarnies and Bobs your Uncle we got the table busy by 8.30am. The weather has been perfect today with bright sunlight and a gentle breeze to keep the alpacas dry. Finished about 7.30pm after a full on day. 'Twas ever thus! Dinner now then bed.  We shall all get up at the crack of sparrowfart and do it all again tomorrow.

And we're off.....

The first Cria of 2016 was born today in the rain. A white girl from Shanbrooke Accoyo Tsar of TOFT ET out of TOFT Ambarona. We haven't weighed her yet but she looks a big un. So much for being born on a sunny day before 3.30pm. Obviously Mum couldn't hang on as the rain has been fairly constant today, if not heavy, from about 1am. 

So there we go first one on the ground for 2016. Mum and babe all well and only 47 to go. We shall call her Alyona which is a touch Russian after her Dad. 

It just went...

Bit of a shocker the other day. I went up to the Rye Hill Farm entrance to our place where the Sustrans cycle track comes through towards the Reservoir to find that a gate had completely disappeared. Gate and post were gone leaving a large gap where a wooden pedestrian gate used to hang. 

On enquiry it turns out that Linda had noticed this omission a month back and Shirley swears the gate was gone before that. Well I never.  No one found it remarkable enough to inform yours truly. 'Twas ever thus. 

Who and why we shall never know. Maybe some kind and handy soul is going to replace it but I doubt it. Of course the cyclists love it because now they don't have to stop and open the gate. H'mmm...

TOFT poo picking machine

TOFT Poo Picking Machine- Only thing missing is the engine. Runs on normal fuel intake with cake and coffee supplement! 

Seriously I always smile when I pass these rigs. We have them placed all over the farm in strategic positions for clearing the hard standings, small home paddocks, isolation paddocks etc. A £40 wheelbarrow and a £7 snow shovel. Yours truly has been known to invest in several snow shovels in July and August when he sees them in the sales at less than £7 outside small DIY outlets and garages. Well, we just can't have enough of those boys floating around to shovel up the Alpaca poo. Simple but, oh,so effective. After almost 20 years of picking alpaca poo we still haven't found anything better than a cheap plastic snow shovel for scooping up the 'beans'.

Of course we do have an old Wessex sweeper/scarifier that works off the PTO on the tractor for cleaning the bigger paddocks. I mean lets get real, there's almost 70 acres of alpacas  at TOFT !