Finally!

Meet Karla, named after our friend Kalle, who 
sadly died last month. His real name was Karl, 
hence Karla.

After 16 days over her due date, Amanda delivered a little female cria, Karla. I've been there, done that and got the t-shirt. Only my 15 day late baby is now 35 years old - sheesh how did that happen! My 17 day overdue baby will be 34 years old soon. I can still sympathise though. Dear Amanda has been looking tired for over a week now but still the baby was content to kick around inside until today. Silla is also due about now, but her udders are swelling and so another birth is imminent..... well maybe!

Father and Grandfather to Karla.

Amanda was looking rather large
the day before. We kind of realised
that she would be giving birth
soon.

Ooh! What's this? Is it mine?

Although Amanda is 7 years old, the same age as Aggie, Mari and Chanel, this was her first cria. She looked a bit shocked after the birth and was staring out of the alpaca house. Ian diverted her attention and she suddenly discovered the baby. It was almost like, wow, how did that happen and where did that come from? Fortunately she bonded very quickly and seems to be making an excellent mum. She even stayed with her baby when all the others moved off to the alpaca house. It is due to be another chilly night and Karla was shivering a little, so we put a coat on her.

Will George become a father next year? Hopefully
we will find out soon. We are going to try and see if 
he will mate with the older girls. They are a bit of 
a challenge though. Will he be up to the challenge?

Will little Jakobs be ready for the mating game?
We shall see!

Freddie has such a sweet character, it would be
lovely to breed from him, but we know that is
not wise. He has a dodgy back leg and skin
problems and so not the right kind of genetics
to pass on.

I spend most of last week trying to finish off an academic paper. It was close but the paper that seems to have gone on and on and on has been finally re-submitted, just before the second deadline. I had to ask for an extension as there was no way to get it completed and ensure my work with the Masters students was also complete. Now we, i.e. I and the rest of the team, all just hang around for weeks while they review it again. I'm sure there will be some changes that are still necessary. That's just the way it is, but for now I can relax a bit and finish off some other work before my holidays begin - whatever that is!

Enjoying the sunshine amongst the trees

Amanda was in labour and decided to lie down for
a bit to rest, so they all joined in. Looks like an
apacalypse

Sometimes both groups of girls just have to be
in the same place. It looks a bit of a tight squeeze.

We've now passed the point where our immunity to Covid19 should be sufficient to be able to travel across borders. We should be travelling up to Estonia, but that will still have to wait until the three babies that are due before the end of June have been born. There are some rather warm alpacas that need shearing, so it is a good job that they all have cool indoor places to shelter as we are expecting a heatwave this weekend.

Ian found this nest on the floor with three of the
five eggs broken. He managed to work out a way
to fix it and put the eggs back. The parents seemed
to accept his handiwork, so all is good.

Fortunately the swallow's nest in the boys alpaca 
house seems a bit more secure.

I did manage to attend a conference, online of
course. This was my view. Well some of the time.
This week I've been spending my time trying to
find the warmest spot out of the sun.

Despite the weather forecast for this weekend, the weather is still relatively cool at the moment. Even when the sun is out, there has been a cool wind. It's made working a bit problematic. It has been too warm in the caravan that is still in the greenhouse, but too cool to sit in the shade outside. Yesterday I spent chasing semi-shade all day. My cardigan was on and off all the time. Each time Ian saw me, I was sat in a different place. Down by the barn, I got chilled. Up by the greenhouse the sun moved around, I would start off okay and then the sun would move and I had to try and find another flat spot to put my chair. Then the wind picked up and it started to get cool. I finished working in the shade of the caravan in the greenhouse. 

Little Karla

Eventually I realised that Ginger Tom had the 
best idea, of taking advantage of the shade of
the caravan in the greenhouse. It worked.

At least the shade from the grapevines helped too.

It is so strange to still have the caravan in the greenhouse at this time of the year. Normally, by now we would generally be sweltering at night even outside the greenhouse. We will get the caravan out before the heatwave this weekend but the main problem is that now the grapevine is taking on its monstrous proportions and we will have to be careful it doesn't ensnare anything on the roof of the caravan as we take it out. 

Not me!

Poor Turbjørn. He's still having his ups and downs.
This week looked to be a bad week and so he got
a dose of a long-lasting painkiller. That helped. Also 
I've been putting a herbal fly spray on his nose to
keep the flies off. He can't do that himself very well
due to the lack of mobility in his neck, and maybe
that is why he was having a bad day. 

Going down or alpaca yoga?

I finally got our tomatoes planted up this last weekend, another way overdue job. Some of them were a reasonable size but some are still rather small. I plan to do far more watering than normal to see if they will catch up. Normally we only water once or maximum twice a week so they put down deep roots. This time they will need all the help they can get. I also got more beans planted out and some squashes repotted. Again the squashes would normally be planted up outside but the cool temperatures have slowed down their growth and they are not big enough to plant out yet. I shall just have to leave them in the pots and let them grow. At least in the pots they are easier to water. 

So pleased with the way that Amanda has bonded
with Karla.

Obligatory ET cria picture

Two tired alpacas.

We had two sets of visitors over the weekend. Larger groups than we've been having but still not as large as some years when we've had coach loads. However, it did turn out to be a fairly profitable weekend. Normally we do not sell much in the way of alpaca products. We just have not been set up for selling this year and so things have stayed in a box. Not the ideal selling point. However, one group bought a pair of Turbjørn socks and the hat and scarf knitted from Chanel's wool. Neither were cheap. 

Silla coming to check out the new arrival

An amazingly large caterpillar of the 
Drinker moth apparently.

Platystomos albinus, a fungus weevil

Clouded magpie moth

These comical caterpillar like creatures
are actually the larvae of a sawfly. Possibly
a Rose Sawfly. Not happy to see these
little fellas though on our apple tree.

Brindled Beauty moth according to
iNaturalist.