I was so optimistic first thing. The weather was better so the little ones wouldn’t have used energy to keep warm. They should be fine. I went to feed Elsie first. She came for food this morning and had half the bottle. I left the wellfield and two chunky lambs were cwtched up. I love seeing these two. I call them the cuckoo twins. The white one had been abandoned. When we were looking for his mother a different ewe gave birth. We rubbed the first one in the wet one and she thought she had twins. They don’t look alike at all but they are really close and always together. One of my favourite memories of 2022 lambing.
After that I walked to the Bedw. I filled the bucket up and Josh arrived. We fed the boys and then went to feed the girls. Josh caught Garth Maul first. There was a fair bit of complaining from him again but Zippy behaved a bit better. His weight was still 10kg. We had put new batteries in the scale too so… 🤷♀️ Hennessey was next. Her weight had gone down again to 8.1kg. Oh no! We’d seen her drink as well. My worry level cranked up again. Lilibet next. Please be ok, please be ok. She was now down to 8kg. She had lost weight as well. It’s breaking my heart. “We’ll have to top them up” “We’ll move all the new ones into the weanling field this afternoon. We can feed the mothers up and weigh the 3 again this afternoon. We’ll decide then.” He left for Tregurnog then, leaving me to worry on my own.
The first thing was to try and fix the poover hose. The plastic rings need to be glued in to keep the hose rigid. I suppose being left out in the sun made the glue dry out. Typical. I’ll have to get glue now before I can use it again. I had used it yesterday so I drove over to the bagging area. There was a reasonable amount in it so I got to work. I had picked after a day of rain so the poo was moist. This makes it heavier. And, being wet meant I ended up getting it all over my hands. I had to wash my hands off in the brook when I’d finished. Mental note for more hand-wash for the washing area when I pick up super glue. I reversed the mule to the pile of bags as I needed to take 5 up for a customer. I drove the mule up and parked by the front of the house. I took my car and parked it on top. The Garth Hall Farm stickers make it easier for people to know they’re in the righ place. As I got out of the car I heard a car in the distance up the lane. I went back for the mule. I could hear a car up the Chestnuts. I had a feeling it was my customer. Josh messaged. “Wait for him at the top, he’s gone to the Chestnuts.” Typical, I had missed him by seconds. He decided to take 3 bags so I had 2 to take back.
While I had the mule I took a bag of Camelibra and a bag of ewe nuts down with me. I unloaded everything and strolled over to check Eden. When we fed the girls this morning, we though Eden looked as though she was nearer her unpacking time. Most of the girls were either sitting or standing around eating. Eden was standing in amongst them happily eating. No sign of unpacking there. Hennessey and Lilibet were also sleeping. I so want them to be ok. I started the long walk back to the car. My head full of fluffy little cria that aren’t getting enough milk. Heartbreaking 💔
We met Neil just after 4 and put some barriers up between the weanling field and the blue shelter pen. The little boys went through easily and skipped and jumped about excitedly in their new place. Then we attempted to get all the girls in. It was a difficult one with so many new mothers. We had to employ the blue rope. It worked a treat. Plan A was to catch a cria and get its mother to follow. Zippy followed Garth Maul and Luna followed Hennessey. Next Josh caught Lilibet but Chrissie was freaked out and wouldn’t follow. Then it chucked down. We all had waterproof coats but it was warm. Mine and Josh’s were hanging up on a fence post and Neil’s was on his quad. Never mind, the rain was warm.
Plan B. We got the new mothers into the run towards the blue shelter. I let the other girls out. Then Josh filtered out the few that were still in the blue shelter. While they were there we weighed Lilibet. Please have put on weight. Please. “She’s lost again”. I could have cried. I was panicky. “We’ll have to feed her.” I got the bottle but she wasn’t interested. It’s like this with lambs. I kept trying. Josh lost patience and took over. She wouldn’t drink from him either. He let her go and she went straight over to her mother and began sucking the teats in turn. (This is normal to stimulate milk) While we had Bramble in, she was weighed. She has gone up by 1.2kg in 3 days! Then Crouchie. He was up 1.6kg in 3 days. I’m so pleased about them, but what about the others?
We then sent them into the other field. “Leave the side gate open. I’ll put a new rope on it now in a minute.” I went and put food in the trough but the girls were a bit freaked out by their move and stayed by the gate looking into their usual home. In the meantime Josh weighed Hennessey. She has lost more than a kilo since her birth. I really can’t cope. I’ve been on alpaca chat for advice. It’s not alleviated any of my worries. Josh doesn’t worry so doesn’t really understand. He just says “We’ll keep weighing them.” That was it then. I don’t know what else to do. “Let the little boys out into the main pen then” “”No, the side gate is still open to remind you to re-hang it!” “Oh yeah!” He got a length of blue rope. “Do you need my knife?” Then I remembered his machete that’s on the front of his quad. He often pulls it out and delivers the Crocodile Dundee lind: “That’s not a knife, this is a knife!” It’s a regular occurrence but still funny. He then put the handle between his legs and cut the blue rope by pulling it down on top of the blade. “Safety first as always” commented Josh. “Back when I was in the outback, this was how we did it…” One of his stories, so I rolled my eyes and went off to feed the boys. I had to move one of the barriers. Whack. Straight in my shin. Why did I pick the one with only three feet. That would bruise. Lucky that though. If that hadn’t happened I would have been bruise free for once. 🤦♀️ With all that done, we had finished with the alpacas and went up. I fed Elsie and Neil went to dig some stones out with his digger. Josh was helping Neil with something when I came out of the wellfield. “Elsie is fed.” “Elsie? I’ve been calling her Elise.” “Don’t worry we had noticed but you know what your spelling is like. We thought that’s what it was!” And on that note…
So, another night of worry for me. With more rain forecast I don’t think it will be good news in the morning. Neil said he couldn’t understand what was wrong as the teats look engorged as well. I’m wishing for a positive outcome. I love having cria. They are so cute but the stress is more than I can take.
Helen x
