The llamas support CanTeen

Nurses in a Perth hospital were giving their time to sell CanTeen bandannas to assist with raising money for childhood cancer sufferers.  I was in a hurry and asked them for directions and they responded with the answer on condition I helped them out. I told them I would come back after my appointment - which I did - and purchased 2 for my llamas. They asked if they could have a picture to use in their campaign next year and I sent them the following.

GARLIC CROP FOR THIS YEAR

Well time is almost up to get new vegetables into the gardens before the summer heat arrives.  The garlic showed early signs of needing to be pulled out (probably due to all the rain), so out they came and made way for an eggplant.

After washing the knobs of garlic, they were pegged by the roots to dry and then I plaited them to hang out on the verandah ready for use in 2012.

There is also a ready supply of broadbeans and strawberries.

OH ENRIQUE

What do you think when you look at these pictures of Enrique(Kike)? 



As if I hadn't had enough dramas with my alpacas this week, this is how Enrique appeared one morning.  My first re-action was that my stomach felt sick.  Enrique is the one who climbs trees and puts his feet up on top of fences.  He's the one who won't walk on a lead, but does give me a cuddle every morning when I hold my arms out to him.  What had he done now?

I did a quick about face and went up to the house to get a bucket of water, cloths and eucalyptus oil.

The next step was to corner my boy and have a good look at his face.  Fortunately it was as I had hoped.  He had been up a marree tree and the bloody coloured sap had fallen over his face.  (I believe the aboriginals used this as an antiseptic.)

Soapy water starts the removal process and this is followed by eucalyptus oil which around these big nostrils causes some decent chest coughs.

LIFE IN THE RAISED VEGE BEDS in October

 SAGE in flower
BROADBEANS for dinner
FENNEL  for roast vegetables
ARTICHOKE starting out
My first GARLIC this year grown among the strawberries

MY POOR BOYS' EYES

It's always been positive news when I write about the camelids.  However, there is a realism which comes with owning and caring for animals - they are not always well.

One of our alpacas, Seve, has had an unfortunate life in that when he was only 9 months old when he was with his breeder, an ulcer formed in his right (probably due to a grass seed).  When he was delivered to us he still had the ulcer but it didn't seem to trouble him.  However, it became inflamed and from July to November last year he received constant attention from me having various ointments or alternatively saline solution daily applied to the eye (varying opinions from 3 vets taken into account).  In July, he also had the eye operated on and the lid stitched up for a week. To make matters worse, towards the end of the year his left eye also became cloudy, but luckily it settled down.

Over the last year I have continued to daily wash his right eye out with saline, and on occasion over the last month did this on alternate days.  On 18th of this month the ulcer in the right eye became inflamed again - tears constantly flowing down his face.  Then a week later his left eye also became whiter and obviously very sore.  From my experience last year, all the creams seemed to do was irritate the eyes, so this week I am just washing both eyes out with saline once or twice a day.

It is also the time that the grasses in the paddocks turn to seed and this is a dreadful time for alpacas as they risk getting the seeds in their eyes.  Sure enough last week when Seve's eye worsened, Camilo came in with pus in his left eye, so now both boys are locked in the animal shelter area constantly moaning to be let out with the other boys.  I roster on a couple of the other boys each day for a 24 hour stay with them as they hate not being part of a herd. 

It seems that Seve's eye is going to be a recurring problem, so I am organising a small paddock for him to be made to adjoin the animal shelter so that he can at least get to some green feed and chew on the leaves of some trees.  He may be in there for the next couple of months as dust is another problem with ulcers and in summer there is a lot of dust.

To make matters worse, it is now 'fly time'.  October and November are our worst months for flies and they just stick on the poor boys' faces where their tears flow and also try to get into their eyes.  All the boys have this problem (as do humans), but it is particularly sad for the boys with sore eyes.

So I will continue with the saline till the end of the week, and if there is no improvement, I may have to contact my new vet to see if he has any other remedies I have not tried before. 

It is quite amazing how an animal which doesn't particularly like humans will stand with his halter on and let me pull open his sore eyes, squirt water in them at close range and then wait for me to wipe the area around them dry.  Seve, of course has had this done for over a year, but Camilo (a very tall heavy boy with a shoulder high back kick) has never been handled this way and after just a few days he is willingly letting me help him.  This afternoon after I finished, he put his head on my shoulder (he is taller than me) and just rested it there with a quiet moan as I massaged the top of his head.

Charlotte Buch Workshop - circle scarves

In a previous post I mentioned attending a Charlotte Buch workshop and completing a nuno felted dress.  Charlotte also showed us garments adorned with concentrated cirlces and how to make a scarf from a square piece of fabric with a round hole in the middle.  I have put the two ideas together to make the scarves below.

 

The blue scarf is dyed cotton gauze with circle rings of alpaca fleece.  The pink scarf is dyed tissue silk with circle rings of alpaca combined with solid alpaca circles which have been raised to make large buttons on opposite corners.   I randomly fill the occasional circle with silk to give a sparkle.

The scarf can be folded in various ways to achieve different effects - either triangular or square over the shoulders

In another experiment with the square, I used bright coloured sheep wool on white muslin and the result had a real 70s feel.

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TWO ANIMALS IN STRANGE PLACES

The weather has been regularly hovering around a maximum of 24 degrees, but yesterday the forecast was for today to be 10 degrees hotter.  Around 11.30am when the temperature was 31 degrees, I could not find Vijay, the Bengal cat.  After much searching I found him on the sunny side of the studio baking inside the smaller terracotta pot seen below.

 

















The grass in the house paddock is getting a little long, so I thought I would let Udo the llama in to graze.  After initially filling his mouth, he went exploring the house - seen here looking into the laundry window.

It turned out to not be a good idea considering 160kg could destroy sprinkler heads and the most interesting plants for Udo are the ones I have been carefully tending over the last year.  Thankfully he willingly joined his mates in the back paddock.  His next visit will be on a lead.

SUCCESS FOR THE AUSTRALIAN WOOD DUCKS

In my post on 18 August a family of Australian Wood ducks was featured.  The male and female ducks were carefully tending 6 tiny ducklings.  I finished my post hoping that at least 2 ducklings would survive.

I have been watching the family daily and two months later I am proud to report that 4 of the progeny have now almost reached adulthood and the mother and father continue to walk the younger ones across from the dam paddock into the pasture grass in front of the house.  This is in spite of the fact that all can fly.  I know this as I approached too closely and was extremely pleased to see the whole family take to the sky.

Here's hoping another family will arrive in August next year.

TODAY WAS THE LLAMAS' TURN

Last year one of our llamas, Udokan, was tied down and shorn.  It was an experience never to be repeated.  His trust was replaced with mistrust and it has taken a year to nearly gain his confidence. So this year a young man who has 5 llamas which he uses for trekking came to shear the two llamas.  His approach is to shear them standing and as expected, the younger one, Donnegal (on the right below), was very placid and stood relatively still. However when it was Udo's turn, there was much kicking and moving sideways.  Slowly Steve gained his confidence and with a little more restraint, the task was completed without injury to shearer or animal.  See below 'before' appearance.

Both the boys have brownish saddles, but when this area is shorn both are bitumen grey.  The neck hair is left as the males feel extremely exposed without their glorious manes.  The saddle and part of the way down the legs are removed and it only takes a couple of months for the overall appearance to once again be brown.  It must be a great relief to have 20cm of hair removed and I am sure it is much cooler in summer.  See 'after' below with short saddles.





Steve also measured the boys up for packing saddles, so the next adventure will be to train them to take the backpacks when we go for walks.

FUN AFTER SHEARING

Although shearing is rather traumatic for the alpacas, with an experienced shearer it is all over in about 5 minutes.  The human owner watches assuring herself that it is for the good of the animal (and for the owner once the fine fleece is bagged).  However today the proof was in watching the boys out in the paddock lazing away in the sun sucking up the Vitamin D and then finishing off with a good roll in the dirt.

 

 

The roll shown below was demonstrated by Camilo - the undisputed 'top' alpaca in alpaca pecking order.  See finally the 'before shearing' image and then the 'after' shot.

Now 'before' and 'after' shearing



SHEARING DAY FOR ALPACAS

The long awaited shearing day has come and gone - for the alpacas.  Llamas get their day next Tuesday.  The best way to describe this day is the 'before' and 'after' shots  of some of the boys - Alphonso, Alun, Holman, Scrumpy and Picasso.