National Alpaca Week 2014

March 31, 2014March 31, 2014 by Gabrielle Bryden ♥ 15 Comments

Note: a repost from last year. This year the National Alpaca Week is from the 28th March to the 6th April.

Many alpaca farms in Queensland are suffering because of an extended drought. Some owners have had to sell stock because all their grass is gone. It finally rained heavily last week which is great news for farmers, but everything is muddy and yuck at the moment.

Thinking of you all in the alpaca world.

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National Alpaca Week

Yes, it is that time of the year again, National Alpaca Week.

This is the week that you can visit your local alpaca farm in Australia; and being the proud owners of two Suri alpaca we thought we would go and have a looksee at the place where Spirit and Merlin were born (Ivory Park alpaca farm in a place called Bungadoo).

Personally I would have gone to visit Bungadoo just for the sound of the name 😉

So we travelled forth to Bungadoo on Sunday afternoon to visit Ivory Park. This alpaca farm is owned and operated by Bev and Darryl (with a focus on solid white Suri alpacas).

And what a pretty farm it was!

Rolling hills, plentiful dams and a multitude of alpaca afoot.

This is the Suri nursery with Mums and their bubs (or crias as they are called in the alpaca world)

Suri alpacas (crias and Mums)

Suri nursery (Ivory Park)

Ivory Park also has some Huacaya alpacas (the fibre is very dense and stands perpendicular to the body). Suri alpacas have the finer fibre which has a dreadlock appearance.

Here is a very young Huacaya alpaca (cria) with Mum.

Huacaya cria with Mum

Huacaya cria

There was even a llama to behold:

Fabuloso (not my name 😉 )

Llama

Last but not least – the Suri alpaca on the left is Pinjarra Rossini (father of Spirit and Merlin). He looks a bit pleased with himself (but what the hell would I know) learning the body language of an alpaca is on my To Do list!)

Pinjarra Rossini (left)

The kids and I really enjoyed our visit to Ivory Park and didn’t get spat at once!

Thank you Bev and Darryl (and Sandra and Tim for the introductions).

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‘the good, the bad and the ugly’

November 21, 2013November 21, 2013 by Gabrielle Bryden ♥ 11 Comments

The Good News is:

The ducklings are getting bigger and this means life is a bit safer for them in their wanderings.

My little duckling is now 11 and is getting bigger (she is probably going to be the tallest in this family).

The not-so-little girl had a terrific birthday weekend with our house turned into the house of girls, loud noise and lots of partaying.

The school holidays are nearly upon us and I will be able to get stuck into some serious writing – this year has been a bit of a write-off in the writing and submitting arena, but I plan to make up for it in the summer lull. A manuscript I will finish by February next year – I hereby pledge – and if I do not finish it, you may chuck me in a bathtub of water filled with ice cubes! The non-fiction manuscript shall be the Autism Files and will be written under a pseudonym (suggestions for names are welcome, but will probably be ignored – hahaha). I obviously will be letting people know the pseudonym in due course (if the thing ever gets published).

I love the school holidays 🙂 Bring it on!

The Bad News is:

The not-so-little girl sprained her ankle during her birthday celebrations and has been hobbling around the house using crutches for much of the last week 😦 We’ve been to hospital and had x-rays and ultrasounds and lots of time in waiting rooms. The girl doesn’t like doctors much anymore – she refuses to acknowledge that they know anything 😉 and is loathe to follow their advice.

The ducklings are much bigger, we have too many of them and they can be quite messy (and no-one has come forth to take them off my hands even though I am begging all passing tradies and unsuspecting parents who drop in – ‘will you please take a ducky’ or ‘can I pay you in ducklings?’ 😉 One trady responded with ‘do they lay golden eggs’ Ha!