Snow And Jumping Alpacas

Hi All

Well the snow started falling at around 15.00 yesterday and continued well in to the night, I was expecting things to be a lot worse than they were this morning when we woke, even though, we have still had around 5" of snow fall overnight.

Lily was really excited and couldn't wait to get outside and start playing in the snow, we decided to let the alpacas out for a short while so that we could muck out the barns and thought that it would be a fantastic photo opportunity to see some of the alpacas experience snow for the first time.


Here is one of the groups taking advantage of the crisp snow, they were not that bothered to start of with, they were more interested in breakfast.

Then the younger one realised that the grass was a little colder than usual and the wrong colour and that's when the fun began.


The jumping and skipping around was fantastic to watch and I am glad I had the camera with me. I hope you enjoy these pictures as they make us smile when we look at them. All the alpacas are now all took up in the barns to keep warm and Lisa and Lily are outside making a snowman.

So that's all for now, be back soon with more pictures. Keep warm all.

Computer Repaired!

Hi All,

Well it's been such a long time since my last blog which has partly due to having major computer problems, hopefully this is all sorted out now and we are back online.

We hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year, a little belated I know but with our computer issues this is our first time in wishing you all the best and a successful 2012.

Wellground Relentless our stud male is due to become a dad this year, so we are really excited to see what his influence has been with the cria's being born this year. Relentless is a true gentleman with the ladies and can't wait to show them a bit of loving. We will keep you posted with the new arrivals when they happen.

The rest of the alpacas are all coming along nicely, we are going to be releasing some of the alpacas for sale this year and we are currently updating our website with these details and will publish these very shortly.

The winds of late have been playing tricks on our minds as we have been convinced that we are going to get blown away in the caravan, although it is very well secured down it has been a little bit scary at times and kind of feels like we are on a small boat during a hurricane storm out at sea.

Well it's great to be back online again and to be able to see what you all have been up to, it's very surprising how much we depend on computers these days, it's only when they are not working that we realise how much they form part of our daily routine.

That's all for now, back soon.

WARNING WARNING PLEASE READ

Hi All,

We feel it our duty to inform you all of a scam that has been attempted on us!!

We will give you quick outline of what has happened and then a website that you can see the responses from others that have also had the same attempt of the scam on them, some not so lucky though unfortunately.

We decided to take an advert out with Aspire Magazine as this is a magazine that covers our region, don't get us started on that one, that's another story! however the advert was placed and all was well in the end.

Maybe a week later 1/12/11 to be exact I received a phone call on my mobile from a private number, I answered the call and a guy on the other end said something a little mumbled at the beginning as it was a poor line but asked if he can just confirm the details he has are correct, not giving me chance to say anything, he proceeded to reel off our business name, address, both land line and mobile numbers, website address and then asked me to confirm my surname, I confirmed my surname closely followed by him saying thank you very much for supporting your community magazine, to which I then assumed he was from the Aspire Magazine and this was just a follow up call, he then proceeded to say that they will be sending me a distribution list and some publications of the magazine through the post. He then said thank you for placing the advert and we will not contact you again this side of Christmas, we hope you and your family have very nice Christmas and good New Year and then hung up. The conversation was very quick and probably only lasted about 40 seconds.

Monday 5/12/11 we receive through the post an invoice from a company called SWITCH GROUP for the total of £299.00 for the advert placed in "Your Community" and another piece of paper with the screen dump of the front page of our website asking us to approve the artwork. Obviously something was not right here as we had not taken out anymore advertisements.

I return home from work and looked at the invoice and it soon started to ring alarm bells, trying to cut a long story short here. I called them and spoke to a female called Sophie (she has various other names!) who I told, that I would not be paying and then she got very defensive and a little abrupt. Further digging and Google street maps later, shows the address is a Mail Box which is an American Franchise company that can be ran from a shop but is the equivalent to the UK PO Box. We smell a BIG STINKY RAT here. A quick call to Rob Rawlins at Wellground and to run a few thoughts past him, Rob reminds me that Irene at Ashdale Alpacas had recently blogged about a Crime Prevention Scam. I called Irene who had also placed an advert in the same Aspire Magazine and sure enough Irene has also had a similar telephone call but as of yet no invoice through the post.

A big thank you to Irene and Simon who gave me some good information and the following website to look at www.nuisancecalls.org.uk please look at this site, it's free you don't have to register or log in. scroll down the front page slightly and you will see a fairly large box that says enter you number here, enter 0844 096 1804 and hit enter. Click on the bit that says Switch Group Scam and then read the comments left by other people that have had the same happen to them. Please take a few minutes to do this it could save you allot of money!

We are trying to give you all a heads up on this scam, we don't want any of you to get caught out, even when they say they have a recorded message of you agreeing to the contract, which they did record me, but it's all a scam as you will see from reading the comments that have been left.

Please pass this blog onto everyone that you may feel could get caught out with this, we all follow different alpaca breeders for various reasons but lets all pull together on this and stop any of us getting scammed by these scum of the earth.

If anyone would like to call me to discuss our experience of this then please feel free 07912 579041 oh they have also sent me a text message after I said I was not paying saying "Urgent action required. please call SWITCH now regarding your overdue balance, call today to receive a 15% discount offer VALID TODAY ONLY CALL 0844 096 1804. oh they called me again today asking when i was going to pay, so I confirmed again I would not be paying so take me to court, she got rather aggressive and said i was unprofessional and asked if I talk to all of my customers this way. You don't want to know what I said!

Please be on your toes. Take care all.

It's Been A Long Time!

Hi All,

Well I can't believe we have not blogged for so long, no excuses we have just been so busy with another part of our business. We are not complaining, it just took us a bit by surprise the interest it created and the work it brought along, all good though.

Our alpacas are all doing really well and this years cria's are growing up just perfectly. The grass is still just about growing here with this mild weather we have been spoilt with, although we have been bringing the alpacas in overnight now for the last few weeks, we can't help it as we can sit looking out of the window directly onto the alpacas in the barn, it's just fantastic.

We have a local craft fair that we are attending in December so our knitter is working her fingers to the bone and my workshop is buzzing with crafts that have been made ready for the Christmas craft fair. We are currently in the process of update our website with an online shop that we are hoping to go live with soon, so watch the space for announcements of that but in the meantime here is a couple of pictures of the woodworking I have been creating, sorry we don't have any pictures of our garments, I forgot to take the pictures and now that we have sold out of everything I will have to take some when they are next available and before they get posted off again......this being in demand caper is just great.

If anyone has any questions about our craft's then please feel free to contact us. We can create almost anything from a picture, so if you have that favourite picture that you would like re-creating in wood then give us a call to discuss your requirements. WillowBank Alpacas & Crafts 01455 888646 or 07912 579041 if we do not answer please leave us a message and we will return your call as soon as we can.

Well that's all for tonight, be back soon.

Another Full Australian Birth

Hi All,

Well the weekend brought us a new cria from another one of our Australian girls. Wellground Cyan was really making us wait for this cria, she decided to hang on for another 3 weeks past her due date before letting her secret out. Saturday morning at 07.30 Wellgroung Cyan gave birth to a beautiful Solid Light Fawn Female that we have called WillowBank Adelaide.

WillowBank Adelaide has some cracking genetics in her pedigree, her sire Eringa Park Lionheart ET has certainly put his stamp on this geurgoeus cria, WillowBank Adelaide is also made up from the likes of, Cambridge Buckingham, Jolimont Commisario, NWA Ltd Ruffo, Eringa Park Show Time, Jolimont Gianmarco, Jolimont Sculptor, EP Cambridge Peruvian Spartacus to name but a few, so we are very excited about WillowBank Adelaide.

Well that's all for this morning, we have lots to be getting on with around the farm so must crack on, back soon with hopefully more news of some more births.

Bye To Wellground Close Encounter

Hi Folks,

Well not allot has been happening since my last blog. We are still waiting for our next cria's to be born and after an earlier influx's of cria's things have slowed down. Cyan one of our Australians is no coming up to 3 weeks ever her due date, which is frustrating as we are very keen to see what she gives us, I'm sure she will have her cria when she is ready, we will just have to be patient.......

We are really desperate for rain and as we can't remember the last time we actually had a decent amount, the weather men/woman forecast heavy rain over the last couple of days but we had a quick shower and that was that.

Our fleeces have gone down south ready for the GWR Show and we are keeping our fingers crossed for this years show to see how we get on.

I returned Wellground Close Encounter to Rob and Les at Wellground Alpacas the other Sunday which was a pleasure. Wellground Close Encounter had been with us for a mating and he worked his magic like a true professional. Wellground Close Encounter sure is an outstanding stud and certainly puts his stamp on his offspring. Rob and Les looked after me with their kind hospitality as always, even if Les took the mickey out of me for having a thick moment with loading the truck full of things, rather than the ease of putting it in the now empty trailer......I blame that on being dumb struck by the quality of their up and coming cria's, Thanks Rob and Les.

I will get out this weekend and get some pictures of the alpacas, they are looking really well and the cria's are growing fast, oh we also have two new mouse catchers to introduce to you, so I will be back soon.

More Births And Pictures

Hi All

Well I was going to blog last night as I had previously mentioned in my last blog one thing led to another and before I knew it, it was time for bed. So without delay here is the blog that we are trying to catch up on.

So here we have WillowBank Unknown!

WillowBank Unknown is not it's real name if you hadn't already guessed it, we are undecided what to call this fella so unknown is his nickname. I'm not going to go to much into the genetics tonight as I gave you your fill of genetics in the last blog, so pictures today and more genetics another day.

Next up WillowBank Scooby a Light Fawn Male

WillowBank Scooby has a fantastic presence in the herd already, he is not camera shy either as he stands here proud as punch watching for the birdie on the camera.

Following on we had another birth yesterday of another female cria, unfortunately we have not got any pictures of her yet so her picture will come soon, so for now a quick look back over the last few weeks and pictures of the cria's born.

Well that's all for tonight back again soon.