The family arrive, well half of them!

I was so very excited for Frankie, Kaci and Jordan, Frankie's boyfriend, to come for a holiday. The weather was just about perfect, although possibly a few degrees cooler would have been even better. The decision was made that they would come up on the train, from Malaga to Cordoba as we have no air con in our car, as we thought it would be far more comfortable for them, and we met them there at the station. I waved excitedly when I saw them get off the train, and rushed around to the exit, that they would come up the travelator to. Kaci had obviously been prepped to say "Ola Nanny, I've missed you!" However when Frankie gave the cue and said to her "What are you going to say to nanny?" What came out was ICE CREAM PLEASE! Bless her, it did make me laugh!

I had such a lovely time, spending time with Kaci, and "Grandad Alan" and I took her out a couple of times on her own which was great. We had long walks up the track looking for "horsey's" and also over the dam of the reservoir, where we saw about 20 "horsey's", drinking from the lake and just soaking up the sun by the track. One was particularly friendly and Alan and I both managed to stroke him, we called him "Mr Tumble" after one of Kaci's favourite TV program.

Now my Frankie is not very brave when it comes to getting into the pool, even though it maybe 40 degrees outside, Frankie is, I am afraid to say a big wuss. It did take Kaci a few days to get in, but once we were all in together playing she absolutely loved it. When she was n't right in the pool she just loved sitting on the side with her little watering can and bucket playing with the water.

As the weather was so hot we did not go out very much. We did meet up with friends one day, and had tapas in town, and Kaci ran around outside playing football, with the boys, and we popped into see our good friends Tim and Susi, and of course a trip to the zoo. We spent quite a bit of time with the dogs, especially Blue, who Kaci adored, I think Jordan rather fell in love with her too. We all walked the dogs most days which was lovely, and all fed the alpacas most nights too.

Kaci and Jordan painted a pot for us and wow Jordan was a a bit of an artist! This year we have really brightened up our small courtyard, with ceramic pots that the children that have come here on holiday this year, have painted for us.

I don't think it was quite the total break that Frankie would have hoped for, those toddlers certainly know how to keep a mummy on their toes. Hopefully they all enjoyed a different lifestyle and some gorgeous hot sun for 10 days, I know I loved having them all here!

Kaci concentrating on her pot!

Football with the boys!

Alpaca dinner time

All walking the dogs, including the lovely family here on holiday with us!

Lunch time, enjoying the zoo!

Fun in the pool with "Jordi!"

My favourite photo!

Filming

Hooray for some exciting news! On 27th July we had a Canadian film crew here to film our home for a TV show, called "Live Here, Buy This!" The show asks Canadian and American home owners where they fantasize about living, and about what kind of lifestyle they imagine themselves living in, in these places. The film producers chose our house as one of them :-) The crew also filmed in Cordoba as well as the surrounding areas near our home too, as part of the show. The program is aired in Canada in spring 2012, and then sold on to America and other countries after this.

The exciting day arrived, and an estate agent came along with her daughter who was to be discussing our home with the presenter of the show, the lovely Shantelle Canzanese, on camera, who was gorgeous in every way, I guess Canada's answer to Kirstie Alsop, although younger and prettier.... sorry Kirstie (I'm sure she does n't read my blog!) The morning began with a very quick hello, and the crew were shown all around, where they quickly made up their minds which parts they wanted to film in. The mornings filming got off to a quick start and filming began outside the casita, and far too close to the adolescent boy alpacas! As the camera started rolling they thought "action" was a sign for them to all start piggy backing around the field, orgling at the top of their voices. Ohhhhh the embarrassment, I had to put the hose on them, and luckily they soon calmed down.

The first part of the morning was taken up by discussing our home, whilst they walked around it, and the temperature just got hotter, and hotter, and hotter. The poor sound man had a touch of "man flu" when he arrived and would n't even shake our hands, and the poor guy felt worse and worse as the day went on, eventually he jumped in the pool and cooled down, and seemed to feel much better for it. I think it was possibly the hottest day of the year, certainly up to aproximatly 46 degrees!

Lunch was discussed prior to the day, and we were all going out for lunch together, until of course everyone realised on arriving that we are not a short walk to the nearest restaurant, so Alan and I drove into town and bought some lovely salad etc. and we made a lovely lunch for us all. It was too hot to eat outside, even in the shade, so we ate in the big kitchen with fans on us.

Of course the kitchen had been cleaned to within an inch of it's life, and had to be done again as there were still the "beauty shots" to be taken. We were told our house would look "beautiful and sexy" fantastic, so we all got stuck in. Shantelle tried to wash up but that was Alan's department, and then she wanted to mop the floor for us! In the end we both allowed Ken Seeback the director of the filming to mop the floor bless him. He has certainly been well trained! The filming recommenced after lunch, phew I did feel sorry for them as the temperature went up and up!

After lunch Alan and I were told they wanted us to do a 10 second piece to camera, stated why we liked living in Spain. If any of our friends asked us that, we would ramble on for hours, I'm sure, but the fact that we had to do it in front of the camera was a whole different story. It took about four takes and of course were encouraged to smile and look happy whilst talking to the camera. I'm pretty sure a lot of gobble-dee-goop came out of my mouth, and it sure was n't Spanish. However any of my dancey friends will be very pleased to hear that although I was only being filmed from the shoulders up, I was standing in an excellent third position.

It was a great day and the film crew were all lovely. Even the sound man gave us a big hug on leaving. In fact if any of you are on facebook you can "Like" the page of the show "Life here, buy this!

Lunch time!

Cassandra and her lady bits!

Having had the awful worry with Cassandra and flystrike, we are as you can imagine extra vigilant with all our animals at the moment. We were still putting cream on Cassandra and then noticed another swelling, the "ladybits" again, but on the other side, we did nt know what it was, so the first thought was to phone our vet. It was nearly 10pm on a Saturday evening, plus we knew he was very soon going on holiday, if he had not already left. Luckily he had not gone, but we suggested we took a photo, and emailed it to him, so he could have a look and see if he could diagnose the problem. He said sure no problem. We got there and him and his wife were all dressed up to go out, but as ever he was more than happy to help. He felt she could have been stung, or just had an inflamed area. Nothing too much to worry about. he gave us a prescription for a steroid cream. So off we trot to the out of hours pharmacy, As we turned into the main high Street, we were met with a policeman, blowing away at his whistle, directing the crowds away from the town centre, and the away from where we wanted to go. It must have been a religious festival that we did n't know about, and there was a beautiful effigy being carried out of the church, with the locals all in their finery watching . We followed the road round in the direction we were hastily pointed to, and found and got stuck in a wedding party,just as they were coming out of the church. Weddings are very often held during the late evening here as the temperature tends to reach at least 40 degrees most summer afternoons, so the locals enjoy the slightly balmy evenings. Nightmare upon nightmare we then had to take the tiny roads around the town. When we first moved here we had a little drive round some of the tiny streets, and after driving round for about half an hour, we were approached by a man on a motor bike and shown the way out... how embarrassing! We had actually had guests do the same thing and been guided out too! Well surprise surprise we came out at the first church and the effigy had hardly moved, so we decided to call it a night, and make our way home. Cassandra's cream could wait until the following morning. This we did and got caught up in a local cycle race, never a dull moment here hahaha!

Our lovely little town of Montoro

Rafas poorly foot returns, with avengeance :(

All our alpaca problems all seemed to happen within about a month, and seemed to flit from one problem to another so I am sorry if this part of the blog seems a little disjointed.

Well the grey boys had been moved and caused a mini orgy, but the other three boys Rafa, Galaxy and Santa missed the other boys so much, we moved them very soon afterwards. On reflection we should have given Rafa's foot a little more time to heal, however obviously we thought we had. So the boys all had access to a huge open space, basically three paddocks, where at least we thought they could have space. Not on your Nellie they are all still joined at the hip, and still as blooming frisky!

Of course we kept an eye on Rafa's foot. We made up a small pen to feed the boys in at dinner time, to we could keep an eye on it, and for a couple of days it seemed fine, it actually looked like it was healing nicely. He was n't limping, just bouncing along with all the others, usually first, when we came in through the gate, shaking our bucket to let them know it was dinner time. A few days past and we thought we should get hold of him and have a good look, when to our horror we saw a little maggott between his toes. FLYSTRIKE AGAIN! We were devastated!!!

Alan had watched Andres deal with Cassandra's flystrike problem, and was confident who could deal with it, and he did, extremely well. Poor Rafa was obviously in a lot of pain and discomfort whist Alan one by one removed the pesky little blighters! At one point Alan had gone to get fresh water and Rafa tried to jump a hurdle and I got a rather nasty bruise and scratch from his nail as I think I may have caught him, mid jump. Poor little fella. For days we checked it two or 3 times a day and treated it with antibiotic cream. A few days later you could tell it was feeling a lot better as he would let Alan lift his foot, and have a good look without him struggling. I was very proud of Alan, I'm not sure I could have dealt with it!

Rafa going for a walk one day!

Alpaca Orgy!

As you may have read, in my last blog, because of the fighting due to being a little frisky we decided we needed to move the boys, that have been in a rather small area since shearing, hence the fighting I'm sure, so we walked Marcus and Eduardo around on leads, having of course penned the girls in through the girls paddock, and another small paddock to a large area with some grass and weeds, and our plan was to give them a few days on their own then bring round the other three boys. So we did that and went shopping. A couple of hours later we drove up our little track and turned the corner where we can see the girls, usually sunbathing and we were faced with a bloody alpaca orgy!!! There were the three girls sitting in a row all facing the same way, the two outside girls Cassandra (typical) and Lily with a male on top and Bermuda sitting in the middle of them waiting for her turn. BLOODY HELL! So who knows, we may have babies next year. Never a dull moment here eh haha!

Rafa and the start of a poorly foot!

After shearing at the beginning of May, the boys were in a small paddock closest to the house, and the girls nearby, although not too close to cause any excitement or to be able to see each other. It was just the way they had finished up after the upheaval of shearing, besides we like to move them around a bit, musical alpacas, and it stops them from being bored. In time they would all be back in their normal places. Meanwhile it was great to have the boys near us again. They are far more sociable than our girls, and particularly like to come to the fences and have a sniff and a good look when we take the dogs out for a walk. Only a few days after the incident with Cassandra I happened to notice Rafa lying with one leg stretched out in front of him, and he had blood between his two toes, he had probably caught his foot on a stone, although now we are on high alert, always on the look out for blood. Luckily the boys being in the smaller paddock meant we could keep an eye on him easily. For three days at least we cleaned it thoroughly and put the same cream on it that Cassandra had and sprayed him 3 times a day with the same insecticide spray.

The boys had been in the smaller paddock for a couple of weeks and as much as we loved having them there, they needed to be moved, it was just too small for them and they were getting a little frisky, there was a lot of piggy backing around then green spit flying through the air. It seemed to be that our two handsome grey boys Marcus and Eduardo were causing the friskiness so a decision was made to move them round to a larger paddock, just for a couple of days, to give the others a little more space, then we would take Rafa, Galaxy and little Santa round to join them. That was the plan. The plan however did not quite go to plan. Dum dum dummmmm! The next instalment to come... possibly tomorrow!

A slightly younger Rafa, loving Arthur!

Dreaded Flystrike! An alpaca owners nightmare!

We were feeding the girls one morning and for some reason noticed that Cassandra's tail was slightly raised, luckily it allowed me to see she had blood around her bottom and vaginal area. My first thoughts were that maybe she had suffered a prolapse. It was around 8.30 am so I phoned our vet. I asked him if Alan could come and get him, you may remember he does n't drive, he sounded a little hesitant and said errr around 11 am I can come. That was fine with us, Cassandra did not seem to be in any pain or discomfort and she was tucking into her food.... nothing new there, so that was fine. As summer here can be particularly flyey, (how on earth do you spell flyey?) we decided to spray around the area with an insecticide, that we always keep in case an animal gets a cut or graze. One of the fears when you are an animal owner is the dreaded flystrike!

Alan collected Andres at 11 as arranged he explained he had been watching his little daughter in her end of term show of Grease, we now had his full attention though! Whilst we were checking on Cassandra, spraying her with insecticide etc we did notice the infected area seemed very swollen. We could not understand what she had done, if it was an internal problem or a cut on the outside, we just knew there was a lot of swelling! We could also see some minute white things, our fear was that they were fly eggs that would turn into maggots!!!

OK it get's nasty now, put your noodles down! I held Cassandra, as now when we do treatments on the alpacas sometimes I struggle with doing injections, their skin is like a tight drum and some antibiotics are very thick and I have to admit there are a few jobs in life that Alan can do better than me and so I do the holding/ cuddling. Andres knew exactly what he was dealing with and as he went to his Black & Decker box, also known as his medical box, I did n't want to look in case a scalpel was involved. A scalpel was not involved but a blooming big pair of tweezers were. Sadly what we thought may have been eggs were in fact the tails of maggots that were already inside her. We were totally devastated, although Andres was not at all perturbed, I guess he is used to dealing with it. I learnt a lot about maggots during that morning, whilst he took about 20 out of the cut, and the swelling seemed to reduce with every one he removed. He explained to us that the maggots were only 2 or 3 days old, which he could tell from their size and all from the one egg as they were all the same size too. We also learnt that as they eat dead and infected tissue or skin whilst they are inside the body they actually breathe out of their rear end, so what we could see was their tail which they breath of out. I still hate the little blighter's but it was interesting to learn about it.

To this day we don't know what Cassandra had done, she could have sat on a sharp stone or caught herself on a branch, we just don't know. However she healed remarkably quickly once the maggots had been removed and she had a course of antibiotics, plus an antibiotic cream too. Thankfully she is fine now, but we are always keeping our eyes open for slightly raised tails, as I'm sure you can imagine! Poor Cassandra!

Our gorgeous Cassandra