Welcome to the podcast for alpaca people!

In this episode, a brief update on what's happening in the valley - snow features quite highly - mainly because of its rarity and surprising nature.

Plus, hear about our new vet and unloading a feed delivery.

Also, a shout-out to our listeners in Norway - I appreciate you listening; thanks to our old vets St James; and to Kris Cody and the team at https://www.pakaapparel.com/.

Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoyed it.

You can contact me by email - [email protected] - or leave me a voicemail from your browser.

Alpaca Tribe is hosted and produced by Steve Heatherington of Waterside Voices.

Welcome to the podcast for alpaca people!

In this episode, I bring you some sad news about Nia - one of the older girls (almost 15) who we lost this week. Fascinating to see how the herd responds at times like this. They are all thrown and are significantly subdued. Nia was a favourite. They all are of course, but she was a particular one. She will be missed but has been greatly loved and appreciated, and we have many happy memories.

Loss is also part of the package deal of keeping alpacas.

Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoyed it.

You can contact me by email - [email protected] - or leave me a voicemail from your browser.

Alpaca Tribe is hosted and produced by Steve Heatherington of Waterside Voices.

Welcome to the podcast for alpaca people!

In this episode, I resume my conversation with Rita Soares of Campo Verde Alpacas in Australia. It is incredible how much is the same even at the other end of the world.

We talk about climate change and being responsible and knowing when to intervene and when to try to restore balance a little. And spider webs in the home!

Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoyed it.

You can contact me by email - [email protected] - or leave me a voicemail from your browser.

Alpaca Tribe is hosted and produced by Steve Heatherington of Waterside Voices.

Welcome to the podcast for alpaca people!

In this episode, I have a catch-up conversation with Rita in Australia with her 37 alpacas.

We have had similar questions and musings about what we could do compared to what we wanted to do. When you start keeping alpacas, it is helpful to have an idea of the scale you want to grow to and the kind of activities - such as farm visits - that you want to do while keeping the balance of family life and happy alpacas.

More to come next time

Thanks to Rita Soares for the conversation

Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoyed it.

You can contact me by email - [email protected] - or leave me a voicemail from your browser.

Alpaca Tribe is hosted and produced by Steve Heatherington of Waterside Voices.

Welcome to the podcast for alpaca people!

In this episode, I invite you to think a bit more about making decisions while keeping your alpacas and some of the things I had to respond to this week.

This includes:

• Do you need to do it now?
• How are you? How are they?
• Is it leaning in the right direction?

Let me know your decision-making process so we can all learn together to be better alpaca shepherds.

I hope you have a good week.

Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoyed it.

You can contact me by email - [email protected] - or leave me a voicemail from your browser.

Alpaca Tribe is hosted and produced by Steve Heatherington of Waterside Voices.

Welcome to the podcast for alpaca people!

In this episode, we hear Jeremiah tell his story of the new arrival on their farm.

I also consider some foundational skills for alpaca shepherds.

We need to know specifics such as moving alpacas; holding an alpaca steady without wrangling or strangling; and trimming toenails so they think they have had a spa-treatment pedicure. But underlying those are my suggested foundations of:

1. How to make decisions.
2. Noticing and understanding what you are seeing.
3. How to learn.

What would you include as foundations?

Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoyed it.

You can contact me by email - [email protected] - or leave me a voicemail from your browser.

Alpaca Tribe is hosted and produced by Steve Heatherington of Waterside Voices.

Welcome to the podcast for alpaca people!

In this episode, we catch up with my old friend Jeremiah Owen in California. We swap notes on a few things and get to hear what his biggest learnings have been this last year.

Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoyed it.

You can contact me by email - [email protected] - or leave me a voicemail from your browser.

Alpaca Tribe is hosted and produced by Steve Heatherington of Waterside Voices.

Welcome to the podcast for alpaca people!

In this episode, we talk about those subtle interactions between alpacas - and us!

Some people like people-watching, but I prefer alpaca-watching.

There is also a catch-up on what has been happening with the girls.

Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoyed it.

You can contact me by email - [email protected] - or leave me a voicemail from your browser.

Alpaca Tribe is hosted and produced by Steve Heatherington of Waterside Voices.

Welcome to the podcast for alpaca people!

In this episode, we recognise the need to take a long view of almost everything to do with alpacas. They live a long time for livestock; they have a long gestation; the single cria a year means breeding decisions take a long time before you can judge success and repeat or vary for the next round.

We need to think in seasons and years rather than weeks and months.

It is a different timescale and rhythm but has its advantages.

Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoyed it.

You can contact me by email - [email protected] - or leave me a voicemail from your browser.

Alpaca Tribe is hosted and produced by Steve Heatherington of Waterside Voices.

Welcome to the podcast for alpaca people!

I find myself craving normal in this episode, but it might have to wait a week. Don't get me wrong, I like special but plain food and less sugar, along with some routine, is all I want right now. The holidays are over but we haven't quite got back to normal. How about you?

Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoyed it.

You can contact me by email - [email protected] - or leave me a voicemail from your browser.

Alpaca Tribe is hosted and produced by Steve Heatherington of Waterside Voices.