Blencogo Farm Alpacas – Aplacas, marriage and Television

I never had pets as a child – unless you count a goldfish won at a fair in 1978 – it lived for about a fortnight.

But marriage and a house move in 2012/13 meant we inherited some hens and then we got a cat, a rescue, called Jasper.

My girlfriends have horses and other beasts and still find it too funny for words that I am now knee deep in animals. The purchase of our first two boys, Marco and Pedro, was a happy accident and their fault  – the aforementioned girlfriends joked about me moving onto alpacas and then promptly found the boys for sale and encouraged me. When husband said he was off to buy a couple more hens, I said I’d be home with a couple of alpacas….I don’t think he believed me but that’s how it happened.

Obviously husband and teenage children fell instantly and hopelessly in love with them too. The boys lived in a penned area in the garden for several months but just a few weeks after their arrival I went to meet Pat Bentley and ended up buying seven more alpacas at Syke House Alpaca’s dispersal sale and renting several acres of land by our house.

I’m a TV journalist so my life is spent researching stories and topics – researching alpacas and how to handle, care for and breed them is probably the best task I have ever had though. Our first two cria were born on farm in 2015 and we have also taken on a couple of Herdwick sheep who both had twin lambs in the spring.

The best bit of my day is going out to check and feed the alpacas each morning – something I never thought I would hear myself say. Their funny, curious, smiling faces are the perfect antidote at the beginning and end of a crazy day spent working in telly. Find out more at www.blencogofarm.com