If life gets to you, try pancakes with golden syrup. If sweets are not your choice, there is a special on crocodile tail-fillets and emu cheeks at a butcher here in Bowral.
I remember years ago buying crocodile fillets but ended up stowing it in the deepfreeze. The grey look of it together with a vision of swishing tails with murderous intend towards tourists, made me finally feed it to the cat. It is supposed to taste like chicken. Thanks for that, but give me the golden crispy look of a well baked chook.
Even in that area I have never been able to eat our own faithful Rhode Island reds. It is no wonder we failed our farming venture in making a living from chickens. The idea of wringing a chicken’s neck after it has laid numerous eggs is something I felt akin to murder. There is a bit of hypocrisy in that stance, I know. I should really not eat chicken at all nor sleep under blankets filled with geese down or wear leather shoes.
I love animals but also used our stud male alpaca ‘Ruffo’ to provide an income through making him work ‘hard.’ By working ‘hard’ in farm parlance means stud males being used for matings to females. All the male gets for his work is a handful of Lucerne hay. Many males would not even get this while their heartless owners would just pocket the money.
We never made Ruffo do more than two matings a day and generally allowed generous post-coital naps of at least two hours in between. Alpacas are exotic animals, very gentle and loving. Females only ovulate through mating (induced ovulating) so as they don’t ovulate normally it is hard to pick a time when they are in the mood. Our macho Ruffo though was always successful in bringing them in the mood and through his sheer masculine, chivalrous, noble, valiant and gentlemanly behaviour they would soon sit down expecting and even welcoming Ruffo to mount them.
The mating itself is loving and gentle but an arduous procedure lasting sometimes an hour or more. After a week or more, the female will spit at the male if pregnant. I often thought it might be an idea for human females to take a leaf out of this delightful cultural alpaca mien. Why go on with a mere male after that? Just give them a handful of Lucerne hay as well.
It is such an ambiguous world. It is no wonder some of us fall into buckets of grey gloom at times. On the other hand, what could be worse than for the male human to be led around with a halter around his neck expecting to be taken around and used for just sex matings. Be honest boys, it would be dreadful, would it not? Just imagine it!
It is no wonder some of us also resort to pancakes with golden syrup to lift our spirits.
Tags: Alpacca, Rhode Island red, sex
April 4, 2014 at 3:57 am |
Being led around by a halter for sex. Hmmm. Are we talking 20 or a heck of a lot older. 🙂 –Curt
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April 4, 2014 at 5:39 am |
a lot older, like thrice. 😉
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April 4, 2014 at 7:56 am |
Pancakes and golden syrup wouldn’t do it for me, but each to his own. Saying that, I’m not sure what my own would be.
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April 4, 2014 at 10:09 am |
Surely not crocodile fillets? Perhaps a good book, a juicy apple? 🙂
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April 4, 2014 at 1:13 pm |
Such tenderness towards Ruffo, Gerard. Wasn’t it he that ate your pyjamas?
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April 4, 2014 at 10:25 pm |
No, they don’t eat pyjamas at all, just the odd handful of hay infused with golden syrup. Can you get that in HK?
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April 5, 2014 at 11:59 am
Golden syrup is alive and well in HK Gerard. Mrs. Ha buys it to make gingerbread I believe.
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April 5, 2014 at 1:13 pm
That’s great news. I can go to sleep now, happy in the knowledge that no one needs to be deprived of golden syrup in HK.
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April 4, 2014 at 4:34 pm |
I dunno, Gez, I could still go twice a day!
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April 4, 2014 at 10:27 pm |
I am amazed! I would be happy to go half.
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April 5, 2014 at 12:09 am |
What a delightful observation of life.
There is an old saying among Inca females, “Never leave your husband alone with a female alpaca.” Perhaps that is why Ruffo couldn’t resist. What a life he had, a limitless supply of Lucerne and females. To the old philosophical question, “Are you happy?” he would have asked back , “Is there any other way?”.
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April 5, 2014 at 12:30 am |
Yes, Ruffo did have a good life. I wonder where he is now? He was a certified stud male with an impeccable pedigree. His father ‘Ledger’s dream’ was bought for $200.000,-
We were lucky to get our money back. Most breeders were taken in by shonky operators and dubious publicity, ramping up unreal expectations.
Remember the ostriches before that.? Angora Goats?
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June 22, 2022 at 11:37 am |
I had no idea that when you had alpacas you could go into the breeding business with them like this. They’re really special animals in the way you breed them! 🙂
Did you use their wool? I love alpaca wool: I like to wear my orange alpaca wool scarf! 🙂
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April 5, 2014 at 1:49 am |
I was speaking with a Dutch farmer, two days back. He said the big rippoff in Europe was Emu farming..no one wants the meat, eggs or leather, so what the hell are they good for?
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April 5, 2014 at 1:57 am |
Yes, at one stage they were selling fertile ostrich eggs for thousands . Even the EaSTER SHOW FEATURED HALTER TRAINED OSTRICHES. Heaven knows how they managed to catch them and transport them. I think the keyboard is getting over-excited.
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April 5, 2014 at 2:17 am
Catching an ostrich would be like trying to catch a tiger!
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April 5, 2014 at 8:56 am
I would not like to try and trim their toe-nails.
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April 5, 2014 at 4:05 am |
I think I will stick to pancakes
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April 5, 2014 at 8:57 am |
Me too,
Poor Ruffo, all those girls to keep happy..
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April 5, 2014 at 11:22 am |
Alpaca matings last an hour or more? heavens, when goats mate it’s over in seconds, like blink and you’ll miss it sort of thing. I think Ruffo had a charmed life. I’m not sure that I could face eating crocodile either, or ostrich, or emu come to think of it but I could handle a plate of pancakes with golden syrup or, even better, pannenkoeken met stroop en spek – my absolute favourite 😀
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April 5, 2014 at 11:38 am |
Lottie, Your Dutch is perfect. With spek is even nicer.
Ruffo is in alpaca heaven I heard through the grape vine. He did have a nice life. In the end, all I had to show him was the trailer and he would hop in, knowing he would be driven to another alpaca breeder for a drive-through mating.
The act of mating takes long because the female has to ovulate through the mating process. It is complicated.
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April 5, 2014 at 9:35 pm |
Croc tail-fillets and Emu cheeks are in short supply at our local (uk) butcher. Alpacas, on the other hand, are very popular and both friends and relatives raise them and they are very charming.
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April 6, 2014 at 5:14 am |
They are charming animals. We enjoyed having them. I was surprised that alpacas are being bred in England. They don’t like dampness. They are from the Altiplano in South America. Very high altitude, cold but dry.
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April 5, 2014 at 10:10 pm |
It sounds to me as if there is a sense of longing in your voice as you think about the hour long mating procedure of the alpaca. How does H. feel about that?
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April 6, 2014 at 5:11 am |
One hour would be stretching the whispering of sweet little nothings I think. I would need a couple of pancakes in between. 😉
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April 15, 2014 at 3:44 am |
Croc is like chicken – muddy chicken! I always fantasised about having an Alpaca and weaving it’s wool or was that a Llama? A push me pull you (Dr Doolittle) 🙂
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