Dreamcatcher Alpacas

One more boy and more bear stories

2009-08-30T12:29:00.000-07:00

Five down and only one more to go... and the last one was a white male, so we are 4 boys and 1 girl this year. This little guy doesn't have a name yet, I had a girl name picked out hoping that it would be a girl, so much for that. But he sure is cute and the delivery was easy, thank goodness.

All the other cria a doing well, Cadence and Jonah are always running around trying to get Andy to play, Molly just spits at them til they leave her alone. I call them the twins, they kinda look the same, what do you think? Jonah is the darker of the two, and his dad is Dark Fawn and Cadence dad is black, so I would have thought it would be different too. Just goes to show how much I really don't know.

On Friday night our neighbors were out of town and the bear decided that he would like in the shed where they keep corn for the deer. We heard him at about 11pm and tried to scare him off, but obviously that didn't work. The next morning we went to look at the damage, and this is what we found. Notice that the bags of corn look untouched??? Guess it was just the challenge of getting the door off that he wanted.

Cadence

2009-08-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

Dreamcatcher Cadence

Four down and two left to go - so far we have 3 boys and 1 girl. Hopefully the last two will be girls so we can break even, and it looks like brown is my color again this year. Yesterday, August 17, Annabelle went into labor about 9:30 am and Dreamcatcher Cadence was born around 11am. Both of his front feet were kinda stuck, so I had to go in and pull them out, while my teenage son held on to Annabelle. He couldn't leave the barn fast enough when I was done with him. Even though he didn't like it, he did a great job, besides I think it builds character. As for Cadence, his name fits him, while he was getting his bearing yesterday, he was very vocal.

Jonah and Molly

Tomorrow we will be taking the stitches out of Jenis, from her c-section. Both she and Jonah are doing great. I thought I would need to be careful and watch Molly and Andy when I put Jonah in there since he was much smaller, boy was I wrong. I thought about separating them because Jonah is a terror!! He picks on Andy, and Molly is constantly spitting at him.

C-section and alpacas

2009-07-28T18:30:00.001-07:00

There is never a dull moment around here. It was Sunday and rainy outside, we had gotten a couple of loads of crushed granite, to fill in, inside the barn, so even though it was raining we decided to work on getting the pile smaller. It took us a couple of hours and by the time we were done we were wet, I was getting ready to head to the house when I noticed that Jenis was walking around with her tail up and every time she would take a step water would drip out... obviously her water broke. This was about 2:30 in the afternoon, so I wasn't worried the baby she had last year showed up between 3-4 in the afternoon. I just hung out in the barn. She would make a trip to the poop pile then she would cush for awhile. By the time 8pm rolled around I called the vet. Of course its Sunday, things like this NEVER happen on a week day, in the middle of the day. Apparently I wasn't the only one either, the vet was busy and it took almost 1 hr before he called me back. He said I needed to go in and figure out how the baby was positioned. So I went to the house and scrubbed up and got Charlie to come hold her, it didn't take long to discover that it was a tail and a hock instead of a nose and front feet, so now it is 9:20pm and we are at least 30 min away from the vet hospital. So we get the trailer hooked up, get her in it and head down the mountain. By the time we get there the vet has called in some help and we were greeted by 3 vets and 2 techs. The vet tries to manipulate the baby so it can be delivered normally, but was unable to, so the decision was made to do a c-section. A c-section that is done on an alpaca is done under local and sedation, so we get her on the table and prepped for surgery. Jenis ends up on her back with 4 feet in the air, Charlie ends up holding the front legs, which leaves me with the back ones, where I have a view of everything that goes on. It was pretty interesting, but not for the faint of heart. The cria was delivered and there weren't any problems. We were able to bring them both home, so by the time we got home, made sure the baby was nursing and the Jenis was awake enough that she wouldn't fall on the baby, it was 2am.... way past my bedtime. Of course I woke up before 6am worried that they were ok, so got up to check on them and all was well. Later that day, imagine my surprise when I went to doctor the umbilical cord and found an extra growth where it shouldn't be - it is a boy not a girl and no one thought to correct me from the night before, they even had him upside down stitching up his umbilical. But both mom and little boy are doing great, we just have to take out some stitches in about 3 weeks.

When we thought it was a girl we were going to name her Leah, but since its a boy his name is Jonah. Remus (in the picture with Charlie above) and Eve love him and Eve keeps trying to lick him through the fence.

This is a picture of Molly and Andy - they can't wait to play with Jonah.

Molly Marine

2009-06-24T07:28:00.000-07:00

Once again I find that time has flown, we are now into the baby season again and shearing time has come and gone. Our first cria arrived on Monday a white girl who we named Molly Marine (in honor of Dana, our daughter, who is currently serving). The picture below is of me, Dana and Rossi, it was taken on Family Day at Parris Island, the day before graduation from Boot Camp, which was April 10, 2009 - a day I will never forget, thats for sure.

We have a new guard dog, her name is Eve. At the end of May, Gonzo stopped eating on a Saturday and by the time we were able to get him to the vet, on Tuesday (Monday was a holiday) they did xrays and discovered that he had cancer and his organs were failing. What a sad, sad day. I was actually farm sitting for some friends so I wasn't even home. It's amazing how fast it all happened, the vet was actually here on that previous Friday for some alpaca stuff and he was fine but by Monday morning he had labored breathing. At least he didn't suffer for long and although his life was short, I believe it was a happy one. So, because of the bear situation last year and the fact that Remus had lost another partner (Romulus was the first) we wanted to get a replacement ASAP..... enter Eve. She is another Anatolian Shepard and is about 10 months old. We kept Eve in a stall where Remus could smell her for a couple of days then put them both on leashes out in the pasture and walked them around one evening, the next evening we kept Eve on the leash and then the next morning after feeding we let them both out. There really hasn't been a "dog fight" Remus will put Eve in her place, but there has been no blood shed. Eve is a very sweet girl. She seem to love the alpacas. Marquez put his head through the fence and while I was getting him unstuck Eve was giving him kisses, he didn't like it, but she was happy.

She also loves the baby - she lays by the fence all day. Today I think I will put them in the pasture, should be fun to watch. So Nadine is the next one due, I think she will have it next week. After that I will have a few weeks off then for the entire month of August and into Sept I will be on baby watch again.

Bruno, Tessa

2009-02-17T05:33:00.001-08:00

I has been quite a while since I updated the post, and lots has happened. My daughter has joined the US Marine Corp and currently is in recruit training in Parris Island, SC. Although that really doesn't have to do with the Alpacas it has certainly changed things around here. We are extremely proud of her!

All of the babies have been weaned and we have started halter training. That's always fun! The babies are all that small anymore. This picture is of them eating, of course the day before, when I was inspired by this picture they all looked up at me, at the same time and I didn't have my camera, figures. From left to right (up above) they are: Ozzi, Legend, Ninah and Macey. We moved Ozzi over to the boys barn this last weekend, he was getting FAT. But he still has the personality - I close them out of the barn to clean, before feeding and I can hear him out there humming, then when I open the door he comes running for his pellets and follows me until I put a bowl down.

This is a picture of Bruno, I put this one in because he is no longer with us. We got Bruno because he was kindof sickly from the beginning. Every winter we had to put a coat on him when it got cold. This winter was no exception. It has been a warm winter for the most part, but the problem came when it was near 60 one day and dropped to the 20's the next. Of course he had his coat on, but when I went to the barn to feed he was cushed (laying down) in the barn and couldn't get up. I got a heavier blanket on him and got him under the heat lamp and put hay in front of him to eat. When Charlie got home he helped me get him up on his feet and he was fighting with Sergio over food (a good sign I thought). Needless to say he was gone the next morning despite keeping the heat lamp on all night, and it didn't get below 0. I guess it was the temp extremes. But it was very sad. He was the one who was always chewing on sticks and leaving them in the water buckets. We will miss him. I have some beautiful yarn from him, so I think I will keep some for myself. His yarn is always one of the first to go, it is very nice.

It is time to think about shearing, GWAS (a big alpaca show) babies and our semi-annual Open Barn (March 28th). Below is a picture of Tessa she is the first on the list to deliver a baby this year. It should be in mid June. She is a sweetheart. Usually alpacas don't like to be messed with, Tessa even though she is pregnant loves attention. She will just stand there and let me look at her fleece, very unusual for an alpaca. But I'm not complaining.

2008-11-21T09:13:00.000-08:00

Annabelle and Ozzi

Once again time has flown by. We have been busy with vendor shows, farm days and even one halter show. All of the Alpacas are doing great. Gonzo and Remus are happy for the cooler weather but they miss the Alpacas being out in the pasture daily. Gonzo is doing wonderful on his medicine and is back to his normal playful self. It really is great to see him running around again.

As I mentioned, we had one halter show in Loveland, CO the first weekend of Nov. We took Zoey, Marquez and Misty. Zoey and Marquez both took second place in their respective classes, which is great considering they were both big classes. Misty didn't place but we still feel good about the show. Here are some pictures of Zoey and Marquez - I told the guy I didn't want to be in the picture, you can see he listened!! Marquez is in the first picture, hopefully he will be ready to start his breeding career this summer. He really is a handsome boy.

This one is of Zoey, she is still my favorite. Every time I go out to feed she loves to give me kisses.Last weekend I had a vendor booth at the Denver Botanical Gardens Holiday Sale. We sold LOTS of Alpaca socks, there should be some warm feet in Colorado this year. We sold other Alpaca stuff too, but the socks are always the biggest hit. We also participated in the National Farm day with Alpacas on the Rocks then we had our own farm day later in Oct. These were all great events - we plan on having an Open Barn Day here, every Spring and Fall.

Now about the Alpacas, this is a picture of Legend. He is about 3 months old now. Jack and Macey are weaned, but Legend, Ozzi and Ninah are still with their moms and they continue to keep me laughing. I noticed a while back that Ninah would go to the place where one of the big girls had been eating her pellets and clean up what had fallen to the ground. I started putting small handfuls there and all of the sudden she was following me around until I would put her pellets down. We did that for a couple of weeks but now all three cria are eating out of the pellet bowls, and they LOVE their pellets. Of course I have to separate them from the big girls or they wouldn't get any. Ozzi seems to always have a dirty face, which is strange, but true. If I catch him he is very boisterous.

This is Ninah, I am very excited about her. Her fleece is extremely crimpy, which is a good thing.

It is time for me to start knitting again, I will try to at least make a post monthly, so please check back.

A Legend is born

2008-09-07T08:50:00.000-07:00

I can hardly believe that fall is here - I hadn't realized it had been so long since I made a post! Since the last post we have had one more baby.... Dreamcatcher Peruvian Legend. I was out of town for the weekend and was on my way home so my husband Charlie delivered him. Thankfully the birth was an easy on and there were no problems.

Legend quickly made friends with the other cria and loves to run and pronk with them. Jack being the oldest and biggest still wants to play with the little ones and Legend will spit at him if he thinks Jack is being a bullly. Legend and Ozzi love to play together they are always neck wrestling.

I have video taped them, I just need to figure out how to get it on the blog so everyone can enjoy it and get a good laugh.

We had the vet up here last week to do ultrasounds on Nadine, Daisy and Tessa. They have all been re-bred and after 30 days we do an ultrasound to make sure they are pregnant. Nadine is confirmed, Tessa could be carrying twins (not a good thing) and Daisy didn't hold the pregnancy. I was concerned for Daisy because I kept feeding her extra and she wasn't gaining any weight, so we did a blood draw on her to check the levels and the vet now has me feeding her Soybean meal for some added protein. After a week she seems to have gained.... our scale broke a couple of days after Legend was born so I haven't been able to weight her, but we also do body scores. You feel the backbone right behind the front shoulders and it should be V shaped, a U would be heavy and concave V is thin. Anyway, Jack will be 4 mths old next week and I will be weaning him. I usually like to wait until they are about 6 mths but for Daisy's health we are doing it early. He should be fine, he is eating lots of hay and loves the pellets!

We also managed to get Gonzo down to the vet last week. I was dreading it because they hate leaving the pasture and they hate car rides, but he did wonderful!! We thought that they would do a skin biopsy but the dog vet took one look at him and thinks he has a autoimmune problem. He is now on Prednisone twice a day and is doing better already. He isn't 100% but it is great that he doesn't spend all day in the barn now. And he isn't scratching as much. The vet said it could take 6 mths to be totally gone.
This is a picture of Ninah - she is still the cutest, with her grey ears.

I will work on getting the video to upload, hopefully by next time I post I will figure it out.

butterflies, more crias (babies)

2008-08-07T07:54:00.000-07:00

As the summer is flying by we have busy here. Annabelle gave birth to Ozzi on Monday. It was day 342 for her. Lady is the last one due and today is day 354. Lady is the white one you see in the picture. Of course all of the alpacas are interested in the new kid, they try to get theirs noses under the fence or through the wires. Annabelle is a great mom, lots of clucking and humming going on. There was only one issue with Lady, while Ozzi was still drying off and getting his bearing, Lady decided that she liked him....??? He was still in the corner of the barn where he was born and Annabelle was cushed (laying down) with her head out the door, Lady came over to smell him and decided she was going to lay next to him. I had to physically push and shove Lady to one of the other stalls, she is not an animal that likes to be touched, so I found this kind of odd. It makes me wonder if because she is so close to having hers if she was going to take possession of him. I kept her with the other girls and their babies until Annabelle and Ozzi had time to bond, about 3 hours. All is well now. Lady doesn't really want Ozzi anyplace close to her.

The picuture above on the left is Ninah. She will be 3 weeks old tomorrow. I think she is our cutest baby this year, I love her gray ears and her short nose. The one on the right is Ozzi - I guess brown is my color. I put in this picture of the butterfly because I liked it and just wanted to share.

Meet Ninah

2008-07-20T09:37:00.000-07:00

We have been watching Jenis for about 2 months - she looked like she swallowed a football, which they normally do for a couple of days, then the baby repositions and it doesn't look that way anymore. But she has been huge!! I haven't left the house for more than an hour. I have been in need of a haircut for a while now so I decided to make an appointment for Friday afternoon. Wouldn't you know it when I got back home.... there she was!

Thank goodness it was a normal birth!! The placenta was out too, but only half of it. I called the vet to find out what to do, and as luck would have it she was in the area. When she got here she was cleaning under the tail preparing to manually get the rest of it out... yikes, that doesn't sound very good, but the rest came out on its own, WHEW, that was a relief.

Jenis is an excellent first time mom. She just stood still and let Ninah figure out where the milk bar was. They are so unsteady on their feet, they are all over the place, but Jenis was very patient. As you can see in this picture her front legs look a little bit like they are bending the wrong way, so thats something we will be keeping a close eye on.

We have two births left to go - Lady and Annabelle. I don't think either one of them will have it in the next couple of weeks, but you never know.

Below is an updated picture of Macey Grae. She has grown and is beautiful. There isn't much crimp to her fleece, yet, but we have high hopes that it what grows will have some crimp to it.

The bear is still around

2008-07-17T18:53:00.000-07:00

Ok this might not look like much but its about as close as I would like to be to the bear who has decided that our neighborhood is home for him. This picture was taken at about 8:30pm last week and this is about the third time we have actually seen him, so I know he has been around more than that. He likes our neighbors bird feeder. So far he hasn't given ours a try but I think its because Gonzo and Remus raise quite a ruckus when he is around. We also have four hot wires on the outside of our pasture fences and keep the driveway gate closed at night.

As you can see, Just Jack is growing big. Last time I

weighed him he was about 42 pounds. I am feeding Daisy extra pellets to try and keep her weight up. We have rebred her to Mousse for a 2009 cria and she is making lots of milk for Jack, so she needs the extra nourishment. The only problem is now everytime I go to the barn, which is often since I am on baby watch again, she thinks I am coming to feed her more alphafa pellets. I have to pay attention to what she is doing, otherwise she will pinch whatever she can get ahold of in her teeth. I have discovered that she likes to have her chin scratched though, we'll see how long that lasts, once the pg hormones really kick in that will be a thing of the past. Jack and Macey are making a race track out of the paddock. I can't let them out in the pasture daily anymore, since we don't have the rain, so every evening they make the loop. I hope we get some moisture soon so they can go back out more often.

You can see from this picture that the grass is scarce. Nadine is such a great mom. We are trying to get her rebred to a grey male, but he is only 22 months and not quite ready. We will try again this weekend.

I am also on baby watch for Jenis, Lady and Annabelle. Jenis has looked like she swallowed a football for a couple of months and I was concerned that the baby wasn't positioning right but yesterday she started pooching under the tail - YEAH!! Annabelle is already pooching and she isn't due til the very end of the month. Lady hasn't pooched but she holds her tail up constantly, so I think she is good. All of them are super grouchy. And thats being nice about it. I just came in from checking on them and Jenis was by the barn door and Lady comes up and all the sudden its a spit fight. Jenis is usually the low girl in the pecking order and she has been spitting at anyone who walks by. Tomorrow will be day 341 for her it should be a good day for a baby. I will keep you posted.

2008-06-24T12:21:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy couple of weeks. Macey and Jack are great friends now and love to run and play. Macey is still taller than Jack but Jack weights more. Jack is about 40 lbs and Macey is about 27 lbs. We haven't been putting them in the pasture everyday because we haven't gotten any rain. I put them out today and they got to stretch their legs. Last week when I brought them all in, I had a good laugh at myself. The greenest grass is down in a far corner and when I called them in Misty was the last one to come through the gate and as she ran past me, she kicked and got me right in the butt. It was funny, like she planned it.

We have a bear hanging out in our area. I know that there has been a Momma and her babies, but we usual don't see them, and this one is by himself. He was snacking on our neighbors bird feeder last Saturday evening and we saw him again yesterday morning.

We also have a bunch of birds at our bird feeders. This is a picture of Crossbill - we had some come through last year, but they only stayed around for a few days. We have seen as many as four at the bird feeder at the same time and it has been about a week that they have been here.

It takes a while for Macey and Jack to slow down, but eventually they slow down and enjoy being in the pasture.

Meet Macey Grae

2008-06-07T17:50:00.001-07:00

Today started out like any other, first thing I do is check on Nadine. She was acting normal, she ate her pellets and hay, and was grouchy with Just Jack, nothing unusual about that. I usually put them in the pasture around 10am and they are always ready and waiting for me to open the gate. So I let them out and I am cleaning water buckets and keeping my eye on them. At around 10:45 I noticed that Nadine was laying under a pine tree, not eating, that is unusual so I told my husband Charlie that we needed to get the girls in. In the barn I separate Nadine from the other girls, for their safety more than hers (not really, but she is SUPER B.......y) I can tell she is in labor because her breathing is faster than normal, plus she keeps going to the poop pile and nothing is happening. She lays on her side and I can see something white up in there. Everytime it looks like a nose might pop out, she gets up and everything disappears. She does this about 4-5 times then all of the sudden there is a white nose, I can tell its a nose because it is trying to get some air. The nose is white but the nostril slits and the mouth look like black lines, so I am telling myself and Charlie, thats ok greys usually have white faces. What seems like forever, but is really a few minutes I can see the eyes and there is a dark color, could it be????? I only have to wait a few minutes more and the front legs pop out and sure enough, they are GREY this is what we were hoping for when we bred her to Monroe, a grey. This is the only kinda icky picture, but I like to share, it is a miracle after all. Notice the other girls are very interested in what is going on. If they get to close Nadine will spit at them, that is why they are on the other side of the fence.

Now, is it a girl or a boy, this takes a little longer. But it is a girl and she is GREY... BONUS!!!!!

It took quite awhile for her to stand up. Below is one of the attempts, but she wasn't successful until about 2 hrs after she was born.

Here she is finally up and she has really long legs. Her balance isn't the greatest yet, but before long she is up and looking for food. Nadine is a great mom, she is really patient and just stands still waiting for her baby to latch on, which she does eventually.

The vet will be up here on Monday to draw blood so that we can make sure she is BVD negative and also to find out if she got enough colostrum in the first 24hrs of life. All the other alpacas are looking around and trying to get a sniff of the baby. For the next couple of days we will keep them separated, unless I put them in the pasture, but at night and for regular feedings, Nadine will have no one to spit at.

My Birthday Yarn Give Away!!

2008-06-05T09:55:00.000-07:00

My hope is that once you visit this blog and see the beautiful alpacas and their guardians (Gonzo and Remus) you will visit often to find out what is what is going on with them. I am currently on baby watch for Nadine… anyday now, and I have three more due in July.

Back to the yarn give away. My birthday is July 25th and my goal is to have at least 150 people signed up for the give away by then, if I don’t have at least that many, I will extend the deadline to Sept. 2nd, my son’s birthday. So please spread the word. How to enter… leave me a comment on this blog and tell me about your first handmade craft project you can remember. Here is mine, I have two sisters (I’m the middle) and my mom was always making something by hand, of course we wanted in on it so we each were given a set of pillow cases to embroidery. I had to be in about the 4th grade, I don’t think I ever finished that project, I took up knitting (4H) instead. Please be sure to leave your name in the comment, check back on July 25th and I will announce the winner and we can iron out the details of where to send the yarn. The yarn will be my choice but will definitely come from one of my alpacas, check out my yarn on ETSY. Be sure to check back often as I will be keeping you up to date on the number of entries. Thanks for playing!

Mousse and Yuban enjoying the pasture

Just Jack and Daisy

If you have a problem leaving a comment, please convo me on ETSY and I will get your name added.

Kickin' it up a notch!

2008-06-04T10:17:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to come up with a way for my ETSY site to start selling more.... I think I have a plan, but you will have to check back in a day or so, I am still working on the details.

Today is a cloudy day but it is still pretty warm out, today would be a good day to have a baby....Nadine. I was just putting them out in the pasture and decide to get some new pictures, so here is Nadine. Happy as a clam and holding on to that baby.

Her belly doesn't even look that big any more, from this angle, that baby is low and should be popping out soon. Look at the pictures below and she does look bigger. I also got some pictures of Gonzo and Remus doing their job. A lady was walking up the road with her german shepard and they really don't like that. Gonzo was over in the other pasture and heard Remus barking, he is still stiff, I had to give him his doggy asprin this morning. If he thinks there is a threat around he doesn't give any signs that he isn't 110%.

Of course, not to be left out, Brutus our little rescue llasa has to get in on the barking. He heads down the driveway so I call him back and all the girls run to the fence to see what he is, and is he a threat?

I totally forgot to take a picture of my red and white yarn - dangit! I will get that posted next time. Be sure and check back for the "My Birthday Yarn Give Away" and tell your friends about it too.

Enjoying the sun!!

2008-06-03T09:22:00.000-07:00

This is Marquez our new herdsire. Although he won't be ready to breed until next year (I hope). He took a third place at GWAS in May, it was a tough class so we were happy he got what he did. He arrived at our farm the end of March. He had been on the transport trailer for 5 days and was quite happy to get off, until he saw Gonzo and Remus. But he likes them now. He is a noisy guy, but very sweet. Once you get him cornered he stands still, but makes squealy noises. He also likes to put his head through the fence to get the grass on the other side, he has been stuck a few times. I will be glad when he grows enough that his head won't fit through the fence.

It finally feels like summer could happen! I have been putting the alpacas in the pasture for about 2 hours everyday and they are loving it. Just Jack is growing and is in need of a playmate. I need to figure out how to post videos on this blog so I can share his antics when I let them out each day. He runs as fast as he can across the pasture and back again, and he seems to like antagonizing the girls. Of course their heads are down eating and he runs by as close as he can, sometimes he jumps over their heads then turns around and chest butts them. None of them like it, they are all grouchy and can't stand each other, let alone a little guy who wants to play.

Nadine is on day 345 so any day now is good. I have a feeling that I will have to separate Nadine and her cria from Daisy and Jack, until the new one is strong enough to stand up to Jack, he really is a handful.

This picture was sent to me by the farm we were shearing at on the 24th. I am the one in the dark blue shirt. This is a better picture than in the previous post because you can see more of the process.

You can see the ropes that are on the front feet and the back feet are on ropes too. The guy standing up is the head guy (not the one in charge) , usually he has a hold of the alpaca by the ears, but in this picture he is moving the fleece away from the body of the animal and its head is between his legs. Then there is the shearer and then the fleece people (that's me) we are putting this fleece on a sheet so the owner can show it in competitions. This was the day we did 72 alpacas!

I have finished my white and red yarn, I have washed it and it is drying. I will have a picture of it very soon. And it will be for sell on ESTY - which by the way I sold my first skein yesterday YAHOO!!

Memorial Day weekend... a day of rest?

2008-05-27T08:05:00.000-07:00

Once again the weekend finds us helping friends with shearing. We possibly have one more day in June and then we are done! We left the house Saturday before 7am and went to two different farms for shearing. My job this weekend was to get the fleece and place it on a sheet for skirting later. Although this doesn't sound difficult by the time 72 animals are shorn I was ready to stop!! That was my primary job, but there is always lots of other little things to do, like placing the rope on the legs and sweeping.... lots of sweeping. I have knee pads that I wear but I still have bruises on my knees. Shearing is always fun, but I am always glad that it's over. I was exhausted on Sunday. The picture above is from last years shearing, thats me in the purple. The alpaca is First Lady. They are stretched out and it really doesn't cause them any pain. It is usually over in about 5-6 min.

Now back to my herd. Just Jack is growing fast, he has gained about 1 lb per day and is up to 25 lbs. He has lots of energy and runs circles around Daisy, literally. He tries to get her to neck wrestle too, which is really cute, he doesn't budge her. When they were in the pasture on Sunday he tried to get Jenis to neck wrestle too, without success. But he was giving it his all!

Nadine is on day 338 today. See has made a small bag, but I don't expect her to deliver until sometime next week. This will be her fourth cria and the other three have gone to around day 345, so we still have a few days. Besides it is a little chilly and rainy here, it should start to warm up tomorrow. She has been bred to a grey male in hopes that we will get a grey (girl) out of her. Both of her grandparents on her dams side are grey, so it is possible.

Update on Gonzo. I heard back on the blood results and he doesn't have lyme disease or heart worms. He still is very stiff in the front legs so I picked up some doggy pain killers at the vets on Friday. Its hard to say if they help. He does move around some but he is still stiff, I don't know if I didn't give him any if he would just lay in the same place all day. He will run to chase a rabbit and his appetite has never been bad.

I did have enough energy this weekend to continue my spinning project. I am spinning Lady's fleece and plying it with some red Kid mohair that I purchased. It came out pretty good.

You can check my etsy site this week. I will have picture of it and it will be for sale as soon as I get it off my bobbin and washed.

A week has already flown by!!

2008-05-22T17:39:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that one week ago today it was snowing and we were getting ready for shearing. We have had weather all over the spectrum this week, snow, sun and rain. The alpacas are all taking it in stride. When I go out to feed in the morning usually Annabelle is shivering a little, but once she starts eating and converting the hay to energy she is good to go. Besides, the sun hits their side of the barn first, as long as it is shining.

I had the vet up here on Tuesday she checked out Gonzo's legs and drew some blood. She was thinking he might have lyme disease, but the test came back neg. so we still aren't sure why sometimes his legs hurt him. But he is up and running around for now. The vet also trimmed Brunos front teeth, and checked Yubans. Yuban's baby teeth didn't fall out, so now he has two rows of teeth. He still has one that hasn't surfaced that is kindof in the bottom of his mouth, so we will wait for it to come through then pull them all at once. Don't worry, he will be asleep for the process.

This picture is of Mousse our herdsire and Misty who is about 12 months old. I took it on Saturday when I put them out in the pasture. Misty may be young but she is always the one at the fence flirting with Mousse. Misty is the one with the fuzzy ears.

This is Jenis, I took the picture just as she was getting up from her dirt bath. She was our first cria born on our farm and now she is going to have one of her own in July. She is bred to a black herdsire, so we will see what color we end up with. Before she was bred, she was very friendly and liked to have her neck scratched, but not anymore.

This weekend is more shearing at other farms, I will let you know how that goes.

And baby makes 16!

2008-05-19T19:37:00.000-07:00

What a busy weekend!!! On my last post it was Tuesday and it snowed about 8 inches, it also snowed all day Thursday.... about 8 inches more. Our shearing day was Friday and despite my best efforts (I put fans up in the barn after it stopped snowing on Thursday) all the fleece was still pretty wet. But, we have had our shearing day scheduled since Feb. so there was no putting it off. Paul the shearer and his helper Darcy got here about 6:45 on Friday morning. I wasn't even done with the chores yet, but I would rather they be early than late. By the time we got the mats and the ropes set out and the last load of animals from another farm got here, plus all the help arrived it was about 8:15 when we started and it was about 25 deg. outside... a little chilly. I was able to take some pictures on Wed. between the snow storms so here are some before and after pictures.

Misty and Tessa (taken Wed before shearing)

Lady, Annabelle, Nadine, Jenis (taken Saturday after shearing)

They all look funny without all that fiber. Boy am I glad that it is done for the year. My garage has fiber spread out everywhere, drying out. Daisy was one of the last to be shorn, but she seemed to take it all in stride and no signs of baby.... yet.

We finished shearing at our farm about 11:30 so we had lunch and and most of the group headed to another farm to help with their shearing. I had kid duty so I picked up my kids and took them where they needed to go, then headed back home to check on Daisy. It was about 2:30 in the afternoon and everything seemed fine with her so I went to the other farm to help out. We finished up at around 5pm. When I pulled in the driveway I could see Daisy cushed (laying down) in her paddock with little ears sticking out on top of her back. I headed to the barn and there he was, a beautiful boy!! He got up and started nursing so I knew he had been on the ground for a few hours. I had to check the placenta to make sure it was all there and it was cold, more evidence that he arrived a few hours before, here is a picture of Just Jack! The picture at the begining is with his mom.

Just Jack - catchn' some rays
I think his color will be the same as Daisy's, which is great, it is my most popular yarn. The next one due is Nadine and I have a few weeks to wait for her.

No baby yet!

2008-05-13T17:30:00.001-07:00

Well it has snowed here all day LONG!!! It is melting pretty fast, but I bet we got 8 inches. Things are very muddy and my alpacas look like they have taken a bath and need a good wringing out.

Daisy held off for another day and I am thankful for that. For some reason she didn't eat her pellets tonight, but she didn't want Nadine to have them either, so a spit fight ensued. Nadine ended up with the pellets and Daisy started in on the hay. She was actually up and moving about for awhile this afternoon. Maybe tomorrow will be the day. I have a little cordless camera set up in the barn with the monitor in the house so if I can't see her I just have to check my monitor. It saves a lot of time running back and forth to the barn.

We have two Anatolian Shepard guard dogs Remus (girl) and Gonzo (male). Gonzo isn't feeling well today, I think he might have pulled something in his front leg. He usually loves to run and play with Remus on the three acres that we have fenced for them, not today though. I am going to have the vet check him out when she is here to check out the baby.... whenever that might be. If he was a regular kind of dog I might put him in the car and take him down the mountain.... Anatolians really don't like leaving the place they are responsible for guarding. They also don't like riding in cars or trucks.

Gonzo is the one in front, Remus is probably looking at a bug (she likes to do that) and the alpaca is Annabelle. Of course this was last summer, right now it is all white or muddy brown!

Gonzo and Remus are great guardians, we do have bears, mountain lions, coyotes, foxes and regular neighborhood dogs. Remus likes to bark at lots of things, like diesel trucks coming up the road, but if Gonzo barks it is probably worth checking on. Last summer I was feeding in the boys barn and heard him barking, so I checked it out, and there was a bear coming down the hill. Of course I gave him lots of praise for chasing off the bear and I swear he was smiling! Seriously though they really do take their jobs seriously, they don't leave the pasture area, they are not house pets. Remus doesn't like thunder and lightning she visibly shakes and tries to hide between your legs. I have long legs and she is a big dog, its kinda like going for a horse back ride.

Tomorrow the weather should be better, but 60% chance of rain for Thursday. Maybe tomorrow will be the day for Daisy.

My first blog!

2008-05-12T14:23:00.000-07:00

I have never blogged before but it sounds like a good idea, to let people know what is going on. My plan for blogging is to let whoever is interested know what life is like on a working alpaca farm or ranch, whichever you prefer.

I will start with current stuff and will fill in the blanks eventually. Right now we are awaiting the arrival of Daisy's cria (baby alpaca). She is on day 336 which doesn't really mean anything except that she could have it any day now. Her first cria Jenis, who is due in July was born on day 323 but most of my girls have gone past day 345. Usually alpacas give birth between 10 am and 2 pm, but there again if she decides to have it at midnight who am I to stop her, that time is just what is usual.

Right now Daisy's mood is grouchy!! She tends to lay around a lot and when she gets up either to eat or go to the poop pile (those are the only reasons she gets up) she will spit at any of the girls who get within 10 feet of her. That is not how she usually is, so that is one clue that the time is near. Another clue is that she is making a bag and her teats are filling up, which is even a bigger clue. I really hope that she doesn't have it tomorrow, we are supposed to get SNOW, yes you read it right SNOW on May 13th. I do have a cria coat and we have heaters in the barn but it is hard for the cria to regulate its own temp during the first 2-3 days. Plus, for some reason the wind has been blowing lots and that goes right to the bones.

I really hope she doesn't have it tomorrow, but has it before Friday. We are shearing on Friday. We have another farm bringing their animals here, so we will be shearing about 30 Friday morning then we head up the mountain to another farm where we will be shearing about 40 more. Then on Saturday we head to another farm to help out with their sheering. And, we repeat the whole process next weekend too. It is a lot of hard work, but it is enjoyable being around friends and everyone pitches in.

To explain shearing.... we hire a shearer, ours comes from New Zealand. We catch the animal and bring them one by one to the shearing mat that has been set up. There are four loops, one for each foot, we get them on their feet, someone pulls the rope tight and we gently lower the alpaca down, they are secured there and we can trim toenails or teeth and give shots or any other herd health stuff. The whole process takes about 5-6 minutes and the alpacas don't seem to mind to much. Probably because they are getting all that fleece off and it is hot. I do think they are a little embarrassed though.

I plan to get pictures of Daisy's cria and also of shearing. I will post them on my next blog update