Monday, October 22, 2007

New Baby!

Well, okay, he isn't so new. I've been busy (read "8 months pregnant") and I haven't been updating this as I should.

Principal Skinner (a.k.a. "Seymore") was born to Dawn on 10/3/07. Charles walked into the barn and found him...the best kind of birth as far as I'm concerned. He is white and male, but he is a son of Patchacuti, so he is beautiful. He's healthy, though not nearly the bruiser that Rainier was at birth. Seymore weighed in at about 14# when he was born. Now he's up to 23#. Rainier must be 45# by now.

We took Dawn to Northwest Alpacas on Saturday for a drive-by breeding to Cannonero, one of only two or three fawn studs up there. Dawn is a funny animal. During the breeding she ate hay and then she laid down on her side. We think the unusual position was because Cannonero is a big beast, and she's little. She must have thought he was too heavy. It was a good, long breeding, though, and we got to take her home on the same day. I like this "drive by" trend.

That's all for now. I'll post pictures soon.
maren

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

New baby!


Welcome to Rainier Wolfcastle!

He was born on August 18, 2007, at around 8:30 a.m., and weighed in at nearly 21 lbs.! His mother is Cabernet, who was on progesterone because we thought she was due two weeks later. His father is Hakuna Matata, who now resides on the East Coast.

We're pleased at how robust this little guy is. He has gained six pounds in a week! Normally, you can expect cria to gain 8 oz. a day, but he has put on nearly a pound a day. The vet thought he looked two weeks old on the day he was born.

A boy isn't a girl, but we're pleased with strong babies one way or another.

m

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Cute picture of the day


Cute Picture of the Day!

This was taken sometime in May, I believe.

This is what is known as "Velcro fleece."

maren

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Far too long since I've posted...


Hello!

It's been too long since I posted, so here is a brief update:

HOTV show 2007: Lisa (left) received no ribbons. G. K. Willie won a fourth place out of ten! Yippee!

Willamette Valley Alpaca Fleece Show 2007: Wille got a second place, Bart and Lisa got 3rd and 4th places, and there is one more fleece that I forget about.

Everyone is now pregnant.

I'll post more info and pictures once life settles down here.
m

Friday, May 04, 2007

catch up

It's been a long time, so here's a summary:

  1. El Barto and Consuella have conceived! We don't know how long ago, since Consuella is notorious for hiding her pregnancies. We'll ultrasound her this summer when we have sometime and money.
  2. The boys are now sleeping under the stars so that we can get some grass growing in their pasture which is attached to the barn. They are enjoying the fresh grass, and seem to be used to their tent-shelter now. (pictures to come)
  3. We had El Barto and Duffy shorn last weekend so that we can enter their fleeces in the Willamette Valley Alpaca Fleece Show on May 19-20. They have been cold and picked on by the other boys all week. Bart opened a new can of whoop-ass to keep the minions in line.
  4. The Heart of the Valley Alpaca Show is Mother's day weekend in Albany. Go see the website that Charles and I designed. We'll have two baby alpacas entered.
  5. The rest of the herd is going to be shorn on May 19.
  6. Charles and I are starting a web design business aimed at small farmers and others who need a custom website and easy data management.
  7. I am teaching five different classes this quarter, so I am meeting myself coming and going. Whew!

That's enough for now. I'll have pictures of shearing and the show later.

m

Wednesday, March 07, 2007


Wow! It is so pretty here.

We don't get a lot of snow here in the Willamette Valley, but it is pretty when we get some. This is about 1/2" that came through in Jan or Feb 07. It was gone by the end of the week.




This other picture is of the tracks we found that evening leading into and out of the barn. They are of some canine, although we don't know if it is coyote or just a random dog. I haven't had my friends in the biology dept. look at it yet.

We have been pasture-breeding Bart and Consuella for about a week now. The idea is that they will have the whole day to "do it," and perhaps without the "pressure" they will conceive. She's been spitting off for a couple days now, so they are in their separate pastures. We'll spit-test them in a week.

Wish us luck! Our next step will have to be fertility testing.

m

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

January update #1


Here's the cute picture of the day. This is from the first snow this winter, about two days before Thanksgiving. Milhouse and Charles are caught in a private moment. :)

So much has happened in the last two months that I'm going to have to update you in stages. This post is going to be abotu breedings.

-------------------
First, Dawn is pregnant and at home. We had no problem re-breeding her to Patchacuti. She was actually bred the day we dropped her off, and she took the first time. We picked her up this last weekend, and have her in minor quarantine for a couple weeks.

We were not so lucky with Consuella and Barto. She remains not pregnant (according to her progesterone scores). The question is, who's to blame? Is it Barto, the young, inexperienced stud? Or is it Consuella, with her confounding biology which confused the vest at NWA for two months with false negative pregnancy tests? We don't know, so we're going to have some testing done in the near future. We've stopped breeding them for the time being because it is too late in the season for babies to be born (it's snowing AGAIN today, for example).

So, that's the breeding update. Watch for hay and website updates soon!

maren