New(ish) Cria!

Meet Malibu Stacy!


Born 3/24/10

Wt: 17 lbs.

Color: Medium/dark fawn

Dam: Cabernet

Sire: Comet of Sylvan Skies





Her future handler here is our daughter, nicknamed the "Agent of Entropy." In these pictures, Stacy is about three hours old.

Enjoy the cuteness!

m

Alpaca Festival of Oregon!!

http://alpacafestival-oregon.org

This is the link to the website for the Alpaca Festival of Oregon, which will be held on June 18-20 in Eugene, Oregon. That's the same time as the Black Sheep Gathering, by the way!

Paca Talk #26 posted

This is part two of our discussion of setting up bare land for an alpaca ranch. It includes what we did and what we should have done. Oh, and "Old Smokey."
Enjoy!
maren
http://www.pacatalk.com/2010/01/pt26-part2/

Paca Talk #24 is up!

http://www.pacatalk.com/2009/12/pt-24/

Paca Talk #24 is the second half of our discussion on buying your first alpacas. Enjoy!

m

Paca Talk #23 -choosing your first alpacas

Hi Everyone!

Our first "Alpacas 101" podcast (part one) covers what novice should know before buying their first alpacas.
http://www.pacatalk.com/2009/11/pt-23-choosing-your-first-alpacas-part-1/

Enjoy!

New Paca Talk Episode-- "Problem Child"

http://www.pacatalk.com/2009/10/pt-22-farmtalk-problemchild/

We've posted a new Paca Talk Episode about our "Problem Child" Little Margie. We had to bottle-feed her for a few days, and it took her a long time to gain weight at a reasonable rate.

Enjoy!
m

New Paca Talk Episode-- new format

http://www.pacatalk.com/2009/10/paca-talk-21-the-new-format/

"Paca Talk #21" discusses the changes we're making to the Paca Talk format. Short-ish and sweet-ish.

Big Cat

Wow!

I saw a cougar on the private drive leading up to our ranch tonight! It ran in front of me along the road for a bit until it crossed the creek and could run down the other bank, so I got a good long look at it. Unmistakeable 4-foot long tail.

This is the second time the cat has been seen near our ranch. The last time was six weeks ago, a little closer to the house. Our neighbor and her children saw it in the daytime as they drove home. They watched it "play" for several minutes, also confirming the long tail and tawny coat. My neighbor also said that the cat seemed "young," and I'll have to second the impression. There was something rangy and half-grown puppy-like about the way the cat moved...like its feet were too big or something.

Well, exciting as that is, what it points out again, some more, is that though our female and baby alpacas enjoy the safety of a barn, our adult male alpacas sleep outside, unprotected. We don't worry too much about them for a couple reasons: 1) cougars are ambush hunters and tend to like to pounce on prey from underbrush or drop on them out of trees. We keep our pastures free of underbrush and keep branches from overhanging the fences. The New Zealand fence we have has no hope of stopping a cougar, but then, no fence really does. 2) Big male alpacas (especially a group of them) are formidable prey. If there are easier eats out there, the cougar will go there first.

We are planning on building the boys a barn this fall, but it will be for weather protection, not cat protection.

I am considering getting a Livestock Guard Dog (LGD). More than one of my alpaca friends has one, and have had good results. Of course, they may actually have a banana in their ear (as in, "it keeps the elephants away...what? you don't see any elephants, do you?"), but I'm thinking that a large, barking deterrent might help me sleep easier at night.

Do any of you, dear readers, have opinions about LGDs? I'd love to hear them! Suggestions for breeds and ways to keep them on my property and not the neighbor's would be appreciated, too.

Thanks!

m

Celebs Save the Alpacas

They care. Why don't you?

Paca Talk #20 -- Listener Survey

http://www.pacatalk.com/2009/09/paca-talk-20-listener-survey/

This Paca Talk is a plea to please fill out our Paca Talk Yearly Listener Survey. We want to improve the show, so we need your imput!

Thank you all in advance!

maren and charles

Alpacas in the News for 8/21 posted

In this week's "Alpacas in the News," we talk about what people in LA think an alpaca is (video) and an opening on the AOBA Fiber Committee.

Alpacas in the News for 8/14/09 posted

http://www.pacatalk.com/2009/08/an-8-14-09/

This week's Alpacas in the News includes a dog/alpaca incident and the mystery of the alpaca daddy.

Enjoy!
m

Alpacas in the News for 8/7/09 posted

http://www.pacatalk.com/2009/08/an-8-7-09/

Paca Talk #17, Alpacas in the News for August 8, 2009 is posted (late). Included are Bill the Alpaca Breeder and Tansy Ragwort pictures.

Enjoy!
m

Surprise! Cria a week early!

Sophie had her baby a week early! He's a surprise, not only because he's a hair early, but also because he's a darling little brown boy: his mama's black and his daddy's grey. It really is like Christmas with alpaca colors. 

Name suggestions so far include: Stampy, Moe, and Troy McClure (you may remember him from such movies as "cry hard!").

Do you have a suggestion for a name for this little guy? Drop me a comment or send me an email if you do!

m

What to do with Alpaca Fiber: Skirt it! Part 2/4

This is the second in a series of blog entries about what to do with alpaca fiber. These articles are taken from Paca Talk #2 “What to do with Fiber” which can be found on pacatalk.com. I’ve taken the time to expand each section a little more in these blog posts than we had time for in the podcast. These first four entries will focus on skirting a raw fleece.

In my previous post, I described how to make a skirting table. 

Once you have your skirting table, how do you skirt a fleece? Honestly, I can’t really TELL you how, but I’ll give you the basics. If you want to learn to do it, go find people who know how and watch them. I suggest asking to help them skirt fleeces for a day in exchange for a lesson. Certainly get help from someone if you are skirting a show fleece. Many show fleeces are marked down for improper skirting. 

To skirt a fleece, you must first decide what the fleece is for because skirting a show fleece is very different from skirting either a fleece for hand spinners or commercial applications. However, for all these applications your general purposes are the same: 

• remove dirt (some at least)
• remove poop
• remove big vegetation
• remove second cuts
• remove hair
• check for "tenderness"

Today, we'll talk about the first three since the others are a little more involved. 

To remove dirt, you can just spread out the fleece and bang the table a few times. This knocks out a surprising amount of dirt. You won’t find a lot of dirt in the fleeces if you used your shop vac (on “blow”) to remove the dirt just before shearing. Doing this just before shearing a show fleece isn’t recommended because it can compromise the structure of a fleece. You can do it a few days before shearing so the fiber can "reorganize" and get good results. 

Poop should be a no-brainer. Find a bean? Pick it out. Find a "smear?" Throw out the affected fiber.

"Big" VM should be removed

Big vegetable matter (VM) should be easy, too, except for that “big” qualification. My alpacas like to roll around in hay. Some places on them, especially the base of their necks, are just filled with tiny bits of hay, etc. How much work you put in to removing these bits is determined partly by the ultimate use of the fleece. If you are working on a show fleece, throw out any hunk of fleece that is badly contaminated by bits of vegetation. If the fleece is headed toward a small mill or hand spinner, do your best to get out the bits. Mills can remove a lot of VM, but remember that any VM left may end up in the yarn. 

A small amount of VM can be left in a fleece.

That's all for now! Next time I’ll describe how to deal with second cuts. 

New Items on Etsy!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7350164

I've posted some new bags of fleece on Etsy.com. These are some of my nicest fleeces, and they come in 2 ounce bags. Perfect for someone who wants to play with alpaca fiber, but doesn't want to commit to a whole bag!

Enjoy!

m

Alpacas in the News for 7/31/09 posted

http://www.pacatalk.com/2009/07/an-07-31-0/

In this episode, we have an ARI registration discount and llamas as golf caddies, among other things.

Enjoy!
m

What to do with Alpaca Fiber: Skirt it! Part 1 of 4

This is the first in a series of blog entries about what to do with alpaca fiber originally posted on thealpacaguy.com. These articles are taken from Paca Talk #2 “What to do with Fiber” which can be found on pacatalk.com. I’ve taken the time to expand each section a little more in these blog posts than we had time for in the podcast. These first four entries will focus on skirting a raw fleece.

So, let’s begin!

You’ve had a big day shearing (that was Paca Talk # 1 and #14 ), and now you have a room full of plastic bags filled with alpaca fleece. Now what?

Unfortunately, there are only a couple ways to make money from a raw, unpicked fleece in a bag: 1) sell it at a discount to a hand spinner, and 2) well, I can’t think of another way.

The point is that you need to pick your fleeces clean of debris and of second cuts before you can sell it. The first thing you’ll need is a skirting table.

Here’s a picture of my El Cheapo brand skirting table:

(I’ve since moved the whole operation to the garage). It is made of PVC pipe and 1/2 inch hardware cloth and duct tape. I have lost the “plans” but basically, you need a frame of about 3’ by 5’ of either wood or pipe. Then you need to attach the 1/2 hardware cloth to it. Hardware cloth is wire mesh, and 1/2 inch holes will allow dirt, poop and some second cuts to fall through. Then you need to set it up on legs or sawhorses. Over the years, I’ve added duct tape to the edges of the cloth to keep it from snagging fiber and an anti-fatigue mat so I don’t get so worn out standing on the concrete garage floor.

That’s all for now. Next time, we’ll talk about how to skirt a fleece!

Paca Talk #15- Alpacas in the News for 7/24/09 posted

http://www.pacatalk.com/2009/07/an-7-24-09/ 

This week, we have some VERY cute pictures of 4-Hers and their llamas and alpacas. Plus, lots of communiques from AOBA. 

Enjoy!

m

Paca Talk #14 Posted! "The Normal Delivery"

http://www.pacatalk.com/2009/07/pt-14-delivery/

That's right! A real, full-length Paca Talk has been posted! We cover the normal alpaca birth, what to do with placentas, and revisit shearing day 2009.

Enjoy!

m

Cute nick-name

"Canyonera" is a mouthful, and it doesn't fit the cute little baby girl out in the barn. Charles suggested we call her "Can Can."

And so it was. :)

m

My first contribution to The Alpaca Guy!

http://www.thealpacaguy.com/2009/07/21/fiber-skirt-1/

I'm now a contributor on thealpacaguy.com.

Hooyah!

m

Welcome Canyonera!

Dawn's cria was born on July 15, 2009. She appeared in the pasture about 12:30 in the afternoon, a nice surprise.

She's a little one: born at about 12 pounds. She's quite a personality, however. She's what you would call "vigorous."

Let me explain the grandiose name. Her daddy is Escalade, which is the name of a very large SUV. There was an episode of the Simpsons that was about another very large SUV: the Canyonero.
This little one is a girl, so we just feminized it to Canyonera.

Here is a group shot of Canyonera (a few days), Margie (22 days)and Apu (almost 4 months).

Margie is now over 18 pounds, which isn't bad. The vet looked at her when he came to give Canyonera the once-over and decided to try a couple things: creep feeding, more vitiamin B and one more round of antibiotics because he heard a tiny rumble in her lungs.

I'll post more about the creep feeder I built in a later post. For now, just enjoy the baby cuteness.

m

Alpacas in the news for 7/17/09 posted

http://www.pacatalk.com/2009/07/an-7-17-09/

This week, a TB scare in the UK, and the results of the alpaca kissing contest! Enjoy!

m

Lil' Margie's gain rate

Margie is gaining about 4 ounces a day. That's half of what I'd like to see her gain. But she's bright and active, which are good signs.

Because Margie seems so sensitive to stimuli, I would hate to put her and her mama in a trailer and leave them on a strange farm for breeding. Thank fully, the person who owns the stud we want to breed Lisa to has offered to bring him to our farm so we can hand-breed them. We're close enough neighbors that this isn't too much of a problem, but there's enough distance between us that he'd rather not be driving back and forth multiple times if the first breeding doesn't take.

In other updates, Dawn will be pregnant a whole year come tomorrow. You'd think a 13 year-old dam wouldn't hold a cria this long. I have heard that one llama vet has changed his due dates this year by assuming a year plus two weeks. That would be close for all our alpacas except Cabernet, who had her baby at around 335 days this year (she's always a week or more early).

In still other news, I've picked through four or five bags of light-colored fiber. Man, I have a lot of fiber. A start is a start, though. Here's a reminder of what my fleece table looks like, though I've moved the whole operation to the garage.

That's all for now!
m

Alpacas in the news for 7/10/09 posted

http://www.pacatalk.com/2009/07/an-07-10-2009/

This week's Alpacas in the News has items about a TB outbreak in alpacas in the UK, poachers killing vicunas in Peru and a cute baby seal.

Enjoy!
m

Margie gaining weight!

Li'l Margie has put on 11 ounces since the vet visit. She's FINALLY over her birth weight of 14# 13oz. She's 13 days old now. A normal cria would have put on 5-6 lbs. by now.

Here's a chart of her weight in ounces (240 ounces is 15 pounds). "a" is am and "p" is pm weights:Click on the chart to get a bigger view of it.

You can see that we really had some trouble there. The biggest dip happened the day we saw Margie nursing and turned her and her mom out with the herd, like we have with every other baby we've had. That was a mistake that took a week to recover from.

I'm going to err on the side of caution and keep them confined to the barn for at least another day, then perhaps we'll let them out into the 50-foot run for a day and see if she keeps gaining weight.

She's going to make it. I wonder how long it will take for her to "catch up," though.

In other news, Dawn is now approaching the 360-days pregnant mark. She was bred on 7/14/08. Her baby is doing jumping jacks inside her and she looks alternately profoundly uncomfortable and in zen-like peace. Please, Lord of Alpaca Births, let this one be a girl.

m

Little Margie update

Lisa's cria is healthy, but not gaining weight.

Those of you who follow me on Twitter (@marenster) have been getting periodic updates on Lisa's cria, whom we have named Marge Simpson (Little Margie until she outgrows it). To those of you who rely on my blog entries for updates, I apologize for the lag in information.

The good news is that Margie is a bright, happy, vigorous little girl. The bad news is that she is 10 days old, and is not gaining weight. She even weighs 4 ounces less than she did when she was born!

As a reminder, Lisa is a first-time mom, and it took her and Margie about two days to figure out the whole nursing thing. We bottle-fed Margie for several days while they figured this out. We have been trying to bottle feed her for the past few days, but she has been refusing it. Yet, she hardly gained any weight at all.

We finally had the vet out today. He has declared that Margie is healthy, but isn't eating enough. This would sound dumb, but my own little human child had trouble eating enough when she was a week old, so there. The vet gave Margie a shot of B-vitamins to stimulate her appetite and some antibiotics just to be safe.

So, we're not going to harass her with a bottle anymore, and she and mom are confined to the barn until Margie gains some weight steadily. She is a cute little fighter, and I think she'll be fine, but man, she's absorbed a huge amount of time.

It's worth it.

m

Bottle-feeding update

We won't have to bottle-feed Lisa's cria until she's weaned! Hooray!

We may, however, need to supplement her with a bottle during the day.

The little girl began nursing on her own on Sunday night. Light bulbs were flashing that whole day, but that evening was the first time we saw Lisa stand still as the baby connected with the teat. We heard satisfying slurping sounds, and afterward, the baby refused the bottle.

We watched her nurse again on Monday morning, she refused the bottle, and she maintained her weight overnight, so we let them out into the beautiful June sunshine. Lisa hadn't quite figured out how to defend her baby from the larger cria, and sometimes wandered off to graze, leaving the little one alone, but she is a teen-aged mother. She is much better about this today (Tuesday).

The long day outside must have been quite exhausting for the little baby, though, because we discovered when we weighed her that night that she had lost 1/2 pound since breakfast! Oops. Tuesday morning, she had maintained her weight overnight, and had a marathon nursing breakfast, and refused the bottle again. We let them back out into the fields with the herd with a little trepidation.

If she loses weight again today, I will give her a bottle (if she'll take it), and call the vet in the morning for advice. She is very bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and bouncy, just as a cria should be, so I am not too concerned.

Here are some things we tried to get Lisa to let the baby nurse:

• Kept an older dam in the stall with them
• Moved a nursing dam into the stall next to them
  
• Milked the dam to stimulate Oxytocin and so we could include mother's milk in the bottle feedings.
  
• Held the dam while letting the cria walk beneath her (some new dams are afraid of things under them or near their backends)
• Held the dam while directing the cria towards the udder/nipples.
  
• Expressed some of the milk from the nipples and rubbed it on the baby's nose/let her lick it off our fingers.
  
• Bottle-fed only after we tried the above.
  

Some things that were suggested to us, but that we couldn't or didn't try:

• put the placenta back into the stall (it was already in the freezer at this point)
• put the dam of the new mama in the stall with them (Grandma was on another farm being bred)

This whole experience will be part of a future Paca Talk episode, to be sure. We have learned a lot since Friday night!

m

Lisa's Cria update

Lisa's Cria, June 27, 2009

The vet says everything is great, except mom is being a dummy about nursing. He showed us a couple techniques to try to get the light bulb to turn on, but until then, we're doing hourly feedings. Our goal is to get the baby girl strong enough that she can follow her mother around and finally nurse on her own.

The timing couldn't be better for this. I shudder to think what would have happened if the baby had been born while I was teaching, for example.

Well, anyway, I'm going to supervise my human baby. Maybe I'll go to bed when she does and make DH do the night feedings? THAT will be popular. :)

m

Worth the Wait

Lisa has finally had her baby! Hooray!

06/26/09
9:55 PM
Female
White,
14 lbs., 13 oz.
Vigorous.

I checked on Lisa and Dawn just before we went out to dinner in the late afternoon yesterday. I noticed that Lisa finally had a milk bag and her vulva was longer than usual, and jiggly. But she didn't seem to be in any discomfort, just grazing away.

When we put the animals away last night (the girls and babies sleep in the barn), Lisa looked...off to me. I decided to come back and check on her in an hour, and I'm so glad I did. When I got back out there at a quarter to ten, Lisa's baby was already head and feet out! The birth was uneventful except for the time. (Nearly all alpaca births happen during daylight hours. New moms don't always read that memo).

There is a caveat, of course. Lisa is a new mom, and she is a bit clueless. She won't stand still so that the baby can nurse. I was out in the barn with them until 11:30 last night, and then went out at 2:30 a.m. to see if the baby had nursed. The cria was moving around very well, but so was Lisa.

At 6:30 a.m. it was still apparent that the baby hadn't nursed. She was going to the corners of the barn and licking the walls. Cria seem to try to nurse off of the darkest place they can find. In a field during the day, this would be under momma. In a barn, there are lots of dark places.

We made up some colostrum mix, and I've been feeding it to the baby, though I haven't been able to get much down her. The vet is coming late this afternoon to help us out. This is a strong baby, so I'm not too worried, but I wish Consuella, Lisa's mom, were here to give her some guidance.

Pictures soon.
m

Paca Talk #10 -- Alpacas in the News for 6/26/09

Paca Talk #10 is "Alpacas in the News" for June 26, 2009.

We cover a study on endophytes in ryegrass, the new AOBA Veterinarian Forum on the AOBA website, a fungus that makes alpacas go blind in Australia, and the Grass Mud Horse makes another appearance. Plus, Farm Shout-Outs coast to coast!

http://www.pacatalk.com/2009/06/pt-10-an-062609/

Enjoy!

m

Shearing Day recap

That went a lot better than we expected.

Those of you who listen to Paca Talk, our podcast, might remember Episode #2, when we talked about what a mess Shearing Day 2008 was. We didn't have a babysitter for our 7-month-old, and had to put her in a playpen in the garage with us after she woke from her nap. She wasn't happy about that and hollered for a long time as we worked. Not a good time.

Manjula, June 22, 2009

Manjula, June 25, 2009

This year, we put a lot of work into organizing the workflow. This was partly because we added three steps to the routine: we wanted to get weights on all the animals because we now have a livestock scale, we needed to give everyone worm medication, and we needed to trim toenails. These things needed to be done on shearing day because a few of the animals (the "Big Boys" as we call them) are not easily caught in their big, open feild. Whenever we DO get a hold of them, we need to perform some maintenence on them.

Anyway, besides our workflow plan, we also recruited three people to help out: my mother to babysit, a friend to pick up fleece, and another friend who is thinking of buying alpacas. (By the way, volunteering on an alpaca farm during shearing, vet trips, training days, etc. is an excellent way to learn the ropes. I've never heard of a farm refusing this kind of help). The shearer also brought two helpers instead of only one. While this cost us more money, it was worth it because it saved our backs.

Here's a picture to confirm that this is dirty, dirty work:

Here is a picture of the shearers at work:


So, in short, if you have enough people, you can get through shearing day without a whole lot of hassle.

Now I just have to figure out exactly what I'm going to do with 52 pounds of fiber.

m

Shearing day

Gaw, I'm tired. I'll fill in the details later, but here are the vital stats:

Total clip: 52 pounds of fiber
Most fiber off an animal was Milhouse with 7.8 pounds.
We had three ladies show up to help, which was great!

Everything went really smoothly, especially when compared to last year. Maybe we CAN learn from experience!
m

Paca Talk's Alpacas in the News! #1 Posted

http://www.pacatalk.com/2009/06/alpacas-in-the-news-01/

Alpacas in the News is our new weekly segment of Paca Talk. We simply cannot do Paca Talk any more frequently than our current 4-6 week schedule, but I wanted to put more material into the feed. One day as I stood in the barn wishing an alpaca would just give birth already, I came up with the idea of doing a weekly, five-minute alpaca news cast.

This first cast is 10 minutes long, but that's because I explained the new cast and I went back a month for material. For the rest of the summer, I'll be posting weekly updates to the Alpacas in the News. We will also be posting Paca Talk during its regular-ish schedule. We'll see how the new cast is faring in September and decide then whether to continue it in the fall.

Enjoy!
m

p.s. Lisa STILL hasn't given birth, and Dawn is due now, too. *Garh* I wish they would just read the schedule already.

We're on Etsy!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7350164

I've just opened a shop on Etsy.com, a mraketplace for handmade products or materials for said handmade products. I've only got one item listed so far (a beautiful fleece of Milhouse's), but over the next few days, I'll post a few more fleeces and what yarn I have. I'd love to move some of the fleece especially, since shearing day is almost upon us, and I'll just have more to store or pick and ship off to the spinnery.

Please check out the store in the next week or so. As I say on the page, I'll ship any amount of fleece, so don't let the price of a whole fleece keep you from trying us out!

ta
m

I can't believe it, but...

Lisa is STILL pregnant.

My informal poll of my alpaca friends shows that many alpacas are holding on to their spring babies for an extra 3-4 weeks! Since we pasture-bred El Barto and Lisa, I cannot pinpoint her conception date, but it was no later than June 1, 2008. That puts her at 379 days.

Un-be-lievable.

Alpacas are normally pregnant for 11 1/2 months, or around 340-350 days.

She is so late, that she may have her baby around the same time as Dawn, who is due June 19. I don't really expect any surprises from Dawn, who is 14 and drops her cria within a day or two of her due date.

You just never know in this business.

The other big question mark is what color the cria will be. By my guesstimate, there's a 75% chance we'll have a white baby, since both Barto an Lisa are white. However ,this is the daughter of the dam who just had a black baby from Barto, so we could get a brown or white, too.

This is like Christmas, except you have no idea when Santa will decide to slide down your chimney...only that he will.

la
m

It's alive!

Lisa is still holding on to her baby, but I know for a fact that it is in there.

A couple nights ago, I had Charles grab her and I palpated her belly. Not only did I feel bony baby parts in there, I think I felt its little nose. It felt like the baby was nibbling on my hand through Lisa's belly!

I can't decide if that was creepy or awesome.

It wasn't so hot today, so Lisa was much perkier than she has been since the heat wave began a week and a half ago. She did not spend the day following the tree shade as it moved around the tree, as she has the last week. She'll be so relieved when we shear on June 24.

m

Lisa's late

Lisa's at day 378 of her pregnancy, based on the one pasture breeding I observed May 15, 2008. I think if I had been pregnant that long, I would have done something desperate.

When I took these pictures, Lisa was chowing down. When I was about to leave, though, she cushed down and began panting. She pants with her whole body, so she was either just cooling off, or in labor. She's been doing this off and on for the last few days, so I think she was just hot. It did hit about 85 degrees outside today. A few minutes later, she was in the field, grazing contentedly.

Here's the best shot of Lisa that I could get today. She is a big alpaca with lots of fleece, but you can see that she's also heavily pregnant.

Here is Lisa the chow hound. She's the one who overturns the hay bins and eats the bottom hay.

Apu is home!

Here's a picture of Apu from today. He and Cabernet are back on the farm after Cabernet's "date." He's probably about 35 lbs. now. He looks almost exactly like his older brothers did at his age. His brother G. K. Willie will make his breeding debut later this year.

Pre-schoolers visit!

The woman who runs the daycare our daughter goes to also runs a little pre-school. She and a couple other women brought nine kids under the age of six to our farm on Thursday. The weather was perfect, and the kids had on closed-toed shoes, so we were good to go.

First, they had brought bread to feed the chickens. They thought it was magic when I produced an egg from the hen-house. In reality, we had checked in the morning for eggs and left one there just so we could "find" it for the kids. 

Then we took them into the barn, and sat them in a row on the hay bales (I should have told them to smile in the picture). Then I called the alpacas in for treats. They have learned that anytime there are people in the barn, it's a good bet that pellets are to be had, so they all come in at a run. I gave them pellets and closed the stall doors so the kids could take a long look at baby Doc (almost 3 weeks old). Then I grabbed a yearling (Manjula) and held her against the stall gate so that the kids (one at a time), could reach through and pet her. 

Of course, the alpacas were upstaged by the barn swallows who are building a nest above one of the stalls. They swooped in several times with mud in their beaks. The kids just went ga-ga for them. 

After that, we went inside. I passed around fleece, yarn and a knitted hat for them to touch. They got a kick out of the before/after shearing pictures I showed them, too. 

As luck would have it, it was someone's birthday, so there were cupcakes to eat, too. Everyone went home with a fleece sample and a coloring sheet with alpacas on it. 

My cost: $0. It was fun, too. 

m

Preparing for preschoolers

I like this shot, though we've fixed Julius's ear.

On Thursday, we'll have eight preschoolers come to the farm for a little field trip. The daycare our daughter goes to also has a preschool some mornings, and they are studying farm animals this month.

They are so excited to see baby Julius. I'll make sure to get lots of pictures of adorable little kids with adorable baby alpacas.

I'm also going to dig out the little alpaca display I made for such occasions and give them each a little baggie of fleece to take home.

First, though, I have to clean our house. That's the big job.

m

Meet Dr. Julius Hibbert!

Here he is!

Check out his namesake.

I wish we didn't have to tape up his cute flippy ear, but as Alpaca Farm Girl said, I wouldn't want a herdsire with inside-out ears. That would just be too hard to explain.

He's up to 17 lbs. and 14 oz. at four days old. And he's so soft! Yummy fiber.

All that cuteness makes me smile.
m

Alpaca Color Genetics

Kelly Kissane, a colleague at WOU, brought her biology class on a spider-hunting trip to our ranch last week. My theory is that they used the spiders as an excuse to pet the alpacas (as if you need an excuse!)

I sent Kelly the link to Consuella's baby here on the blog, and she sent me this email to help me understand why brown + white = black.

She agreed to let me post her response here. Enjoy!
m

*******

I teach genetics, and do behavioral genetics research. I have a guess as to the genetics of the little guy so far, which matches genetics in other animals (horses and cattle are a bit different), based on the information you gave:

Dominant non-albino white is epistatic to all other colors (same in cats).

W- is white, ww = non-white B- = black, bb = brown

Sire (white) = Ww Bb
Dam (brown) ww bb
newborn(black) - wwBb

If I'm right, then 1/2 of the time you will get white, 1/4 will be black, 1/4 will be brown with this cross.

Consuella's Cria

Here he is!

He's 16 lbs, 6oz and black as can be.

Yes, his ear is kinda curly. If it doesn't straighten out on its own, we may have to tape it. But it's cute right now.

His birth was a highly anticipated, but only a little stressful. Once we realized Consuella was in labor, we called a neighbor, Kelly, who said she had "never seen anything born." She was excited to come over and watch.

The first thing I saw come out, though, was a little nose. I called the vet who told me to feel around for feet and call him back if I couldn't find any. Fortunately, his feet were out by his nose by the time I got back to the pasture. I pulled the legs out so that he wouldn't get "elbow lock" in the birth canal.

Then we waited. Consuella was tired, and the cria hadn't moved in 10-15 minutes, so I got Charles to hold Consuella while I gently pulled on the baby's feet. When that didn't work, I pulled a little harder, more leaning into it than anything, and got those wide shoulders out.

I'm still flabbergasted that he's black. I was hoping for a brown, but I was expecting a white. This is a bit of a coup for El Barto our white herdsire.



For names, we're thinking Carl Carlson or Dr. Hibbert.

Cast your vote as a comment!

maren

FINALLY!

Consuella finally had her cria after 364 days!

Stats:
male
16 lbs., 6 oz.
black as night!

I am truly amazed by the color. By my understanding of alpaca color genetics, I figured we'd have a white or brown. He also has one ear that's turned inside-out. It's cute.

Anyway, more pictures tomorrow.
m

day 354

Nothing from Consuella as of 10:30 this morning.

I did get a picture that proves she's pregnant, though. Look at that belly!

She likes sunning her tummy when the weather's nice. It's just that there normally isn't so much of it!

m

Consuella's late

For those who are counting, as I am, Consuella is on day 350 gestation. She's usually good for 345.

I thought FOR SURE she was in labor on Easter. I even called a neighbor who wanted to see the birth. Thank goodness I told her to wait to come over until I saw feet. I never saw feet.

The phrase "any day now" gets old. Now, I'm almost not expecting her to have a baby, but it will happen. I've seen the little critter try to escape a couple times already.

It looks like Consuella is smuggling a blimp. ha!

m

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban buy four alpacas

http://lovelynicolekidman.com/article.asp?articleid=49351

The article linked above reads, in part:

"NICOLE Kidman and Keith Urban have fallen in love with their new mansion in the NSW Southern Highlands, and have added to their livestock with the purchase of four young alpacas."

Wow! There's an untapped market: celebrities! Could alpacas be the new Shar Peis?

Seriously, I think it's a great idea. If any of you know any celebrities, convince them that Alpacas are the new hot thing. If the "Kurbans" own them, you know it's gotta be hot!

m

Alpaca Shearing Video

just some fun news items to brighten your day.

http://www.tv3winchester.com/home/headlines/43002217.html#

Water-Cleaning Poo!
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/02/0205_0205TVllamadung.html

Meet Apu!

Apu Nahasapeemapetilon is the newest member of the Evergreen Terrace family. So it took us two weeks to settle on a name. We're lame and we know it.

m

Paca Talk #7 is posted!

http://www.pacatalk.com/

In this episode, we talk about taking a down alpaca to the veterinary hospital for an emergency.

Also, bits on the Chinese "Grass-mud horse," a brand-name candy commercial and a punk band...and yes, they all relate to alpacas.

Enjoy!
m

We Need a name

Actually, we'll need 5 names this summer if all goes well.

We name our alpacas after characters in the TV show "The Simpsons." Most of you had already figured that out (El Barto, Milhouse, Manjula, etc.).

Anyone have some awesome suggestions for names for this year's batch of crias? Comment them below!

m

New Cria!

Cabernet had a baby this morning. He weighs in at about 15 1/2 lbs. He is about six days early, which accounts for his unsteadiness, but the vet checked him out and says everything is okey-dokey.

As of now, he doesn't have a name, but I'll be sure to post it once we settle on one.

Consuella is due April 4, and Lisa is due April 20, so we'll soon have a pack of babies playing together. Yippee!

m

Any minute now...

Cabernet, our big 1/2 Accoyo girl, is due any day now with a cria from Thomas of Alpaca Junction. She has a habit of delivering about two weeks early, so we are on cria watch now. We've got our cria kit ready, we watch her from the house while she's in the field. I even have Charles trained to peek at her udder to see if it's filling (a sign she's getting close).

Plus, she's as big as a whale and obviously uncomfortable. She's gone stiff-legged in her back end from the extra weight.

After she's done, Consuella and Lisa are both due in April with El Barto babies. His first baby, Majula, was born last year, and is a beauty.

Back to the window for a Cabernet check!
m

Alpaca Blanket Project

Alpaca News Item:

Peter and Carol Lundberg are alpaca friends of ours. This article is a little old, but the story keeps being picked up by the papers, so I thought I'd share:

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20090211/COMMUNITIES/902110424/1133

We hope to interview them about the blanket project on the Paca Talk podcast ( www.pacatalk.com ) in the near future.

m

pooptacular!

http://www.newerspreader.com/newmodel.htm

Our shiny new manure spreader. Charles's dream come true.

He actually sold his English sports car so he could buy this. Sad, but true. It was NOT Maren's idea, either.

We'll let you know how it works out once we play with it some. :)

m

Alpaca 401 (k)

http://www.kmbc.com/cnn-news/17741606/detail.html

Our herd has doubled in value since we bought the orginal 4 animals four years ago. Not bad, especially considering the current economic turmoil.

Of course, just like stocks and bonds, to get that money we'd have to sell the alpacas. Maybe next year. :)

maren

Alpacas in the WSJ!

This article was on the front page of the Wall Street Journal!

"When Stocks Tank, Some Investors Stampede to Alpacas and Turn to Drink"

Here's a couple lines of the article...

"Peggy Parks, a 49-year-old auditor in Johnstown, Pa., turned to an unusual farm animal. "I've lost a fortune in stocks, and my 401(k) is falling through the floor. I feel comfortable in alpacas," she says. She invested $56,000 in a small herd that she believes has a better outlook than most mutual funds because of the animals' breeding potential.

The national Alpaca Registry Inc., in Lincoln, Neb., says registrations are on pace to rise 7% this year and currently stand at 140,297. Ms. Parks says a female of "medium quality" can fetch $10,000 and that prices have been rising, supporting her hopes that she'll see a profit on her alpaca portfolio in five years."

I'm interested in the idea that alpacas are seen by some as a sounder investment than stocks. I don't think I would go so far as to recommend people by alpacas as their sole investment. However, they are far cuter than most portfolios, and have a long track record of increasing the value of their herd (by reproducing).

I think it's great. I love front-page advertising.

m

Purchases!

http://www.alpacanation.com/alpacasforsale/03_viewalpaca.asp?name=22744

We're in the process of buying this black alpaca and her baby girl!

We haven't bought an alpaca since the first three (plus cria). I'll save the details until we've 1) closed the deal and 2) talked about it on Paca Talk (www.pacatalk.com).

Eee! This is exciting!

m

Paca Talk is on iTunes!

Hi Everyone!

Our podcast, Paca Talk (Pacatalk.com), is now on iTunes! You can search for "Paca Talk" or "alpaca podcast," and it will come up. Or click here to open iTunes on your computer.

I suspect that I'll be focusing less attention to this blog since we have the podcast going on, and it will have information about goings on on this farm. Our new human baby has taken up much of the time I had been spending on this blog, anyway.

Episode #1 of Paca Talk will be posted within a couple days.

maren

Paca Talk is live!

Paca Talk is our new alpaca podcast!

Check out our first "teaser" episode, which is posted on the blog:

http://www.pacatalk.com

Look for us on iTunes soon!
maren

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

Map of WABA farms for Alpaca Farm Day

This is just a test/proof of concept page for now. Neat, huh?
m




View Larger Map

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alpacas in Smart Money!

http://www.smartmoney.com/smallbiz/index.cfm?story=20061218

So, you want to start an alpaca farm? This links to a story about starting a small business while keeping your "day job," and it includes a couple that started an alpaca farm while remaining teachers. It's what Charles and I did.
m

Evergreen Terrace's X-mas 2006

Hello everyone!

We've had a busy year, naturally, and it took a couple of interesting turns. We've have a pretty good year with the alpacas, artistic endeavors, website building, consulting and caring for family members.

First of all, Maren has been busy writing, but branched out this year into filmmaking as well. Maren and a friend made two short films together this year. One was a documentary about alpacas at the Heart of the Valley Alpaca show.

The alpacas are doing great. (Snowball is the Rudolf impersonator in the picture.) We have two adorable babies who were born at the end of the summer. They play together and are endlessly entertaining. The male, Willie, was born two weeks early, but he is robust now, and the color of a new penny. The girl, Lisa, was born a month later, and is a very light fawn.

We have had a productive year entering alpaca fleeces in fleece shows. Bart and Duffman have each won one fleece ribbon, but Milhouse has won two, including third place out of a class of fourteen in a spin-off competition. We are very proud.

We want to reiterate that everyone is welcome to come visit us on the ranch.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Charles, Maren, Tigger, the kitties, and the alpacas.

November Updates and random photo

This is the random alpaca picture of the day. Milhouse was backlit nicely by the sunset in September.










It’s about time for us to spit-test and progesterone test Consuella. It has been three weeks since her last breeding with Barto. I hope that all tests show her to be solidly pregnant, but given the difficulty the pros at NWA had in finding her pregnancy last year, I’m fearful that she will be equally difficult to pin down this year.

In other news, the rains have come back and, despite our French drain, the barn still floods. However, we aren’t in the “water flowing through the barn” stage or the “water standing in the barn” yet as we were last year. We have some mud, and a pool of water where the clay floor of the barn is saturated with urine. The boys are a muddy mess. We have made progress, but it is still disheartening that there is still so much water in that stall.

Maybe we should build a dike next year.

Breeding updates

Cabernet has been confirmed pregnant with a progesterone test. Later on in the season, we may ultrasound her, but we didn't last year, so I don't think it is necessary.

Consuella's progesterone was so low that we decided to tease her again with Kuna. It could just be that she doesn't accept El Barto's authority yet, so to speak. He'll get more macho as he matures.

Anyway, Kuna was able to get Consuella down, and Bart was right there to finish the job (after 1/2 hour!). A few days later, we brought Kuna back to tease her again, and she spit and threw a fit. She did the same thing on Tuesday, so we're pretty sure she thinks she's pregnant. We'll tease her and do another progesterone test in a couple weeks to confirm it.

However, we won't be able to tease her with Kuna anymore. Polly was able to sell him to someone in Connecticut. He's leaving in a couple days. Polly is sad, but he'll be happy as a clam there with all sorts of girls to play with.

Our final bit of news is that Dawn is at NWA for her date with Pachacuti. This is a re-breeding because she lost her pregnancy sometime last spring. She was bred on Saturday, and spit off on Tuesday. They'll try again on Friday, but she may have taken on the first try this time. Keep your fingers crossed!

So, we may finally have everyone pregnant. Yippee!

2006 Fiber Odyssey Spin-off ribbon

Milhouse won a ribbon!

Back in July I sent off 2 oz. of Milhouse's fleece to Idaho for this spin-off contest, and promptly forgot about it until I received this package in the mail today!

Milhouse won third place in the Fawns for his fleece, out of FOURTEEN entries! He lost the most points for lack of crimp and architecture in his fleece, but obviously, that isn't enough to hold back a nice yarn!

I'm so proud. :)

m

Alpacamania

The Alpacamania show was October 7 and 8 in Medford, Oregon. I had never competed in a show besides Heart of the Valley, so I was eager to bring one of our animals to an outside show, plus I wanted to take Duffman to a show before the next HOTV in May when he will be 20 months old. I convinced Polly McCrea to send a couple of her animals along, too, so that we could split the price of a pen.

The animals we brought were: Duffman, our Hemingway grandson; Eli, Polly's Tocto son; and Montiero, Polly's black boy who won a ribbon at HOTV '06. We supposed that Montiero had a really good chance of winning a ribbon, Duffy had a chance if he had 2 testicles that day (since he had a habit of hiding one), and that Eli was just there for kicks.

It turns out that Eli, who was scared spitless the entire show, was the one who won a blue ribbon. The judge was very impressed with his "showmanship," which floored me. I didn't even think he was talking about us as he went on and on about how well this animal was showing, etc.





Duffy ended up with a fourth place ribbon out of four, even though his testicle was nowhere to be found. The judge was very kind about giving us a ribbon for what can be a disqualifying fault.





Monty didn't get a damned thing, which was the biggest surprise of the show. However, it was understandable. He was in a class of thirteen, all but two of which were older than he. They were all lovely, and the first and second places were won by near-two year olds. It was disappointing. However, I have never seen such a strong class of black animals.

We spent the time we weren't showing talking to people and handing out flyers for El Barto's stud services and Polly's retirement sale of alpacas and her ranch. (See her alpacanation [http://www.alpacanation.com/farmsandbreeders/03_viewfarm.asp?name=10257] site for more information.) I gave out all of Polly's flyers and I had to make more copies of ours since I left one at every stall at the show, and handed them out to people. We hope to get one or two breedings for Bart out of it (which would pay for the show, plus some), and maybe sell some of Polly's animals.


Plus, the show was lots of fun. :)

Barnyard surgery

Dawn isn't going to NWA this weekend because we had the huge, quarter-sized corn removed from her hind foot yesterday. The vet (and us) was eager to take off the corn because 1) it continued to grow, 2) Dawn isn't pregnant or lactating, 3) we weren't 100% sure it was a corn (read: we hoped it wasn't a tumor). So the vet sedated her, and removed it right there in the barnyard.

Now, my little brother is a surgery resident, and I'll bet he had never sutured something while kneeling in the gravel while shooing stray chickens away.

All went well, and Dawn is now sporting a pink bandaged leg.

This does complicate re-breeding her because, ideally, we'd keep her on our farm until the stitches are out...another 2 weeks. This presents two problem: 1) the stud we'd like to re-breed her to leaves at the end of October, and 2) the later we breed her, the more likely she'll have her baby after school starts.

So much for my well-thought-out plan for pre-school cria. :)

Dawn isn't pregnant

We had some disappointing news before I left for Alpacamania on Oct 5. We had a couple people look at Dawn and they confirmed our worst fear: Dawn isn't pregnant. I had been saying for some time that she wasn't big enough to be late-term, but I held out hope.

It turns out that Dawn is actually just fat. This is a first for her. We think she lost the baby when she was so sick in the spring with diarrhea,and she became so painfully thin. We changed her diet to a high-calorie, high-fat feed and put her on a daily diet of probiotics. That fattened her up, but it must have been after she lost the pregnancy.

The bad news is that we've lost a year of "production" out of her. The good news is that she is fat and happy and is in perfect condition to get pregnant. We're working out the details for when she can go back to NWA and see Pachacuti again sometime this month.

El Barto does his job!

El Barto has done his job in one try!

The female we bred to El Barto, Consuella, has spit him off twice! This usually means that a female is pregnant! We will have her progesterone tested in a couple weeks to make sure.

This is good news because it shows that not only is El Barto a potent stud, but that he can "get the job done" in one try! This will be useful information to give people who'd like to use him as a mobile herdsire (the sale is still on, everyone!).

Still still waiting

We're on Day 16 of being over due, Dawn! It's time to have a baby so that Charles and I can get on with our lives!

So much for planning. We had it all worked out so that the critters would be done birthin' by the time school started. We also had it worked out so that the babies would be born within 2 weeks of each other so that we wouldn't be on cria watch forever.

Then Cabernet had her baby 2 weeks early and Dawn is working on 2 1/2 weeks late (so far). Consuella was two days late, which was basically right on time.

Alpacas are such contrary animals. Dawn keeps looking at us like, "What?" whenever we look at her through the binoculars from the kitchen. The baby is kicking and rolling around inside her and seems very interested in getting out.

Ugh, it's frustrating. But that is the way it goes.

I am now trying to plan what to do next weekend when we are going to Central Point, Oregon, for an alpaca show. If Dawn hasn't popped before then, we are going to have to make more arrangements than if she has had her baby. Hiring a farm sitter is much more expensive than having my mom come out to feed the critters at night. The farm sitter would have to sit at the farm and watch Dawn, assist during the potential birth and call the vet if necessary. It's more time consuming because she can't leave the farm at all before noon, and has to check on Dawn every couple hours after that.

Well, the good news is that the baby is still alive inside her, and she is healthy and happy (if pig-headedly stubborn and uncaring about how inconvenient she is).

Still waiting on Dawn

Dawn is now eight days late. She's going to mess up our plans if she doesn't have her baby soon.

She has minimal udder development, but her hind-end is definitely relaxed (it jiggles when she walks). Her vulva is slightly larger, but not enough to scream "Today!" at me. She passed what we think was a mucus plug on Monday, but that can happen several days before actual birth.

We are planning on sneaking off to the coast on Saturday as my birthday present. It would suck mightily if we had to put that off because Dawn was still waiting to deliver. The weather is supposed to be perfect this weekend, and there are no guarantees about next weekend.

Plus, school starts on Monday, and I have to teach beginning at 10 am. This means that Charles would have to take care of things on Monday, were she to deliver. That isn't to say that he couldn't take care of things, but we would both prefer that both of us were there for the event.

The baby is kicking and thrashing about inside her, so we know it's alive and well. The baby isn't doing the creepy Aliens thing as Lisa was inside her momma, but it's still a little odd to see it writhing about in there.

Anyway, any day now we'll have another cria to coo over. I'm thinking I'd like to re-breed Dawn just a week earlier so that next year she won't bump up so close to the start of school.

We are planning a mobile breeding for Dawn at NWA, too, since she had that allergic reaction in August. We'd like to keep an eye on her. I think we'll be using their stud Impact this year.

That's all for now!
m

Link to Alumna profile

http://www.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/profile/profile_anderson.php

I had been looking for this since February when the article came out. I finally found it!

This is a link to the article published about me and our alpaca farm in the Mount Holyoke Alumna Quarterly. I was interviewed in September 2005.

Enjoy!