This month has flown by because of all of the planning that has been going on. We have bought and received a trailer, arranged for breedings for all three of the girls, and are preparing for the Heart of the Valley Alpaca Adventure at the Oregon State Fair.
The trailer was a big step for us because it is the biggest purchase we have made since we bought the alpacas. This is partly because the trailer is pretty specific. Our Subaru Forester, much as we love it, cannot pull a horse trailer, which is the default large-ish animal mover. The good news is that alpacas don't need to be hauled around in a horse trailer because they are considerably smaller than a horse. This means that we can get away with a lightweight cargo trailer that is about five feet wide and ten feet long.
Unfortunately, while there are many of those kind of trailer for sale used, since we propose to hauling live animals around in it, the trailer we needed had to have many windows and air vents. It could also not have formaldehyde-treated trim as it heats up and gives off chocking gas. Not many trailers with those specifications are knocking around Oregon used, I must say. So that meant we had the fun of going to a dealer and ordering exactly what we wanted. Anyone who wants the exact specifications can e-mail me.
I am typing this note in paint-splattered clothing because I am painting and sealing the floor of the trailer today. That way the bare wood won't be damaged if the alpacas decide to poo or pee in the trailer en route to somewhere. In addition to the paint, we have found some worn-out conveyor belts from a quarry to use as mats for the floor of the trailer. They are easy to drag out of the trailer to hose down, and will provide some footing for the alpacas as well. Plus, the conveyor belts were FREE. All I did was call and ask. Thanks to my horse-friend Sarah Beard for turning me onto this idea!
Breedings were fun and stressful to organize. Cabernet was easy because she has a free re-breeding for this summer. We're going to send her to Barolo, since he gave her such nice babies before. See him here: http://www.alpacasontheweb.com/HerdsireDetails.asp. We are taking her down (in the new trailer) on 8/31.
Consuella is going to be bred to Haldane http://www.alpacas.com/Studmaster/StudDetails.aspx?alpaca_id=197, or to Gallant Deed http://www.alpacas.com/Studmaster/StudDetails.aspx?alpaca_id=2752, both of them from NorthWest Alpacas. They are some super-looking studs. She is going up on 8/23.
Dawn is going to be bred to Pachacuti http://www.alpacas.com/Studmaster/StudDetails.aspx?alpaca_id=178, also of NorthWest alpacas. He is gorgeous, and has marvelous cria on the ground. She is going up after her cria is born, probably after 9/16.
Finally, the show. We aren't doing a whole lot to prepare for it except for working with El Barto. We are bringing Antonio along as a companion, and also to offer him for sale. We could use the money (remember the trailer?), and we will not have a shortage of boys in our lifetimes. The fair is going to be an excellent place to show Antonio off because there will be lots and lots of 4-H kids milling about. A kid who wants a gentle animal to work with and some fiber to play with would be thrilled with Tony.
We aren't taking little Milhouse with us to the fair, though. He isn't old enough, and I don't want him to be exposed to all the stresses (and diseases) at a show just after he's been weaned (remember, Consuella--his mom--is going to be bred the week before). So, he'll stay home with Auntie Dawn right around that time (yay! another baby to play with!). We're thinking about taking Barto and Milhouse to the SOJAA show in Southern Oregon in October.
So, that's August for you. It's already filled up, and it is just barely 1/2 over. September will be spent picking up and dropping off alpacas and preparing for school. Wow! Crazy, but fun.
--maren
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Training up baby
Baby Milhouse is now the same age as Barto was when we brought him home in December 2004, so Milhouse'’s training has begun in earnest. I have been using a rope a la Marty McGee on Milhouse for a couple months off and on to train him to stand still for me and to show that he will not die or be hurt if I do lay hand on him. This has resulted in me being able to catch Milhouse in the pen quite easily by walking up to him slowly and telling him to "“stand."”
I am often amazed at how smart alpacas are. For instance, when Dawn first arrived on our farm, she had not been trained to come into the barn when we called "“treats!"” to them. However, it took her two days to figure it out. That day she showed up in the barn first, and looked expectantly at me for her treats. Milhouse has also learned his lessons quickly, and even allows me to halter him without throwing his head around, and I'’ve only done it three times so far.
My plan is to take Milhouse to the State Fair show that WABA is having August 2nd. Milhouse won'’t be old enough to compete, but it would be good for him to go so that when we take him to the show in Southern Oregon in October, the experience will be old hat for him. Plus, his mother will be off being bred at that time, so he will be weaning; a trip will take his mind off of how lonely he will be. Finally, Milhouse will be a companion for Barto who is definitely going to the fair. We may even take one-balled Antonio to compete. He might do well since he has good conformation (besides the missing testicle) and beautiful black fleece, if there are few enough black males in his class.
However, I still need to be able to take Milhouse on a walk and train him to stand still before October. At the moment, we are working on connecting a tug on the halter to a step with the feet. He is picking it up really quickly, but he would really rather be next to his mother than walking toward me. And she spits in my ear if she thinks Milhouse is too upset to go on. Ugh. That'’s why I train the alpacas before I take a shower in the morning.
I am often amazed at how smart alpacas are. For instance, when Dawn first arrived on our farm, she had not been trained to come into the barn when we called "“treats!"” to them. However, it took her two days to figure it out. That day she showed up in the barn first, and looked expectantly at me for her treats. Milhouse has also learned his lessons quickly, and even allows me to halter him without throwing his head around, and I'’ve only done it three times so far.
My plan is to take Milhouse to the State Fair show that WABA is having August 2nd. Milhouse won'’t be old enough to compete, but it would be good for him to go so that when we take him to the show in Southern Oregon in October, the experience will be old hat for him. Plus, his mother will be off being bred at that time, so he will be weaning; a trip will take his mind off of how lonely he will be. Finally, Milhouse will be a companion for Barto who is definitely going to the fair. We may even take one-balled Antonio to compete. He might do well since he has good conformation (besides the missing testicle) and beautiful black fleece, if there are few enough black males in his class.
However, I still need to be able to take Milhouse on a walk and train him to stand still before October. At the moment, we are working on connecting a tug on the halter to a step with the feet. He is picking it up really quickly, but he would really rather be next to his mother than walking toward me. And she spits in my ear if she thinks Milhouse is too upset to go on. Ugh. That'’s why I train the alpacas before I take a shower in the morning.
Monday, June 13, 2005
Vet visit
It was time to give the alpacas their booster shots, so we had the vet out on June 8. Alpacas need little maintenance care, but they do need to be wormed periodically. Also, they need a booster for tetanus and a regular shot of vitamin D. Since alpacas are originally from such high altitudes (often over 7,000’), they are used to a lot of exposure to sunlight. Because they are raised mostly between 0’- 2000’ above sea-level in this country, they often have trouble absorbing enough vitamin D from sunlight because the atmosphere is so much thicker down here. The solution to this is booster a couple times a year, usually in the fall.
As long as the vet had to lay hands on all the animals, we asked him to give us a general condition on the girls, and look at our young males’ breeding equipment. Everyone is in fine condition and Dawn, who is the only pregnant girl we have at present, is doing well. She’s also feisty and screamed and spit on the door the whole time the vet was giving her shots.
The boys are in good health as well, and their fighting teeth have not come in yet—those aren’t due until they are 1 1/2 or so, but I wanted to make sure since they play pretty roughly together. However, poor Tony only has one testicle. The other one may appear someday, but unless it does, he won’t be a good stud. The vet says that, in cows at least, one testicle results in lower fertility, which can be passed on not only to male progeny, but probably to females as well. Since this is a fertility game, he’ll probably become a fiber male. He does have lovely black fiber, though. Would have liked a black stud, though. We did get him for “free” as a replacement for the cria that died, so we are certainly not complaining.
El Barto has one testicle that is smaller than the other, which may be a fault in the show ring, but ought not interfere with breeding. Since Barto is the one who won a fiber ribbon, we are hopeful that he might become a stud for us. Having your own stud can really cut down on breeding costs and hassels, plus, if he is nice enough, other people might want to breed to him, thus generating income. So, nice boys have a lot of potential.
It was nice to have confirmation that our animals are in good health, and that we are on the right track. Yay!
As long as the vet had to lay hands on all the animals, we asked him to give us a general condition on the girls, and look at our young males’ breeding equipment. Everyone is in fine condition and Dawn, who is the only pregnant girl we have at present, is doing well. She’s also feisty and screamed and spit on the door the whole time the vet was giving her shots.
The boys are in good health as well, and their fighting teeth have not come in yet—those aren’t due until they are 1 1/2 or so, but I wanted to make sure since they play pretty roughly together. However, poor Tony only has one testicle. The other one may appear someday, but unless it does, he won’t be a good stud. The vet says that, in cows at least, one testicle results in lower fertility, which can be passed on not only to male progeny, but probably to females as well. Since this is a fertility game, he’ll probably become a fiber male. He does have lovely black fiber, though. Would have liked a black stud, though. We did get him for “free” as a replacement for the cria that died, so we are certainly not complaining.
El Barto has one testicle that is smaller than the other, which may be a fault in the show ring, but ought not interfere with breeding. Since Barto is the one who won a fiber ribbon, we are hopeful that he might become a stud for us. Having your own stud can really cut down on breeding costs and hassels, plus, if he is nice enough, other people might want to breed to him, thus generating income. So, nice boys have a lot of potential.
It was nice to have confirmation that our animals are in good health, and that we are on the right track. Yay!
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Fleece Weights
These are the weights of our fleeces in ounces. Barto’s blanket isn’t back from the show yet, which is why his first number is blank.
Alpaca fleece Weights
Aprli 30, 2005
weights in ounces
in this order: firsts, seconds, thirds, total weight
Barto, ?, 16, 14=30
Dawn, 19, 4, 7=30
Cabernet, 27, 29, 15=71
Antonio, 18, 18, 8=44
Consuella, 24, 17, 13=54
Totals, 88, 84, 57=229
Average/alpaca, 45.8
Cabernet has the most fleece, and it should be in the 24 micron range, still. Consuella’s fleece is heavy because it is coarse. Barto’s ought to add a pound at least when I weigh his show fleece, but his numbers are impressive, matching his mother’s total fleece without his blanket at only 7 months old.
Alpaca fleece Weights
Aprli 30, 2005
weights in ounces
in this order: firsts, seconds, thirds, total weight
Barto, ?, 16, 14=30
Dawn, 19, 4, 7=30
Cabernet, 27, 29, 15=71
Antonio, 18, 18, 8=44
Consuella, 24, 17, 13=54
Totals, 88, 84, 57=229
Average/alpaca, 45.8
Cabernet has the most fleece, and it should be in the 24 micron range, still. Consuella’s fleece is heavy because it is coarse. Barto’s ought to add a pound at least when I weigh his show fleece, but his numbers are impressive, matching his mother’s total fleece without his blanket at only 7 months old.
Thursday, May 26, 2005
The wading pool
Alpacas are endlessly entertaining to those (like us) who enjoy watching animals graze and occasionally pronk around the pasture, but ours were especially so this morning when I put a wading pool into their pasture.
We are finally having some warm weather, after a soggy April and May. Yesterday it made it up to 85 degrees, and today it is supposed to reach 90 degrees. Our alpacas are shorn, and they have plenty of shade in the pastures and the barn, so we are not actually concerned that they will become too hot, but I know they enjoy being cool. I have seen pictures of alpacas lying down on soaker hoses and in kiddie wading pools, and Cabernet has upturned a number of buckets by putting her feet in them over and over again. So this morning I decided to drag the pool we used for Tigger last year into the alpaca’s pasture and fill it with water. Then I went to take a shower.
Naturally, the alpacas ignored it for a good 45 minutes. They knew that it was there, but they pretended not to notice or care. As I sat down to my cereal, the girls lead by Cabernet surrounded the blue pool. First, they drank out of it, then Cabernet delicately dipped one foot into the water. Then she began kicking at the water. I think she wanted to splash the water onto her belly. Consuella began to do the same thing, reaching well over the edge of the pool with her front leg, like she was doing high-kicks. She, too, was trying to splash water onto her belly. There was much maneuvering as the two alpacas tried to get both front legs into the 4-foot wide pool, although there wasn’t any real fighting.
Finally, Consuella cushed next to the pool. She looked a little surprised that her belly wasn’t wet. Dawn came and cushed next to her while Cabernet continued to splash. Consuella got back up, put her front feet into the pool, and then cushed onto the edge of the pool! It didn’t look especially comfortable, but she stayed there for a while. Cabernet thought this was a good idea, and cushed next to Consuella in the same way, front legs in, back legs out! They were like a couple of bikini-babes—all they needed were a couple of tall drinks.
Suddenly, Cosuella and Cabernet got out of the pool and ran to the dust bath where they had a good roll. While they were doing this, Dawn cushed ½ in and ½ out of the pool too. They must like the pool since they spent the next half hour occupied by getting wet, rolling in the dust, and then pronking around.
As I said…alpacas are endlessly entertaining. I’ll have pictures up on www.et-farms.com soon.
Maren
We are finally having some warm weather, after a soggy April and May. Yesterday it made it up to 85 degrees, and today it is supposed to reach 90 degrees. Our alpacas are shorn, and they have plenty of shade in the pastures and the barn, so we are not actually concerned that they will become too hot, but I know they enjoy being cool. I have seen pictures of alpacas lying down on soaker hoses and in kiddie wading pools, and Cabernet has upturned a number of buckets by putting her feet in them over and over again. So this morning I decided to drag the pool we used for Tigger last year into the alpaca’s pasture and fill it with water. Then I went to take a shower.
Naturally, the alpacas ignored it for a good 45 minutes. They knew that it was there, but they pretended not to notice or care. As I sat down to my cereal, the girls lead by Cabernet surrounded the blue pool. First, they drank out of it, then Cabernet delicately dipped one foot into the water. Then she began kicking at the water. I think she wanted to splash the water onto her belly. Consuella began to do the same thing, reaching well over the edge of the pool with her front leg, like she was doing high-kicks. She, too, was trying to splash water onto her belly. There was much maneuvering as the two alpacas tried to get both front legs into the 4-foot wide pool, although there wasn’t any real fighting.
Finally, Consuella cushed next to the pool. She looked a little surprised that her belly wasn’t wet. Dawn came and cushed next to her while Cabernet continued to splash. Consuella got back up, put her front feet into the pool, and then cushed onto the edge of the pool! It didn’t look especially comfortable, but she stayed there for a while. Cabernet thought this was a good idea, and cushed next to Consuella in the same way, front legs in, back legs out! They were like a couple of bikini-babes—all they needed were a couple of tall drinks.
Suddenly, Cosuella and Cabernet got out of the pool and ran to the dust bath where they had a good roll. While they were doing this, Dawn cushed ½ in and ½ out of the pool too. They must like the pool since they spent the next half hour occupied by getting wet, rolling in the dust, and then pronking around.
As I said…alpacas are endlessly entertaining. I’ll have pictures up on www.et-farms.com soon.
Maren
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Our first ribbon!
Our first ribbon!
Last weekend we entered El Barto’s baby fleece in a fleece show that was part of the Scio Lamb and Fleece show, and he won first place! Yay!
I don’t know all of the details except that he would have been more of a contender for best in show if the fleece had been better picked of vegetation. Oh well. I think that’s pretty good for my first skirting job. ☺
For a picture of El Barto’s fleece, check him out on our sales page at http://www.et-farms.com/Bartspage.htm and scroll to the bottom of the page. See how crimpy and long it is? It makes me happy (and apparently, it makes judges happy, too).
That’s all for now. I’ll update this when I know more about the show.
m
Last weekend we entered El Barto’s baby fleece in a fleece show that was part of the Scio Lamb and Fleece show, and he won first place! Yay!
I don’t know all of the details except that he would have been more of a contender for best in show if the fleece had been better picked of vegetation. Oh well. I think that’s pretty good for my first skirting job. ☺
For a picture of El Barto’s fleece, check him out on our sales page at http://www.et-farms.com/Bartspage.htm and scroll to the bottom of the page. See how crimpy and long it is? It makes me happy (and apparently, it makes judges happy, too).
That’s all for now. I’ll update this when I know more about the show.
m
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Springtime--
Check out http://www.et-farms.com/ for the updated sales page! It even has some pictures of our critter's fleeces on it.
We are about three weeks from the end of the quarter, and therefore freedom to work on the farm and other aspects of our business. Here is a list of the things we hope to accomplish during the summer:
1. launch http://www.et-farms.com/ Version 2.0 full of new features and resources.
2. upgrade the barn including: a ceiling vent, gutters, french drains around the perimeter to deal with the drainage issue inside the barn, hanging another gate, possibly installing cabinets or shelves
3. improve the "pastures" (in quotes because what we currently have are patches of ground covered with thistle and daisies). To do this, we need to: pick sticks (some more), nuke the undesirable vegetation, analyze the soil and fertilize appropriately, seed, and finally let it grow. We'd like to get this done by next February.
4. fence the rest of our pastures after the fall rains begin
5. perhaps buy a livestock trailer
6. perhaps man a stall at the Oregon State Fair in September, and the Polk County Fair in August.
Other projects include upgrading the WABA website (http://www.alpacas-waba.org/), working on our business plan, going to seminars and classes, lining up breedings for our girls, and awaiting Dawn's cria, due in September (but she was a month late last year). I'm also going to devote some more time in training the alpacas. I'd like them all to walk on a halter and load up into a trailer easily.
Currently, I've begun training Milhouse, Consuella's little boy out of Tocto. He's still only a baby--2 1/2 months old--but I want to get him used to being handled. Plus, it means that I get to put my hands in his crimpy golden fleece!
This urge to train Milhouse probably has something to do with the fact that we saw two hand-reared baby alpacas at AWE (Alpaca Western Extravaganza) in Portland last weekend. Those 2-week old babies adored people, and walked among them with no fear. We were talking to a friend at one point and looked down to find the baby leaning against Charles's leg! Talk about adorable! When we got home, Charles looked at Milhouse wistfully and said, "I suppose it is too late for Milhouse to be that friendly." I suppose it is, but I don't want a critter that friendly if it means we have to hand-feed it (especially since that means that the mother rejected it or worse). However, the earlier and more often that we work with Milhouse, the friendlier he will be.
Have a good spring day!
We are about three weeks from the end of the quarter, and therefore freedom to work on the farm and other aspects of our business. Here is a list of the things we hope to accomplish during the summer:
1. launch http://www.et-farms.com/ Version 2.0 full of new features and resources.
2. upgrade the barn including: a ceiling vent, gutters, french drains around the perimeter to deal with the drainage issue inside the barn, hanging another gate, possibly installing cabinets or shelves
3. improve the "pastures" (in quotes because what we currently have are patches of ground covered with thistle and daisies). To do this, we need to: pick sticks (some more), nuke the undesirable vegetation, analyze the soil and fertilize appropriately, seed, and finally let it grow. We'd like to get this done by next February.
4. fence the rest of our pastures after the fall rains begin
5. perhaps buy a livestock trailer
6. perhaps man a stall at the Oregon State Fair in September, and the Polk County Fair in August.
Other projects include upgrading the WABA website (http://www.alpacas-waba.org/), working on our business plan, going to seminars and classes, lining up breedings for our girls, and awaiting Dawn's cria, due in September (but she was a month late last year). I'm also going to devote some more time in training the alpacas. I'd like them all to walk on a halter and load up into a trailer easily.
Currently, I've begun training Milhouse, Consuella's little boy out of Tocto. He's still only a baby--2 1/2 months old--but I want to get him used to being handled. Plus, it means that I get to put my hands in his crimpy golden fleece!
This urge to train Milhouse probably has something to do with the fact that we saw two hand-reared baby alpacas at AWE (Alpaca Western Extravaganza) in Portland last weekend. Those 2-week old babies adored people, and walked among them with no fear. We were talking to a friend at one point and looked down to find the baby leaning against Charles's leg! Talk about adorable! When we got home, Charles looked at Milhouse wistfully and said, "I suppose it is too late for Milhouse to be that friendly." I suppose it is, but I don't want a critter that friendly if it means we have to hand-feed it (especially since that means that the mother rejected it or worse). However, the earlier and more often that we work with Milhouse, the friendlier he will be.
Have a good spring day!
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Shearing day part 3
When we last left our heroes, they had all of the alpacas in a trailer (which they were pretty sure was light enough for their Subaru to pull), and were on their way to Polly’s at Fern Hill Ranch to shear.
We made it to Polly’s before the shearer Armando arrived, so we had time to beat some of the dirt out of the alpaca’s fleeces before shearing began. We use a special tool which consists of a wire attached to a handle. When you flick the handle against a fleecy alpaca, the dust fluffs out. It is better to get the dirt out of the fleeces by beating or by blowing with a shop-vac than it is to shear a dirty alpaca. The dirt is hard to remove from the fleece after shearing, and a dirty fleece makes the electric shears duller.
Once Armando and his two friends arrived and set up, we began shearing with El Barto, our little white male. When we shear, we go from lightest to darkest so if a little fiber ends up being mixed in to a fleece, it’s a lighter shade instead of a darker shade. Also, by doing them in this order, none of the fleece colors are drastically different.
Armando’s two friends, Conception and José, took hold of the alpaca, one in front and one in back, and Armando began shearing by taking off the blanket which lies across the alpaca’s back and flanks. This is prime fiber and is bagged and marked “firsts” or “blanket.” This is the best fiber on the animal and is usually reserved for spinning into yarn or making into fine, soft garments. Then Armando takes off the neck fiber which is bagged as “seconds.” Seconds are usually felted, but the seconds of some animals make fine yarn as well. Finally, he removes the leg and belly hair and any other patches which are bagged as “thirds.” In general, thirds are not much good except for compost or stuffing, but some thirds make good felt.
It took Armando and his friends about fifteen minutes to shear each alpaca, clean up the fiber that had fallen on the floor, and prepare for the next animal. Our jobs were to catch the fleece as it came off of the animals and bag and label it, vacuum/sweep up loose hair, and ferry animals between the pens and the garage where we were shearing.
This was the first time El Barto has been shorn, and he behaved quite well. He was worried, but he didn’t make any sound, nor did he try to kick at the workers, which was my biggest fear. Once his fiber was off, he looked quite ridiculous. Alpacas lose about 2/3 of their volume when they are shorn, and are reduced in appearance to long-necked drowned rats. Adding to Barto’s ridiculousness was the fact that Armando left sideburns and a little goatee of a beard on him. He reminds me now of the Jaberwocky that the Muppets had on their show once.
Once we got the routine down, the shearing went remarkably smoothly. The animals were well-behaved with a few exceptions. Dawn, our nine-year-old import, screamed the entire time she was being shorn. She didn’t kick, bite, or spit, as we had feared, but she never stopped her glass-shattering, shrill scream of indignant protest. It was the same noise she made when we picked her up from her former ranch after the ranch hands had taken her baby from her, thrown him in the trailer, and then tried to throw a towel over her head. We thought we had bought a hellion at that point, but Dawn is actually quite sweet. We’ll bring earplugs the next time we shear her, though.
Consuella and Milhouse were challenges, too. We decided to “tip” Milhouse’s baby fleece because the tips catch dirt and sticks, etc., and often end up a lighter color than the baby’s true color. This is controversial in the show circuit, but since we don’t know if we’ll show Milhouse or not, we decided to cut the tips off of his fleece to ease next year’s shearing.
In order to shear Milhouse, though, we needed to bring Consuella into the garage as well. I held Consuella back as Armando and company tipped Milhouse—a process similar in technique to trimming a poodle, although the design is thankfully different! Consuella did not like the men handling her baby, and Milhouse wiggled like a child getting a shot, but he was shorn with little effort. Consuella was relatively easy to shear, too, although hanging on to Milhouse was challenging.
When we finally arrived at the time to shearing Polly’s big studs, Armando and his friends would lay the animal on his side so he wouldn’t thrash around. The big males are sometimes harder to shear because they are so much stronger than the females that, given even a little leverage, they can make it very difficult to shear them. Laying them down makes it much easier on all involved, although the animals don’t like it much.
After five hours of shearing without a break, we were done, and ready for a nice meal…but first we had to re-load the alpacas and put them back into their own barn. However, if you remember from the last installment, we made two original trips because Cabernet hated the little boys. We fixed the problem by putting everyone into the trailer except Tony, who we lifted into the back of my mother’s Volvo station wagon! I’m sure she got a funny look or two from people she passed on the highway.
So, that’s shearing day. A couple days later, I picked El Barto’s fleece for a local fleece show. This involves lots of leaning over a table and pulling tiny bits of debris out of sticky fleece. I’m pleased with Bart’s fleece—it is crimpy and very soft. I am also pleased with Tony’s fleece—we thought he was a bay black, but it looks like the baby tips are the only brown on him…the rest of him is true black, and soft with some crimp developing! He, unlike Bart, is far handsomer for his haircut.
We made it to Polly’s before the shearer Armando arrived, so we had time to beat some of the dirt out of the alpaca’s fleeces before shearing began. We use a special tool which consists of a wire attached to a handle. When you flick the handle against a fleecy alpaca, the dust fluffs out. It is better to get the dirt out of the fleeces by beating or by blowing with a shop-vac than it is to shear a dirty alpaca. The dirt is hard to remove from the fleece after shearing, and a dirty fleece makes the electric shears duller.
Once Armando and his two friends arrived and set up, we began shearing with El Barto, our little white male. When we shear, we go from lightest to darkest so if a little fiber ends up being mixed in to a fleece, it’s a lighter shade instead of a darker shade. Also, by doing them in this order, none of the fleece colors are drastically different.
Armando’s two friends, Conception and José, took hold of the alpaca, one in front and one in back, and Armando began shearing by taking off the blanket which lies across the alpaca’s back and flanks. This is prime fiber and is bagged and marked “firsts” or “blanket.” This is the best fiber on the animal and is usually reserved for spinning into yarn or making into fine, soft garments. Then Armando takes off the neck fiber which is bagged as “seconds.” Seconds are usually felted, but the seconds of some animals make fine yarn as well. Finally, he removes the leg and belly hair and any other patches which are bagged as “thirds.” In general, thirds are not much good except for compost or stuffing, but some thirds make good felt.
It took Armando and his friends about fifteen minutes to shear each alpaca, clean up the fiber that had fallen on the floor, and prepare for the next animal. Our jobs were to catch the fleece as it came off of the animals and bag and label it, vacuum/sweep up loose hair, and ferry animals between the pens and the garage where we were shearing.
This was the first time El Barto has been shorn, and he behaved quite well. He was worried, but he didn’t make any sound, nor did he try to kick at the workers, which was my biggest fear. Once his fiber was off, he looked quite ridiculous. Alpacas lose about 2/3 of their volume when they are shorn, and are reduced in appearance to long-necked drowned rats. Adding to Barto’s ridiculousness was the fact that Armando left sideburns and a little goatee of a beard on him. He reminds me now of the Jaberwocky that the Muppets had on their show once.
Once we got the routine down, the shearing went remarkably smoothly. The animals were well-behaved with a few exceptions. Dawn, our nine-year-old import, screamed the entire time she was being shorn. She didn’t kick, bite, or spit, as we had feared, but she never stopped her glass-shattering, shrill scream of indignant protest. It was the same noise she made when we picked her up from her former ranch after the ranch hands had taken her baby from her, thrown him in the trailer, and then tried to throw a towel over her head. We thought we had bought a hellion at that point, but Dawn is actually quite sweet. We’ll bring earplugs the next time we shear her, though.
Consuella and Milhouse were challenges, too. We decided to “tip” Milhouse’s baby fleece because the tips catch dirt and sticks, etc., and often end up a lighter color than the baby’s true color. This is controversial in the show circuit, but since we don’t know if we’ll show Milhouse or not, we decided to cut the tips off of his fleece to ease next year’s shearing.
In order to shear Milhouse, though, we needed to bring Consuella into the garage as well. I held Consuella back as Armando and company tipped Milhouse—a process similar in technique to trimming a poodle, although the design is thankfully different! Consuella did not like the men handling her baby, and Milhouse wiggled like a child getting a shot, but he was shorn with little effort. Consuella was relatively easy to shear, too, although hanging on to Milhouse was challenging.
When we finally arrived at the time to shearing Polly’s big studs, Armando and his friends would lay the animal on his side so he wouldn’t thrash around. The big males are sometimes harder to shear because they are so much stronger than the females that, given even a little leverage, they can make it very difficult to shear them. Laying them down makes it much easier on all involved, although the animals don’t like it much.
After five hours of shearing without a break, we were done, and ready for a nice meal…but first we had to re-load the alpacas and put them back into their own barn. However, if you remember from the last installment, we made two original trips because Cabernet hated the little boys. We fixed the problem by putting everyone into the trailer except Tony, who we lifted into the back of my mother’s Volvo station wagon! I’m sure she got a funny look or two from people she passed on the highway.
So, that’s shearing day. A couple days later, I picked El Barto’s fleece for a local fleece show. This involves lots of leaning over a table and pulling tiny bits of debris out of sticky fleece. I’m pleased with Bart’s fleece—it is crimpy and very soft. I am also pleased with Tony’s fleece—we thought he was a bay black, but it looks like the baby tips are the only brown on him…the rest of him is true black, and soft with some crimp developing! He, unlike Bart, is far handsomer for his haircut.
Shearing day part two
Shearing day
5/3/2005
Shearing day was Saturday April 30, and boy am I tired. We took our animals to Polly’s ranch and had them sheared by Armando [Victoria]. In total, we had seventeen animals shorn, six of them ours, and eleven of them hers. It took five hours and all of us to shear them. Now they look very silly.
We began by taking the boys over to Polly’s the night before since Cabernet cannot stand the young males on the ranch. We had to think of a way to get all of them to Polly’s for shearing. The solution was borrow her trailer and make two trips. We loaded the boys up, easy as pie, and dropped them off at Polly’s barn.
The next morning was not nearly as much fun, although it was not as bad as I was afraid it was going to be. I have been working with all the adult alpacas on haltering a leading a little bit. The book I’ve been using is Marty McGee’s Camilidynamics which works pretty well, although I must say it is one of the worst-edited books I have ever seen. It is so bad that I as a writing teacher can barely read it because I want to mark it up.
But that’s beside the point. I have been using McGee’s techniques to make haltering and leading not-so scary for the girls, and it does work. They are all much better about catching, haltering, and leading than they were when I began. I didn’t have to work much with Cabernet, and she will follow you on a lead really easily. She will even lean into you once you have a halter on her, somewhat affectionately.
I was most afraid that Dawn, our import, would go berserk on us once we had a halter on her because many imports have not been handled. However, Dawn accepts the halter, and even leads reasonably well. Consuella, who was born in Canada, was my biggest challenge.
Consuella is challenging because she is smart and wily. She knows that she is bigger than I am, and she is not afraid of me (which is good, but presents its own problems). Catching her is difficult because she is quick, and haltering her is hard because she likes to throw her head around. Plus, she is not very willing to follow on a lead. However, she will follow her baby. Charles simply picks up Milhouse (who now weighs 40 lbs or so), and Consuella will follow. It’s a cheat, but it got us through the day.
We loaded the girls into the trailer by picking up Milhouse and leading Consuella in. Then we haltered up Cabernet and Dawn and let Dawn follow Cabernet in. It took some doing to get Dawn into the trailer because she didn’t want to go into the people door, which would have required her to step up, so I had to open the ramp in the back…that took a couple of my degrees to accomplish. She went in to be with her herd with a bit of encouragement, though.
Part three is coming soon!
5/3/2005
Shearing day was Saturday April 30, and boy am I tired. We took our animals to Polly’s ranch and had them sheared by Armando [Victoria]. In total, we had seventeen animals shorn, six of them ours, and eleven of them hers. It took five hours and all of us to shear them. Now they look very silly.
We began by taking the boys over to Polly’s the night before since Cabernet cannot stand the young males on the ranch. We had to think of a way to get all of them to Polly’s for shearing. The solution was borrow her trailer and make two trips. We loaded the boys up, easy as pie, and dropped them off at Polly’s barn.
The next morning was not nearly as much fun, although it was not as bad as I was afraid it was going to be. I have been working with all the adult alpacas on haltering a leading a little bit. The book I’ve been using is Marty McGee’s Camilidynamics which works pretty well, although I must say it is one of the worst-edited books I have ever seen. It is so bad that I as a writing teacher can barely read it because I want to mark it up.
But that’s beside the point. I have been using McGee’s techniques to make haltering and leading not-so scary for the girls, and it does work. They are all much better about catching, haltering, and leading than they were when I began. I didn’t have to work much with Cabernet, and she will follow you on a lead really easily. She will even lean into you once you have a halter on her, somewhat affectionately.
I was most afraid that Dawn, our import, would go berserk on us once we had a halter on her because many imports have not been handled. However, Dawn accepts the halter, and even leads reasonably well. Consuella, who was born in Canada, was my biggest challenge.
Consuella is challenging because she is smart and wily. She knows that she is bigger than I am, and she is not afraid of me (which is good, but presents its own problems). Catching her is difficult because she is quick, and haltering her is hard because she likes to throw her head around. Plus, she is not very willing to follow on a lead. However, she will follow her baby. Charles simply picks up Milhouse (who now weighs 40 lbs or so), and Consuella will follow. It’s a cheat, but it got us through the day.
We loaded the girls into the trailer by picking up Milhouse and leading Consuella in. Then we haltered up Cabernet and Dawn and let Dawn follow Cabernet in. It took some doing to get Dawn into the trailer because she didn’t want to go into the people door, which would have required her to step up, so I had to open the ramp in the back…that took a couple of my degrees to accomplish. She went in to be with her herd with a bit of encouragement, though.
Part three is coming soon!
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Shearing Day
Shearing day is on April 30th, and it will be quite a production, I think. We are sharing a shearer at another farm, which means that we will have to halter up all the elapses, load them into a trailer, and then take the to be shorn. Our adult females are all only marginal on halters, and I expect at least one of them to hate shearing with a loud passion.
This brings up the question of what alpaca ranches do with the pounds of fleece they are presented with each year. Our six animals ought to produce perhaps thirty pounds of fleece of widely varying quality and color. As much as I am enjoying spinning, I do not plan on processing all of this fleece by hand. In the next posting, I think I'll discuss the many ways to dealing with fleeces, but here I'm going to talk about show fleeces.
You might remember that El Barto didn't get a ribbon at the Heart of the Valley show last month. There are many possible reasons for this, but my personal favorite is that he was too young to do well in a confirmation show. So, I am going to enter his fleece only into a show or two and see how he does. Just for kicks, I think I'm going to enter the fleece of our new alpaca Antonio (Tony for short) as well. He's a pretty bay black, and Barto is white, so we'll have each end of the color spectrum covered. This first show is a sheep-oriented show where an alpaca fleece won grand champion last year. It's not really fair to compare sheep and alpaca, but I'm not going to worry about the ethics of it; they allow it, so they've considered the ramifications themselves. (right?)
This means that I will have to learn how to prepare a fleece for a show. My friend Polly McCrea of Fern Hill Ranch will help me because she's a veteran alpaca rancher and has show fleeces and animals. I'll let you all know what the process is once I learn it. I know it involves skirting, picking, and bagging, but I'm sure it is more complicated than just that.
We are also going to take fiber samples from many of our animals to see how they are doing micron-wise. In this process, the shearer takes a patch of fiber a couple inches square and the rancher sends it in to one of a few companies that measures how fine the fiber is, how uniform, etc. These statistics can be very useful if you are selling an animal because a small micron count and very uniform fleece are selling points.
Another thing that this test can tell you is if you are feeding your alpacas correctly. If they have too much protein in their diets, their fleece can become coarser. It will be interesting over the next couple of years to see how or if our alpacas fleeces are affected. Nearly all alpacas' fleeces become coarser as they age, but sometimes this process can be slowed by altering their diets. However, I don't recommend that newcomers (myself included) monkey with the nutrition of their alpacas just to strive for finer fleece. This involves giving the alpacas a poorer diet. Extreme cases could result in a lack of fiber quality and a starving animal. I'm not confident enough to play with those risks, and I don't think any newcomer should, either.
Anyway, I'm rambling a bit. Feed your animals to maintain a good body score and let the fleeces come naturally. Some of them will be show-quality.
Ta!
m
This brings up the question of what alpaca ranches do with the pounds of fleece they are presented with each year. Our six animals ought to produce perhaps thirty pounds of fleece of widely varying quality and color. As much as I am enjoying spinning, I do not plan on processing all of this fleece by hand. In the next posting, I think I'll discuss the many ways to dealing with fleeces, but here I'm going to talk about show fleeces.
You might remember that El Barto didn't get a ribbon at the Heart of the Valley show last month. There are many possible reasons for this, but my personal favorite is that he was too young to do well in a confirmation show. So, I am going to enter his fleece only into a show or two and see how he does. Just for kicks, I think I'm going to enter the fleece of our new alpaca Antonio (Tony for short) as well. He's a pretty bay black, and Barto is white, so we'll have each end of the color spectrum covered. This first show is a sheep-oriented show where an alpaca fleece won grand champion last year. It's not really fair to compare sheep and alpaca, but I'm not going to worry about the ethics of it; they allow it, so they've considered the ramifications themselves. (right?)
This means that I will have to learn how to prepare a fleece for a show. My friend Polly McCrea of Fern Hill Ranch will help me because she's a veteran alpaca rancher and has show fleeces and animals. I'll let you all know what the process is once I learn it. I know it involves skirting, picking, and bagging, but I'm sure it is more complicated than just that.
We are also going to take fiber samples from many of our animals to see how they are doing micron-wise. In this process, the shearer takes a patch of fiber a couple inches square and the rancher sends it in to one of a few companies that measures how fine the fiber is, how uniform, etc. These statistics can be very useful if you are selling an animal because a small micron count and very uniform fleece are selling points.
Another thing that this test can tell you is if you are feeding your alpacas correctly. If they have too much protein in their diets, their fleece can become coarser. It will be interesting over the next couple of years to see how or if our alpacas fleeces are affected. Nearly all alpacas' fleeces become coarser as they age, but sometimes this process can be slowed by altering their diets. However, I don't recommend that newcomers (myself included) monkey with the nutrition of their alpacas just to strive for finer fleece. This involves giving the alpacas a poorer diet. Extreme cases could result in a lack of fiber quality and a starving animal. I'm not confident enough to play with those risks, and I don't think any newcomer should, either.
Anyway, I'm rambling a bit. Feed your animals to maintain a good body score and let the fleeces come naturally. Some of them will be show-quality.
Ta!
m
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Pasture Management part 2
I want to apply the knowledge from the pasture management class to our little patch of mud.
First, we are going to spread urea (N) all over our pastures to help the grass grow through spring. We know this will work because the grass around old poop piles is growing furiously. Nitrogen (N) is safe for animals—sometimes it is even put into their food—so we can do this now without worrying about them.
We will kill the grasses that are growing wild, twice, to make sure that we have a blank slate to plant desirable grasses. We will do this sometime in the fall when the rains resume because we don’t have irrigation for the pastures yet. The grass will die back in July because
Once we have that blank slate, we are going to drag the pastures with a hunk of log with large screws driven into it. This will help in loosening up the topsoil and make a place for the fertilizer and seed to go. Charles is looking forward to dragging a log chained to the back of his lawn tractor around the property. I’m taking pictures.
At some point before we fertilize, we are going to take soil samples for a soil test. We are deciding which zones to average together because each pasture has a steep slope and a flat area, too. We know that the slopes and flats will be different, so we are considering grouping the soil samples by geography instead of pasture boundary. This means that the pastures may be fertilized in two zones each, with a two types of fertilizer, one for the slope, one for the flat.
Once we have fertilized and seeded, we need to keep the animals off of the grass until it is firmly established. This means that our pastures 2 and 3 may not go into operation until March or February 2006.
Here’s our bit of advice for people looking to establish pastures…DO IT NOW. Begin as soon as you can because it takes a long time to even renovate a pasture. We are actually considering beginning phase 2 of our plans for our ranch by developing another three acres this summer that we aren't’t planning on putting into operation for at least two years. It really does take that long. If you want animals on your land at some point, please consider beginning preparations now. The worst that can happen is that you will have to mow some grass during the summer until you can get animals to munch it down for you.
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Pasture Management
For those of you who haven’t been to our ranch, a little description is required. Since we bought the land as a patch of “woods” that had been selectively cut about thirty years ago, we don’t have what most people would call any “pastures” yet. We have some large tracts of open ground that have been scraped of topsoil and forest debris in which some patches of green stuff grow. As it is raining today, we have open patches of mud with little rivulets coursing through them. Alpacas do not care if it is raining until it begins to hail at which point they usually lie down. They do not care if they lie down in mud. This evening, the alpacas came into the barn a soggy mess of mud and sticks, not resembling the fluffy dry critters we let out of the barn this morning.
Something needs to be done.
Part of that something is to install actual pastures, meaning “parcels of ground in which grasses grow,” as opposed to “parcels of ground marked off by a fence.” We went to a pasture maintenance seminar this weekend at Legacy Alpaca ranch in
The primary skill we learned in this workshop was how to take a soil sample, and how to read a soil test. Then, based on the information in the soil test, we learned what to add to different fields to make the pasture grow better.
To summarize: plants need nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), potassium (K), and sulfur (S) to grow correctly. In our area, we need levels of P = 15-20 and K = 175-200, plus a pH of about 5.9. All of these things can be measured on a soil test. You adjust your fertilizing by the data on the soil test.
Or else you just spread alpaca poo all over your fields. That seems to work just as well. J
Also, it’s going to take at least a year before we will have nice pastures. We have to rake, drag, plant, and fertilize the land, and then let it grow unmolested by animals until it is established. That’s going to take a while.
Along those lines, I planted a bunch of Douglas Fir seedling on our property to pretty up the place. The trees came from our friends Rob and Camilla who were married recently and gave the trees out as party favors. Since we were some of the last to leave, we asked if we could take a bunch of leftover trees. Now we have the “Rob and
Have a nice day.
Maren
Friday, April 08, 2005
Updating ET-farms.com
I am in the process of updating www.et-farms.com. I am learning Dreamweaver so that I can make the site look snazzy, and so it is really easy to use. As it is, I am still a little ashamed to send prospective alpaca owners there, but I am striving to make it better.
Perhaps I'll post more today on our new aquisition, Anotnio (a.k.a. "Fat Tony"), a bay-black "replacement" for the little cria which died.
m
Perhaps I'll post more today on our new aquisition, Anotnio (a.k.a. "Fat Tony"), a bay-black "replacement" for the little cria which died.
m
Monday, March 28, 2005
Heart of the Valley Show
The Heart of the Valley Show (put on by our regional alpaca association WABA) is over, and we didn't win any ribbons. I'm not too surprised or disappointed. The judge was a huge fan of crimp, and El Barto isn't that crimpy yet. Barto was also the youngest animal in the ring and had not been shorn before, which made his fleece look different from the other animals. Plus, the class was so huge, they had to split it into two classes. It was a tough competition.
But I'm not bitter or making excuses. Really, I'm not.
Barto did beautifully in the ring, so I suppose all those early-morning training sessions paid off. He was relaxed, walked with his head up for the most part, and stood quietly. His two behavioral boo-boos were 1) he relieved himself in the ring and 2) he panicked when the judge grabbed his tail and then checked his fleece. At that point, Barto tried to cush, but I had him by the front end and the ring steward had him by the back, so we were suspending him in mid-air. Charles has a great picture of this which I'll try to get online soon for you.
The main point of the show for us was to schmooze with the public. We gave out a lot of business cards, and collected names of people who might be interested in some information I have or might want to come to visit the ranch. When we have our next open ranch/alpaca party, we'll invite those people, too.
I learned to spin at the show using my grandmother's Turkish drop spindle from a group of spinners who spent the whole show just above our stall. It was so much fun that I bought a roving from our friends at Alpacas at Lone Ranch, which the dog promptly claimed as a toy (it's salvageable). This summer, my grandmother will come up here for a visit and will teach me to spin using her old spinning wheel. I can't wait!
All in all, it was a good show. We were completely exhausted by Sunday night, and we went to bed at around 9:30. Spring quarter began today, so we started classes tired, and a little unprepared. I don't think we will go to any more alpaca shows during the school year, but there are plenty of summer shows. We will go to Heart of the Valley again next year because it should coincide with Spring Break again. Otherwise, it will be summer shows for us!
Monday, March 21, 2005
Having a new baby around is like...
Our cria has a name: Milhouse!
Yes, he is already Barto's best friend, and, typically, he runs to his mom when he's had enough of Barto's rough-housing.
When Milhouse was two hours old, he ran laps around the maternity pasture. We weren't surprised by this because he had been kicking Consuella from the inside mercilessly for about a month before he was born. This is a vigorous baby.
Milhouse, Consuella, and auntie Cabernet were confined to the maternity pasture--a smaller pasture with lots of trees and more secure fencing--for about two weeks for a couple reasons. First, we were concerned that a clumsy baby could get tangled in the New Zealand fencing we have up in the rest of the pastures. Second, Barto was too rough for a while; we wanted to make sure Milhouse could get away from him if necessary. Milhouse is actually more agile and light-footed than Barto is, so we don't have to worry anymore.
When he is out in a field, Milhouse thinks he is grazing. He takes mouthfuls of the little grass that we have, and seems to enjoy munching it. I am so new at this that I have no idea whether he is actually eating or just mimicking mommy at this point. Either way, he is awfully cute doing it. Now that he is in the big pasture with the other alpacas, the circles he runs around his momma are getting bigger and bigger. He is a very independent cria, and will often cush down 75 feet or more away from Consuella. His exploring has taken him much farther than that from her, but he makes a bee-line for her if he is ever frightened by something.
Charles and I are finding cria-watching more entertaining than TV. Alpaca watching has been a good hobby for us, but the baby has made the view out our breakfast nook window all that much cuter. Milhouse's dark eyes really stand out from his little golden head, and his ears always seem to be cocked at an adorable angle. I'd believe it if someone told me that there were cuter babies out there, but I'd need proof first.
The farm is really greening up. The "pastures" are beginning to show evidence of tiny shoots; they are far more evident outside of the alpaca pen. The cherry and apple trees are blooming and their branches have so many blossoms that they look like they've been strung with popcorn. The maples are showing signs of life, too, but so is the poison oak. This means that our stick picking will become more risky, as the new leaves of poison oak have the most oil on them.
This is spring break for WOU, so I'll try to write more this week than normal. We have the Heart of the Valley alpaca show coming up on Saturday and Sunday, so I'll fill you in on our preparations for it.
ta!
Yes, he is already Barto's best friend, and, typically, he runs to his mom when he's had enough of Barto's rough-housing.
When Milhouse was two hours old, he ran laps around the maternity pasture. We weren't surprised by this because he had been kicking Consuella from the inside mercilessly for about a month before he was born. This is a vigorous baby.
Milhouse, Consuella, and auntie Cabernet were confined to the maternity pasture--a smaller pasture with lots of trees and more secure fencing--for about two weeks for a couple reasons. First, we were concerned that a clumsy baby could get tangled in the New Zealand fencing we have up in the rest of the pastures. Second, Barto was too rough for a while; we wanted to make sure Milhouse could get away from him if necessary. Milhouse is actually more agile and light-footed than Barto is, so we don't have to worry anymore.
When he is out in a field, Milhouse thinks he is grazing. He takes mouthfuls of the little grass that we have, and seems to enjoy munching it. I am so new at this that I have no idea whether he is actually eating or just mimicking mommy at this point. Either way, he is awfully cute doing it. Now that he is in the big pasture with the other alpacas, the circles he runs around his momma are getting bigger and bigger. He is a very independent cria, and will often cush down 75 feet or more away from Consuella. His exploring has taken him much farther than that from her, but he makes a bee-line for her if he is ever frightened by something.
Charles and I are finding cria-watching more entertaining than TV. Alpaca watching has been a good hobby for us, but the baby has made the view out our breakfast nook window all that much cuter. Milhouse's dark eyes really stand out from his little golden head, and his ears always seem to be cocked at an adorable angle. I'd believe it if someone told me that there were cuter babies out there, but I'd need proof first.
The farm is really greening up. The "pastures" are beginning to show evidence of tiny shoots; they are far more evident outside of the alpaca pen. The cherry and apple trees are blooming and their branches have so many blossoms that they look like they've been strung with popcorn. The maples are showing signs of life, too, but so is the poison oak. This means that our stick picking will become more risky, as the new leaves of poison oak have the most oil on them.
This is spring break for WOU, so I'll try to write more this week than normal. We have the Heart of the Valley alpaca show coming up on Saturday and Sunday, so I'll fill you in on our preparations for it.
ta!
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
New and improved website and More Pictures
Below is the link to the new and improved version of our farm website.
http://www.et-farms.com/index.html
And, of course, we took more pictures of the baby yesterday. Here he is all dry and fluffy.
http://www.et-farms.com/baby_pictures.htm
Click on 3-8 for the most recent pictures.
Enjoy!
maren
http://www.et-farms.com/index.html
And, of course, we took more pictures of the baby yesterday. Here he is all dry and fluffy.
http://www.et-farms.com/baby_pictures.htm
Click on 3-8 for the most recent pictures.
Enjoy!
maren
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Baby!
The newest addition to our alpaca farm is here!
Click here for pictures: http://www.et-farms.com/ETF%20Website/Baby3-7/index.htm
This time, everything was text-book perfect. We noticed that Consuella looked like she was in labor when we went out to the barn to give the alpacas breakfast. First, Consuella made a bee-line for the poop pile instead of munching on hay for an hour or so in the barn as usual. Then she lay down, stood up, and lay down again on one hip and looked uncomfortable. Then she went back to the poop pile.
Charles and I went back into the house at this point because there was nothing more for us to do. We also assumed that if Consuella was actually in labor, she would be in labor for about an hour. Not so! By the time I was out of the shower, Charles said, “Hey, there’s something hanging out of her butt!” By the time I threw on some clothes and grabbed the camera, the little critter was half-way out.
Consuella was in observed labor for only about 35 minutes. The cria stood up after 50 minutes, and immediately started to nurse. He was running laps around the pasture at two hours old, which isn't surprising given how much he kicked while he was still inside Consuella.
Yikes!
M
Monday, March 07, 2005
Friday, March 04, 2005
et-farms.com and "Cria Watch"
I've been avoiding grading by trying to post our website this morning. The result is the inaugural page for www.et-farms.com. Currently, it has one picture of two alpacas and a link to this blog, but very soon it will have a sales list, etc.
Today Charles has flown off to a wedding in the Bay Area, so I am obliged to stay on the ranch on cria watch. Consuella is now due in one week exactly, which means she could drop her baby at any time. Nine times out of ten, this happens quickly and without human intervention, but those one out of ten times, someone has got to be there to help. That's me this weekend!
Cria watch consists of somebody (me, my husband, or my mother) lounging around the house doing whatever work or television watching we need to do with a leisurely stroll to the window once an hour or so. We watch Consuella to see if she is doing anything unusual like rolling a lot, cushing strangely, squatting at the poop pile with no "results," and the like. The only unusual behavior she's been exhibiting, however, is general bitchiness. She reportedly spent Wednesday chasing the other alpacas around the pasture in a fit of crabbiness. I suspect she doesn't feel very comfortable because she had been a demure, sweet alpaca up until then.
Eventually, she will show some signs of labor and I am hopeful that she will have an uneventful birth. Until then, someone will be checking on her during daylight hours.
Off to the window!
m
Today Charles has flown off to a wedding in the Bay Area, so I am obliged to stay on the ranch on cria watch. Consuella is now due in one week exactly, which means she could drop her baby at any time. Nine times out of ten, this happens quickly and without human intervention, but those one out of ten times, someone has got to be there to help. That's me this weekend!
Cria watch consists of somebody (me, my husband, or my mother) lounging around the house doing whatever work or television watching we need to do with a leisurely stroll to the window once an hour or so. We watch Consuella to see if she is doing anything unusual like rolling a lot, cushing strangely, squatting at the poop pile with no "results," and the like. The only unusual behavior she's been exhibiting, however, is general bitchiness. She reportedly spent Wednesday chasing the other alpacas around the pasture in a fit of crabbiness. I suspect she doesn't feel very comfortable because she had been a demure, sweet alpaca up until then.
Eventually, she will show some signs of labor and I am hopeful that she will have an uneventful birth. Until then, someone will be checking on her during daylight hours.
Off to the window!
m
Monday, February 28, 2005
Picking Sticks
Picking Sticks
2/28/2005
When we bought our farm, it was literally a forest. In order to raise animals, we spent the better part of nine months clearing the land, burning the stumps and debris from the clearing, and fencing the pastures. We currently have two pastures: Pasture One and Pasture Zero—also known as “the maternity ward” because it has fencing more appropriate for little crias. Even though our animals arrived in December, our pastures are not what you would call “grazing ready.” In fact, Pasture One is little more than a field of sticks and mud, and Pasture Zero—which is has more trees, and so, more little sticks— promised to erupt into knee-deep poison oak come springtime.
This means that Charles and I have been engaging in a chore the past few months that we affectionately call “Picking Sticks.” It involves bending over and picking up loose sticks on the ground. This needs to be done so we can till the soil later this summer and plant a real pasture. Lately, picking sticks has also involved using the DR Trimmer/Mower that my grandfather gave us. That is certainly the tool for the job of hacking down poison oak shoots.
Other technology that has helped in picking sticks includes a heavy comb rake for collecting and lifting more than one stick at a time, a wheel barrow for transporting debris from one end of the pasture to the other, and kerosene. Why kerosene? As far as Charles is concerned, the best part of picking sticks is how you get rid of debris like this…you burn it. A couple weeks ago, Charles used gasoline to start the burn pile. This resulted in a column of flame about twenty feet high and a large “whoosh!” Kerosene is not as likely to evaporate your eyebrows in this way.
The major downside to picking sticks is the fact that most of the sticks involved are poison oak. Both Charles and I are allergic to poison oak, although I am more allergic than he is. I tend to break out in wretched rashes that travel to many places on my body. Recently, my outbreaks of poison oak have been better, and I attribute some of this to a product called Tecnu. Oh, what wonderful stuff! It rinses away the oils from poison oak if you wash within eight hours of contact, and it helps reduce the spread and duration of rashes that pop up. I need to buy stock in that company.
We spent Saturday picking sticks in Pasture Zero, and although it still isn’t perfectly clean, we feel it is safe for little crias to play in, and it looks so much better than before! It no longer resembles a temperate jungle. We’ll never be able to make pasture zero into a park, but we like the fact that it looks like we tried. But now you know how much work it is to clean up an area like this. We wonder everyday how the pioneers did it.
m
2/28/2005
When we bought our farm, it was literally a forest. In order to raise animals, we spent the better part of nine months clearing the land, burning the stumps and debris from the clearing, and fencing the pastures. We currently have two pastures: Pasture One and Pasture Zero—also known as “the maternity ward” because it has fencing more appropriate for little crias. Even though our animals arrived in December, our pastures are not what you would call “grazing ready.” In fact, Pasture One is little more than a field of sticks and mud, and Pasture Zero—which is has more trees, and so, more little sticks— promised to erupt into knee-deep poison oak come springtime.
This means that Charles and I have been engaging in a chore the past few months that we affectionately call “Picking Sticks.” It involves bending over and picking up loose sticks on the ground. This needs to be done so we can till the soil later this summer and plant a real pasture. Lately, picking sticks has also involved using the DR Trimmer/Mower that my grandfather gave us. That is certainly the tool for the job of hacking down poison oak shoots.
Other technology that has helped in picking sticks includes a heavy comb rake for collecting and lifting more than one stick at a time, a wheel barrow for transporting debris from one end of the pasture to the other, and kerosene. Why kerosene? As far as Charles is concerned, the best part of picking sticks is how you get rid of debris like this…you burn it. A couple weeks ago, Charles used gasoline to start the burn pile. This resulted in a column of flame about twenty feet high and a large “whoosh!” Kerosene is not as likely to evaporate your eyebrows in this way.
The major downside to picking sticks is the fact that most of the sticks involved are poison oak. Both Charles and I are allergic to poison oak, although I am more allergic than he is. I tend to break out in wretched rashes that travel to many places on my body. Recently, my outbreaks of poison oak have been better, and I attribute some of this to a product called Tecnu. Oh, what wonderful stuff! It rinses away the oils from poison oak if you wash within eight hours of contact, and it helps reduce the spread and duration of rashes that pop up. I need to buy stock in that company.
We spent Saturday picking sticks in Pasture Zero, and although it still isn’t perfectly clean, we feel it is safe for little crias to play in, and it looks so much better than before! It no longer resembles a temperate jungle. We’ll never be able to make pasture zero into a park, but we like the fact that it looks like we tried. But now you know how much work it is to clean up an area like this. We wonder everyday how the pioneers did it.
m
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