Part of the Family

This is my blog to write about alpaca stuff but tonight I must make an exception.  Today I said goodby to my first French Bulldog, “Boomer”.  He had been with me 13 1/2 years.  I have joked with many that he was that parinoid son I always wanted.  Now that he is gone I don’t have the words to explain what a joy he has been to me.  I remember the first time I saw him sitting in an x-pen.  His ears were erect and he was bouncing like a rabbit.  I picked him up and from that moment on he was my boy.  He has been a partner raising golden puppies, and has traveled with me to alpaca shows.  He and I shared the ownership of a remote control car that we got for Christmas.  I would drive it around the house while he would chase it.  That was great fun until he caught it and then try and take it away from him.  He would shake it and shake it until a tire would come off or the batteries would come flying out and then the care would have to go away for another day of play.   Hard to imagine that a fifty plus year old woman and her dog could get so much fun out of playing with a remote control car, but we did.

This farm will not be the same without Boomer.  He was the heart of the farm and tonight our hearts are broken.

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It’s All In The Eyes

It’s all  in the eyes.  If you have every really looked at an alpaca you know what I am talking about.  I don’t know if its the way the eyes sit in the skull or if it is those long flowing eye lashes but alpacas eyes have a way of swallowing you in.  Marissa’s eyes are huge.  When she looks at you she gets close up to your face and looks deep into your soul.  Immediatly you know that she is connecting with you and that she has important things to say.  I feel a responsibility to listen to each and every word.  Maya has soft searching eyes.  She looks at me as if she is unsure about her place in the herd and maybe the world.  She asks for attention through her eyes and yet is not trusting enough to receive the attention when it is offered.  Melody’s eyes are always questioning what we are up to.  Her eyes look at us with suspision as if she knows we are up to something we are not telling her about.  Sharona’s eyes are deep and thoughtful.  She has known humans who couldn’t be trusted and yet her look lets you know she is willing to trust again.  She has eyes of forgivness and willingness to move forward.  Finally the crias.  Their eyes are ones of anticipation and excitment of new mornings and chases on the grass.  Their eyes are curious about me, about the herd and the small bug crawling on their mother.

Yes, if you really want to know alpacas it is All in the Eyes.

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I am an Alpaca Farmer

I am an alpaca farmer.  I believe that this is the best thing I have done in years.  No, not just because of the money but because raising alpacas is different than than raising any animal I have ever had.  Yes there have been a few other animals.  There were cats when I was very young.  Ok, I didn’t really raise them they just appeared when they wanted and there was alway more than there had been before.  In some ways it was not long but in other ways far too long before my mother and I learned the benefits of nutering cats.  Then there were my sheep.  I loved those sheep, Daisy May and her son Buckey were the best.  At least I thought that until I started getting in trouble for Buckey’s behavior of hitting people with his head in their butts.  I must give Daisy May credit for giving me my first experience of seeing a birth, and it was twins.  I thought they were dead because they had this strange bag over there heads.  I cried and started to give them puffs of air through their noses. (I was always meant to be a farmer.)

Anyway, after the lambs came cows.  My brother had one called Betsy that served as a great riding cow.  I or my brother would get on her and the other one of us would slap her butt with board.  She would look as us and gently take two or three steps.  Then we would repeat the process.  This activity in itself would entertain us for hours.  Betsy was not always so entertained so she would lay down when she was through with us.

After the cows came most every girls dream, horses.  I had a couple of them Chuck and Dolly  Ok, actually Chuck was meant for my brother but his interest in riding lasted only as long as it took for Chuck to throw him on the ground and he was over it.  I on the other hand loved the horses.  There were many summer days when just as the sun was coming up I would load up my saddle bag and head off.  Chuck and I would explore every inch of my family’s farm.  We knew where the animals burrowed and where the best place to have lunch was.  We even came to believe that there was one area of the woods where the Indians had lived.  Chuck and I spent hours searching for proof but to this day the secret of that special place is being held for other generations to find.

I raised and showed horses until I went off to college and there was no one to care for them.  It broke my heart to let them go but they went on to raise other girls into adulthood.  I think of them often even now.

As I have gone through life I there has always been a piece missing.  I tried to fill it by become the manager for a family farm.  I didn’t stick with it long but you know while I was there I learned a great deal about birthing cattle and I manage to adopt a calf named “Sweet Cheeks”.

My next try to fill the hole was raising and showing Golden Retrievers and then  French Bulldogs.  I love these dogs.  They make me laugh and I have enjoyed showing them.  We have had our share of success in the show ring and more then our share of pleasure from living with and raising these fabulous  creatures.
To this day I love every moment I spend with them.  You haven’t lived until you lived with a French Bulldog.

When I least expected it I was introduced to Alpacas from a good friend who also raised French Bulldogs.  No, I said I do not want to raise Alpacas!  Of course within a month I was on the internet looking at farms and looking at animals.  I fell in love!  Her name was Avalon’s Mystic Melody.  I know she had the look and she was intended to be mine.  My partner in the dogs and soon to be partner in the alpacas, Shirley, convinced me to drive the eight hours to see her.  I told Melody  when we first saw her she was meant to be mine.   We looked at a lot of alpacas that day.  When the time came to make the purchase I was told that I could not buy Melody.  They were having trouble getting her bred and since I needed to make this work as a business she would not be a good risk for us.  We purchase our first alpacas that day and Melody was not one of them.  We were in the alpacas business with Sharona Rose and Lilly.

A year later Melody did come to live with me.  She never did get bred but she has from the very beginning been my soul mate in this business. I adore her today as much as the day I first saw her on Alpaca Nation.  And so we a herd of 17 animals I clean poop and haul hay each day and love each minute of it.  I am an Alpaca Farmer and I love it!

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Greystone Pasture Vac

This summer one of our major purchases was a Greystone Pasture Vac.  We had look at this over the past two years trying to decide if the benefits would justify the cost.  Well, we have had our Greystone for about four months now and it has been wonderful.  It has done a great job cleaning the pastures in short and long grass, wet or dry.  The engine has plenty of power for everything we have asked it to do (which by the way included sucking up some extra dolimite we wanted to get out of the barn).  It is easy to empty once it is full of Alpaca Beans.  If it is not full it can sit until the next time we clean.

My only regret with the Greystone is that I did not buy one sooner.

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Doing Your BVD Tests Through ARI

BVD tests have always been a little bit of a pain for us.  No reason really it just seemed like it was very expensive and several we got back did not have the cria’s name listed just right.  We are now doing our BVD test through ARI with the blood card we send in to register our cria.  It is great.  The price is much more reasonable than having the vet do it.  The cria only has to be stuck with the needle once rather than twice (which they really appreciate) and the reports come back very quickly.  You can’t beat it.

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We have Alpaca Yarn

We have received our first shipment of yarn from our alpaca fiber and it is WONDERFUL. We are so pleased with how it turned out. The knitters we have shared it with have been very excited about it. We decided to do a mix of the dark animals for a rich medium brown yarn. The light animals where put together to form a warm beige. This yarn is perfect for dying if you are interested in working with home dying of your yarn. We are still waiting for mix that should produce a more caramel color. From that batch we will also have some cones for weaving.
I am also doing some hand spun yarn from some of the fiber which was made into roving. Learning to spin has been a wonderful experience and alpaca is a great fiber to work with.

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