The Secrets in the Sorting

In February I attended a Fiber Sorting class. I had no idea how that class would change the way I think about the alpaca business and fiber. It is so clear to me now that not sorting out the different grades of fiber in a fleece before putting it into production is much like saying as long as I am using wood it doesn’t matter how good the wood is the table I make will look the same. It won’t, some wood will look grainy and rough and not get you a good product. Fleece comes in different grades and in order to end up with a superior end product you have to sort. You only have to see the product that is made with Certified Sorted Fiber and processed through NAAFP ( www.naafp.us ) to know what I am talking about.
I am working toward my certification and right now I am starting down the road of sorting 250 fleece. That may seem like a lot to do for a certification but I think it speaks to the quality of work that the Coarse Broads are doing with this certification. They are committed to making sure that the people they certify do a good job and I appreciate that. I would encourage anyone who has the chance to take this course.

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Again and Again

It is cold outside and quite frankly I hate winter and cold.  That being said I can put aside all that dislike for the weather once I get out in the barn and have one of these wonderful animals run up to me as if to say “What have you been up to.  We have been waiting for you all day”.  Now I know they are mostly interested to see me when I am going to get the kibble out for them so they can start their feed ritual but I still am thrilled with their apparent happiness at seeing me walk in the barn door. Marissa who leads the pack pushes to the front and puts her nose right up to my face.  Her eyes are big and bold and insistent.  She speaks for the whole group as she watches my every movement.  If I am taking too long doing one thing or another she begins to make her humming noise.  Soft at first and then louder and louder.  I have to acknowledge her message or I think she may convince her herd to rise up and all start humming in protest.  “I am hurrying Marrisa”  Tell everyone to just wait.  I have lost all awareness of winter by now and I am just enjoying the interaction between me and the paca’s.

Alpacas are creatures of habit and so we repeat the same ritual every night.  They go to the same spot, wait for their feed. Complain about having to wait to long for me to get the hay as I stop to rub on a cria or mess with a fence.  But they know and I know the end is all the same they get their food and I get a break from thinking about how cold it is.  I only think about how my I love these pacas.

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Stubborn with an attitude

Marrisa is a girl out of the foundation herd.  She is one of the original girls here on the farm and is in no uncertain terms the leader of the herd.  She recently returned from being bred at Avalon Alpaca Farm who co-owns her.  In their herd of 80 or so I don””t think she makes the impression she does here on a small farm.  Here her attitude and stubborn determination makes her the leader of the herd.  I love this girl.  If you watch her she knows just what she wants and goes about getting it without the rest of the herd ever questioning a  thing.  If she thinks it is time to go to the pasture she takes off and not one of the other girls questions it, they all follow her lead.  (Even her daughter Mikayla who is a want to be leader.)  When Marrisa feels it is time to go in, in comes the herd.  When I halter Marrisa up she acts as if I tried to overthrow the government.  Once the halter is on however her facade starts to fall and I put my arm around her neck.  I laugh and tell her the she doesn””t fool me, I know she loves me and that she is nothing more then a big softy.  She looks at me knowing the gig is up, at least with me.  I laugh at her and sent her on her way.  She has so much to do to keep this herd in line.  It pays to be stubborn with an attitude, at least in her world as Queen of the Herd.

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I am my Brothers Keeper

Shooter is a young male alpaca who was born last summer on the farm.  From the very beginning he was the kind of independent cria that would drive a mom crazy.  No matter how much humming or clicking Lilly would do Shooter had his own thoughts about how his life should be spent.  Most days you would see him wander away from mom to explore the world on his own.  That plan continued for Shooter until fall came around and a little cria named Brighton was born.  Brighton has lived his life with caution.  He spent the first weeks glued to his mother with little thought of what might be beyond the grass around his feet.  He was happy to be a momma’s boy..  That was until Shooter decided they should be friends.  From the moment Shooter decided Brighton was going to be his friend he took his responsibilities with the ut  most seriousness.  Shooter would pull Brighton away from his mother going sometime to the extreme of running at him at full speed and knocking him over until Brighton would have to chase him.  When Brighton realized his running took him away from mom he would swing around to run back only to have Shooter cut him off and knock him down again as if to say, “You don’t need her, now stand up and let’s explore.”  This went on for some time but eventually Shooter began to win the battle.  Brighton was now following Shooter around instead of his mother.

Now, we find ourselves a year later and the boys have long been separated from their mothers.  But their friendship has stayed.  Shooter  has become Brighton’s protector.  Brighton doesn’t really need a protector but the relationship seems to work for the two of them.  They are inseparable.  . Shooter will not let any one else in the herd do anything to Brighton that he feels is unfair.  Mess with Brighton and you have Shooter to deal with.  The Lone Ranger and Tonto had nothing on these two  Yes, Shooter is truly Brighton’s keeper and that is a good thing.

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Almost Winter

It is almost winter here at Encore and we have begun to prepare for the cold winter winds.  Even the animals seem to know that the warm sunny days are numbered and they try to enjoy every moment that they can.  Do they really have a sense of what is coming?  Do they feel the days shorten and sense these cool nights mean no more lush pasture for months.  I think they do.  They just don’t talk about it as much as I do…

The cria’s are now eating grain in the cria pen and loving every min of it.  They think dinner time is now great fun since they get to act like the rest of the big alpacas and have their own pen to go into for grain. Sima who is one of the older cria’s has not been interested in things so unimportant as grain, until today.  Today she finally took a mouth full.  She immediately knew why the other cria had loved it so much,  it was delicious.  Such big gals in such little bodies.

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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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