Take2 Alpacas

Corn, Heat & Mishaps

2011-07-30T10:10:00.011-04:00

The kitchen is in major production mode now. The first wave of corn has arrived. This is a new variety for us called Bodacious. Honestly, these ears are the surprise of the season. The stalks looked spindly and malnourished, despite our efforts to keep the weeds down and keep everything watered. But low and behold, we will actually have some to freeze. And that has to happen very quickly after they are picked.
Another surprise was a few cantelopes. These aren't very big but are sweet and edible. This is our first success with cantelope. Previous years have been a bust.
The heat has been tough on everyone. The girls enjoy their pool on occasion. They can't have it all of the time or they'll rot the hair off their legs.
The boys were fighting and dumped the trashcan in the barn. Gabriel ended up with a cat food can stuck to his foot. He didn't get cut or anything, just stressed out because of the can and the heat. Got the can off his foot and hosed him down. The heat is really tough on the animals, even with 10 buckets of water and 7 fans going.
That's the latest news from the ranch...Here's a video from a typical lazy afternoon.

Ya know, you can stop by. Just give us a call.

Summer Goings On

2011-07-17T10:03:00.014-04:00

The chickens have been growing and enjoying life. We still have the original 12 chicks from May. Everyone wants to know when the eggs will come. The internet says either September or October. In the meantime, they are enjoying a free-range diet, eating fruit and veggie leavings, pellet chicken feed, oyster shell scratch, and whatever they find in the garden.

A few hawks from the treeline have been cruising the area the past few days, but the headcount has remained the same. At night the birds go back into their condo, which is sealed on all sides by either wire or wood and roost for the night, safe from raccoons.

During the day, the birds seem to like hanging out under the protection of the sunflowers.

"What?"

The birdhouse gourds are doing just fine. Do we know how to make birdhouses out of these things? No. They are pretty cool though.

This morning brought more pickles. That's celebrity chef Rocco on the salt box. Rocco didn't come help with the pickle making this morning. I have 6 jars so far this season and am hoping to get at least 12. These are bread and butter pickles. Last year I slaved over several varieties and ended up throwing out a bunch because they were awful. This recipe is a keeper (from the Ball Blue Book...the preserving Bible).
Oh Food Processor...How I do love thee. How did I manage with my box grater last year? Then the "Christmas of Appliances" came in 2010, where the Farmer went crazy and bought me a food processor, a Magic Bullet, an Immersion Blender and a dehydrator. I processed a bunch of zuch into 2 Cup bags in 10 minutes with this baby.
On the alpaca front, Woody (foreground) is banished from the girls' side of the barn because he thinks he is Mr. Studmuffin and is causing problems. Chief (rear) is whipping him into shape.

So that is our version of crazy for now. If you're in the 'hood please stop by and see the babies. They're growing fast!

My How We've Grown

2011-05-19T15:30:00.006-04:00

It only seems like it was two weeks ago because it was. Mother's Day weekend we came back from the PAOBA show in York to greet our new baby chickens, only a few days old. You can check out our "Peep Show" at the link below.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/14592032

They certainly went from little puff balls to minature chickens in a hurry. We had to split them up because they got big in a hurry. It wasn't long before they decided to start roosting...sitting right on top of their feeder, relieving themselves at will. So down to the barn I went to find materials for roosting bars. 1/2" PVC pipe and a couple of triangle stands was just the ticket.

Jo found out today that they're doing serious flight training already. She took one of wire tops off the container to change their water. Coming back she found one perched on the top looking around. It was about 2 feet off the floor. Note to self...keep the cages on.

Well, it looks like we have about 6 more weeks of brooding before we can transfer them to their chicken condo,made ready by the farmer weeks before they arrived. Stay tuned for more chicken drama...

Taters

2011-04-27T09:51:00.008-04:00

The garden experiment continues with a late but earnest attempt to grow potatoes in tires. Last year's misadventure ended with a total of 3 potatoes being harvested. They were delicious, but not the motherload we had hoped for.

We are trying a new spot with hopefully better drainage this year. We laid down some landscape fabric, deposited the tires, filled halfway with dirt/compost, and placed 4-5 cut spud eye hunks (eye side up) in the dirt and cover. This is what the "internet" says to do. And of course, if the internet says it, then it must be so.

Once the leaves get 2-3 inches tall, you add a tire and some more dirt. We're hoping that August will bring more starch than you can shake a stick at.

Meanwhile, the brooder is complete and will be delivered to our chick picker-upper, Gary, this Saturday. With all of the drama and rendezvous-ing of a spy thriller, Gary will pick up our chick order from Albright's Feed Mill in Kempton, bring them to his house in Mohrsville, and I will pick them up on May 6. We have 3 Rhode Island Reds, 3 Barred Rocks, 3 Araucanas, and 3 Buff Orpingtons. All are brown egg layers, except the Araucanas which lay green/blue eggs.

I have no experience in fowl. Len has no experience in fowl except for KFC. The internet says that keeping the chicks clean and warm are the most important things at their tender age. And if the internet says it, it must be true. I hope they live, but the reason we got 12 chicks is that there may be some casualties. The casualties are the reason I have not agreed to chickens up to this point. We have 4 hawks that live in the treeline nearby, racoons and I'm sure other nasty varmints I don't even know about. Once they get feathers, the chickens will be housed in the chicken tractor that will be towed about the property so that they get fresh stuff chickens like to eat, don't trash out one area, and stay safe.

Most of the alpacas are enjoying their summer haircuts. Leah and Woody (center) look cool and comfortable. Flirtation and Sonya (white ones on the right) are expecting babies in June. The vet felt it was not a good idea to shear them so close to their due dates. So we're waiting until the babies come and will have the shearer come back to finish. The show animals (Jewel...the white one in the back and Izzy..you can just see her butt) will be shorn at the State show in York on Mother's Day.

It's a busy time here. Lots to do...which means job security.

The Farmer's Desk

2011-04-15T18:26:00.008-04:00

(Warning: Post contains vivid descriptions of a weekend of bodily fluids) My desk. Antibiotics on the right for me. Anti-diarrheal on the left for her...We arrived at the Mid-Atlantic Alpaca Show in Harrisburg last Thursday for a 3-day show. Three alpacas from our farm along with our buddies from Almosta Ranch, The Alpaca Cottage, and Sunrose Alpacas. They had sod on the floors of the stalls and we reckon that between her eating the sod and nerves from being away from home, it wrecked havoc on her digestive system. Alpaca "poo" is commonly described as "beans"--looking very much like the name suggests. Anything other than the bean presentation is not normal and suggests something is awry. Poor Jewel went through so many stages of stomach unrest in 48 hours, finally ending with a full blown tidal wave. Fortunately, she had already garnered a red ribbon and was not being shown anymore when that happened. After using various remedies after a call to the vet, a cow doctor (and alpaca farmer who was at the show from Quarryville) came to our rescue with Diarsanyl--a kind of Pepto-Bismal for dogs, foals and calves...and alpacas. It stopped the flow and all was well. During all of this, I got a particularly bad case of bronchitis and ended up at the doc myself. What a weekend.

"Nothing's wrong with our poo," says Leah and her baby Woody.

Over 80 bales...that's what we went through since late August, 2010. We were down to a mere 8 bales, which certainly won't get ya through until second cutting (the good stuff) in June. Enter Alan the hay farmer. Alan grows the good stuff that gets us through the months when the pastures are no more. He's one of the good guys, taking pity on my illness and delivering a measly 20 bales to get us through.I waited for Alan by the coldframe which is surrounded by straw bales in contractors garbage bags. We surrounded the frames with them, which kept things nice and toasty for little plants. The bales also double as a farmer's chaise lounge. I figured that it looked like a good thing to do. Sit and wait for Alan, drink my water, and get some sun. It also invited Stella...a great barn cat who also doubles as a great "people" cat.

Muck boots and cat feet.

April Fool's Day 2011

2011-04-01T08:39:00.005-04:00

Now who'da thunk we'd wake up to this..

Second String

2011-03-26T18:12:00.005-04:00

This is our son Max. A college student at Millersville. Musician. Historian. Farmer. He even wove this scarf for his girlie.

The elder Farmer and I are the second string gardeners whilst Max is at school. He created a calendar marked with the dates of when all of the various garden varieties must be planted. We get our instructions on a weekly basis. This week, it was cucumbers, eggplant and beets. After consulting with Max, we decided to hold off on the beets for another week due to threat of continued cold weather. My aging body was grateful for this decision.

We did however start onions (that was a decision by his younger brother and I while grocery shopping and seeing a basket of red onion sets). We've never grown onions before, and after some consultation on the internet it seems that onions from sets don't hold up that well over time. So these (if they actually grow) will be consumed or dehydrated. Ended up getting one row and a few extras, marked with part of a plastic milk jug and a Sharpie.

Then the eggplants and slicing cucumbers went into the little coldframe made with salvaged windows, wood, and lined with silver insulation. It is surrounded by straw bales sealed in contractor's garbage bags for added warmth. I was pleasantly surprised how warm it was in there. Hopefully these will grow too.

Okay, we hedged our bet a little. Here are the pickling cucumbers in the house under the grow light. That's the celery next to it. I discovered that celery takes 5 months to grow. It's kind of spindly and needs to be transplanted to the next size pot. I dunno. This is an experiment.

In other news, work on the chicken house continues. It will be under roof by tomorrow.

And some things grow without our help at all. Here are some lettuce shoots reappearing from last year's seeds. Awesome. We found that growing lettuce on the deck in pots is the way to go. You can use up one pot while the next one is growing. Works much better than mass plantings in the bigger garden.

And fortunately daffodils don't need any help at all.

The lavender survived the winter. We're really liking lavender. It needs little care other than minimal pruning and harvesting, looks nice and does well in our nasty clay soil.

And never letting us down...chives given to us by our fellow alpaca farmer friend, Jodi Dominick of Sunrose Alpacas. Ever faithful chives.

The "second string gardeners" await our next instructions. Enough for one day...

Strap Yourself In - It's Gonna be a Long Ride

2011-03-23T15:51:00.010-04:00

Sometimes life gets in the way of blogging, but I still feel the need to catch up here, as this is the story of our crazy world... The celery is coming along. And the Chicken Tractor is getting closer to completion. This mobile chicken house will be home to our birds when they are old enough to live outside the brooder. We have some brown egg layers and blue egg layers coming May 7.

The freezer got cleaned out and reloaded with a half of a steer from the farmer down the road.

You get a lot of ground beef when you get a half steer...

Took three of the girls to the Virginia Classic Alpaca Show in Lexington, Virginia.

The white one on the left took Grand Champion, for which we are excited, humbled and grateful. In addition to the pretty purple ribbon, she was "in the money" again this year...and that helps buy feed.

Took a trip to Gurdy Run Fiber Mill above Harrisburg to drop off a load of fiber for further processing.

They had a cute bottle lamb...

Beautiful Gypsy Cobb horses...

Good friends came along with their fiber and let me take blurry photos of them...

Other friends hid behind their latest knitting project...

And they had big machines to process our clip.

But taking much of our time recently has been the hand processing of fiber here. It is not always economically feasible to have everything processed at the mill. Some things a mill does better; and some things like blending colors or other fibers in small quantities are better done here.

We left off last month with the skirting, washing and drying that took place in the dining room. I've heard that some people actually eat meals in their dining room. Once the fleece is dry it is ready to be picked. This medieval torture device is a picker. It opens up the locks of fiber and gets it ready to be carded. It has hundreds of razor sharp spikes on the top and bottom. Dangerous. Ask me how I know.

Here the fiber has been fed into the picker and the pendulum swings back and forth, grabbing fiber from one end and flinging it out of the other into an awaiting cardboard box...

Then I measure two ounces of fiber on my scale because that's all the picker will take at one time and make an attractive roving or batt. One time, I put four ounces in and the batt looked like Cousin It from the Adams Family.

This is an electric carder. This expensive piece of equipment is owned by three farms who have sworn to keep it clean and operating. It is the Sisterhood of the Traveling Carder. Sure, you can use hand carders, but it would take forever.

Fiber is fed into one end of the carder and it is pulled through and onto the large drum. Thousands of little teeth grab the fiber and pull it into the same direction. This way all of the fiber is aligned so it is easy to spin.

Periodically, you run this burnishing tool (also full of sharp teeth) across the top of the large drum to improve the quality of the batt and pack it down a little.

Once all of your fiber has been fed into the carder it is time to pull your batt or, in this case, roving. You use this pick to bring up a section of the batt.

Then you pull it through this little plastic thing called a diz.

And there you have it. Roving. Keep doing this until all of the batt is off the drum

Finished product. Two ounces of 100% Alpaca Roving. (Shameless plug...Available now at my Etsy store... www.SturdyWelshWoman.etsy.com)

Here is alpaca blended with hand dyed Blue Face Leicester sheep (an ounce of each).

And here is some in green (also made some in yellow and rose).

So there ya have it. The month in review. Shearing, more shows, and babies coming soon.

Still Life - Duende's Fleece Day 2

2011-02-25T08:47:00.003-05:00

4 pounds of buttery soft fun.

Still Life - Duende's Fleece

2011-02-24T10:40:00.001-05:00

Drying - Day 1

Still Life - Leah's Fleece

2011-02-23T07:13:00.001-05:00

Day 2 of Leah's fleece drying after being washed.

The Down and Dirty of Alpaca Farming

2011-02-13T17:51:00.006-05:00

There have been some stories in the media lately (particularly Fox News) about alpacas. Stories from commentators who really don't get it and have decided that their story is about how alpaca farmers get tax breaks and "subsidies". What you see above is the down and dirty of alpaca farming. We raise fleece. And in less than 3 months, I will have over 100 pounds of fleece to process. It has to be sorted, washed, picked, carded and spun into an end product. This is what having a "productive farm animal" (that's what the IRS calls it) is all about--the end product. I'm guessing John Stossel's dining room doesn't look like this.

I must take this opportunity to clarify for any of our gentle-readers who have been subjected to the recent onslaught of alpaca stories, that alpaca farmers do not get subsidies. It would be nice, but that is just not the case. We get to handle our business in the same manner that any other business does. If we buy a water bucket, it is treated as an expense to the business. If we sell a shawl, it is income. We collect and remit sales tax. We purchase hay and grain from other farmers as well as support cooperatives in Peru who make products we cannot manufacture. Those are the facts. We just want to keep it real here, and despite all of the hype you may hear from Associated Press and Fox, this is a down and dirty farm business. And that's just the way it is, Son.

In the process of sorting the fleece, you need to pick out the dreaded "second cuts". These are little bits of fleece that are nipped away during the shearing process creating little blobs of fleece that will create nasty nubs in your yarn as it is processed. They must be picked out and discarded.

On the positive side, one can sit and sort fleece and catch up on some mindless TV. This is what I did from 11AM to 4PM today. I was able to get through Duende's fleece (4.1 lbs), Leah's fleece (3 lbs.) and Cassandra's fleece (1.4 lbs.), plus 1.6 pounds of coarse fleece that will be made into felt for tote bags. Fashion and lovely fingernails are just not happening here.

While I was hunched over bags of fleece, the Farmer was trying to untangle a warp for the next set of alpaca rugs. (Want one? Go here... http://www.sturdywelshwoman.etsy.com/)

His persistence paid off.

Despite my grumbling about the bad rap alpaca farming has been getting, we wouldn't trade it for the world.

Chores

2011-02-04T18:40:00.007-05:00

Weird sky at 7AM. This is the sky of "impending doom". Necessitating some chores involving driving around the countryside and spending money. Lord knows that if you don't get your "stuff" before the storm comes you'll be in a whole heap of trouble. Now I'm not talking milk and bread here (did that on Thursday). I'm talking about a trip to the feed mill in Fivepointville.

Fivepointville is a little hamlet in the northern part of Lancaster County that doesn't have much to it. A tiny little town with (you guessed it) five roads that come together with stop signs at each. In the unlikely event that you meet another vehicle at the "points" (car or horse and buggy) politeness prevails and everyone waits patiently until it is their turn to cross over.

The winter weather has caused much havoc at the barn. Thirteen alpacas with nothing to do but eat and s&*t. And to make matters worse, there is nowhere for them to actually "go" except in the stall on the rubber stall mats creating a swill of bodily fluids that are difficult at best to manage. Enter an amazing product...wood bedding pellets. These little buggers suck up wee-wee like no tomorrow. They are a little pricey, $11.50 for 2 bags. We went through 40 pounds in a little over a week. Then the ice storm came and then the rain came. And the water poured into the barn making a sort of pond in one of the only areas the four male alpacas can hang out. Thirty minutes and a shop vac and we were able to get up the bulk of the water, put some pellets and straw down. A total mess. But the pellets are making things manageable and it is worth the expense for at least some semblance of sanitation.

Good's Feed Mill is one of those places that time forgot. A store that has many things all in one place. Besides providing a valuable service to local farmers for feed and medical supplies, it's one of those places that you can get a Coke across from the horse liniment and a Reese's peanut butter cup next to the bird suet. How can you go wrong with a shopping experience like this.

Across the parking lot is where the feed, wood shavings and pellets live. A Plain girl at the counter asks me if I told anyone outside what I wanted. I told her no. She rang me up and a strapping young man walked in for lunch and she asked him to get me two bags of pellets. "The van?" he asks. How did he know? Maybe I look like a soccer mom or maybe it was the straw peeking out from the hatch door. Either way, he hoisted 80 pounds into the back and shut the door. Where do you get service like that?

Right around the corner from the feed mill is the shopping Mecca of Fivepointville. Weaver's Store (also known as Weaver's Dry Goods... "Dry Goods" stores are dotted all over Lancaster County and are kind of like the old corner stores I remember as a kid). Here you can get anything. Muck Boots, shoes, flannel nighties, canning jars, underwear and window shades. Seeing that Valentine's day is coming up I got the Farmer some slippers. They're lined with real sheep fleece and he says they feel like a "fuzzy hug". That's love, baby.

Be sure to watch where you park...

More Snow?

2011-01-26T06:32:00.006-05:00

Gabriel doesn't want any more snow.

Leah is shocked and will not watch Weather Channel any more. (Izzy just wants to know if more grain is being dished out.)

Jewel likes the snow because she thinks she can blend in. (Well, she could if she didn't roll in our lovely PA red clay thereby making her white fleece a lovely shade of pink.

Yesterday's Fun & Games

2011-01-24T10:56:00.004-05:00

8:00 AM - Off to the Animal Rescue League in Birdsboro so that Stella and Little Cat no longer need to have litters of kittens. Coffee, check. Paperwork, check. Checkbook, check. Two cats in separate carriers without any food or water since midnite, check.

We arrived to find a whole lotta other folks there too. There is a bad feral cat problem in our county, and there are many people who as a service to the community catch, neuter, and release these animals.

The organization who helped us out is No Nonsense Neutering http://www.nnnlv.org/. They have volunteer vets and staff who set up clinics several times a month. We had to wait 2 months for an appointment. The staff told us that that average between 50 and 60 cats per clinic.

Here are Stella and Little Cat on their way to surgery.

Everything went well and we picked them up that afternoon. They now have a shaved belly and a small tattoo that marks them as neutered.

They are both living in the house for a few days until they are feeling better, besides it is too cold out there anyway.

This Morning's Report

2011-01-24T10:37:00.004-05:00

Minus 3.6. It actually went to -3.8 before it started creeping up to the present temperature of 21. The snow squeeks beneath your feet.

So to further establish my geekdom, I made Len help me do the boiling water thrown in the air thing this morning. I just used hot tap water, but it still worked. Looked like a snow machine on a ski slope.

The animals made it through the night. I always worry about Cassandra who is 11 years old, but she was just fine and ready for her feed this morning. Her baby Lottie was also ready to say hello this morning with her whiskers frozen a bit. Her sister Izzy had some frozen whiskers going on too.

These two girls are favorites and will be heading to the Virginia Classic show in March, Mid-Atlantic Alpaca Show in April, and PA Owners and Breeders show in May. I always find myself humming this song whenever I hang out with these two... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG5MT3sCKBg&feature=related

No, wait. That's Cold

2011-01-22T06:23:00.002-05:00

I am such a weather geek.

That's Just Plain Cold

2011-01-22T06:08:00.002-05:00

I don't care who ya are, that's just plain cold. Not the 64 degrees in the house. That's just fine by me. It's the 3 degrees from the thermometer at the barn. Thank goodness for heated water buckets.

Week in Review

2011-01-17T19:58:00.034-05:00

It’s been a busy week here at the ranch, what with the snowfall, low temps, and always something or other that needs tending.

The last bottle of Rude Elf’s Reserve went into this here beer bread. Find the recipe here at FarmGirl Susan’s blog http://www.farmgirlfare.com/2005/11/beyond-easy-beer-bread.html.

It’s really a quick bread type of thing without any yeast; just mix it up and scoop it in the pan. In the future, I think I’d try a lighter beer. Rude Elf was way too beer-y in my opinion. A Coors Light would probably do the job.

Finished this hat. Lucky got to model it. It’s superwash wool (not alpaca this time). It will be for sale at the online farm store.

Started working on a project for the folks who process some of our alpaca fleece. They started making alpaca felt and asked if I’d try my hand at making a garment with it. I am going to make a vest embellished with penny-rug style appliqué. We’ll see how it goes. I’ve never done appliqué with wool, but I'm good at doing things I don't know how to do. It will either be a brilliant success...or a fashion disaster, causing unbelievable stress and embarrassment.

The cold has made barn cleanup difficult at best. Everything, and I mean everything, is frozen to the ground necessitating use of a garden hoe to break up their “toilet” area. At least the days are getting longer and we aren’t racing to the barn by 4PM to beat nightfall. The price of grain is starting to creep up. Nearly $1 a bag increase in less than a month. Even with that, the alpacas are very efficient and our herd of 13 costs us around $3 per day to feed… not each alpaca…that’s $3 a day for all of them.

All of Stella’s kittens got homes and now Stella and her first young’un, “Little Cat” are heading to No-Nonsense Neutering this Sunday for surgery.

It really is for the best, as some old Tomcat with questionable genetics keeps lurking around and causing population explosions. Stella also had an upper respiratory infection last week and went to the vet. She’s on antibiotics and is doing better already.

Finally got the outdoor Christmas decorations down, bagged, labeled and ready to go to the loft in the barn. With the impending doom predicted for tonight (snow & ice & freezing rain tomorrow) and the fact that the holidays are truly over, it was time to un-decorate the house.

The alpacas left the barn for awhile today, nibbling on nonexistent grass, while No. 2 son and I went to Farmer Alan’s today to pick up some straw for the next garden project. Sure, this looks like the van of a soccer mom.
But wait, it’s a straw hauler.

And in a pinch, two or three alpacas can fit in the back. I’m doubting that Chrysler would have used this to advertise the Town & Country, but I’m telling you, it’s as close to a pick-up as you can get without actually driving a pick-up.

Anyway, my absent gardener son, Max, (here's the alpaca scarf he made while home on break) went back to Millersville University yesterday, but has great plans for coming home to build a hot frame (some sort of greenhouse thing) to start plants in.

It requires straw bales surrounding it, and since we are trying to make them last and keep the alpacas out of it (they’ll pull at it just for fun), the straw has been sort of hermetically sealed in contractor’s plastic bags.

The neighbors must love us.

Deer...meet Fence

2010-12-29T15:27:00.006-05:00

Normally, when we look out our back window, this is what we see...our furry family quietly grazing on the hill...not a care in the world...oblivious to everything, except the last green sprigs of grass to survive the first snowfall of winter. When they look like this, we know all is right with the world. They're our barometer of trouble on the perimeter. Then, every one is facing the same direction, intently studying the suspected intruder. But this afternoon, we saw something totally different. The entire herd was on the run, but not in concert as they usually do. This time the pattern was more erratic and irrational. Then we noticed...there were too many bodies out there, and they were leading the pack.

It's not uncommon for us to see white tailed deer up on the hill just above our field. Sometimes there are as many as a dozen or so, including a rare white deer that seems to glow in the afternoon sun. But today, they were lost. There's a small road that traces the back of our property, and the herd had decided to take that road today.

But on their way back, two of the doe had jumped our five-foot fence and were greeted by our legion of male Alpacas. The ensuing frenzy erupted as the deer frantically tried to find an opening to get out of the pasture. The front-runner made it over the first barrier with a standing high-jump, clearing the five foot fence with a foot to spare.

The second...not so lucky. Either she couldn't see the mesh fence, or in her desperation, she couldn't gauge her jump. Three times, she slammed headlong into the fence, buckling the wire and ripping it off the fence posts. Finally on the fourth try, she slowed down as she approached the fence and cleared it without effort. But there were still two more fences

between her and freedom. Behind the barn and beyond my line of sight, she made the same mistake at least one more time, leaving a waving fence line as a memory of her ordeal. Third time was the charm. Free at last...free at last.

Adventures in Cat Wrangling

2010-12-29T11:07:00.012-05:00

Last Spring, when the snow melted and everything came back to life, we found ourselves inundated with a herd of squeaky critters, just waiting for feeding time. It was time to bring in the professionals..."Barn Cats". We got two from a kindly cat lady who must have had 20 running around her barn. We were very optimistic about the prospects of witnessing the "Great Mouse Migration".

Good News/Bad News

The Good News is, we haven't seen a live mouse in the barn since the Barn Cats arrived, although one of the cats soon disappeared after arriving. The remaining cat, Stella, has proven to be a natural born killer. In fact, anything smaller than a cat that lives in the vicinity of the barn, does so with an impending sense of doom. And rightly so. We've seen Stella tearing across the yard in hot pursuit of full grown rabbits. That's had an additional benefit of improving our garden survival rate.

The Bad News is, Stella is a female cat. And mother nature taking its hand in things, we soon had "Little Cat", Stella's first born. We were surprised that she only had one kitten, but life went on. Keeping a vigilant watch on the potential mouse population was a big job. Then a few months flew by and Stella had another litter, this time five little carbon copies of "Little Cat". So now we've repaced the scourge of too many mice with too many cats.

It was only a few days after Stella had her kittens in the middle of the hay loft, until she decided to move them. Up in the quiet warmth of the rafters above the hay loft she had carefully hidden them. Except for the occassional head peeking over the beam, we didn't see them for several weeks.

Then one day as we came in for Alpaca feeding time, we were greeted by fuzzy little puff balls scurrying around the hayloft. One...two...three...four...wait, one...two...three...four... I know there were five kittens when we started. Where's five? Listen...what's that? We heard a faint muffled cry somewhere above us. Maybe one of the kittens didn't make it out of their hiding place. So up the mountain of hay bales I climbed looking for five. Listen...there it is again. But I couldn't tell where it was coming from. I reached into rafter space where the kittens had been hiding. Nothing. Then I heard it again, only this time I could tell it was below me. Since I was at the back of the hay bin, next to the wall, the mystery was coming unraveled. "Five" must have slipped between the last bale of hay and the cavity left in the open-framed wall. It hadn't been that long since we had brought in the new load of hay...enough to last til next summer. So somewhere below the five-story mountain of hay...was "five", huddled in the dark with no clue how to get out. So one by one, we de-constructed the mountain of hay bales. And of course they were cross-stacked to hold them in place, so it took moving twice as many to get just one row out. Finally I reached the bottom of the mountain, and there he was, "five" huddling next to the wall, looking very confused.

The next few weeks were filled with scurrying fur balls...one, two, three, four, five, plus Stella and Little Cat. Our "Cat Explosion" although cute for a while was getting out of hand. After a few calls to other fellow Alpaca owners, we still needed to find some new homes for the kittens. The math was going to get out of hand in a hurry.

So yesterday, we put an ad on Craigs List, and before the day was over, we had emails expressing interest in nearly all the kittens. Now comes the "fun" part...catching them. The plan was simple;morning mealtime always resulted in all a veritable feline free-for-all. So we put all the catfood out in a stall where we knew only the older cats could climb out of. But only three of the kittens joined in this time. The other two were playing in the stacks of scrap lumber across the barn. We now can truly appreciate the phrase "herding cats". Every time I would move the lumber, they would run under the tractor. Then we tried shooing them from under the tractor, and they were back under the wood. Meanwhile we decided to catch the two in the stall before they hatched a plan to escape. Even with two people in a ten foot stall, we had a dickens of a time catching them and getting them into the cat carrier. While were concentrating on these, we saw one of the kittens escape into the hay bin. Now we got you! Or so we thought. Up the hay mountain it leaped, and I was hot on its heels...until it slid between the last bale of hay and the wall...again. Luckily this time it was only two layers down, but much more agile. As I uncovered the escapee, it turned tail and crawled even deeper into the pile. Well, this was going nowhere fast, so we gave up and carried on with our morning chores. Eventually this one came out of hiding and was on the floor of the hay bin. Jo quickly snatched it up barehanded...something she now regrets as she tends her cat-scratched knuckles and wrist. Finally, with the others that had wandered into the stall, we finally had captured all five.

So they've been transfered to maximum security in the kitchen. And after the trauma of their capture has subsided, they've settled down and seem to be quite happy. Of the five, two have already found new homes, and we're just waiting for the phone to ring for the rest. Meanwhile Max and Dylan both have a taken a greater interest in them, now that they're within their grasp. "We're going to miss them". Well...yes, yes we will.

The Gray Days of Winter

2010-12-26T17:02:00.004-05:00

The day after Christmas was always such a melancholy day for me, starting when I was a child. Of course I know the true meaning of Christmas, and it always gives me cause to reflect on the year just about to finish. But it also marks the beginning of a long cold winter ahead. The prognosticators said we wouldn't have a white Christmas, and they were right. The snow is getting here just in time to miss all the festivities...early morning shredding of Christmas wrapping, cooking marathons, and a quiet dinner with just the four of us. It had been a long time since Jo and I had sat down at the table with our two sons, now nearly grown. Max has been off to college now for three semesters, and Dylan will finish High School this Spring.

And now we prepare for the first big storm of the season. Of course it won't be anything like last winter. Two feet of snow, on top of two more left us paralyzed for weeks. The alpacas could only huddle together in the barn, with only the occasional trip outside for necessities. But now, we're prepared. A new tractor in the barn gives us the ability to move those mountains of snow that are sure to come.

Other than the inconvenience of being stranded in the barn, the alpacas don't seem to mind. They've put on their best winter coats and seem to be just fine modeling their ice crystal overcoats. Now the true meaning of farming comes back to us. We take care of them, and they take care of us. By spring, the snow will be gone, and they'll be happy to shed their coats to enjoy the sunshine of summer.

Our intrepid barn cat, Stella, has certainly done her job, ridding the barn of squeaky invaders. But she's replaced them with her own crew of fluffy barn kittens. Her first, "Little Cat" is nearly grown now. And now her second litter brought five more little gray-striped puff balls. Now we just have to watch where we walk. Since the cold weather started, I put in a water delivery system that Jo calls "Smith Family Robinson" It's just a PVC pipe that doesn't freeze and allows us to fill buckets without trudging to the well. Stella thinks the best tasting water is only found at this new aqueduct. She patiently waits for the bucket to move so she can get a fresh drink from the well.

As we finish feeding, we now have to put the feeding dishes up on the fence posts, so we can find them when we come back in the morning to do it all again.

Good night, furry friends. Stay warm. Spring will be here before you know it.

New Website-Coming Soon...FINALLY!

2010-09-01T13:59:00.003-04:00

It seems like forever, because it's been forever since we started working our website. So long so, that even though it's not finished we decided to start over with a new design. Here's the home page...it's a start at least. But now that people are telling us they're coming back but finding nothing new, it's time to "get off the dime" and get it done. At least by declaring it's happening, now the pressure's on to make it real. Stay tuned...

Adventures in "Power-Cooking"

2010-08-30T06:56:00.005-04:00

Some wiseguy ( that would be me...Len) thought that cooking meals ahead for the week would be a good idea. Since we're always so busy, it just seemed like a logical way to save time...right? Well Jo had a book written by a woman who supposedly cooks meals for a month at a time. I thought that was a bit extreme, but she did have a version for a two-week plan. That seemed a bit more managable.

So we started out at the grocery store, pre-planned shopping list in hand. I'm thinking...hmm, this might actually work. And Jo started the "pre-cooking" regimine on Saturday evening. We had already committed to doing "herd health" on Sunday morning, which is generally very physically demanding. And it was. BUT...damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead.

We finally STARTED cooking at about 2 pm. And we cooked, and we chopped and we mixed and we put stuff in freezer bags. Somewhere along the way, the woman who wrote the book miscalculated the fresh onion requirements, and the cooked chicken too. So we finally stopped with only 9 day's meals, but enough spaghetti sauce to make another meal so we whipped that up for dinner. As evidenced by the pictures here, we filled the sink with dirty pots, pans, measuring materials ad just about every other utensil in the kitchen. Most of them, many times over. I don't think the stove top will ever be the same. Finish line...6 pm. 10 meals in 4 hours. I guess I should shelve my plans for a new career as a short-order cook. I guess we'll see, if in ten days, it was all worth it.

The Garden - Half Time Show

2010-08-20T16:54:00.014-04:00

The apples are in. Go figure. I guess that somewhere in between the scorching heat and deer, the apples have decided to throw in the core, so to speak. With our purchase of the farm, we got an apple tree...overgrown and a total mess. Number 1 Son has nurtured the tree, carefully trimming and culling. But this morning, he announced that they had to be picked. Plagued by some kind of rust-bug-rot thing, they were dropping, causing a particularly nasty bee problem. So our lackluster harvest has produced this pot of applesauce which will fill a few bags in the freezer.

This has been a busy year in the garden, yielding frozen or canned broccoli, asparagus from the neighbor, kosher dill pickles, bread and butter pickles, dilly beans, corn, tomatoes (still coming in), zucchini, strawberry and raspberry jam, pesto, and green beans, which live either in the freezer or on the shelf. We also experimented with carrots (not as easy to grow as one might think) and edible flowers (pretty on a salad). As the Farmer sees me hanging out in the kitchen with pots of boiling water, he asks me if it's worth it. After I got last month's electric bill, I'm not sure. Of course there were many factors involved with last month's $540 bill (mainly Met Ed estimating way low the month before and 7 fans running full time to keep the alpacas cool), but still it's hard to say. We have put many meals on the table that were very "local", which is trendy and hip (never thought I'd be trendy and hip at this age). We purchased a freezer pig and a quarter of a steer from the farmer up the road, so entrees consisting of the booty from the garden and the local meat from the freezer have pretty much been the fare around here. We're learning as we go along what types of plants work well for us, which ones to ditch, and are trying to learn some way to keep the bugs/disease from ruining what we're producing.

We've been experimenting with heirloom species, but honestly, to this '60s kid brought up on boxed cereal and pre-sweetened Koolaid with cyclamates, some of these veggies are just plain weird. Not "normal" like you'd pick up at the grocery store. Odd shapes & sizes. So as a cook, you have to make do and work around them. One thing I did do though was make a batch of pickled cucumbers pictured here with the Connecticut Field Pumpkins and some Giant pumpkin variety unknown to us.

I remember my grandmother making pickled cucumbers and fortunately, my mom had the recipe. This one is a winner and I offer it to you:

Pickled Cucumbers
from the recipe of
Edna Gertrude Heffentreyer Griffith

Cucumbers: Large ones are best, peel and slice thin
Onion: Use a sweet variety and slice thin
Mix the Cukes and Onion together in a bowl
On the stove, mix 1 cup white vinegar & 1 cup sugar. Heat until the sugar is dissolved.
Pour the hot vinegar mixture over the cukes and onion. Put a dinner plate on the bowl and place in the frig overnite.
The next day you can stick them in a jar and keep in the frig. Pickled cukes seem to have an indefinite shelf life as long as you keep them refrigerated (kind of like a Twinkie.) Enjoy!

Open Barn Weekend-The Preparations are On

2010-05-21T16:30:00.010-04:00

After nearly three years owning Alpacas, and having them here on the farm for 18 months, it's time for our first Open Barn Weekend.

We just came back from the PAOBA show in York, and actually did pretty well. We placed in all but two categories. Now our attention turns to shearing day, which is this next Monday.

All the "critters" are suffering in the heat, so we've put on extra fans to cool them down. Try imagining wearing your warmest winter coat in 90 degree weather. We promised them all they can play in the sprinkler right after shearing.
So for "Open Barn", we'll have some of Jo's spinning friends over, and I'll be demonstrating hand weaving. Of course the Alpacas are the stars of the show. We're hoping to have our first baby arrive about that time. We'll be open Saturday and Sunday 5/29-30 from 10-4. We hope to see you there.

Color Everywhere

2010-05-04T10:59:00.006-04:00

The Chives are blooming! A welcomed sight.

Things are springing up all over here at the ranch, including a horrible mouse problem at the barn that was quickly solved by the addition of 2 barn cats...Stella and Pest (named by the lady who so generously donated them to us). They are a bit camera shy, but we'll keep working on that.

We have another new addition...this is an old LeClerc loom from Quebec. It is over 50 years old. Bought it on Ebay in hot and heavy auction action. We will use it for demonstration purposes when we take the Take2 Alpaca show on the road at various events. Len started weaving a scarf to try it out.

The loom will be coming along with us real soon too.

This weekend is the annual Pa. Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association's "Breeders Showcase" event in York, PA at the Fairgrounds. We are taking the three cria from last year and our two yearling boys to show in Halter, Produce of Dam, and Get of Sire classes. We also have entries in Handspun Skein, Mill Spun Skein, Fiber Arts, and Photography. We have had a great season so far with year with two 4th places, one 6th place, a blue, and a Reserve Color Champion. We are so so pleased with last year's babies and excited about this year's crias which are due within the next few weeks. We have two more shows after this one.

In the meantime, we have been preparing some skeins of yarn to sell at several upcoming events. I've been a hand-dyer for years dyeing cotton cloth for quilts. Protein fiber, like alpaca and other wool take a different process, using dye, heat, and acid, which in this case is white vinegar. It kind of stinks up the whole house.

Here are jars of dye concentrate. The dye is added to salted hot water on the stove. The particular yarn we are using here is 60% alpaca, 40% Blue Faced Leicester (an English long wool rare breed sheep--the fleeces came from my friend Nancy Landis from Elizabethtown, PA). It's soft and rich with a satin sheen. It was spun for us at Worthington Acres Fiber Mill in Unityville, PA, so we have a 100% PA product, as our farm is a member of PA Preferred and we hope to produce as much in our state as possible, which helps support other small farms like us.

The white skein goes into the dye bath, comes to a boil, and simmers for 15 minutes. Then the vinegar is added and it simmers for another 25 minutes. I've been experimenting with dye recipes to get a reliable palate of colors that will work well year after year.

When the dye has been taken up by the fiber, it cools for a little and then is rinsed.

After rinsing to remove any leftover dye, it goes on our hi-tech drying racks. Sure, they look like deck furniture. Too bad I gave away the treadmill, that would work just as well!

It's a little time consuming, but well worth the effort!

Remember, if you are in the neighborhood and want to visit, please do! Just call first to make sure someone is here.... 610-823-7907.

The Aftermath

2010-03-28T15:24:00.010-04:00

See that bright green mass of grass just above the rope decorated with plastic bags from the grocery store? That is where all of the snow and subsequent 5 inches of rain went....and is still laying there. This situation has caused us undue problems. Today's temporary fix is the rope/bag combo which allows the alpacas to get out a bit without getting into the slop.
The main problem has been with Chief (center above). He developed a pretty bad infection in his feet from the dampness. This required an antibiotic and keeping his feet as dry as humanly possible for the foreseeable future. Not an easy task. We tried keeping him inside with just the other babies, but they weren't having it. So then we had to keep everyone inside. When we left them out, they immediately headed for the green grass growing where the water was laying. Just an awful situation that has been going on since the big melt and subsequent rains. But hopefully this temporary rigging will keep everyone healthy till it dries up.
We took the three babies to the Virginia Classic in Lexington, VA, in the beginning of March. It was a great show with Chief taking a 4th in his class, Jewel taking a blue and Reserve Champion in her class, and Izzy taking a 4th as well.

Around the farm...well, we purchased a Kubota BX25 this week, with a front end loader, 60" mower and backhoe. It will make life easier moving stuff around, digging out some stumps, mowing the back 40...er, 4. Cleaned the barn to make room for it yesterday and we're expecting delivery sometime this week. First job for it will be moving soil to fill these...

The new raised beds for the kitchen garden. I am really looking forward to having things growing again. Last year, we did tomatoes, swiss chard, lettuce, butternut squash (which makes the most amazing soup), peppers, eight ball zuchini, sunflowers, and a very tough variety of corn. So with the new seed catalogs come fresh hope. Soil is being ordered this week and son is getting picked up from college on Friday so he can help get these boxes filled. Managed to salvage some pots from last year with some very tired soil that will benefit greatly from a boost of new dirt. The spring brings good things after such a tough winter.

Blizzard's from DQ are Better

2010-02-10T16:42:00.012-05:00

Saturday's storm left us with about a foot of snow...the nice dry fluffy kind. Then came today's storm...about another foot of snow...the heavy wet kind. These are the days when you wonder what made you become a small-time farmer in the first place.

Alpacas are wise animals...they step outside just for a minute and then it's right back into the barn.
After Saturday's storm, we were able to snowblow a track for the alpacas to go out and walk for a bit, but now it's back to square one.

In the interest of being scientific...I present Saturday's snowline (dirt line in the crosssection), with today's accumulation thus far...

As the happy owners of a killer snowblower (Cub Cadet with tank-style wheels), we are in as good a position as any to handle what Mother Nature can throw our way. But this snow, well, it was certainly pushing the limits. First pass with shovels and snowblower was at 9AM. Second pass was at 1:30 PM. Now...we're just waiting it out.

But here's the philosophical view of our snowy situation... As an office dwelling worker (even though it's a home office, ya still gotta work), I don't have too many reasons to venture out into the elements. But now I do. The animals need me. To lug feed, water, hay, clean up after them. And in return they give us fleece to spin, weave and sell, and hopefully four new babies in June. I know much more about how things work in our year and a half of full-time small-time farming....when the sun comes up, when it goes down, and when it looks like rain. I've learned what good hay looks like and the smell of a great sweet feed.

And even in lousy weather like this...making a plan to deal with the snow, doing the best you can, and still losing the battle...well, it makes one feel alive. And I guess that's what it's all about.

Time Flies

2010-01-07T11:13:00.004-05:00

I can't believe it's been this long since we've posted anything new. It's definitely a case of "The Cobbler's kids go barefoot".

I guess I'll try to re-construct the highlights from this Fall. In late September I (Len) decided to go to a workshop to learn how to handweave. After all, we're raising animals that produce fleece, and Jo's been hand spinning for a bout a year now. I thought it time to get in the game. So I spent a week in East Berlin, PA at The Mannings. It's pretty much the Mecca for spinning and weaving in this area. At the end of the class, I ordered my own loom, after getting the confidenc ethat I could do this on my own. It took about 6 weeks to arrive, and I was glad I could still remember what I had learned. Here's a pic of the loom and a scarf in progress:

It's been pretty interesting since I can design and previsualize the project on computer using a free download software. The scarves have been coming off pretty regularly and most are selling as soon as they're finished. I do plan to put some on the website as soon as I can get a respectable inventory of material done.

We also participated in 5 weekends at Weaver's Orchard on Rt. 10 just south of Green Hills. We had a stall with a couple of animals for people to see and touch. Jo brought her spinnig wheel and demonstrated hand spinning. We had a craft for kids, learning how to use a drop spindle to spin yarn. We also had a basic inventory of Alpaca products to sell, from finger puppets to socks and rugs. For no more inventory than we had, we did pretty well. The weather didn't cooperate very well, though. We had at least two weekends wash out and a third ended early because of high wind. It was a good experience though. I'm sure we'll do it again next year. When we would arrive or leave, everyone got a kick out of our transportation mode. We just loaded our two boys into the back of the minivan and rode them down the road to the orchard.

Tools of the Trade

2009-10-26T10:18:00.012-04:00

We're coming up on our one year anniversary of having the alpacas come to live with us, so I thought I'd do a series of posts on different pieces of "equipment" we have come to rely upon.
Alpacas are generally "easy-keepers". They don't require very much in the way of gear. What we have found is that the gear you need to keep your farm tidy is mostly in the way of self protection and preservation (which at my age becomes more and more important), and cleaning implements you may already have.
This is the Walmart $3.99 Shrub Rake. My husband got 2 of these for Christmas last year from me. Some men get sweaters and neckties, Len gets Shrub Rakes or Poop Rakes as they're known by alpaca owners. These things do the job. They are as close to perfect as you can get to accomplish the daily manure removal.
The Poop Scoop...this is an item I've not been able to find except at Alpaca Shows. It is a plastic dust bin that sells for under $20. The combination of the Walmart Shrub Rake and one of these bad boys makes the scooping quick, convenient and effective. In the background is a wheelbarrow that we already had that has a persistent tire leak.
PVC Pipe...A miraculous invention. Cut it in half lengthwise and you get a feeding trough...or dig a ditch in front of the barn, stick it in the ground and you have a gutter to redirect rain runoff.
Gloves...Do not skimp here. These gloves came from Tractor Supply. They were around $23 dollars. I have never in my life paid $23 for a pair of work gloves. It felt insane at the time. Here's the hitch...I have never regretted paying the $23 for the gloves. They fit and they feel good. You'll thank yourself if you buy a good pair of work gloves.
Gates...Someone told us early on that you never have enough gates. They were right. We put in two more gates than we thought we needed. I wish I had put in an additional two mid-span between the pastures.
A good travel mug...Thanks to one of our TV commercial clients, Dr. Borja at the Spine & Wellness Center ( http://www.spineandwellness.org/ ),I've been using this coffee mug for years. Do I take it to the barn to feed and scoop poop? Yup. Isn't that unsanitary? Yup.
Barn Coat...Some women get jewelry. Alpaca women crave barn coats. This one came from Cabelas; a surprise Christmas gift from Len. Waterproof shell with a sweatshirt hoodie thing lining. Knit wrist cuffs. One great coat.
Boots....Don't skimp on gloves and don't skimp on boots. These are "Muck" brand boots. I think they are the "Garden" model. These came from Weavers Store in Fivepointville (truly a shopping Mecca http://www.weaverstoreinc.com/ ). They cost in the neighborhood of $60...yikes. When you're tromping around in the snow and mud, you'll be glad to have nice dry feet. A tip: buy a size larger than you need. That way, you can practically "jump" into them, and removal is so much easier.
That's it for now. I will try to be a little more consistent in posting our alpaca adventures.

Three Bags Full

2009-09-01T12:41:00.004-04:00

It's more like 8 bags full. Besides the new arrivals each year, this is where your breeding decisions, feeding and supplement programs, and farm facilities all come together...on the fleece table. For the past three days, we have been washing and drying Flirtation and her son Gabriel's fleeces. It is a labor intensive process...First, you must skirt the fleece. This means laying the fleece out and picking out hay, dirt clops, guard hair, and any other yucky stuff that you see. Then the fleece gets washed 3 times in small batches in garment bags. Then the wet fleece is placed back on the skirting table to air dry. What you see here is Gabriel's fleece, washed and mostly dry.

Wednesday night the fleeces will get put through the picker...a medieval-looking torture device that rakes the fleece through 600 razor sharp spikes. This prepares it to be carded on an electric drum carder that we share with two other farms. You can also hand card the fleece at this point as well to prepare it for spinning.

Our plan is to create an Oedipus yarn (mom and son's fleeces mixed), and then solar dye it in our yet to be created solar dye boxes.

The Girls Go to Summer Camp

2009-07-14T15:12:00.011-04:00

Yesterday we took Cassandra and her cria Izzy and Flirtation and her cria Jewel to Hilltop Alpacas for breeding. Kathy Kenworthy once again helped us out by allowing us to hitch a ride in her trailer up north. Here are one of Kathy's girls, Flirtation (big white alpaca), her cria Jewel (little white alpaca), and the top of Izzy's head. Cassandra had already decided to lay down and enjoy the ride.

Hilltop Alpacas also runs a summer camp. It is a huge beautiful place. Here is one of the main camp buildings.

Hilltop has strict health procedures for incoming alpacas. All of the animals had to be vet checked, blood tested, and fecal tested for fitness to stay at their farm. It's good practice for everyone...protects their animals and ours, too!

Here are the girls checking out their new digs. They'll be gone a little over a month, and then we'll go pick them up.

And Then There Were Three

2009-06-06T07:59:00.004-04:00

Finally I got a pic of all three new crias together. The dynamic has been pretty funny. Chief (on the right) has decided that the new little girl is a fun little push toy. He just walks around behind her and nudges her round and round the pen, until she has to lie down and rest. Izzy kinda jumps around everyone, trying to figure out what she can do at the same time. We're still debating the name on the newest girl. It's taking a bit longer this time.

Name That Cria...

2009-06-04T09:50:00.007-04:00

We were surprised around noon on Tuesday to find an extra little wobbly head sitting with the group of girls out in the field. We were expecting our final cria of the year from Flirtation, our Legacy girl, but not so soon. Sure enough, our newest girl was laying right in the middle of their dusting pile, covered with dirt.

After taking her back to the barn for weighing and clean up, she showed signs of being pre-mature. She was very sleepy and unstable for a long time. It took her over four hours before she would stand and nurse.

Two days later, now she's very perky and gaining back weight she lost on her first day in a very typical fashion. Now with two Crias in maternity, we haven't had time to give her a name yet.

"Chief" has been off the supplimental bottle since Sunday, but his weight has been like a Yo-Yo. Trouble is, "Izzy" our 7-week old likes to run him all over the field every time he gets out. And Sonya, his mom, is very nervous and protective. If he tries to nurse while other animals around, she is constantly moving, trying to keep them away from him. He can't get any quality time nursing when everyone is together, so we still have them isolated for most of the day, now coming up on three weeks. I can see the dynamics changing already with the addition of the newest girl. This morning, Chief was pushing her around the pen like she was a toy to play with. Now Izzy has stepped back a bit, even though she's older. Hmmm...

What the @&*!% is Camelid Dynamics?

2009-06-03T18:18:00.008-04:00

Well... if the answer were only that easy. It actually took me two days to find out. Actually, it's all about handling Alpacas in a way that is supposed to create a more cooperative relationship.

First, as shown here, we got to see what it feels like to have a halter on your head. Kinda kinky, I must say...

Then there were blow up dolls...Alpaca heads. We used them to get an idea of how to use catch ropes and halters.

There was plenty of individualized tutoring. Getting the hands in the right place can make all the difference.

Finally we got to try out the techniques on live animals. Funny how they weren't quite as cooperative as the blow-up Alpacas. Things that make you go hmm...

Playmates

2009-05-17T12:44:00.011-04:00

It's been four weeks since Cassandra's Chocolat Isabella was born. She's been growing like a weed, almost doubling her weight already. She's been going from one female to the next, looking for someone to play with. Leah, our only maiden, has been the only one to take much interest in playing... sometimes too much. But "Izzy" has finally gotten sturdy enough to take the occasional kick that results from her over-exuberance.

Finally, today she got a playmate her own size...well, sort of.

Peruvian Sonodor (Sonya) our only maiden giving birth this year, was about a week overdue. Officially, she was at 350 days. Her signs of labor began about 7 am. By noon, she was in active labor. Of course, that was just after Len and Max left to run errands. After about an hour and a half of pushing, pulling and wrangling, our first BIG boy was born. At 21.7 pounds, he weighed as much as Izzy did when she was 4 days old.

Both mother and cria were exhausted from the struggle, but after a few hours, everything seemed to be getting close to normal. We've noticed that his hind legs sweep to the right when he stands. Upon researching he issue, it seems this is a fairly common occurrence with larger crias. They just run out of room to grow and get stuck in one position with their legs off to one side. We'll be checking in with our vet tomorrow, but even in just a few times getting up, he seems to be getting better. He's still a bit confused about which legs to get between to nurse. You'll see his mom try to re-direct him, but she's also distracted by Izzy wanting to play. So we put them back in the stall to get some quiet time alone.

Just Chillin...

2009-04-26T21:47:00.003-04:00

Who says you can't keep cool on a hot day? Even though our girls shed their winter coat last week, they were not ready for the first 90 degree day. So when we broke out the water sprinkler, they were just like a bunch of kids.

On the other hand, our two boys who are still in their winter coats weren't so keen on the idea. So we just had to corner them in the pen and give them a quick hose down. I hope this isn't a preview of what our summer's going to be like. We may have to get their own wading pool before it's over.

It's A Girl!

2009-04-19T20:10:00.003-04:00

As if shearing day wasn't exciting enough...we had the first alpaca birth on our farm today!

I looked out of the window at about 11:40 AM and Cassandra (whose due date was 4/19, or 4/20, or 4/25, or 5/06 depending upon which cria birth calculator you used) was looking...well...funny.

Of course, we couldn't find the binoculars which had been sitting on my desk for the past 2 weeks, so Max, Len and I made our way out into the pasture to be witness to a textbook alpaca delivery. Cassandra showed these newbie farmers how it was done. Ten minutes later we were carrying a 17 pound female baby back to the barn to be dried off and placed in a nice clean stall with mom.
It's been quite a full day, but one with great joy, as Cassandra and little Isabella are doing great!

Shearing Day

2009-04-19T08:58:00.008-04:00

Spring is finally here, and the Alpacas are feeling uncomfortable in their winter coats. We find them out in the field rolling and dusting themselves to scratch their backs. And after a rainy couple of days, they begin to start smelling like a bunch of homeless people who live outdoors all the time and never get a bath. Shearing Day finally brings some relief.

When the value of Alpaca fleece is about $3-$4 per ounce raw, you don't want to be learning how shear animals yourself. You leave that work to the professionals. In our case we used the services of Shear Relief, LLC. You can visit them at ShearingAlpaca.com. They have three crews that originate out of Ohio. We saw them in action last year and were amazed. A crew of four can easily shear over 85 Alpacas a day. So our four females were no challenge at all. We're holding the two males back for a show in York next month. After they're shown there, we'll be able to get them shorn there.

Since this is something that only happens once a year, we're sharing it here for anyone who really wants to learn the reality of living with Alpacas. (PS: Our shearers are gentle and safe, despite our one alpaca's protests.)

Spring??

2009-04-07T16:18:00.003-04:00

It's supposed to be Spring, but some days... Of course, I do see a lot more sunrises than I used to. We've had plenty of foggy mornings where the alpacas just blend into the mist. We've been getting ready for our first baby, coming around the 19th of April. Jo and I both have been to neo-natal workshops, so hopefully we'll be prepared. I'm hoping we'll just pass by the window , there they'll be, doing their alpaca thing without any help from us.

The two boys (alpacas) are getting big. They're about 10 months old now. Gabriel, the white one weighs at least 15 pound more than Duende, but it always seems like Duende's starting the fights. They're just like typical boys...always seeing who can best the other. When we let them out into the field, we have to stand back, as they literally kick up their heels when they get out. Yesterday, they were chasing each other across the field, and they made a mad dash straight toward me. I thought I was going to have to hit the deck, but they swerved off just in the nick of time. They've become quite entertaining.

Snow Day

2009-01-28T12:05:00.026-05:00

This is the first time in many years that the boys had a place to sled.

With 5 inches of snow, covered with a crispy coating of ice, it was a great day to blow the cobwebs off the sledding equipment and have a run at it.

The ever-smiling Duende checking out the flakes. We tried showing how to catch them on his tongue, but he'd rather have hay.
The girls know what to do during the snow...just stay under cover and munch hay.
The Farmer decided to snow blow a path, so everyone could get out and walk around. Then getting them to get up and move around took some coaxing.
Decisions, decisions...
Of course, then they totally passed up their grazing patches we had so carefully cleared...and headed for wide open spaces.
But then they finally got it and settled in for a snack.
Why, there's grass under the snow! What a concept!

Alpaca Containment

2009-01-09T09:39:00.004-05:00

Sure...they look innocent. But these monkeys are very stealthy and clever.....
They found that if they climb to the top of the mulch/poop pile, they could see the girls. They did not jump off, but we were concerned that the temptation might be too much. So off to Home Depot to find some kind of temporary fencing that would be easy to get in and out of until we can figure out a better solution...or not.

It turns out that plastic snow fence comes in an attractive green color as well as orange. So $25 later, the Farmer installs our fix.

An example of "function" over "form".

Our New Family

2008-12-19T15:07:00.007-05:00

It's been about two weeks since the rest of our herd arrived from New York. This photo was taken on their first morning together. Since then a lot of things have changed. The two young males, Duende (3rd fron the left) and Gabriel (standing with his mother), have been separated from the herd for weaning purposes. The first day or two were really miserable for them (and us). They kept trying every gate...over, around, under or over. They didn't care. I had to close the dutch door in the barn because Gabriel tried climbing over it. But things have gotten a little less tense. They still moan a little bit, but it's not quite so pitiful.

The girls have been busy deciding who's boss. So far it seems that Flirtation (5th from left) has taken the matriarch position, although she's not the oldest. Cassandra (the shy brown one) who is going on 9, is about 3 years older. The barking dogs next door seemed to bring out her "protector" instincts right away. She's been toe to toe right at the fence with the dog, making moves like a cutting horse, staying right in step with the dog. The other girls stand behind her and watch. The dog doesn't know what to think.

The weather has been horrible for the most part ever since they have arrived. Cold, wet, rainy, muddy, mucky, slippery, slimey. When it wasn't quite so cold, everyone just laid out in the weather, getting completely soaked. But when the sun would come back out, they fluffed out again right away. Today it's been snowing, sleeting and freezing rain. Most everyone has stayed close to the barn all day. The boys have ventured out a bit, but the girls have just decided to wait it out.

Right now, we're just hoping for a few dry days so we can enjoy our "Alpaca Lifestyle".

New Arrivals

2008-11-30T17:43:00.003-05:00

It's been a busy Thanksgiving here. In addition to the normal T'giving cooking frenzy (kudos to the online turkey brine recipe), we were busy planning the last push to finish the fencing and prepare for the arrival of two alpacas.

Here we have the grand arrival. The fawn alpaca is Leah, who we purchased a year ago. The white one is Sonya, who is an alpaca we've admired for awhile and was fortunate enough to be able to purchase. Sonya is expecting her first cria in April.

Here I am with Max just after the girls left the trailer.

What would this momentous occasion be without a "family" photo?

Even better...our hardworking fence guys finished installing over 2000 feet of alpaca fencing. No way we could have even attempted that project and complete it in the span of time these guys did. And it looks great.

We even got the tree up! Earliest we have ever gotten our tree up. Thanks to Mom who spent Thanksgiving with us and recruited the boys to tree-duty.

The Fencing Continues

2008-11-26T07:08:00.011-05:00

By now our back yard is beginning to look like a religious cult compound, or at the very least the County Prison. All of the internal fencing and exterior containent fencig is done on our new addition, which takes up about 2/3 of our back yard. It will definietely cut down on the mowing time.

Our intrepid fence crew has worked through snow and freezing temperatures to keep the job moving. They definitely came with the right tools and experience to get the job done right. In retrospect, I must have been crazy to think that I could have tackled this kind of job.

Although, I haven't been lying around waiting for it to all come together. I saw this type of wall and feeder during our visits to other farms. The rough oak 2 x 6's were left in the barn from the original construction. By laying down a 4 x 4 on the ground, cut and fitted snug between the post and the wall, I just had to cut small strips and screw them in to the post and wall. The I just cut and stacked the boards to make the divider for the stalls. If I need to, I can take it back down in a matter of minutes.

I had also seen the feeders made from PVC pipe. Just taking 6" pipe and cutting it in half, I had two feeders in a matter of minutes. I still have to make plugs for the end, so the critters won't shove the food out the ends.

Gates, and more gates... I've been putting about 6 new ones in to separate and manage all the new areas. As the fences were going in, it ecame more clear that I needed even more. All the new fences have wire mesh to prevent Crias crawling through the bars. I just need to make sure that they can't get under the gates.

A few days before Thanksgiving, we got our first snow. Around here we got only about an inch, but farther north, they had 4". The crew just kept on working. I hope this isn't a sign of a hard winter coming.

Hay there...

2008-11-18T20:01:00.005-05:00

Now we're talking "Alpaca Lifestyle" folks...

I never would have thought that a big time on a Monday morning would be standing around with a bunch of Mennonite and Amish farmers in the freezing cold at a hay auction.

With the impending arrival of our new "family", we thought it best to find a good source of hay for the winter. We're still trying to figure out how much, what kind, etc., but this was a good exercise in all of that. It seems farmers from all around bring in a load of various types and sizes of bales and look to get a good buyer, just like any auction. You get to compare the various loads for weight and type of mixture. Jo's much better at this, having been a "horse girl" in her youth, so I was just going along trying to pick something up. So it seems they auction off the hay by the ton, not the bale, since all the bales are different sizes. Very confusing, especially trying to keep up with the auctioneer. But it was entertaining, and set us off to look for someone local now that we have a feeling for the going prices. And then we have to figure how much our hay bin will actually hold. I think there's some math ahead of us on this.

Warm, Rainy, then Cold, Weekend

2008-11-16T11:47:00.004-05:00

We've had major rain, so our "real" fence crew will hopefully be coming this week to finish the job. Standing in are the Farmer and Son, who are replacing some post & rail fence for the garden. This will also get wire along the bottom to keep the rabbits out. We may also go to a hay auction to see how that works tomorrow morning. On the animal front it looks like we may be close to finding some friends for our alpaca, Leah, who is boarded at Almosta Ranch. Many discussions going on at "Casa Smith/Griffith"...who's the best fit, what's a fair value, are we crazy, etc., etc. No pics or details yet as the deal is not sealed. You'll have to wait!

Many things for wannabe farmers to learn to navigate!

Day of Rest

2008-11-09T11:20:00.005-05:00

Not exactly. Sometimes Sundays are good for catching up, and doing things you kinda wanted to do but could not fit into the foreseeable future. For Dylan and me, it was cleaning up the main living area of the house. Cat hair, dirt, grass, more dirt and more cat hair.

For Max, it was continuing the gardening project. I only wish my dad were still around, because he'd be loving this. The only grandson with a remote interest in gardening. What is interesting is that there are several wannabe "farmers" who attend school with my son. One has convinced his parents to allow him to have chickens. One has "farm envy" of the one with the chickens. And there is my son, future gardener and alpaca wrangler.

For the Farmer, it was running the tractor around the back end of the pasture to sweep up the leaves from several trees bordering the fence line. One is a maple and one has yet to be identified. Several species of trees go through chemical changes in the leaves which can kill an alpaca. We need to figure out which ones they are. In the meantime, we'll just take care of the problem this way.

And for a job well done, there's nothing like artificially colored and flavored vitamin water and cheese sandwiches. When you think about it, one probably shouldn't eat anything that is fluorescent....But they are so good.

Holy

2008-11-06T08:17:00.007-05:00

Or is that "Holey"... The project began last Saturday. John & Co. came out and started dotting our backyard with fenceposts which eventually will house the beginning of our herd. He didn't hit rock, which is a very good thing. Here is one of the main pasture lines running down the side of the property (leaving room to drive down to the barn).

Here is the magic skid loader drilling holes for the garden fence.

Here the team installs post & rail by the driveway. This is part of the garden fence (has nothing to do with the alpaca pasture.)

Here are the fence posts being installed along the new front pasture.

Before the posts went in...it looked like this.

Our sons, Max and Dylan, did the backfilling. Yesterday, my new favorite store, Tractor Supply, delivered some, but not all, of the fence and gates. We are still short 200 feet of fence and 1 gate. I don't understand why it takes 2 weeks to get fence and gates, but you are pretty much at their mercy.

Fence Project Begins

2008-10-31T14:42:00.004-04:00

Two cans of orange marking paint, a chunk of money dropped at Tractor Supply and Green Hills Lumber later, we are ready for John and his helper to begin setting posts. This part of the fence project will be to fence in a larger portion of the backyard. More pasture, less mowing. They will arrive tomorrow to hopefully get all of the posts in the ground and the corner posts set in cement.

Today, we had someone from Maidencreek Appliance come and make us a dryer vent in the laundry room. This house didn't come with a dryer vent. Anyhow, we are now set with that. We also thought we lost the cat this morning. Ever since we have moved here, he has been trying to get out. He is not an outside cat and has no survival skills. I think he'd be a goner in a matter of minutes. After sending me around the block to make sure he hadn't become a casualty, the Farmer called to say he turned up hiding in a closet.

Longing to go outside.

Herd Health @ the Alpaca Cottage

2008-10-26T21:05:00.003-04:00

This afternoon was yet another learning experience with our good alpaca friends, Tammy and John Orischak and their daughter, Emily. Here's Tammy getting one of her alpacas on the scale to check weight.
The "girls" awaiting their "Health and Beauty" day, where they get their shots and toenails trimmed.
Here's Tammy and John...Still smiling after putting up with us..."The Fresh Air Kids".
Emily and McGyver...All smiles!

And the Work Begins

2008-10-26T13:25:00.012-04:00

Today is one of the first days we've been able to see through the clutter of moving and concentrate on the reality that this is where I'll probably be until my sons take me to the nursing home:)

A quick recap: We closed on this place Aug. 5, put our current house on the market and sold it in one week. Yes, we were one of the lucky ones. We closed on our old place Oct. 20. So now, we can begin planning for our herd and getting things ready.

Here is "The Farmer" getting ready to install the big beautiful hex signs he got me for my birthday. Yes, some gals want jewelry; I want fence and alpacas.

Here is the horse sign meeting its demise after being unscrewed from the side of the barn.

Below are the boys with Hex sign #1. This one is for "Fertility"...The alpacas' "fertility" that is.

Here the Farmer installs Hex Sign #1.

Then, it was on with Hex sign #2. This is for "Prosperity"...which all of us hope for these days!

This afternoon one of our good alpaca friends, Tammy and her husband (and fence installer), John, have invited us to their "herd health" day. That way we can learn some more about taking care of the monthly shots.

It's a Good Day to Die (or get in a huge amount of debt)

2008-06-18T18:29:00.003-04:00

At 8AM this morning we applied for the mortgage for the "farm". If we last till the end of the mortgage, I will be 80. I'm guessing something else will happen before then, but in the meantime we'll have accomplished a goal to 1) live with our alpacas; 2) bring our own business back to our home; 3) try to live more in harmony with the earth. Naw, we're not Birkenstock wearing hippy throwbacks, but we are looking forward to having a garden, some chickens, and of course the alpacas.

The mortgage man, Dave, was helpful and efficient. He also had an interesting collection of political memorabilia in his office that was pretty entertaining. Wow, a mortgage and an opportunity to view an unusual collection which included this little metal clicky thing that said "Click for Dick" (Nixon). Way too funny. The mortgage should be through in about a week. We close August 5 and move in after the 15th.

Tomorrow, we have a carpet guy coming to recarpet the house. The carpet was getting worn 14 years ago, but hey it had a few more years in it, right? We cleared out everything from the three bedrooms, the remains of which are everywhere. We tried to get a POD, but the Pod-people said they could not get down our driveway. I think they were chicken to try. We've had every other kind of truck down here, certainly an 8x10 POD could come down. Oh well. We reshuffled stuff in the garage and moved stuff in there, thereby saving $400 on the POD. Alls well that ends well, I guess.

I had started skirting Leah's fleece and had to bag it up to do later. There's just no way I'll finish with everything else that's going on. I learned to spin (still learning), and ordered a wheel which is backordered for at least another month. I love to spin. I figure it's part of the process. I started sewing with commercial cloth, then learned to hand dye. Now I'm learning to spin fiber. I figure the next step is to plant a cotton crop. I keep telling Len that he needs to spin...it is incredibly relaxing.

Finaleah...

2008-06-15T19:55:00.009-04:00

It seems like years since we first started this quest. It only seems that way, because it really has been. Finaleah...both the name of our first Alpaca, and the feeling that we are "finally" moving in a positive direction. Since our purchase of our first Cria in September of 2007, Jo has been scouring the on-line real estate listings looking for the perfect farm for us. Now, in June of 2008, we have sealed a deal to move just four miles down the road to a 4-acre horse farm. We've driven by countless properties, toured 6-8 or so, and made another offer on another broken down farm just a mile away. That one fell through...the sellers were going through a divorce. In the end, I'm really glad. It had no barn, no fence and needed a lot of TLC to fix over 100 years of problems.
Our search was complicated by several other factors: school district (one son going into the 12th grade and another with special needs), and a strategic location to move our "other" business back home( video production specializing in TV commercials and corporate communications). Now that we've found that perfect intersection of attributes, we're faced with moving a business and a home, plus putting our existing home on the market. It's mind-numbing.

Our first pictures of Take2 Alpacas:

Of all the features of the property, the barn was definitely what sealed the deal for us. Who would have thought...a middle-aged, out-of-shape, couch potato would take on something so all-encompassing? As my wife and I both say to each other...what else would we do?

I guess we'll see.