Week in Review

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.