Alpaca Family Affair

Here at almost 37 years old, I never thought I would be a part of a threesome. Finally today it happened. It was time to breed Pearl our female alpaca to Reggie, a 1st timer. Now right away, Pearl could tell he was new, so she decided to make it harder on him and spit a few times. He walked around clueless for a few moments before I guided him towards where Pearl was standing.

Finally, he sniffed again and she didnt spit, so he jumped up on her back and she cushed. Of course, not wanting to appear "easy" she cushed up against the fence in the corner and he couldnt get behind her so well. So, we got him up, he acted like he was out of breathe and drooling. Amazing how the first time for an alpaca male is similar to the first time for a human male...LOL. We moved her butt around and finally he got behind her and started to do his thing...but he his not as big as her and had a hard timie getting his footing and balance. My husband, Elijah, helped by holding up her tail and I went behind him and held his butt straight. he kept falling to the side, I have never seen anything more sad than him wanting it as bad as he did and couldnt hang on! So, realizing I stood behind him and held him straight for her. Thank goodness no one had a camera, but it was quite a site, me looking like Im on Reggie and him on Pearl.

It gets better, her cria from this year and last year decided to come over and check on their momma who by the way was sitting like nothing was going on and content that she found a little leaf branch in front of her to chew while this newbie went to work on her.

Anyways, what a site! Can't wait to do it again tomorrow! LOL Funny how little it takes to entertain me these days.

It's a girl!!!

YAY!!! She finally came out this morning around 10:15am. We are so excited to welcome this little girl to our farm. So, far we are 3 for 3 on having females. Last year, both of the crias born were girls, so we are excited about the trend so far this year. Our other alpaca Hot Fudge Sundae is due to have her girl in about 2 weeks. But for now, congrats to the new momma Pearl! It was so exciting to catch this little girl in my hands. She is already smiling at the world!

My sons wanted to name her either, Brownie, Chocolatte', or Chocolate Latte. I dont think she is quite dark enough for a chocolate name. Last year we went with a theme of song titles, Angel Eyes and Sugar Magnolia "Maggie". So I think we are going to stick with that and go with Stella Blue.

She is so cute and sweet! So far her and momma alpaca are doing great!

Cria Watch

Waiting for my own children to be born was not as stressful as this! As of today, our alpaca, Pearl, is 11 months and 18 days pregnant. Even the chickens are getting impatient waiting while they keep the bugs away from her.

So, now my son has me worrying about something I didnt even think of before, he mentioned that if she has the cria at night, how do we know what day its born on, especially if she has her (notice I never call the soon to be born cria "him") around 11pm or 1am, how will we know?

Last year we were priviledged enough to be able to be there and assist her through the entire delivery. I have it on video, I need to condense it and upload it. Its really cool, you just have to disregard some of the obsenity, it was our first cria on the farm and we were a little excited. :)

She is bred to our one of our finest herdshires, Logan of Lockwood. He is a beautiful True Black alpaca. Last year she was bred to another black alpaca and the result was a gorgeous little brown girl, Angel Eyes. Below, is Angel last year on the day she was born.

The previous year, in 2006, we were told Pearl gave birth to twins during the night. Neither of the crias made it. I just love this time of year when all the babies are being born. We have had 1 birth this year from our cashmere goat, isnt baby Suzi the cutest.

ok, must get back out there and stare at her some more, Pearl sure does love it when I hose down her back side. And its hot out there today, so off to hose her down!

Alpaca Farming 2008

So, my husband has been keeping up with the blogging, but we have been so far behind on it, I have decided to do my own.

I can't believe it is more then half way through June now. What a busy year this has been for us on the farm. Let me try to re-cap for you what we have been up to since January.

January - What an exciting month! We drove to Niagara Falls the weekend of the 26th. We stayed for 2 days up there. Why such a short stay? We picked up 2 beautiful alpacas in Cuba, NY on the 28th. Hot Fudge Sundae and Lucio's Turk came to live with us. Sundae is pregnant with Turks fathers cria. She is due in July. We are so excited to have them here.

February - We had an invisible fence put in and then removed. not that they had to remove much, most of it was left above ground. And with boys and animals running around, we were not happy to say the least. Anyways, on the 10th we went to visit Green Fence Farm. They have some wonderful Cashmere Goats, Angora Rabbits, Ducks, Chickens, etc. We bought 2 female goats, Moose and Cinderella. We thought both were pregnant, only turned out that Cinderella was. She had her little kid, Suzi, on 6/7/08. She is so cute. Check out our website to see pics of her. Oh, my little handsome boy Joey turned 1 this month as well on the 14th! He is so big. My cheeks hurt from smiling at him. Started some tomato seeds inside, we will see how they grow.

March - Baseball season! Tyler and Jacob, who turned 10 and 9 this month, started baseball. What a busy month. School was out for Spring Break as well. Its all a blur now, I need to keep up on this blog on a regular basis. I have to pull out all of my calendars to see what I did when...LOL. Anyways, shout-out to my dad who turned 70 in March. Lots of birthdays that month.

April - Nothing too much happened this month, My mom turned 69. We were set to have shearing done but we cancelled it and decided to shear the alpacas ourselves. We watched it last year at another farm and at our own, how hard could it be, right? I shave my boys hair once a year, so I have experience, right? Yeah Right! We ordered all of our supplies to start shearing in May. What a cool month April was to be shearing, and wet!

May - Now the shearing is upon us! We were all set to start on the 3rd. My father, Richard (not the one that turned 70 in March, though he did turn 63 in March, too many to keep up with LOL), decided to have a cook-out at the lake where he owns a trailer on a campsite. Its really a nice place, until Joey decided to swim in the mud and then give me big hugs. Needless to say, we didnt get any shearing done that day. We did start the next day on the 4th with Jacob, not my son Jacob, Alpaca Jacob. (in case you are wondering, he was named that before we got him, alpaca Jacob that is). What a great boy he is! He was so clam and didn't kick or spit. However, we were recommended this certain clipper to use. Now, shearing is only supposed to take about 18 minutes for a professional to do per alpaca. Up to 45 minutes for a beginner. After the first hour, we realized this was not going well. The first few run throughs on his fiber were great, but he soon quickly dulled the blade. We finally just had to let him up, even though he seemed calm and relaxed, we didn't want him to stress out laying there. As soon as he got up, he pooped on our tarp we had laying down. We quickly learned after that to move them away from the area as soon as they got up. We called the supply company and talked extensively with a representative, who informed us we had the wrong clipper, we needed shears and different types of blades. I have no clue how that other farm sheared with those clippers that they originally recommended for us. The new ones worked great. We got them in the mail and started up again on the 25th with Stormy and Logan and Reggie. We tried to stick with similar colors. Those 3 are all True Black Alpacas. They all did great that day! The next day on the 26th, we finished up Misha, Turk and Emeril! We are on a roll now! But due to Logan's fiber being like a brillo pad on his neck, we went through more blades than we had planned. We were able to finish up with Jacob, of course being our first alpaca we ever sheared, we forgot to take off his halter that was on his head, so now he looks like he has an amish beard. We left it, it gives him personality and the girls thinks he is an older guy...lol. On the 17th I took a 2 day fiber class. I can now make alpaca hats, alpaca scarves, felt soap with alpaca, and all things alpaca! Look out for our farm store to be selling all of these products soon!

June - on the 1st we sheared Pearl. Her head was as bad as Logans and our blades quickly dulled. At least we got her belly done. She was due to have her cria on the 14th, so we wanted to get her comfortable. At least we have been blessed with beautiful weather so far this month. So, we ordered more blades and quickly got the rest of the alpaca girls sheared. I have also joined the VAOBA Fiber committee. We are working on some great stuff and I am learning a lot! We also meet once a month for the fiber guild in Orange County, feel free to contact me if you would like to come out, it is at Not The Same Old Grind, its a cute little coffee shop there in town. We meet around 7pm, cant miss us, we will be the ones crafting. Nothing like crafting while you are hopped up on caffeine...of course I am used to it, I just love my coffee in the morning and the afternoon and evening...if they make an IV for it, can someone let me know! So, for now, we are on Cria watch. Pearl looks as if she is going to pop anytime now! I will start to update this more regularly. Elijah has done all of the bloggin up until now. But, he has passed it on to me. I am rather enjoying it so far, so look for more Furbelow Farm Alpaca and Cashmere Goat updates to come!