a Personal Alpaca Journal

2008 Journal

this is just random musings from everyday life at Pittsburgh Alpacas...no interactivity or nothin, not even regularly posted ;-)

Read 2007 here

Read 2006 here....

Read 2005 here....

11/9/08

Tessa still was losing weight so I had the vet come and do a blood panel. She has subsequently been subjected to me getting 5ccs of antibiotics into her for the last 5 nights. Top that off with 10ccs of iron enriched supplement orally and you have one unhappy alpaca. But I'm hoping it helps her turn the corner and get more padding on her thin frame. Dino's wife Becky is going t hook me up with some great alfalfa cubes that will supplement her existing fee. She has been getting two extra meals per days of alfalfa pellets. It would be better if she was also getting the roughage of the actual alfalfa stems.

It's colder now. Not freezing yet. But a prelude of what the farmer's almanac says will be a very cold and snowy winter.

10/18/08

Frost warning! I guess fall is here to stay and winter is right around the corner. So it's transition time. This means flytraps and fans are stored, electric buckets get pulled out and the barns usually open atmosphere begins to close up. The big doors remain open through the fall. But during the winter they get shut down to protect them from the wind. The temperature isn't really a problem as they have all that lovely fur to insulate from the cold. I also start using the hay that they don't eat as bedding and let that pile up over the winter to a nice deep cozy bed. My two older girls: Tessa and Design don't have the fleece that the younger ones have (I hear you, sisters!) and so they sometimes seem to need more protection than the others. Tessa will sport a green plaid coat for the sub freezing times.

9/28/08

There has been a good amount of rain lately. Grass has come back to life and is begging for a mowing again. The winds from Ike took most of the fruit from the trees leaving only pears left for the fall harvest. A couple of weeks ago before those winds the concord grapes ripened to perfection - and several quarts of grape jam made fragrant the kitchen! Canned some peach salsa too.

9/27/08

National Alpaca Day was celebrated all over the US. I went up to Highland Alpacas in Grove City and enjoyed crafts, photos, food and fun! The audio isn't very loud on this youtube clip - so crank your volume. This is Fay talking about their three handsome showboys!

8/20/08

Dry as a bone out here. Grass is turning brown and brittle in places and mowing kicks up a choking dust. Alpacas still finding plenty of green grass. Just stocked in about 40 bales of 2nd cut hay from up in Grove City. Good stuff. But with the grass still available the alpacas are pretty much disinterested.

A couple of weekends ago it was Community Day here in Fombell. Jonas and Roberto made their appearance at the township building and everyone seemed to really enjoy them. Teri came over from Stromba Farm and showed the fleece and talked about the fiber. They are hoping to have a mini mill installed later this fall. That will be a great advantage to owners in this area to be able to process the fleece in such close proximity. Most now send fiber away and have to wait six months or more to get it back. The mills are that backed up!

8/04/08

The pond has developed a raging case of algae. Not an uncommon thing.. just a bit unsightly. So in my attempt to control every little thing around me I have gone out and purchased five koi. Here they are getting adjusted to the pond temp before they disappeared into the algae forest. Who knows if they will be seen again? My hopes are that they will eat it all and each of them become a koi monster - much more appealing than the algae choked view of current!

8/01/08

Storms. They are gorgeous and humbling as they come over the north western horizon. Moxie trembles with the thunder and tries to velcro himself to me. The alpacas usually graze until the last moment, taking full advantage of the shade of the oncoming storm. Then when the rain starts they run full tilt for the barn.

7/28/08

Busy summer. Only six alpacas here right now. Roberto and Jonas are up at Highland Alpaca in Grove City. They needed an opportunity to connect with other young males so it's as though they are at summer camp. Gerty is also up there being bred. So it's kind of weird only having six. They love it - tons of grass to eat and all that room to themselves!

Fruit and Japanese Beetles. Those are the other two "words" of the summer of 08. Can't believe the amount of fruit there has been. Tons of plums... red, yellow and purple. But those beetle have damaged much of them. It seemed like one day everything was fine... then the next day I went out they covered the foliage so thickly that from afar it looked like the plum tree had pepper shaken all over it. It was so gross. Shake the tree and they all swarm around. So I put up three traps. Don't want to do the chemical thing because of the animals. The traps were filled within a day. Disposing of them is as gross as the swarming. I could go on and on but I think it's an unhealthy obsession... Suffice to say I think we are near the final days of their life cycle and it seems as though the pears and apples and grape may pull through.

6/21/08

What a relief. Both babies born and everyone's doing great!!! It's amazing the difference between Lera and Maz. Lera is now twice the size of Maz even though they are only a couple of weeks apart. I have a feeling that Maz is going to catch up pretty quickly.

Now it's on to the rebreeding. Behavior testing for Fiona on Wednesday and also a rebreed for design. Gerty is going up to Highland for the maiden breeding. She will be missed by her little Tessa family, for sure!

6/19/08

Tessa prevails. Still holding onto that baby. Still cranky.

Fay brought Prince down to breed with Fiona - yah, I know it sounds disgusting, but these gals are ready to rebreed, and are the most fertile only 14 days delivering their last baby. Indeed Fiona gave Prince the "come hither" body language immediately.

Design on the other hand, having been open (not bred) since October, was not having anything to do with Santana, her chosen mate. She made it VERY clear that she wasn't feeling too romantic. So chalk this one up to an attempt to kick start her hormones. We'll see next week if there is any behavioral change.

So next week Santana will come back for date 2 and see if he can get past first base with Design. In addition, he will be used to "behavior test" Fiona. Behavior testing involves bringing an intact male near a supposedly pregnant female. If the girl is pregnant she will "spit off" the male. It's an accurate form of testing around 80% of the time. Amazing, huh?

6/16/08

Baby watch time! So Christina Aguilera was born 10 days ahead of time. A blessing on a number of levels: mom and baby are both healthy and I didn't have to do the waiting time that I am doing now for Tessa. Fiona broke the mold with this birth. In the four previous years she gave birth on either days 340 or 341 and they were all boys. This year she only went 330 days and it's a lovely girl!!!

Tessa is due on the 18th. She was 20 days over her due date last year. I am hoping that she pays closer attention to her calendar this year.

The farm is just gorgeous right now. The wet summer start has everything green and lush. Plum trees are loaded with fruit like I've never seen before. The ones that are in the pasture are a bit problematic - unripened fruit could pose a challenge to the alpaca digestive system. So in addition to the poop patrol there is fruit patrol - picking up all those that have dropped.

Here's a pic of one of the many young visitors with some grain... a compelling reason for the otherwise kind of standoffish girls to come hither! Lera is on the let. She is getting big already - 27 lbs!!

5/14/08

Learn from my mistakes. So the two that you see in the picture to the right are Design and her son Roberto. Roberto was born in October. He was weaned from his mom about a month and a half ago. I figured it would be okay to let them get back together for a little bit and then after they grazed and hung out I would put them back in their respective pastures. Not a good idea. Design got attached again. When I separated them this time she was very very distraught.. much more so than the initial weaning. It's always heartbreaking to see, but I remain steadfast in keeping them separate because Design is older, and is always on the thin side so she needs to be separate in order to keep her weight up. Ugh.

5/08/08

Shearing time!!! Darren and Sam came to town and John (Little Brick Barn Alpacas) brought 7 of his animals over and the winter coats came off! Here is Design and her son (yah, like you couldn't tell that?!?) Roberto after their haircuts.

4/27/08

So we skipped spring. In just 2 weeks it has become summer here. In the last month I've been rushing home after work to make the seasonal transformation; windbreaks come down from the barns, the winter mounds of hay bedding get cleared, electric buckets put up and regular ones put down. For the spring I put use the wire temporary fences to allow everyone to graze on new grass while the permanent pastures absorb the fertilizer and frost seed and really get a chance to come in strong before they graze on them. Shearing is scheduled for May 8th. Two babies due this summer.. the end of June.

4/26/08

Catching up here. This alpaca breeding is not without danger! I fell through a hayloft door in early April, knocked out going through it, fell around 10 feet onto a conveniently placed 2 foot pile of sawdust. An ambulance, emergency room visit behind me, I am just grateful for not having more permanent ramifications than a concussion and really sore back. Lesson learned: be verrrryy careful where you walk in a barn!!!!

3/02/08

Six inches of snow - lots of fun for alpacas and kids alike!

alpacas and sydner

alpacas in winter

2/15/08

Yet another series of storms complicated life this past week. I have water pumps that are freeze free - uh, yah, that works until freezing rain immobilizes the handle! Good thing that there is plenty of snow. Just scooped that up and filled up the heated buckets. Works great for a day. Thankfully a little bit of sun unfroze those handles the next day.

Shearing is scheduled already. Looks like May 8th is the magic day. So if you are interested in checking this out live, in person, just call.

2/2/08

So the winter saga continues... frozen poop, buckets that freeze and break from the ice, everything is just a little tougher to do. The ice storm this past week froze the j hook on the gate as you can see in this pictures. The gates were all either frozen into the ground or the latches were frozen. It was gorgeous because all the fencing was coated and it looked like a scene from Dr. Zhivago does Green Acres. So now everything is defrosting and it is supposed to be 61 degrees later this week. Go figure.

Everyone is back together again - the moms and their babies. Willa and Gerty appear to be completely weaned from Tess and Tess is definitely gaining weight. Jonus is also weaned from Fiona. Design is still nursing Roberto ... he was born in October so it is natural that should still be happening. But I did notice her pushing him away the other day, and he has started eating grain so I think she is in the process of weaning him. He's a big healthy guy and would do fine to have that happen anytime.

1/6/08

Yep, winter has settled in. Wish it would just freeze over. At this point it's alternating freezing for a week and then getting warmer. That means mud/frozen ground. But I need a longer period of frozen ground to get some poles put in for both the pasture and the vineyard. Be careful what I wish for, huh?

Just got some more hay yesterday. Needed that frozen ground and just got the hay in time before the ground melted as the temps moved into mid 30's and it started raining. Matt has been here helping with winter repairs like sanding and repainting the portable panel fences.

Tess's weight had dropped sharply. She is older, pregnant, nursing Willa AND I saw her baby from last year Gertie dipping under too! Yikes! So the barn got reconfigured to separate them. First there was a lot of whining but now everyone is much happier. It's always an issue figuring out how to keep weight on my older girls (if only that was my personal issue?!) but I have finally found a solution. Alfalfa pellets seem to be something that they eat easily and that can put on weight.