Not a lot updated here. I have
been a bit remiss in keeping this up. Facebook takes up most of my time!
:-) But if you are at all wondering what it's like to breed alpacas... feel free
to browse these archives!!!
8/03/98
I'm going to build an
ark. Seriously, this rain is amazing. Trying to fit in the mowing
between raindrops. Yesterday was an 8 hour mowing, weedwacking day.
Everything is so wet.. like a jungle - and growing like crazy. My tractor
broke.. okay, I broke my tractor. Apparently you aren't supposed to engage the
differential unless you are stopped. Who knew? No one told me.
But it's been three weeks now that it's been in the shop. Thank goodness
Ray gave me a kubota to use while the other is being fixed. Don't want to
look ungrateful but this loaned tractor deck cuts really really short and my grass is
really really long. Lots of ground scraping going on with the rental. Those
blades are duller than my mind without caffeine. Then I had to get a flat
fixed and change the air filter. I mean, what kind of talk is this for a
woman anyway? My life with tractors.
All that aside, here
is a video shot by John Seles. He was up here when Augie was born and took this.
How cute!!!
And here is another
one, this one captures Augie trying to get on his feet. Cria's are born so
big and capable.. but their legs don't work too well for a couple of hours.
This is something like 20 minutes into the real world for Augie. Back legs
doing their thing, front not so much!
7/21/09
Big week. Three
baby raccoons were cornered in the boy's shelter. Looks like just one, but
there are two underneath this one.. they must have been terrified of the
alpacas! No mommy to be seen. But all three took off with a little
prodding of the broom handle - seeming none the worse for wear. Brad the
vet came by today and there were shots, chips and blood taken like crazy.
I am always happy to have these medical marathons (complete exaggeration on my
part!) done.
7/01/09
Babeth took a picture
of Mary that I just think is adorable! What a little face this girl has!
Full tilt summer schedule happening now. That means lots of mowing,
weedwacking, gardening, getting hay, and trying to balance teaching, consultancy
etc. Yikes! Feeling a little overwhelmed!
6/26/09
Big farm upgrade going
on amidst the frolicking new cria. I love this time of year. The
babies race around the pasture chasing each other . Their mom's seem to
disapprove and every once in a while step in to stop it. Delightful to
watch. So, the upgrade.. replacing the t posts (metal posts) with wood
posts. It's expensive but the t posts are not as strong of a support and
their life span is much shorter. Had to be done sooner or later.
Also added some pasture space.
6/22/09
Augie arrives! Design finally
delivered her 20lb boy today. He is absolutely gorgeous with very striking
markings. I didn't catch much.. was mowing out front and then went back to
check her and spotted the baby on the ground. He was likely just minutes
from leaving her. Mary and Henry were VERY excited to have
someone new to play with!
6/15/09
Yeehaw!
Mary was born! You can even watch the event!
This starts out with me walking toward the heard... about three quarters through
I had to put the camera down and help reposition the baby. Tessa was in
danger of sitting on her! So that's what is happening when you see several
seconds of grass...
Gotta be kidding me.
No babies. Both Fiona and Design are as big as a barn. Fiona is now wayyyy
past her previous 340 day longest gestation. So I think the best idea is
to move on and not focus on the baby thing. They will come when they darn
well please. That's for sure. Instead.. how about this cool info
from my friend Babeth on the alpaca fiber:
Deja
vu. Again, these girls are just not workin their babies out on schedule!
Fiona has gone past her previous historical longest gestation period by two
days. Good heavens you can't imagine how big she is! Plus that baby
is training for the Olympics inside of her! It's darn near frightening to
see how actively her sides move around. I am doing my best to stay here
every day until at least 5pm. Historically only one time have any of these
critters given birth after that time during the day. The idea is that
since they are prey animals, they are genetically programmed to give birth
during the day when their nighttime predators aren't around.
Thank goodness
for Babeth and Martina who were there helping to gather and bag the fleece.
Either I'm getting old or this is getting a little harder on the body every
year! Carol and Joe Rost came over with 11 of their beauties. John
Gongas from Little Red Barn up the road came and helped them out with trailer
transport. I was a bit worried about Fiona's pregnancy.. but she seems to
be doing just fine Her bag is definitely filling with milk! They all
look very skinny in their newly shorn selves. Sorry, didn't get any pics!
4/29/09
Amazing how brilliant
the green seems in the spring. Rain and sunshine have combined to bring in
the "season of mowing" in a big way. The girls are big now.. Fiona is due
on the 19th. Design is right behind her and then Tessa waits until June.
Can't believe that shearing is next week already! Here's what a pregnant
alpaca looks like - see how Fiona's sides are really wide? That's Design
in front of her.. very skinny in the sides. The baby is carried high and
toward the rear pelvis. Sometimes hard to even determine unless the alpaca
is sheared! This is an old picture.. right now the girls are in full
fleece.
4/19/09
Wow, it was such a
gorgeous weekend.. and extremely productive. Mowed anything that grew and
was green. Finished the grape vine pruning. Turned over the garden.
Re-bungeed the gates and fences. How inconvenient it must have been in the
old days to not have bungee cords? And what did they do without duct tape?
Just thinking. I'm exhausted and ready to go back to
work.
4/6/09
Snowing. No
kidding. Had to pull on my Rocky/ Bullwinkle flap cap to go out tonight.
Put up a temporary pasture this weekend so that they could graze outside the
regular pastures while I allow them to come in nicely.. or just get a head start
for the summer.
3/26/09
Yes, still pruning and
there was ANOTHER barn cleaning day. So this was the true spring cleaning.
Stall mats and overall interior power wash. Once again not much
appreciation shown by the alpacas. But I felt good about it. Didn't
get the aerating done.. Sounds like frost tonight so I am going to go out
and spread some seed in an attempt to do a lazy frost seed.
3/21/09
Second barn cleaning
day. Amazing how the bedding piles up! Took down the west wind
screen to open up the runway so that they can have a larger barn run. Next
step is aerator and throwing some seed for frost seeding. Still pruning.
Sigh.
3/9/09
The ice storm is truly
a thing of the past. Last two days even got up and over 65. So took
the first stab at a barn cleaning. This involves dragging old hay out and
burning it. How crazy is it to actually "clean" a barn. Alpacas sure don't
appreciate it.
Making my way through
the way orchard doing pruning.. one tree at a time. Takes almost an hour
per tree. 30 trees, 100 grape vines. You do the math!
2/19/09
So when everything
thawed out this past week all of a sudden spring became apparent. Red hue
touches the treeline. So even with the temps being around 16 or so..
spring is marching our way. Another reminder of the impending warming is
that shearing dates are being made. May 13th... afternoon sometime...
1/30/09
Still cold. Ice still
coating most everything. Tried to get a pic of the ice coated willows..
they were spectacular. The wind has stripped most of the ice off of their
tendrils.
1/28/09
Incredible storm.
On top of 6-8 inches of snow came an inch of ice, and then on top of that
another four inches of snow.
Here is a pic of the barn looking from the house. The purple spot is a
bucket hat I keep over the pump spout and handle to keep the handle from
freezing.
1/17/09
Wow - heat wave!
1 degree this morning. Last night I actually closed the door on the barn
so that they couldn't get out. Having them out of the wind and possibly
benefitting from each other's heat seems to make sense? They looked pretty
cozy this morning. Going up to 18 degrees today.. and more snow this
evening. Sounds like a great evening for a fire, a movie adn a couple of
warm critters for laprugs!
1/16/09
Minus 7. Yep, -7
degrees. Tessa and Design are sporting their blankets and not so happy
about it! Can't say I'm thrilled either. Each time I go out there
they somehow have them catawaller so I have to try to move them around and get
the blanket seated correctly. Yah. They don't really care for any of
that action.
1/10/09
My mom's birthday!
Sent her a birdsong book that is sooo cool. It has popup of bird habitats and
then plays their song.
Update on Tessa: She
came home and has been steadily improving by putting on weight. Now up to
138. Her all time high in weight since I've had her is 140 - so this is
wonderful. She gets fed Senior Equine Feed three times daily. At
first it was like two huge bowls.. the equivalent of about 4-6 cups at a
feeding. Now she is doing one bowl at a time.. more like 3 cups or so.
The other alpacas are extremely jealous of this special treatment.
12/21/08
Tessa is out in Ohio
at the Buckeye vet clinic. They are taking good care of her and treating
high white blood cells with new antibiotics. What they do best is the
teeth, and it looks like her teeth really needed work. She will be coming
home later this week. Maz is now up at Highland Alpaca with a large herd
that gives him more support.
Looking for alpaca
product? Check out the Highland Alpaca store...
11/30/09
Tessa bounced back,
gained some weight and then a week or so later relapsed. More blood
tests... back on the shots each day for ten days. Now she is so over the
shots. Very pissed... she starts yelling when she sees me. Doesn't
want to come in out of the pasture. Ugh, can't blame her. Good news
is that from being down to 116 a week ago she is now back up to 124. But
very cranky. Still getting hand prepared meals now three times per day.
Had to wean Maz from
her. He is very unhappy. For that matter, so is Fiona and Lera
who are in a separate pasture now from Willa, Tessa and Design. But had to
be done. Maz was just draining her with his nursing. Unfortunately
he is 7 pounds and 1 month shy of the standard 60 pound 6 month weaning
timeframe.
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 to hook me up with
some great alfalfa cubes that will supplement her existing feed. 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!
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.
514 Hartzell School Road, Fombell, PA 16123
412.334.0860
Here is a pic of the barn looking from the house. The purple spot is a
bucket hat I keep over the pump spout and handle to keep the handle from
freezing. 
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!
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.
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. 
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.
