Taking It Easy On Thanksgiving Day

Jack Takes It Easy

 

 

When you run a farm you don’t get many (if any) days off.  There is always something that needs attending whether it be livestock to feed or fields and crops to tend.   The payoff for the lack of days off is the life style that you lead, for farming has a life style and benefits all of it’s own, whether it be seeing a brilliant sunrise in the morning or watching a new life come into the world.  Those benefits are not what you would find in most employee benefit packages, but then again they are benefits that cannot be bought.

 

For our Thanksgiving Day we will be taking things a little easy.  Of course chores will have to be done, after all, how could one enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with 70 pair of large brown eyes looking at you wondering where their feed is!  I know that the alpacas would not let us get away with forgetting to do chores for a day!

 

Once chores are done though we will be putting away the bookwork, farm repairs, fleece skirting and other tasks to instead enjoy the day cooking and eating our Thanksgiving meal, visiting with the neighbors and spending time together.  I am sure we will receive our fair share of “kisses” from the alpacas; especially the crias who love to come up and sniff us, checking out our hair and clothing.  The fall crias are at a fun age now where they are really starting to explore and test things.  Yesterday as I was raking up poop piles Nazca (the youngest of the crias) was fascinated with the rake, sniffing it, watching it and then racing away from it when I moved it.  He was having a great game with me and I wasn’t getting too much poop raked up!

 

The alpacas and llamas will receive their Thanksgiving treat too, some pumpkin to nibble on and maybe even a carrot or two.  Our neighbors and friends have been bringing us their Halloween pumpkins to feed to the alpacas and llamas, and the herd has been enjoying the fall treat.  Our horses however are not so enchanted with a pumpkin feast and so for them carrots alone will have to be enough.

 

Evening chores will come around just in time to give us some much needed activity after dinner, once the chores are complete we will be able to settle in for the night and perhaps watch a movie or play a board game (Ric is convinced he will be able to beat me at Scrabble).

 

Throughout out easy day though we will remember that it is a day to give thanks, and that we will do, thanks for each other, thanks for our family, thanks for our friends (both furry and not) and thanks for this wonderful lifestyle that we are so fortunate to enjoy.

 

Rosemary

Into Each Life A Little Rain Must Fall

 

Be still sad heart and cease repining;
Behind the clouds the sun is shining,
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life a little rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.               

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

And the rain certainly did fall into my life last Wednesday when I received the news that my father, Roy Lenthall, had passed away.

 

My father had been in a nursing home for the past two years; approximately two years prior to his admission to the nursing home he had suffered a brain bleed.  Following the brain bleed my mother cared for my father at home.  Being a carer for a loved one is a difficult job, my mother was devoted to my father, determined that he be able to stay in the home that he built and loved for as long as possible.  Sadly my father’s condition deteriorated and his care needs became such that he needed 24 hour professional care.

 

During his life my father was an active, intelligent man.  He enjoyed life and was fortunate enough to be able to take early retirement allowing my mother and him to travel and have many happy times together.  My parents did visit the farm a couple of times and my father loved spending time visiting with the alpacas and helping Ric with various farm projects.  But during his last visit here I was aware that something was not quite right, repeated conversation, confusion and unusually heavy periods of sleep were clues that something was amiss with my father.

 

In the last two weeks of my father’s life he suffered a couple of strokes, he had had mini strokes since his brain bleed, but these last strokes were larger and his recovery each time was less.  We were warned by the doctors that my fathers health was fading and that we needed to prepare ourselves for his passing, but you can never really be prepared for the loss of a loved one.

 

Now my father is at peace and our family is making preparations for his funeral in my home country of England.  I will be traveling back for the funeral and staying in England for a couple of weeks to help my mother in whatever way I can.  My brother Chris who lives in Italy was fortunately in England when my father passed away and has stayed with my mother since, my brother John who also lives in the United States will be traveling back to England the same day as me and we will meet up at the airport to travel to my mother’s apartment. 

 

So the blog entries have been few in recent weeks, first while I held down the fort during Ric’s absence when spare time was short and then during the weeks when I knew my father was preparing to leave us, at that time my thoughts and my focus needed to be with my family.  Ric will be making blog entries as and when he can while I am away.

 

For many 2008 has been a hard year, and sadly for many it has been a year of loss.  The words  “Thy fate is the common fate of all, Into each life a little rain must fall”, from the Longfellow verse at the top of this blog entry have seemed to be all too true in this last year.  

 

For our family the loss of my father is a great one, he was a kind, gentle, dignified man who unfortunately had his dignity taken away from him in his final years due to ill health.   Our wish is that we restore that dignity for him through his funeral service and through our memories of the great man who was my father.

 

Rosemary

The Chai Family – Masters (or Mistresses) Of Distraction

 

Our alpacas never cease to amaze me with their creativity, especially when it comes to getting more food!

 

I have mentioned before how we are fortunate enough to have several family groups of alpacas.  By family groups I mean alpacas who are directly related to each other mother/daughter, sisters, even now some grandmother/grand daughters.  The more I watch the family groups the more I realize how bonded these groups become, how they enjoy each others company and have a relationship with each other that is different from the relationship they have with other alpacas in the herd.

 

Such a group is the Chai family, which consist of Chai and three of her daughters, Cinnamon, Shiimsa and Kaneka.  The Chai family has been taught by their matriarch (Chai) that humans are to be tolerated from a distance and that all food in the immediate area is really just for them, despite what the other alpacas think.  Not one of the Chai family is backward in coming forward when it comes to food.

 

When it comes to evening chore time, certain alpacas get an evening ration of alpaca pellets.  These are alpacas that have a greater nutritional need such as late term pregnant dams or growing weanlings.  Currently none of the Chai family falls under that category and so they are not on the list to receive evening pellets.

 

According to the Chai family though there must have been some mix up in the selection of alpacas who receive evening pellets.  They feel they should get extra pellets and that I am totally wrong to exclude them from the pellet feast.

 

Our alpaca girls are pretty well trained to head into their appropriate pen when it comes to feeding time.  Most of them are standing waiting in place when I walk in with the stack of bowls containing pellets.  I say most of them, because every night without fail, there, in the last pen to be fed, stand Cinnamon and Shiimsa.

 

Cinnamon and Shiimsa are clever girls, they don’t want to stand out and get noticed, so they stand nonchalantly looking around as if they are just meant to be there.

 

So every evening I go through the process of herding Cinnamon and Shiimsa out of the pen, except now they have called in reinforcements to help them with their quest – Chai and Kaneka!  As I herd Cinnamon and Shiimsa out, Shiimsa will hesitate in the gate just long enough to let Chai and Kaneka in, so for me it’s back to square one as I start to herd Chai and Kaneka out of the pen.  But wait, just as Chai is headed out, Shiimsa or Cinnamon will cause a distraction and then bingo, before I know it another member of the Chai family is back in the pen and that family member gets really sneaky and hides from view (there are 3 –4 other alpacas in the pen who are meant to be there and who provide good cover!).

 

I’m probably not describing this as well as I could, but the actions of the Chai family are more than just a casual attempt to remain in a pen with food, it is an organized effort to ensure that at least one of the Chai family outwits me!  Without fail, I just think that I have all of the Chai family out of the pen; I shut the gate and up pops a head from one of the Chai girls!

 

I am beginning to think that the Chai family are actually a highly skilled group of distraction artists, they remind me of the gypsy children in Italy who will surround you and distract you while one of them adeptly removes your wallet, or the distraction burglars who will knock on your door, keep you busy and distracted while another one of the team steals from your house.  The Chai family are skilled at their task and succeed in outwitting me most of the time!

 

I will keep insisting to the Chai family that they are not going to get evening pellets, and they, I am sure, will in turn insist that the evening pellets should be theirs!

 

Rosemary

So What Do You Get If ………..

 Some trips to the vet are for good reasons and such was the case when I took two of the visiting girls in for ultrasounds last week.   The ultrasounds showed that both girls were pregnant and the girls handled the procedure well.

 

What was unusual for my trip was that I was the only client at the vets that afternoon.  The vet did have some house calls to make later in the day, but for some reason that day was a little quiet – a welcome break for our usually busy vet.

 

The relaxed atmosphere at the vet clinic meant that we could get caught up on news and talk about various things we had been seeing or doing.  Our vet mentioned that recently he had been out in deepest rural New Mexico (the type of area where you don’t see anything anywhere close to you and are aware it has been a long time since you even drove past a house or a driveway) when he had come across two llamas standing proudly in a pasture.   The llamas made an unusual sight, standing there in the pasture with nothing else nearby not even a ranch cow (although I am betting those llamas were being used for guards for sheep or possible cows with calves).

 

Our conversation turned to the subject of llamas that pull carts, and we jokingly spoke as to how that might be a better option than cars in our current economy.

 

Then our vet asked me if I had ever heard of a llama being crossed with a camel.  I knew that at some time I had heard of such a creature but for the life of me I couldn’t remember what it was called.  I was pretty certain it did not inherit the camel’s hump though.

 

Our vet mentioned that one of his clients had recently brought a camel in to the clinic  and had allowed our vet to ride the camel.  Our vet had been surprised to see that the camel led off with it’s hind leg rather than the front leg, and that camels have a lateral gait (moving both hind and front leg from the same side at the same time) rather than a diagonal gait (moving opposite hind and front legs).  The camel our vet had ridden was a Bactrian camel (the two humped variety) and that led us to wonder if only Bactrian camels had the lateral gait or if Dromedary camels also have a lateral gait (they do).

 

The vet’s questions stuck in my mind when I returned home and I was still certain that I had at some stage heard of a camel crossed with a llama and so I did a little research to see what I could find.

 

It turns out that on January 14, 1998  Rama the Cama was born in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.  Cama is the term being used for the offspring resulting from the crossing of a camel and a llama.  Some of the information I discovered mentioned Rama’s dam being a llama, but it seems as if Rama’s dam was actually a guanaco.  The confusion about Rama’s dam may come from the word lama (not only one “L”), which is the genus name  South American Camelids; a guanaco is a lama but not a llama.  You can see why people might get confused.

 

There is an interesting piece about Rama and how he came to be at

 

http://taylorllamas.com/Camel-LamaCross.html

 

Pictures of Rama can be seen at

http://taylorllamas.com/Camel-LamaCrossPhotos.html

 

Unfortunately Rama has not grown up with the nicest of dispositions, part of that might be that his dam had little milk and was not interested in Rama when he was born and so he was bottle fed.  The other contributing factor to Rana’s personality might just be the combination of the guanaco and camel personalities.   Rama also was not accepted by the camels and guanaco’s at the Camel Reproduction Center where he lives.

 

Since Rama’s birth other Camel-Lama crosses have been produced including Kamilah who does have a llama dam rather than a guanaco dam.

 

Rama is still alive and lives at the Camel Reproduction Center in Dubai; he likes to kick a soccer ball around for entertainment.  It still has not been determined if Rama is fertile or not.

 

If you have time to read a longer article check out

 

http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/99oct/9910camels.htm

 

The article is in three sections but is an interesting insight into camels and the work of Dr. Julian “Lulu” Skidmore at the Camel Reproduction Center.

 

Happy Reading!

 

Rosemary

A Farm Resident Returns

 

No, its not Ric, he’s still on vacation in England but is due to return on Friday evening airlines permitting!

 

This is a farm resident of the feathered kind, one who we haven’t seen for several years – an owl, or rather a pair of owls.

 

We first encountered the owls during our first year at the farm.  One night we could hear a strange noise outside our bedroom window and couldn’t figure out what it was until we noticed the owls sitting on top of two power cable posts.  They used to perch there every night, making their odd owl noises (not the stereotypical “hoot” noise that people think of when they think of owls).  The owls stayed on the farm through that summer and we were glad to have them around as they help keep the rodent population under control, although we were not to happy to have them try and steal our barn cats (at least one went missing during that time and another one we found with distinct wounds where the owls talons had gripped her).

 

Suddenly though the owls disappeared and were not seen or heard again until Tuesday evening when they swooped over to the same poles where they used to perch.    Each owl sat atop a pole and for several minutes they seemed to be observing the activities of evening chores, swiveling their heads and staring with their large eyes.  Having seen what I was up to the owls flew off toward the tree at the side of the house.

 

I have been trying to identify what sort of owls ours are.  They are not barn owls as they are the wrong color.  Our owls are a dark gray brown in color with distinctive ear tufts on their heads and they are about 18 – 24 inches in length.  As far as I can tell from checking out various owl web sites the owls are most likely Great Horned Owls.

 

I do wonder where the owls have been these past years, I suspect that they are the same pair, owls mate for life and these two knew exactly where they were headed when they flew in to perch on the power poles the other night.  Most likely the owls have not been too far away, maybe they found a better perch to share at a neighbors property.  It was nice to see them back though and I will be watching and listening for them in the days to come, knowing that the strange noises outside the bedroom window belong to them and are no cause for concern!

 

Rosemary

Always Check Contents Before Feeding

 

Saturday morning chores included a run to the local feed store for some more alfalfa pellets.    We have been feeding alfalfa pellets to some of the dams who are heavy milk producers in order to make sure they do not get too drawn down.

 

On starting afternoon chores I opened one of the new bags of alfalfa pellets and went to put some in the feeding bowls, but there mixed in with the alfalfa pellets was another type of pellet.  The other pellet was a different color and bigger, it did not seem to be an alfalfa pellet.

 

I am always concerned when I see a different kind of pellet or grain in a bag of feed than should be there.  It is not unusual to have the odd strange pellet get into a bag of feed and when I find them I remove them and throw them away.  I think this happens when the feed mill has finished the end of one feed run and switches the machines to a different feed, for some reason the previous feed does not get completely cleaned out of the machines.  It really should not happen, but it does.

 

With these bags of alfalfa pellets though there was more than just the odd pellet or two of a different type.  This other pellet was abundant and mixed in throughout the bag.  I opened another bag of alfalfa pellets to check them and discovered the same problem.

 

There is no way I can tell what these other pellets are just by looking at them.  They may be something quite harmless, but they may also be a feed that contains an ingredient that is harmful to alpacas. 

 

I would much rather be safe than sorry, so until I can get to the feed store to return the bags of alfalfa pellets the girls who usually get those pellets will have to do without.  They will still get their regular feed ration and for a day or so it will not harm them to do without the alfalfa pellets.

 

Our local feed store is always very easy to work with and so I will contact them and let them know of the problem with the alfalfa pellets.  It may be that the manufacturer has changed their product and the pellets are safe, but I can’t help thinking back to a few years ago when some alpaca farms in Ohio lost a lot of alpacas due to a wrong ingredient being in some alpaca feed (in that case though the wrong ingredient was not readily apparent).  I don’t want that to happen at our farm.

 

I am sure that the feed store will replace the bags of alfalfa pellets for me, and I am also sure I will open them and check the contents before driving them home. Remember – always check contents before feeding, you could save yourself a lot of problems and heartache by doing so

 

Rosemary

The Case of the Missing Meconium

Nazca Sitting Pretty

 

After a cria is born, one of the things we watch out for is the passing of the meconium.  Meconium is usually thick and tarry, sometimes dark and sometimes greenish in color.  It is made up of cells from the crias intestines and secretions, mucus and swallowed amniotic fluid.

 

Sometimes the meconium will be passed within hours of birth, other times it takes a little longer, but it is important that it is passed or else there can be problems with the cria.  A cria who has not passed its meconium can become lethargic and uncomfortable. 

 

When we do not see a cria pass it’s meconium then we keep a close eye on that cria and if there is any doubt that the meconium has passed we will give the cria an enema.  But sometimes crias manage to pass meconium without you seeing or finding it and such was the case with Kimmie’s cria Nazca.

 

Nazca was a nicely vigourous cria when he was born; he gained weight on his first day and showed a good curiosity in things around him.  Not having seen Nazca pass his meconium or even attempt to pass anything I kept a close eye on him to make sure he was not having any problems passing the meconium.  I also checked the poop piles and pastures for evidence of meconium.  Newborn crias often don’t go to the poop piles for their first week or so of life and tend to go just where the urge takes them!

 

By the end of Nazca’s second day I still had not seen any evidence of him having passed his meconium.  I had taken to checking under his tail, as often there will be a little evidence there that something has passed, but Nazca was as clean as a whistle!

 

At the end of Nazca’s second day he was joining in with the evening cria races and could hardly be considered uncomfortable.  He was galloping full speed with the other crias, not something that is undertaken by a cria with a stomachache!

 

To this day despite my best efforts I still have not seen Nazca poop or pee.  The little guy must be doing so as he is nearly a week old and would most definitely be in distress by now if he were unable to pass anything.  But Nazca’s behavior and steady weight gain tell me that things must be working just fine.   So I will just accept that sometime shortly after birth Nazca managed to pass his meconium and that all is well and then I will enjoy watching him zip around the pasture with the other crias.  Life as a cria is good!

 

Rosemary

 

Time for the Winds of Change

 

It seemed appropriate that yesterday, November 5, 2008 the wind blew hard for most of the day.     The election results of November 4 told the world that many in the US are ready for change and it really felt as if the winds of change had physically reached the high plains of New Mexico by Wednesday morning.

 

The alpacas, of course, are not at all concerned with elections or politics; they instead put their attention to chasing the leaves that blew across the pasture.  For some the leaves were even more enticing than their morning ration of grain and I had to go and show them their food bowls before they would take their attention away from their leaf eating quest.

 

During the day the temperature was still in the 60’s and the crias took to cushing in the straw and sunning themselves while they were low enough to the ground to avoid the wind.

 

The fall crias are all developing their individual personalities. Sleeper (Keeva’s cria) still lives up to her name and can usually be found stretched out in a relaxed pose, when not sleeping though she has developed quite the appetite for hay and will let you know her displeasure if you try and move her away from her food.  Chandra (Carina’s cria) can usually be found close to Sleeper, although does not sleep as much as her buddy.  Chandra loves to come up and enquire as to what you are doing, tipping her head to one side and giving you a quizzical hum.   Nochi (Glow’s cria) is a little live wire, zipping across the pasture usually with a buck or a kick thrown in to the mix, she has to check out everything that is going on and often gets into mischief.  Little Man (Clarissa’s cria – not his registered name but that is the name that has stuck for now) is a quiet but determined little guy.  He might be small but he is sturdy and enjoys instigating some of the cria play, usually with Evelyn who is closest to his size.  Evelyn  (Essie’s cria) has just the sweetest of personalities, coming up to you to offer you cria kisses, calmly enjoying her neck being stroked and nuzzling you for attention.  Then there is Atlanticus, who always walks around the pasture with a purposeful attitude, almost as if he has tasks to complete during his cria day – but if he loses sight of his dam he lets out the most heart wrenching cries (I guess he’s really a sensitive boy at heart).  Finally there is Nazca (Kimmie’s cria) the last to be born and already growing like a weed.  Nazca enjoys sitting in the sunshine with a regal air about him, he’s still figuring out the other crias but has already started to join in the evening cria races, usually running side by side to Little Man and Evelyn.

 

By the time the sun set yesterday, the wind was still blowing at 26 mph with gusts up to 40 mph and with the sun’s disappearance the temperature dropped rapidly.  Time to bundle up the crias in their cria coats with the three smallest crias (Little Man, Evelyn and Nazca) and their dams being moved to the stall in the big shelter to give them some extra protection for the night.  With nighttime temperatures being predicted to be in the 20’s it seems as if winter is starting to head this way.  We have been spoiled recently with a beautiful Indian summer but it seems as if the winds of change are bringing in more seasonal and colder days – oh well, it was nice while it lasted and before we know it spring will be headed our way.

 

Rosemary

A Little Late But Still Very Handsome

Kimmies Cria- the last of the fall crias to be born

On Monday morning Kimmie decided to stop keeping us in suspense and finally delivered her cria!  It was a beautiful warm morning and Kimmie had not shown any signs of labor during morning feeding, but shortly after her usual session at the hay feeder she started labor.

 

Kimmie was huge prior to giving birth and looked as if her cria was lying transverse across her abdomen, but Kimmie’s labor was routine and quick and within 30 minutes of the first noticeable sign of labor a beautiful boy was born.

 

Despite Kimmie’s size before giving birth her cria weighed 12.1 lbs – a surprise to all who know Kimmie as we were convinced she had a giant cria inside her.  Kimmie’s cria might be small but he is vigourous and sturdy and was on his feet looking for milk within 30 minutes of being born.  He is a dark fawn (or possibly a light brown) with shiny crimpy fiber and lots of it.

 

This little boy is Kimmie’s first cria and she is being a very good dam.  She clucks at him a lot and stands absolutely still while he nurses.  Looking at the size of Kimmie’s udder this little guy will never be short of milk!

 

So the last of the fall crias have been delivered and we have been fortunate to have beautiful weather for the crias to be born in.  We have had a few nights where the temperature has dipped below freezing but usually by this time of the year we are having snow and cold days.  Lets hope that we can have a few more warm days to let Kimmie’s boy get a good start in life.

 

 

Rosemary

The Cats Are Slacking!

Smoky Cat Takes A Break

 

 

 

 

When we purchased our property the previous owner asked us if we wanted a few barn cats.  We agreed to a few, but it turned out that our idea of “few” and his were extremely different.  We thought maybe two or three cats; the previous owner left us about twenty cats!

Over the years our cat herd has reduced, illness, coyotes and owls have all played a part in lowering the cat population and eventually we got down to three cats.  One female gray cat who is one of the original group that was left here, one of the gray cats sons or daughters (we’ve never been able to get close enough to check if that cat is a he or a she) and Kit Cat, a Siamese cross who was dumped out here shortly after we moved in.  We were content to have the three cats, but then as often happens when you live in the country all of a sudden a couple more cats appeared, a beautiful smoky grey tom cat and a fluffy black and white cat who likes to talk to you all the time.   

 

 The snake wasn’t bothering anything, it was sitting basking in the sunshine, but it was pointed in the direction of the girls pasture.   It was about two foot long and had a definite rattle on the end of its tail.  If it had been a bull snake or other harmless snake I would have moved it to another area of the property, but to have a rattlesnake headed toward the girls pasture was not a good prospect, the snake would have to go.

 Alpacas tend not to do very well in snake bite situations, with several small cria running around the chances were too great that one of them would stick his or her nose on the snake out of curiosity should the snake make it into the pasture.

 Fortunately one of the neighbors was home and was able to come and kill the snake for me.  I wasn’t sure that my aim would have been accurate enough to kill the snake with one hit and the last thing I wanted was a hurt angry snake to deal with.

Here's Grey Cat also taking a break - these cats need to get to work!

 While waiting for my neighbor to arrive, one of the cats actually passed the snake, sniffed the snakes tail and then walked on again without even giving a second thought to taking the snake on.  I guess the snake was too inactive to keep the cats attention, but it would have been nice for the cat to at least try and do her job! 

Hopefully that will be the last snake I see for a while, although with the lovely warm fall days we have been having there is a chance than another snake or two might make and appearance.  Let’s hope that if that is the case the cats decide to do their job and keep the snakes at bay!

 

Rosemary

Kit Cat – also taking a break

The cats are supposed to keep the mice and snakes down, when we had a larger cat population we had very few mice and snakes but as the population dwindled we noticed evidence of mice in the feed area and mice of course will attract snakes.On Thursday afternoon I headed out early to start on chores.  It was a beautiful afternoon with temperatures in the high seventies.  As I passed the feed barn on the way to the hay area I saw something lying on the ground and initially didn’t think too much of it, but something made me stop and take a better look – it was a rattlesnake!