Mags Makes An Appearance

Yes, Mags made an appearance on Friday; he appeared beside me by one of the poop piles, which would have been fine except that the poop pile was not in the pen where Mags stays.

I had been busy scooping poop in the mature male’s pen when Mags made his appearance.  Mags always likes to check out what I am doing and often stands on the fence line when I am working in the mature male’s pen which is adjacent to the junior male’s pen where Mags stays.   On Friday I guess Mags decided that it was time to venture into pastures new and hopped over the dividing fence.  I have to give him credit for his skill in jumping the fence, I didn’t even hear him land and I was close by to where he landed.  Very graceful jumping Mags!

One minute I was scooping poop alone, the next minute there was Mags furry face beside me.  Of course Mags had no idea that he had just invaded the territory of the more senior male alpacas, but Tobiano and Asteroid soon spotted the intruder and started heading his way.  Fortunately Mags can be easily guided and so I quickly led him to the gate between the two pens and put him back where he belonged just as Tobiano also reached the gate ready to take on the young punk who had just invaded his space – phew!  I think Mags would have had a rude awakening had Tobiano reached him before I did.

It didn’t take much to figure out how Mags was so easily able to jump the dividing fence.  Our spring winds had piled dirt against the fence line reducing our five foot fence to a three foot fence, a height that was no challenge to a rapidly growing Mags.

Saturday morning saw Ric out with the tractor removing the built up dirt by the fence line.  We had never had one of the boys think about jumping the fence before but now it had been done once we didn’t want to risk it happening again.   Next time Mags makes an appearance it will probably be at our Open Farm Day a much safer venue than the mature male’s pen!

Rosemary

One Sick Little Puppy

Not much time for writing on the blog the last few days as our little puppy Blue was taken ill at the weekend.   We still don’t really know what the problem is; our vet suspects a bacterial infection and hopes it is that rather than an intestinal blockage.

On Sunday evening we could tell Blue was not well, as the evening went on she progressed from having diarrhea to starting to vomit and then becoming lethargic.  We already had a vet appointment for Monday for Blue’s last vaccinations and so arrived at the vet poop sample in hand (the vet has us well trained) to see if the vet could figure out the problem.

We ended up taking another trip to the vet on Tuesday as Blue was getting worse.  Now with some antibiotics, antacids and anti nausea medication Blue is making some progress but in fits and starts.  We are optimistic when she eats only to have our hopes dashed when she goes back to not eating the next day and vomiting again.  We have had days when she will not eat or drink anything – a worrying situation when she is only a 9 lb. puppy.

Yesterday Blue seemed to be doing a bit better.  On Wednesday evening we gave her some of our tried and trusted MSE drench (yes you can use it on dogs too).  While Blue hated the taste of it (that’s understandable) we did get most of the ½ cc dose into her.  We also syringe fed her chicken and rice baby food to try and stimulate her appetite and gave her a photonic red light treatment for nausea and to increase her appetite.  By Thursday morning she did seem a little perkier.  Yet another consultation was made with the vet who feels that the antibiotics are starting to have a positive effect and that we should see greater improvement today and Saturday.  Let’s hope so!

So with a little sick puppy who did not want me out of her sight (how can you resist those pleading blue eyes) there was not a lot else done around the farm except routine chores.  I did manage to do a little spinning as Blue was too lethargic to try and bother my wheel as I used it.  She still had her influence though as she had been into one of the bobbins of yarn I was plying and had made a huge tangle of the yarn.

By Thursday evening Blue was up to playing and starting to be able to take a little more food, but the amount she can eat at one time is very small and we are being very selective about what we feed her.  We have found a homeopathic anti nausea remedy called nux vomica that seems to help.

It’s difficult to tell what started Blue’s illness, she loves to pick things up in her mouth and while we try and stop her sometimes she does manage to sneak something past us.  It’s likely Blue picked up something up that had some nasty bacteria on it which then entered her system.  Whatever it is really hit her hard, but it looks as if we might be turning the corner and heading toward Blue’s recovery.  Who would have thought we would have missed her flying face licks and cracker dog sessions so much.  We look forward to seeing Blue flying through the air at us again soon.

Rosemary

A Small Fiber Distraction

Inca's The Llama's Fleece - Washed

While looking for a document on my computer the other day I came across some instructions for washing alpaca fleece that I had kept from a couple of years ago.  Usually we don’t wash our fleeces before sending them to processing.  Often when I prepare alpaca fleece for hand spinning I don’t wash the fleece until after the yarn is processed, but I tend to use the cleaner fleeces for hand spinning projects.

The article I had kept had piqued my interest when I read it.  I know that prior to preparing sheep’s wool for spinning washing the fleece is a must in order to remove the lanolin from it.  As alpacas don’t have lanolin in their fleece that is not an issue with alpaca fleece.  Still that doesn’t mean that I couldn’t wash alpaca fleece prior to processing for fiber arts projects at home and the article had some points on what to do and (probably more importantly) what not to do.

I have one alpaca fleece in mind to wash, that of our black alpaca Queen, but I thought that before I tried my hand at washing fleece that I really wanted to use for a specific project, perhaps I should find some other fleece to practice on first.

Down in our shearing area are several bags of llama fleece from shearing customers who just didn’t want to take the fleece with them.   I hate to see all of that fleece just thrown away, some admittedly was not the best or is too laden with vegetable matter to be useable, but other llama fleeces had a nice soft hand and were relatively clean.  Those llama fleeces make good candidates for experiment and I will probably get something nice as a result too!

Looking over the llama fleeces I decided to first try one of our own.  Our silver gray llama Inca has a lovely soft fleece in a pretty color (that’s her fleece in the picture) so I pulled out an amount of blanket fleece from her bag and off to the kitchen I went.

Before anyone starts to get concerned about the hygiene of washing fleeces in the kitchen sink I have to explain that our house has two kitchens.  One we use as our food kitchen.  The other is used for our alpaca medical supplies and various craft projects.  This second kitchen is large and has a large center pedestal making it a great work area.  I love having the two kitchens and if we were ever to think of moving I am afraid I would want to kitchens in the next house too!

The llama fleece washing commenced and the first step involved setting the fleece in hot water that had either shampoo or a soap such as Dawn dish soap or Orvus.    I have a lovely soap that I use for washing my fiber arts projects and so I decided to use that.  You should have seen the color of that water!  It was a lovely shade of Clovis orange (courtesy of the fine red sand in our area).  I was amazed at how much dirt came out, so amazed that I decided I had better repeat that step just to make sure all the dirt was removed.

The rest of the process went smoothly; I did find that some of the fiber felted a little.  Perhaps I had a little variation in the water temperature, or perhaps I had too much fleece in the water at one time.  Next time I think I will try the process in cold water just to see how different the results are.

So now I have a nice quantity of washed llama fleece sitting on the work surface in the big kitchen.  I have already decided that I am going to use my five point English combs on the fleece to produce roving.  From there my intention is to make some felted balls that can be used as cat toys, but… if that roving looks really nice when I have finished it then I may just have to spin it into yarn.  On that note excuse me while I go off to the kitchen to play whoops I really meant work on that fleece.

Rosemary

And His Name Shall Be…

TeQueely's Cria - Still to be named

Well we can’t decide!

I really feel it is harder to name male crias than female crias.  While both need good names (and ones that the announcer at a show is not going to butcher!) a male cria could go on to be a herdsire and if so needs a name that befits his role in life.

I guess you could name your herd sire “Fluffy” or “Cutie Pie”, while those names will stick in people’s memories it could be for the wrong reason and do those names really convey the strengths of a herdsire?

We keep a collection of names on hand, some we have discovered ourselves others are given to us by family and friends, but sometimes those names don’t suit the cria and so then it is back to the drawing board.

Close to that drawing board is where we find ourselves with trying to name TeQueely’s cria.   Our TeQueely is very special to us and so perhaps that makes naming her offspring a little more difficult.  TeQueely’s cria was born on a very hot day and so we want to incorporate something to do with heat into his name.  The cria’s sire is Snowmass Andean Night owned by our friends Bob and Regina Dart.

We have been trying hard to come up with names and have finally come up with a few, but just can’t decide which should be the official name for this handsome boy.  So we thought we would put it to the vote – which name do you think is the best?  Here are the choices:

Windrush Hot TeQueely Night

Windrush Night Fire

Windrush Andean Night Fire

Windrush Light My Fire

So help us out here readers.  Tell us which name you like the best and then we can finally give TeQueely’s cria an official name!

Rosemary

It’s That Time of The Year Again

When the temperature starts to cool a little, the sun sets earlier and the spinning wheel starts calling me!

Having knitted several projects recently I think it is time for a change, so the spinning wheel will be getting a workout

Right now my spinning wheel has some alpaca fiber on it that has been spun but that has also been grabbed by puppy Blue and entangled.  I really need to untangle the yarn and ply it then I will be able to move on to a new project.

I have some white roving ready to go and recently have been viewing some pictures of blended fibers (thanks Theresa and Nichol!) which have set my imagination going and are tempting me to try blending something with the alpaca roving I have.  I still have that really pretty lilac colored tussah silk which I think would look nice against the white roving I have on hand; I just need to pluck up the courage to give it a try.

Within a few months I hope to have a large supply of gray roving on hand as I have finally got around to skirting my collection of blanket fleeces from our one and only gray alpaca Ma Cushla.  Cush is not the softest alpaca in the world but her fleece has a beautiful even silver gray color to it.  I am sending Ma Cushla’s fleeces in to be dehaired and put into roving, some of which I will spin into yarn for knitting and crochet projects and some I want to use for felting (a nice nuno felt scarf maybe).   It will be fun to work with Ma Cushla’s fleece during the cooler months and while I am waiting for it to return from the mill I can start to think about some potential fibers to blend with it.  (I can also think some more about the small rigid heddle loom I have my eye on – but don’t tell Ric who claims I already have too many fiber arts toys as it is!)

That’s the thing with fiber there are so many different things to do with it and so much fun to be had trying new techniques.  The real trick is to find the time to do it all, but it’s amazing what even 15 minutes a day will create.

Rosemary

It’s Not Alpaca But…

Front View of Black Trellis Shawl

It looks really nice! 

A few months ago I was asked to make a black shawl out of some trellis yarn.  I did find some trellis yarn that was made out of suri alpaca and tried to persuade the lady who had asked for the shawl that I should use that beautiful alpaca yarn.  Unfortunately the lady’s budget didn’t stretch to the suri alpaca trellis yarn and so she asked me to make the shawl in an acrylic yarn instead.

I knew that the shawl would take a while and it did, partly just due to the size of the project and partly due to squeezing in some knitting time during shearing, cria season and then the arrival of our puppy Blue (who thinks that all knitting projects need to be seized and dragged off into the distance – arrgh!)

The pattern was a very simple one, but with the character of the trellis yarn it was very effective.   At times it seemed as if the shawl was not growing, but stitch by stitch, inch by inch it did grow.  When I thought the shawl was about the right size I called my customer and took the shawl to her to try it on.  It was a perfect fit.    Next we had to decide on the fringe and both my customer and I felt that a long fringe would suit the shawl, partly to give the shawl some weight and partly to help proportion the shawl.

Cutting and hand tying the fringe on the shawl took more time, but once I got a system in place I started to pick up speed with the fringing.  The fringe is 16” long and the yarn developed a pleasing gentle curl to it once it was cut.

It was amazing to me to see how that 16” fringe changed the shawl from a plain piece of knitting to a glamorous shawl.  Unfortunately the pictures I have taken do not really do the shawl justice, but at least they give an idea of how it looks.

Back View of Black Trellis Shawl

 

The next stage was to wash and block the shawl to help it memorize its shape.   I must admit I was nervous that the fringe would react badly to washing, but I carefully wound it around the folded shawl and washed the shawl by hand very gently.  Once I had the shawl laid out and blocked I maneuvered the shawl so that the fringe hung over the edge of the work surface as it dried, allowing the fringe to dry with a nice drape to it.

My customer was so excited when I called her to tell her the project was complete and we made arrangements to meet so that she could collect her shawl.  As she opened the bag and pulled out the shawl her eyes lit up and she immediately tried the shawl on, it looked very effective and my customer was extremely pleased with her new acquisition.

It was very satisfying to see the shawl’s new owner enjoying the shawl so much, she tried it on in several different ways and twirled around to show it off, that alone made all those hours of knitting worthwhile.

I have already had someone else ask me about making another shawl like this one,  she saw my customer trying the shawl on before I had fringed it and immediately wanted to know if I could make another one and how much I would charge for it.  At that time I hadn’t priced the shawl but now I have figured my costs and labor I can get back with her and give her a price – I wonder if I can persuade her to let me make her shawl out of the suri alpaca trellis yarn…  (wishful thinking on my part but you never know!)

 

Rosemary

Preparing for Baby

It’s interesting to watch our pregnant dams as they get closer to the end of their pregnancy.  Their pregnant bump grows larger and often changes shape as the cria repositions itself during the day.  Sometimes the cria looks to be all on one side, other times the cria looks as if it has dropped right down in the dams abdomen and at the very end of the pregnancy the cria looks as if it is about to pop out of the dam at any moment as it stretches its legs causing movement at the base of the dam’s tail.

Some dams, such as our Queen, develop a voracious appetite and seem to spend their day constantly eating.  Others slow down their eating, delicately nibbling here and there and taking their time to chew their cud often.

When the weather is warm we often find our heavily pregnant dams parked in front of the fan.  The extra weight of the cria they are carrying generates more body heat and they need the opportunity to spend time in a nice cool spot.

We often notice that our late term dams “pick their spot”.   They will spend more and more time in one particular spot in the pasture, often an area a little way from the rest of the herd.  This spot usually ends up being where they go to when they start labor.  Alpacas don’t “nest” as such, but they do seem to find comfort in being in that spot that they have picked once labor starts.  This isn’t to say that the cria will be born in that spot as once labor starts the dams can move around quite a bit as they push and work on getting their cria delivered.   Unless something drives them away from that spot then often the cria will be delivered not far away from the area where the dam has spent many hours in her final weeks of pregnancy.

Willow is due to have her cria at the end of August and she has already picked out her spot in the pasture.  Last time she delivered her cria she did so in our large blue shelter, but the weather had dictated that choice as she delivered during a sandstorm.  Willow is smart enough to know that the shelter was a much more comfortable place to deliver a cria when the wind and dust are blowing.

This year Willow’s spot is in one of the pens that we use to feed the llamas every morning.  It has now become part of Willow’s routine that once she has been fed and the llamas have been let out of their pens that she make her way over to the one llama pen where she carefully cushes on the ground.  Once she is comfortably cushed she sits there for at least an hour, sometimes more, her ears back a little, sometimes flickering as her cria gives her a swift kick or two.  Willow doesn’t look uncomfortable during this time but you can tell something is going on.

You can bet we will be watching Willow as she gets closer to her delivery date, particularly when we see her over in her “spot”.  Let’s hope the llamas have finished eating by the time Willow decides to go into labor, or else there could be competition for that selected spot!

Rosemary

Is it Love?

Is This Love? Black Prince Tries His Luck With Annochia While Little Man Looks On

 

It’s fun to watch the young crias growing up and see the antics they get up to.  To them the world is a great place to explore and they have to check everything out, whether it be by looking, sniffing or tasting.

Chai’s cria Black Prince (who may well become Dark Prince if we decide he is not black when we come to register him) is a curious cria with a neat personality.  Black Prince is nicely curious without pushing any boundaries of inappropriate behavior.  He loves to see what we are doing, following us around when we are putting out hay and coming up for a brief visit when we are in the pasture.  Black Prince has also discovered that the fan produces a nice breeze and is the first in front of the fan every morning.  By the afternoon he has become bored with sitting in front of the fan and will go out into the pasture to play with the other crias or lounge in the sun.

Recently though Black Prince has had other things on his mind as he appears to have fallen in love with Annochia.  Annochia being close to a year old is a lot bigger than Black Prince but does not seem put off by her suitors size or age.  The first time I noticed Black Prince with Annochia they were lying side by side in the pasture, their necks entwined, fast asleep in the sunshine.  From there things have progressed and now Black Prince has turned his thoughts to breeding.

Fortunately Black Prince is nowhere near breeding age, if he was we would put him in the junior male pen safely away from the females, but Black Prince doesn’t realize that and has been making attempts to breed Annochia.  His inexperience shows though as often we find him on Annochia’s neck facing her rear end.  Other times he is facing the right way, but he is so small compared to Annochia that he ends up sitting on top of her with all four feet tucked underneath him.

Annochia is very tolerant of her young paramour and sits chewing her cud while he clambers all over her.  When Black Prince is in her way one quick shake by Annochia unseats him from his perch on top of her and deposits him in the dirt.  Not that Black Prince is offended by Annochia’s unceremonious dumping of him, he just dusts himself off and either goes off to play with another cria or settles down to cush beside Annochia.

It’s funny that often young male crias will find one female in the pasture who they are particularly attracted to.  When Windrush White Blast was a cria he fell hard for a visiting young female called Annie.  Windrush Zindel’s Pride was besotted by our girl Windrush Ashling’s Dream (although with that pairing we did separate them as Pride was getting close to six months old and Dream was actively cushing for him).  Now Black Prince has his sights set on Annochia, a pairing that I don’t see happening at any time in the future, but until Black Prince gets a little older we will allow him to enjoy his first love!

 

Rosemary

Is the Monsoon Season Returning?

This week has seen a monsoon weather pattern return to the dry high plains of eastern New Mexico.  It used to be that every August we would see regular afternoon storms with heavy rainfall, high winds, lightning and hail, but for several years now that pattern has been broken.

Monday saw a tremendous storm blow into the area.  Heavy rain, plentiful lighting, hail and 60 mph winds make quite a powerful combination!  At one point we could not see anything through our house windows except for a grey sheet of rain water and bits of tree that were hitting the windows.

As the storm approached it kept changing direction and the alpacas were confused as to which shelter would be the best to head for.  Eventually they decided that they needed to head for any available shelter and the whole herd took cover.

Once the rain had died down the alpacas started to venture out, which would have been fine except that the pastures now contained several inches of standing water and there was still a lot of lightning close by.  The thought of lightning hitting the pastures while the alpacas were standing in the water was not a good one.

Fortunately the lightning stayed away from the pastures and once the weather died down the alpacas were able to enjoy the new adventure of wading in the water.  The crias had a great time galloping through the new “lake” and in the junior males pen Mags and Pride amused themselves by pursuing one of the hay buckets that was bobbing around the pasture.

Chores that evening were later than usual as the storm lasted a good couple of hours.  With so much standing water it was impractical to try and put out feed bowls (although it would be interesting to see what the alpacas would think of floating feed bowls) and so all we could do was move the hay feeders to dry areas of the pasture, put out fresh hay and check that the water buckets had fresh water.  The alpacas also received a treat of the downed tree branches which they soon stripped of their leaves.

The monsoon pattern has continued through the week and Ric and I realized it has been several years since we have seen such a consistent monsoon pattern at this time of the year.  We have also realized that we need to adjust evening chore time to make sure chores are done before the storms arrive in the evening.

It would be nice if the moonsoon pattern would once again become a regular event at this time of the year, but we will have to wait until next year to see if there is a chance of that.

Rosemary

We Have Ribbons

Our Latest Ribbons From The AFCNA Continental Fleece Show

 

Last Thursday we received a delivery via FedEx – our fleeces that we had submitted to the AFCNA Continental Fleece Show.

 

We were surprised to see our fleeces back so soon after the show, the show had concluded the Sunday before and sometimes it takes while for fleeces to be shipped back to their owners following a show.

 

It is always an exciting moment when you open your box of fleeces wondering if you have won ribbons and for us the answer was yes!

 

Our Windrush Zindel’s Atlas had placed 1st in his class and our Windrush White Blast placed 6^th in his class. Unfortunately there were only four entries in Atlas’s class, Atlas has a gorgeous fleece and while we were happy to receive our blue ribbon it would have been good to see how he would do against more competition.

 

Blast’s fleece definitely had competition as he was 6^th out of 15 in the ever competitive white classes. I had not been happy with Blast’s fleece when I sent it in as it had become tangled up prior to my skirting it. I didn’t feel that it looked as good as it could do, so I am happy to know that Blast’s fleece placed in a large class despite the mess it was in!

 

I don’t know if I will show Blast’s fleece again, it will depend on how it looks when I take it out of the bag. Maybe I will have got lucky and the fleece show volunteers were able to do a better job of straightening it out than I did! Atlas’s fleece will definitely be shown again.

 

Blast (Left), Biscotti (Center) and Atlas (Right) enjoy some hay, oblivious to Atlas and Blast's latest accomplishments

So our two up and coming junior herdsires have some more credentials behind them. Atlas at just over a year old is not ready to breed yet, but we have some good news on Blast. It looks as if Blast has got a female pregnant at his first breeding attempt. We still have to confirm the pregnancy by ultrasound, but Dona is spitting hard and fast at any males that come near her so we are pretty confident she is pregnant. How exciting – now all we have to do is wait the 11 ½ months or so for the cria to be born, but if this year is anything to go by the time will go by in a flash!

 

Rosemary