A visit with our new boy...

The kids and I drove up to Abbondanza Alpacas to visit with our new little boy. He was very cute and up and bouncing around at five days old. Here is a photo of him in a brief moment where he laid down to rest.

Now we just need to think of a name for this little puff of fiber. I have thought of a few names that I like but Neil has been less then excited by them so I will keep searching.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is my favorite day of the year! I love Thanksgiving! Family getting together and catching up on each others lives, no pressure of gift giving, great food... what could be better?

Well, being on our own farm eating our own homegrown turkey and veggies would be great but that will have to wait until next Thanksgiving. That is my goal for next year... have the entire meal either grown on the farm our at least locally (as I don't expect to have cranberries or wheat our first year!)

But, for this year, we are going to be spending the day with Neil's family. His sister, McKay, is hosting the big meal at their home here in Anderson, SC. We will be having 2 Turkeys with stuffing, cornbread dressing, mashed potatos, squash, peas, cranberry sauce and rolls. I am bringing the rolls, squash, a homemade pumpkin pie and some snacky food as well.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Noodle's cria is born...

Got a phone call from Abbandanza Alpacas this morning to let us know that the newest member of our alpaca family has arrived! It is a little white boy out of our beige Pastina di Oro (aka Noodle). We don't know much about him yet and due to my work schedule we won't be able to visit with him until Sunday. I will post more then... with photos of course!

Our new Suburban!

While we were out and about visiting our cows and alpacas this past Sunday Neil spotted a Suburban for sale in a small car lot in Easley, SC. We stopped in to peak in the windows as the dealership was closed for the night. It was dark out but from what Neil could see of it he was very interested!

So, Tuesday, after class, Neil went up to talk with the dealer and take a closer look in daylight. He must of liked what he saw because he called me up and asked if I was ready to buy a car! He drove home to pick the kids and I up and we went to buy our new Suburban. Here it is still sitting on the lot:

We will be selling our Jeep and should break even on the deal. We are very happy to be getting a bigger vechicle to have around the farm. It is also great because Neil is very familiar with this vechicle and will be able to do most of the repair work himself.

Cherry Blossom is here!

Went to visit Cherry Blossom today at Dr. Parrish's farm.

Then went to Abbondanza Alpaca's to our alpacas and

Playset Delivered

Our Christmas gift the the kids was a brand new wooden playset (a.k.a. swingset) for the Roxboro house. I had been doing some research about the safest/best/most affordable set we could get. I found the Play-A-Round sets from Cedar Works Company in Maine to be of great quailty at a price we could stomach right now. It is shipped in 9 boxes and we really wanted it sent directly to the Roxboro house not to the SC house. Our wonderful new neighbors Dan and Wanda agreed to be there for delivery since we could not be. It was delivered this afternoon.

It will stay boxed up in the barn for the winter and then next spring we will clear a place for it and set it up yourselves. Here is a photo from their catalog:

The Good News and the Bad News

We spent a wonderful three days at the farm in Roxboro and just got home last night.

We took another trailer full of our stuff up the house and unpacked and found homes for more stuff then we brought. It is really starting to feel like home with our belongings around us. Neil got the lawn mowed one last time for the season. I spent some time in the pasture behind the barn picking up the broken glass, bits of metal and other trash to make it livable for the livestock next spring. Basically we just relaxed and enjoyed our stay while we could.

The turkey Claribell was still doing great. She spent a lot of time this trip over at the neighbors yard but I did manage to snap a photo of her this time.


Before we left Neil winterized the house plumbing system as we won't be able to come up and stay agian until the weather turns warm in the spring. For once I am happy that the winters here in the South are not that long!

So we piled into the cars (yes we came up seperately) and started home. It was a pretty uneventful trip home. We stopped for dinner half way home at a Longhorn steakhouse. It was some time after this that I started getting phone calls from As You Like It Alpacas in CA where three of our alpacas are agisting. It was pouring rain, I had both kids and a dog in the car going 70mph on the interstate... I was not about to answer the phone. Three calls later I knew it must be something important so buzzed Neil and we pulled off for a gas stop. I called Claudia back and she told me the terible news.... our 6 month old male cria Ben Nevis had died suddenly that afternoon! He was scheduled to be shown in his first show in three days! What a shock for me... he was to be our future herdsire as he was out of superstud Killimanjaro. He will be necrospied today and hopefully we will have some answers.

Meanwhile I am very sad we have lost our first cria born to our farm. Here is a photo of him only a few weeks old.