Annual Alpaca Shearing

Today was the day we had our alpacas sheared. For the third year in a row we have hired the same professional shearers. And the for third year in a row we worked together with two other local alpaca farms to get all of our animals done in one day.

We started at 7 am at David Rosin's farm in Timberlake, NC with 15 alpacas. Next we came to our farm to shear our 12 alpaca and our llama. Finally, we ended up around 4 pm at David St.Laurent's farm in Virgilina, VA where we did 19 alpaca. 47 total in all!

Here are a few start to finish photos....

This entire process takes less then 4-5 minutes per animal! These guys are good and fast!

Farm Update

Let's see...

The 16 chicken chicks are growing well. They are feathering out nicely and are even starting to fly up onto the roost in the brooding pen. I still can't tell the sex of the chicks so I am keeping my fingers crossed that more then 50% will be hens.

The rabbit kits are also growing well. I pulled them out of the nest boxes a few days ago to put clean bedding material in so I got a head count on them finally. Purslane's litter has 7 kits while Camomile's litter has a whopping 10 kits!

The goose is finally sitting on her eggs in the ground level nest box that Neil built for me last year. I have counted 7 eggs in the nest. I hope she successfully hatches out more than one gosling this year.

The alpacas are looking skinny after their shearing earlier this week. I moved our 10 month old male, Seamus, out of the females pasture and put him in with the young boys out in the back pasture. He is mildly stressed by the move, I always hate weaning time, but he seems to be getting along fine with the other boys so I am happy with that. I also moved our llama into the cow pasture. There is more grass there right now and she can't be in either of the back alpaca pastures since I have intact males in both of them. She seems to enjoy having new pasture to explore.

I got the lawn mowed again today... I need to start mowing sections of the pasture soon to keep the thistle and wild dill from taking hold again.

Neil and his Dad started framing in the rear wall of the garage this weekend. It will be nice when the building of the garage is done and Neil can spend his weekends using the garage instead. I have lots of projects for him. :)

Evan picked these buttercups for me today... they sure brighten up the kitchen!

Shearing Day

Good as their word the shearer's arrived at 7:30am ready to roll. A half an hour to set up their equipment and explain the procedure and we were bringing in our first alpaca by 8am.

We got all 18 animals done by 11am... just three hours. That is 6 animals an hour or only 10 minutes each to get them in, shorn and out. Not too shabby for a crew that had limited shearing experience.

Once we were done we all packed up and headed down to David Rosin's farm. It didn't take long to finish up at David's and before we knew it our shearing day was over. I had been so anxious about how it was all going to happen and it was hard to believe that it was done for another year.

Neil and I learned a lot throughout the day and hopefully we will remember and bring some of that knowledge to next year's shearing day!

When we returned home late that afternoon we were greeted by a strange noise coming from the bedroom. For a second I couldn't figure out what it could be and then it dawned on me... it was the noise of a chick. I had purchased a small still air egg incubator a few weeks ago and had set some eggs in it to see if I could get some to hatch out. I admit I have been so busy with other things that I haven't paid much attention to the incubator... only checking every few days to see if the temperature was OK and adding water. I couldn't even remember what day I actually set the eggs in it.

I peaked inside and I had two chicks hatched out and three more that were pipping out! I moved the incubator to the kitchen where it would be easier to keep an eye on them. I was amazed that my lackadaisical attempt at hatching eggs actually produced life! I look forward to morning to see if any further are hatched out.

Good day on the farm.

Today was a good day. Weather was beautiful at high 70's with the changing leaves all around us. Today just had a good feel to it from the start.

Both Neil and I were up early and motivated to get some things done. First off I needed to do chores but I also wanted to shear some of the fiber off of our llama, Neffi, and I knew that would be easiest to do in the cool morning while she was eating. So, I told Neil my plan and we both headed out to the barn before breakfast.

The first thing I do now in my chores is getting Cherry Blossom up on the milking stanchion and she has come to expect this already so she was waiting for me. Once on the stanchion I gave her a quick brush over. Then this morning I took our milking training to the next step and washed and massaged her udder with a hot wet towel. This not only cleans the udder and teats but it causes her to "let down" her milk. I had also brought the milking pail with me this morning just to introduce the pail to the equation. Well, the hot towel did the trick. Cherry Blossom was much easier to express milk from the morning! I got about 1/4 cup in the pail. What I learned was that I need to work on my aim again! But I am encouraged that I might get a little milk soon to supplement the store bought. We go through 1-2 gallons a day here so it will be a while before we work up to that amount... even after Riona calves this fall.

After the cows were feed and sent out to the pasture I took a moment to give the donkeys their morning cookies. I always give them two cookies each in the morning and in the evening since they don't get anything else but pasture to eat. It is a bonding time too and on most mornings I spend a few minutes to give them scratches all over.... but not this morning. It was off to feed the alpacas next.

I got the grain ready for Gigi (our new mom as of two days ago) as she is in her own paddock with her new cria. Then I got the grain for the rest of the alpacas, Neffi and the food for the LGDs. As the dogs and the alpacas were eating we rounded Neffi up into the catch pen and got her tied up the post. Yesterday we went and borrowed shears from our closest neighboring alpaca farmer at http://www.daydawnalpacas.com/. This was my first time shearing a camelid of any type but it was very similar to sheep, which I have some experience with. Neffi wasn't into the shearing thing at all at first and it was surprising how strong she was. But after a few minutes she cushed down and I was able to give her a descent "barrel cut" in about ten minutes. It is getting cooler at night now so I didn't want to give her a complete cut but just wanted to get some of the heavy fiber off her blanket area. I didn't turn out half bad considering it was my first attempt.
Once we cleaned up after Neffi's shearing I finished up the chores by feeding the goats and then the rabbits and then all the poultry.

Once back inside I made homemade banana pancakes for breakfast... yummy!

After breakfast, Neil started on his major project of the day... cleaning out part of the porch which included moving the old wood cook stove out. Once everything was cleaned off Neil took the tractor down to the tractor-trailer out back and picked up our refrigerator that we brought with us. It doesn't fit inside the kitchen right now so it will live out on the porch as an additional fridge while we continue to use the old fridge that was left here as our main refrigerator.
After that task was done we did a few other odds and ends about the place and then relaxed the rest of the afternoon. It was a good day and we got lots done to boot!

Alpaca Delivery... and Llama!

Today was the day I have been waiting for for months now! The four alpacas (Gritona, Celia, Sir Sidney and Touch O'Gold) we had out in Califonia were delivered to a Georgia farm yesterday. I then had friend and fellow alpaca farmer Randall Gooding from Emmett Acres in South Carolina go to pick them up. While in that neck of the woods Randall swung into Alabama to pick up Nefi our llama through the South East Llama Rescue organization. Then on the way up to our farm Randall did another favor and stopped in at Abbondanza Alpacas where three other of our alpacas (Fiore, Noodle and Finley) were agisting.

So, about 9am this morning Randall pulled in with seven alpacas and a llama! Needless to say it was like Christmas morning for me! I was so excited so see them all.

When Nefi, the llama, was unloaded I was surprised how large she was compaired to the alpacas. She is a sweetheart though and I look forward to working with he. It would be fun to train her to pack or maybe even to pull a cart!

Here is Nefi the Llama.

Here are Celia (dark brown) her dam Gritona (dark fawn) and Touch O'Gold (beige).

These are the girls from CA.

Here are Fiore (beige), Noodle (light fawn) and her 8 month old boy Finley (white).

They all look the same color due to that SC red clay they like to roll in.

Finaly, here is Sir Sidney, an adult male (medium fawn).

Sad news today.

Recieved this e-mail from Pat Cothran today:

I am writing you with a heavy heart. The foster farm where Black Dyamonds was living sustained some damage during the recent harsh weather. As a result, a tree blew down and fell across the fence in the llama pasture. Apparently, Black Dyamonds crossed over that downed fence and wandered off. That was about a week and a half ago and she has not been seen since. The local authorities have been notified and have her photo in the event she is spotted. Several searches of the area have been made. I worry about a llama out like that because of dog packs and other predators. I just found out about this only three days ago, and I am so very sorry to have to pass along this sad news. We can certainly pray for her safe return as I feel she was destined to become your family's llama. I will let you know of any news that I receive.

Pat

Meet Black Dyamonds

Over the past few days I have been in contact with Pat Cothran, the NC adoption coordinator for Southeast Llama Rescue. Neil and I have been talking for a while about getting a llama to add to the farm... for several reasons.

1. Our LGD puppies will not be up to full guarding duties until they are about two years old. Llamas are known for their livestock guarding abilities.


2. When people visit the farm we will be able to show them the differences between alpacas and llamas.


3. It would be nice to have both alpacas and llamas on the farm for my (hopefully) future camelid 4H club.


4. And finally, to help a llama in need of a good home.

On the SELR website they have listings for all the llamas that are currently in foster homes. In looking through them I found Black Dyamonds, a 10-year-old female llama, in Georgia for adoption. It stated that she was well behaved and was a good guardian. Just what we were looking for. I e-mailed Pat about myself and what we were looking for and she responded right away. Pat agreed that Dyamonds would be a good match for us and put a "hold" on any further adoptions on her.

SELR has a pretty strict adoption process to make sure their llamas go to good homes. We will need to get our farm up to snuff (barn and fences) to pass the inspection. I have hope that Dyamonds will be able to come home to the farm the beginning of May.