Rainy Day

When I walked out to the barn this morning I found the alapacas eagerly eating the fresh green grass that had emerged overnight as the rain and warm temps melted the snow. Snowstorm was the first to notice me approaching but quickly when back to munching on the grass. They clearly prefer the grass over the hay they had to eat when there was snow cover.

As expected Snowstorm was wet and muddy (he does love to roll in the mud). Victoria always seems even more wet than the other two but does not show the dirt as much (given her darker fiber). Though today Victoria had dirt hanging from her, and straw stuck in her top knot. Kateri again is the least wet. I like to think she's the neat nick of the group.

In general alpacas do not smell bad like many animals do. Usually if I find a strong odor in the barn it is from the cats. Some farmers say the alpacas do not smell at all. I think they do have an odor but it is mild. However, today the alpaca poop pile was quite smelly. I'm sure that is due to my not having cleaned it yesterday, and the fact it rained all night. Additionally there was wet straw and hay that had gotten pushed into the pile. I scooped it all up and put sand down so that it drains better.

Since it is a rainy day and I did not have much else to do I spent time writing up our introduction for our page on Alpaca Nation. I still need to edit it but hope to have it posted by the end of today. Hard to put into words all I want to say!