Adding On

Last spring we moved the girls back by our house. This year we are going to add a new area so that we can separate some of the girls. We'd like to do a dam (mom) and cria (baby) barn, and have the maiden/yearlings in a separate area. This will mean that last years cria, Lily, Po, and Rosco, along with our yearlings, Tehya and Cafe, will move into a new area. This will leave the pregnant dams (moms), Sancha, Victoria, Kateri and Maddie in the current area. They will each have a cria this spring/summer. This will allow the moms to have space to tend to their babies.

The new area doesn't look like much now, actually it looks like a mess (I can use this picture as a before reference when we are done):



Here is Spot sitting at the far corner of our current pasture. The area behind him, behind the fence to the left, is where we had our garden last year. That is where the new area will be:



We have decided not to do a garden. Up until about a week ago, we were still planning on it. But, then we got to thinking about it. We really did not get as much out of the garden as we thought we would. For one, it was such a dry summer last year we spent a lot of time watering it. It ended up being a lot of work. True, it likely will not be so dry this year, but something will end up being work about it. Gardens are work. I don't mind work, if I feel like I get something out of it. Well, here, I didn't. Because another big problem is that I don't really like fresh veggies. I wish I did. I would love to be a healthy type person. But it's just not in me. We had hoped we could get the kids interested in fresh veggies, but as it turned out, J is the one who ate most of what we grew. I loved the fresh salsa, but it's not worth all the effort, cost, and time for a garden just for salsa. We can buy enough fresh stuff to make a nice batch of salsa (which will be my request for my birthday meal). I was open to doing a garden again, but when J said he didn't think he wanted too, given he actually did eat the produce, we decided not to have one. So, by not having the garden, we have that area that we can use for the alpacas.

The other change is for our 2 young boys. They are getting old enough they can't be with the girls much longer. So, they will be moving up to the young boy barn. Right now our young boy barn is where we are storing the hay. Lightning seemed old enough to go in with the big boys, so we had all the males in one area. We have since seen quite a bit of fighting there. We don't feel it would be safe for the little boys - Cavalier and Golden, to be in there. We will add on a hay shelter, so that we can clear out that barn for the young boys. Since it is only Cav and Golden, we will either put Lightning in with them, or if he is too rough for them, our gelding, Snowstorm, would work well. He has been in with young boys, young girls, any combination and done a great job. He's a good uncle :)