Our Blessings ~ many cria

We bought our first alpacas in 2007 (Victoria and Kateri are our original two bred females, we purchased them along with a gelding, Snowstorm). Within months we purchased Sancha, Sommerfield, and Maddie.

In 2008, we had 3 cria born: Sancha's White Lightning, Victoria's Shelby and Kateri's Tehya.

Lightnings birth picture (his birth story is here):



Shelby and Tehya were born on the same day, and are from the same sire (Goldsmith) so we have always joked they are twins (paternal twins anyway). Their birth story is here.

Shelby as a newborn:



Tehya as a newborn:



In 2009, we again had three cria, and again two girls and a boy (in the alpaca world having girls is considered good luck, since you can use a male on several girls, more girls is better for breeding the future). Our 2009 cria were: Snow Lily by Lord Stanley, OHVNA Pocahontas and OHVNA The Cavalier.

Lily's birth story is here and here (this one with pictures):



Pocahontas birth story (link):



and the last one for 2009 was The Cavalier (story here and pictures here):



In 2010 we had four cria born, this time three boys and one girl (at some point the boys had come): Our Copper Canyon, Smokey's Twilight, OHVNA Chaska and OHVNA The Challenger.

Copper's birth story here and pictures here.



Our longest pregnancy to date was that of Twilight, we thought she'd never come. Her birth story is here.



and


Then Chaska was born, his birth story here:



And the last for 2010 was The Challenger, birth story here:



It's been fun to look at these newborn pictures again, some of them have changed so much! Twilight and Challenger I think look the most different today (as yearlings).

While 2011 has been a rough year for our farm, we will never forget the cria we have had.

First there was OHVNA Cheyenne, birth story here, newborn pictures here, her unfortunate passing story here:



Our Peruvian Dark Thunder was born (story here):



Then there was "little guy" who only graced our farm for just over a day (birth story and his passing story):





There will be more cria to see and grow on our farm. This is only a moment in time. We have been blessed with so many cria who have grown and thrived. Many have done fantastic in the show ring.

While I sat and watched Cheyenne throughout the day yesterday, I sat on our alpaca observation deck spinning yarn. What a soothing activity for such an emotional day. There is a peace that this farm brings, despite the sometimes difficult times, there is an over whelming peace that can be found outside with these wonderful creatures.