I have the best kids!
Typically when J and I go off to an alpaca show, we leave the kids home, arranging for a grandparent(s) to watch them. Zack remains in charge of all dog related care (water, food, getting outside). Emma not only keeps up her regular chores of feeding our herdsires (twice a day everyday Emma feeds our 5 male alpacas who are housed about 1/4 mile from our house - up by her grandparents house), when we are gone to a show she also feeds our pregnant dams (8 of them), and any young ones that aren't at the show (this weekend that was 3 young girls).
This past weekend J and I attended The Great Midwest Alpaca Festival in Madison, Wisconsin. Due to other things going on over the weekend, we opted to take Zack with us. I did so with some hesitation given the few times the kids have gone with us they were bored and not well behaved. But Zack was insistent he wanted to go and Emma was insistent she wanted a weekend without her younger brother (gotta love a 12 year old girl :) ).
Emma was responsible for 3 dogs (2 house dogs and our farm Great Pyrenees) and 16 alpacas. She did a fantastic job!
I know in some ways it makes sense. She already feeds the 5 older males everyday. The alpacas all know her, and she knows the routine. But those pregnant girls, some days they give me a run for my money. They can be grouchy and difficult if they want. While alpacas are fairly easy to care for, there are things you do have to think about. Our Great Pyrenees loves to escape so you have to always be one step ahead of him. There's grain and hay and water ~ to some extent grain is optional but if they don't have hay or water there are serious health concerns.
I know I shouldn't take her great work for granted. It would be so difficult to attend alpaca shows if we didn't know our farm was in good hands.
And, Zack was fantastic at the alpaca show! He was a great helper. There was a point J was in one ring showing Challenger, I was in the other ring showing Twilight with Rose in the very next class! I had Zack stand in the line up with Rose ready to go (I made sure the check in person knew what was going on). Thankfully J made it back just in time to show Rose because both girls ended up in the color championship.
Zack also found his own niche which I will talk about in another post. It turns out that while some farms have a great PR animal, we have a great PR son :)
1 comment:
Sometimes at a show you need a third pair of hands and like you say you couldn't go in the first place if someone wasn't looking after things at home - well done kids!
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