Pasture?

We have the opportunity this summer for some of our alpacas to be on pasture.  As I have mentioned in the past our farm is dry lot - we feed hay all year around, because we can't grow pasture grass in the woods. 

On Saturday we brought some girls over to the pasture and this is what they did:

Yep, in the barn eating hay when they could be out here:

Eventually they got the idea:

The cat 'n cria

Our farm cat, Buddy:

And a curious cria, Violet:

Ok, 2 curious cria, Violet and Irish Cream:

Sunning

It always freaks me out when I see this:

No worries, she's fine, she's just sunning herself.   Alpacas love to lay in the sun!  I have heard that the warmth of the sun helps their stomach digest, so that is why they lay with their belly towards the sun.

Here is Raspberry:

The sheep

Are sheep are growing too, those little lambs aren't so little.

Here is the brown one mixed in with the ewes:

And the white lamb:

The ewes are still losing their hair.  I would have thought that is would have fallen off by now, but it is, just slower than I would have thought.

The lambs fit right into this group:

They tend to herd around me when I go out there, I think they think I might have food :)

Not to be left out, here is our ram:

Growing girls

Our two beautiful grey girls are growing and thriving.  They are up to typical cria games.

Look at these two BFFs:

Violet and her mom, Rose:

Then there is Irish Cream and her mom, Cocoa:

Violet and Irish Cream like to go near the fence line where the yearlings are.  The yearlings are very curious about the cria:

Spinning

It's true, I have not been spinning very much yarn lately.  First there were spring alpaca shows to attend, then we got fully immersed into alpaca shearing.  We sheared our entire herd of 19 alpacas, then we sheared 16 alpacas for other people (this was our first time shearing for others).  That's a lot of alpacas! Especially given J and I both have full time jobs outside of the farm.  Once shearing was done it was farm clean up and cria watch.  I'm tired thinking about all of this, my head is spinning :)

I did manage to get in a little fiber arts.

Here is raw fiber that I flicked into a cloud:

I feed that into the spinning wheel and end up with a strand of yarn:

Here it is, completed (not the most even line up on the bobbin but that won't matter at all, it will ply just fine):

Here is the raw fiber I need to flick up and start the second strand of yarn for a 2 ply yarn:

Happy spinning!!

With Sadness

It is with great sadness that I say we lost a newborn cria yesterday.  We are not sure exactly when the cria passed, but it was sometime between Friday night when we saw fetal movement and Saturday afternoon when we had to help get the cria out of the mother.  It was a difficult dystocia, the position in the picture below:

J noticed the dam in labor early Saturday morning.  Mysteria was on day 350 gestation.  While she appeared in labor, after awhile it was clear she was not making any progression.  When the bag of waters broke the fluid was brown tinged which is never a good thing.  Two front legs were found but the head was so far back it was very difficult to get to.  It took 3 of us to hold the dam while J repositioned the cria.  By the time we got the cria out, he was already passed.  He was a pretty white boy.

We have corrected a few dystocia on our farm with great success, this one was just more difficult.  It was our first still birth.  While farming has great highs of seeing beautiful newborns, there are also loses.

The picture came from the book:

 Here are some other birth positions:

And introducing OHVNA Smokey Violet

This cria was actually born yesterday, our dual day of two cria ~ OHVNA Irish Cream (a tuxedo grey girl) & OHVNA Smokey Violet (a modern rose grey girl).

We had 2 rose grey girls on the same day!!

That is like a thousand Christmas's all at once!  I have dreamed of rose grey girls!  The funny part is that this time I was hoping for a silver grey boy :)   But I know I am blessed with these two and don't wish that away one bit.

This girl, OHVNA Smokey Violet is out of two of our alpacas:

Dam: Enlightenment's Rocky Rose


Sire:  NL Smokey 

Rose is a tuxedo light rose grey female and Smokey is a modern dark silver grey.   Together they produced a modern rose grey female :)

Violet:

Birth day nursing on mom:

Love Violet's sweet face!!

And the sweetest picture!

Introducing OHVNA Irish Cream!!

After watching and waiting all weekend for a couple of cria to be born, and NOTHING!! this morning I looked at the girls and felt the cold air and thought "no today".  I went to work and even though I had considered coming home at noon, I didn't. I was sure those cria were not coming today.  I picked the kids up from school and they were both eager to hear if we had cria, I was sure we hadn't but said we'll check when we get home.

I arrive home, open the door towards the pasture and see a cria nursing on Cocoa!! I yell to the kids "we have a cria" then I see another cria!!  Both Cocoa and Rose had their cria today.

Since every cria is a blessing they will each get their own post.  Today's post is about OHVNA Irish Cream.

Dam: RAL Peruvian Cocoa Latte (AKA: Cocoa)
Sire:  ARF Our Peruvian Tucker
Cocoa is a medium brown female and Tucker is a classic light silver grey male.

Together they produced a beautiful female:

At this point this female looks to be a light rose grey tuxedo, but she may actually be a silver grey tuxedo (hard to tell with the amniotic staining on the fiber).   Only time will tell for sure.  But we have had enough grey alpacas at our farm to be sure she's grey!

This picture shows Cherry (the longer fiber suri) with Irish Cream in front and Cocoa nuzzling her:

Cocoa and Irish Cream: