Tehya's fiber

This weekend I began working on a skein of Tehya's fiber.

Flicking:



Flicked:



Spinning:



Spun:



These pictures do not do justice to Tehya's amazing fading fawn color. It is a rich color, from beige to light fawn, to medium and even some dark fawn. I let the yarn flow with various shades so that it is a variated yarn, not all one color. Her fiber is one of my favorites.

Finishing the skein from Lightning

On Friday I plyed two strands of Lightning's fiber (I was glad to have a bit extra on one strand, I need that for another project):



Then I put it into a skein off of my swift:



I washed it (sorry, forgot to get a picture of that step). And hung it up to dry (this time of year I do that in the bathtub, not outside like I do during warmer seasons):



Once dry, it can be put into a ball and used to knit. J has been waiting for this yarn so he will be very happy it is almost done.

BRRRR!!

Today was officially cold enough that I broke out my winter farm coat, hat and gloves. I'll wait a bit on the snow pants. It actually isn't that cold out (our thermometer is showing an outside temp of 42*), but the wind is very bitter. And today the sun is not shining (we have a heavy cloud cover), which makes it feel a lot colder.

I don't like this time of year. I don't like the sunless cold dreary days. We've been blessed with a warm and sunny fall, I knew these days were coming. The sky just looks grey, no sun shining, and the trees look a dreary brown color.

The dams and cria area:



The maiden girls area:



In the spring and summer I spent a lot of time outside with the alpacas. I'll go out just to watch the cria, and the chores get done without thinking too much of it.

This time of year you are much more likely to find me spinning yarn in front of the fireplace. Now that is a nice way to spend time! (see all my fiber bins laying about, our living room often is taken over by alpaca fiber):



One of the things I do like about having the farm, is that it forces me to go outside on these dreary days. While it can be hard to motivate myself to get out there, once I am, I really enjoy it. The fresh air, the activity, always raises my spirits. I come inside refreshed.

Rosco's Yarn

I mentioned a few posts back that I completed a skein of yarn from Rosco's fiber. I didn't get a picture of it then, so here are pictures:




This fiber spun up with a nice rich black color. The yarn is very thick and bulky, which I think will work great on really big needles. It has a lot of texture to the yarn, with the neat bulky look.

I know I should have snatched this yarn up right away before J had a chance to get it. But since I was spinning up Lightning's fiber this weekend, J needed something to do. He took the yarn from Rosco, but agreed to make a scarf that I was planning to make out of it.

Spring Shows

While spring seems like a long ways away, it's already time to start planning what shows we want to attend. I am finding it hard to find information though. Many sites have not been updated with this coming years information. I will start putting what I can in our "Upcoming Events" section to identify shows we plan to attend. This will be a work in progress though, so expect changes to that section as new information is discovered.

We are always eager for spring show season to begin. We are excited to see what this years cria can do in the show ring.

Fiber Update

This past weekend my goal was a spin up a skein of Lightning's fiber. Unfortunately, I did not meet this goal. I finished flicking the first batch of his fiber for the first strand of yarn:



And I started spinning up that strand:



By Sunday evening I had the entire strand completed:



But since I make 2 ply yarn, this was only half of what I needed completed.

Then, on Monday evening I flicked up the second batch, for the second strand. It turns out, if I put my mind to it, I can flick up an entire batch in one night. These were even bigger batches than usual, since I wanted to make sure J will have enough yarn to complete the hat he plans to knit. I hope to spin this up on Wednesday and Thursday evening. Then on Friday I can ply it.

2011 Due Dates

Now that we spit tested all the females, I can get a more accurate list of our upcoming due dates for 2011. I love cria season, so these births are something I am very much looking forward to. I put the list of the due dates at the bottom of the blog, so that we can keep track.

Tehya is due 5/11/11
Tehya is bred to Our Peruvian Navigator, who is a fancy rose grey male (he'd be considered a tuxedo, a classic grey). We have a 50% chance of getting a grey cria out of this breeding. We also have a good chance of getting a fawn cria. Tehya is a beautiful fading fawn, we'd love a Tehya clone as her cria. Tehya did great in the show ring, and has wonderful fiber that is always my first to sell out.

Sancha is due 6/4/11
Sancha is bred to our male, SA Peruvian Greyt Exxpectations. Greyt is a modern rose grey and this is his first year breeding. We are so excited and anxious to see what he can produce. Sancha has produced a rose grey in the past, we are really hoping to have a repeat of that! But being she is white, there is always a 50% chance she will pass on her white gene and the cria will be white.

Lucy is due 6/13/11
Lucy came to us this fall, from Straightfork Farm in Ohio, already bred. She is bred to a male, Peruvian Mr Bojangles, a medium brown male who has won many 1st and 2nd place ribbons.

Snickers is due 6/30/11
Snickers came to us bred to Conan. We were so excited about this breeding, only to have her absorb the pregnancy. Alpacas have a high rate of uterine absorption. Typically it is stress induced. We believe moving Snickers to our farm caused her to absorb that pregnancy. We then bred her to Georgio. While I think Georgio is really great and I am excited about this breeding also, it comes with the cloud of disappointment that we lost that Conan cria. I know once I see this cria, we will be just as excited. We have heard from Georgio's owner that his cria from this past year have been the best on his farm. We know Snickers can produce quality, so we have every expectation that this offspring will be amazing.

Kateri is due 7/12/11
Kateri is bred to our own Lightning. Lightning was the first cria ever born on our farm, and this was Lighning's first breeding. We made this match because Kateri has produced all 1st place ribbon winners, she really is the complete package, then add on Lightnings incredible fiber characteristics and this cria should be completely amazing.

Victoria is due 7/20/11
Victoria is bred to Georgio, just like Snickers is. We are eager to see what Victoria and Georgio can produce. Victoria is the perfect phenotype in an alpaca. Her fiber is fine and dense. What Victoria lacks is crimp, but Georgio has plenty to spare. We have found with all of Victoria's offspring, they soak up crimp and all display not only her phenotype, but also amazing fiber.

We are sad that Maddie did not hold onto her pregnancy. Like Sancha, Maddie was also bred to Greyt. We were hoping to get a good idea of what Greyt can produce by having two of his cria on our farm this year. Greyt has been bred to females from other farms, so we will have to make sure to get a look at those cria once they are born.

Spit Testing

Today we decided to spit test our pregnant females. This is a fairly reliable way to determine if they are holding their pregnancy. I say *fairly* reliable because it's not a perfect method, and it's reliability depends greatly on who is doing it and how. We've been breeding for three years now, and have carefully watched how our females act both pregnant and not pregnant. Our first couple of years of breeding, we had a vet do an ultrasound to confirm the pregnancy for sure. Last year was the first year we opted not to follow up with an ultrasound. All of our girls were pregnant, as we had spit tested to be the case.

The reason it is called Spit Testing is because you bring a male to the female as if to breed them, if pregnant, the female will spit at the male. An open female will drop to be bred. Though specific behavior for each female varies to some extent, the basic idea is that a pregnant female will not let a male breed them and will do whatever necessary to keep him away.

This year we did take Snickers and Tehya to have an ultra sound done. We did this a few months ago, because we could not tell if Snickers was pregnant or not. Snickers is new to our farm, so we had no frame of reference to determine her behavior at spit testing. Tehya is a maiden and we weren't sure how to read her either. Both ultra-sounded as pregnant, so we used that information to show how they behave at spit testing when pregnant. Since alpacas can absorb a pregnancy, just because they ultrasounded as pregnant then, does not mean they have held onto that pregnancy, so we knew we'd be spit testing them in the future to see if the pregnancy is holding.

Today J brought Tucker back to the girls area to test all our pregnant girls. At this point in the season, it's too late to rebred them. Their pregnancy lasts on average 11.5 months. In our location, it's not ideal to have a newborn cria in October or November. The latest we'd prefer would be early September. So, testing them today was only for our information. Any female that showed to be open, will be held open until spring.

We were especially curious to see if Kateri has held onto her pregnancy from Lightning. The farm that has Lightning now has expressed concern that none of their females are showing as pregnant. We are very happy to say that Kateri spit tested as pregnant. Kateri is a girl who we have had since the start of our farm, and is very easy to determine pregnancy with spit testing. She's a crabby pregnant lady.

Sancha, Victoria, Lucy, Snickers, and Tehya all spit tested as pregnant. We knew Latte is open, we did not breed her because she arrived at our farm in October with a newborn cria. We planned to hold her open until Spring. The only one who we hoped was pregnant but is not, is Maddie. Unfortunately she spit tested as open. She dropped to the ground and was ready to be bred. So she will be held open this year and bred early next spring. While that is a disappointment, we are thankful only one tested this way.

Hay diggers

It's no wonder we have problems with the alpacas's top knot being full of burrs. These animals insist on diving their heads deep in the hay bin. I don't know if the hay down there is more tasty or what.

Caught!

I caught the little guy, nursing off of Sancha (who is not his mom)! She was clucking at him and encouraging him. His mom, Kateri, is the brown female closest to them. I don't know why she isn't bothered by this behavior. They all seem to fully accept this. So, I guess no harm no foul.

Milk Snatcher

I have heard about cria who will snatch milk from a dam other than their mom, but I had never seen it happen. Then just this past week we caught Chaska nursing off of Sancha. The odd part is that he looks like he could be her cria, they are both white with a fawn spot. However, he is not her cria.

Here he looks so innocent, next to his mom:




I couldn't get a picture of him nursing off of Sancha, by the time I got the camera he was done. But we've seen him do this more than once.

We've debated moving Chaska to the little boys barn so that he can't do this. But, he's not even 4 months old yet, he still needs mother's milk. I have seen Kateri nurse him too, so he's getting milk from his mom also. We also debated moving him and his mom in a pen away from Sancha, but there was no easy way to do this either. For now, as long as Sancha stays at a good weight (doesn't start getting thin), and no one minds the milk snatching, we will keep them where they are. In a couple months we will be able to wean Chaska, moving him up to the little boys' barn.

Beautiful Fall Day

I'm generally not a fan of fall. The colder weather and the fact it gets dark so early, wears on me. But this fall has been wonderful. We've had warmer than usual weather, and it's been so sunny. I love sunny warm fall days.

The alpacas seem to act the same no matter what the weather. I actually think Victoria likes the snow (I've caught her sleeping out in it). Today they were enjoying some hay on this nice fall day.



Even little Ginger munches on hay:



Twilight likes to smile for me:



Spot always greets me:



Shadow thought it would be a good day to bury a bone:

Last Day of the Show

On Sunday, the last day of the show, both Rose and Pocahontas were up in the ring.

Rose showed in a class of 2 juvi rose grey female huacaya alpacas. We would have hoped for more competition, but knew that the fall often has smaller juvi classes. Most farmers breed for animals to be born between May and October, so those animals are now all over a year old and in the yearling class, or less than 6 months and too young to show. Rose came to our farm this spring, after being born in April. We do not typically breed for an April birth, so we typically would not have a juvi to show at this point either.

The judge placed Rose in 1st place! She had nothing but great things to say about Rose, including the fact that her light and dark fibers, making up her grey color, is very uniform. She has great uniformity, and consistency throughout her blanket, and has very dense fleece. The only negative is that Rose has some tender breaks, due to recent weaning from her mother. This was also a factor with the other juvi in the class so did not effect her placing. However, it was a consideration in the color championship.

When we get our professional picture of Rose and her ribbon I will be sure to get it up here on the blog and on our farm's facebook page. Rose will join our Hall of Fame of 1st place ribbon winners, along with Sancha, Kateri, Shelby, Tehya, Pocahontas and now Rose. Girls rule :)

Pocahontas showed in the Indefinitely Dark class of yearling huacaya female alpacas. Originally she was the only one in her class, but when we got there to line up to show her, there was another animal in her class. We welcome the competition, and were happy to see another animal to go against. Unfortunately Pocahontas got 2nd place. We were very disappointed about this. The reason the judge gave is that Pocahontas is at an awkward growth place and wasn't as rock solid in her conformation as she'd like to see. She also said that Pocahontas' fiber lacked luster. This was the most disappointing because I stopped giving her fiber nutrients. I just know that is what made this difference. Needless to say, we are giving fiber nutrients again, already started with today's feeding. Some things are not worth skimping on. We have decided that this will be Pocahontas' last show. We are retiring her from the show ring. Over the next few months were are going to give her plenty of fiber nutrients, and get her healthy and vibrant so that we can breed her in the spring. We likely will breed her just after shearing in May. We cannot wait to see the animals she can produce. Pocahontas has been our best award winning alpaca, she has done us proud.

Here is a really bad picture of both girls in the pen at the show:

Fall Show - day two

Today, Saturday, is the day that actual alpaca showing began.

Alpacas are broken up into classes by type of alpaca (Suri or Huacaya), by age (juvi, yearling, 2 year old and Mature), by sex (male or female), and by color. All of our alpacas are Huacaya. Rose is a juvi (older than 6 months old but younger than a year old). Pocahontas and Cavalier are both yearlings. Just after you arrive, you bring your animal to "color check", this is where they verify the alpaca's color to make sure they are in the right class.

Cavalier color checked as "medium fawn". This put him in the class of Huacaya Yearling Male, Medium Fawn. There were 17 total in this class, so it was split into two groups. Cavalier placed 4th in his group of 9. Cavalier is one alpaca that we have had a hard time evaluating ourselves. We struggled with the fact he has some primary hairs that stick out, and his chest is smaller than we would ideally like to see, but we were not sure how this would affect his placing. The judge stated that Cavalier had great proportions, great brightness, great density and fineness. The only fault the judge stated was that Cavalier he has inconsistency in his micron, which is the same issue as the halo of primary hairs. Cavalier's placing is about what we expected. It feels good to know we already had identified what issue might be a problem for him in the ring.

As my long time readers will know, I don't take pictures of the alpacas in the ring. I used to, but I found whenever I did this they did terrible. The times I forgot my camera, they would do well. Now I just don't do it at all, I leave the camera alone until after they show.

Here is Cavalier's ribbon:



Right when he got back to his pen, he started eating hay. I swear they stress eat:



Finally I got a picture of his face:



Rose colored checked as rose grey. She is in a class of 2 alpacas, both huacaya juvi female rose grey. There are rules about combining classes and separating classes. For this show, they separated the silver grey from the rose grey. Some shows choose to put these classes together. Because they are separated, the class is small. While a positive to having a class of only 2, you are guaranteed to get a 1st or 2nd place. But, we like the competition, we want to know how our animals measure up, even in a big competitive class. So, we are not happy to have her in such a small class. Rose is an incredible animal, she needs to show off her great qualities. I do have to say whenever we walk her anywhere we get comments from people passing of how cute she is and how they want to take her home. Rose will show on Sunday.

Pocahontas color checked as Indefinite Dark (we had the judge double check because she's a tricky one). Indefinite Dark is a last resort class for colors that don't fit into any other category. Pocahontas is brown with grey fibers throughout her blanket. She really is a rose grey without enough grey to be considered grey. Unfortunately, she is the only one in her class at this show. This means she has no competition. In a case like this, the judge usually awards the animal a 1st place, but also gives an evaluation of the animal. Sometimes, the judge will decide the animal has enough of a fault that a 2nd place is awarded. Being that Po has won 1st place in groups of 2 and 3, we would be very surprised if there was a fault so great that they only awarded her a 2nd place. Tomorrow we will find out for sure.

Over all our trip has been good. We have found some great restaurants (after our horrible time in Columbus, Ohio, not being able to find good places to eat, we have a new respect for this). The hotel is wonderful, except for the train tracks right behind our room. I didn't notice the train going through, but J reports it seemed like a train came by every half hour all night long. Needless to say, we won't stay here if we come to this venue again. Though I have enjoyed the high speed internet and the hot tub.

Sunday will be a busy day for us. We would like to get to the show early enough to see our former alpacas, Lightning and Lily, show in their white classes. Whites are showing first thing in the morning. We are eager to see how they do. We will need to show both Rose and Pocahontas. Then we will begin to pack up and eventually head home.

Old Friends

We were excited to run into 2 animals that were born on our farm, but now reside on other farms. Both of these animals came out of our girl, Sancha, so they are half-siblings.

Lightning only left our farm a couple of months ago, though he seems to have grown since we last saw him:



Lily left our farm in March, so it's been quite awhile since we've seen her. She's changed a lot! She looks a lot like her mother.



Her owners showed us a color banner that she won! We are so impressed with such an accomplishment. She came from our farm, so that gives us bragging rights on this:

Fall Show - day one

We packed up and left the house in record time this morning. I dropped the kids off at school at 8 a.m., and before 9 a.m. we had the alpacas ready, and were on the road. Here is our truck and trailer ready to pull out of the driveway:



This is our first time attending Alpacafest, and it's the first time we have been to this venue. We did not know what to expect. The stalls are different than any we have used before, they are tall horse stalls, not our typical movable pens that we've been familiar with. This meant we had to adjust how we set up our pen. Here it is mid-set up when everything is still out of place:



We eventually got everything in it's place. Unfortunately the way the stalls are, the alpacas can hardly be seen. I can't say I like the set up for that reason alone. We want to show off our animals, we want people to see them from far away. You can't see them at all here:



Our alpacas do have hay to eat in the trailer their entire ride, but they always seem to dig right into the hay right upon arrival. I think they stress eat:



Here they are eating their grain:



I am leery about the show rings too, we have never shown in a dirt arena:





A lot of things are different about this show than what we have been used to, not only the stalls and the show rings, but the entire venue. I am trying to keep an open mind, but I admit, when we first arrived I was a bit disappointed. Maybe if we win some nice ribbons that will change my mind.

The first day is only the set up and the exhibitors meeting (which did not get over with until almost 9 p.m.!). Saturday they start showing at 8 a.m. We do not have any animals in the first few classes. Likely only Cavalier will show, late on Saturday. Sunday both Rose and Pocahontas should show.

Heading to Alpacafest

This weekend we are taking three of our alpacas to Alpacafest in Springfield, Ohio, at The Champion Center Expo. Going to alpacas shows is fun for several reasons. Of course it's nice to bring your alpacas to show them off. You hope for great ribbon placing. Not only does that give you bragging rights, but everyone wants their alpaca to be the best in their class. But this isn't the only reason to go to alpaca shows. We find we learn so much at shows. We would not be where we are, producing the quality alpaca we are, without the incredible knowledge we have learned at shows. Not only do you get the judge's feedback on your alpacas, but other alpaca owners are a wealth of information. So many alpaca farmers are welcoming of questions and willing to share their knowledge. We also love catching up with fellow alpaca farmers. Over the years we've been going to shows (over three years now), we've developed friendships with various farmers all over the country. It's great to have a chance to see everyone, even if it is only a few times a year. It's also nice to have a weekend away from the farm, away from the regular routine.

It is a lot of work to go to a show though. You have to make sure you have someone to watch the alpacas left at home. This time we are leaving our 11 year old in charge of the entire farm care. While that seems like a tremendous job for an 11 year old, let me add that she's a very responsible 11 year old. She's been feeding the male alpacas twice a day for several months. She knows how to do the routine with the girls. And I know I've mentioned she can lift a bale of hay on her own. She's tough. And there will be grandparents around if she does need help.

It's also work to get the alpacas ready to go. We are taking OHVNA Pocahontas, OHVNA The Cavalier and Enlightenment's Rocky Rose.

As a juvenile, Pocahontas won 1st place twice, once she also won Reserve Color Champion. This was our first color banner, a huge accomplishment for us. Both 1st places were at level IV shows. She also won a 2nd place (level IV show) and a 3rd place (at Nationals, a level V show). We are curious to see how she will do in the show ring as a yearling. My biggest concern about Pocahontas is that she has lost her cute juvi look. She had a fluffy face and a very cute look to her. Her top knot is not full and incredible like I want it to be. But when you dig in her fiber, that luster, bundling and crimp is still there. If it were a fiber only contest, she still has it.

Pocahontas as a cute juvi:




And a more recent photo of her:



Pocahontas' fiber:



Cavalier was one that I almost didn't show as a juvenile. He was a bit on the smaller side, and I felt that while his fiber had great crimp and character at the root, it fell out near the tip. We did cria shear him, but we did it too early on, so it didn't get all the cria tips off. I said all along I expected he will do better as a yearling. We will see if that prediction is correct. Cavalier feels very dense, has good fineness, and incredible character to his fiber crimp and bundles. What he lacks may be size, his chest is a bit smaller than ideal. We will see how that places him in the ring. Last year we did not take him to as many show due to believing he will do better as a yearling. As a juvenile he received 4th placed at a level IV show in a very large class.

Cavalier (I love his big bushy top knot, he is a pretty boy for sure):



Cavalier's fiber (this is last year's shearing, so does include those cria tips, now the entire length looks like the base of this example):



Rose is a juvenile, and this will be her first show, she only just now turned 6 months old. While I know there is always the risk of being barn blind - so in love with your animal that you miss their faults - I don't think this is the case with Rose. I think Rose is the best animal on our farm. To evaluate an alpaca, two things need to be considered: their confirmation and their fiber. Conformation is things like a straight back, legs at the right angles, neck in proportion to body length, and how their teeth line up. Rose is straight and fits in the rectangular box perfectly. The other factor is fiber. Rose's fiber has consistent crimp with bundles throughout her blanket. While alpacas are not judged on their color, it doesn't hurt her at all that she has a wonderful lovely lavender rose grey color.


Rose:



Rose's fiber:



Shows are run in order of color, starting with black, then brown, fawn, and white, then into the greys and indefinites. Cavalier being fawn will be the first of ours to show. But he easily may not show until Sunday morning. This means most of Saturday we will not have much to do at the show. It will give us a chance to walk around and soak up all the information we can. Rose will show after Cavalier, she will be in the grey class. As a juvi Pocahontas showed in the Indefinite Dark class, she didn't have quite enough grey fibers to be considered grey. She has more grey fibers now, but we aren't sure if there are enough yet for her to be in the grey class. If she is grey, she could show right after Rose, as Rose will be in the juvi class and Po in the yearling class.

We are anxious to see how each of our animals do at the show this weekend.

End of the hiatus

After a bit of an unplanned fiber hiatus, I got myself back at the spinning wheel to finish up a skein of Rosco's fiber. I'm eager to knit this up into a scarf, but I fear J will snatch it up before I have a chance to do that.

Boys Update

Last week when we did herd health, we decided it was time to trim up the boys top knots. While I love a big, full, long top knot, it's not the easiest to maintain. We have the added issue of quite a few burrs in our hay. While the burrs are a huge pain, the hay is great otherwise. So, we trimmed their top knots a little shorter than we have in the past, in order for easy of maintenance. I was surprised how well I liked the new look of the top knots, they turned out really well (ignore the time date stamp on these pictures, I used Emma's camera and it wasn't set right):



We also decided it was time to wean Copper. At five months old, he's 82 pounds! Typically we look for around 100 pounds at a year old. He'll be 100 pounds in no time. We go by the rule of thumb to wean around 6 months old and 60 pounds. We did wean Copper a little on the young side, but he's so big, and his dam (mother) has always struggled with keeping weight on. Weaning will help his dam put on the weight she needs to birth her next cria. Copper is eating grain and hay well, he doesn't need mother's milk anymore. So, we brought him up to the little boys barn. Here is Copper with Snowstorm and Cavalier:



We had Cavalier and Georgio in that barn together. We weren't sure how this arrangement would work with Copper. Cavalier is just over a year old, and not that big, but Georgio is an older breeding male. When we put Copper in there, we decided this wasn't going to work with Georgio. So, we moved Georgio in with the big boys. We had kept him with Cavalier so that Cavalier had a friend, and because the Georgio is a bit smaller of a male, and our big males were pretty rambunctious. We've had some changes in our big boy barn (such as Navigator going home and Tucker coming back and Lightning leaving), so the dynamics there are much different. There has been a lot less fighting. Georgio is actually about the same size as Greyt and he holds his own in that pen. So far this move seems to have worked well. Here is Georgio and Cavalier greeting each other over the fence now: