Sold Sold Sold!!!

This afternoon we had a farm visit due to our recent announcement that we are selling off our alpaca herd.

Two ladies came and looked and bought all of our huacaya girls!!

They bought:

Rose and her 2013 cria, Violet

Cocoa with 2013 cria, Irish Cream

Mysteria

Tehya

Lady Bing

Twilight

An Incredible Dark Silver Grey! For Sale!!!

OHVNA Smokey's Twilight (link to sale's page):

Here she is in full fleece, spring 2013:

Twilight is the first offspring of our female Midnight Masquerade. Twilight is nearly a carbon copy of her dam, with better fiber characteristics. Twilight has the typey short muzzle with great fiber coverage. Her fiber is so bright, with a bold crimp style and good density. She has excellent confirmation and bite.

Twilight is one you have to open up her fiber to appreciate her beauty. We often found when we had her at a show that people would think she was cute but they were really impressed when they took a look at her fiber. It is so bright and shiny! Not to mention all the crimp and bundles.

Twilight has had an incredible show career. She won 3 firsts and 1 third place ribbons. In the mixed combined class (multi, pattern, and indefinites) at GMAF in Madison, she beat a white with a brown spot. The judge made a point that she was finer than the white, which is very unusual for an alpaca with such a dark color. We are very proud of our little girl.

Awards

- Best of the US, 3/2011, Colubus OH (Babs Manion) Level IV, Indefinite Dark class

- GMAF, 5/2011, Madison WI (Dawn Brooker) Level IV, Mixed Combined class (beat a white with a brown spot)

- MBS, 5/2011, Davisburg MI (Helen Humphreys) Level II, Silver Grey class

- Indiana Invitational, 4/2011, Ft. Wayne IN (David Barboza) Level IV, Silver Grey class (Darkest Grey in group)

- Best of the US, 2012, Silver Grey Yearling

- Great Midwest Alpaca Fest, 2012, Grey Yearling

- Buckeye, 2012, Silver Grey Yearling

Grey Cria ~ OHVNA Irish Cream ~ for sale!!

Sale's page for this dam and cria duo is here.

This is OHVNA Irish Cream:

and her dam, Cocoa (full fleece in spring of 2013):

Beautiful frame! "We look to their careers as production females, and she's got that nailed!" The judge complimented COCOA, although she was the youngest in the ring, she was the LARGEST.

COCOA can bring ACCOYO and COLOR to your herd! Bringing highly desirable bloodlines with her, this SNOWMASS PERUVIAN INCAN MAGIC granddaughter is surely one to add to your herd! She's loaded with color! And coming from a long line of great birthers, easy keepers, and productive milkers = she is a fantastic mother!
If you're just getting started, or if you want to add to your foundation, COCOA is your girl!

Cocoa delivered a beautiful Tuxedo Rose Grey Female on 6/3/2013, OHVNA Irish Cream. She tipped the scales at a robust 19 lbs. Completely unassisted birth, as we came home to find the cria up and nursing.

Awards

3rd Place, California Classic 2012

3rd Place, 2011 Best of US

5th Place, 2011 Buckeye

The Sale (AKA farm visit)

As I mention in a previous post our farm is going through a huge transition and part of that includes changing our business plan.  Our new plan does not include alpacas, so we are in the process of selling off our alpaca herd.

When we made this decision we had 21 alpacas.

We gave former owners of these alpacas first right to buy them back.  2 alpacas (Cherry and Patty) were instantly taken back.

A male was also spoken for.

Gigi was sold.

This put us down to 17 alpacas.

We have had multiple inquiries into our beauty, Rose and her 2013 cria, Violet:

So that leaves us 15 alpacas:

Gabriel Star
TCS Gabriel
Vamil
Greyt Exxpectations
Ruby
Raspberry
Maxine
Take Five (AKA Candy)
Lady Bing
Duchess (AKA Princess)
Twilight
Mysteria
Tehya
Cocoa with 2013 cria Irish Cream


I have never made this blog a sales venue but due to the need to find good homes for these animals I am going to do a sales blitz over the next few days.  I apologize to my readers who live vicariously through me and can't buy these animals.  I never meant for this blog to sound like a sales call.

At the same time, it's a great time to see each of our alpacas, learn their names and faces, it will be as if you are here for a nice farm visit :)

My blog will continue as it has been.  I am working hard on fiber arts.  We still and will continue to have a farm. I am not going anywhere :)  This blog will remain because I have lots of fiber arts and alpaca stories yet to tell; plus, new farm stories in the making.

New Directions

As I mentioned in my last post my husband has worked out a new business plan for us.  It's been a long time in process and finally something we are ready to put into practice.

This new plan doesn't include alpacas.  So for that reason we are looking to sell our alpaca herd.

I know this is a surprise to many, and to a large extent it is to us too.

While J was working on this new business plan he thought it would include alpacas.  The plan was to diversify our farm.  Then as the plan moved in a different direction, we thought we'd have a separate alpaca farm: keep Oak  Haven Alpacas, LLC along with Oak Haven Sheep, LLC and add in Oak Haven Farm.

It was only recently that several signs pointed to this isn't how it's meant to go.  We aren't meant to keep several farms going.  We fought this idea, and interestingly both J and I were fighting this idea separately not mentioning to each other that we had this impending sign that it was time to let go of our alpacas.  Then one day J just said it, it was time.

We have been building our alpaca farm since 2007.  We have attended Alpaca Shows since we began (and J is even superintendent of the fall alpaca show in Michigan).  We've added in new genetics each year.  In the past year we added suri alpacas to our herd.  We add in new alpacas as recently as this spring.   We've been learning and growing in our breeding decisions.  This year both cria born are grey! 

We have always treated this farm as a long term plan, so these alpacas are our pride and joy.  It is bittersweet.


Here is a link to our farm sales page.

Business Plan

When we started our alpaca farm in 2007, we had a business plan. It's one of the main things you need when beginning a business adventure.

It's a plan we have put into practice, over the years tweaking our plans to change with the alpaca industry yet stay true to our business goals.

My husband has spent the last couple of years doing a lot of research on farming. I know that's a broad term, but it started out that big and over the course of time he narrowed his focus. In the end, he wrote a business plan for a sustainable farm that is receiving a lot of attention from everyone who is taking a look at it. Several universities are raving reviews of it, along with some farmers deep in the farm communities.

His focus has been on grass fed animals.  Since most of a farm's resources are used to feed animals, cutting costs there is the most effective.  He was really taken in by the idea of Mob Grazing, a type of grass fed management.

This plan of his, focuses on different animals, such as sheep, chickens and cattle (his top choice would be angus beef).  That's a lot of changes for this *alpaca* farm.

Vacation

We try to go away for vacation every other year.  It is true with a farm it is hard to get away.  You need someone reliable to watch the farm and there is always lots to prepare for ahead of time.  

Last year we did a few days trips so we were never really away from the farm.  That meant this year we left home. 

We decided to tour the northern parts of Michigan. There is so much to see, much of which our kids had never seen. 

Lake Superior:

Tahquamenon Falls:

Of course the bridge to get there:

The Soo Locks:

I didn't get a picture from the day we spent tubing down the river.

Oh and Fort Michilimackinac:

It was a great trip but it's really good to be home. 

Changes

I am usually not one for big changes. I like a slow and steady and predictable life.  But, life is a journey and it unfolds sometimes in ways we would not predict.

I started this blog in 2007 when we began our adventure as alpaca farmers.  I named the blog "alpaca life" because, well, it's the story of our journey living with alpacas (hence the web address of: lifewithalpacas).  It's about the life of alpacas.  This past year we started to diversify our farm and added sheep.  We are now Oak Haven Alpacas, LLC and Oak Haven Sheep, LLC.

The changes aren't done.  In fact, I see more changes in our future.  So to keep this blog up with all those changes I changed the heading title from: 

alpaca life

to

alpaca life... on the farm

While we started as an alpaca farm, this has become more and more a farm.  It's about life on the farm, not just the life of the alpacas.  I may phase this into another name down the road, like "life... on the farm". 

Hot!

We are in the middle of a heat wave that is miserable for all.  I have been refilling water buckets with cold water multiple times a day and hosing alpacas down.  They are hot and I hate to complain but I feel like I am melting when I go out there.

We were able to shear our cria this past weekend (when we saw the forecast we knew we needed too). 

Irish cream seems to think now that she is shorn she can sun herself:

She was even doing the sun death lay -  which of course freaked me out!  She was perfectly fine, just resting. 

In this heat the cria and elderly are the most likely to have problems.  A concern is that if they start to dehydrate, it can lead to a bowel obstruction.  Having had a beautiful girl die from that a couple years ago (Cheyenne), we are more sensitive to even a remote possibility.  I make sure to hose the girls down to cool them off and put out fresh cold water for everyone.  Can't wait for this heat wave to pass! 

Ah spit

It appears that's what I get for putting fly repellant on a cria - an angry mom with spit. At least she spit on my hand & arm,  not my face :)

Hay

Hauling off 240 bales of hay kept us pretty busy the last 2 days.

It is so nice to have hay in the barn!!

I told my kids "the family that hays together stays together."  

Even though hay is a lot of work, the kids pitch in just like we need them to.

Zack had several funny comments. When we were coming home late on Friday after moving some of the hay he said, "I guess hay is going to be our family night."  Yep buddy, by then it was too late to do much else than shower & go to bed. Then today between hay trips we stopped at McDonalds for lunch and we were joking about how we were dirty & full of hay.  Zack says, "we are the cutest family here.". Yep :) 

The Cutest Thing

Living on a farm with baby animals I see quite a few cute things.

But the other day I saw the most cutest thing ever!!!

Out of this little lamb came the sweetest, cutest "bahhh" I had ever heard!

The Suris on pasture

Maxine & Candy came from a farm with pasture so they knew what to do from the start:

They also have a chance to be bred to Prince:  

He is pretty happy about this!

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: