Winter's revenge

After bragging about our spring weather and the spring cleaning we were able to get done, we are back to winter here. I knew this storm was coming, so it's not a surprise. But certainly a disappointment after enjoying that wonderful weather. We actually were motivated to get more done before this storm hit.

The snow was predicted to start sometime mid-day on Sunday. Since we live in a rural area, out in the woods, we are always conscious of the possibility of losing power. The biggest issues being that then we would not have use of our furnace or water (we have well water). We make sure to have plenty of fire wood ready, so that we can heat our home with our fireplace if necessary. We also fill water buckets with water to have on hand, just in case. I've found that if I have a nice clean house, we don't seem to lose power. It's the times I skip doing the dishes and haven't straighted up that we lose power. Then we have a real mess that can't be cleaned until power is restored. So we spent the morning cleaning the house and getting everything ready.

The snow didn't start to fall at our house until about 2 p.m. By the time I did farm chores at 4 p.m., I walked out to this:





While Spot seems to manage not to let snow accumulate on him, the alpacas will lay out in the pasture with inches of snow sitting on their backs. Here they had already stood up because they saw me and knew grain was coming.



What struck me was how fast the snow was accumulating. In the short time between dumping out the hay bin, then grabbing new hay and walking back, the hay bin already had a layer of snow in it:



The same thing happened to the grain bowls. Between the time the girls finished eating and I picked up the bowls (we are talking maybe 10 minutes tops), the bowls had a layer of snow in them:



This morning the table here was clear of any snow, by 4 p.m. there was this:




Keep in mind that it's still snowing. These pictures were taken at 4 p.m. showing only the beginning. Now it's almost 7 p.m., it's still snowing, and it's supposed to continue snowing through much of the night.

I was worried to leave anything out there, out of fear it will be buried in snow by morning. Usually I leave the buckets, that I carry water around in, out by the water faucet. Tonight, I put them in the garage:



I'm anxious to see what I wake up to in the morning. I am thankful that so far we are getting snow and not ice (which is falling south of us). I'm also thankful that so far we continue to have electricity. I hope it stays that way.

Spring Cleaning

During the last week we have had warmer than typical temperatures. We took advantage of this spring like weather to clean up the farm a bit. J spent most of Friday cleaning out the boy's barn. He started before I had a chance to get a before picture. And somehow I managed to forget to take an after picture. What I do have a picture of is the pile of junk (a mix of hay, straw and poop) that he hauled out of the barn:



He lost track of how many trips he took to get all the junk out of the barn. The boy's barn is so nice now!

I did a slower project, everyday scooping up more and more of the poop piles in the girl's pastures. As the mounds in the pastures thawed a bit each day, I cleaned up whatever I could scrap free. During my usual daily routine, I take one sled or wheel barrow trip. This week there were days I took 6! There was a lot of extra stuff to clean up. But I'm happy to say I've made a lot of progress. Unfortunately we are supposed to get another storm of snow and ice starting tomorrow.

Happy Faces

Not everyone out there is ornery. I had several come up to me and want to sniff at me. I almost always get kisses from Latte:



And our 2010 cria have been friendly.

Twilight:



Challenger:



Ginger:

Tempers Rise

I don't know if it's hormones, or spring fever, or the fact we've moved around some of our girls (they reassess herd dynamics any time there is a change in herd membership), but I see a lot of neck wrestling and spit fighting.

When I was out there feeding them, I caught Miss Kitty, post fight, with the lingering spit lip:



Sancha had the other spit lip, so I knew it was the two of them. I didn't manage to get a picture of Sancha's lip.

Alpacas main defense is to spit (after an attempt to run). They also react to each other with spit. I find that after a good spit fight, their lip hangs there, burning from the spit acid for some time. If it's feeding time, sometimes they can't even eat their grain because of the spit lip.

Miss Kitty is still trying to figure out her place in our herd. I've seen her several times now trying to take on our herd leader, Victoria. I wouldn't suggest taking on Victoria, she's been the leader on our farm since day one. But, Miss Kitty doesn't take advice from me. She'll learn, she's just determined to do it the hard way.

Miss Kitty isn't the only one fighting. I see many of the other girls getting into fights here and there. Something is in the air.

The hat

Remember this picture of my daughter?



This hat was made for a very special girl who is going through a very difficult time. She is the exact same age as my daughter, but she is fighting cancer. She also is a lover of animals, so I just knew she needed a hand spun homemade alpaca hat:





Her mother has kept a log of her journey, you can follow along on her blog here: Fight Like a Girl.

The Sun!

This was the view to the front of our pasture today.


I love sunny days! It was so great to see the sun.

a thaw ~ the good, the bad and the ugly

Is it spring? I know, this is just a preview, winter isn't really gone, but I love seeing temps in the 40*s:



A daily high of 45* and a low of 23*. So much better than the negative temps of not to long ago!

I love spring. It is by far my favorite season. I gain more energy in the spring, my mood is raised, I accomplish more in the spring than any other time. Spring is my season. I love seeing the sun, I love the warm air, I love the snow disappearing (and soon the flowers emerging).

What I don't love is the ugly mess that I find when a thaw comes around:



And this isn't even a bad mess. I've mentioned "poop soup" before, it's really that bad sometimes. Thankfully we don't have that (yet). So far my method of scooping up poop is working. I scoop only what it level with the snow. I used to dig down and that made the most awful poop soup mess. But, it does mean when the snow level goes down, I have extra poop to scoop. On Sunday I made three trips with the poop sled. Typically I scoop up enough for 1 trip with the poop sled each day. Three trips should have counted that as a "cross training" work out! I had already ran 5 miles on the treadmill though, so I got a double workout.

Trading Alpacas

One way to get new genetics on your farm is to trade alpacas with another farm. Not only can you get new genetics, but you can tailor the new alpaca to be exactly what you want. Instead of picking a specific breeding and wishing and praying for a certain outcome, hoping that cria is a certain color, you can find an animal the meets exactly what you want.

It's not always that easy. Often what you want, people aren't willing to part with (unless you are willing to shell out a lot of money). And it's not always easy to figure out an even trade. It's not always one alpaca for one alpaca. If you really want a certain one, you are willing to offer more in return to sweeten the deal. And there is always the quandary of is a male worth more or a female? It depends on the quality of course. And while it shouldn't matter, there is sometimes the emotional component. There are some animals on my farm that I would be willing to trade, but only for the right trade.

We've been working on several different trades. I don't want to post the exact specifics, because I think those are personal matters. I'd hate for another farm involved to feel exposed by my blabbing it all. I also don't want people to scrutinize each trade. It becomes a value call, because the only way a trade will work is if what you are getting is worth what you are losing, for both parties involved. And that truly is a personal call. We are looking for some specific things to boost our breeding program, and are willing to part with some wonderful alpacas in order to get that.

What you will noticed is new faces on our farm, and some of our current residents no longer being here. While it will be sad to say goodbye, we are determined to push ahead. We have a vision that we are determined to follow.

Facebook

We've had a farm page on facebook, but recently they made some changes to the business pages. This means a new address for it:
http://www.facebook.com/OakHavenAlpacasLLC

As far as I can tell, the old link still works too. And the link on the left side of my blog will take you there. If you haven't done so yet, please visit our facebook farm page and "like" us :)

I'm still learning all the new gadgets that come with the revised business page. I can now log into facebook under our business farm name, or my own name. I hope I don't mix up my identity! I do like having two separate accounts. I also like the pictures across the top of the page like (like they did with the personal pages). On the farm page, I have pictures of alpaca products up there for anyone to view. I still have my blog linked to the page so you can view blog posts directly on my blog, on facebook, on Ravelry (under my profile "oakhavenalpacas") or at The Hive.

Pictures of Miss Kitty

I know I cheated last week, posting about our new alpaca, Miss Kitty, but then not including any pictures. I went back to that post and did add a picture, but she's full of snow, you really can't see anything. Miss Kitty has incredible genetics, but has gotten a bit overweight. Our goal is to slim her down some so that we can breed her.

Miss Kitty is the one standing straight up behind the feed bin in this picture:



I know it's hard to get a size comparison in a picture. The maroon colored alpaca in front of her is Victoria. You can see how Miss Kitty towers over Victoria. Though for perspective, Victoria is a smaller alpaca, weighing around 130 pounds.




In this picture I am standing behind Miss Kitty, she is bent down eating out of the hay bin. Maddie is standing next to her (the black alpaca). Maddie is an average size alpaca, running about 160 pounds - here you can see how Miss Kitty has a lot of weight on her in comparison!



Miss Kitty is not bred, so all that belly is her:



Miss Kitty does have nice bone on her. She's a tall alpaca. She has great genetics and nice fiber. I will keep you posting on how our slimming diet is working for Miss Kitty.

Exciting things

Our next exciting upcoming event is Show Season. That is by far our favorite part of alpaca farming. We love traveling to different area. We love meeting up with other alpaca farmers. We love showing off our animals. While we know they won't all do as well in the show ring as we would hope, we find that we learn so much at shows, that even the poor placements help us grow as farmers.

After show season there is shearing. While the actual shearing is really hard work, it is wonderful to have that luxurious fiber to work with. This year we are committed to sending some to a mill to get mill spun yarn and rovings. There is not enough time for me to spin all of it myself, so we are determined to get some of it to the mill this year.

But another exiciting time is Cria Season. This year we are expecting six cria: from Kateri, Victoria, Sancha, Snickers, Lucy and Tehya. Their due dates are listed at the bottom of my blog. Maddie did not take with her pregnancy and we found out too late in the season to rebred her. Latte had a cria in late September, too late in the year for us to want to bred her for that time of year again. And Miss Kitty came open, she needs some work before we will breed her (she needs to lose some weight).

The first cria due this year will come from our own Tehya. Tehya was born on our farm, she was our first years cria. I saw Tehya be born, the first delivery I saw from beginning to end. Tehya did spectacular in the show ring. I am so excited to see what she will produce!

Lately, Tehya has been looking very pregnant. Not all females show that they are pregnant, and maybe she doesn't to the naked eye. From the side, not much to see:



I notice how her sides pops when she is viewed from the front (or back), more so than she ever did before:

New Feeder

As our little boy barn grows with more boys, we knew we needed a bigger feeder in there. As it was, we only had a couple small buckets in there to put hay in.

J built this:



The boys didn't want to go by it when I was there, so I had to sneak this picture with Cavalier there:



It's plenty big for us to add more boys in that barn and have enough hay for everyone to eat. In the near future we will be moving Challenger up there. It's come time for him to wean from his mom.

New Tools

About a week ago J and I were in a local store and saw this really neat sled that would be perfect as a poop sled. I had this in the back of my mind after a couple people mentioned on my blog that a sled might be the answer to my wheel barrow vs snow problem. I looked at this sled and could see the value in it. J thought we should buy it right then and there, but I resisted. We don't usually get that much snow at one time, I've managed using the wheel barrow in the snow. I didn't really NEED it.

Then we got dumped on this snow this past week. Wednesday we were so buried in snow I didn't even think about cleaning up the alpaca's poop. It wasn't until Thursday evening that I realized I had a poop problem. If I could barely push the wheel barrow around before this storm, adding on another 10+ inches of snow would make it impossible. Looking at the weather prediction for the next week, we aren't in for a thaw anytime soon. I came inside after farm chores and said to J that I may have made a mistake passing on that sled.

Friday when I came home from work I found this in my back yard:



After 11 years of marriage, while I definitely do appreciate flowers and chocolate, it's the really thoughtful things, like a poop sled that will make my life easier, that becomes the most romantic. This sled is actually made for ice fishing, but it's the perfect size and shape for a poop sled.

I tried to get a picture to show the depth, but this really doesn't give a good frame of reference:

Fiber Trade Off

Unfortunately I did not finish even one skein of yarn during the month of January. Throughout the month I kept intending to spin yarn, but it seemed like something kept coming up. I recently realized what the real issue was. I decided to run in the 5/3 River Bank Run this spring. Since making that decision, I have made a concerted effort to run more. This means instead of using barn chores as exercise and getting on the treadmill maybe once a week for a good solid workout, I am now getting on the treadmill 3 or 4 times a week. Not only am I on the treadmill for about an hour, but there is time getting ready before, the cool down, and the shower afterward - by the time I add all that time up we are talking close to 8 hours each week that I *could* be spinning yarn. This is only going to increase as we get closer to race day. I will run further each day, and run more days of the week.

I decided it is a trade off. I can't do everything and right now getting in shape and running this 10K is important to me. So I am going to give myself a break and not worry about yarn spinning for now. My goal of a skein a week will be on hold for now. If I am able to spin a few skeins here and there that is great, but it's ok if I don't.

I did manage to complete these this weekend:



It's a large skein of Greyt's fiber, and a small skein of a twist of Greyt and Tucker (a perfect size for an accent yarn). These are my first skeins for 2011.

All I had to do this weekend was ply two strands of Greyt's fiber, I had already spun two strands. Greyt is a beautiful Rose Grey. His color doesn't show up great in there pictures. You'll have to trust me, it's even more wonderful in person. Plying Greyt:



This was a very large skein, I could barely fit the entire plyed skein on my wheel (and my Louet is known to hold more yarn than most spinning wheels). I measured it as 180 yards and 11.5 ounces.



I had a little left over of one strand of Greyt. I love it when this happens, because I will ply that left over with some other left over, making a multi-color small skein as an accent yarn. I happened to have a strand of Tucker's fiber (Tucker is a beautiful light silver grey). The mix of these two greys was fun to ply:



I ended up with 19 yards, 1.5 ounces, of this contrasting accent yarn (again these pictures do not do justice to the true beauty of this yarn):

Our Alpaca's Family Tree

In an effort to organize our farm animals, I put together these family trees, growing from each of our breeding females. I made this into a separate page that can be viewed anytime for reference. The link is very handy, listed under the heading "Pages" on the left side of my blog.

I listed the dams in order of when they came to our farm, then the male they were bred to along with their offspring. I added their birth year behind their names, and their color (abbreviated).

I did consider adding the cria these dams had before they came to our farm, but I haven't done that yet.

Kateri (2004 LB):

+ bred to NWA, LTD Accoyo's Goldsmith (1999 MF) for:
Kateri’s Tehya (2008 LF)

+ bred to SHVN The Buccaneer (2006 TB) for:
OHVNA Pocahontas (2009 DRG/ID):

+ bred to Express's Accoyo Adonis (2006 W) for:
OHVNA Chaska (2010 B):

+ bred to Sancha's White Lightning (2008 W) for:
??? (2011)


Hana’s Victoria (2004 DB)

- bred to NWA, LTD Accoyo's Goldsmith (1999 MF) for:
Victoria’s Shelby (2008 MB)

+ bred to Peruvian Twister (2004 LF) for:
OHVNA The Cavalier (2009 LF)

+ bred to ARF Our Peruvian Tucker (2006 CLSG) for:
OHVNA The Challenger (2010 CDRG)

+ bred to My Peruvian Georgio (2006 LF) for:
??? (2011)


GF Raphaella’s Sancha (1998 W):

- bred to RO Centurion Magic (MF) for:
Sommerfield (2007 B)

- bred to Aztec's Peruvian Avatar (2002 W) for:
Sancha’s White Lightning (2008 W)

- bred to 2002 Peruvian Lord Stanley (2002 LB) for:
Snow Lily by Lord Stanley (2009 W)

+ bred to Apollo's Griffon (2006 LB) for:
Our Copper Canyon (2010 LB)

+ bred to SA Peruvian Greyt Exxpectations (2007 MMRG) for:
???? (2011)


KSF Midnight Masquerade (2007 TB)

+ bred to NL Smokey (2003 MDSG) for:
Smokey’s Twilight (2010 ID)

+ Open this year (2011)


Persnickety Miss (2002 DF)

+ bred to Snowmass Enlightenment (2004 CMRG) for:
Enlightenment’s Rocky Rose (2010 CMRG)

+ bred to My Peruvian Georgio (2006 LF) for:
???? (2011)


Straightfork Vanilla Latte (2006 LF)

+ bred to Straightfork Peruvian Eclipse (2006 LF) for:
Eclipse’ Ginger Ale (2010 MF)

+ Open 2011


Kateri’s Tehya (2008 LF)

+ bred to Peruvian Navigator (2005 CDRG for:
??? (2011)


RPA Lucy (2005 B)

+ bred to Peruvian Mr Bojangles (2002 MB) for:
??? (2011)


+ = on our farm
- = on another farm
italic = an animal we own

Color Chart:
W = white
B = beige
LF = light fawn
MF = medium fawn
DF = dark fawn
LB = light brown
MB = medium brown
DB = dark brown
BB = bay black
TB = true black
LSG = light silver grey
MSG = medium silver grey
DSG = dark silver grey
LRG = light rose grey
MRG = medium rose grey
DRG = dark rose grey
C ~ before any grey means classic grey (tuxedo grey)
M ~ before any grey means modern grey (roan grey)
IL = indefinite light
ID = indefinite dark

Snowapocolypse 2011

Or snow-alpaca-lypse as it was on our farm.

Here is a picture I took Tuesday evening before the storm hit (I purposely cleared off the table so we could see the new snow accumulate):



Here is it after:





In order to get out to the patio, I had to go through the door:



Outside our garage:



My car wasn't getting out until the plow guy came, that is for sure! Our house sits back in the woods, deep in the snow (with a long private drive to the main road):



We didn't get near the snow that many places did, but we got more than enough. I measured 10.5 inches on our driveway (that is a ruler sticking out of the snow).



Others are telling me that isn't an accurate area because there is tree cover, they say we got closer to a foot. Either way, it was a lot of snow. While we have a plow guy who comes to plow our driveway (at .25 mile long, it's too long for us to shovel), I did have to get out our shovels to clear areas for the alpacas.

First Emma and I ventured up to the boy's barn. We trekked through the snow, with drifts up to my knees. Here are the tracks we left on the driveway:



That walk was a workout in itself. I decided to call it "cross training".

I cleared snow away from the gates, many of which I use when feeding grain. I like to separate out the heavy alpacas from the thin ones so that I can tailor their grain consumption to their needs. Some gates I had to clear just so I could get to the alpacas. I noticed, as I shoveled, how tall the piles were getting next to the fences. Suddenly our fences don't seem so tall.




The big boys hid in their barn all night. When they did venture out, the snow just outside their barn was deep:



Emma realized that the night before when she fed the little boys their grain, she had left their bowls outside. She had to dig through the snow to find the bowls. The little boys kept a close eye on her:



The girl's hay bin was almost buried in the snow:



They sure were glad when I got out there to clean it out and give them fresh hay. The snow and cold made them very hungry girls.

Snowy faces:





Snowy bodies:



Now today, while we didn't get any more snow, the cold has set in. It's -7*F at our farm this morning. I know those alpacas will be eating tons of hay to keep warm.

Bursting into Song

We acquired a new alpaca, Dodge City Miss Kitty. Being that one of my main theme songs has been Toby Keith's "Should've Been a Cowboy" (video here), I can't help but sing to Miss Kitty.

I bet you've never heard ole Marshall Dylan say
Miss Kitty have you ever thought of running away
Settling down would you marry me
If I ask you twice and beg you pretty please
She'd of said Yes in a New York minute
They never tied the knot
His heart wasn't in it
He just stole a kiss as he road away
He never hung his hat up, at Kitty's place

I shoulda been a cowboy
I shoulda learned to rope and ride
Wearing my six-shooter, riding my pony, on a cattle drive
Stealing young girl's hearts
Just like Gene and Roy
Singing those campfire songs
Oh, I should've been a cowboy

I might of had a side kick with a funny name
Running wild through the hills chasing Jesse James
Ending up on the brink of danger
Riding shotgun for the Texas Rangers
Go west young man, haven't you been told
California's full of whiskey, women and gold
Sleeping out all night beneath the desert stars
With a dream in my eye, and a prayer in my heart

I shoulda been a Cowboy
I shoulda learned to rope and ride
Wearing my six-shooter, riding my pony on a cattle drive
Stealing young girl's hearts
Just like Gene and Roy
Singing those campfire songs
Oh, I should've been a cowboy [x4]

Miss Kitty is a bit overweight, so she has come to our farm for a slimming diet. We hope to get her weight down. She is being fed a small amount of grain, while locked in a pen with Victoria and Lucy, our resident piggy girls. We will see how this works to help her lose weight. We have other ideas of how to get weight off her if this doesn't work.

The exciting part about Miss Kitty is that she has genetics from Snowmass, her pedigree is loaded with incredible names.


Adding:
I need to get some good recent pictures of Miss Kitty. The only one I've taken so far is a snow one:

Birth of our Alpacas by Year

Every so often I get curious how old a certain alpaca is. It doesn't take long and I am wondering who is older and who is younger and by how much. So I decided to make up a list, by year, of when each alpaca on our farm was born. It's such a handy list, I also made it into a separate page that can be viewed anytime, linked straight from this blog. It can be found on the left side, under the heading "Pages".


1998

February 3 ~ GF Raphaella's Sancha

2002

June 1 ~ Persnickety Miss (Snickers)

2003

August 15 ~ NL Smokey

2004

June 14 ~ Dodge City Miss Kitty

June 28 ~ Kateri

July 28 ~ Hana's Victoria

2005

May 21 ~ RPA Lucy

2006

June 26 ~ My Peruvian Georgio

July 19 ~ AFR Our Peruvian Tucker

October 13 ~ Apollo's Griffon

October 23 ~ Straightfork Vanilla Latte

2007

September 2 ~ KSF Midnight Masquerade (Maddie)

November 9 ~ SA Peruvian Greyt Exxpectations

2008

July 11 ~ Kateri's Tehya

2009

June 17 ~ OHVNA Pocahontas

July 24 ~ OHVNA Cavalier

August 23 ~ Ashton Stones Little Miss Rosco

2010

April 25 ~ Enlightenment's Rocky Rose

May 21 ~ Our Copper Canyon

June 21 ~ Smokey's Twilight

July 10 ~ OHVNA Chaska

July 16 ~ OHVNA The Challenger

September 29 ~ Eclipse's Ginger Ale

Alpaca Nation Update

We have done some work updating our Oak Haven Alpacas, LLC, AlpacaNation webpage.

We added pages for:

Straighfork Vanilla Latte



Eclipse's Ginger Ale



OHVNA The Challenger



and RPA Lucy

The links will take you to the page where there are more pictures, including fiber pictures.

We also updated pictures on other animals: OHVNA Pocahontas, Ashton Stones Little Miss Rosco, Smokey's Twilight, and Persickety Miss (Snickers).