Alpacas~Ducks~Hens

Here it is July 18th already... And I am posting again. Something wrong with this as typically a month or more passes between posts. I wanted to update after our bunny experience.

We cared for the bunny for a couple of days. When we changed the litter the bunny escaped a couple of times and I decided that since the cats were otherwise occupied we would take the opportunity to set the little cutie free. We brought it near the spot our cats were playing with it when we found them and the little thing hopped into the woods and was out of sight almost immediately. I think it took all of two hops!

Life went back to normal, but normal is generally pretty busy and can get interesting...

On the volunteer front I have been working almost non-stop with the Virginia Alpaca Owners & Breeders Association in one capacity or another. The VAOBA Alpaca Expo is coming up in October and we already have entries coming in! As the show superintendent, I decided to accept entries early this year in the hopes of not getting slammed with them when I am at my busiest. Time will tell if that decision was correct.

I have also been involved in the building of a new website for the show and we will move on soon to our association web site. There has been quite an education regarding domains, domain transfers and being unable to make things happen due to what I consider a big mistake. I say this unofficially and apart from any role I 'play' with VAOBA. Don't ever buy your domain from Yahoo! If you do, and you want to transfer ownership of the domain it is impossible. Yahoo works under Melbourne IT based in Australia. They are like agents of Melbourne. So many restrictions it is ridiculous. Our association has likely lost the opportunity to use the dot com, dot org, dot net and dot info domains that we want unless we stay with Melbourne IT and Yahoo. I guess every industry has their own sets of issues. Wouldn't it be nice if business could just stay on the high road?

Sorry for the mini rant. Anyway, lots of time went in to providing information to the person building our vaobaexpo site. The previous web masters kindly left the original site live and a lot of the information was able to be downloaded from their site. Having been the one to supply that information to them in the first place I was very appreciative of that! I am sure I still have it on my computer, someplace. My computer files are looking like a closet that needs cleaning these days! So anyway, the new site is up and we are redirecting to it from the original domain. Or will be as soon as the changes take effect. www.vaobaexpo.org can now be viewed on www.vaobaexpo.com. It looks nice and loads really quickly. I have to admit I was amazed at the speed. I am on dial up and quite used to waiting. Pictures load very quickly!

Work begins on the association web site next. I sure hope to have a little time off but something tells me that it will move right along as well. As soon as we get through our domain issues that is. Our webmaster, Mark Bisson, is already brain storming with me on what we need on the site. This should take a big load off his shoulders as far as time spent working for VAOBA. I'll bet his wife will appreciate having that time again!

I had a farm visit this past Monday and met a very nice lady. She's the Executive Director of a new school that is being formed this summer. She has been working towards doing this for years. It is called Jonah's Run Alternative School. Read about it at www.jonasrun.org. It is always enjoyable meeting people who are special and Sarah is one of those. We first met two years ago at the Renaissance Faire out a Lake Anna Winery in Spotsylvania. Actually, it was Chuck that Sarah met. Long story short, Sarah and her husband Scott will be back this coming Sunday to participate in our monthly health day with the alpacas and are bringing their plans for their barn and pasture layout so we can review and offer suggestions. If things work out, we will be selling our Robin Hood and his Merry Men - Friar Tuck, Sheriff and Archer. There are still lots of 'ifs' but that is the plan. The very best news is that Sarah will begin coming to the Renaissance Faire with them next year if the school is their next owner! Win-win situation for me. I am keeping my fingers crossed as this would be so nice for the boys to be able to stay together and how wonderful for the school to have alpacas!

Ducks... The Muscovy ducklings are getting so big! It is absolutely amazing the speed the grow! I am finally seeing a size difference in the first clutch and it seems we were once again 'blessed' with many males! That is okay since we are raising them primarily for food. Both female ducks have begun laying again. Nugget went back to where her first nest was. Bandana is trying to find a spot for her nest. She only just started laying yesterday and thought the doorway of the hay room was a good spot! There is a good layer of hay on the floor since we just take a few flakes at a time and it spills so she simply made a depression in it and layed her egg. When I found her I was surprised and scooped it all up and transferred it to nearby Nugget's nest. I am not sure that will work but I was careful not to touch the egg so I am hopeful. I also scooped up almost all the hay off the floor and put that in with them as well.

Hens? Want some? These girls started picking on and chasing the ducklings. I don't really want to have to spend extra time and money on patching up ducks so I moved the hens out and have given them their own space apart from the ducks. They now can free range and are slowly figuring out there really is a lot of space to roam... The problem is that they, just like the female ducks, seem very challenged when it is time to return to their homes! Too often they need to be helped back in! Well, in the course of the 'move' of course the nest box also got moved. They have used it once in a week. Now I am finding eggs in the boys hay feeder, the girls hay feeder and now in the DUCKS NEST! Good thing I have easy access to it. I do have to figure out a way to stop this though. Once the ducks begin sitting the nest(s) I can't have the chicken going in to get them off! This is becoming hard to come up with keeping the poultry happy! :-)

Well, I guess that's it until the next time!

One more for the menagerie?

Just as I sat to make the blog entry (less than a month than the last one!) my husband opened the door and yelled for me to come outside. It was pretty urgent. Needless to say I listened and went running down the hall, having no clue what was going on or even which door to go out! I figured the door part out right away catching his quick movement through the window!

Our two barn cats were laying on the ground next to a baby bunny! It is presently resting wrapped in my t-shirt .....

About 45 minutes later. We have been to the pet store for bunny food and have the little fellow in a small dog or cat carrier that my daughter donated to the rescue project. We have provided safety from the cats and and are hopeful it is old enough to survive. After it gets big enough to fend for itself we plan to release it. Unfortunately the cats do not come into the house at all so there is no way to protect it from them except for this plan.

Gee, two days ago they brought me a gift - a mouse. I wasn't impressed. I hope they aren't searching out bigger and better!

Back to business!

The 2007 run of the Virginia Renaissance Faire wrapped up the weekend following my last post. As I believe I mentioned previously, it was a long run for us this year since we attended rehearsals with our grand daughter Emily.

On Monday following closing weekend I drove up to a farm in northern Virginia to pick up Triton, a young alpaca who is now on our farm as a consignment alpaca. He is such a sweet alpaca! Never been on a halter! I brought one with me but never put it on until arriving home. He offered no resistance what-so-ever. Of course, he also offered no help. "Walk? You want me to walk?" He couldn't quite grasp that concept! It turned out he was just under seventy pounds so it wasn't too terribly hard to carry him part of the way from the van. Once he caught site of our females he suddenly realized he had legs and they actually could get him where he needed to be!

The next day, a reporter from the Free Lance Star, Fredericksburg's newspaper, came out and spent an hour and a half interviewing me. She had received our business card from a fellow employee at the paper who we had met at a Living History weekend at Belvedere Plantation in Spotsylvania County last April. That weekend was in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Jamestown. Chuck, Emily and I attended with some of the Renaissance people. After all, "before their was a Jamestown there was Elizabethan England!" We brought Robin Hood, Friar Tuck, The Sheriff and Archer and they obviously had made an impression! Anyway, the interview went very well and I was surprised when the reporter said she would like to come back with a photographer... No problem! :-)

The next weekend I attended an Ian Watt seminar in Charlottesville, VA. Ian is from "down under" and extremely knowledgeable about all things fiber in relation to alpacas and sheep. It was a great way to spend my first weekend off! Friends from the faire actually joined VAOBA and attended the seminar. They had been researching alpacas for a few years and were very happy with the common sense things that Ian taught us regarding pastures and alpaca farming etc. I highly recommend this seminar to anyone who has the opportunity to take it!

While at the seminar I got word from home that our second female duck's eggs were hatching. By the time I got home we had 9 new ducklings. It meant that it was time to move the first ducks out of the nursery and move the new batch in. We have quite the set-up off the back of the barn for the ducks and hens. Albeit temporary, it is working quite well. Hmmm, let's make that well. The hens have taken to chasing the ducks and it may be time to come up with a Plan B, or is it Plan C?

During the next couple of weeks we decided to do some much needed sprucing up around the farm. The barn got a coat of paint and I bought some beautiful day lily's from a couple who have the most glorious gardens. Chuck works with him and I know they treated me special because of it. I was sent off with a bonus lily that looks just wonderful planted in front of the barn, right next to our St. Francis statue.

Our 'date' with the photographer was on July 2nd. Thankfully they didn't use any of the photos of me scooping poop. They were a little late and missed feeding but did get a nice picture of Triton and Emily. I am in the picture as well but not especially happy with how I looked. Large doesn't exactly seem descriptive enough!

The story ran on Saturday, July 7th. I was very pleased and the misquotes were minimal. Instead of halter training we were harness training. Easy enough to live with that one... Second most strongest fiber? Well, it actually is the second most thermal natural fiber - again, not a big one. I emailed everyone I could think of with the link. I was quite surprised today to hear that it popped up on a friend's Google News Alert as well! And, for the first time in two years the owner of the local hardware store recognized us! Smiles.

On Friday of this week I had occasion to be visited by another local (40 minutes away) alpaca farmer and her children. It was a very nice visit and Emily and I plan to visit with Tara and the kids at Yellow Rose Alpacas very soon! Tara is a wonderful lady and I look forward to seeing her often!

Until the next time!