Happy New Year...
How can it be 2008 already? And how embarrassing to find it has been so long since I have posted to this blog? My, my, my. Can you tell that I have been extremely busy?
Late summer and fall were consumed with the VAOBA Alpaca Expo. There is an unbelievable amount of work involved in putting on an alpaca show anyway, but this show in its second year jumped from a Level III show with I think 381 alpacas to a Level IV show with near 600 alpacas by the time all was said and done. Unfortunately, most of the alpacas were entered on the "postmark by" day! People - please. It may be okay fine when shows use on-line registration but when not used, that is way too much typing! :-)
This was the third fall outdoor show in Virginia and our luck ran out weather wise. Why the drought had to break on check-in day I will never understand! We had been without rain for weeks, months? It couldn't wait four more days? You think that you have all bases covered and then wham. I will say it could have been worse... but not much.
Once the show got going things seemed to run pretty well. Every show improves over the previous one and even though I say this in hushed tones, I am actually looking forward to the fall 2008 show so that we can implement some of the changes we have identified.
In November, a week or so after the show, I farm sat for friends who finally planned a vacation after two years. They had a couple of females who were due around that time and were really torn over leaving for vacation or staying home just in case... Going on vacation was the right decision. All was well at home on the farm when they were gone and their dams waited for them to return before delivering their cria.
Thanksgiving saw Chuck and I on our own as our sons are all in NH and our daughter "does" that holiday with her other half's family. We had a small roast chicken instead of turkey. I decided that would be the last time I did that! How silly but we really need turkey on Thanksgiving - just isn't the same without it!
On December 11th we were surprised with a somewhat early delivery by one of our dams. Miss Wise Obsession was due on December 22nd so even though we were on cria watch it was still not really expected if that makes sense. It's a good thing she didn't hold out for the 22nd as the cria was 19 pounds! Ouch. I equate that with probably a nine pound human. It was a boy. He is the most interesting coloration. I haven't taken the ARI color chart out there yet but his blanket and neck are a very dark brown, lots of black on his face/head and black lower legs. His belly and "pits" are a much lighter brown- probably a medium. I guess it is a sort of vicuna pattern. We named him Nottingham Hollow's Dougal. His sire is Angus of Argyll so we decided to stick with Celtic names for his male offspring.
We have rebred Miss Wise and this time to Friar Tuck! It really tickled me to be able to use one of our home grown males. Tuck is a light fawn and we hope that he and Miss Wise, who is a true black, will produce a rose grey. Only have a year to wait.... I think her due date, much as that is reliable, is December 2nd.
We discovered that Tabitha is most probably not pregnant as we thought. She was bred to Angus last July and would have been due in June. It looks as though she absorbed so we are now going to breed her with Robin Hood. He's actually our first born on the farm and is quite anxious to prove he can be "the man".
To back track just a bit, Christmas was spent with our daughter and her family. I really miss not having kids at home to wake up on Christmas morning... May have to rent some for next year! Not. It is actually okay to visit and come home to an empty house. If you don't count the dogs, cats, ducks and alpacas...
Last weekend was a first for me. It was a biggie- I am still not sure if I am glad that I did well or not! I have mentioned previously that we were growing the ducks for the freezer. Well, try as I might I wasn't able to find anyone willing to butcher them. There is a local guy who does other poultry and he made an effort to do them. Tried two different times. It just wasn't working for him. I went on the Virginia Homesteading Yahoo group and posted looking for someone and actually got my hopes up when a fellow replied with info on a USDA slaughterhouse out past Lynchburg. Well, those hopes were dashed as well. The last time they dispatched ducks was two years ago and they refused to do it again! Oh boy. What to do? Well, I knew a friend, Barbara from Timberwood Farm, had experience since she does her own poultry and as a child growing up in NH with a dad who hunted she had done ducks before... Long story shorter, Barbara and her husband Doug actually killed the ducks and bled them and taught me how to do the rest. I won't get into it all but I did find that it was a job I could do without getting ill. Not something I was ready to do the next day mind you... but one that I can do when I have to. I just had to "put those big girl panties on" and get the job done. It was all done respectfully and I guess since I couldn't identify which duck that was a big help.
So... I am still on cria watch- this time for Clara. Her due date is February 8th but her last gestation was somewhat shorter so I have been watching intently. If the number of days this time is the same as last time she could go as early as January 23rd. That's what? Six days from now! I just don't know where my head was last March when we bred her. To plan to have a cria in February? Well, we actually thought she had a retained CL and the vet was drawing up the doses of Estrumate for her when our friend Sue suggested we try her out with Kinross. We had gone over to Sue & Judy's farm with Clara to meet up with the vet. Well, didn't she go down - in a split second. She wasn't happy with our studs apparently. What is kind of ironic is that Kinross was sired by Royal Peruvian Challenger, a rose grey sire who was supposed to have sired our first cria. That didn't work out- if she was ever pregnant she absorbed it. So, instead of our having a Challenger cria we will have his grand-cria. Clara was actually acting a bit strange today so I decided it was time to keep the ladies in the barn tonight. It snowed today and I just didn't want to count on their good sense to stay in the barn on their own where it may be cold but is at least dry. As I type I keep looking at the monitor. I can't always make out which alpaca I am looking at but I can tell if they are relaxed or if something is happening... So far, so good.
Earlier this evening I set up another blog: renaissancealpacas.blogspot.com/. This is for the group of us who take part in the Virginia Renaissance Faire. In the past we have all been listed individually on the vendor list but now we can list Renaissance Alpacas and people can get to our individual sites through that. A website would have been nice but I don't know how to build one of those so the blog should work in the meanwhile... It's hard to believe it is almost that time already. Time flies.
I am waiting, rather impatiently, for show certification to be given on the Palmetto Alpaca Classic which is being held on the first weekend in April down in Clemson, SC. I have been hired to be their show superintendent and I am really looking forward to it. After the Expo last year I really wondered if I wanted to continue being a show super. I decided that it would be good to see what the job is like when I am able to just be the show super and not be responsible for anything else. I have a feeling I will like that a lot! They have also hired my daughter Dee (she's my only daughter so I guess I really didn't need to identify her by name!) to be show clerk. I have to train her between now and then but she will do fine. It will be nice to get away just the two of us. Sort of like a working vacation!
On the way down we are going to stop at a friend's farm before going to the hotel. Joyce and I have known each other on-line for years but not met in person yet. We both were SAFA members and served on that board together for a couple of years. Joyce owns Hurricane Alpacas and we are talking about a partnership in some animals.
Well, I know I have said it before and every time I do say it I mean it. I will try to update this more frequently in the future. I guess it doesn't do much good if I don't stay current! It is pretty well caught up now. Here's hoping I will be back soon!
Until the next time.....
Late summer and fall were consumed with the VAOBA Alpaca Expo. There is an unbelievable amount of work involved in putting on an alpaca show anyway, but this show in its second year jumped from a Level III show with I think 381 alpacas to a Level IV show with near 600 alpacas by the time all was said and done. Unfortunately, most of the alpacas were entered on the "postmark by" day! People - please. It may be okay fine when shows use on-line registration but when not used, that is way too much typing! :-)
This was the third fall outdoor show in Virginia and our luck ran out weather wise. Why the drought had to break on check-in day I will never understand! We had been without rain for weeks, months? It couldn't wait four more days? You think that you have all bases covered and then wham. I will say it could have been worse... but not much.
Once the show got going things seemed to run pretty well. Every show improves over the previous one and even though I say this in hushed tones, I am actually looking forward to the fall 2008 show so that we can implement some of the changes we have identified.
In November, a week or so after the show, I farm sat for friends who finally planned a vacation after two years. They had a couple of females who were due around that time and were really torn over leaving for vacation or staying home just in case... Going on vacation was the right decision. All was well at home on the farm when they were gone and their dams waited for them to return before delivering their cria.
Thanksgiving saw Chuck and I on our own as our sons are all in NH and our daughter "does" that holiday with her other half's family. We had a small roast chicken instead of turkey. I decided that would be the last time I did that! How silly but we really need turkey on Thanksgiving - just isn't the same without it!
On December 11th we were surprised with a somewhat early delivery by one of our dams. Miss Wise Obsession was due on December 22nd so even though we were on cria watch it was still not really expected if that makes sense. It's a good thing she didn't hold out for the 22nd as the cria was 19 pounds! Ouch. I equate that with probably a nine pound human. It was a boy
We have rebred Miss Wise and this time to Friar Tuck! It really tickled me to be able to use one of our home grown males. Tuck is a light fawn and we hope that he and Miss Wise, who is a true black, will produce a rose grey. Only have a year to wait.... I think her due date, much as that is reliable, is December 2nd.
We discovered that Tabitha is most probably not pregnant as we thought. She was bred to Angus last July and would have been due in June. It looks as though she absorbed so we are now going to breed her with Robin Hood. He's actually our first born on the farm and is quite anxious to prove he can be "the man".
To back track just a bit, Christmas was spent with our daughter and her family. I really miss not having kids at home to wake up on Christmas morning... May have to rent some for next year! Not. It is actually okay to visit and come home to an empty house. If you don't count the dogs, cats, ducks and alpacas...
Last weekend was a first for me. It was a biggie- I am still not sure if I am glad that I did well or not! I have mentioned previously that we were growing the ducks for the freezer. Well, try as I might I wasn't able to find anyone willing to butcher them. There is a local guy who does other poultry and he made an effort to do them. Tried two different times. It just wasn't working for him. I went on the Virginia Homesteading Yahoo group and posted looking for someone and actually got my hopes up when a fellow replied with info on a USDA slaughterhouse out past Lynchburg. Well, those hopes were dashed as well. The last time they dispatched ducks was two years ago and they refused to do it again! Oh boy. What to do? Well, I knew a friend, Barbara from Timberwood Farm, had experience since she does her own poultry and as a child growing up in NH with a dad who hunted she had done ducks before... Long story shorter, Barbara and her husband Doug actually killed the ducks and bled them and taught me how to do the rest. I won't get into it all but I did find that it was a job I could do without getting ill. Not something I was ready to do the next day mind you... but one that I can do when I have to. I just had to "put those big girl panties on" and get the job done. It was all done respectfully and I guess since I couldn't identify which duck that was a big help.
So... I am still on cria watch- this time for Clara. Her due date is February 8th but her last gestation was somewhat shorter so I have been watching intently. If the number of days this time is the same as last time she could go as early as January 23rd. That's what? Six days from now! I just don't know where my head was last March when we bred her. To plan to have a cria in February? Well, we actually thought she had a retained CL and the vet was drawing up the doses of Estrumate for her when our friend Sue suggested we try her out with Kinross. We had gone over to Sue & Judy's farm with Clara to meet up with the vet. Well, didn't she go down - in a split second. She wasn't happy with our studs apparently. What is kind of ironic is that Kinross was sired by Royal Peruvian Challenger, a rose grey sire who was supposed to have sired our first cria. That didn't work out- if she was ever pregnant she absorbed it. So, instead of our having a Challenger cria we will have his grand-cria. Clara was actually acting a bit strange today so I decided it was time to keep the ladies in the barn tonight. It snowed today and I just didn't want to count on their good sense
Earlier this evening I set up another blog: renaissancealpacas.blogspot.com/. This is for the group of us who take part in the Virginia Renaissance Faire. In the past we have all been listed individually on the vendor list but now we can list Renaissance Alpacas and people can get to our individual sites through that. A website would have been nice but I don't know how to build one of those so the blog should work in the meanwhile... It's hard to believe it is almost that time already. Time flies.
I am waiting, rather impatiently, for show certification to be given on the Palmetto Alpaca Classic which is being held on the first weekend in April down in Clemson, SC. I have been hired to be their show superintendent and I am really looking forward to it. After the Expo last year I really wondered if I wanted to continue being a show super. I decided that it would be good to see what the job is like when I am able to just be the show super and not be responsible for anything else. I have a feeling I will like that a lot! They have also hired my daughter Dee (she's my only daughter so I guess I really didn't need to identify her by name!) to be show clerk. I have to train her between now and then but she will do fine. It will be nice to get away just the two of us. Sort of like a working vacation!
On the way down we are going to stop at a friend's farm before going to the hotel. Joyce and I have known each other on-line for years but not met in person yet. We both were SAFA members and served on that board together for a couple of years. Joyce owns Hurricane Alpacas and we are talking about a partnership in some animals.
Well, I know I have said it before and every time I do say it I mean it. I will try to update this more frequently in the future. I guess it doesn't do much good if I don't stay current! It is pretty well caught up now. Here's hoping I will be back soon!
Until the next time.....
posted by Sue at 11:23 PM
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