Saturday, December 31, 2011


Hi, welcome to my blog, I raise the world’s softest, renewable luxury fiber, and organic garden enhancer, on my alpaca farm with my four children.  Winter days start to feel a bit routine on an alpaca farm, no babies expected till spring, pastures covered in snow and, all the alpacas huddled in the barn.  Chores include scooping the beans,  when their not frozen to the ground, fill the water,  lug around some hay bales.  Get grain in the feed troughs with out getting spit at.   Blah blah blah, 
  so we look forward to spring!  I always know spring is hear when Tractor supply advertises chick days!  Yes my dear friends this is the answer to that age old question, which came first the chicken or the egg?  the chicken of course they come from tractor supply and then they lay the eggs.   Yeah chick days, those adorable little yellow fuzzy peeps (not the marshmallow ones).  We always pick up a dozen, wouldn’t be spring with out them.  We raise them in the basement under a heat lamp until they are big enough to move out side or they smell too bad to stay inside.   The kids name them and can some how tell the difference between what appears to me all exactly the same.   Quite a few years ago one of these adorable yellow peeps named Tiffany, grew up to be a very handsome rooster.  Tiffany has a bit of attitude
  One thing  to remember about Tiffany is his height, about 8” he knows who you are by your boots,  in spring and summer I have an orange and yellow and green paisley rain boot for chores,  and in winter, a boring brown extra warm boot.  Tiffany and I have a fairly stable relationship,  I say hello,  and he checks out the boots and leaves me alone.  However,  each season change when the boots change Tiffany is most confused he know my voice,  but those are not the boot that go with that voice that feeds me,  so… attack  or don’t attack.  I have to keep talking because I can see his confusion.  It’s a real good thing I don’t have close neighbors because they might think I was completely crazy in my barn caring on with a rooster,  so how was your day Tiffany,  warm enough last night?  Where are all the ladies? (Chickens)  Your looking especially handsome today.        Yep plum crazy down on the farm!
   Guess what I got for Christmas!  New boots!  I wonder if this is a conspiracy by my family?

Friday, December 23, 2011

Christmas Eve Services

Welcome to my blog!  I raise Suri Alpacas whose luxury fiber is softer than cashmere. I have many other animals as well, and I hope to tell you about my life with them, and how wonderful they all are. Caring for a herd of Alpacas is a wonderful, calming life, but is not without hard work. There is always a story to tell..I think you will love and be entertained by my animal stories. This blog is for all the animal lovers and for those who live far away and have never seen an alpaca.

The Christmas Pageant

It’s almost Christmas so I expect to be hearing from FatherMurdock, at our Catholic Church.  He puts on the most popular children’s Christmas Eve service.  The first year this took place in the church. The show went well until Mary came down the aisle on the back of my neighbor’s pony and left some “apples” along the aisle. People took offense, so the service was moved to our l950’s movie theater.  It still has only one screen, a big marquee out front, and large cushy seats,  balcony, and a very large stage. It turned out to be the very best place for a Christmas pageant.
      Father always invites every animal owner to participate and, children to round it out.  He then tells the Christmas story using each animal’s real name, as they walk down the aisle. Mary enters on horseback, comes down the aisle and lays the baby in the manger. Then the Priest says, “Escada, the alpaca, offered her fiber to keep the baby warm.”  Each animal and child is then announced. There is Liam, the Shepherd boy, carrying Jack, a the baby sheep. Teddy, the dog, stands close by to protect the precious baby. Tiffany, my rooster, (he is a whole other blog) flew up to the rafters, hmm we guess, to catch a qlimpse of the new born king.( She is sensitive. We think he got stage fright, but we did get him down eventually). Then there was Candy, the Llama, curious to see the new born baby, but wanted to check out the stars first.  She was staring up at the balcony and would not walk down the aisle. We felt that Candy may have felt humbled to meet the Christ child…  anyway, she  got only half way down the isle and would not move.  The Priest kept improvising, but she was holding up the show. Finally two men had to put their shoulder into Candy’s rump and push to get her down the aisle.
      This service is truly a wonderful Christmas celebration. Our loved animals and children all become part of the Christmas story. But more than wonderful entertainment, our hearts are warmed and we all feel that we are having an authentic experience of Christmas (except for our cushy seats).
Merry Christmas everyone, and as you are sit in church on Christmas Eve just picture live animals walking down that aisle.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

I set up this blog and planed to post once a week and almost a month has flown by!  Perhaps when things settle down for that long winters rest I will be better at it huh,  Wait,  has anyone actually ever had a long winters rest ,  unless of course your a bear?
    Late fall is generally uneventful on the farm.  Thanksgiving day 13 wild turkeys walked through the pasture,  pretty birds believe it or not,  but alpacas are scared of them. hahaha!  I caught a glimpse of our bald eagle,  about the same time he spotted our 2 pound foster puppy's,  so no time for bird watching,  puppy's are looking like lunch unless I get them inside quick.   Speaking of fosters,  congratulation's to Thor, who spent over a month with us and found his forever home last weekend.  Don't you love happy endings?
   On a wetter note, Pastures are flooded,  being located on the river is so beautiful,  but water rushing through the pasture bringing me enormous logs, and who knows what else in its wake makes things a bit more challenging than a typical farm. last spring we got a "no wake" sign,  I thought it looked nice propped up in the pasture with cria running by,  right now,  it could mean boats!
   I have 150 green panels, 10ft long each, they lock together and make wonderful fencing and then come apart and get stored on high ground when ever floods are predicted. Sounds so efficient,  but when the water is steadily rising and your trying to carry them up the slippery muddy hill,  well.  thoughts of a nice flat, farm on high ground creep into my mind.  Not to mention how cold that water is in November. I know,  stop wining right!  Poor pacas, no pasture for awhile.
   Until next time....





Hello!

This is my first ever Blog,  I have no idea what i am doing but hope to share with you a little bit about life on an alpaca farm.  I welcome questions,  construtive critisim,  but please be nice,  i am not a very technical person so,  so far,  this is really hard!
   Today is a rainy day on the farm,  so a perfect day to learn how to blog!