Saturday, May 30, 2009

The New 'Kid' on the Farm

Meet "Peter" the newest addition to the farm. This is the Suri alpaca that was in the previous blog, but he is now sporting his summer haircut.Peter arrived this afternoon and is settling in nicely. He's had a busy day--sheared, immunized, toe nails trimmed, and then moved to his new home. He'll be in private quarters for 2 weeks and then we'll introduce him to the neighborhood alpacas. (They were really checking him out as I walked him to his new pen--surprised they don't have sprained necks!)

Dawn (the previous owner) got "Peter" when he was very young and was very good at getting him accustomed to human contact. He's very friendly and comes over to investigate everyone and everything that is near his fence.

Jonathan loves having an alpaca that lets him get close.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Suri Alpaca

I showed you a picture yesterday of a Suri, but I neglected to explain the difference between a Suri and Huacaya (which is what we currently have). The Suri's fleece is very silky and hangs down in locks. The fiber is so fine that it feels slippery...almost wet. The fleece spins into a very fine yarn which is used for lace knit items. The Huacaya's fleece has more crimp in it and can be made into a thicker yarn. The Huacaya are more common than Suri in the US. The Huacaya looks more cuddly with the full fleece. The Suri look like they are wearing dreadlocks. Both types are amazing, low maintenance animals and fun to watch...particularly when they are running across the field to get the grain treat first, enjoying a dip in the wading pool, or getting sprayed with a hose on a hot day.

Monday, May 25, 2009

So what's a Suri?

This is a Suri alpaca...

Several weeks ago a woman stopped by and asked about our alpaca. Dawn works in the area and had noticed our 'boys' in the field. She told me that she had just gotten 2 Suri alpaca crias (babies) and would really like to get a Huacaya (which is the type we have). I told her that Wayne wanted to get a Suri someday. Dawn had gotten hers for a really good price and offered to get me the name of the person that sold her the 2 young alpaca. They are not show quality but are good fiber animals. With the economy being the way it is, many breeders don't want to deal with 'non-show' quality stock and sell them for next to nothing.
A couple weeks later Dawn called and told me that she was getting 5 more alpaca--1 Huacaya and 4 Suri. If we were interested we could buy one of the Suri from her for a very low price. They were planning to go to western NY to pick them up, but their plans of using a horse trailer fell through. They could use their truck, but didn't have a cap to fit the back. We just so happened to have the cap to Matthew's truck (which has died and gone to the junk yard). We told them they could borrow the cap if they liked. The cap was picked up and they went to get the alpaca. The new alpaca were bigger than the 2 babies so they could only pick up 3 of the 5 on the first trip. On Thursday I recieved an e-mail "All 5 of the boys are on our farm. Do you want to try to come to see them on Monday?" We didn't see how we could purchase another alpaca at this point, but we thought it'd be fun to go see them and visit a bit with Dawn and her husband
Today we went to see the 'boys'. Dawn and her husband had a proposition for us...would we be willing to trade the truck cap for one of the alpaca? Would we?!?! Well, it was Matthew's truck cap, so we did have to talk to him, but we'd let them know. Matt's all for it (as long as he gets some of the profits from the fleece!) so if all works out as planned, we'll soon have another alpaca on the farm. Saturday Rachael and I plan on going to help them with the shearing. Dawn told me that if we help, then we can have the fleece from 'our' alpaca without paying the shearing fee (if I give her a handful to spin).
The next step is to get a quarantine pen set up for the new boy on the farm...which is where all the fencing from another 'blessing' comes in. We were driving by a place that used to have sheep and goats and noticed that all the animals were gone and the fencing was really good quality. Wayne and I stopped one day to ask if the owners would be interested in selling some of the fencing to us. To make a very long story short...the house was empty and the seller was about to close with the new owners. She wanted the fence gone by the beginning of the next week. We could have all the 'no climb' goat fence and posts for a very low cost...the catch being we had to get it down and off the property before the following week. Three teenage boys of our own and 3 of their friends started tearing it down that afternoon. By the following day we had the equivalent of approx. 3 rolls of fencing and over 60 wooden fence posts stacked neatly behind the alpaca barn for less than 1/2 of a roll of new fencing!
It's amazing how God not only meets all of our needs but often He surprises us with totally unexpected gifts...like a Suri alpaca! We are abundantly blessed!!

May Birthdays

May is the start of the Jackson "birthday season". Starting with Wayne's birthday on May 8th we have birthdays every few weeks until the end of July--then we're done for another year.
This was a landmark birthday for Wayne...the big 5-0. Here's a nice family shot...

And here's what the crazy crew did right after I took that shot...

There's NEVER a dull moment around this place.

Jonathan turned 6 on the 21st. Where did those 6 years go?!?! Yesterday he climbed up into my lap and something didn't look quite right with his teeth. As I looked closer I realized he's lost his first tooth and has several more that are loose. Yes, he's officially 6...loose teeth and all.

Spring Flowers

They've come and gone, but I thought I'd share some pics of the spring flowers we enjoyed this year.


I also thought you might like to see our budding artist with one of his creations.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Captive Captain


Here Captain is being very patient with his mistress for dressing him in her brother's t-shirt. He's such a good little guy and has endeared himself to all of us...he's never far from someone and always ready for a good ear scratch.

Shearing Day 09



Tuesday was shearing day. Here are the 'boys' waiting for their haircuts...



We had a shearing crew based in Ohio come this year, and they were amazing. They started at 7:18 a.m. and were driving out the driveway at 7:50 a.m.! The alpacas didn't know what hit them! All I had to do was gather the fleece as they cut it off.

The summer style of the pasture...
A new crop of fleece to spin...

Spring Activities


Our friend John brought his tractor down the hill to till our garden for us. Jonathan helped. After they finished tilling, he took Jonathan out in the field and let him drive the tractor. Jonathan would tell him to look up at the sky and while John was looking, Jonathan would turn the wheel so they'd drive around in circles. What a character!
No, my cooking doesn't require protective equipment...Wayne caught me mixing up a batch of cold-process goat milk soap. I'm dealing with lye in this pic.
And here's my handsome husband giving 'the boys' some nice green grass to munch on a couple of weeks ago.