Ian Turns 4

Ian celebrated a birthday since my last blog entry. He's officially 4 but he insists he should be 5 by now. His goal is to become 11 as soon as possible so he'll be old enough to play a board game that says for ages "11 and up".

In his 'old age' Ian is tackling more phonics practice. He took letter cards and was making words when suddenly he came running into the study to share with us the word he had just spelled...
If you use a 4 year old's pronunciation of 'tooth', you'd be able to read the above word!

All the work of being a 4 year old is pretty exhausting...

The First of June

The 'rhodies' are in bloom again and once again, they are beautiful. We're hoping to have the front steps redone this summer so next year's picture will have a completed front view.

Today is Wayne's and my 24th wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe that 24 years have passed since two young 'kids' were standing in front of family and friends making our wedding vows in Portsmouth, NH. We keep saying to each other, "Who would have guessed we'd be where we are with a houseful of kids and a barnyard of animals?!" I wouldn't change any of it!

Alpaca Antics

Before our first alpacas arrived on the farm we were warned of an 'illness' that is common on new owner's farms. It's called 'dead alpaca syndrome' (or various twists of that title). When the sun is out, it's not uncommon to look out into the pasture and see alpaca bodies stretched out on the ground. Many 'newbies' go into a panic thinking their herd has been poisoned only to find out that they are just enjoying the warmth of the sun. I must admit that some days I'd like to go out and join them!

Now you would think that with this lovely grass for grazing that Peter Alpaca would be content in his new pen, but last night he jumped over the fence to join the goats and chickens. We thought that he might be lonely and just wanted some companionship since he is a herd animal. Since we have to quarantine for 2 weeks from the other alpacas, we thought putting him with the goats might help with his loneliness. This a.m. we put one of the goats into the nice grassy pen with him after he spent the night in the goat barn. A few minutes later Katelyn came running in to announce that, "Rudolph just cleared the fence again!" It seems that he's more content with the chickens in their bare ground pen munching on hay then in the green pasture. He does keep looking over at the alpaca pasture and hum. Hopefully, he won't try to join them on his own before his quarantine is over. We may have to cut it short after the vet gives him a once over on Friday's vet visit.

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.

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.

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.