Sunday, November 29, 2009

Home safe and sound.

Saturday morning we tumbled into the truck and once again headed for PEI to pick up the girls from the Vet College. This was a much more leisurely trip and we even had time to visit friends on another alpaca farm on the island.

Upon arriving home the girls were a bit confused at the sight of their familiar barn. Perhaps they were expecting something different after all their travels. They settled in just fine in the end.

All health checks were clear and Kiana will be the first we breed in the spring. Wish us luck!

Monday, November 23, 2009

And two are gone

Friday night we took two alpacas to the vet college in PEI, and then drove back again. The trip is about 3 1/2 hours each way and amounts to a lot of driving in an evening. Kiana is in for a thorough examination to determine why she is not remaining bred. Coco tagged along for company, and the students at the college are delighted to have alpacas to study for a week.

Sweet Dreams returns

Sweet Dreams has returned from breeding camp. She spent 3 months at another alpaca farm for an outside breeding. There was much welcoming by the resident ladies when we led her back into the barn, and I'm sure she is happy to be home.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Formal introductions

Today we introduced the yearling males to the adult guys for the first time.

Now that barn renovations are complete and the fence and gates are operational we moved the "teenagers" into the pasture right next to the studs. There was much male posturing, tail raising and nose sniffing along the fence, but the whole thing was less exciting than anticipated. This is good.

The young guys will remain in the new pasture for the day; I want to keep an eye on things and then back home for the night. The final "move in" day will be Saturday which will give us a couple of days to monitor behaviour before we go back to work.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

WWOOFing Season is over

Well, WWOOFing season is over for this year. Without the help of all of our volunteers we certainly would not have so much completed. We enjoyed our conversations with all of you and enjoyed sharing recipes.

Thanks to Clemens and Eva for keeping the gardens in great shape, planting tree seeds and helping with the breedings.

Thanks to Joe and Tina for helping with building the loafing areas on the barn and drilling fence post holes.

Thanks to Mayumi for even more weeding and painiting the trailer and inside the barn. Your help with haying was great.

Thanks to Marisa and Stefanie for helping pound in fence posts, yup, more weeding, and help with breedings.

Thanks to Fanny for putting the gardens to bed for the winter and becoming an expert wood splitter and stacker.

And last but not least thanks to Mathias for building doors, gates and walls in the barn.