Must be jelly 'cause jam don't shake like that!

We took the apples from our "Summer apple" tree to the Annapolis Valley to have them pressed into soft cider. This cider is not pasteurized and has a limited shelf life. I came home with 96 liters of apple juice. We are fermenting some for hard cider, sold some, froze some and still had lots leftover.

The only remaining option was to make jelly! Six cases later, we have apple jelly, apple ginger jelly, apple lovage jelly, apple basil jelly, spiced apple jelly, apple red pepper jelly, apple lemon balm jelly....you get my drift.

Get 'em now at 4.50 each.

A girl for Wyonna

The last cria of the season was born today, a girl for Wyonna. I was in the barn getting the chores done and before I knew it the little thing was on the ground. Wyonna is an experienced mom and did not require any help at all.

The little one was on her feet in good time and has made her way out to the pasture.

It is late in the season so we will give Wyonna a winter rest and re-breed her in the spring.

Another win for Oreo

We sent some fleeces to the Navan Fair Alpaca Show which was held outside Ottawa on August 14-15.

Oreo's fleece won Black Champion and Toblerone's fleece took a first.

Maitland Launch Day

August 21 is Launch Day in Maitland NS. It is the anniversary of the launch of a boat into the Bay Of Fundy.

The town puts on a parade, events and local crafters set up displays. Somewhere around 300 or so people attended the event. Our table was a popular spot as people were keen to learn about Alpacas.

www.maitlandns.com

Pasture rotation

The boy's side of the pasture was looking a little worse for wear so we began a pasture rotation program. We moved all the males to a larger pasture area behind and next to the ladies area.

This worked for about a day.

Perilli our main stud decided that now that he could clearly see the female herd, they all belonged to him. He put the run on the other males which defeats the purpose of the pasture rotation. We moved Perilli and a "buddy" back to the original area, leaving the rest of the herd (the young guys) by the girls.

They still hang out along the fence looking wistfully at the ladies but at least all is calm.

Toblerone's First Breeding

Now that our young studs are two years of age we are giving them a chance to breed. Toblerone got his shot a couple of weeks ago. It seems to have taken as Karmelita was not interested in the spit testing we did this weekend.

Barolo and Karmelita

Pictures from Barolo's first day.

Ways to keep cool

A busy time in the pasture

Sweet Dreams finally delivered a beautiful girl after a very long wait. This was her first.

We had been working in the vicinity of the barn and stopped to have a look before heading in for lunch, and noticed that S.D. was walking funny. It was then apparent that there was a head and 2 legs, but the legs were in an incorrect position.

We geared up and went to help. Well S.D. did not think we were going to help, so she took off to the back part of the pasture with a half-born cria in tow. It took four of us maybe 20 minutes to get her in a position where we could catch her and assist.

Thankfully the cria was breathing during this time.

We finally birthed the cria and mom and baby are doing well.

She has earned the name Bacio, Italian for kiss, as all the alpacas came to the new addition to give her a nose-kiss.

Bechamel is Cria # 3

On Sunday, I headed to the barn in the soft rain to give the morning mineral mash and close the animals in the barn as few needed shots and we wanted to do some breed Karmelita. In the morning stuper I did not see notice that not all the girls came. We organized the first breeding of Toblerone to Karmelita and started give a few shots. We were looking for one of the animals and realized she was not in the barn. A quick head count showed 3 must have been on the far side of the pasture so I did not see them when I called them in. Opened the door and there was Cadence giving birth to our first girl of the the year Bechamel.

All is well with mom and baby and the woofers got to watch and video the birth. Pictures should be up shortly and we will advise when we post the videos.

A happy accident

Somehow this morning one of the gates between the adult males and the juvenile males became unhooked.

We really didn't notice this until after lunch when we are working in the barn area. I glanced up to see that the juveniles had entered the forbidden territory of the adults. They were all happily grazing together without incident, perhaps because they have been fence-mates for quite some time.

We were planning to introduce them at the end of the breeding season to ensure a smooth transition. We need not have worried, as nature takes care of things herself.

Welcome to Barolo

Our second cria of the season arrived on July 11. Bartholomew is happy to have a playmate to romp with.

Beating the heat

The dog days of summer have arrived with full force and we are all trying to stay cool. It has been hot 30c with heavy humidity. This puts us in the danger zone for alpacas (80f and 80%humidity is the benchmark) so we need to provide methods of cooling.

The girls and the juvenile males like to dip in the pools. The adult males prefer that we spray the trees so they can stand under the dripping water.

The dogs seek the shade, and for us, we do what we can.

Home again

Home again and busily trying to catch up on farm work after a week at Olds Agricultural College in Alberta.

I attended the annual Fibre Week, taking a 2 day class in making felt boots and a four day Alpaca fibre sorter/grader/classer program.

The fibre program has a two year apprenticeship during which time I need to sort and grade 250 alpaca fleeces. Needless to say I will be looking for farms that need help with this step.

My boots are quite funky and just require the addition of soles to be ready for this winter.

Being surrounded by 400 plus fibre artists for a whole week certainly was inspiring and I have returned with many new ideas.

Hay Days

Bill came down and cut the hay last week and then turned it on the following days. On Monday, with Caroline now home it was time to bale. Thankfully Caroline was now home as being a Monday some of our regular help was away at work and then the other local boys who often come on baling day did not show. That left Caroline, Bill and myself to move the 900 odd bales into the barn. Bill, who has the equipment would help us finish each load so he could dump the next one. Became a very long day as we started at 130 and finished about 9pm. Thankfully another neighbour Mike came by looking for Bill and helped us finish things up for the last hour just as Caroline and I were at the point of total exhaustion.

We did get another good crop in the barn and things are set for another winter season. We only need about 300 bales for the year so we are selling some again this year.