Better Living Show Results

Unfortunately our participation at the Better Living Show in Halifax was not a success. Less than 5000 people came through the doors and that was far less than the expected attendance. Those who did attend the show seemed to be disappointed with the overall appearance and types of vendors, thus they were not in a buying mood. In the end, sales did not cover the cost of the booth. We had additional frustration as the wireless Internet system did not seem to work with either of our laptops making the few credit card sales difficult. We will have to look at that in the future.

We had positive comments on our display from other vendors and the publice was very interested in the products which was a good sign. The alpaca duverts drew good interest and hopefully this will result in future sales.

Things that we learned:

• Bring your own dolly/cart to move your boxes. Makes setup and take down much easier as it can be done in only a couple of trips from the truck. We found a good one a Canadian tire.
• The 10x10 space was a little small.
• Bring more pictures of the alpacas.
• Everyone liked the box of raw fleece that they could touch.
• Need a rack so you can hang certain items.
• Create a tally sheet so that keeping track of cash sales on small items is easy. Hard to really know how many finger puppets were sold.
• You definitely need two people all the time so that you can take a break. Caroline had a friend help on Saturday but was all alone on Sunday as I had to many things to do back on the farm.

An unsuccessful 3 day show make a long weekend with not enough rest. I am sure Caroline will have more to add.

Show preparations

We have taken a booth at the Better Living Home Show in Halifax Feb 13-15 and are busy preparing displays for the booth.

We have new product in, priced and ready to go, although there is so much more to think about right down to pins for the displays. I have a new appreciation for the vendors that regularly attend these shows as it sure takes a lot of planning.

We hope to do well, ideally we will sell all of the inventory on hand and take additional orders for duvets and pillows.

Weaning part 2

It's been 2 weeks since the separation and all is going well. The cria have become quite docile around us and we are concentrating on handling them and teaching halter tolerance. The next lesson will be learning to lead.

Coco Blanca insists on making her way into the pasture where her mother is. Being the tallest of the cria it is easy for her to get over the fence. She is also the "ring leader" because once she is over the fence, some of the others tend to follow.

Toblerone also likes to get in with his mom, and his humming has quite an urgent quality when we shoo him back to his own pasture.

The moms are enjoying the break from nursing babies and show little interest in them when they do hop the fence.

Cats and dogs

We had some excitement in the barn last week with the dogs and a cat. We were working away and surprised one of the barn cats. The cat lept up and took off like a shot, right into the path of 2 surprised and excited dogs.

The dogs were on the cat, shaking him and basically wiping the floor with the poor thing. Fortunately I was able to intervene in a hurry and save the cat.

Now whenever we are in the barn, that particular cat stays up in the rafters and watches with a wary eye.

Starting the weaning process

On Saturday we separated the Cria from the dams to start the weaning process. The cria of course are quite vocal in their separation with lots of humming and a few attempts to climb the wall between them. The moms while concerned at first poked their heads over the wall. Saw all was fine and went back to eating hay. The below normal cold weather (around - 20 celcius) is both a blessing and pain. It forces the separation in a contained area which lowers the risk of a Cria trying to jump our interior fencing which is suspect due to all the hard pack snow on the ground. The pain is that the pipes to the waterers are frozen again so we have to cart water from the house.

Another first

The weather warmed up enough to tackle the job of implanting a micro-chip into the hind end of the last cris that needed identification.

The appearance of the needle used to insert the chip is enough to put fear into a novice. However, having some experience in administering the worming shot we "plunged" forward.

Really the process is no different than the dewormer: run some alcohol over the area and slip the needle in. Rob had a good hold of the cria, and it was all over in a jiff.

Wyonna and Sweet Dreams return

This weekend past, my neighbour and I went down to Alpaca House Farm near Berwick to retreive Wyonna and Sweet Dreams who were taken there for breeding last September. Craig my neighbour used his horse trailer to bring them back. This was much better method than using the van we had borrowed before (I am not sure the Mcdonalds have forgiven us yet). My thanks go out to them again. Wyonna only spit a little bit and then settled down nicely on the bed of hay with her cria Callebaut. The trip home ended up being in a snowstorm but all arrived safely.

Thanks for driving and the use of your trailer Craig.

Another snowstorm - shoveling out the barn

New Year 2009 has arrived with a wintry blast of a blizzard.

The girls spent most of the night tucked under their favourite trees at the back side of the pasture, and returned to the barn only when the storm turned nasty.

Because we have not yet built doors for the boy's entrances to the barn considerable snow had drifted in during the night. A carpenter is sorely needed! Fortunatley the snow was light and dry making it easy to shovel it out of the barn.

WWOOF

We are now members of WWOOF Canada, willing workers on organic farms. If you are interested in learning about alpacas hands-on visit www.wwoof.ca.

Fibre Co-Op

During our visit to Alberta we stopped at the Fibre Co-Op in Innisfail. Diane greeted us, provided a thorough tour of the facilities and demonstrated some of the products available. We will join the Co-Op and send the clip there before too long.

A close call

This fall we had a close call with one of our girls, "Kiana".

We had flights booked to visit family in Alberta for a Thursday morning in late November.

While doing morning chores on the Wednesday morning, I noticed Kiana had a bit of a cough. It didn't seem bad, so I didn't think much about it.

We arrived home late that evening from the city (10:30 pm is late for us) and while doing the chores noticed that Kiana's condition had worsened. She was drooling, coughing, foaming at the mouth and appeared to be choking. Not at all in a good way.

What to do??? It's now 11 pm and too late to call another breeder in our area, so we called the breeder whom we purchased her from in Alberta. With the time difference in the west it was early enough there.

They had not had experience with alpacas choking, however had known someone who had in the past, but the outcome was not good. This was not encouraging news, and he offered to call his vet for a solution.

In the meantime, Kiana and baby had left the confines of the barn and had trudged through about a foot of wet snow in the black of night to the far side of the 5 acre pasture. Now, alpacas have very strong attachments to the herd, and when one goes off along it can mean bad things.

While I am conferring on the phone, Rob is busy trying to get Kiana on her feet and back to the barn. No go, she is not having any part of this idea.

At about midnight, I place a call to the vet, whom it turns out I have woken up. He had returned from a call about an hour previously, and had just fallen asleep. I apologize profusely and he agrees to come out.

On the news that the vet would soon arrive, I went to assist Rob with Kiana who is still not willing to move. We get the tractor and with the snow blower, clear a path across the pasture. It takes the two of us to lift Kiana onto a small utility trailer and transport her unceremoniously back to the barn, with baby walking behind and humming all the way.

The vet arrived during the parade to the barn and helped us get her out of the trailer.

Step one was to give her a sedative, after which she stopped breathing altogether. We moved her around a bit, and the breath came back.

Step two was to gently insert a tube down the throat all the way to the stomach, a long way in an alpaca.

Step three was to run some water down the throat to try to clear any blockage, remove the tube and see what happens.

It wasn't too long before Kiana came around enough that we were able to get her into a stall and resting comfortably for the night.

Timeline: 1:00 am. We decide we have done all we can for the night, thanked the vet and returned to the house. We now realize we have some additional chores to do before our morning departure.

We collapse into bed at about 2 am, knowing that we must rise at 5 to get to the airport on time. Five came around very quickly, and on my way to the barn for morning chores I steeled myself for the possibility of a dead alpaca. Fortunately all was fine, Kiana was tired but resting well.

Over to the boy's side, only to find Pirelli was missing! After a few minutes I found him on the back side of the fence, (he had gone under it) wondering how to get back. I had to detach the fence and open it up for him to return to the barn.

Whew! chores are complete.

I return to the house at about the time we should be in the car and leaving for the airport. A quick check on the flight revealed that it will be about 20 minutes late departing. Thankfully time for a fast shower.

We did make the flight on time, and Kiana has fully recovered from her adventure.

Water in the barn

We finally have a steady supply of water to the barn and what a project that was. In November a crew (plumber, electrician, excavator) arrived to work on the water.

The excavator had to dig a trench 3 feet deep from the bungalow we rent out to the barn, and then into the barn to the location of the waterers, a distance of a hundred feet or so. When he finished the trench, we realized that he was a few feet out at the starting point, so he had to then dig some more.

Once the trench was dug, the plumber laid pipe in the bottom of the trench all the way into the barn and to the electric waterers.

The next step was to wrap the pipes that rise from underground to the water bowls in heat tape, and then connect the pipes to the well head inside the bungalow.

The electrician & plumber hooked it all up (along with badly needed additional lighting) and got the system working.

We backfilled the trench ourselves.

During the first real cold snap, we found that the heat tape was trying to heat the whole barn, and of course wasn't up to the job so the above ground stretches of the pipes froze. Back the plumber comes to thaw things out, and wrap the heat tapes in insulation and plastic.

His instructions to us are to box in the above ground water lines and fill the boxes with insulation.

This weekend's project.

Online store open

We have ventured into the world of e-commerce with the opening of our e-store for alpaca products.

Be sure to visit it via the website www.rocaroalpacas.ca

Naming conventions

We recently learned a bit when attempting to register our herd identifier. It will soon be mandatory for all farms to have a herd identifier name or code.

We had selected a name, and had registered it with the Canadian registry. Then when we were registering a cria on the ARI site, we found that our herd name was already in use in the US.

So, starting over, we checked our herd name on the ARI site first, and then registered it in Canada.

Fall well in hand

November has arrived and things around the farm are settling down. All the fruits and vegatables are harvested and only the apples, beets and last of the carrots need to be set up for long-term storage. Finally got a good sweet crop on our red grapes this year.

Gardens have been manured and tilled for soil improvement and most of the firewood has been cut and stack. Probably one or two cord togo so we have enough for this season.

There is still a little barn work to do. Have to still remove the large stones and concrete slabs from when the plumbing was put in. Unfortunately the truck is in the shop again. Still would like to get two more leantoos built at the entrance ways, improve the doors and make some hay feeders as the pasture grass will soon come to an end and we will have to start the hay feeding.

The alpacas are fine which is great. They primarily stay outdoors 24/7 only coming in for sweetmash and water. The cria are all healthy and growing steadily. Some of the young boys are almost as big as Nikki, our smallest female. Wyonna and Sweetdreams sound like they have been successfully bred at their visit to Alpaca House Farms. They will not return until Christmas.