Success at Orangeville Show

Caroline, this weekend took six animals to Orangeville for the Alpaca Ontario show. She will post more about her adventures but here is a quick snapshot of the results

On Saturday,
Blizzard 1st place Yearlying white male
Alteza 1st place young junior white female
Oreo 1st place yearling black male
Anuone 2nd place older junior white female
Toblerone 3rd place yearling brown male

On Sunday
Oreo Black Male colour champion
Altezza Reserve white female colour champion
Sedona 2nd place get of dam (Showing of Anuone and Oreo)

All in all a very successful weekend.

There's always something!

In preparation for the trip to the Orangeville Alpaca show in April, we purchased a truck cap with a rack on top.

To make it easier to off load the large loom we purchased on the weekend, it made sense to back the truck right up to the door where we would be unloading the loom.

All wenta as planned until it was time to return the truck complete with roof rack back to the garage. From inside the house, I heard a screeching sound and ran to the door to find out what was wrong with the truck.

As it turns out, the truck was just fine, but the clothes line was caught in the roof rack, and the noise was the sound of the clothes line and 20 ft steel light pole being pulled to the ground!

A frantic call to the neighbour to bring his tractor ensued, and we were able to push the pole back into place. We'll see how many windstorms it survives.

And so it begins again

February is when we begin "school" for last summer's cria. As with last year we teach the wee ones how to stand quietly while tied, and are beginning instruction on walking calmly on a lead. The calmly part takes a while....

Preparations are underway for our trip with 6 alpacas to the huge show at Orangeville, Ontario in April where approximately 400 alpacas are registered for the event.

As our magnificent farm sitter will be my companion for the trip, we are involving her in the training lessons. With this additional skill set added to her resume, our farm sitter has become "First Assistant". A much more appropriate title indeed.

Winter living

Winter should be a time to lay back a bit and enjoy a slower pace on the farm. Not so this winter!

While the weather has been pretty easy this year, farm life remains busy.

Farmgirl and Farmsitter are taking weaving lessons which is great fun. The aim is to weave items from our alpaca fibre. We have received all the yarn and rovings from our clip, four boxes in all; beautiful stuff.

There are several marketing seminars in February to attend and the usual rounds of animal care. Lead training begins this weekend with the use of bike inner-tubes.

Little Andele is improving. He is bright-eyed and steadily gaining weight, so I guess he is out of the woods.

We will be hosting a fibre skirting course just before shearing season begins. Watch for dates.

Update on Andele

Thanks to our farm sitter who helped little Andele through the Christmas period. When we returned he was up and about but still thin and not eating very much. His battery of blood and fecal tests all came up inconclusive. We did notice though that he was regularily eating hay but not fighting for the grain or alpaca mash. We even tried bottle feeding but there was limited response.

On the Sunday we moved him to the other crias which we had placed in the weaning pen. Last night I observed him eating grain and this morning eating the mash. Hopefully he has turned the corner and will start to recover and add weight to his thin frame.

What was originally wrong though is still a mystery.

Farm Sitter Blues

During our recent off-farm adventure our farm-sitter had some adventures of her own. She may be thinking of writing a new C&W song about her experiences. Here is an account of the happenings in her own words:

"From the 18th of December until the 4th of January I "Farm Sit" at Rocaroalpacas while the owners went on holidays. This was not the first time I "Sat the Farm" but I think it was the most interesting and eventful.

First a little male got sick and the vet had to be called in twice, this included me giving the little one a needle every morning for 4 days as part of his treatment. This was done with the help of a neighbor, who use to be a dairy farmer, so he was use to handling animals. Also had to borrow a heat lamp from another neighbor. The neighbors were really great, and told me I could call on them at any time. Thank goodness it was only those two times.

One other morning 4 of the alpacas got out of their pen, then out of the barn and onto the lawn. Quick thinking and I got them all back in. Lessons learned, do not leave the barn door open when you go in the barn and make sure the gate is securely shut and the two dogs who like to tease the cats do not jump on the gate.

I fed the herd, mucked out their pens, mixed feed, fed the two cats, fed the two dogs, walked the dogs, kept the wood fire going most of the time to make sure the house was cozy and did everything else involved in the business of farming.

The owners of Rocaroalpacas are very nice people to let me sit their farm while they go away. I am very greatful that they have the trust in me to do this job.

Did I enjoy my job? YES

Would I do it again? IN A HEARTBEAT

Farm Sitter"

Season's Greetings

We would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our Blog followers a Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Open Farm Day a Success

On Sunday approximately 160 people came and visited our farm. Caroline and I talked about alpacas all day long. Between 945 and 415 I think there was only 15 minutes that both of us were not showing at least one group the alpacas. Based on conversations and the reviews in our guest book, I think everyone had a good time. We had SweetNS and Toblerone in a temporary pen so that everyone could have a feel of how soft their fibre is. The girls were not as cooperative as only half decided to come in for morning mineral rations so not all of them got their picture taken by the many guests. Our farm store of Alpaca products, homemade breads and vegetables from the garden also did well. Special thanks to Caroline's mom (Muriel) and Genevieve who manned the store. I think the only ones who did not enjoy themselves were our dogs as they unfortunately had to stay in the house all day as this many people would have been to much for them.

Nova Scotia Open Farm Day Sept 20th

Nova Scotia Open Farm day is Sunday September 20th. We are participating and will be open for visitors from 10am to 4pm. Come and see the alpacas. We will also have alpaca products, vegatables, and homemade breads for sale.

Another girl!

We now have had the last cria of the season, about a week earlier than expected. We have named this last one Alteza in keeping with the letter A theme for this year.

We will start thinking about a theme for next year before too long.