Sexy and I know it!

Here's a shot of the less glamorous farming chores.

We had a little trouble with the pasture vac and I was literally up to my elbows!

Cottage renovation

We have a wonderful pair of helpers with us now and they were tasked with creating a sunflower on the front of the cottage.

The results are spectacular!

More great pictures of Rocaro Alpacas

A professional photographer, Emma Rose captured some outstanding images of shearing day.
Check out her work at http://www.emmarosephotography.ca/blog/2013/06/non-wedding-photojournalism-alpaca-shearing-in-nova-scotia/.

Shearing day again

We are a little later with the shearing this year, June instead of May. Given the chilly weather in May this is not so bad.

The expectant moms are now in the nursery pasture awaiting the arrival of their cria, the boys are back in their summer pastures and the barn is back in order.

We required fewer helpers this year and things still ran smoothly. Now I have another mountain of fleece to prepare for the mill.

Some of the guys "before" (courtesy of Emma Rose)

And the boys after shearing. Handsome, eh?

Hummingbirds return

The hummers have returned right on schedule.

Our friend Chantal took these amazing photos.

Dog Tired!

Our dog Sultan is getting old and tired. He often will lie down wherever he happens to be and fall fast asleep for long periods. This can be a bit of a problem as he will fall asleep in the middle of the kitchen or in a doorway. He is deaf and cannot hear us asking him to move.

Recently I found him fast asleep with his head in his water bowl. Needless to say the bowl was empty and the water was all over the floor.

Oh to be able to sleep so soundly!

Turtle Time

It's early June and we have seen the first of the Painted Turtles on the property laying eggs. They wander onto the gravel trail near the lake, dig holes about the size of a Twoonie and deposit the eggs. We counted 9 turtles the other evening.

Two things I have recently learned about Painted  Turtles: they live in every province (but not Territories) of Canada and although they are a bit smaller than a dinner plate in size they typically live up to 50 years.

Cold, wet May

We are suffering through a cold, wet May in Nova Scotia.

We were fortunate here at Rocaro Alpacas to have two wonderful helpers from Australia this month. While we are not able to get much of the outdoor work started, let alone completed we are making great headway with inside chores. We have labelled all of the new shipment of socks and yarns, felted over a hundred bars of soap, made rope wreaths and made soap too.

We are having a great time - here the gals are enjoying some time in front of the woodstove.

New residents

This past week we started to see Tree Swallows hanging around the farm. We hurried off to get some Swallow houses and the birds were moved right in the next morning.

The tent went up and the tent came down!

We spent most of last Sunday constructing the 10 x 20 tent to provide our growing male herd with some additional shelter in the summer pasture. The wind was howling and the day was an exercise in futility.

Eventually we got the thing in place and well anchored down, or so we thought.

On Tuesday we came home after a dat in town only to find the wind had taken the tent down again.

Safely back from the trip

We returned safely from the trip to the show in Ontario.

We placed as suspected, with a third and a fourth in the highly competitive white class. We had a great time connecting with old friends and doing some wheeling & dealing with respect to alpacas.

Oreo went to Arriba Linnea, and we brought home his replacement Naycoyo to introduce some new bloodlines into the herd.

Spring fever!

The guys and the girls lined up along their respective sides of the fence to check each other out.

Spring is definitely in the air!

Extreme eating

The girls are out enjoying a spring day.

Off farm adventure

There is a rare bird (for these parts) hanging around. A Crested Caracara, native to Mexico, and points south. Somehow it has arrived in Nova Scotia and naturally we had to take a trip to see it.

On the run

We introduced 2 teenagers to the male herd today. There was much chasing around as they settled out their new pecking order. It's established now and all is calm.