It's Finished

Yup, Jeremy actually finished the rhyme of our day today which is written tongue in cheek about the death of our alpaca yesterday.   Here it is:

'Twas the day after Christmas, and all through the farm, all the creatures were stirring, except that one in the barn.
It was placed in the cart with some amount of care, in hopes that the bloat would not explode there.
The roosters were crowing, the alpacas moved out, while father and I tried to sort this thing out.
The day after Christmas, nothing's open you see, and a short trip to the dump was just not meant to be.
With the rain coming down and no wood for a fire, there came but one choice, for which we had no desire.
A hole in the ground, it's new place to be, far too much work for father and me.
We had no backhoe, nor friends which to grovel, so father and I went out back with two shovels.
We dug and we dug in the clay through the rocks, occasionally stopping to exclaim, "This sucks!"
Finally done, with the Kubota we tromped, out of the front end loader it fell with a clomp.
Mother returned from town with some lime, and I began to compose this rhyme.
So the spirit of Christmas wasn't ruined, you see, but the alpaca in the ground, was not meant to be.
I hope that my story didn't give you a fright, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

OH.  MY.    What else can I say after that?   Except maybe, good job, Jeremy.
Deb

"Twas the Day After Christmas"

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.   And now, here it is, the 26th of December.   All the presents have been unwrapped, the cookies devoured and hugs and kisses shared with loved ones.   Joel and I have been so happy to have Jeremy here with us for a couple of days.   We sure do miss our kids, their spouses, and our grandkids back in Florida, especially during the holidays.   But we spoke to them all a couple of times this last week and shared as much as we could via phone calls and FaceTime.

And now that Christmas is over, our lives can settle back into a somewhat normal routine.   Although, what is considered normal for some of us is quite different for others.    For example:   Of all days in the year, we had an alpaca get sick late in the morning of December 24th.   Yup, just like when the kids were little......getting sick late on a Friday afternoon or just before a big holiday when you hated to bother the doctor.   Do we call the vet or wait until after Christmas?   We decided our alpaca was sick enough to warrant a call to the vet.   We proceeded to call the vet and explained what we observed going on with sweet Calico, our tamest female alpaca.

He was so gracious and said that after his family luncheon he would be on his way here to make a farm call.   True to his word, he showed up with his veterinary wife and we four proceeded to walk down to the barn.   He diagnosed Calico with an infection of a parasite, not uncommon in alpaca.  We had been giving preventive shots to our herd, but this particular parasite was not being covered by the meds we had been using.    She was very anemic and he gave us some meds to use and instructions about how to care for her.  After almost a 2 hour farm call here, the vets left and Joel and I walked back up to the house after settling Calico on an old rug in the stall.  

And so I trooped on down to the barn early Christmas morning, singing Christmas carols all the way. But when I walked into the girls side of the barn, I was heartbroken when I saw Calico's  lifeless body on the ground.    Joel and Jeremy joined me as we knelt by her side and stroked her soft fleece.   I cried for the loss of such a sweet animal and was so sorry that our inexperience may have cost her an early death.    We carried her out of the stall and laid her gently in my large wagon that tows behind my tractor.  Um, what else do you do on a holiday with a dead 135lb. animal?    Tell me, please.

The phone rang all morning in our house as well wishes came our way from family and friends, wishing us a Merry Christmas, but our hearts were heavy from the loss of our first alpaca.  I was torn between acting "all happy", forcing myself to not let on to others what we had experienced that morning, or should I just be honest and explain what had just happened to us.    I felt that if I didn't tell why our hearts were heavy, our voices would betray us and folks would know something was amiss.    So we finally just let everyone know what had happened and went on with our day.

Now, this morning, it's 24 hours later and poor Calico is, shall we say, getting bloated?    Gross!    Sorry to be so graphic, but, you guys have been walking step by step with us thru this new farm life adventure and this experience is no exception.   I may as well tell you what it has been like for us today.   Giggle.....aren't you glad you read my blog now?  I called a farm friend of ours who works for the city, asking if he knew why the phone number for the city landfill(where large animals are laid to rest) was disconnected.   Oh, yea, he said, that no longer exists.  Hmmmm.    Now how are we supposed to dispose of Calico?    Dig a hole, he says.

Seriously, it's been raining here since early this week.   We had 2-3/4" of rain fall yesterday alone.    Our farm is as soggy as a huge sponge.   And now we have to dig a large hole....in all that mud.......and bury her here?!?   Deep breath.   Alright.   We can do this.    At least it had stopped raining late in the morning and we had a short window of dry weather that would allow us to get the digging done.   And so Jeremy and Joel proceeded to a spot they thought was appropriate and starting digging.    And digging.   And digging.     Now they're getting silly.    And making all kinds of goofy remarks about burials and leading the processional with the Polaris.   Joel said he'd turn on the headlights of the Polaris after he hooked up the wagon loaded with poor, sweet Calico in it, and drive her nice and slow to the hole.

And then Jeremy blurted this out:  

Twas the day after Christmas,
And all over the farm,
All the creatures were stirring,
Except the one in the barn.

Oh.  My.   Goodness.   I almost peed my pants.   Where does he come up with these things?    Now he says he's going to finish the rhyme and post it on Facebook.   I'm afraid to look.    And that, folks, is how we have dealt with the first major death of an animal on our farm.   (Yea, I know, we lost a couple of chickens to the fox, but they just never showed up again, so, it wasn't as bad as this.)

First thing this morning, I had to run into town to buy a 50lb. bag of lime to "dust" poor Calico with before they put the dirt back on top of her in the hole.   Aw, geez.    And I also picked up the new kind of feed with meds to protect the rest of the herd from the same parasite that killed Calico.   Lesson learned.    And a new bond has been formed with the very patient, very kind vet who so graciously spent some of his Christmas Eve trying to help out our animals.

So I do hope you all did something "normal" today like shopping the after-Christmas sales, or returning gifts, or watching your kids play with all their new toys.   I'm certain whatever you did today, it was a lot more sane than what we did!

 This is one holiday for the books, folks!
Debbie

The most dreaded Project of all, part two

You're not going to believe why it has taken me four days to post this.    I'm telling you, you're not going to believe me!    Ok, here it comes.......our internet is so sketchy and so slow here that when the school kids are home from school, I can't even bring up AOL.   I mean it.    Because of Christmas, all the kids are home and playing on the internet and because we are so far out of town,  the internet slows down to way under 1mbps.   Crazy, isn't it?    So because the little urchins have been burning up the wires I have been unable to blog.    Ha!  I fixed that!    They all must like to sleep in because it is currently 6:00 a.m. and I had zero trouble uploading my pics and getting the blog to come up on screen.

So, without further adieu, here's the next set of pics of the Most Dreaded Project of all.  

It has occurred to me that maybe you'd like to see the outside of what we've been doing and put this all in perspective.   The original farmhouse is obviously on the left and the studio is on the right.   And you can see that the breezeway connecting the two isn't all that big, but it is!    It's huge to me in what it means in availability.   The studio has tan Hardi-Board on it and so we continued the look on the breezeway.    Eventually the house, too, will match the studio as the vinyl siding is getting a bit old and brittle.   But that's a project for another day.  

Anyway, we were able to match the green metal roof of the studio to the one on the house and will also do that for the breezeway.......someday.   I'm not pushing it, you know?   We'd also like to fill in the area under the studio with some kind of wall as right now the studio is sitting up on blocks and underneath it is open.   But again, that's a project for another day.

This is the view of the breezeway from the studio.   It sure is nice having the option of simply walking from the house into the studio now.   I can't tell you how many times a day I do that to work on one project or another.   And last night I sat out there and watched Monday Night Football while I worked on some hand embroidery.   Fun.  Fun.

See?    The ceiling planks match the ceiling in the studio and it's all painted.  Joel even put up my funky pink chandelier that I had used at my shop in Florida.   The dry wall still needs another skim coat over the joints and then I'll be able to paint it.   The wooden boxed in chase on the far wall houses the pipes for the Mitsubishi air conditioner/heater on the wall behind the breezeway in the porch and helps to keep that room nice and cozy year round.

When Joel removed the window in the porch we went back and forth about whether or not to re-use it in the breezeway.   One day I went to town to run some errands and when I came back the window was installed!    And boy, am I ever glad he did it.    It would have been really dark in that little space without the natural light that the window brings in.  He's so clever, isn't he?

 After the walls get painted, it's going to get real interesting to see how we match up the flooring.   I know we will have to install a threshold to span the gap from one room to another.   Yea, another little "problem" for us to figure out.    We're so close to being done.........and then we can settle in and relax a bit over the winter.   Ha!  Don't laugh!   We do so know how to relax.

Isn't it looking great?    I'm getting really excited to get some paint on the walls and watch it turn into a usable space.   We have a huge armoire that used to be in our bedroom that simply doesn't fit anywhere in the house.    I've repurposed it to hold all my scrapbooking supplies and we built the breezeway deep enough for the armoire to sit out there in it's own space and out of the way.    We are doing whatever possible to utilize any available space for storage that we can, and this one is a real winner for us.

As you can see, I have some patching to do on the walls in the porch where we moved a few sockets. Then a quick coat of paint and some trim around the doorway and we're almost there!    I think we're going to take a break until after Christmas and then just 2 or 3 more days of flooring and trim work and this project should be complete!  

In the meantime, here's what Christmas looks like in my studio.

 I keep white lights strung around the four windows all year long.....don't ask.   It just makes me happy to have lights up!    And this is the little white feather tree from my shop, Pink Florida Threads.   The tree has pink and blue ornaments and colorful jingle bells for a garland.  It has a wild colored tree topper, too.   I made the tree skirt a few years ago with all my favorite bright colors in it.....pink, lime and teal.

And in the tree is nestled the little blue bird sitting on her nest with eggs inside it, just like the bluebirds I watch outside my studio window.   Ahhhhh......all is calm....all is bright.

And so, until the saga of The Project continues in a few days, I'd like to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas.   May God Bless you and yours this holiday.
Deb

"The most dreaded Project of all"

Cue up the dramatic music......dun, dun, dun, dunnnnnnnnn.   Yes, today's post is all about The Project!    Yup, the most dreaded Project of all.   Giggle....man, I sure hope I don't get into too much trouble writing about this one.

First, I believe I have to backtrack a little before diving right into The Project.  Remember last year when my wonderful studio was delivered?    Even though it was only a shell of a building when it first arrived, after several weeks of labor we had transformed it into an awesome space for me to use while pursuing all kinds of creative endeavors.    There was just one issue,   It wasn't connected to the house.   Yet.  Oh, man.

Now why would that be a problem, you ask?   Well, we're not in sunny Florida any longer.   It rains a lot here, it gets icy a lot here, it gets really cold and snowy here.   And having to put on a heavy coat, shoes, gloves and a hat to walk thru the mud to get into the studio wasn't a problem.   Um, not much of a problem.   But then, when nature calls half an hour later and you have to put all that paraphernalia on again and walk thru the mud to use the facilities in the house and then go back to the studio, well, let's just say, that routine gets old pretty quick.

And then you know what happens next......I decide a cup of cappuccino would be nice, so, I put all the above mentioned attire on once again, and head to the house to make said cappuccino, and then trudge back to the studio to enjoy it whilst I sew, and then!   You guessed it.   An hour later I need to use the facilities once again.   Grrrrr.......after a few weeks, and then months, of this trudging back and forth, I was getting a little, shall we say.....irritable?????

Please know, I am thrilled to have such a luxury as my very own space in which to create all manner of crazy sewn and crafted items.    But the idea of lining up the studio upon its delivery with the end of the porch was that we would be connecting the studio to the house for 24 hour access.   Who knows when the creative urge will strike?  Right?    Come on, you know what I mean.  And I've been spoiled by having a sewing space in each of our homes where I could pad out there on a moments notice in my jammies to satisfy some sudden creative urge.   That just wasn't happening in the muddy overcoat trips back and forth.

And so, after more than a year of begging, pleading, cajoling and explaining why I need to have the studio connected, we are finally making it happen.   Just before Thanksgiving we began the process of bridging the gap between the two buildings.    Much to my glee!   First, gather all the materials and tools.   Second, load up loving husband with much caffeine.   Hey, don't judge!  It just so happens that I know what has to be done to get the project started.

 There was one major issue.....the studio had "sunk" a couple of inches since it was first brought to the farm.    Uh-oh.   Now, we had to decide if we made a little step down into the breezeway connector or just slope the floor toward the studio?    Neither option was appealing to Joel and took a lot of thought  before even one little nail, screw or piece of wood was applied.   We finally decided that a 2-1/2" step would be a tripping hazard and opted for the slope instead.

 Once the platform was up(which was a couple of days in the making because of the issues I described above) the studs went up really fast.  Then it was time for the rafters for the roof.   Another snafu.   You see the pitch on the studio at the right?   Yeah, it's a peak.   But the roofline of the house at the point where the breezeway is being built is a slope.    Of a different angle.    With not enough room to put in a roof on the breezeway with enough slope to drain water properly.

Another couple of days pondering how to fix that issue.   Well, we got creative and made it work.    If you wanna know how, I'll tell you in secret in an email and then I'll have to swear you to secrecy.   It's our trademark roof now, I'll have you know.    We're just brilliant.  ha!   Our joke is that two minds are one......meaning that we are both getting a little older and our minds are not as bright as they once were and some days it takes the two of us to have the brain power of just one person.   Whatever works!

 Here is Joel, happy to have the breezeway closed in and ready for me to paint.   We lucked out and got the whole thing closed in and the roof covered with a membrane just before 5 days of rain yielding over 6" of the wet stuff blew in.   Whew!   We dodged that bullet.   We still need to purchase and install the green metal roofing, but that can be done at our leisure sometime in the next few months.

 So, what exactly are we looking at here?   Joel, of course.   Ohhhhhhh, yea, this is the window in the house's porch.....that is perfectly lined up with the side door of the studio.......and will soon be my passageway to Nirvana.   But first the phone line that runs thru the wall under the window and the electric outlet have to be moved.   Huh.   Another 3 days of pondering and figuring out "how to" ensued.   See?   It's all the little things that drive us nuts.   I mean, seriously, how hard does it have to be?

 Well, my ever clever husband figured it all out and the phones are still ringing, so I guess he did it right!   I was never as excited as I was when I watched him finally remove the last remaining remnant of wall that had been blocking my access to the studio.   Whoop.  Whoop.

 We took a much needed break for Thanksgiving and enjoyed having Jeremy come home from Chattanooga to eat, drink and be merry with us.    His humor always cracks me up.....he is ever the witty one.  I have absolutely no idea where he got that from.   Stop it.   That's not nice of you to say that!  I can hear you talking to your computer screen.

 I even coaxed Jeremy to play photographer for us while we shot some pics to use in our Christmas cards this year.  Joel in a red plaid shirt and me in my favorite bib overalls.   That's us!   Just hanging out on the farm.

 This is the view of the mess on the sleeping porch that is now connected to the studio.  For any of you that know me well, you know how this pushes my buttons.    I am the organizer.    I clean up as I cook.   I pick up threads after sewing.   I despise piles....of any sort....and so, living with this for a year has pushed buttons in me I didn't even know existed.    I'll be so glad to be able to finally put all the tools and construction materials and excess piles of "stuff" away.

 We were so fortunate to have enough left over ceiling planks from the studio to do the ceiling in the breezeway that I only had to buy one pack of planks at Lowe's.   Yippee.  I love using up odds and ends and not being wasteful.

THIS is what construction looks like on our once-pretty back porch.   Can't.  Wait.  To.  Clean.  It.  Up.

 Doesn't everyone have a huge saw on their porch to trip over as they bring in the groceries each week?   Now listen, I'm really NOT complaining.....I'm so tickled that we are finally getting this project built that I'll deal with anything.   And just in case you weren't aware, here's the #1 fact.   Joel and I enjoy doing these kinds of projects together a lot.   It just so happens to be one of our favorite hobbies to do together.   I even like the smell of sawdust in the morning.   With my cappuccino.    All the while wearing my bib overalls.  

Ok, that's enough for today.   Tomorrow I'll show you some more of "The most dreaded Project of all."
Debbie

Fall in a Flash

Since I've been so remiss in posting, how about I give you a brief synopsis of our Fall?   Even though we didn't plant our huge garden this year, I did still manage to put in a few vegetables in the potager garden.   These tomatoes just kept producing and producing up until the end of October.

 We finally ate the last of our tomato harvest the week of Thanksgiving.   How crazy is that for a late harvest?    And they were so flavorful this year, too.   Yum, there's nothing like a tomato fresh out of the garden.   The yellow variety below was especially good.   Can't wait to have tomatoes again next summer.

 And believe it or not, but I harvested the last of our rhubarb on November 21st!    That plant just kept on coming back and the fact that we had such a mild Fall didn't hurt, either.  

I also harvested rose hips from our Rosa Rugosa bushes right up until our first frost just before Thanksgiving.   

Last Spring I planted 3 scrawny sticks with loads of thorns on them in a separate bed up near the orchard.   Those little sticks were only about 18" tall and last summer we had a few roses bloom and some leaves appear on a new branch or two.   Well, let me tell you, this year those scraggly things just took off!    By the Fall, those three bushes had all but taken over the 12'x15' bed they were in and had grown to 5' tall.   

The bushes were covered in roses all summer long and I never cut any of them as I was waiting to see if they would develop into rose hips.   And they did!   Whaaaaa?    Rose hips?    Bet you thought roses only had petals and thorns.   Nope, they've got swagger......their very own hips.   And are they ever gorgeous.

See?   In the first picture above you can clearly see the rose blooms....and then in this picture what you are looking at is what is left when the petals fall off the blooms.    Just behind the browned bits of  leftover petals is a round, green part of the bloom.   And that's where the good stuff begins.

If you don't pick the rose blooms, they turn into these!    Yes, rose hips.   Packed with vitamin C and tons of antioxidants.....these little babies pack a bunch of healthy goodness into each and every sphere.   But wait.   They aren't quite ready yet.   Patience, patience.   And so I waited.

Waiting paid off big time.   Look at these beauties!   Aren't they awesome?   So pretty and ripe.    I picked colander after colander of them over a month's time, waiting until they were a bright orange-y red.    Once picked, they went into the kitchen for processing.   They had to be seeded and chopped into smaller pieces and popped into the dehydrator for 18 hours or so until they were dry enough to store in Ball jars. 

Now, just what the heck do I do with all of these chopped up things?    Make tea......pretty, pink tea.....loaded with vitamin C.   Rose hips are like super-charged vitamin C machines, and drinking tea made from hips is a great way to fight off colds all winter.   And if you choose, you can also eat them fresh once their seeds have been removed.   I simply choose to dehydrate mine so I had them to use until next Fall's harvest.     And because I'm allergic to vitamin C from citrus, this is a great source of C for me....and no sneezing.   Yea!

We've had so much rain and warm weather this Fall that my irises were blooming again under the roses.   How strange?   Everything lasted much longer this year in the garden.   I continued to cut all my herbs and dehydrating them right up until Thanksgiving.   Gotta love that last unexpected harvest.     Now I have lots of herbs to use in my cooking until next summer.    And I know they are as uncontaminated as possible because I grew them myself without any pesticides or chemicals.    

The weather even cooperated during the week my mom came up for her first visit to Whispering Oaks.   And my friend, Susan Marie and her beau came for a quick weekend, as well as my cousin, Rodney and his wife, Joan.   So, in between learning how to care for the alpaca, harvesting food from the garden and visiting with friends and family we somehow began the "most dreaded Project of all".   More on that tomorrow.    

But for now, I'l close with the first pics of our newest animal additions to the farm.   Four barn cats....a mama and her three kittens born this summer sometime.   The folks that we bought the alpaca  from brought the cats from their barn so we would have some mousers of our own.   I've never had a cat, so, this was another new experience for us.   Oh, and yes, I named them all after watching them for a couple of weeks and figuring out their personalities.   The lady above is Domino because she has big, round, black spots on her like a ......yes, you guessed it.....like a domino.

This is Mama Cat......because she is.....well, the mama cat.    Not very inventive, but it suits her.   Now, Domino is probably the most wary of the four cats and runs whenever Joel appears in the barn. But Mama Cat, she's an old pro and has let me pet her since the day she arrived here on the farm. 

And these two are rascals.   They play with each other all the time, rolling and tumbling over each other in the grass.    The guy on the left is Calico.....recently renamed Mr. Calico.   I just figured out he was the boy.   Don't laugh.   I told you I've never had a cat before.   Anyway, I have been informed that he's not a calico because they are three colors, white, tan and another color.   Hey, what do I know?   I thought his mottled grey and black was a calico pattern?    giggle.....sorry about that to all you cat aficionados.   

And last, but most certainly not least, the lovely lady on the right is Chloe.   She is the most demure of the four cats.   Her fur is much longer than the others and she is quite prissy.    She just seems to carry herself like a little lady......how funny.   I didn't know cats could have so many different personalities.   So, there you have it.   Our Fall in a Flash.    

The head count at Whispering Oaks now stands at this:

2 humans

2 "inside" dogs

4 barn cats

17 alpaca

23 chickens

I'm really not sure what kind of critters will land here next.   

Debbie

Out of The Habit

Oh, I know.    Please don't grumble too much at me.    I realize it's been three long months since I last posted to the blog.   I have reasons.  I have excuses.   I can rationalize what took over our lives.   You just don't understand.    Ummmmm, well, we've been crazy busy.   And, to be perfectly honest......it was as simple as.....I just got out of the habit of posting.   There, whew!   I said it.    For quite a while, I couldn't figure out how to get pics from my camera to the computer(that actually wasn't so hard to figure out) and then upload them to the blog.   And then I just got frustrated and gave up because our daily chores kinda sorta took over our lives for a bit.

But all is figured out now.   I think.  We'll see if it works today for me.   Joel has started reading back posts on my blog(I know, where the heck has he been for the last several years?   giggle...).   And he is actually the one who has been egging me on to get back to writing.   Huh.  Who knew?   He says he really likes my writing.   And he also says I need to do this.   Okayyyyyyy.   I hear 'ya.   So, here we go.

When we last left off, the alpaca had been delivered and I promised more pics of them.   Duh.   That's when I ran into the glitch with the computer.   Now, this new computer is gorgeous....I love it.   And for most things it's a piece of cake.   But for some reason we have been bucking heads over this photo upload/organize stuff.    Um, sigh, you know what's coming next.   Yeah, it's not the computer....it's the ditzy blonde arguing with the thing.   Did you know there is something out there called "computer support"?    Don't you dare laugh at me!

So, this was all of us loading the "girls" up at Tanasi Trace Alpacas.   The boys loaded without much fess at all, but the girls were another story.   They hemmed and hawed and hesitated and locked their knees and basically were a pain in the tushie.    Yeah, I believe it only took us an hour to get them all into the trailer.   Whew!

I don't know who was happier to see them come out of the trailer, the "girls" or me.    I was so excited to finally see the whole herd on our land, in our pastures and eating inside our barn.   Aren't they adorable?

Seeing how content the alpaca were in our pastures made a whole summer's worth of hard labor worthwhile.   Yup, happy, happy alpaca in their new home.

The feeding troughs and hay bins are finally put to use in the barn.

And the boys learned how to navigate the corridor leading from their side of the barn up to their pasture.   You should see how many cars have slowed down to look at the newest animals at Whispering Oaks.    Yup, we've been the talk of the neighborhood, alright.   You know, those City Folks from Florida who keep doing new "stuff" all the time on the old Walker Farm.   That's how the locals refer to us.  

You have to realize, we live in Black Angus country......almost every farmer with livestock owns one thing.....yup.  Black Angus beef cows.   Period.   Oh, they might have a horse or two and maybe even some chickens.    I've even run across a few folks who have sheep and goats.   But no alpaca.   It's cattle that their daddy's raised and now it's cattle that they raise.  Oh, well, we aim to keep things interesting in our neck of the woods.

To say that I was tickled pink on alpaca delivery day is an understatement!   I was so happy to get in there with the animals and start the process of getting acquainted.

And here they are:  the girls in their pasture closest to you and the boys back in their pasture near the chicken coop, oops!    I meant to say The Chicken Castle.   Sorry, Joel, I forgot the proper name for your fowl's abode.  giggle....Don't want to get in trouble with Farmer Joel.

I have spent countless hours watching these gentle creatures since they arrived in September and have yet to tire of just "hanging out" with them.   Did you know that alpacas hum?   Yes, when they are happy they hum.   In different pitches.   Sometimes together, sometimes alone.   It's wonderful to hang out in the barn and just watch them and listen to their sweet noises.  

Well, now you have the whole picture of the day the alpaca were delivered.   And what a fitting end to today's post is this picture?

The quintessential farmhouse scene......laundry hanging on the line with farm critters in the background.   Oh.  Be.  Still.   My.  Heart.  

Completely content,
Deb

The Alpacas are Here

I know, it's hard for us to believe, too.   But they really and truly are here, safe and sound on our very own land.   Whew!    Here's how it went this last weekend:

On Friday Joel loaded up a friend's horse trailer to his truck and we hitched our largest trailer on my car.   Away we went over the river and thru the woods and down off the Plateau to Tanasi Trace Alpacas.    It was another hot and humid day early and we had decided to haul equipment first and then get the alpacas on Saturday.

It only took us a little over an hour to load hay and feeding troughs into the trailer behind my car.   Inside the car went all their meds, books, files, a microscope and centrifuge.  

It took us a lot longer to decide where to place all this new paraphernalia inside our super clean barn. The wood pallets work really well as a base on which to stack the square bales of hay.   We were just happy to get the hay home nice and dry.   Later on that day the heavens opened up which made us glad to have the hay all stored deep inside our barn where it won't mold.

Early Saturday we arrived at Tanasi once again, ready for the adventure to begin.   We pulled our borrowed horse trailer up to the boys side on the left, while Fred and Carol pulled our newly acquired trailer from them up to the girls side on the right.

Carol and Fred had the animals all corralled in the barn, which made it a whole lot easier to begin loading them onto the trailers.   Sorta......the boys were a whole lot more cooperative than the girls were, but more on that later.

Once the gates were opened, Fred walked behind the boys....shooing them out of their comfort zone.   Carol and her friend, Hannah, had haltered the two "lead" alpacas and they walked them into the trailer and the rest of the boys just followed them inside.   Hmmmm, I started to think this was going to be pretty easy.   Wrong!

I'll send you more in a bit.....my photo program isn't cooperating again.  Aargh!
Deb

Final Construction

 I know, I know.   It seems like it has taken us almost all summer to complete our tasks to get ready for the alpaca, but we are truly ready for them now.  Here's how we finished up the barn.

We removed several boards from this wall to open up the barn allowing more light and air flow into the barn.   Then we attached a hog panel in the open space which will become an easy spot to attach the feeders for the girls.   And just what the heck are hog panels, you ask????

These things leaning against the barn are hog panels........they are 16' long, just over 4' high and are nice and sturdy.   And they are the farmer's friend.   We used them to create our hog pen last year, and they were also my trellises in the huge garden for my tomatoes and cucumbers.   And now they are getting repurposed as room dividers and feeder holders.

See?   We attached hog panels to the wall here to hold the feeders.

And we used one to separate the girls from the boys.    Now they can see and sniff each other without, er, um, shall we say.....interacting on an up close and personal level.   We'll soon see how that works out.

And here on the left side you can see how we closed in the open area of the girls stall with hog panels and a gate.   The barn sure looks a whole lot different than it did 3 weeks ago.  

Our last task was to finish removing the boards leading to the boys side which allowed us to install a gate and short wall of hog panel to fill in the open space on the left of the gate.   Whew!    Almost there!

Not too bad for a bunch of city folks, right?

All we need now are some critters.

That's the next post, folks,
Deb