Alpaca Rodeo

That's what Joel said to me as we walked down to the barn early this morning.   "Welcome to the alpaca rodeo."   And then he shot me a sideways grin.   Yes, that's how we began our mornings yesterday and today.   It has been 21 days since we gave all the alpaca their series of shots and now we hope the parasites are dying off.   But just to make certain we're getting them all, we had to repeat the whole no-feed-for-12-hours-before/and-4-hours-after-shots routine.  

Let me tell you, these guys were not happy to be penned up in their stalls......with no access to the luscious grass growing in the pasture just out of their reach.   And no access to the yummy hay sitting in the hay bins deeper inside the barn.    We sure hope these shots work as we don't want to lose any more alpaca.    But I must warn you, we still have one male and one female that are terribly thin and are probably not going to make it.   I guess it all comes down to Survival of the Fittest.    Or something like that.

 So I started my day by drawing up 14 syringes with the parasite medication.   It was easier doing it in the house before going down to the barn....and to be perfectly honest, I was kinda procrastinating on getting started.   Hey, some of these animals weigh in just under 200 lbs.   I love them, but I also have a healthy respect for them.......they are most definitely much quicker than I am and can be more than a little skittish when approached in a confined area.

 Um, yeah.   But before any shot could be given, we needed to place first things first.   Yes, those shovels needed to be put into service before any chasing of the alpacas began.   Think about this......it's much easier to pooper scoop first, thus eliminating some of the, shall we say, slippery element whilst cornering the animals.   Get my drift?   giggle....I knew you would.

 When we walked into the girls side of the barn, they were all lined up and just staring at us.  We cracked up.    Doesn't that make you laugh, too?   I think they knew what was coming.   And they do kinda look like the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall to me.  Anyway, we got down to business.  Joel did a great job capturing them, one by one, and I administered the shots and recorded the info on a pad with a check mark next to each animals name.   One group down, another to go.

Yup, here are the boys.   They kept staring at their hay feeder just outside of their reach.  Poor guys!   We repeated the same routine as with the girls.  Pooper scoop first, then one by one Joel caught them all and I gave the shots.   We both admit to getting a bit of an adrenalin rush and having somewhat weak knees when doing this.   But I can't tell you the sense of accomplishment we both felt once we were done.    We both looked at each other and said, "We did it!".

 Mission accomplished.   Each syringe is empty and now we wait to see if the medication works.   I sure hope so.

Four hours later we trooped back down to the barn to let the animals out of their enclosures and they all happily ran into their pastures.    We refilled their pellets and hay and they spent the rest of the day happily munching and grazing as if nothing at all had happened to them.  

 As we were leaving the barn, Tigger kept snuggling up to my pants leg and insisted on getting some attention.  He does not like it when the alpaca get all the loving, so, I had to stop and play with him for a bit.    What a funny cat!

On my way back up to the house, I noticed more and more violets popping up in the grass.  Now I know it must be Spring because the violets have started blooming all over the farm.   Time to make violet jelly again!  

So that was how we started our week after Easter.   I hope to spend the rest of the week preparing the potager garden for planting.   I almost have all of it cleaned up from the ravages of winter.    Next job, weed the strawberry patch.   Are you sure you don't want to come and lend a hand?

Signed,
Rodeo Queen and her King

Routines

Yup.  Life on a farm involves a lot of routines.  Things such as:

• Getting up each morning to feed the animals before you feed yourself.   
• Checking for chicken eggs morning and evening.
• Watch the weather daily so you know if you will need to shovel snow/dodge rain/plant veggies/cover veggies to protect from frost, if temps drop to 32 or below disconnect water lines to animal water buckets to prevent them from bursting(ask me how we figured this one out, duh!).
• Always keep an eye on how much hay/chicken feed/alpaca feed is on hand so we order/pick up more before we run out.
• Never drive all the way to "town" without a comprehensive list as we will undoubtedly forget something necessary.

And there are dozens more, but you get the idea.  It's not like life in the city doesn't involve routines, it's just that they are different from how we live our life now.   I realize now that life on a farm works pretty well for people like me who have a ridiculous amount of energy because there is a never ending supply of chores/ projects/ animal work to tackle.  I do, however, wonder what will become of us as we get older.   Hmmmm......guess I'll worry about that in a few years.

As you may already know, our #1 rule as a couple is this:   Whatever we do here on the farm has to be something we both agree upon.....or as we like to call it.....a MEA.   Mutually Enthusiastic Agreement.   (Thank you, Dr. Angwin!)  Yup, that came out of thousands of dollars of counseling years ago, but it works.   If we both agree whole heartedly on a purchase of an animal, farm equipment, where to spend a holiday, etc., then we are pretty much assured of mutual contentment in our marriage.   Don't giggle.....it works!  Seriously!

Our second rule is if "it" (whatever it may be) stops being fun, then we will stop doing "it".   For example, we currently have all these alpaca.   So far, so good.   I do most of the work around them as having alpaca has been a long time dream of mine.  Joel helps me when I need it, but I enjoy feeding them, watching them and tending to their needs.   But if taking care of them gets to be too much for me to handle, or we realize we are ready to move on to something else, those cute, cuddly critters will be sold to the highest bidder and we will move on without so much as a look back.   But so far, we love having all our animals and are looking forward to acquiring a few more in the near future.    More on that in the coming months.

One of our routines involves getting pellet feed for the alpaca every 3 months or so.    Ha!   It gets delivered to the end of our lane by an 18 wheeler.  

 You know you're getting a lot of feed when an 18 wheeler pulls up to your farm.

 The bags get off loaded into the bed of Joel's truck....

 .....which then gets backed down to the barn for off loading.

Then we dump the contents of all the bags into galvanized cans to keep the pellets dry and protected from rodents.    Boy, are we ever glad when that process is done.  Like I said earlier, it certainly is a good thing I have lots of energy.

Every once in a while, though, we do something new to break up the routine.    Something like this:

Joel and I took a gun class at a range in town and yours truly got a score of 100!   After putting 45 bullets in the number 9 and 10 circles, the instructor asked me if I could put a "nose" on my target.   Well, I didn't exactly get his nose, but I hit his head 4 times and only missed once.  Not too bad, eh?  Joel says the other guys in our group were high five-ing and fist bumping him behind my back as I was shooting.   And he was grinning from ear to ear until someone said, "Don't ever tick her off, man!".   Giggle....

Well, speaking of routines, I need to wrap this up as it's almost dark now and we need to go down to the alpaca and remove all their food.   Yes, tomorrow and Tuesday are the second round of shots for all of the alpaca to try and get rid of the parasites some of them have inside.   Remember when we did this the first time 3 weeks ago?   Yea, well, the next two days will be a repeat of that process.   Should be fun.    How hard can it be to round up 14 skittish animals and give each one a shot?    Piece of cake!

Wishful thinking,

Debbie

Happy Easter

It's hard to believe, but Easter is almost upon us.    Seems like it was just a few days ago we were wearing winter coats, hats and mittens.    And now the grass is greening up and trees are beginning to bud here on the Plateau.   I believe Spring has finally arrived!   Last week we had a brief shower and when I went outside at dinnertime for one last check on the animals, this is what greeted me at my back screen door.

Yes!    A double rainbow had appeared, reaching from horizon to horizon.   How often do you get to see a double rainbow?    And one where you can see the complete arch?

The left side of the rainbow was tucked behind our tree line beyond the chicken coop....

....and it stretched itself high in the early twilight sky....

......and came back down to earth over the ridge to our east.    How.   Very.   Pretty.

Every day here on the farm is a blessing to us.   I have finally learned how to slow down and enjoy the moment.....most especially the "simple pleasures" of life.    I know that can sound cliche', slowing down to enjoy what is right in front of us.   But, it's true.  

Without the distractions of the city, I find myself thrilled at the pleasure of the simplest events.    The sound of the wind making its way thru the tall hardwood trees, our rooster crowing off in the distance, the alpaca happily munching their way across a green pasture, walking into the orchard to see the first signs of flower buds appearing.   Yes, these are the things that make my heart sing, and also have given me a heightened appreciation for all our Lord and Savior has provided for us.

So, on this Easter weekend, Joel and I pray you and your family will take some time to thank God for the sacrifice of His son for our sake, for the gift of salvation through Jesus's death on the cross, and pray you have accepted that gift by taking Jesus into your life as your personal Savior.    How perfectly simple.   Just accept the gift freely given to you.....and your heart, too, will sing.

Happy Easter,
Blessings,
Debbie

Alpaca Shots

Aw, man.   Apparently our alpaca have more of a parasite problem than we first realized.   Darn.   On Saturday when I was in the boys barn, Ice Man went down and was not able to get back up.  His neck was laying at an awkward angle and his breathing was labored.    Not a good sign for an alpaca.

For months he has been struggling to put weight on, a sure sign of parasites taking over his body, just like Calico at Christmastime.   I've been hand feeding 4 alpaca in an effort to get more food and the proper meds in them, trying to boost their immunity and make them stronger.    But Ice Man lost his battle Saturday.   So, yes, we had to dig another hole and bury him.   At least this time we knew what to do and got to work putting him to rest after saying our good bye's to the sweet animal.

First, Joel had to get out his tractor and fill it with gas.   Then, a tire was almost flat, so that got remedied with the air compressor.   Seems there is always something that needs maintenance on the farm, making each task take just a little bit longer than expected.  Oh, well, what else do we have to do with our day?

Once the tractor was ready, Joel picked up Ice Man and carried him over to the hole we dug.   

Thank goodness for mechanized equipment!   Now Calico isn't alone as Ice Man is buried next to her.   Geez, I hope this is the end of the animal burial ground for a while.   At least they are at rest now under the pine trees at the edge of our property.

We were determined to figure out how to kick this parasite problem, so, on Sunday we had a very information packed visit from my spinning friend, Barb and her husband Dave.   They have had alpaca since 1998 and sheep since before that.   Barb regularly attends conferences and lectures at U.T. in Knoxville where the animal department conducts studies on their permanent herd of alpaca.    Her knowledge comes firsthand from her own herd as well as from the top notch team at U.T.

That brings me to today.   Per Barb's instructions, Joel and I had to remove all the food and hay from both stalls last night so the alpaca went without food for 12 hours.   Then, first thing this morning we gave each alpaca a shot of medication meant to eradicate the parasites.   Um, yeah, that means catching each and every alpaca and holding onto them while giving them a shot.   Easy-peasy, right?   ha!    Too bad Candid Camera wasn't there to observe.  That's all I'm going to say on that subject.

Now we wait for 4 hours without letting them have any hay or pellets and then we can finally feed them.    (It helps to "starve" the parasites while the meds take over.)  They kept humming the whole time we were working with them, wondering where in the world was their food????   And because we don't want them to eat any pasture grass either, we added insult to injury and penned them in their barn stalls until 1pm.

So, I sit typing this to prevent myself from fidgeting about the house while I wait to feed our critters.   It's killing me to deny them food, but we have to do it this way to start the process of killing these parasites.   Oh, yeah, and we have to do this all over again tomorrow.   And wait, it gets better.  We need to repeat this two day ritual again in 3 weeks.    Aaargh!  

I know that they will be very happy once we fill their feed troughs and hay bins and allow them to once again graze out in their pasture.   Is it 1 o'clock yet????

Signed,
Parasite Prowlers,
Debbie and Joel

The Snow is Gone, But....

Yes, the snow is gone, but I just had to show you the pic of Molly playing out in the snow a couple of weeks ago.    She loved it!   She kept running back and forth on her leash and running circles in the freshly fallen snow.

There's just one problem.   She has hair, not fur and when she is out in the snow, it tends to stick to her belly and legs and any other area that touches the snow.   When she comes inside there are little snowballs meshed into the hair on her belly and legs.   Sometimes the only way we can get rid of them is to rinse her in a warm bath!   Or use a hairdryer to try and melt them.   Um, yea....that's loads of fun!

 This particular day we tried using a large towel to dry her off and that worked fairly well as she wasn't covered in large snowballs this one time.   She is so patient and simply stands there and let's us do anything we need to do to get her dried off once again.   I guess she knows we're trying to help her stop shivering.  

 Because there isn't any fresh grass during the winter, I try to get some greens out to our chickens everyday.    You know, things like leftover lettuce, wilted veggies, the ends of carrots and celery that you cut off when making a salad.  It's amazing how much we normally throw away when preparing meals that can go to the chickens.   They even like eggs shells!

The rooster on the left of this pic is Joel's prized rooster, King George.   I know, I know, but Joel is the one that takes care of the chickens and he has named a few of them.    His other prized rooster, Prince Edward, was taken by a fox several months ago.   That made Joel really sad as these two roosters are part of our original flock of chickens and he has gotten pretty attached to them.  

Well, when we got home at dusk this past Saturday night after a day in town, Joel went down to make sure the chickens were all in their coop and as he was preparing to close their door he made a horrible discovery.   King George was stuck in the poultry net that surrounds their pasture.   And the net is electrified.    And the poor rooster was convulsing with each pulse of electricity.   I won't go into any more detail, but suffice it to say that Joel was horrified.   He quickly turned off the fence and rushed to release the animal.  

That is when he discovered that there must have been a terrific cock fight between the 2 young roosters and King George.  And King George lost.    Joel had to get his gun and put King George out of his misery.   And the following day the two remaining roosters were fighting again, so, now one of them has also gone to chicken heaven.   Lesson learned, there can only be one "top dog" in the chicken coop.

Yes, sometimes the lessons we are learning are hard ones, but we won't soon forget how things work in the animal hierarchy on the farm.

Live and learn,
Debbie

Animal Antics

 Look who was showing off when I walked out to the barn......Miss Chloe.   These cats have shocked Joel and I with their acrobatic stunts.   We have found them way up in the rafters of the barn.....walking around like it's an everyday occurrence.   Ok, so, it is an everyday occurrence for them.   But it's still surprising to look up and see a cat sitting oh-so-comfortably in the corner of a 25' high rafter.

Yup, she just claws her way up the thick support posts....and in a flash, she is high upon a rafter under the roof overhang.

She seems to be saying,"What are you looking at?".

We have had a very wet winter this year as promised by all the weathermen who predicted an El Nino year.   I was so grateful for a sunny day a few days ago and apparently, so were the boy alpacas because I went out to check on them and they were all in the pasture up near my studio.    I had put out rows of hay for them and they were so happy to have their favorite hay to munch on while basking in the warmth of a winter sun.

Apollo, the light tan alpaca, and his buddy, Alphonso, the fawn colored boy, hung out together near Joel's bee hives.    They kept looking off into our woods, I'm not sure what they saw back there.

Here's Diablo.  He's one of two of my favorite boys.   I can always tell him by the little dot of brown fleece on his left hindquarter.   He has the thickest coat of fleece and is always the first one to greet me every morning when it's time to get fed.

 He was enjoying this row of hay so much that in between munching on it, he laid down right on top of it!    And then he sighed as if to say, "How wonderful!".   He just cracks me up.  

And that, folks, is the round up of animal antics for today.    Who needs any more entertainment than that?
Debbie

Sandhill Cranes

I recently overheard someone talking about how our area is part of the flyway for Sandhill Cranes.   And then, 2 days ago while Joel and I were out in the barn, I heard several large flocks of birds coming toward our farm from the South.   Luckily, I already had my camera with me and this is what I captured in my lens.

Pretty cool, huh?    There were at least 6 flocks of birds that flew right over our heads that morning.   Joel kept telling me they were Canadian geese, but the "honking" didn't sound quite right to me.   So, I ran inside the house and grabbed the binoculars and when he looked up at the sky he was shocked to see that they were not geese after all, but were actually Sandhill Cranes.  

Their wingspan is enormous.    And they were right over our heads, flying nice and low so I could get a good look at them!  How pretty.

And then, just like that, they were all gone.....heading north to another destination.   Meanwhile, Joel and I got back to work in the barn.

 Look at these two cuties......taking a little siesta in the alpaca hay bin.    We often find the cats in the hay bins, sometimes 3 of them are snuggled together and taking a nap.   The alpaca don't seem to care.    They just eat around them.    And the cats show no fear of the alpaca, often running in between their legs to get to the other side of the barn.

  This gal was having a bad hair day......but I don't think she cared one little bit that she had hay stuck in her hair over her eyes.    She was more interested in my camera than anything else.

All the other girls stayed a safe distance away from the camera......I guess they had forgotten to put on their makeup and were a bit camera shy.  But they sure did keep a watchful eye on me.   They may be aloof, but they are curious creatures and like to know exactly what you're doing.

I've been doing some reading on pasture management lately, and one family farm explained that they put out hay on the ground for their animals to eat.    It enticed the animals to leave the barn, poop out in the pasture, which re-deposits seed heads from the hay.    That, in turn, helps to reseed the pasture. Hmmmm, well, I figured it was worth a try.    So, I spread out a couple rows of hay in both the boys and the girls pasture.

Just for fun, I picked up a clump of hay to hand feed to the girls.   It's one way to get them to come closer to me and shows them they can trust me.    Building a relationship with these animals takes time and a lot of patience.  

But I do love them so!   Who could resist such fluffiness?    I can hardly wait to have them all sheared in a couple of months so I get to play with their fleece on my spinning wheel.

I know you wanna feed them, too?    Don't ya?   Come one, I can see it in your eyes.    Well, if you come to visit our farm we'll give you a pair of boots for your feet and you can step into the pasture with them and feed them, too.

Having.   Too.   Much.   Fun.

Happy Farm Chick,
Debbie