Sunday, December 20, 2009

NEW PACA PICS!!!






We had some snow that started on Friday, YEEEEHAWWWWW! Unfortunately, it did rain on Saturday morning so kinda messed up the pretty. I took these pics today because the sun was out.

Of course the little dark fawn cria is Clare Bear, the smaller white cria is Killer, the larger (snork) white cria is Tipper, the adult white paca is Chloe, she is due at the end of January, she is bred to the adult male that I have pictured. That is Artemus, he is our mega herdsire. Blood lines to die for, great fiber and a healthy show record. Doesn't he have a gorgeous face?

FOR ANYONE INTERESTED!

The first thing I will say is that I have never met Fugs, so my dislike is not caused by anything she did to me personally. I do not have any interesting Fugs did me wrong stories like YHI does. I do know someone who has met her. She is not impressed. When my friend met her, Fugs was complaining about a poster who critiqued her riding on the VLC blog. She was not happy and used foul language, including the c*nt word. All of this was done right in front of my friend's eleven year old daughter. That Fugs, what a class act!

I was a regular follower of FHOTD until mid-February of 2009. I did enjoy the blog for quite awhile after I started reading in late 2007. There was lots of good info and lots of really witty people on there, unfortunately, there was also alot of things put on there that were just plain cruel. Over time, well I just started getting a bad vibe from Fugs herself and I only stayed on because I had made some internet friends there, and while some of the posters were obviously "out there," many were truly good people. I was always amazed about how funny and clever so many posters were.

Based on reading Fugs, my opinion of her is that she is condescending, judgmental, opinionated to the point of inflexibility, a know-it-all who can't admit when she is wrong and she has a mean streak a mile wide. This bullshit that I continuosly hear from her, "don't dish it if you can't take it," well maybe she needs to heed her own words, cause she has proven many times that she can't. Do as I say, not as I do just doesn't friggin fly.

To those who are interested in what she said to me about my pacas that had me upset, here is what it was about. I freely admit that I started the whole thing, she was posting on the thread that was about Tiger Woods' problems. Frankly, I found it truly amusing and ironic because of her past and her stated morals or lack there of. I said just that in my PM. Please note that I did this all via PM. Of couse I got back the usual blah, blah, blah from her. It turned to how I only post nasty stuff like the advice I gave to Sarcasta about practicing without stirrups. We then went back and forth a bit about that with her saying I should post pics of myself riding. I told her I didn't know how to post pics on HD but gave her my blog address and told her to look in the older posts for some pics. In the meantime, she received a PM from a friend of mine that was less than nice, that apparently really pissed her off. She came back, said I was stupid because I didn't know how to post the pics on HD and said that after looking through three pages of dying Alpacas, she was put off. I am going to assume that she didn't follow my instructions so never did find the pics of me riding.

Now, theoretically, the words themselves weren't ugly, but the intent behind them was. She didn't mention the fact that she had to scroll through several pages of my Christmas tree first, she went straight for what is obviously a very painful thing that recently happened to me. Like I said, I did start shit with her via PM and even though I did not have anything to do with that other PM that was sent, it really isn't that surprising that she retaliated, however, never, no matter how much I hated someone or was angry at someone, would I ever go after their kids, family or animals to get back at them. As I previously mentioned, she has a mean streak a mile wide. I was truly surpised given her claim to being such an animal lover that she would stoop so low.

Anyway, she also said she was done with the silly conversation. I did respond but I am sure she didn't read it, that is why I made that post on the RIP thread.

That is my story and I am sticking to it!

Sunday, December 13, 2009

WE HAVE CHRISTMAS TREE!






Okay, this is the finished product and a few pics along the way. Kevin had to take some off of the trunk to get it into the tree stand and snipped a bit off of the top.

Notice Gracie is helping.

Friday, December 11, 2009

KEVIN IS GOING TO KILL ME!!!




I went shopping for my Christmas Tree this afternoon. I went to this garden center on the other side of town that has great trees at good prices. I am a stickler about my tree. It must be a real tree and it has to be as tall as I can fit in my home. So much about Christmas has changed since I was a kid, I really miss those days. The one thing I can and do hold onto from my childhood is my tree.

My tree is full of a hodge podge of ornaments that I have collected over many years. There is no theme other than sentimentality.

Anyway, I usually buy a 9' tree and I always buy it the weekend right after Thanksgiving, but this year was different. The garden center had no 9' trees left, the only ones they had were 7'-8' or 10'-11' and above. I refuse to go down in size especially since I have vaulted ceilings, soooooo, I went up.

These two pics are of the tree in the back of the truck in the garage. It looks big even in the back of my rather large truck.

I just found out that Kevin signed up to work tomorrow even though he knew my office party was at the same time. He thought he would get day shift, well no, he is on afternoon shift, so I guess I get to go stag. I am not happy, but at least when he bitches about my tree, I can just say "shut it."

Saturday, December 5, 2009

SHANNON IN TROUBLE!!







I had noticed that Shannon wasn't really thriving like the other three cria had. Drizella seemed nervous and upset about being separated from the herd. Shannon was nursing but didn't seem to have any energy. We decided that maybe she wasn't getting enough, I spoke with the vet and he advised milk replacer. That was Wednesday. Kevin stopped and picked it up, when he got home, he found Shannon collapsed. He brought her in the house and began giving her some formula. He called me and I came home immediately. We fed her at 20 minute intervals for several hours and then started spacing it out as time went on and she was improving. By midnight, she was standing up and walking around. The next morning, we put her back in the pen with Driz and planned to supplement her nursing for as long as we needed to. That day (Thursday) Kevin fed her at 11:00 and 2:00. I came home at 4:30 and immediately went out, she was nursing so I left her alone for a bit. I came back out and fed her, then did some other things, came back out again and gave her some more. I checked on her about 15 minutes later, she was down again. I brought her in the house, covered her with my heating pad and tried to revive her. She did respond a bit, she was holding her head up at least, but she went down again at about 3:15.

The above pictures are from Wednesday night.

The ones on the following post are from Thursday night.

GOODBYE SWEET SHANNON!!!






Shannon died at 3:30 Am on Friday 12/4/09. She took her last breaths in Kevin's arms. So young but so loved, you will be remembered forever.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

MEET HHF SHANNON!!!












Some new pics of our newest cria, Shannon, born Thanksgiving night about 8:00 pm. It was so exciting because Kevin, my daughter and my dad got to see it. When Audrey and I went out to feed, her toes were just peeping out. Of course, Drizella did fine, she was up then down, then up several times, but the cria came out while she was standing. There goes a couple of myths, they don't always have their cria in the afternoon and they don't always have them laying down.
Anyway, she is a lovely shade of dark brown. Much darker than either parent. Her dad, Smith Barney is the picture to the left. Sorry I couldn't do better, he wouldn't stand still because he was pissed off that Artemus got to do the Wild Alpaca Dance again and he didn't. He is next though, we will breed him to Chantilly next weekend.




MORE CRIA CUTENESS!!!















WE ARE AT IT AGAIN!!





It was time to check and see if Caitlin took on her breeding to Artemus. Kevin lead him in and directly over to her to get her reaction. She wanted no part of him and told him so with a big gob of spit. Score!
So, since Clare is about a month old, it was time to rebreed her. Kevin lead Artemus over and bam down she goes and Artie did his thing.
As you can see, there was quite a crowd of interested spectators. I think Tipper was a bit too interested.
The bottom picture was afterwards, I guess it is like smoking a cigarette.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

I HAZ NEW CRIA!!







Drizella finally gave birth. My daughter and I went out to feed about 8:00 PM after a very lovely TG dinner and I could tell Drizella was in labor, it was really obvious . I actually got to watch this one being born.
These pics are very shortly after she was born. Yes, I said she, Yaaa Hooo!

Saturday, November 21, 2009

CRIA WATCH IS ON!!!












Drizella is due on Wednesday, but this morning she started exhibiting behavior that she might be ready to pop. Her belly has dropped and she is keeping some distance from the herd. She also didn't eat much feed this morning. A couple of times she has laid down but not in kush position, her back legs were to the side and she had her tail up. I am checking her every thirty minutes. She is five years old and I don't know if she has ever had a cria. The record keeping of the previous owner is less than optimal.
The other pictures are of a bit of cria games that I took while observing Drizella. Cute little buggers and even Currency, the big fawn girl got into. Such joy baby animals have, it never fails to make me happy.



Thursday, November 19, 2009

GODSPEED JASPER!!!!!



Artemus' Jasper 6/1/05-11/18/09
The last year was unkind to you. You are now in a better place and I will see you on the other side.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

CRIA CUTENESS ALERT!








We turned the new cria and Mama Chantilly back out with the herd today. We finally have sunny, warm weather. Chantilly really appeared to want out after being stuck inside in a pen for almost a week.
Meet HHF Killarney, otherwise known as Killer. We found out his IGG was low, but he is doing just fine. He has gained weight and been just as active and bright as either of the other two. I think his ears are looking a little better, hopefully, over time they will straighten up more.
One of these days I will get some video of them pronking around. Everytime I have gone out there to video, they just walk or stand around.

Cria Cuteness Alert!















Monday, November 9, 2009

CRIA UPDATE!!!












Meet our latest addition to HHF, Chantilly had her cria this morning probably around 8:30. Another boy and weighing in at 15 lbs. Kevin got cria duty this time. He had gone out to do his chores and there he was. He was still wet and covered in afterbirth. Chantilly hadn't even passed the placenta. Kevin looked around for it and couldn't find it. Eventually, he saw it kinda just hanging there, he walked up behind her and took hold, she walked off and out it plopped.
I knew she was going to go today so I was going to leave work early, well she foiled my plans by having him in the morning. Hummppfhhh!
He has been nursing very well and the vet will be out in the AM to do the necessary shots and bloodwork.
Doesn't he have the cutest ears? I have a feeling they will straighten up but I am glad I got these pictures before.