BACK IN TOUCH!

Things have been really crazy around here this past week. In addition to taking care of the new orphan which means feeding every 2-3 hours around the clock, we had out of town company for four days. We really enjoyed seeing them, but it was a bit challenging to make sure they had a good time and also take care of the Aran. I think we were successful.

The pics are from the last week.

Godspeed to our girl CPHA Anastasia! She was such a good girl and an excellent mom. We are waiting the results of the necropsy because this was so unexpected and tragic.

Baby Aran is doing well and Dancer, the big brown and white female has taken her under her wing, she will let Aran snuggle up to her at night. Bless Dancer's mommy heart!

I have also enclosed some pics from the show. Please ignore the fat woman with the cute pacas. We did pretty well and learned alot and made some more really wonderful contacts.

We are thinking of showing in Lexington again in March.

WELCOME TO OUR NEW CRIA, SURPRISE!!

These are a few pics from today of our surprise cria. She was not due for about 3 weeks. Her official name is Hummingbird Hill Araon (pronounced Erin). My daughter and her best friend did a great job as we were still at the show. Unfortunately, her Mom had some complications later, and did not make it.

I will post some more later.

OPEN HOUSE PICTURE FAIL!!!

I was going to have some pictures of the Open House we had at the farm on Sunday, but the camera went missing. We did eventually find it, but by that time, it was mostly over. There were a couple of our guests who were taking pictures and hope to get a few of them sent.

It was a wonderful day though. The weather was very cooperative, sunny and about 80 degrees with a light breeze. I had lots of good food and plenty of beverages and about 75 people came.

We enjoyed introducing everyone to our alpacas and even had some scarves, gloves, socks and hats that were made from paca fiber to show people and to sell.

Gracie got lots of good belly rubbings and the horses got plenty of attention and treats.

We leave tomorrow for Lexington, VA for the 2010 Virginia Alpaca Owners and Breeders Expo. We will be showing 3 of our babies, Clare, Kerry and Killa. We were going to be taking Tip as well, but his hind end still isn't 100% after his recent illness.

I WILL have pictures!!

LOOKING FORWARD TO FALL!!!

It has been awhile since I posted anything.

It has been a miserable summer. Extremely hot weather, meager amounts of rain and really buggy. Needless to say, I have been pretty crabby for several months. I am so looking forward to the Fall which is just around the corner. I know we will still get some hot days for awhile longer, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am just hoping we don't get as much rain as we did last Fall although we really do need a bunch to get back on track. I had hoped that Hurricane Earl would bring some rain our way, and we did get a bit, but it wasn't near enough.

To update everyone, Tip is doing just fine now. We never did figure out what happened. The West Nile Virus titer was negative and nothing unusual showed up in all of his other bloodwork. Oh well, as long as the cute little bugger is strong and healthy, that is what matters.

We will be microchipping the four cria tomorrow or Monday and getting their final papers in order. DNA testing is required by the Alpaca Registry to show parentage and they must be registered in order to show. We will be taking them to Lexington this year in mid-October. We went last year with Portfolio and little Annie, but that was really just to get our feet wet. I am excited to show our cria.

As far as this year's crop, we are thinking we will have four, the first one would be due in early November. I, of course, will be putting up posts about that as time gets closer.

The pictures are just some ones I have taken randomly.

The little frog was in the plant I have on the table out on the back porch. I think he is pretty cute.

The picture outside was of a storm that was approaching a couple of weeks ago. Notice that Colonel Parker was monitoring the situation on the TV.

And a few pics of my hummers. I haven't been able to get a good one of the whole flock, just too dang blurry. Little suckers are very fast!

UPDATE!!!

I want to thank everyone for their well wishes for my boy Tip. As you can see, he is up and walking around as of this morning. Still a bit weak, but damn, sooo much better. We still don't have the results from the West Nile Virus titers, but at this point, who cares.

He and his little bro Killa will stay in the basement for at least several more weeks. I don't want to risk putting him back too early.

This weekend we will set up a small pen outside the basement so they can graze for a bit before it gets too hot each day.


I will say, we are lucky to have a walk out basement with a single car garage door as access. That has allowed us easy access for them and any other critter that might need it.

SICK PACA ALERT!!!!

My boy Tipper is not doing well. He has major muscle weakness and can barely stand let alone walk. His temp is normal, he had good heart and gut sounds, is eating and drinking well and is alert but he just can't stand or walk much. Vet was out this morning, gave him thiamin, banamine and an antibiotic and left me the same for the next few days. Pulled some blood to test for West Nile. We are thinking that it is cummulative effects from this God awful heat.

We moved him on a blanket, travois style into our basement where it is 68-70 degrees to help him. Also brought over his little brother Killa so that he has company.

Good thoughts would be appreciated!

SWEET, SWEET RAIN!!!!!

We have been having a terrible summer, really hot and dry. We went for five or six weeks with no measureable rain and temps in the upper 90's and 100's. I even had to start feeding the horses hay.

Kevin and I decided to go ahead and stock up on hay for the year because it isn't looking good for more cuttings. We now have about 600 bales of good quality orchard grass stored. It is a wonderful thing to have that kind of storage building here.

Anyway, we have had some rain over the past week, thank goodness. Friday we had two separate storms go through that dropped a bit over 1" of rain. Perked all of the flora up quite a bit.

However, temps are going to be holding in the mid to upper 90's all week.

SIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


As you can see, the little Hummer was watching the beautiful rain from the rail on our porch. They like to hang out there under the ferns. Sometimes there are three or four of them perched there.