Sneaking in between outages

I'm still having internet troubles, so who knows if this will even get posted. I plan on being uncharacteristically optimistic, so here goes.

I made dinner for Dar's birthday; nothing fancy - honey mustard chicken, corn fritter casserole, caesar salad, and tiramisu for dessert. That last was store bought, but not because I didn't try to make my own. It appears that you cannot find packages of lady fingers in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. I'm serious. And wtf?? So at the last minute I had to settle for already made; it was President's Choice, so it was good, but still . . .

Anyway, the week flew by. Fleeeeeeeeeeeeew, I say. Can't say that I have much to show for it outside of contented alpacas. Shall we do an alpaca update? All righty then.

I got hit full on the head by a mouthful of chewed grain compliments of Conchita. She is one pissy alpaca, let me tell you, although I have to admit that I wasn't her intended target. I popped up when she was shooting out a spitwad at Satine and thwack!. Heh. Conchita is both pregnant and nursing, and she's so powerfully hungry that she'd probably eat the face right off of me if I had the bad idea of falling asleep in her presence. She jealously guards her food and then bulldozes her way into the other feeders when she's done with hers. Woe be the alpaca who tries to stop her. Although, really, they all give it right back to her, except for the crias.

So yeah, feeding time is a noisy, sloppy, rather wet affair. I love the furry critters, but really - - dumb as dirt. "Guys, you don't have to all try to eat out of that one little feeder. The rest is over here. Here. Look at all the other feeders!" :: shakes feeders around in front of their faces:: "Just . . . over herrrrrrrre!" Eventually it all gets sorted out, but not without a lot of stamping and snorting and spitting. And that's just me.

Dar said that she's seen Gertie's cria moving around; she's not due until April, but I'm getting all excited. Adama and Delilah are pretty big now - especially Adama. Delilah is still a little scamp. This morning she jumped me because I didn't get her food to her fast enough. She does this thing with the other alpacas where she'll leap up and chest butt them (think of that chest bumping stuff that guys do to each other); well I got that treatment. If she continues doing that to humans we'll have to break her of it, but I think it was just a momentary lapse because there was so much commotion in the barn. Oh! She also does that running leap into the little pine tree that we have growing in the paddock. She literally leaps into the tree and then wriggles around for a bit, falls back, then does it again. Kinky :)

Hannibal is going to be sent to our friend's farm to ride out the winter; he's getting too big and aggressive to be kept in with the females and crias. We're afraid that he's going to hurt one of the little ones accidently and besides, it's just time that he be separated out with the big boys. Iceman is also there, so they'll get to bond again. I'm going to miss him, though, the big goof.

Still no word from the Stewarts about when Cinnamon Girl is coming back to us or when Satine and Delilah will heading to their place. Actually, if they wait another month to breed Satine, I think Delilah will be ready to be weaned; Satine is already occasionally refusing her when she wants to nurse. We need to weigh her, but we don't have a livestock scale. She's a little too big to pick up now, so it's not like I can jump onto a scale myself while holding her. We'll have to figure something out.

Meanwhile, the cats continue to rule the house. We're just slaves to the animals, I swear. And I'm rambling now, so off I go.