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and a major pain in the ass. My power cord to my laptop just died, so I'm going to have borrow Dar's off and on until I can afford to replace this. My online time is going to be limited for a while, it seems.
Just wanted to update a few things. Dar has done an exceptional job (as usual) of nursing the baby along. He'd gained over 2 pounds in three days, which is great considering he wasn't nursing. She milked Delilah several times a day and feed the colostrum to the baby (still nameless, alas) and then supplement it with regular milk. He's finally nursing on his own, but Dar still wants to continue supplementing for a few more days. As to names, we're looking at Merlin, Leopold, and I'm partial to Ozzie because of his weird eyes.
We were at a big alpaca shearing yesterday at our friends the Poots. Thirty alpacas in 10 hours. That was pretty good considering both shearers were having big trouble with their clippers and frequently had to stop had to stop and change or clean blades. The fleece was damp from the very high humidity and that also caused problems. There were three accidents where an alpaca was badly cut, one so bad that Dar had to suture the wound. It happens when the alpaca suddenly jerks or jumps on the table. The shearers feel terrible about it, but there's not much that can be done to prevent it and not stress out the alpaca even more.
I spent all day there, and although I'm extremely tired and foggy-headed today, I'm glad that I went. It was great to feel useful again and to actually do something, plus it was great to be around other alpacas people for a while.
Friday I got some work done around here. I finally got the tractor up and running. It had one flat tire, so I jacked up the tractor, took off the tire and filled it using a little compressor pump that runs off a car cigarette lighter. Any port in a storm :) Both front tires are still too soft, so I'll have to fill them some more. It makes me a little nervous because I don't have a small enough tire gauge to test the psi, and I'm worried about over filling and having the damn thing explode. I know that sounds like a frivolous fear, and I was feeling a bit silly about it . . . until all the talk yesterday morning was about a local guy who was severely injured on Friday when one of his tires exploded while he was working on it. See! Of course these are small tires, but still they could do some damage. So it's going to take me some time because I'll be stopping and checking frequently. I really need to get this done; our yard is like a wild field.
We have another shearing tomorrow, but that's only about 16 alpacas, so it won't be that long. Then Tuesday it's going to rain. Wednesday Dar has to go get some tests done. Thursday looks like the first day I'll be able to get to things around here. Hopefully there won't be wild animals making lairs out there in there bush that is our back yard.
And the battery is really low, so I need to shut it down. It's a long weekend here (Victoria Day, aka the 2-4 Weekend), but I hope the rest of you have a great Monday ahead of you at work :)
Just wanted to update a few things. Dar has done an exceptional job (as usual) of nursing the baby along. He'd gained over 2 pounds in three days, which is great considering he wasn't nursing. She milked Delilah several times a day and feed the colostrum to the baby (still nameless, alas) and then supplement it with regular milk. He's finally nursing on his own, but Dar still wants to continue supplementing for a few more days. As to names, we're looking at Merlin, Leopold, and I'm partial to Ozzie because of his weird eyes.
We were at a big alpaca shearing yesterday at our friends the Poots. Thirty alpacas in 10 hours. That was pretty good considering both shearers were having big trouble with their clippers and frequently had to stop had to stop and change or clean blades. The fleece was damp from the very high humidity and that also caused problems. There were three accidents where an alpaca was badly cut, one so bad that Dar had to suture the wound. It happens when the alpaca suddenly jerks or jumps on the table. The shearers feel terrible about it, but there's not much that can be done to prevent it and not stress out the alpaca even more.
I spent all day there, and although I'm extremely tired and foggy-headed today, I'm glad that I went. It was great to feel useful again and to actually do something, plus it was great to be around other alpacas people for a while.
Friday I got some work done around here. I finally got the tractor up and running. It had one flat tire, so I jacked up the tractor, took off the tire and filled it using a little compressor pump that runs off a car cigarette lighter. Any port in a storm :) Both front tires are still too soft, so I'll have to fill them some more. It makes me a little nervous because I don't have a small enough tire gauge to test the psi, and I'm worried about over filling and having the damn thing explode. I know that sounds like a frivolous fear, and I was feeling a bit silly about it . . . until all the talk yesterday morning was about a local guy who was severely injured on Friday when one of his tires exploded while he was working on it. See! Of course these are small tires, but still they could do some damage. So it's going to take me some time because I'll be stopping and checking frequently. I really need to get this done; our yard is like a wild field.
We have another shearing tomorrow, but that's only about 16 alpacas, so it won't be that long. Then Tuesday it's going to rain. Wednesday Dar has to go get some tests done. Thursday looks like the first day I'll be able to get to things around here. Hopefully there won't be wild animals making lairs out there in there bush that is our back yard.
And the battery is really low, so I need to shut it down. It's a long weekend here (Victoria Day, aka the 2-4 Weekend), but I hope the rest of you have a great Monday ahead of you at work :)
