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Alpaca Fight
29 April 2010 18:53
Valentino chases Hannibal with intent to do harm. They're both machos (adult male studs), and sometimes the testosterone flies.
( They're not always fluffy and goofy. )
( They're not always fluffy and goofy. )
Some shearing pics
20 June 2009 20:36We had our shearing today. It rained all morning, and true to form the sun didn't come out until we were just about finished. It went well, all things considered. Some of the alpacas were extremely uncooperative about walking from the barn to the garage where we had set up shop. It's a distance of about 250 feet, and a couple of them took over 20 minutes to travel from A to B. But it's done. I didn't get a lot of pics, but I've got a few representative ones here, mostly of little Suki. Whose fleece is like silk! None of us could get over how extraordinary it is.
( Anyway . . . )
( Anyway . . . )
Wicked cold
16 March 2008 18:22Today was not the weather that we had been forecast. The sun did come out in the afternoon, but it was (is) brutally cold because of below freezing temps and a bone-chilling high wind from the north. The alpacas didn't seem to mind it as much as we did; they spent the entire day outside. We made a few trips out there to check on Satine just on the off chance that she was going to give birth to a popsicle. Wisely, she decided to wait for another day, but things are progressing. Slowly. But . . . progressing.
We're all feeling that spring will never arrive. There's little but below freezing temperatures and snow in the long-range forecast. Wait - we have two days of temps around 40 coming up, but they'll bring snow and rain. Not exactly a springtime extravaganza.
Anyway. It wasn't a total downer. It's always fun to hang with the alpacas, and because the weather was so brisk, the boy alpacas got frisky.
( Boys at play. )
We're all feeling that spring will never arrive. There's little but below freezing temperatures and snow in the long-range forecast. Wait - we have two days of temps around 40 coming up, but they'll bring snow and rain. Not exactly a springtime extravaganza.
Anyway. It wasn't a total downer. It's always fun to hang with the alpacas, and because the weather was so brisk, the boy alpacas got frisky.
( Boys at play. )
It's Valentino at his best or worse - depending on whether or not you a)think he's adorable no matter what or b)just want him out of your face already.
You can either go to the set at Flickr
or
( View them here )
Or you can just ignore the whole thing and carry on with your wonderful selves.
You can either go to the set at Flickr
or
( View them here )
Or you can just ignore the whole thing and carry on with your wonderful selves.
none of you spent your day chasing a wily cria around a paddock so you could give him an enema? Yeah, I thought so.
Poor Valentino is very, very constipated. It happens with crias sometime, so today we got some infant enemas and went out to stalk the little guy. Baby is faaaaaaaaaast! And of course all of the other alpacas were running interference so it took a while for the three of us to catch him. The actual enema took about 15 seconds - no exaggeration - but we were all puffing and sweating like we'd been wrassling alligators.
We waited and watched and while it did have slight effect, the poor thing was still straining at the poo pile. No problem, we had more of the solution. (Actually Dar made up some stuff we'd read about on the alpaca list.) Then it was back to the paddock for some more chasing of the cria. We gave up after about 10 minutes because it was pretty obvious that we weren't going to catch him again this time out.
After dinner, Dar and I headed out again. This time, we played some mind games. we brought out fresh hay and the tasty heads and seeds from the hay that the alpacas just love to death. Then we bided our time and tried to sidle close to the little guy to grab him. Did I mention that he was wily? He managed to keep his mom in between us and him for a long time. Finally, he just sort of wandered near enough for me to grab him and the second enema was launched. So to speak.
We're still not sure that it worked all that well, but he went a little bit, so that will have to do for tonight. Tomorrow is another day, as they say.
And if anyone had told me that I would be obsessing about cria poo, I'd have laughed and laughed and laughed. But here I am. ( And here's Valentino ) I weighed him yesterday, and he's up to a whopping 22.5 pounds. Go, little cria! Go with your bad, wily self!
Poor Valentino is very, very constipated. It happens with crias sometime, so today we got some infant enemas and went out to stalk the little guy. Baby is faaaaaaaaaast! And of course all of the other alpacas were running interference so it took a while for the three of us to catch him. The actual enema took about 15 seconds - no exaggeration - but we were all puffing and sweating like we'd been wrassling alligators.
We waited and watched and while it did have slight effect, the poor thing was still straining at the poo pile. No problem, we had more of the solution. (Actually Dar made up some stuff we'd read about on the alpaca list.) Then it was back to the paddock for some more chasing of the cria. We gave up after about 10 minutes because it was pretty obvious that we weren't going to catch him again this time out.
After dinner, Dar and I headed out again. This time, we played some mind games. we brought out fresh hay and the tasty heads and seeds from the hay that the alpacas just love to death. Then we bided our time and tried to sidle close to the little guy to grab him. Did I mention that he was wily? He managed to keep his mom in between us and him for a long time. Finally, he just sort of wandered near enough for me to grab him and the second enema was launched. So to speak.
We're still not sure that it worked all that well, but he went a little bit, so that will have to do for tonight. Tomorrow is another day, as they say.
And if anyone had told me that I would be obsessing about cria poo, I'd have laughed and laughed and laughed. But here I am. ( And here's Valentino ) I weighed him yesterday, and he's up to a whopping 22.5 pounds. Go, little cria! Go with your bad, wily self!
I've finally managed to get the photos uploaded to Flickr; it's been slow all day so it took literally hours. I have a set of twelve pics of the birth if you're interested in seeing that. And, as you'd guess would happen, my batteries went just as he hit the ground, so I had to scramble around for the replacement batteries just then.
We've decided to name him Valentino, because of his beautiful eyes and that oh so debonair combo of moustache and spats that he's sporting. We went out to the paddock just before sunset and put his little cria coat back on him to try to keep him warm tonight. I know we can't do this, but I wish we could bring him inside with us tonight to keep him warm. We (I) just have to trust that he's not going to freeze overnight. The heaters are all on in the barn, but it doesn't like Gertie has any intention of leading him in there. Can you say "another sleepness night"? I knew you could.
We've decided to name him Valentino, because of his beautiful eyes and that oh so debonair combo of moustache and spats that he's sporting. We went out to the paddock just before sunset and put his little cria coat back on him to try to keep him warm tonight. I know we can't do this, but I wish we could bring him inside with us tonight to keep him warm. We (I) just have to trust that he's not going to freeze overnight. The heaters are all on in the barn, but it doesn't like Gertie has any intention of leading him in there. Can you say "another sleepness night"? I knew you could.