Joy!

At this time of year you're probably thinking that my title refers to Christmas. Well, not this time. It's roughly 25 degrees outside with a bit of a wind chill. I've just come in from the barn and my joy is a sarcastic response to 'popping poopsicles.' For those of you who don't know what this is, poopsicles are frozen poop 'jellybeans' from my alpacas. Some think that sarcasm comes from sad, mad people and that they use it to express their unhappiness. With me, I do it because I think its funny. So I'm in the barn this morning trying to rake in the poop and its just not working. So, for the first time this winter season I need to get out our potatoe rake! Its fantastic for picking or 'popping' out frozen poop. As I was popping I was actually composing this blog. Go figure.

Oh Spit!

So I've been feeling guilty lately. Guilty of not spending enough bonding time with my alpacas. Granted, working full time plus extra hours does take quite a bit of my time, as does keeping both websites current, and general upkeep of the house and the barn, but I do have down time. Some of it is spent on the internet, some spent knitting, and some spent watching movies with Marshall. I could spend just a few minutes every day with my alpacas just touching, hugging, and halter training couldn't I? So I did. Most of them were trying to figure out what was going on. I had fun, I bonded with them, but my first clue that they weren't  enjoying it was when Mikey, my crankee yankee, looked at me with his big dark eyes........and SPIT at me!! Full on!! Spit happens.

A Day of Beauty

So yesterday we had what we like to call our  "Day of Beauty" in the barn. The alpacas probably think of it as the "Day of Terror," right up there with shearing day and shots day. The "Day of Beauty" is the day we do topknots and toenails and then weigh them before winter sets in and they're full fleece. Its hard to tell in February if your alpaca has lost weight. Their fleece really can be deceiving and if you have a female who's making a baby and nursing one as well, then the weight loss can be dangerous. As for the topknots some of them get to looking alittle sloppy and some just plain get in the way. Two of our boys, Skye and Concord, are nearly blinded by the fleece just flopping over their eyes. Poor boys. You can walk right up to them and they act so surprised when they finally realize it's you and not another alpaca!! Aren't they just fun? The last thing is the clipping of the toenails. In case you didn't know, alpacas have 2 toenails on each foot. They curve just alittle. If they get too long they curve too much. Have you ever seen one of those women who have fingernails that are many inches long and they curve alot? Its sort of like that! Of course we don't let it get that bad. Even when it's just alittle long it gets uncomfortable for them to walk. We had a successful day until it came to my crankee yankee Mikey. He just plain doesn't want to be bothered so we didn't bother him! His topknot is actually good and his toenails are good. Probably from running from us or running after Concord!

Come on over and chat!

We often have visitors to our farm. Either to see our alpacas, the 400 grapevines(yes, for winemaking), or our house(the author of Peyton Place, Grace Metallious, used to live here). I remember when we were first thinking about starting our alpaca business and we visited alot of farms. On our first couple of visits we didn't know what to do. Should we just go up to the barn? Should we knock on their front door? It was usually so quiet that we even wondered if anyone was home! Then, when we finally ventured out of our car, someone would just appear from their barn or their house and act like this was perfectly normal. Usually if a stranger pulls up in your driveway you pull the chainlock across, or encourage the dog to bark, or you pretend you're not home. At a farm though, its different. I've learned that people who run farms are used to people just stopping by and some, like us, encourage it. It's always a good idea to call first, but sometimes you might just happen to run across an interesting looking farm or animal (alpacas anyone?), and you just have to stop. It's usually okay with the owner as they/we love to talk about how wonderful their animals or crops are. So, if you've ever wanted to see an alpaca, or check out our grapevines, or locate the "Peyton Place house", stop by, we'd love to chat!

Visit

Conversations?

You know how you're having a 'conversation' with someone and as soon as you open your mouth to speak they talk right over you? It's one of my pet peeves. I confess that I have been guilty of it too. However, when I go up to my barn, we all take turns. The goats are always the first to say 'hi', and when they're finished I say 'hi' back, usually in the form of 'baaaaaaaahhh.' We take turns. Hmmmmmm. Thats my alpacas saying 'hi.' To them I use their names and I watch their ears perk up. My ducks think I'm the most wonderful person in the world. Thats because I feed them. Anyway, we all get along because we take turns. Just my thought today. I'm off to the Big E today to volunteer.

August

I realize I'm alittle backwards with this. It's nearly October and here I am just now telling you about our month of August! Anyway, August was a fantastic month! I'm calling it our 'August of additions.' On August 6th we welcomed our first 2009 alpaca baby. I almost named him Lancelot but once I took a good look at him I just thought he was magical, so we named him Merlin. Thats in keeping with our Camelot theme. He weighed in at 17lbs. and hasn't stopped running since. This boy is wired! The next birth is my great niece Alexis Joy, or Lexie for short. I don't have pictures of her yet, they're still on my phone. She came 3 weeks early and weighed in at around 5 1/2 lbs. She is perfect and beautiful. I was able to have layovers in the area she lives in so I was able to see her 4 times. She changed alot each time. The next birth was 11 Moscovy ducklings! All 11 eggs hatched. It was alot of fun to watch and it took no time at all for them to be up and walking all over the farm. They're much bigger now of course. Another fun event in the same month was the visit of a couple from Sweden who wanted to visit some NH alpaca farms and we were lucky enough to be one of them. They were very nice and alot of fun. The picture shows them holding Merlin. September has had 1 birth and I'll tell you about that in my next entry. TTFN.