Anyone for a swim?

You're probably thinking, 'I didn't know alpacas could swim!' Well, as far as I know they can't however they will take a dip now and then to cool off on the really hot days. In the 2 previous years I have waited too long to purchase a kiddie pool for my animals. So this year we bought early and guess what? It's going to be 82 degrees on Saturday and all of my 'pacas are in full fleece!! Heat stroke anyone? So I put them out today so they'd be used to seeing them. Of course today was a very windy day so I had to put a few big rocks/small boulders in each one. We have no shortage of those here in the granite state. So they're out in the pasture and tomorrow we'll fill them with water so they'll be ready for Saturday. Alpacas, by the way, cool themselves thru their bellies, so what they do is step in and lay down one at a time. The pools are not very attractive so sometime in the next few years we'll arrange something alittle different. Something like a spray mat. They do like to get hosed down on the really hot days. The 'paca in the picture is Pendragon.

New vines!

Yesterday Marshall and I planted 60 new grape vines. Right now they don't look like much, as you can see from the picture, but in 4 years they'll produce bunches of blue grapes. The variety is called 'Aurora' and yes you read right, it'll take 4 years for them to mature. There's a saying among 'grapes for wine' growers that goes like this: You grow a vineyard and develop a winery for your grandkids, not yourself! It takes a good long time to see some profit in this so you have to either love it, have money to spare, and/or alot of patience! One of the other pictures is a man named Bill Lord. He's the one pruning a grapevine at Zorvino Vineyards and he is the grape guru! Marshall and I attended a seminar there about pest control and pruning. It's always fun to see what other people are doing with their vines and winerys.

Of course the cutest picture, even though it looks like she's dead, is of our maroon/bay black mega producer female Andromeda, or 'Drama' for short. She's sunbathing and rolling in the dirt. No sunscreen needed here!

Timberrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

So sometimes it's allittle difficult for me, the blonde, to move around these pictures just where I want them. The top shot is of this crazy man who takes down trees, a limb at a time, for a living! Anyone afraid of heights? We have, or had, alot of big trees along the roadside of our property. While they were beautiful (and I loved them) they also took the sun and water away from some of our grapevines. So, they had to go. The bottom shot ( or the one with no tree in the middle as I'm not sure where the pictures are going to end up) is what it looked like after he took down that one tree. He did it w/o any limbs blocking the road and none of our grapevines smashed. The grapevines are very close to the treeline. Amazing! You want to know another cool thing? This man, Courtney, is trading his services for my husbands service of post-pounding!! I love living here! It won't quite be an even trade but we won't owe him near as much. How cool is that?  I'll try and get the placement of the pictures better next time. 

The day we 'hit the bottle.'

Thats our first bottle of wine at Camelot Winery! It's a Seyval from our own 2009 crop. Thats me, Sunny, in the picture along with my husband, Marshall, on the left and our winemaker John Jude on the left. We had a great time. After bottling Ellie, who will be our caterer when we start hosting events, brought out appetizers. Actually she brought out dinner! It was fantastic!You can see more pictures of the evening on the Camelot Winery facebook page. That page has lots of pictures of our property including our georgous alpacas. So the 5 of us, John's daughter Clare was there also, spent the next couple of hours eating, drinking (yum!) and planning. A super evening! Thanks John and Ellie!

Down Duck

Poor little Gracie. She's in jail. Gracie is one of our gray moscovi female ducks. We think she was either stepped on or maybe has an infection in her right foot. So, for the past 8 days we've had her in our dogs crate. This way she won't be stepped on and can heal (if she did get stepped on), and we can control her drinking water. We've been giving her penicillan thru her water just in case it's an infection. So she's sort of in solitary. Although she's in the barn w/everyone else. I've also included more pictures of the front porch going on.

A front porch!!

I'm not what you would call a control freak. However, I do like order. You know, the rest of the world is chaos so my world needs to have some kind of  order. However, Marshall is not all about order. He just drops things wherever. I don't mind that because he's usually dropping something on the way to doing his 'honeydew list.' He's great about that. Now though, my driveway and front yard are nothing but chaos. There's lumber, wheelbarrows, tools, trucks, and people all over the place. I don't mind this either. We're on the way to having a front porch! I didn't know I missed it until the decking went on. It's a wrap around porch. The house, as you can see from the top photo, looks kind of naked w/o a porch. It's like a Mr. Potato Head that someone forgot to put a nose on. What happened? He's not finished! So anyway, I'll keep uploading pictures as we go. I just can't wait.

Weaning. Day 2/3

So this morning I went up to the barn as I always do to feed and clean up after everyone. I noticed that Merlin, my newly weaned baby with the white face, was starting to do his usual thing when I'm in the same pen with him. That is, to stare at me and watch what I do. The significant thing about that is that it means he's already getting used to his new situation. Whew. Pender, on the other hand (isn't there always an 'other hand?'), is still humming like crazy. He is a month younger. However, this changing up of the herd has really changed the whole herd's dynamics. Lady is still wanting her baby, Drama and Queenie (the other 2 females in the same pen) are fine, but the male that I put in the pen with the babies is missing HIS buddy! Tripper will stand and just stare at Skye, his buddy, and then go over to the gate where he hopes I'll let him thru. Skye, does the same. They are too funny.  So today I felt bad about that! So.................I let Tripper back out into the pen with Skye. You should have seen those two!!!! You'd think one of them just came back from the warfront!!! They jumped at each other, ran around, chased each other, then came to a screeching halt when they noticed I was watching! Were they embarassed? Thinking that I wouldn't think they were macho? Hmmmmm. Do alpacas get embarassed? BTW, I didn't have my camera with me so the pictures are from earlier this year. Skye is the darker one.

Weaning. Day 1

Yesterday it was time to wean my 2 babies, Merlin and Pendragon. I've had to do this before with my other babies but this time just seemed very sad. Merlin is Lady's first cria and she seemed to really miss him. She would look for him then look at me. I hope she forgives me. Drama, Pender's mom, just layed out in the sun. This is not her first baby. So for most of the day both babies tried to be as close to their moms as was possible. Can you imagine going thru the 'empty nest' syndrome after just 6 months?!' They grow up so fast.',' We're so proud of him.', 'Remember the day he was born?' I feel so mean to have seperated them. I keep telling the babies that every alpaca goes thru this. That it's a necessary part of life. That they'll get thru it. But will I get thru it? Marshall and I went up to the barn last night around 9pm just to check on them and make sure they were okay. They were. I haven't had any nightmares yet, but we are just beginning. More tomorrow. We'll try and have a good one here.

Goat doings

So I tell everyone that I bought my 3 Nigerian Dwarf goats purely for entertainment. It certainly wasn't a practical purchase. I named them the 3 stooges, Larry (the leader), Curly (for one curly horn and he's the friendliest), and Moe (the fiesty, stand-off-ish one).  I've only had them for a year but they have fulfilled their purpose here! Yesterday, for instance, I just happened to look up towards the barn from the house. At that exact moment Larry, Moe, then Curly, one after the other, come flying around the corner of a gate heading toward the barn as if in flight from a predator. The predators, and I use this term in the absolute loosest way, were 2 of my male alpacas!! Right after Curly comes Tripper, then Skye. Right on their heels. Then they all screeched to a halt in their pen. This was all just for fun! Just for me! Then there was the time when Moe had jumped over a stall gate and walked out  the front door of the barn. As soon as he saw me coming he ran back in the barn. The closer I got the more he paced as if to say, 'Moms coming, I'm in big trouble!' Then he just up and jumped over the stall gate and looked up at me as if I'd been seeing things! They just make me laugh. Anyway, if you have goats you laugh more.